#also i love that Cilla Black was in it

[mage8]

Today on Doctor Who, the world was saved by the power of McLennon.

The Devil's Chord

[got-ticket-to-ride]

Cilla Black first encountered The Beatles at Liverpool’s Cavern Club. She was a singer, and Lennon invited her to join the band onstage. She ran into The Beatles often. When she saw them, she hated being left alone with Lennon. He made her incredibly nervous.

“I remember I used to be dead scared of John, although he was the one who had helped me most,” she said. “He had this aura of superintelligence. I hated being left alone to speak to him. Once he said: ‘What’s wrong with you, girl? Don’t you like me?'”

“I confessed: ‘I’m frightened of you, John.’ He roared with laughter: ‘And I thought you were a snob!’ After that we often talked.”

Cilla changed her opinion of John due to how much he helped her career. He was the one who encouraged her to join The Beatles onstage. He’d also insisted that Epstein listen to her perform and consider signing her.

“Paul was at the recording session when I made Anyone Who Had A Heart,” she said “He said that he liked the composition and he and John would try to produce something similar. Well they came up with this new number, but for my money it’s nothing like the ‘Anyone’ composition.”

It's interesting that Paul and John's inspiration for "It's For You" was "Anyone Who Had a Heart." Lyrically Anyone Who Had a Heart

"Anyone who ever loved could look at me And know that I love you Anyone who ever dreamed could look at me And know I dream of you Knowing I love you so"

reminds me more of "I've got a feeling, a feeling I can't hide".

During the filming of "The Music of Lennon & Mccartney" in 1965 Cilla recalled: “I had to walk down the stairs, miming to the song, while the boys sat at the bottom, looking up at me.

“As I walked past, John whispered: ‘Great! No knickers!’ I reeled backwards, hand to my mouth, and couldn’t wait to get back to the dressing-room to check he was joking.”

[hide-your-bugs-away]

I love how everyone's favorite band had a ~moment~ during this show... here's mine 🙏🙏

On this day in 1965 - the New Musical Express Poll Winners' Concert!!

Featured here is Animals' performance of "Boom Boom", the first song of their set! 🐾✨️

[mclennonlgbt]

Midas Man review (with spoilers!)

Yesterday I had the unique opportunity to watch a biopic about Brian Epstein. Although the film is currently only available in certain countries, @pauls1967moustache organized a watch party, which I joined. Thank you!!!

"Midas Man" has many advantages. The main one is the leading male role: Jacob Fortune-Lloyd did a great job. He perfectly portrayed Brian's complex personality. He was able to convincingly present both his uncertainty and tremors, as well as his perseverance in promoting the Beatles. Eppy said with full confidence that his boys would be bigger than Elvis - clearly he believed it deeply, even when higher-ups in the music industry laughed in his face. Fortune-Lloyd also convincingly played Brian's emotions related to his sexuality. On the one hand, Epstein did not want to run away from his nature, but on the other - he was well aware that sex between men was a crime and could expose him to blackmail. In one scene, Brian's parents pressure him to be more careful because revealing his sexual orientation in the newspapers could discredit the family business and end the careers of the Beatles and other artists he manages. Brian, filled with guilt, apologizes to his parents for "causing them pain." I have been following this thread with interest and I am glad that it has not been omitted or trivialized.

Unfortunately, the love story disappointed me. It was very cliché. Brian met someone he quickly began to care about. Tex did not reciprocate his feelings, he just wanted to have fun and benefit from Epstein's influence. Ultimately, he left without saying goodbye, stealing money and documents. I know the real Brian dated some shady guys, but it wasn't portrayed very convincingly in the movie. Perhaps Edward Speleers, the actor playing Tex, failed.

How did the Beatles fare? Not bad, but... nothing more. I must praise Blake Richardson, who played Paul - his facial expressions were very reminiscent of McCartney's. Blake was very authentic, I felt like I was looking at Paul. I also liked Wallace Campbell as Ringo. Unfortunately, the remaining Beatles were exaggerated. I'm thinking specifically about George (played by Leo Harvey Elledge). John, on the other hand, lacked depth. I had the impression that he was just a cheeky kid who thought he was entitled to everything. The young Lennon had a more complex personality. Besides, Jonah Lees who played him almost didn't look like him at all xD Speaking of which, the wigs looked terrible in most scenes. I guess there wasn't enough budget for it.

