The Beatles in Hong Kong - 8th June, 1964

John Lennon

Paul McCartney

George Harrison

Beatles

President Hotel, Nathan Road

The Beatles signed this for Wes Epae, 50 years ago on the 8th of June, 1964.

Wes was a member of a New Zealand band, the Maori Hi-Five. The band was the one of the supporting acts for the Beatles' shows at the Princess Theatre the next day. When Wes visited the Beatles in their hotel suite at the President Hotel, he asked for their autographs. The nearest piece of paper was this sheet of hotel stationery....

Soon after, Wes passed the paper as a gift to Pixie Monteiro, his future wife. At the time she was an entertainer and model based in Singapore, and coincidentally would also meet the Beatles.

From Hong Kong the Beatles traveled on to Australia and New Zealand, then returned to England with a re-fuelling stop at Singapore. The Singaporean government asked Pixie, on behalf of the people of Singapore, to go on to The Beatles’ plane to present them with songkoks, a cap worn in Singapore and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Later that year Wes and Pixie married, but subsequently divorced. Pixie has since re-married and is now known as Linda Weisser. She has kept this paper safe for close to fifty years, only recently deciding to sell it. It is now part of local collector Roy Delbyck's collection.

If you were in Hong Kong when the Beatles visited, do you have any memories or memorabilia you can share?

Regards, David

Thanks to local collector Roy Delbyck for showing this item from his collection, and explaining its background. Roy has an interesting assortment of books, documents and other memorabilia related to Hong Kong and China, and would like to hear from readers with similar interests. If you'd like to contact Roy, please send me an email and I'll forward it to him.

Where was Ringo?

Ringo was sick and had to miss the Hong Kong shows, so Jimmy Nichol was hired to play drums in his place. Once Ringo recovered he rejoined the tour in Australia.

Media clips

Video of the Beatles' flight to Hong Kong and their time in Hong Kong: