'The Touring Years'

To The Dukes in Lancaster with Dan to see the new film about The Beatles' touring years, entitled 'Eight Days A Week'. (Abi stating a preference for netball practice!) It was a little bit hectic getting there - Dan had a rehearsal after school - but we made it with enough time to spare for Dan to get a drink and a snack before we found a couple of good seats in time for the start of the film.

I think we'd seen a lot of the footage before - we recently watched the 'Anthology' boxed set - but it was interesting to see it repackaged for a different purpose plus all the new footage was great.  

It's easy to take The Beatles for granted, you hear some much about how great they were blah blah blah. And yet this film emphasises how amazing they were. The work they put into touring and making a success of themselves, their genuine - and very fast - wit, and also what a great live band they were, a fact that rarely communicated itself onto their records ('Twist and Shout' being something of an exception). 

Perhaps the most telling moment for me was when the band were playing in Japan  (I think) and they launched, pitch perfect, into the harmonies of 'Nowhere Man', but there were were plenty of other great moments in the live footage. The only sad thing was that we didn't get to see the remastered live footage from Shea Stadium. An apologetic chap from the Dukes explained that they couldn't afford the extra fee for that. That was a timely reminder that Apple Corps was driven by profit as well as love.