I was amazed at how many people showed up for the nationwide screening of a Beatles documentary. I was the last to arrive, an hour after the official start time for the introductory "red carpet" event. Whilst there was a lot of familiar footage, it was good to relive the songs from the early sixties.
One notable missing song was The Beatles' first hit Love Me Do. I was seventeen when the single made the charts in October 1962, only reaching number seventeen in the charts. It was my brother John (he played a little harmonica like the instrumental part on the record) who said the this group would be big. We had no idea how big.
But one song included was I Saw Her Standing There from the first LP. I remember dancing to it at the outdoor school leaving party in July 1963. There was only a very short clip from A Hard Day's Night. I went into the West End to see the movie the week it was released. I had never seen the band live, although working in Hammersmith in 1964/5 I could have found a ticket for one of their forty shows over the December / January of those two years. My eardrums could not have stood the screaming.
So the movie was a great alternative (no screaming). The documentary had an interview with the director, Richard Lester, but not the writer. Alun Owen was a neighbour of ours on Napier Road in the fifties. Mum was particularly friendly with his wife as brother Paul was close in age to their son Jonathon.
I bought the Beatles' second LP With The Beatles, from a record store at the top of King's Road in Hammersmith the week it was released in November 1963. At eighteen, I was in digs in Chiswick and played it over and over, night after night. That might be why it's no longer my favourite album.
What was really interesting last night, was how the boys changed. Or should I say matured. It showed in the difference in personality and musicality from the early years to Sargent Pepper.
No comments:
Post a Comment