I was surprised (in a negative sense) by the complete omission of an important thread in the history of the Beatles: Brian's infatuation with John. Whether or not Lennon reciprocated the feeling, it was largely Epstein's motivation to pursue the band. When we jumped from 1963 to 1964 and there was no mention of the trip to Barcelona, ​​I was confused. Instead, the creators decided to focus on a fictional romance between Brian and Tex.

The advantage of the biopic is that viewers have the opportunity to meet other artists that Epstein managed. In one scene, Brian proudly introduces us to Billy J. Kramer, Tommy Quickly and... Cilla Black (Darci Shaw). Brian and Cilla's relationship is definitely one of the most touching and adorable elements of the entire film. It is clear that the singer is Epstein's favorite, and not only in professional terms. They are simply a pair of devoted friends. From what I understood, Cilla knew about Brian's orientation and fully accepted it.

"Midas Man" is a decent movie, better than I expected. However, these are not the heights of cinematography. I had the impression that Brian was presented somewhat sweetly, as a person without flaws (perhaps his family took part in consulting the script?). I think a rating of 7/10 would be fair.

[ch6douin]

hi . im lana del ray anon . heres another thingy :

a little personal but i like to listen to the most melodramatic , sad romance type songs while playing idv . its just silly to do lol . so im just thinking the survivor / hunter the player is playing also has to listen to these songs while kiting / decoding ... just like listening to " blind " by sza and player is humming along or something ...

idrk . just a drabble .

While I don't play idv anymore, l've been having a great time listening to some old romantic songs like "Anyone Who Had A Heart" by Cilla Black and so this drabble is very relatable!

First thoughts they have: are you suffering through an unrequited love? Perhaps a breakup. Is someone or something bothering you? Actually, you probably just like to listen to melodramatic songs casually, it makes them ashamed of having sent worried glances at each other when hearing you humming along without any care. Also, wouldn't people try to hear something hype up their spirits in a match? The pieces of music are quite unsuitable for this occasion...If it makes you happy and focused, there are no major complaints.

_

When the distant sounds of calm melodies and the quiet humming came along, Aesop Carl knew that it couldn't be anyone other than you. The beautiful stillness of death was his companion since he knew how to hold a makeup brush, a silence that he convinced himself of being the only one to fully savor. With his hands, he can bring the joy of standing in front of the gates to the afterlife. He will stand by his ideals forevermore, but, for now, having your voice and tunes replace this empty room wasn't so far from what he deems as beauty.

[ashtray-girl]

Everytime I read or listen a Grant Showbiz intervew he's like trying to say Moz was madly in love with Johnny and that there was something else going on, but without saying the actual words lmao

right?? lmao one of the most interesting things he said imo is when he talked abt feeling "physically threatened" by morrissey when the band was recording those cilla black & elvis covers, right before they split up... bc morrissey had apparently been drinking (which i mean... THAT was quite ooc, i wonder what led him to do that... 👀) & he was acting erratically... showbiz also kept the recording for that Elvis cover (A Fool Such As I) for a while, even tho part of the song was allegedly wiped by the sound engineer & therefore would've been unusable, but THEN he ended up giving those tapes to johnny "for safekeeping" & bc it was "the right thing to do", which like... sure, but if the song was deemed unusable anyway, why not just getting rid of it? why hold on to the tapes? but according to a recent BBC interview, johnny still has those tapes, even tho he hasn't listened to them in a long time & it's apparently the only Smiths' song that's yet to be released... interestingly enough, he said he doesn't plan on ever releasing that bc it reminds him of a bad time & he "doesn't want to put that out into the world"... (no mention of the song having been partially wiped tho... 👀) which leaves me wondering... was that song really the problem? was morrissey's rendition really THAT bad? or was there other stuff that ended up on tape while they were recording? stuff that had to do w/morrissey's erratic behavior & that they don't want anyone else to hear bc it would reflect badly on them, possibly painting a picture that would affect the band's legacy & that would make ppl see johnny & morrissey's relationship in a different, potentially more intimate way? 👀 i mean, at one point the song literally says: "you taught me how to love & now you say we're through"... are we really meant to think nothing of that, given everything else we know? 👀

