Derek and Dave's interview with George Harrison

Continuing one with Beat magazine's Beatle interviews in the Bahamas by Derek Taylor and Dave Hull.   This time the duo ask George Harrison some gripping questions of 1965.

Hull and Taylor Interview Harrison

Beat Magazine

April 7, 1965

Derek:  With the gentle swish of the Caribbean behind me, this is Derek Taylor sitting thankfully in the sun on the beach of Nassau with George Harrison, who is wearing a straw hat and blue jeans, and looks extremely well.  His long, dark hair is curly.  He’s of course, of the two single Beatles and I think the first to buy a house.  He bought a house in Surrey which he takes considerable interest in.  Anyway, George, let’s say first it’s nice to see you after about three months away.

George:  Nice to see you again, Derek.

Derek:  How do you like it here?

George:  I like it fine except that we’re up at 7:00 in the morning every day on the set filming.  It’s good really because if you’re off work there’s nothing much to do.  It gets boring just sitting in the sun, and we’d all prefer to be up and working.

Derek: I asked you because it may seem like a paradise to people who can’t get into the sun to think of spending two or three weeks in the Bahamas.  But of course you are working very hard all day.

George:  Yeah, that’s right.  Well, we get up at 7:00 and we usually start about 8:00 or 8:30, right through and then have lunch for about a half hour, and then we work right through until the sun goes and there’s no more light, which is usually about 5:30.

Derek:  The pattern of your life now seems to be with not so much touring.  Now that you can record 11 numbers in five days you can have an awful lot of leisure.  Do you have too much leisure, do you find?

George:  No.  We haven’t had a great deal, really.  This year, maybe, because after the film I’m not too sure what we’re doing.  I think we may have a week or so and then we go to Europe for about a week.

Derek:  Are you touring Europe?

George:  I think we’re doing six concerts—two in France and two in Italy and two in Spain.

Derek:  You’re been in France.  You haven’t been to the other places before?

George:  We’ve been to Spain.  Paul, Ringo and I went.

Derek:  you didn’t play there, though.

George:  No.

Derek:  When that tour is over you presumably will then have a lot of time before visiting America.

George:  That’s August, I think.  In the meantime we’ll have a new record out, doing TV and things in England.  And then with a bit of luck the film will probably be out around about that time.  So then we’ll have the film songs out to plus and we’ll have a premiere.  And then I think it’ll be the American trip.  Or maybe the premiere will be after the American trip, which is in August. 

Derek:  so in fact the pace in life seems to be almost as hot as it was.  It appears deceptive.

George:  We can’t tell, really, because we haven’t really been told exactly what’s happening.  We just vaguely know that it’s America, and then for all we know we may start on our third film after the America trip, in which case, you know, we’ll be…

Derek:  I notice that…you seem to be doing two films in one year.

George:  We’re trying to.  I hope so because we enjoy it so much more than anything else. 

Derek:  You prefer films?

George:  Yeah, it’s great and when the film’s finished you get more satisfaction from it.  You feel as though you’ve done something worthwhile more so than a tour.

Derek:  Brian Epstein did say once – I don’t want to commit you to anything that you don’t’ want to talk about – but he did say once that is might be you’d go more and more into filming, and into isolated shows.  Is this going to be sooner than we expected?

George:  I don’t know.  This depends on when we expected it.

Derek:  He means in terms, I think, of next year.

George:  We’d like to do more films and naturally a little less touring because….

Derek:  Touring’s tiring.

George:  Yes it is.  People don’t’ realize that each day you jump out of bed onto an airplane and fly two thousand miles to do a show.  You know that’s not much fun, really.

Derek:  The American trip destroyed almost everybody.  Everybody was a bit off their heads when it was over.

George:  Yeah.

Derek:  Now going back to leisure, how do you spend your free time when you’re home?  Like spend a Sunday off?

George:  On Sunday I  have a lie-in, I suppose, and then…

Derek:  You’re a great sleeper…a sleep worshiper, really.

George:   Yeah, but I do like it if I can.  It’s just trying to get up.  Since I’ve gotten my house I used to just lie around in the backyard last summer when it was quite hot.  But now, as it is sort of freezing cold in England, on a Sunday I just get up and have a late breakfast about 12 o’clock.

Derek:  Have you got help in the house?

George:  I’ve got a woman who comes in each day.  She cooks dinner for me and keeps the place tidy.

Derek:  What’s her name?

George:  Margaret.  Mrs. Walker.  I read the Sunday papers and go out for a drive and sometimes go out for lunch with some people

Derek:  Do you eat more out than you do in?

George:  Uh, I think so because I usually just eat in on the weekends.   I usually, on a Sunday, have friends over and just stay in and have dinner and watch TV.

Derek:  You’ve got a pretty good garden.  You don’t do it yourself, do you?

George:  No.

Derek:  Do you like gardening?

George:  Well, I like a sort of nice garden, but it’s too much trouble, really.  But the good thing about my garden is that most of it is just lawn.  It’s just lots of big lawn with trees and things.

Derek:  It’s a new house though?

George:  It’s a bungalow, actually, just a big long bungalow.

Derek:  Bungalow is what we call a one-level house, I think.

George:  Anyway, originally the fellow who built it is the fellow I bought it from was an Australian.  He built it like an Australian ranch bungalow.  It’s about ten years old.  Two years ago he had a new part built on the end so it’s ten and two years. 

Derek:  do you take an interest in the house in improving it or is it simply a place to live?

George:  I like it.

Derek:  Are you a house-proud man?  Do you talk about your house to other people?

George:  Well, to friends and things I suppose.  I like the idea of it looking great in the way I like it.

Derek:  Are your tastes in interior decorating simple?

George:  Really being the first house ever of mine I’ve just tried to get it so that it pleases me.  At first I got some fellow to get some furniture and he bought a lot of rubbish.  Since then I decided I didn’t really like it.  He just bought odd stuff just so I could move in straight away.  Since then I’ve changed it around a lot.  Things I’d like to do if ever I buy another house is stay in this one until I get the new one furnished just how I like it and then move.  I’m not a great believers in interior design and all that because it ends up you’re living in the designer’s house and I’d much rather do it myself.

Derek:  Yes, I quite agree.  You were going to have a pool put in, I think, the last time I saw you.  Is that still happening?

Derek:  They started about two weeks before we left England and actually the morning we left the airport there was a massive great hole dug out and mud all over the place, and one of these big diggers in the backyard.   The workmen have got sheds built up.  Every time I go out there I just hear music in the little shed and they’re all playing cards and singing.  They never seem to do any work.  I’m hoping by the time I get back most of the mess will be gone.

Derek:  Have you spent a lot of money on the house since you got it?

George:  Uh…not really, no.

Derek:  What’s it called, by the way, has it a name or a number or what?

George:  It has a name but somebody pinched it.

Derek:  The fans know where it is, do they?

George:  Well, some of them do.  Actually there’ s a girls’ school right next to it but the head mistress was good and she told the kids to give me a bit of privacy.

Derek:  Pursuing the point of leisure but now forgetting about the house, it has for a long time been quite easy for you in certain places to move around London as a normal human being in your own car.  Can you explain how you’ve been able to do this because I’ve never never know how you managed it.  How you park and how you get the car to the theatre?

George:  The thing is, if we’re doing a show then that’s the only time there is going to be thousands of people, really.   If we’re not doing a show and just going out for the night somewhere, there’s not liable to be millions of people waiting for you to arrive at the restaurant because they don’t know where you’re going.

Derek:  But you still have the autograph books.

George:  Oh yeah.

Derek:   How do you avoid that?  Do you go to selected places?

George:  Now, you know, through experience, you just do it by…if you go to a place and quite a good time and you’re treated all right, then naturally you go back again.  And usually the managers of the places like you to go there so it’s in their own interest, really, to make sure you’re having quite a good time.  But generally in London it’s quite good.

Derek:  You’re very fond of London, I think?

George:  Yeah, I think it’s fabulous.

Derek:  Do you go home very often?

George:  to Liverpool?  I went there about three weeks ago.  I was up there for a week.  My brother got married.

Derek:  I saw the picture in the paper.

George:  Yes.  Really there are so many people and friends to see in the short time I was there. 

Derek:  you’re like most people you left the place you were born and you’ve grown very fond of London.  It happens in most countries of the world.  You probably grow away from places and grow up a bit.  Never been any suggestion of your living outside England?

George:   No.

Derek:  This is a good place to live here, of course.

