Hot on the heels of the auction of Paul McCartney’s Wings tour bus, Alan Payling looks at the history, the route and the legacy of the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour
It must now be one of the most famous coach trips, not just in Liverpool or the UK, but in the known universe. I am of course talking about the Magical Mystery Tour, the film and the accompanying sound track that was made by the most famous pop group in the western world in 1967: the Beatles. Having just recently bought a copy of the Magical Mystery Tour on DVD, when I watched it for the first time in many years, my curiosity was piqued. Where did they go? Where did they stop? Why did they call it a mystery tour? What sort of coach did they use and what happened to one of the most famous PSVs in popular music and film? What is the legacy of the film and the music? So, roll up, make a reservation, that’s an invitation, as this article is waiting to take you away… and, ladies and gentleman, satisfaction is guaranteed!
When the Fab Four started work on this project in the summer of love, literally everything that they had touched until that point in time had turned to gold, if not platinum. All their records had been record breaking best sellers and the two musicals they had previously starred in – A Hard Day’s Night and Help! – had at least been comprehensible, if not classic movies, saved by their soundtracks. Their latest album, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, released earlier that year in May, 1967, had been received and regarded with universal acclaim – and still is. Then, on 25 June 1967, the group had taken part in Our World, the first live international satellite broadcast singing the hippy anthem All You Need Is Love. At that time, they were very much on a high, in more ways than one.
Nostalgic style
The idea itself of a film about a mystery coach tour was completely in step with the nostalgia in content and style that runs through many of their records like the Mersey Tunnel through Merseyside, particularly in some of Paul McCartney’s songs. I’m thinking here of Beatles’ songs like Penny Lane, Honey Pie and Mother Nature’s Son not to mention John Lennon’s Strawberry Fields Forever. Also, one of the songs featured in the film, Your Mother Should Know, takes the listener back in time. And that’s not to mention the theme tunes if you like of Sgt Pepper’s and the Magical Mystery Tour – ‘Roll Up, Roll Up for the mystery tour, step right this way.‘ You can just imagine the touts at Pier Head coming out with that.
[wlm_nonmember][…]By subscribing you will benefit from:
- Operator & Supplier Profiles
- Face-to-Face Interviews
- Lastest News
- Test Drives and Reviews
- Legal Updates
- Route Focus
- Industry Insider Opinions
- Passenger Perspective
- Vehicle Launches
- and much more!
Paul McCartney was inspired to make such a film because of his personal memories of mystery coach trips from Liverpool that ended up at the Illuminations at Blackpool. And no doubt the Fair Isle pullover that he wore in a lot of the film was just the sort of jumper the young Paul would have worn when walking along the breezy prom with mother Mary in the early 1950s. So when they decided to make a film about not just a mystery coach tour, but a magical one, what could go wrong? The omens weren’t good looking at the preparation, or the lack thereof…
As for the film itself, when it was finished, well, it didn’t receive a great critical reception. There were those who said that the Beatles had lost the plot. There was some truth in that comment as there was no plot because there was no script. All the Beatles had was an idea and a vague one at that, a coach, a group of passengers that veered towards the freakish, a few cameras, probably far too much money and an excess of hubris. The Beatles had already appeared in two films, so what didn’t they know about making a film? Looking at the finished product, quite a lot as it turned out. But completely in tune with the creative and optimistic mood of the times – the England football team had just won the World Cup – what obstacles could there be for Liverpool’s wunderkinds to make a truly great and memorable film?
Ticket to Ride
With no script to guide them, the destination for the Magical Mystery Tour of the West Country was as vague as the peninsula is large. It’s not apparent that when they left Allsop Place, behind Baker Street tube station in central London with Paul McCartney and most of the passengers on board on Monday 11 September 1967 that they had a specific destination. Well, it was a mystery tour. But most organisers knew where it was going. First port of call en route west on the old A30, the coach had to stop in Virginia Water to pick up three of the most famous passengers the coach trade has ever met at a pick up point – John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Travelling west, the first stop for a break was in Winchester Road, Basingstoke at what was then the Pied Piper Diner on the A30. This is now a Home Bargains opposite a pub called the Stag & Hounds, now a Harvester, that can see be seen in the background of photographs of the Beatles taken on the coach.