[ludmilachaibemachado]

NEW LONDON Synagogue, St. John's Wood, London, OCTOBER 17, 1967. On that day a service will be held at 6:00 p.m. in memory of Brian Epstein. The 4 Beatles who were unable to attend the funeral in Liverpool on August 29th, and almost everyone who had crossed paths with Brian Epstein, were there to attend this second service and, in a sense, to do their last duty to him. George Martin, Gerry Marsden, Lulu, Cilla Black, Billy J. Cramer etc.🌸

The shared photos were taken separately when the Beatles arrived at the mass. Paul chose to come alone, while John, George and Ringo attended the service with their wives, and George also attended with his parents🌹

If I may include here an excerpt from the speech given by Rabbi Louise Jacobs, who led the service: “Brian Epstein encouraged young people to sing songs of love and peace instead of war and hatred. He was a brilliant young man with a great talent for recognizing extraordinary talents and the ability to help them on their way. Young people all over the world looked up to him as their idol. If you tell a man that he is diligent in his work, he comes before kings. He was diligent in his work and now he is in the presence of kings. He taught us adults to look with equanimity at the various manifestations of youth's desire for self-expression.”🎍

John Lennon also makes a short speech, from which I took only 2 sentences: “We will continue our work in Brian's name. Everything we do will be dedicated to him.”🪴

This is to the memory of Brian Epstein who passed away 57 years ago, on AUGUST 27, 1967🌺

May his place be in heaven and his soul rest in peace🍀

Via Beatlemania FB🪷

[zilabee]

In the BBC's archive there is a mysterious undated reel with the Beatles requesting records to be played. Their introductions give intriguing clues to the music that was inspiring the group around May 1964. Ringo asked for: Cilla Black's You're My World, which climbed to number one that month, and, showing his love of Country and Western music, Pen and Paper by Jerry Lee Lewis, and the Kitty Wells version of I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know*. Paul picked Hitch Hike and Pride and Joy, both featured on the 1963 Marvin Gaye album That Stubborn Kinda Fellow. ** George chose two Tamla Motown records - the Miracles' I've Been Good To You, and the first UK hit for the label, My Guy by Mary Wells. He also asked for the Impressions' big US hit It's All Right, and an early Elvis Presley track My Baby Left Me. John requested the Tommy Tucker hit Hi-heel Sneakers, and anything by Little Richard - "He was my favourite when I was about 16, after Elvis. I didn't know which one I liked best... but I like Little Richard best now!" His other selection was an interesting choice - Gonna Send You Back To Georgia, by Timmy Shaw. "I like it because the beat's marvellous, the voice is marvellous and it's a good song. And it's great, so play it!"

Beatles at the BBC - The Radio Years 1962-70, by Kevin Howlett

*Cannot find the Kitty Wells version anywhere on youtube so I linked to Skeeter Davis instead. **Later in '64 Paul was asked to select a single for broadcast on the new show Top Gear, and chose Mockingbird by Inez and Charlie Foxx.

[lindszeppelin]

So I have a *thought.* Feel free to delete if you aren't interested in this type of discourse, but:

I think all the people who claim that Austin Butler looks nothing like Elvis aren't giving credit to the fact that in the movie, he actually does. I'm not just saying this because I love Elvis and I think he did a great job in his portrayal, but I think in the movie he really does look quite a bit like him. Now, in real life, he obviously doesn't. However. However. I think if Austin Butler looked in real life the way he does in the movie, people wouldn't complain that he doesn't look like Elvis. Does that make sense? Like, if he rolled out of bed with the face and body he has in the '68 Special, people would be like, "Yeah, that guy looks perfect." I'm not discounting the work that he obviously put in to transform for the movie, or saying that looking exactly like someone is a requirement for playing them in a biopic (I don't think Joaquin Phoenix resembles Johnny Cash THAT much, but he's very good in Walk The Line). But I feel like a lot of the social media complaints come from people looking at a photo of him from a red carpet or something, deciding he doesn't resemble Elvis, and then discounting his performance because of it. Which was great. I'm mostly an Elvis fan and had no idea who he was before the film, so I wouldn't have loved it if he hadn't been great in it.