George:  Thing is, with a place like, say this beach we’re sitting on now.  I think it’s marvelous and I’d love a house…but probably after two or three weeks of this I’d get fed up.  I wouldn’t mind living in a place like this…nice beach, nice sea, and sort of hot climate.  But it’s so boring after two weeks.   But still I wouldn’t mind a place like that say…every time I got fed up with the cold in England you could just fly out here.  But still I prefer to live in a place like London anytime.

Derek:  Well, there’s an awful lot happening in London and in Los Angeles, where your voice will be heard pretty soon – as soon as Dave Hull and I get back there.  Los Angeles has a climate similar to this only cooler in the winter and always much drier.  Well, George, Iw on’t keep you any more because I know you have to get on the set.  It’s been nice to see you and I’ll see you later on today.  I’ll turn you over to Dave Hull now. 

George:  Okay, see you, Derek. Bye Bye

Dave:  How’re you, George?

George:  Hello, Dave, how’re you?

Dave:  Good.  You look comfortable, you’ve got  on a pair of faded blue Levi’s and an old straw hat…

George:  They’re not Levi’s

Dave:  Well they’re jeans.  In America we call them Levi’s.  That what we call anything that’s blue and faded.  You got a straw hat on.  Where’d you find that straw hat?

George:  Just bought it here.

Dave:  I see you stole my dark glasses.

George:  They’re yours, are they?

Dave:  Yeah.

George:  No they’re not.  I bought them.

Dave:  No you didn’t, you just stole them from me.  I just set them on the sand.

George:  No you didn’t.  They are mine.

Dave:  No they’re not.

George:  They’re not.  I’ve had these on for days.

Dave:  Listen…

George:  Don’t believe this man…they’re mine.

Dave:  Listen, this idol out there in the water that we’re watching, is going to be a one-shot take, and it comes up and it’s got ten arms.  What has this got to do with the movie?

George:  This is Kali and…it’s the sacrificial god or something.   It’s a bit involved.  I’ll wait until they finish making the film and then I’ll go and see it and then I’ll know what’s happening.

Dave:  how come it has to be a one-shot take?

George:  This thing is 20 feet high and it’s taken them two hours to submerge it under the water.  They can do it again but they’ll have to wait another two hours before they can get the thing down on the bottom again.  It’s a lot of work, so if they can do it in one take, it saves a lot of time and trouble.

Dave:  How do you feel about this movie compared to “A Hard Day’s Night.”  Is the script different?  Is there a lot of spontaneity?

George:  The only thing, really that’s the same as “A Hard Day’s Night” is the fact that we’re still playing ourselves.   But I mean, this one has got a story line to it whereas “Hard Day’s Night” didn’t, really.  It was more or less like a documentary.

Dave:  you mean this one’s got a plot?

George:  Yeah, this one’s got a plot.

Dave:  Are you ad-libbing a lot of lines?  A lot of scenes that were in “A Hard Day’s Night” were spontaneous and when you had to go back and cut the scene came out completely different form the way it was before.  Is this happening now or not?

George:  Yeah, there’s a lot of things that if we think of on the actual day of shooting – if the director can think of something or we can – that will make it a little bit better, then we’ll change it a little bit.  But, you know, so far we seem to be sticking to the script. 

Dave:  I didn’t ask John or Paul or anyone about the songs in the movie, but can you give me an idea?  You have seven new ones, is that correct?

George:  Well, we recorded 11 the last week before we left England.

Dave:  But you’re only using seven, are you?

George:  We’ll only use about seven in the film, but even if we use only about five in the film, we’ll still have about 10 or 12 tracks on the LP.

Dave:  Can you tell me what the titles are?  I bet you can’t, can you?

George:  I can’t, no.

Dave:  Can you give us a hint, then, what they’re like?

George:  It’s so hard, really, because when you record eleven all in one week, you just work on one until you’ve finished it then completely disregard that and go on to something else.  By the time the week’s over, you’ve forgotten, really what you’ve done.  You know vaguely, but not until we start doing the songs do we remember them one at a time.  It’s a mixture.

Dave:  I want to ask you a questions about your mother and father, if I may for a moment.  They had planned on coming to America and to Hollywood.  Do you know if your mother and father have continued with their plans?

George:  I don’t know.  I don’t think so.  I think they’d like to go for a holiday.  They’ve mentioned to me that they may go.  I don’t think they’ve made any sort of definite plans.

Dave:  You probably haven’t seen them for some time anyway.

