Yellow Submarine (1968)
Movie
When the colourful, music-filled realm of Pepperland is captured by the music-hating Blue Meanies, a...
Children's Musical Comedy Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Distant Voices, Still Lives
Book
Set in "a world before Elvis, in a Liverpool before the Beatles", Terence Davies' film "Distant...
Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated The Beatles: Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years (2016) in Movies
Oct 24, 2017
It is a fantastic insight into what went on during the years of Beatlemania while the Beatles were on tour and what they were like as people in those more innocent days. The music is of course fantastic, but even for someone who isn’t a massive Beatles fan I think that this documentary is still relevant and tells of an important piece of recent history in an exciting, stylish way.
There are some gripes I have with the movie though, the first one being a case of some revisionist history. The only talk about the group taking any form of drugs was a blink and you’ll miss it mention of them smoking dope on the set of Help, there was no mention of them smoking a joint in the toilets in Buckingham Palace while waiting to receive their MBE’s, there was also no mention of the fact that John returned his MBE and they didn’t even mention the amount of acid they took whilst in India and in the later days. Also, all of John’s more offensive behaviour has been vastly censored and toned down. There is footage of the Beatles first American concert at the Coliseum in Washington D.C, where Paul introduces the band and asks the audience to ‘clap their hands and stomp their feet,’ as Paul is saying this John appears to be impersonating a handicapped person doing exaggerated clapping and stomping movements, which is something he did repeatedly during their first American tour, but in the film they cut away to the audience during this to avoid showing John being offensive. We also never see the footage from their Royal Variety performance, when John told the people in the poor seats to clap their hands and the rich people, including the Royal family, to just rattle their jewellery. I don’t know why they are trying to make John look like an innocent saint when he was never like that, he was always rebellious and cheeky and was never afraid to say what was on his mind. The second gripe I have is more of a personal one in that us hardcore Beatles fans were promised a story that had never been told and while there was some footage that I hadn’t seen before, I wasn’t exactly mind blown by the story that the footage told as there was very little in the film that I didn’t already know about. However despite these minor gripes the movie is fantastic, an immense story told by a master filmmaker about the greatest band in history, what’s not to love?
Justin Hawkins recommended The Beatles (White Album) by The Beatles in Music (curated)
Stalin Ate My Homework
Book
The Sayles might not have been the only Jewish atheist communist family in Liverpool, but Alexei...
Men Without Women: Stories
Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen
Book
"I find writing novels a challenge, writing stories a joy. If writing novels is like planting a...
Britt Daniel recommended Plastic Ono Band by John Lennon in Music (curated)
Wayne Coyne recommended Urgh! A Music War (1981) in Movies (curated)
Music The Air That I Breathe by Cliff Richard
Album
Sir Cliff Richard celebrates his 80th Birthday with the release of ‘Music… The Air That I...