Moving on, the tour headed for Teignmouth and the Royal Hotel. This is now The Royal Court, retirement flats in Den Crescent, just set back from the seafront. Given the popularity of the Beatles at a time when their every move was a major news story, the word was out that they were heading for the coast in a not unmistakable coach. To avoid the 400 fans and the press that were massing outside the hotel in Teignmouth where they were going to stay for the night, just before their arrival at about 9pm, the Beatles jumped out of the coach and into the limo that was following on behind. The coach arrived at the front door. The limo went round the back. Beatlemania was still very much alive in South Devon.
A bridge too small
The following day, Paul McCartney got it into his head that it would be a great idea to visit Widecombe Fair. In order to get there, the driver, Alf Manders, said that he knew a short cut to avoid the traffic. Quite where he thought he was heading really is a mystery as he ended up on the Ashburton to Princetown road. They got over the first obstacle, Holne Bridge – which nowadays has a length limit on it – but not the second bridge, New Bridge, which still has a width limit of 7’6’. So if you’re thinking of selling a tour following this route to Beatles’ fans, at this point you will have to do what their coach did and reverse for about a mile before you can turn round.
There was then a stop at what was then called the Moorlands Garage & Cafe, now possibly the Dartmoor Lodge just outside Ashburton, for tea and cakes. They then stopped at the Grand Hotel, now luxury apartments, on Plymouth Hoe for lunch. Again the hotel was mobbed by fans and the press. To get rid of the press and keep them happy, the Beatles posed for photos sitting on the grass on the Hoe with Smeaton’s Tower in the background.
Fans can re-create this magical moment because metal plaques, or what have been described as ‘bum sculptures,’ are affixed to the ground allowing fans to put their bums and hands exactly where the Beatles put their bottoms without getting wet or dirty. It’s a bit like the pedestrian crossing at Abbey Road but fans don’t hold the traffic up and you get to sit down – and the view is much better. The party then headed into Cornwall.
There was apparently a stop in Liskeard but all I have been able to find about that is that they stopped to look at the map. They then stopped in Bodmin at the West End Dairy at 57 Higher Bore Street, now the A389, where a Mr Medland provided the coach party with ‘ice creams, pastries and lollies.’ They then made their way to Newquay where they decided to stay at the Atlantic Hotel for three nights.
While they were filming on the journey west, not much footage made it into the final cut. There is a shot of the coach’s hostess with the River Tamar road bridge in the background that survived. Also, the early sequence of Ringo and his fictional Aunt Jessica boarding the coach was made up of two shots. They actually got on board being welcomed by the courier and the hostess in Lavender Hill. However, the shot of the courier then jumping on board, picking up the mike and welcoming everyone was filmed in Bodmin further along Higher Bore Street outside Powercuts, a hairdressers at
4 Hampstead Terrace.
While they were based in Newquay, filming took place nearby at places like Watergate Bay, Tregurrian Beach and Porth. One sequence that survived was filmed in ‘a field’ near Newquay. This saw the passengers enter a small tent but emerge, as if by magic, into a much larger tent. On the final night in Cornwall, Paul and Ringo decamped from their hotel to meet up with the leader of the ‘60s pop group Spencer Davis for a few drinks at the Tywarnhale Inn in Perranporth. This ended up in a lock in where Paul entertained everyone on the piano.
On the return journey back to London, in true coach party style, they stopped off at the then Smedley’s Fish Bar in Roman Road, Taunton for fish and chips. This is now the Phoenix Chinese Takeaway. After dropping off three of the Beatles back in Virginia Water, Paul McCartney returned to London with the coach and the film they had in the can.
The following week’s filming began at Paul Raymond’s Revuebar in London on Monday 18 September. The following day the coach party decamped to what was then West Malling Air Station and is now Kings Hill Housing Estate. Quite a lot of the film was shot here including the vehicle race sequence where Ringo drives the coach round the old runways at what looks like breakneck speed. His style of driving would make a Top Gear presenter blush. One of the hangers was used for the final and probably the best sequence. This was the grand finale a la Busby Berkeley/Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers which includes the Beatles in white tuxedos descending a staircase singing Your Mother Should Know. They are accompanied by somewhere between 100 and 200 pairs of ballroom dancers from the Peggy Spencer Formation Dance Teams based at the Royston Ballroom in Penge. This is not far off being a bit of a masterpiece largely because it was choreographed by Peggy Spencer, a leading ballroom dancer. Her skills finally brought a welcome dose of professionalism to the film. It also provided work for local coach operators transporting the dancers and their pom-pom dresses in a fleet of coaches to West Malling. The only physical legacy of the week the Beatles spent in West Malling appears to be a blue plaque on the wall next to the former Town News Agency at 90 High Street, now Rain Grill. This was where, at the start of the film, Ringo bought his tickets to ride for the Magical Mystery Tour from a be-hatted and be-whiskered John Lennon.
