Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth

Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth
Click on the cover for information about the book. Available to order now.

26 February 2012

A Hard Day's Night in Poole


A rare print of A Hard Day's Night will be screened at Lighthouse, Poole on Tuesday  (28 February) as part of the exhibition of photos from Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth which is showing until 10 March.
The original print, one of just two available for public screening, shows at 7.45pm and copies of the book will be on sale at the screening.


Read more about the Lighthouse exhibition here.


To whet your appetite, here's an extract from the book in which Tony Crawley talks about meeting the boys on the set of A Hard Day's Night...



“After leaving Bournemouth in 1964 I joined a Rank Organisation magazine called Showtime and was sent down to the end of shooting on A Hard Day’s Night to be there when the producers handed out their gifts to the boys. They were filming the final scenes where you see The Beatles at liberty running through a park. They’d shot most of it, but they just had the lads jumping off these stepladders – of course no one knew why until we saw the final film, but they seemed quite happy.
“Paul, of course, was doing his routine. He would come up to you and greet you with your name: ‘Oh hiya, you’re Tony, aren’t you? What are you doing up here?’ It made you feel good, you know: ‘My pal Paul’. It wasn’t until later you realised he didn’t have a clue who you were, he’d just been smart enough to find out.”
The film came out on 4 July, followed by the soundtrack album four days later. It was almost as big a hit with the critics as with the public.
“The Beatles’ films were incredibly popular as well,” says retired Gaumont projectionist Joe Heathman. “We had people coming in to see them and staying all day, which you could do back then.”
Of all the band’s films A Hard Day’s Night now seems the least dated. Although there’s a satirical edge to Alun Owen’s Oscar-nominated script, Richard Lester directed it as a feel-good romp through the life of The Beatles at that time, portraying four likeable lads in search of a little peace and quiet. He continued the theme in the more experimental follow up Help!
When Help! came out in 1965 I saw that four or five times at the Electric cinema (in Bournemouth) in Commercial Road next to where Marks & Spencer is now," says Martin Bartlett.





Love from Liverpool...

My lords, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me considerable pleasure to proudly announce that our own dear Beatles tome, Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth has made a bit of a splash back where it all began - in the fair city of Liverpool.
Catherine Jones, arts editor at the Liverpool Echo, has written a magnificent feature about the book with the printed edition carrying a fine selection of photos including the incredibly rare shot of John with baby Julian and Aunt Mimi by the Sandbanks Ferry.
The feature appeared in the paper dated Monday, 20 February 2012 if you want to order copies.
You can read the full feature here.

9 February 2012

Beatles' meal deal


The Beatles on stage at the Winter Gardens, Bournemouth

The Beatles’ date at the Winter Gardens, Bournemouth on 16 November 1963 was a pivotal moment in their conquest of America with film crews from the three major US TV networks on hand to film them. Broadcast on 22 November, CBS footage from the Winter Gardens introduced The Beatles to American television and set in motion a chain of events that ensured I Want To Hold Your Hand was top of the USA charts when they landed in New York on 7 February 1964 ahead of their landmark appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Barely a fortnight before the Winter Gardens shows the Daily Mirror had coined the term Beatlemania to describe the fevered reception The Beatles enjoyed wherever they went. They were the biggest band in the land and the Bournemouth audience was just as wild as any they encountered at that time. For their own safety they were delivered to the venue in a police van, which also took them away at the end of the night.

It had previously been thought they returned immediately to the Branksome Towers Hotel overlooking Branksome Chine where they stayed the night, but freelance journalist Roger Guttridge recently uncovered a fascinating footnote to the Winter Gardens episode. Writing in the Blackmore Vale Magazine, he reports The Beatles went in search of a late-night meal after leaving the Winter Gardens and found themselves at a restaurant in Exeter Road, Bournemouth where they had eaten the previous August during their week-long residency across town at the Gaumont.

But the doorman initially turned them away as the restaurant was closed for a private party hosted by Javier Revuelta Pineiro and his new wife Joan who were celebrating with friends and family who had been unable to attend their wedding on 26 October.

The host, known to his friends as Rev, recalls: “Ringo came over and said, ‘We’ve eaten here before after the show. Can we join the party?’”

Rev offered to cook for them himself and asked what they would like.

“Ringo said they’d like eggs, bacon, sausage and chips and I cooked them their meal. They were smashing lads and one of them asked how they could repay us. I said I didn’t want anything so they offered to go out and get their stuff and play for my guests.

“They played and mucked about for an hour. Twenty or 30 girls also turned up and the party went on till 2 o’clock in the morning. John Lennon gave me his personal number and the Cavern Club number and said they would repay me.”

: Photos of The Beatles at the Branksome Towers Hotel and from the Winter Gardens shows on 16 November 1963 can be seen at the Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth exhibition at Lighthouse, Poole until 10 March.
The book, Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth is available now at www.beatlesandbournemouth.com

2 February 2012

Bright Lighthouse


Photos from the book Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth went on show at Lighthouse, Poole's centre for the arts last night.
The exhibition, expanded from the recent show at Bournemouth's Central Library, features many of the photographs from the book and several that could not be included, as well as a range of memorabilia related to The Beatles and the impact they made on Bournemouth and Poole.
Skilfully curated by the venue's deputy CEO Sara St George and artist-in-residence Hazel Evans, the exhibition provided the ideal opportunity for those with stories to tell to meet and swap tales with author Nick Churchill, pictured above.
Among the many messages of support received before the opening was one from former Beatles press officer Tony Bramwell.
Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles and Bournemouth is available from www.beatlesandbournemouth.com
Photo by Sally Adams, courtesy of the Daily Echo, Bournemouth.


- The photos are on show again this summer, from 9 July until 5 September in the Bourne Lounge at Bournemouth International Centre.