The Beatles. Eight Days a Week. The Touring Years * * * 1/2

 

Listen, Do You Want To Know A Secret?.....  Well, too bad!

The best part of Eight Days A Week is the rare footage. I don’t know where they got it from, but kudos to Ron Howard and his team for digging it out.  

 The worst part of Eight Days A Week is is that it simply doesn’t tell us much.  It’s a pleasant walk down memory lane but you won’t be sitting in your seat thinking “Oh My God, I didn’t know that was going on!” Because according to this documentary nothing of any real controversy was going on at all, except for two well known incidents. -  being accused of claiming they were bigger than Jesus through an ineptly written interview that John did, and getting sprung smoking a bit of marijuana.

 Through most of the film they come across as four fun lads from Liverpool.  It’s almost as though the film wants to show us the way we remember them and not spoil anything.  They were our heroes; they were the boys that every boy wanted to be and every girl wanted as a boy friend.

 But as anybody who has done any reading on The Beatles at that time knows there was another truth.  I once remember reading an interview with John Lennon where he said at times those touring years were like Fellini's Satyricon.  None of that was reported at the time of course  - and none of that is reported in this film either.

  But you do get some other very funny information.  This was the biggest drawer card in the world but they had a tour manager who had no idea, a roadie who didn’t know how to assemble a drum kit.  In one scene Ringo’s kit has been assembled facing the opposite way to the band and they had to turn it round before they could get started. And half the time they would sing through the PA system in the stadium.  It must have sounded awful!   But like many things in this film the truth has been smoothed over and they sound pretty good on the soundtrack to this film.

 Yet I get where Ron Howard is coming from.  Do we need a warts and all documentary on The Beatles Touring Years?  Perhaps Howard is right in only showing us that which The Beatles wanted to share with us: their hugely charismatic personalities, their fab appearance and their incomparably catch songs. And on that score the film delivers well.  

 It is very enjoyable and a reminder of how good they were. The songs are still fantastic and you’ll be rocking in your seat  (George Harrison’s opening chord of “A Hard Days Night” will still make the hairs on the back of neck stand up).  It primarily follows the four years they were touring intensely and concludes with their final concert in August 1966 in San Francisco. Having just recorded the utterly brilliant Revolver you can imagine they had well and truly moved on from singing to screaming girls.

  I am not sure how long this “package” will be available but at the moment the film is immediately followed by a 30 minutes of  The Beatles 1966 concert at Shea Stadium.  It’s re-mastered and looks great even if it sounds a little too clean.