I guess I'm a little disappointed that there was finally a really amazing film about Elvis, and now people are going back retroactively to complain because everyone else is doing it. Like, I feel like a lot of them weren't complaining about it last year. I don't know, just my vaguely annoyed two cents.

I think it's also important to remember that Austin had a few years to get into character, and he had an outstanding prosthetics team. Elordi does not look like Elvis, just because he's a white guy with dark brown hair people wanna say he does. Idk if this Priscilla movie had the actors wear prosthetics of any kind, but considering this film wasn't given the extensive amount of prep work and dedication that Elvis 2022 did i would probably say there wasn't prosthetics.

and mind you, the prosthetics in Elvis 2022 were subtle. but hell, back when Austin was doing early prep and they had him dye his hair black you can see on the Once Upon A Time carpet that he looks incredible. And that's just with dyed hair. Both men on their own don't look like Elvis but Austin with the black hair and in the movie is outstanding.

and i'll finish by saying that even his own family like LMP and Cilla had a hard time deciphering whether a scene in the movie was Elvis footage or if it was Austin. So there we go, if the Presley family is so impressed by Austin then there's really nothing else to say lol.

[justforbooks]

In 2010, Paul O’Grady broke his nose after losing his footing at his friend Cilla Black’s house in Barbados. “My nose was out to here and I had a black eye, but I said: ‘I’m not ruining my holiday,’” he recalled. “So we went out every night and were the talk of the island.” The story was typical of O’Grady, who loved to dramatise his indomitability and had an unquenchable desire to be in the public eye.

The comedian and chat show host, who has died aged 67, was once called “the Edith Piaf of day-time television” and, given its connotations of a drama-filled life, he loved the epithet.

His defiant unshakeability and desire to perform came together in his first stage persona, the foul-mouthed Lily Savage, who sported a platinum blond beehive wig, vast quantities of makeup, white stilettos, a leopard skin miniskirt and a matching fake-fur coat. Born in the 1980s in the gay pubs of south London, as a sideline to O’Grady’s day job as a care worker, Savage thrived on insulting audiences and made no effort to conceal a streak of hard-headed lawlessness (“You need two things in a riot – flat shoes and a pram”).

She also hinted at a lurid past as a down-at-heel sex worker and made the work of previous British female impersonators, such as Danny La Rue and Dick Emery, seem tame.

Savage was inspired, in part, by O’Grady’s Aunt Chrissie, a bus conductor. “She had a hard life, but she used to suck her cheeks in and fancy herself as Marlene Dietrich,” he said.

His alter ego acted as a kind of avenging angel, giving voice to the anger O’Grady was otherwise unable to express.

Savage eventually became a phenomenon, appearing on the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. She presented the BBC celebrity game show Blankety Blank (1997–99) and the ITV comedy show Lily Live! (2000-01). She even returned in triumph to her native Merseyside, and became a regular on This Morning with Richard and Judy.

But O’Grady killed off Savage in 2005, claiming Lily had “seen the light, taken the veil and packed herself off to a convent in France”. Thereafter he took centre stage as himself. As the host of the Paul O’Grady Show and Paul O’Grady Live he could be just as caustic as Savage.

In 2010 he provoked complaints to Ofcom for attacking the new coalition government during Paul O’Grady Live. “Do you know what got my back up?” he told his ITV audience. “Those Tories hooping and hollering when they heard about the cuts. Gonna scrap the pensions – yeah! – no more wheelchairs – yeah! ... I bet when they were children they laughed at Bambi when the mother got shot.”

O’Grady was born in Birkenhead to Catholic parents, an Irish father, Paddy, and English mother, Molly (nee Savage). “I was born late – what my mother calls the last kick of a dying horse,” he said in his 2009 autobiography At My Mother’s Knee … And Other Low Joints.

“There’s three of us children, but I’m 13 or 14 years younger than my brother and sister. When I look back on my childhood I have no bad memories. Our family was loving and full of affection. I never knew what divorce was until I moved to London. I was an indulged child and completely protected from anything bad.” Not quite true: he was sent by his parents to a school run by the Christian Brothers. “They were wicked, wicked,” he told an interviewer.

