On December 4th, 1968, the staff at the Beatles' Apple Records headquarters in London's exclusive Savile Row received a puzzling memo: "Hells Angels will be in London within the next week, on the way to straighten out Czechoslovakia [a reference to the current political upheaval].
There will be 12 in number complete with black leather jackets and motorcycles. They will undoubtedly arrive at Apple and I have heard they may try to make full use of Apple's facilities. They may look as though they are going to do you in but are very straight and do good things, so don't fear them or up-tight them. Try to assist them without neglecting your Apple business and without letting them take control of Savile Row. – George Harrison"
For Richard DiLello, the Apple Records "house hippie," the unexpected was just business as usual. "Not a day went by that there was not some totally tripped-out crisis and/or triumph to deal with," he told Mojo in 2004.
Harrison had encountered representatives of the infamous motorcycle gang during a visit to San Francisco earlier that fall. "George had said, 'Oh, if you ever come to England, look us up,' or something," Beatles confidant and future Apple Records president Neil Aspinall said in the Anthology. "A couple of months later the motorbikes were outside Savile Row with these guys saying, 'Well, George said it was OK.' They ended up living at Apple and terrifying everybody." ("That's how much love was around," Starr notes wryly.)
According to Harrison, Apple staff didn't realize the guests were arriving until they were practically on their doorstep. "[Press officer] Derek [Taylor] got a phone call one morning from Customs and Excise saying, 'Is this right: we've got 17 Harley Davidsons that you're going to pay the freight duty on?'" Not wanting anyone on his staff to "uptight them," Harrison put out his memo. "It was a joke, but they were mean," he said later.
Fortunately for the Brits, most of the Angels were unable to secure visas due to pending criminal charges or prison probation. Only two made it through Heathrow Airport: Frisco Pete and his swastika-tattooed companion, Billy Tumbleweed. In his memoir The Love You Make, Apple Records executive Peter Brown writes that their arrival "stopped all activity dead at Apple. The employees gathered in doorways and corners and tried not to stare as the contingent marched up the green-carpeted stairs, past the vulnerable gold records on the walls, and into the press office, where I waited with Derek Taylor. After a slightly horrified pause, I extended my hand to Frisco Pete and said as pleasantly as possible, 'It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, I'm sure,' and promptly left the room."
But it wasn't just the Hells Angels. "Many others came as well," says Taylor in the Anthology. "A homeless family from California moved into Apple and did actually live in one of the offices – a mother, and father and several children, with the San Francisco Hells Angels weaving in and out. … I would arrive and find the Hells Angels sitting around on the floor doing those physical things they did – a lot of scratching and farting and generally being awful." The staff caustically referred to them as "the California Pleasure Crew" whenever they were out of earshot.
The Pleasure Crew arrived just in time for Apple's decadent Christmas banquet on December 23rd, which promised to dazzle guests with a magician, Christmas tree, and an impossible bounty of food, drink and drugs – including a 43-pound turkey rumored to be the largest in Great Britain. Preparations began at nine that morning, and by 2:30 a children's party was in full swing. Lucky kids devoured ice cream and cake, marveled at Ernest Castro and April's magic act, and were received to presents from Father and Mother Christmas – played by John Lennon and Yoko Ono decked out in Santa costumes. According to DiLello's memoir, The Longest Cocktail Party, Lennon's deadpanned "Ho, ho, ho" was a highlight of the evening.
Festive gaiety was the prevailing mood until Frisco Pete chose a rather unsubtle way to announce that he was hungry and the trays of hor d'oeuvres were not satisfactory. "What the fuck is goin' on in this place?! We wanna eat! What's all this shit about havin' to wait until seven?! There's a 43-pound turkey in that kitchen and I want some of it now!"
The scene turned ugly as the famished Pete threw a punch in a huff, DiLello writes. "John Lennon, at this moment in his life a squeamish vegetarian, looked up at the frightening figure of Frisco Pete in total bewilderment. He knew nothing of the release schedule on the Largest Turkey in Great Britain." Eventually, Brown was given the unsavory duty of explaining the Frisco Pete that he would have to wait just a little while longer.
All hell broke loose when the bird finally arrived. "A huge turkey came in on a big tray with four people carrying it," Aspinall describes. "It was about 10 yards from the door to the table where they were going to put the turkey down, but it never made it. The Hells Angels just went 'Woof!' and everything disappeared: arms, legs, breast, everything. By the time it got to the table there was nothing there. They ripped the turkey to pieces, trampling young children underfoot to get to it. I've never seen anything like it."
After all that, Harrison didn't even attend the gathering. "I didn't go because I knew there was going to be trouble."
Shortly after the Christmas incident, the staff decided they'd had enough. But getting rid of the Hells Angels would prove to be complicated. "They did get asked to leave Apple," insists Aspinall. "I asked them, but they got into that hippy language: 'Well, you didn't invite us, so you can't ask us to leave. ...' In other words, George had invited them, so George as going to have to ask them to go."
So Harrison confronted them. Befitting the freewheeling era, he did it in the most roundabout way possible. "Well, are you moving all of your stuff out of here tonight?" he asked the group. The rhetorical question was met with a long, confused, awkward silence. Finally, one of them spoke up. "Hey, man, I just wanna ask you one question: Do you dig us or don't you?"
Harrison's answer? "Yin and yang, heads and tails, yes and no."
In DeLillo's estimation, this response "completely fucked everyone's mind." Aspinall clarified the riddle. "You know – 'Bugger off!' And they said, 'Well, if you put it that way, George, of course,' and left."
