The day royalty bowed to a Beatle

July 6, 1964. The Rolling Stones were among those attending the premiere of the Beatles film A Hard Day’s Night, in the gracious presence of Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon.

Outside the London Pavilion, 200 policemen were restraining 12,000 fans chanting ‘Beatles! Beatles! Beatles!’

As Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon walked into the auditorium, the Metropolitan Police Band launched into a stately rendition of God Save The Queen. The audience stood keenly to attention, and so did the Beatles. But Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones, sitting in the seats immediately behind the Beatles, refused to budge.

After the film, The Beatles were presented to Princess Margaret. John, wearing a dinner jacket and black bow tie, seemed cowed in her presence. His wife Cynthia recalled: ‘His antiEstablishment views flew out of the window and he stood red-faced as she spoke to him.’

The reception at the Dorchester was attended by the princess and her husband, though they were due to leave before dinner. Brian Jones and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones had not been invited, but had somehow got in, provocatively underdressed in turtleneck shirts.

‘Isn’t this the greatest party crash of all time?’ smirked Jones.

Meanwhile, Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon were clearly enjoying themselves, and stayed much later than planned. This, in turn, meant that dinner had to be postponed.

George Harrison strode across to the princess and said bluntly, ‘Ma’am, we’re starved, and… we can’t eat until you leave.’

‘Come on, Tony. We’re in the way,’ replied the princess, taking orders from the youngest of The Beatles. This might be seen as a pivotal occasion in British social life, the moment a princess scuttled away on the orders of a Beatle; for the first time, but not the last, royalty deferred to celebrity.