A real mystery
As for the film itself, when it hit the nation’s TV screens at 8.35pm on Boxing Day 1967, it left many of the 15 million viewers scratching their head wondering what the Fab Four were on. Well, the younger viewers had a good idea about that. It was screened after a Petula Clark special and before a Norman Wisdom film. Who? Ask your granny.
Shown when there were only three TV channels, many of the varied but captive audience were a bit mystified to say the least. It would have been more appropriate to have called it a trip but that might have been a step too far for the BBC. But having got hold of a copy to watch it again after many years, and to watch it in colour as it was originally broadcast in black and white, there are some nice touches. For those who are looking to see if there is any evidence that the Beatles had portrayed an actual coach trip, they won’t be totally disappointed even if some of it is a bit surreal, like the coach’s staffing levels. In addition to the driver, Alf Manders, who Paul McCartney described as a ‘real’ driver, there were actors playing the hostess Wendy Winters and the courier Jolly Jimmy Johnson. In addition, the droll Scottish musical poet Ivor Cutler plays Buster Bloodvessel as a wannabee courier, uniform and all – though he does look a bit like an upmarket cinema commissionaire. Again, ask your granny.
In the film, Jolly Jimmy provides an over the top welcome to the passengers and the sultry Wendy Winters welcomes everyone on board first thing in the morning. The passengers then echoe her greeting. Who hasn’t been there! On the way back to London, there is a jolly sequence which includes a sing-song and bottled beer which featured the organist Shirley Evans on her ‘Wild Accordian.’ They got that right.
As for the rest of it, there are those that say it was the first pop video. I’m not sure if that is a criticism or a compliment. Certainly it suffered from an excess of the action either being slowed down or speeded up with far too much aimless jumping up and down and running about. It has been said that the Beatles’ film influenced Monty Python. Given that the comedy of those ex-university chaps verged all too often on the juvenile, this too does not say very much about the Beatles’ film-making talent. The best that can be said for it is that it is a very good home movie saved by the fact that one of the most talented group of pop stars included some great songs. The album itself was in fact a big hit.
The coach
When the filming was all over, the coach, URO 913E, which had been hired from Fox of Hayes returned to its normal life. This was a 1967 Plaxton Panorama bodied Bedford VAL 14 with a ‘Chinese six’ wheel layout with two steering axles at the front, and powered by a Leyland O.400 straight six diesel engine. This was a workhorse of the coach trade from the mid 1960s and on into the 1970s with some 900 having been made.
It wasn’t the only example to became a film star. Fans of the Italian Job will remember that a similar model, a Harrington Legionnaire, ALR 453B, featured in the cliff hanger at the end of the film. One such coach also had a role in a coach crash in the Lake District in an episode of Coronation Street in 1969. This was a Plaxton Elite, LXJ 574G. Unlike those two latter coaches, URO 913E appears to have survived. After passing through a few owners, it was eventually purchased by the Hard Rock Cafe and is the largest piece of rock/pop music memorabilia in its collection. However, as is perhaps appropriate for a coach associated with a mystery tour, I came across an exchange of views on Flickr as to whether the coach owned by the Hard Rock Cafe is in actual fact the original coach that starred in the film; who knows, perhaps it just adds to the magical mystery of the Beatles.
If there is a legacy, it is that the Magical Mystery Tour has provided some welcome work for a number of coach operators for many years. This is of course the tour of the same name that is now very much a part of the Beatles’ industry that still twists and shouts on Merseyside.
But there is one big criticism I have of the film. Having looked very carefully at the list of credits at the end of the film, there is one very important person missing who does not get a mention: the driver of the coach, Alf Manders. If it hadn’t been for Alf, or someone like him, there would not have been a magical mystery tour, full stop. So come on Paul, this was your baby, so what about putting that right to make it better? Because at the end of such a long and winding road, without Alf, you wouldn’t have had a ticket to ride, so we can’t let it be.
And I do hope Alf got a belting tip from the four millionaires on his coach. In fact, Alf would have been very wise to have got all the Beatles to have signed a copy of their latest LP, Sgt Pepper’s. A similar copy signed by all four Beatles went for some £192,000.00 at auction in 2013. Now that really would have been the best tip ever.
