words spike

So may I introduce to you
the act you’ve known for all these years

Ray Cordeiro remembers the Beatles’ first Asian concert

For lovers of Western rock and pop music, Hong Kong may seem like a wasteland. Visiting singers and bands are few and far between and often seem to be either on the way up or on a downward slide – very occasionally bands make the trip here at the height of their popularity.

But ‘twas not always thus. In 1964, Hong Kong was the first stop in Asia for the biggest band in rock’n’roll history – at the peak of their career. On June 9, the Beatles performed two concerts at the Princess Theatre in Tsim Sha Tsui. Although snippets of information about those shows can be found in various books and web sites, for a full inside story surely no one can beat the experience of HK’s own Ray Cordeiro.

‘Uncle Ray’ Cordeiro was already a successful DJ in Hong Kong when he traveled to London for a three-month broadcasting course at the BBC in early 1964. He couldn’t have imagined what a momentous trip it would turn out to be.

‘After the course, I had two weeks of free time before I flew back to Hong Kong. What was I gonna do with two weeks? So I went up to the EMI [Records] office. I said I wanted to do some interviews to take back with me to Hong Kong. He said, ‘Well, who would you like?’ Top of my list, the Beatles! He picked up a phone, called up Brian Epstein and said ‘Our man here would like to get an interview with the Beatles, for Hong Kong, is it possible?’ ‘Oh yeah, tomorrow we have a press conference in the afternoon, send him along.’

It was that easy, but when he arrived for the press conference the next day, Ray, his legs shaking, had no idea how the Fab Four would treat a DJ from Hong Kong. He needn’t have worried – as he walked into the room, to his surprise he found Paul McCartney at the door greeting journalists.

‘I said ‘Hello, Paul’ and he said ‘Hello, what’s this you’ve got in your armpit?’ I said ‘It’s a magazine on you boys.’ ‘Oh, I haven’t seen it, can I have a look?’ I said ‘Yeah sure, while you’re looking, can you autograph it for me?’ He said, ‘Oh, no problem,’ and wrote, ‘To Ray, best wishes Paul McCartney.’ But I didn’t expect him to go through the magazine signing every picture he was in. The whole magazine was filled with Paul McCartney’s signatures.’ It seemed unbelievable but that wasn’t the last of it: When John and George saw what Paul had done, they followed suit and leaving Ray the proud owner of a magazine with 24 Beatles autographs.

The following day, Ray heard about another press conference with the band – this time for foreign journalists. ‘I said to myself, ‘I’m from Hong Kong, I’m foreign.’ So I went and Paul saw me – again, he was at the door. He said, ‘Oh, you again? Where you from?’ ‘From Hong Kong!’ ‘Oh yes, that’s where we’re going, in the very near future. What’s Hong Kong like? The only thing I know about Hong Kong is that they have cheongsams.’ I said, ‘You’ve got to go into the red light district, you’ll really enjoy yourself!’ So we became sort of buddies.’

And so it was with that sage advice that the Beatles duly left for Hong Kong, although without Ringo, who was ill at the time in a London hospital. On refuelling stops at Zurich, Beirut, Karachi, Calcutta and Bangkok, the plane was greeted by screaming fans, but the flight stuck in George Harrison’s mind for different reasons: ‘It took several hours and I remember them saying, ‘Return to your seats, we are approaching Hong Kong.’ I thought, ‘We can’t be there already.’ We’d been sitting on the floor, drinking and taking Preludins for about 30 hours and it seemed like a 10-minute flight. On all those flights we were still on uppers; that’s what helped us get through, because we’d drink a whisky and Coke with anyone, even if he was the Devil – and charm the pants off him!’

Nor was it difficult to charm either the 1,000 fans waiting at Kai Tak airport as the band stepped off the plane on June 8 or the gaggle of journalists, including Uncle Ray, at a later press conference where one female reporter asked if they were wearing wigs and if she could tug on their hair. ‘Every press conference!’ exclaimed McCartney. (You can purchase a CD of the press conference, titled Beatles Tapes IV: Hong Kong 1964, from the usual online sources.)