George:  I saw them three weeks ago when I went to Liverpool for my brother’s wedding.

Dave:  Oh, that’s right.  Your brother, Peter, is it not?

George:  That’s right.

Dave:  you were best man?

George:  That’s right.

Dave:  When did that all take place?

George:  It was January.

Dave:  Well, you’ve been a best man now.  What about your plans?  Do you have any plans for the future as far as Pattie Boyd or anything like that, can you say?

George:  Well, you know, I wouldn’t make sort of long arrangements long before hand.  At the moment I have nothing in mind at all.

Dave:  Have you talked to Pattie recently?

George:  Not since  I was in England.

Dave:   you haven’t called her then?

George:  No, not yet.

Dave:  We’ll be seeing you tonight.  I see you’ve got your feet buried in the sand.  It’ll cool you off a bit.

George:  Okay, see you then, Dave.

Dave:  Thank you very much. 

Ringo interview with Derek and Dave

This is an interview by Derek Taylor and Dave Hull of KRLA for The Beat magazine.   They were in the Bahamas and interviewed the Beatles.   This interview with Ringo seems to focus a lot on Ringo's recent marriage to Maureen.   I can just feel that Ringo wanted to say, "listen----she told me that she was pregnant, and so I asked her to marry me.   I love Maureen and we were most likely going to get married eventually, but the baby on the way sped up the whole thing.   That is what is up."   But of course he couldn't  say that.    

Hullabalooer and Ringo

KRLA the Beat

March 31, 1965

Derek:  Good morning, Ringo

Ringo:  Good morning, Derek.  Good to see you again.

Derek:  Good to see you, Ringo, particularly in weather like this.  Is it too hot for you?

Ringo:  Uh…it gets a bit hot when you’re staked in the sun and have to lay there for half an hour or so, fully dressed.

Derek:  Why the red paint all over your suit, Ringo?

Ringo:  Well, it’s…the film is basically a chase film and it’s about a ring, and it starts off where they’re going to sacrifice a girl, and they paint everyone they sacrifice red, you see…this tribe…but they can’t sacrifice the girl because she hasn’t got this magic ring on which she sent to me because I wear rings.  And so they’re after me now and they can’t get the ring off and so they’re going to sacrifice me…and that’s why I’m red.

Derek:  And the paint has been put on you so they could sacrifice you?

Ringo:  Yes.

Derek:  How many times have you been painted up now?

Ringo:  Oh, about four or five times.

Derek:  Do you like filming?  It seems hard work for you.  You always seem to be the one out on your own while all the other Beatles are in bed.

Ringo:  Not all of the time.  Some of it.  I’ve enjoyed filming anyway.  It’s just that I hate to get up in the mornings.  That’s the only drag.

Derek:  What tie do you have to get up in the morning, Ring?

Ringo:  Malcom woke me up at 25 to seven this morning.

Derek:  How do you stand the separation so soon after getting married?

Ringo:  Oh, you know, you just when we were getting married that I would have to leave to come out here for the film and we just got used to the idea.  It’s a bit of a drag, y’know.  But there was no point fetching Maureen because we’re working like lunatics and we don’t have a day off when we’re on location.

Derek:  It wasn’t a question then, really, of having a Caribbean honeymoon, which is many people’s dream?

Ringo:  No, no.  Well, we didn’t have an England one…never mind the Caribbean one.

Derek:   how long were you actually away from London?

Ringo:  We got married on a Thursday and went back on a Sunday night.

Derek:  It was quite a dramatic story, which broke at a very good time of day, too.   How long was it planned before it happened?

Ringo:  Well, we decided to get married two weeks to the day, and it started getting planned from then.

Derek:  Well, let me say congratulations because everyone who knows you, and knows you both, is delighted.  I think it was a marvelous move and I’m sure you thought so too or you wouldn’t have done it.

Ringo:  Well, thanks a lot, Derek.  I thought it was a good move.

Derek:  It means that at least we won’t have to deny or confirm the quires, “Is Ringo married,” so will you now say into the mike something for all time, on record, “I married Maureen Cox.”

Ringo:  I married Maureen Cox.  I’m very happy…and her name is now Maureen Starkey.

Derek:  Which is no bad name and we’re all very happy.  Tell me, the other Beatles in the film…are they detached form you for a time as they were in ‘A Hard Day’s night?’”

