People singing under the stairs after midnight
The director of the "Who is Harry Nilsson" documentary
Lots of Beatles buttons for sale!
Denny Seidwell of Wings
Me with Chris O'Dell
Sgt. Peepers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Made totally out of Peeps candy!
A neat John Lennon collage in the art contest
Hello everyone. I am home from Beatlefest and back to work today. I thought some of you might be interested in what all I did at the fest and see some photos I took. If you aren't interested that is ok. Just ignore this post and continue with the others :).
Since I had to go back to my teaching job today (Monday), I was only able to attend for Friday and Saturday this year. That was a bummer but since Chicago is a 6 hour drive from my house, I really didn't have much of a choice. Oh well so it goes.
Friday was filled by watching "A Hard Day's night," getting autographs, doing a lot of shopping, looking at Beatles artwork, watching a little of Name that Tune, listening to a speaker about a Beatles tour in New York City, and looking in the various rooms that had displays in them. The highlight of Friday was seeing the new John Lennon movie called "Nowhere Boy." While I saw a few historical mistakes in this movie, and I thought the Julia character was a little too over the top, I still was very impressed. It was much better than the tv movies that have been on in the past years about John. I liked the film much more than I thought and I plan on buying it when it becomes available on DVD.
Saturday was a very full day. First I listened to Paul Saltzman talk about his week in India with the Beatles. Next up was a talk about Apple records with Bruce Spizer followed by a wonderful interview with Chris O'Dell (super charming woman). After some lunch I heard the one and only Klaus Voorman talk about his time working with the Fab 4. The best part of the day for me was the watching the documentary about Harry Nilsson. It was just really great. And....in the film is a never before seen photo of Harry, John and Paul from April 1, 1974!!! I was really excited to see that!! After the showing of the film the director stayed around and answered questions and talked about making it. Then I heard Tom talk about taking a trip to Liverpool, which was cool since I had just been there. I hung around and sang under the stairs for quite awhile until it was midnight and then I went to the late night comedy thing with the guys from Wings.
Overall I had a great time. I didn't do everything I wanted to do because there were many conflicting times on things and I couldn't stay for Sunday this year. However I still enjoyed the time I was there. And....I bought "Waiting for the Beatles" by Carol Bedford! After all of these years I finally got it. I also bought some photos and teen magazines with photos to scan for this blog. They will be coming soon enough.
Anyone else have anything to share about the fest???
You lucky bugger!, i SOOOOO want to get to a fest one day, i'd sell a kidney to have cash to buy all the fan photo's. I may have the Black Album poster somewhere, not sure .. i'll have a look, if i do i'll scan the John pic.
ReplyDeleteDear Sara, great to know you had such a good time at the Fest! Regarding the Carol Bedford book, please remember while you´re reading it that most unfortunately Carol´s imagination went wild and a lot of the things written there never happened. The girls kept asking her to read the book before it was printed and she never showed anyone; her publisher had asked her to show it to the people mentioned in the book and she never did. It is quite unfortunate that she chose to do it that way - she lost several friends because of it. As I may have mentioned, she has been very sick with MS for a long time and is no longer able to walk or speak, which is very sad. Carol was a troubled teenager, with emotional issues that her Scruff friends tried to help out with at the time. I was already back in Rio and married when those things were going on, but I know it from the girls and from my dear late friend Tommy.
ReplyDeleteHello Tammy and Lizzie!
ReplyDeleteI am very fortunate that I live so close to where a Beatles convention is held each year. It is a 5-6 hour drive (depending on road construction). I would have been able to purchase more photos; however I didn't know for sure that I was going until one month before the fest. I usually save money all year to go and I wasn't able to do that. Always next time!
Lizzie, I am reading Carol's book as if it were fan fiction. I have only read the first chapter, but I can already tell that she comes from a troubled background. She did thank you in the front of the book! I have just always heard about her book and I wanted to read it for myself. I have read just about every Beatles book out there and have learned that you have to take things with a grain of salt (or more). But I am sorry to hear that Carol isn't doing well with her health. She obviously is a Beatles fan and I wouldn't wish bad health on anyone.
we all feel very bad about carol being sick. one of the scruffs is speaking to one of the nurses who take care of her at the hospice and is trying to visit her - waiting for a good time, when she´s more responsive. luckily, i met a fan at one of the chicago fests years ago and he is from dallas and knows carol´s family. that´s how i found out where she is and could tell the british fans. she had totally disappeared, nobody could find her. i´ll let you know when i have more news on carol.
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