http://www.thesundaymail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,6559109%5E2765,00.htmlWhy I had to blast the Beatles
08jun03
FORMER security guard Devon Minchin doesn't suffer fools gladly.
Mr Minchin, now a Sunshine Coast retiree, spent six weeks on tour with the Beatles in 1964 and says they were naive youths who needed a good talking-to.
He says John Lennon was a "bloody idiot" with no concern for his safety. And the band was girl-crazy.
"I lectured them good and proper," the World War II fighter pilot said. "I told them they couldn't keep running around with good-looking female fans if they wanted to avoid trouble. I told them they just couldn't live their lives like that."
But the 84-year-old, who then owned the largest security firm in the country, says the boys didn't listen.
"They just kept on letting in the sexy birds and even allowed a guy who scaled the outside of their Sydney hotel into their suite," he said. "It was a nightmare for security."
Devon, who started Metropolitan Security Services, which later merged with Chubb Security, says he used military tactics learned during six years service in North Africa to try to keep hysterical fans at bay.
"We had more than 1200 armed guys but the problem was the boys because they liked the girls," he said.
"There was also the problem of the girls getting to the security guards. There weren't just hundreds, there were hundreds of thousands of female fans and that's why I stayed with the band the whole six weeks and delivered the odd lecture."
When the group left Australia they presented Devon with two photographs and a letter.
The letter, signed by each member, reads: "To the man who only allowed the finest birds and the best boomerang throwers into the suites, thank-you".
Next week the items will be auctioned with a reserve of between $20,000 and $30,000.
"I'm getting rid of them because I'm getting bloody old," he said.
In 1970 the entrepreneur sold his business and has succeeded at everything from pineapple farming to writing fiction. He has published three novels – one of them, Money Movers , was made into a movie.
He has five children, one of whom is Finance Minister Nick Minchin. He lives on the Sunshine Coast with his third wife Margo, whom he married 35 years ago.
The items will got to auction in Sydney next Sunday.
A Goodmans Auctioneers spokesman said the items had attracted interest from around Australia.
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