#miranda ward

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Blusher covering Kesha's Your Love Is My Drug

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Miranda Ward and George Harrison, outside the Atlantic Hotel, Newquay, Wednesday, 13 September 1967. Photos by Chris Walter.

"[George], with great patience kept re-winding to record over all the fluffs thus giving me the best chance of getting a good interview for broadcast. He even eventually resorted to feeding me the questions that all the other journalists were asking at the time. I still cringe (though) at the memory of asking him how he felt being a Beatle - a question he loathed but felt I should ask! [...] He then explained, very firmly, that it was my copyright outright and that it was important to make that clear. He also warned me of the hazard of the interview being broadcast with my voice cut out and some other DJ 'dropping' my (or George’s) questions in to make it sound as if they had done the interview. [...] George and I were sitting on the grass in the grounds of our hotel over cups of tea. 'The only place where I get good tea is at home!' he commented as he poured. A few fans who had been standing at a respectful distance slightly over-awed at the sight of a Beatle sitting on the grass enjoying the sun were asked, by George, to join us... 'It’s sad really because some of our staunchest fans are the ones who never get to know us, just because of the way they act. We are obviously not going to hang around when they are screaming, shouting and trying to pull our clothes off! It’s the quiet and shy ones who we get a chance to chat to' he explained as he signed autographs and ordered and poured yet more cups of tea. This act of kindness trying to make the fans feel comfortable was typical of George and the others." - Miranda Ward, Net Rhythms, 2001

After this interview, Miranda went on to be a regular contributor on the radio, setting out on a career that was kickstarted by George taking the time to be interviewed and offer advice. (x)

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This is Part 1 of 2 of George Harrison’s interview with Miranda Ward for BBC Radio 1′s program “Scene and Heard” (13 Sep. 1967). I’ve posted excerpts from this a couple times, but they keep being deleted from YouTube, so I’m going to post and transcribe the whole thing here. The story of how Miranda Ward was able to get this interview is in itself an interesting read which you can find here. Audio courtesy of John C Stoskopf on YouTube.

MIRANDA WARD: Who had the original idea for Magical Mystery Tour?

GEORGE: I think Paul had the idea and wrote a song called Magical Mystery Tour, and at that time I don’t think it was definite that we’d use it for a TV show. The idea was still there so we recorded the song. We recorded it shortly after Sgt. Pepper, and so then we decided that it would be called the Magical Mystery Tour the TV show. And so we decided to do it now so that we have it ready by November or December. We want everybody to be able to freak out as it were *laughs* but we don’t want to frighten - you know, some people get a bit frightened when like, Day in the Life, that record, when the music suddenly goes strange, and they don’t know what it is. The natural thing when people don’t know about something - they tend to fear it...so we don’t want them to be puzzled by what’s going on. So this way we can do - we can freak out a little bit, but it’s - the excuse is that it’s a Magical Mystery Tour. We don’t want to say everything, otherwise then there’s no point in people watching it...and then we may change it as we go along. And if we change it, and people are expecting one thing then...then they get a bit uptight, as they say. 

This part that we’ve been doing is mainly just to tie the whole show together because it’s called the Magical Mystery Tour then this is just a typical coach tour, but anything can happen, y’see that’s the difference. Because it’s magic then we can do anything. So these parts, these sequences, we just had a few ideas. It’s mainly just to show the people getting on the coach, and a few little things that happen during the course of the coach trip. 

MW: How does it feel to be out on the road again as The Beatles?

GEORGE: *laughs* Uh...yes, I don’t know. I’ve never really known what it’s been like as The Beatles because y’see that - The Beatles is still something abstract as far as I’m concerned. Y’know, it’s something that other people see us as The Beatles, and I try to see us as The Beatles, but I can’t.

MW: At the beginning didn’t you feel like a Beatle?

GEORGE: Uh, I suppose I did yeah. In fact I do sometimes. Y’see when it’s in the midst of all this, and people are saying Beatles this Beatles that then y’know I’ve got to accept the thing that they think I’m a Beatle. I’m willing to go along with it, y’know, if they want me to be a Beatle then I’ll be one. 

MW: Are there any plans at the moment for a full length film? What is the position there?

GEORGE: Mhm. The contract that we signed with United Artists was for three films - two of which we’ve done. The third one - thing is we can do it any time we want. We haven’t so far done the film because we didn’t want to make a film just to make some money. We wanted to do a film that might mean something...to either us or to the people who go to watch it. So the thing is, over the last year or two since Help!, we’ve had thousands of ideas, but they’ve all been Help! and Hard Day’s Night revisted. It’s no good. We’ve got to have something good, and how we visualise the film - it’s got to be at least the difference between the song Help! and Sgt. Pepper as the movie has got to be that progressed too. So we haven’t made it until we feel it’s right, and I think we should start it around next February. If we do we’ll probably end up by not having a big production team film it all.

MW: Rather like you’re doing this one?

GEORGE: Like, yeah, more this idea. Where we’ll help to direct the thing, and probably to edit it. The more people involved the less of our movie it tends to be.

MW: When did you first start becoming interested in Indian culture and religion?

GEORGE: Probably about two years ago, and uh...I don’t really know exactly when, but when I first noticed that I was interested in this - with the music first of all I think, and along with that I’d heard stories of people in caves - yogis as they’re known - people levitating and dematerialising and doing all sorts of wonderous things. And then through the music - with meeting Ravi it was great because he’s a Brahmin which is a high sect. And uh, just all the groovy people are Brahmins. Like the scientists and religious people, the musicians, and all those. And then in the end, I’d like to become this myself. I’d just like to have this quality that these people have which is a spiritual thing. 

And I think with us having all the material wealth that we need, then y’know the average person feels that if they had a car, a telly, and a house, then that’s where it’s at. But if you get a car, a telly, and a house and even you know, a lot of money, life’s still empty because it’s still all on this gross level. And what we need isn’t material. It’s spiritual. We need sort of some other form of peace and happiness, and so that’s why the Indian people, they all seem very peaceful and as though they have found something because they haven’t had the material wealth. They’ve had to look at themselves for some answer, and they’ve found it inside themselves.

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Blusher photographed by Tom Nicholas Lewis

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Blusher photographed by Heather Koepp

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Blusher photographed by Tom Nicholas Lewis

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Blusher photographed by Brianna Da Silva

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Blusher for MECCA MAX