The Beatles Looked Very Different at This 1964 Press Conference (And Ringo Starr Looked Much More Feminine)

The sheer size of The Beatles’ musical legacy makes it hard to remember that the world-famous band was just four guys in their early twenties who had never experienced anything like Beatlemania before. But press conferences like the one they did during their 1964 tour of Australia are good reminders of just how fresh-faced and bright-eyed the Fab Four were before they became, well, the Fab Four.

Indeed, the band looked wildly different during their tour stop in Adelaide than we remember them today, for more reasons than one.

The Beatles Were Full of Charm, Wit, and Sarcasm

Perhaps the most obvious feature of this 1964 press conference is just how young everyone looked. All clad in their signature suits and mop-top haircuts, John Lennon was only 24, Paul McCartney was 22, and George Harrison was only 21. With every answer they gave to the expectant press, the young men seemed to be holding back smiles that halfway suggested, “I can’t believe I’m here,” while the other half read, “We’re in on a joke that you’re not.”

The Beatles were quick on their feet with their answers and interjections alike. When one reporter asked the band how long their act would be in Adelaide that night, Lennon interrupted, “Act?” The reporter changed his wording to “concert.” Elsewhere, when a journalist asked the band to respond to criticisms that they didn’t play their hometown venue, The Cavern, in Liverpool anymore, Lennon said, “Most of those people that are complaining weren’t there when we were originally there, anyway.”

At one point during the interview, Harrison pulled out a pack of cigarettes and took one for himself. He and McCartney both started offering cigarettes to the journalists, who accepted and began smoking with them. Ah, the 60s.

Ringo Starr Was Notably Absent From the Casual Press Conference

Another notable difference between The Beatles we know today and the band that sat in for the early 1960s press conference was the absence of Ringo Starr, the drummer. In his place was Jimmy Nicol, who stayed largely silent during the available footage from the interview. This would make sense, considering Nichols was only meant to be a temporary replacement.

On June 3, 1964, the day before The Beatles were scheduled to leave for Australia, Starr fainted during a photo session and was sent to the hospital. Doctors diagnosed him with severe tonsillitis, and he stayed in the hospital for a few days. Harrison had pushed for the band to delay the tour, but the powers that be—namely, Brian Epstein and George Martin—weren’t about to lose out on all that revenue. Thus, they hired Nicol, who played with them from June 4 to June 14.

Starr would later say, “It was very strange, them going off without me. They’d taken Jimmy Nicol, and I thought they didn’t love me anymore.”

Of course, Ringo was Ringo, and in the end, it was Nicol who left feeling unloved. “Standing in for Ringo was the worst thing that ever happened to me,” he later told Mojo. “Until then, I was quite happy earning 30 or 40 pounds a week. After the headlines died, I began dying, too.”

Oh, They Found Another Different Ringo, by the Way

Given how out of place Jimmy Nicol felt while subbing for Ringo Starr, we imagine he must have felt more than a little awkward when a woman who looked remarkably similar to Starr came and sat with The Beatles. It was a bit of a joke on the band at the hands of the press, which the Fab Four took in stride, commenting that she was prettier than Ringo.

The mystery Ringo lookalike disappeared from the footage just after Paul McCartney, ever the charmer, offered her a cigarette. She declined, and although McCartney’s next comment was inaudible, it looked as though he was checking if it was all right that he smoked beside her.

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