The Fabulous Beatles -1964 : a Book Review

I don't know how Collin Barrratt manages to get the rights to all of the articles and photographs he has published in his books, but I am ever so thankful that he has!  Barratt's newest book is far superior to his other "Beatles in the news" books.  Those books focused mainly on articles from the New Music Express, and some of those I had seen in other publications.  However, this book called The Fabulous Beatles 1964  takes articles and photos from UK magazine, "Fabulous."  This seems to be a somewhat forgotten magazine, and so it is great to have all of the Beatles related stories from 1964 together in this book for historians and fans to enjoy.

There are some really hidden gems in this book.  Fabulous was a really Beatles-loving magazine and they went out of their way in 1964 to track down some Beatles "insiders" that otherwise didn't get interviewed.   You get to read stories from various people in Hamburg, just two years after the Beatles last performance there.   Also included is a story by Eddy Dillion, who was Ringo's stand-in for A Hard Day's Night, Bob Wooler, Derek Taylor, and Dougie Millings.  There are also a series of articles written by Brian Epstein.   Now I doubt that Brian really wrote these articles, but nonetheless they are really interesting to read.

Also included in the book are some of the original advertisements that were in the magazine.   Any Beatles advertising is included, as well as ones for how to "starve your pimples" and how a certain shampoo will make you "gay the modern way."

The only negative thing I can say about this book is that some (not all) of the articles are printed very tiny and I had to hold the book up literally to my nose to actually read the article.  I don't know about everyone, but I want to read these little pieces of Beatles history and I wish they could have all been printed in the same size. 

However---enough of the book is easy to read and is going to be useful for me to use for research purposes.    I am now waiting for the 1965 edition!


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