The following article appeared in New Musical Express on June 5, 1964 on page 3.
Yes, The Beatles are home and well after the longest holiday of their working lives. We've seen the pictures of their carefree smiles and suntanned faces. But the best kept secret of the whole trip involves an incident that almost cost The Beatles George Harrison! -reveals Chris Hutchins.
He explained to me on Sunday: "John and I took up all sorts of weird sports that we had always wanted to try our hand at while we were in the Caribbean.
"Anyway, this particular day we went water skiing. I was going along quite happily towards the shore and the boatman made a normal turn towards the open ocean-but he'd left it a bit too late and before I'd realised what was happening, I was skimming over the top of razer-sharp coral, which was almost on the surface.
"I dread to think what would have happened if the water had been an inch shallower. I would have been cut to ribbons! I can tell you it was about teh nastiest moment of my life."
As it is, George will bear a scar from his holiday for a long time to come. After harpooning a fish which had a razer-edged fin, he threw it towards the shore. The fin cut into his hand and gashed into his thumb deeply.
"This one hurt, I can tell you," he said, showing me a deep scar on the inside of his thumb.
Despite the publicity their trips attracted, the boys were unhampered by Press for much of the time.
Brian Epstein expected us to come back all angry because we hadn't had any peace. But it was quite the opposite," explained John. "We had a ball!"
This was partly due, I suspect, to their frequent changes of plan throughout teh holiday.
"We went out via Honolulu and intended to come back that way, but changed our minds at the last moment. We looked in on Las Vegas on the return journey," George told me.
"It's a fab city and although we were only there four hours, we saw more of it than we will when we go back officially in August! The airline people laid on a car and drove us all around the famous spots," he added.
Despite the month's separation of songwriters Lennon and McCartney, several new Beatles hits are likely to emerge from the holiday. For while they were resting in the sun, John penned five new numbers and Paul made a good start on two. George put pen to paper as well and came up with two songs.
Soon after returning to London, Ringo began making plans to send his parents to Scotland for a holiday. Though George Harrison sent his mum and dad to Montego Bay, Ringo isn't trying to save money.
"My dad doesn't like flying so it is much better that they should have a holiday in Britain," Ringo told me.
John Lennon's Aunt Mimi will spend her vacation in Australia-she leaves with the boys on Sunday for their trip "down under" as part of a special treat that all four Beatles helped to plan.
The Beatles spent most of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in the recording studios waxing their next single-a non-film title which will be issued early next month.