At the record plant

Photo belongs to Geoff Lip Danielik  (taken by Nicky Hopkins)

This is a photo from August 1974 of Geoff and his friend, Pam with John in the Record Plant during the Walls and Bridges Sessions.    Geoff and Pam were fans that were allowed to send a few days at the Record Plant hanging out with John.   Geoff posted this photo along with a few memories on the Lost Weekend facebook page.   What does Geoff remember about John Lennon?   That he smoked Larks and drank Welch's Grape Soda.    Geoff says that John was just a "regular guy."    One of the days he was there, he handed some bootlegs over to May Pang to copy for John and the records got mailed back to him.   

A big thank you goes to Geoff (who by the way has also met Paul McCartney!) for sharing such an amazing photo!

Memo for Dot

I love seeing John Lennon's handwriting.   Even a mundane note like this one to his housekeeper is pretty amazing!

a Beatle in Europe

Living in perfect Harmony

The last days of McBeardy

This is the last photograph I can locate of Paul McCartney with his "Get Back" beard of early 1969 before he went back to the clean-shaven Paul that we all adore.   

Eight arms to Hold You-- a book review

It seems like the powers that be overlooked the 50th Anniversary of the Beatles' 2nd film, Help!.   However, the fans of the Beatles did not forget about the hilarious movie's anniversary and several books have been published this year to celebrate the special event. 

The best book about the movie is by far Eight Arms to Hold You by Simon Wells and Paul Skellett. This is a gorgeous photo book that delves into the Beatles' colored film.

This past Monday, I wasn't feeling my best, and I stayed home sick from work.  When I began to feel a bit better, I decided to take it easy and enjoy the Beatles' Help!   While Help! has been a top favorite movie of mine, it has been a long time since I watched the entire movie and I have to say that I truly enjoyed it.  I loved how Ringo delivered his lines, and I think the one-liners said by just about everyone in the cast are so clever.  The plot is goofy, but it is just a fun film.  After I watched the movie, I decided to read Eight Arms to Hold You.  It was pretty interesting to look at the book directly after watching the finished movie. 

The book is layed out in chronological order by the order in which it was filmed and not in the order of the movie. I found this to be extremely interesting because it really showed what the Beatles went through from February to May of 1965, starting in the Bahamas.  This is primarily a Beatles photo book, and it is full of amazing and rare Beatles photos from the making of Help!  The book was able to use photos from the archives of renowned Beatles collectors, which included the Michael Peto Collection, Mark Hayward, Vincent Vigil, Mark Naboshek, and Robert Kern. The authors cleaned up the 50-year-old photos and documents and made them look fresh and vibrant.   I was seriously amazed by how bright the colored prints were.  Some of the photos almost looked modern because the colors were so good.  

The text in the book is very humorous and fun to read.   I do wish that this book had more stories from insiders in the book. Stories from people who were extras or fans who were hanging around to see the Beatles would have really made this book special.  However, it does explain some of the scenes that didn't make the movie, such as when an alligator was going to get the ring off Ringo's finger.   For years I have wondered what that photos with the alligator was all about!

While the book isn't heavy on text, the photos alone really do tell the story of the Beatles making Help!.   I enjoyed the behind the scenes photographs and I especially liked learning why the movie stills always seemed to have strange colors associated with them.  

I got the special edition "fan" version of the book, but a regular edition will be available in January.   This book would especially make a great gift for anyone who loves the middle years of the Beatles' career.    It might come a month late for Christmas, but I think it would be worth the wait!


Note:   the photos I included in this post aren't from the book---just photos I had from the movie that I wanted to include with the post because a post without pictures is like a day without sunshine. 

The link below is the affiliate link to Amazon, where you can purchase this book.  I get a small percentage of anything purchased through this link.  Money made from the Amazon Afflication is used to pay the annual fee to keep this site online.  Thank you for your support.  Sara

https://amzn.to/3Pbsx5h

How much for the Beatles in the window?

Treasure these few words

Here is an autographed single from the NEMS autograph session held on January 24, 1963.   Of course this is a posed photo of the fans holding out their singles of Love me Do/P.S. I love you to be signed.  However, the Beatles really did hold an autograph session and signed these 45's for fans.   One of the few formal autograph sessions the Beatles had during their career. 

Swedish signatures

Getting carried away with the Beatles

Sgt. Harrison

Another amazing candid snapshot during the Sgt. Pepper recording period being sold right now on ebay by Tracks!  

Linda's Frozen entrees

He lost his glasses and his inhibitions

Anyone know who the guy in the is for sure?   I have a guess, but I'm not certain.

Ummmm---wrong direction there George

Honeymoon interview

The MBE in colour

Mister Brian Epstein

I can't even begin to think of how proud Brian Epstein must have felt when the Beatles were awarded the MBE.    He always believed in them and always knew that they would make it big.   However, I don't think he ever imagined that they would become members of the British Empire.   

MBE fans

For what it's worth---I think the Beatle fans that were outside Buckingham Palace the day of the lads were awarded the MBE were some of the most hard-core fans.    While the Beatles were being decorated by the Queen, they came decorated in their father's work shirts declaring their love for the Beatles.   These girls actually tried to scale the main gate of Buckingham Palace!    That is some dedication there!     When I went to the Palace in 2013, I looked at that gate and saw how big and tall it was.   It impressed me to think that there were some fans 50 years ago today that had the guts to climb it to the top!     So MBE girls---today we honor you and your bravery---you took one for team Beatles that day and here at MTBFR salute you!  

Before the MBE