The Beatles looked so wholesome and guileless when they first arrived on our shores in 1964. The quartet of lovable British mop tops could do no wrong musically. Their off-stage hijinks were quite another story. Although it seems hard to imagine, one of them was even arrested for arson. Was it John, Paul, George, or Ringo?
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In case you were wondering, the catalyst for all these emerging tidbits about the Beatles behind-the- scenes life are the four upcoming films about them slated to be directed by Sir Sam Mendes. It seems as if every nugget of information about their outrageous exploits is coming to the fore. We have the lowdown on the lads from Liverpool!
Paul McCartney Did What?!
Yes, that's right, McCartney was arrested and deported for a crime. He was not the sole Beatle who found himself in a scrape. Per faroutmagazine.co.uk, "George Harrison was sent back to England after authorities learnt that he was under 18, while Paul McCartney and Pete Best were both deported for arson."
The boys were in living in Germany during the tumultuous early 1960s. George Harrison explained everything in a 1992 interview. They all were very young and explosively adventurous. "Before Hamburg, we didn't have a clue. We'd never really done any gigs. We'd play a few parties but never had a drummer longer than one night at a time. So we were very ropy, just young kids. I was the youngest - I was only 17, and you had to be 18 to play in the clubs - and we had no visas. They wound up deporting me after our second year there."
McCartney And Drummer Pete Best Did Something Really Ridiculous
Your jaw will drop when you hear this. McCartney and drummer Pete Best were in a venue the band was doing a gig at. With no conventional source of illumination, they "decided to nail a condom to a wall and set fire to it for light." Ever heard of a flashlight, boys? Or a candle? They both were arrested and sent packing from the country. And they had a whopper of a great story to tell their grandchildren someday!