O’Grady left school at 16 to work for the DHSS (Department of Health and Social Security) in Liverpool, and then went on to a string of jobs – hotel skivvy, office worker at an abattoir, and clerk at a magistrates court.

In the 70s he worked for Camden council in north London as a peripatetic carer. “If a single mother had to go to hospital, I’d move in and look after her kids so they didn’t have to go into care,” he once explained. “Often there’d be a drunken father turning up at 2am, wanting to know who I was, and I’d say, mincing slightly: ‘I’m from Camden council!’ and he’d smack me. So I’d be going around with a black eye and nits from the kids.” He cited this period of his life as part inspiration, along with his Birkenhead female relations, for the Lily Savage character.

In the 80s, Savage had a solo residency at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London that ran for eight years. Each night his waspish patter spared no one, not even the boys in blue. One night in 1987, his performance was rudely interrupted by a police raid, one that many of the gay club’s punters took to be a homophobic attempt to intimidate them.

Thirty-five officers burst in wearing rubber gloves – this being the height of the Aids epidemic, they feared touching those they arrested. According to the veteran LGBTQ+ campaigner Peter Tatchell, O’Grady at first thought they were strippers and part of the show.

In 2021, O’Grady described what happened next: “I was doing the late show and within seconds the place was heaving with coppers, all wearing rubber gloves. I remember saying something like, ‘Well well, it looks like we’ve got help with the washing up.’” He was handcuffed and taken to the police station before being released without charge. “They made many arrests but we were a stoic lot and it was business as usual the next night.”

While working as a court clerk, he had an affair with a colleague, Diane Jansen, who became pregnant with their daughter, Sharyn. In 1977 he married Teresa Fernandes, a Portuguese woman, in order to prevent her deportation from the UK. The couple divorced in 2005.

O’Grady claimed there was always an unspoken understanding in his family that he was gay. “It was no big deal. I never stood up in the front room and said, ‘I have something to tell you!’ – but I wasn’t hiding anything.”

During the mid-80s he met Brendan Murphy, the manager of a sauna in south London. They were a couple until Murphy’s death from brain cancer in 2005.

By then O’Grady was a popular household name, and in 2008 he was appointed MBE. Three years later, the Museum of Liverpool staged an exhibition of his alter ego’s frocks. In 2011 he quit Paul O’Grady Live after becoming exasperated with his role as a chat- show host: “I felt part of the PR machine. They’d want this guest or that guest. Every question had to go through the lawyers. I was just another plug for someone’s book.”

He went on to make shows such as ITV’s For the Love of Dogs, Me and My Guide Dog, a documentary about the burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee, and a series for the BBC, Paul O’Grady’s Working Britain. A two-part eulogy to the British working class, broadcast in 2013, it prompted press scepticism – not least because O’Grady told viewers he still considered himself working class despite being a millionaire who owned a generous plot of land in Kent.

He lived there with 14 sheep, three dogs, two pigs, hundreds of rescued chickens, ducks, a goat and barn owls. After Murphy’s death he had a long-term relationship with the former ballet dancer Andre Portasio, whom he married in 2017.

Lily Savage returned from her French convent to perform as Widow Twankey in pantomime in Southampton in 2011 and London in 2012. In 2017, O’Grady hosted a Channel 5 reboot of Blind Date; and in 2021 the ITV celebrity game show Paul O’Grady’s Saturday Night Line Up.

During lockdown, he wrote a children’s book, Eddie Albert and the Amazing Animal Gang (2021). Last year he made a special one-off episode of For the Love of Dogs to mark 160 years of Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, for which he was an ambassador. In August 2022, he presented his last show on BBC Radio 2 after 14 years on the airwaves.

Tatchell said of O’Grady: “Paul wasn’t just a brilliant comedian and broadcast personality but a much admired campaigner for LGBT+ equality and animal rights … Paul was planning to lead our forthcoming campaign for the police to apologise for their historic persecution of the LGBT+ community.” His fellow TV presenter Lorraine Kelly said that O’Grady was “the kindest, funniest man … Dogs are the best judge of character and they loved him.”

