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Mal Evans’s Beatles memoir recounts meeting Elvis and Manila gun threat
Mal Evans’s memoir about his years with the Beatles will be published for the first time in December, 50 years after his death. The road manager’s account includes his recollection of the Beatles’ 1965 meeting with Elvis Presley, which he called the greatest day of his time with the band.
Evans worked with the group from their early days in Liverpool through their final studio years, recording his experiences in diaries, photographs and dictated tapes. The 95,000-word manuscript also recounts the Beatles’ dangerous 1966 visit to the Philippines, where Evans said a man threatened him with a gun while demanding autographed photographs.
In short
- Mal Evans’s Beatles memoir will appear in December.
- It includes his account of meeting Elvis in 1965.
- The manuscript also describes danger on the 1966 Philippines tour.
Explained simply
Mal Evans was a road manager and close aide to the Beatles, the British band whose rise in the 1960s made them internationally famous. He worked with them from their early Liverpool years through their later recording career, and kept diaries, photographs and audio accounts of his experiences.
Elvis Presley was an American singer who helped shape early rock and roll and was one of the biggest stars of his era. The Beatles met him in 1965, during a period when the band’s fame took them around the world.
The Beatles’ 1966 visit to the Philippines was marked by a dispute after they did not attend an event connected with the country’s first lady, Imelda Marcos. The episode helps show the pressures and risks surrounding the band’s international tours, while Evans’s memoir offers an account from someone who travelled and worked alongside them.
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Originally published by The Guardian as “Meeting Elvis was ‘my biggest day with the Beatles’, says road manager’s book”.