Ringo:  Yes, just a short time.  Not too long this time, though.

Derek:  In this film there’s no question of you falling out at all?

Ringo:  No, no.  Well, as I say, I get captured and things and they’re looking for me, and when they’re looking for me you won’t’ see me on the screen, and when I’m sort of being captured and taken away you’ll see me and not  them.

Derek:  Is the film in Technicolor?

Ringo:  Yes, yes.  Well, it’s in some color.  I don’t know if it’s in Technicolor or one of the other colors.

Derek:  It’s a beautiful day, Ringo.

Ringo:  It’s marvelous.  I think it must be getting 75 or 80 degrees.

Derek:  It’s a different climate form California, of course, because I think there is more humidity coming in from Florida.

Ringo:  Well, it’s very hot if you get into the town.   It’s not so bad while you’re on the beach, but while you’re in town it’s hard going, y’know….you sweat like a pig.

Derek:  this sort of climate suits me very well, which his really why I came to live in California.   Dave Hull just walked up.

Ringo:  Yes, I’ve noticed.  Hi, Dave.

Dave:  Hi Ringo.  I think it’s my turn to toss a few questions at you.

Ringo:  Yeah, I sort of expected that.

Dave:  Speaking of Maureen again, are you happily married?

Ringo:  Yes, very happily, thank you.

Dave:  Good.  That’s very good.  I know all of your fans..there are a few dissenters but I’m sure most of your fans.

Ringo:  I hope I haven’t upset anyone too much.

Dave:  No.  I don’t think it has.  Most of your fans are quite happy if you’re happy.  I know that’s they well they feel.

Ringo:  Well that’s good.  Thank you.

Dave:  The time you were in the States, in Hollywood, and in Los Angeles in particular, I asked you a question, “What about Maureen? And your answer was:  “Maureen who?”  Do you know the Maureen that I meant now?

Ringo:  Yes, yes.  Yes, but I mean…when I was last in the States there was nothing…no thought about getting married or anything.  I just used to take her out a lot and other people as well, you know.   And I got back and about November/December we sort of went out together, just the two of us, all the time.  I didn’t go with anyone else or anything, and then three weeks before we got married I asked her to marry me.  And then two weeks form the day before we got married we started setting up the wedding.

Dave:  How did she feel about not being with you on this particular trip?

Ringo:  I don’t know, really.  I don’t think she likes it.  When I phone her says, you know, “I miss you,” and things like that.  And I miss her.   But you know, we’re working every day and there would be nothing for her to do and she’s busy with all the family because none of the family came to the wedding, only her mother and father and mine, and she’s sort of going around being congratulated by the aunties and uncles, you know.  So, she’s doing that job while I’m doing mine.

Dave:  that’s good.  Yesterday—to get back to the movie for just a moment---yesterday there was—not a mishap, but the car is which they were shooting you and John and Paul and George, slammed into the tree a little hard.  Is that correct?

Ringo:  Yesterday?   That was about four days ago---three days ago.  None of us were in the car.  George was on top of it when it smashed into the tree, and it’s all part of the film…so…

Dave:  Oh, it is?

Ringo:  So there was no great danger.

Dave:  They are shooting some of this in Austria?

Ringo:  Next Wednesday we go back to Britain for two days and then we fly out to Austria for eight days, and then we finish the film in Britain the next two months.

Dave:  Listen, it has been awfully nice of you to take this time, Ringo.

Ringo:  It’s my pleasure.

Dave:  Best of luck to Mrs. Starkey.

Ringo:  Thank you very much.   I’m still not really used to that name:  Mrs. Starkey.

Beatles movie a Blast!

KRLA's Beat magazine had two disc jockeys fly to Bahamas to spend time with the Beatles during the filming of Help! (which at that point didn't even have a real name).    One of them was Derek Taylor, who has a rich history with the Beatles and the other was Dave Hull.    I am going to be reproducing the articles that they wrote and the interviews they did with the guys over the next few days.

Beatles Movie a Blast!

March 17, 1965

Derek Taylor’s report

The Beatles are fine.  They feel fine, they look fine, act brilliantly, sing better than ever.  On and off-set they have the air of assured young men who have it made.  They may not ever claim to be the greatest act showbiz has ever known, but they certainly look it and certainly are.  I hadn’t seen them for three months and of course, they hadn’t changed too much.  But the feature which struck me most was that they looked more mature.  They have more assurance than ever; they are no longer boys.