He is survived by Andre, Sharyn, and two grandchildren, Abel and Halo, and by his brother, Ben, and sister, Sheila.

🔔 Paul James O’Grady, comedian and chat-show host, born 14 June 1955; died 28 March 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[duncandriver]

A Hard Day’s Midsummer Night’s Dream: The Beatles Play Shakespeare

In February 1964 the Beatles and their small coterie were in New York, having ‘invaded’ via John F. Kennedy International Airport (newly-renamed in the wake of the President’s November 1963 death). 5000 screaming fans greeted them as they alighted Pan-Am flight 101, and pandemonium followed them to the Plaza Hotel, reaching fever pitch as they performed live on The Ed Sullivan Show two days later.

Despite the hurricane quality of their first visit to the United States, their manager Brian Epstein took the time to meet with Jack Good, a British television producer for Rediffusion London (which had also just changed its name). It was fortunate for Good to have been squeezed into Epstein’s tight schedule. Indeed, Epstein may have given him the time of day on the basis that he, too, was a trail-blazing impresario of British rock ‘n’ roll acts: Tommy Steele and Billy Fury owed part of their success to Good’s management. Epstein was impressed enough that he agreed to a Beatle-themed television special, suggesting that Good himself produce the show (a point that he would later press during negotiations with Rediffusion). Another deal-breaker for Epstein was that the special must serve as an introduction and endorsement of other NEMS (Epstein’s company) acts. With one eye on American distribution of the special, Epstein also requested that Murray ‘The K’ Kaufman act as compare. 'K' was a prominent New York disc jockey and one of the lucky few ushered into The Beatles’ inner circle on this transatlantic visit.

Rediffusion agreed to all of Epstein’s terms (including NEMS ownership of world distribution rights) and provisionally entitled the special John, Paul, George and Ringo. Last-minute name changes must have been part of the 1964 zeitgeist, however. In addition to the re-christened JFK International Airport and the self-styled Rediffusion London, Good re-named his Beatles show Around The Beatles, a title that was likely inspired by the semi-circular design of the set built for it.

The special was rehearsed on April 18, 25 and 27 before taping on Thursday 28 April. The Beatles did not perform any songs until the second half of the hour-long show, though their (mimed) set was notable for featuring the only televised medley of Lennon-McCartney compositions the band ever ‘stuck together’ (to borrow Paul McCartney’s phrase when introducing the sequence). ‘Love Me Do’, ‘Please Please Me’, ‘From Me To You’, ‘She Loves You’, ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ and ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ are the songs in question.

The majority of the show’s first half was given over to a ‘variety-hour’ assortment of supporting acts, including Millie, Long John Baldry, Cilla Black, P. J. Proby, Sounds Incorporated and The Jets (an American dance troupe). Many of their performances look and sound quite dated now, especially when set against the timeless vitality of The Beatles. Indeed, one song in which Sounds Incorporated execute a neat series of dance steps recalls the unified choreography of The Shadows, an act which had bemused The Beatles prior to their success.

One of the sequences that sets the show apart from television specials of the era is the unique means by which Good chose to introduce The Beatles to their audience. Rather than start things off with a big musical number (as might have been expected), he capitalised on the band's humour and charm by having them perform a liberally-edited version of Act 5, Scene 1 from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the celebrated play-within-the-play in which Quince, Snout, Bottom, Flute, Snug and Starveling (the ‘rude mechanicals’) perform a hilariously inept version of Pyramus and Thisbe’s tragic love story, all the time struggling valiantly against the mocking interjections of the play’s ‘noble’ characters (Demetrius, Hermia, Lysander, Helena, Theseus, Hippolyta and Egeus). It is not clear how and why Good seized upon this idea, but it too may have been in response to the semi-circular design of the set on which the band played, echoing as it does the tiered three-quarter circle of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. It may also have had something to do with the fact that the Beatles rehearsed the show on April 18 and 25, either side of the anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth and death (April 23), an auspicious date that Ringo Starr noted when interviewed by Murray ‘the K’ on set.[1]

