In a series of extracts from The Beatles Anthology to be published next month, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison tell of receiving their MBEs at Buckingham Palace.

Paul: We were at Twickenham Film Studios one afternoon when Brian (Epstein) showed up and took us to the dressing room rather secretively. We wondered what that was all about. He said, "I've got some news for you - the Prime Minister and the Queen have awarded you an MBE." And we said, "What's that?" "It's a medal!"

Ringo: He said, "What do you think, boys?" I had no problem with it, none of us had any problems with it in the beginning. We all thought it was really thrilling. We're going to meet the Queen and she's going to give is a badge. I thought, "This is cool."

Paul: At first we were very impressed, but we asked, "What will it mean?" Someone said, "You become a Member of the British Empire," and we were genuinly honoured. Then the cynicism started to creep in a little and we asked, "What do you get for it?" They said, "Well, 40 (pounds) a year, and you get to go into St Paul's Whispering Gallery for nothing." So we said, "How much does that cost, anyway?" and were told, "About a shilling."

There are two ways to look at it: either it's a great honour that's being bestowed on you, and I think to some degree we did believe that, or (if you want to be cynical) it's a very cheap way to reward people.

John: When my envelope arrived marked OHMS, I thought I was being called up! Before you get an MBE, the Palace writes to ask if you're going to accept it, because you're not supposed to reject it publicly, and they sound you out first. I chucked the letter in with all the fan mail, until Brian asked me if I had it. He and a few other people persuaded me that it was in our interests to take it. I was embarrassed. Brian said, "If you don't take it, nobody will ever know you refused." The same as nobody ever knows the people that have refused every Royal Variety Performance since the one we did. Every year they asked us and every year Brian went through hell telling Lew Grade we wouldn't do it. (Brian was on his knees, saying, "Please do the Royal Variety Show," after getting so much pressure from Lew and the rest of them. We said, "We've done them all." We only did one of everything, once was enough.)

It was hypocritical of me to accept it, but I'm glad, really, that I did because it meant that four years later I could use it to make a gesture.

George: It's as if a bit of bargaining goes on behind the scenes before they issue it to the press. We were sworn to secrecy, but the press knew something was on; they were on to it before it was announced. Probably it was Harold Wilson that put us up for it. He was prime minister and was from Liverpool...

John: We had to do a lot of selling-out then. Taking the MBE was a sell-out for me. We thought being offered the MBE was as funny as everybody else thought it was. Why? What for? It was a part we didn't want. We all met and agreed it was daft. "What do you think?" we all said. "Let's not." Then it all just seemed part of the game we'd agreed to play, like getting the Ivor Novello awards. We'd nothing to lose, except that bit of you which said you didn't believe in it. Although we don't believe in the royal family, you can't help being impressed when you're in the palace, when you know you're standing in front of the Queen. It was like in a dream. It was beautiful. People were playing music, I was looking at the ceiling, not bad, the ceiling. It was historical. It was like being in a museum.

There was this guardsman telling us how to march, how many steps, and how to curtsey when you met the Queen. Left foot forward. Every time he was reading out the names and he got to Ringo Starr he kept cracking up. We knew in our hearts she was just some woman, yet we were going through with it. We'd agreed to it. To start with, we wanted to laugh. But when it happens to you, when you are being decorated, you don't laugh anymore. We, however, were giggling like crazy because we had just smoked a joint in the loos of Buckingham Palace; we were so nervous. We had nothing to say. The Queen was planted on a big thing. She said something like "ooh, ah, blah, blah" we didn't quite understand.

She's much nicer than she is in the photos. I must have looked shattered. She said to me, "Have you been working hard lately?" I couldn't think what we had been doing, so I said, "No, we've been having a holiday." We'd been recording, but I couldn't remember that.

George: We never smoked marijuana at the investiture. What happened was we were waiting to go through, standing in an enormous line with hundreds of people, and we were so nervous that we went to the toilet. And in there we smoked a cigarette, we were all smokers in those days. Years later, I'm sure John was thinking back and remembering, "Oh yes, we went in the toilet and smoked", and it turned into a reefer. Because what could be the worst thing you could do before you meet the Queen? Smoke a reefer! But we never did.

Paul: Some equerry to the Queen, a guards officer, took us to one side and showed us what we had to do: "Approach Her Majesty like this and never turn your back on her, and don't talk to her unless she talks to you.: All of those things. For four Liverpool lads it was, "Wow, hey man!" It was quite funny. But she was sweet. I think she seemed mumsy to us because we were young boys and she was a bit older.

John: I shall keep it in the smallest room in the house, my study.