Although on their first evening in Hong Kong, the Beatles were invited to appear at the Miss Hong Kong pageant in the President Hotel where they were staying (they were too tired to go, though John Lennon made a brief appearance), the odds are that they never made it across the harbour to the red lights of Wanchai: Drummer Jimmy Nicol, Ringo’s temporary replacement, was the only one able to roam freely around Hong Kong. Paul McCartney tried going out, even getting two suits made (haggling with the tailor until the price fell from HK$160 to HK$100), but eventually had to retreat back to the hotel.

The Princess Theatre, the venue of the Beatles’ performances, opened in 1952 on the corner of Nathan and Kimberly Roads. It was a 1,726-seat venue that showed first-run English language films until 1970 before showcasing Mandarin variety shows. It was demolished in 1973 to make way for the Hotel Miramar. The Beach Boys played two shows there in 1966.

Uncle Ray has vivid memories of the Beatles appearances at the Princess: ‘You’ll probably fall out of your chair when I tell you this: The promoter who brought them to Hong Kong lost money! It was pretty crazy because in those days, they were charging HK$75.’ That might not seem like a lot now, when top acts charge up to $3,000 for a ticket, but in those days it was a week’s salary for the average worker. ‘Of course the kids couldn’t afford it. And the parents didn’t even know who the Beatles were. So they had an empty hall. They started to give tickets away free of charge to fill the hall!’

The Maori Hi Fives, a New Zealand show band that played a mix of dance and country music, Maori songs and comedy skits opened the concert. They were followed by the instrumental British combo Sounds, Incorporated, who would later open for the Beatles at Shea Stadium.

Finally, it was the Beatles’ turn. No existing tapes of the concert appear to be in circulation but the set rarely varied on this tour, so they probably played a programme of I Saw Her Standing There, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, You Can’t Do That, All My Loving, She Loves You, Till There Was You, Roll Over Beethoven, Can’t Buy Me Love, This Boy and closed with either Long Tall Sally or Twist and Shout.

Uncle Ray recalls, ‘The concert was like any Beatles concert. It was so noisy we could hardly hear them.’ And the local newspapers chose to review the audience rather than the Beatles, condemning the behavior of the rowdy fans. But according to John Lennon, ‘In Hong Kong, the paper said, ‘The Beatles fought a losing battle against the screams.’ Compared with other audiences, they were quite quiet.’ And in Paul McCartney’s recollection, ‘Hong Kong was different – it was all army personnel, which was very funny. We had expected Asian people in Hong Kong but the army must have got the tickets first, or must have known about us (maybe the Hong Kong people hadn’t heard about the Beatles!). As for the show, it was a slightly flat performance in a smallish place. They behaved themselves, and it looked like a khaki audience. We played but I don’t think we enjoyed the show too much – although at least we could be heard.’

Following the concert, The Beatles returned to their hotel to wait for their flight to Sydney the next day. But when they departed on 10 June, they left a lasting impact on Hong Kong’s music scene. Uncle Ray started playing all the British pop group’s singles on the radio and the local pop scene took off. ‘Finally the local groups started to play guitar and form groups,’ he says. ‘As long as you could play two or three chords on guitar, you were good. So they formed a group, a quartet or trio, mostly quartets, and just followed the Beatles. And I was like a king DJ then; I had all the goodies in my bag. And then, of course, TVB came along, ATV came along, TVB started with their shows, Sound Beat 67, so the scene was pretty healthy.’

Ray Cordeiro has been an icon in the Hong Kong pop music scene since its inception. His name is in the Guinness Book of Records as ‘the World’s Most Durable DJ’ and even the British queen has honoured his contribution to Hong Kong music with an MBE. Yet the Beatles visit remains one of the striking highlights of his long and illustrious career.

‘I feel that I’m one of the luckiest DJs in the world because any DJ would give his right arm to interview the Beatles just once,’ he says. ‘I interviewed them three times, all in one week. All in one week! I think nobody can break that.’

Thanks to Uncle Ray Cordeiro for sharing his memories with me. Additional sources for this article include The Complete Beatles Chronicle by Mark Lewisohn and The Beatles Anthology by The Beatles.