As Peter Evans, Britain’s most important entertainment columnist wrote in the London Daily Express:  “They are man-talking adult beneath those little-boy haircuts.”

Evans came away from meeting them in the Bahamas, soured.  He wrote a biting attack of their off-stage attitude to the press and described them as “rude and arrogant.”

The Beatles were quite unworried by this.  They shrugged their shoulders and forgot about it (who know what the Beatles go through in the way of pressure, strain, traveling, heat and so on were very annoyed by the article. 

Said the film’s publicity officer, Tony Howard – a good man and an honest one, “I like Peter Evans and he is entitled to his views.”

But Peter’s views are not shared by the other journalists who came here to the Bahamas.

Tony Howard told me, “You know yourself that the Beatles are extremely patient.  They are particularly nice to unimportant people form small newspapers or radio stations.  The only thing they ask of people is that they should be honest and direct as them. 

“We had 45 press-men and radio people here in five days.  The Beatles met them all.  And out of those 45, only Peter Evans attacked them.  Maybe he had a difficult time with them.  Maybe he didn’t.  Whatever happened, it was unusual.  The journalists have been thrilled with the Beatles’ cooperation. “

Well, Dave Hull and I were very, very happy with the way things went.  The Beatles were great.

They gave me a wonderful welcome and it was just like old times.  We went out to dinner together under the blue Bahamian skies, visited clubs, laughed about funny things that had happened in the past. 

The film should be marvelous.  It is full of action.  Paul is shrunken to thumb-size for one wild scene.  There are four Ringos at one time.

Also there are 11 songs, the Bahamas background; scenes in the Alps and in London.  Ringo is nearly murdered for his precious ring.  The film is shot in colour and it will be one of the huge events of the cinema in 1965.  Release-date USA and UK:  around August 1.

Watch out for more film news and some inside news on the Beatles’ lives in next week’s KRLA Beat.

Dave Hull’s report

If I wasn’t a complete raving, total Beatlemaniac before, then I certainly am now!

What an experience!  After spending four days with them in the Bahamas while they filmed portions of the second movie, I feel as wrung out as a piece of laundry.

There is so much to tell I’m sure neither Derek Taylor nor I will be able to do much more than scratch the surface during this edition of the Beat.  But we’ll continue it from week to week until you have the whole story…the whole book is more like it, because anyone could write a book after spending a few days with those guys.

They are so full of life and mischief that they’re perpetual motion machines.  They really wear a person down—even the old Hullabalooer himself.

My previous associations with the Beatles had mostly been in situations where they were crowds all about or near impossible schedules to meet so that we were unable to really sit down and talk for more than a few minutes at a time.

But this trip was completely different.  Although they are working about 12 hours a day on the movie, there is a much more relaxed and casual atmosphere. 

After inviting Derek and me to visit them, they were great hosts.  Completely friendly, relaxed and outgoing.  

To our surprise, Derek and I found that anyone going to the Bahamas where they’re shooting the film is allowed to see the Beatles.  The included visiting them on the set!

Tourists were constantly snapping pictures of them, and the Beatles actually seemed quite happy about it.  They even took the time and trouble to speak to a lot of the visitors.

I’ll pass along a few of the experiences that occurred while we were there.

At one point, Ringo, who plays a very unusual role – is painted by a savage.  That particular scene had to be shot six times, and each time an expensive suit was ruined.

The script called for a giant idol to rise out of the sea on cue.  For some reason, the thing fell over, breaking off two of the arms.  With boats, a blimp and helicopter required to set it right again, the arms were finally welded back on at a tremendous cost. 

While Malcolm Evans, the Beatles’ road manager, was filming a bit as a channel swimmer, a huge sting ray came in close to shore – evidentially to see what was going on (you find Beatlemaniacs in every form).  The director quickly ordered Malcolm and the Beatles out of the water.  A diver was sent to scare it off.  I didn’t envy the diver a bit, because that thing was about 20 feet in diameter and was so huge that everyone on shore could see him out there.

We had some great time with John, Paul, George and Ringo and other members of the company.  We asked them every question we could think of and got replies to almost all of them.  Derek is covering some of those points in his report in the Beat this week and together we’ll take up some of the questions and answer them item by item.

Right now I have to sit back and catch my breath while trying to recuperate form an acute attack of Beatlemania.