Ringo: I went up and the Queen said to me, "You started the group, did you?" and I said, "No, I was the last to join." And then she asked, "Well, how long have you been together as a band?" and without the blink of an eye, Paul and I said, "We've been together now for 40 years and it don't seem a day too much." She had this strange, quizzical look on her face, like either she wanted to laugh or she was thinking, "Off with their heads!" I'm not sure if we had a joint or not. It's such a strange place to be, anyway, the palace.

John: I really think the Queen believes in it all. She must. I don't believe in John Lennon, Beatle being any different from anyone else, because I know he's not. I'm just a fella. But I'm sure the Queen thinks she's different. Imagine being brought up like that for 2000 years! It must be pretty freaky. They must have a hard time trying to be human beings. I don't know if any of them ever make it, because I don't know much about them, but you feel sorry for people like that, because it's like us - only worse. If they believe they're royal, that's the joke. I always hated all the social things. All the horrible events and presentations we had to go to. All false. You could see right through them all, and all the people there. I despised them. Perhaps it was partly from class. No, it wasn't. It was because they really were false.

Ringo: Our families loved it. Some old soldiers sent their medals back, I dont know why! I think a lot of Australian soldiers sent theirs back. They thought that it was too much that we should get the MBE: loud mouthed rock 'n' rollers.

John: Lots of people who complained about us getting the MBE received theirs for heroism in the war. Ours were civil awards. They got them for killing people. We deserve ours for not killing people. If you get a medal for killing, you should certainly get a medal for singing and keeping Britain's economics in good nick! And we signed autographs for everybody waiting to get their MBEs and OBEs.

Paul: There was only one fella who said, "I want your autograph for my daughter. I don't know what she sees in you." Most other people were pleased about us getting the award. There were one or two old blokes from the RAF who felt it had slightly devalued their MBEs - these long haired twits getting one. But most people seemed to feel that we were a great export and ambassadors for Britain. At least people were taking notice of Britain; cars like Minis and Jaguars, and British clothes were selling. Mary Quant and all the other fashions were selling, and in some ways we'd become super salesmen for Britain.

George: After all we did for Great Britain, selling all that corduroy and making it swing, they gave us that bloody old leather medal with wooden string through it. But my initial reaction was, "Oh, how nice, how nice." And, John's was, "How nice, how nice." I brought it home and put it in the drawer, and later I wore it on the Sgt Pepper album cover picture session. So did Paul. It then remained pinned on to my "Pepper" jacket for a year or so before I put it back in the box and back in the drawer.

Ringo: When they gave us the MBE, they gave us a certificate, and also a little note to say that you can't wear this one in public but you can buy a dress MBE, if you to go out in your bow tie. Which I thought was real strange. I never did wear it going out, but you would have thought that they would have thrown in the little one as well. I wondered whether Brian minded not getting the MBE. But he was always happy for what we got, really. I suppose if he'd hung on, he'd have been going for a knighthood.

George: Brian didn't even go to the palace or get invited. I think you could invite somebody from your family. So he was probably very annoyed, secretly. But he didn't show any signs of it.

Paul: Having grown up with this whole idea of the Queen as monarch, from when she flew back from Kenya to take over in 1952, we were always pretty keen on her.

Derek Taylor: Four years later, in November 1969, John sent his MBE back to attract attention to his causes.

Ringo: I was never going to send mine back, I knew that. John did, he had his reasons, but not me. At the time, I was very proud. It meant a lot to me - not that it gave me anything, but it gave Harold Wilson the election. It was a groove meeting the Queen, and it was far out - now she meets anybody!

John: I had been mulling it over for a few years. Even as I received it, I was mulling it over. I gave it to my auntie who proudly had it over the mantelpiece, which is understandable - she was very proud of it. She won't understand this move I've made probably, but I can't not do it because of my auntie's feelings. So I took it a few months back and didn't tell her what I was going to do with it - no doubt she knows now - and I'm sorry Mimi, but that's the way it goes. Anyway, I sold out, so it was always worrying me, and then the last few years I'd been thinking, "I must get rid of that, must get rid of that." I was thinking how to do it, and I thought if I did it privately the press would know anyway, and it would come out; so instead of hiding it, just make an event of the whole situation. So I did it with the MBE. I was waiting for some event to tie it up with, but I realise that this is the event, this is the next peace event, this going on now. Neither of us (Yoko Ono and I) want to make the mistake that Gandhi and Martin Luther King did, which is get killed one way or the other. Because people only like dead saints, and I refuse to be a saint or martyr. So I'm just protesting as a British citizen with his wife against British involvement in Biafra, and voicing the protest in the loudest way I can. The Queen's intelligent. It won't spoil her cornflakes.

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