Whatever the reason for the special's unusually theatrical opening, its effect is inspired, playing wonderfully to the anarchic comic strengths of the Beatles’ collective identity. Clips of the scene are prevalent on the internet (including one surprisingly effective colourisation), but they are often misrepresented as a ‘parody’ of Shakespeare in comments and captions. It is true that the Beatles play fast and loose with the script, interjecting their own one-liners throughout, but the spirit of their performance is remarkably consistent with the intended tone of the scene which, it should be remembered, is already a parody. In this case, Shakespeare mocks the representation of tragic love in Elizabethan verse plays such as his own Romeo and Juliet, which was written either immediately before or after A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ playlet is intended to be chaotic and inept, performed as it is by a group of enthusiastic but unsophisticated artisans who find themselves thrust into a world of power and privilege they do not fully understand. When considered this way, the scene and its characters are apposite to the position The Beatles found themselves in at this point in their career: suddenly and unprecedentedly successful working-class lads from an industrial backwater taking some of the starch out of the stiff cosmopolitan shirts they encountered in London and New York. The kind of ‘hooray Henry’ infamous for snipping locks of Beatle hair might have applied Puck’s description of the mechanicals to The Beatles as they descended upon his little patch of the world: ‘What hempen homespuns have we swagg’ring here…? (3.1.65)’. The Beatles' swagger is more knowing and cheeky than the rustic gait of Shakespeare’s rude mechanicals, but its effect is very similar: if Bottom or Quince were transposed to the 1963 Royal Variety Performance, they too might have requested that the poorer audience members clap their hands while the rest rattled their jewellery.

Indeed, the effect of the Beatles on the stifled culture of Great Britain in the early 1960s might be considered analogous to the effect that ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ has on the Athenian nobility who are confronted by it in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Writing of the intended effect of the play-within-the-play, Marjorie Garber argues that '… performed by social inferiors for their putative betters, it confronts the themes, aspirations, and pretensions of the aristocrats and comments on the larger play that contains it.'[2] Over the course of the scenes in which the mechanicals rehearse and then deliver their performance, Quince (their self-appointed manager) tries and fails to maintain control over an increasingly chaotic band of would-be entertainers who add and subtract from his script, question his decisions and ignore what they are supposed to be doing when something more interesting turns their heads. Perhaps Good had seen footage from A Hard Day’s Night (completed but not yet released at the time Around The Beatles was taped) and perhaps he was struck, like the author of this article, by the parallels between the mechanicals and the semi-fictionalised Beatles of the silver screen, both of whom effortlessly frustrate each authority figure they encounter.

The chaos of the rude mechanicals’ Pyramus and Thisbe is echoed in the performance the Beatles give of it, which seems always to be on the verge of collapse. The ‘heckling’ interruptions of some audience members add to this effect and may seem to be a strange addition of Good’s, but they are also in keeping with their source material. They are a substitute for the on-stage audience of principal characters constantly interjecting their criticism of the mechanicals’ performance in Shakespeare’s play. Hippolyta, for instance, exclaims ‘This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard!’ [5.1.207]. The tone and effect of the heckling The Beatles contend with is strikingly similar to that present in Shakespeare’s play. Stephen Greenblatt says of the mocking audience in A Midsummer Night’s Dream that ‘we are incited at once to join in the mockery … and to distance ourselves from the mockers’[3], something you feel in Around The Beatles when one wag shouts ‘Go back to Liverpool!’ We recognise that the band are uncomfortable in the world of Elizabethan theatre, but we are on their side when a contingent of London audience sets against them.

There are other parallels between The Beatles’ story and A Midsummer Night’s Dream that are worth pointing out. At the time he wrote the play, Shakespeare was either working towards or away from the comedy of magic in moonlight, something which appears in earnest throughout Romeo and Juliet but which is also present in the nocturnal sorcery the fairies work in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Marjorie Garber writes that the play emphasises ‘the difference between night, which transforms and changes, and day, which is rigid, inflexible, and associated with law.’[4] The stark contrast between what could be said and done after the sun went down and what repercussions might be made in the cold light of day was certainly one that the four Beatles understood. The nightlife of Hamburg’s Reeperbahn, for instance, was the crucible in which their alchemy was formed: its coloured lights, licentious habits and mind-altering substances are a modern analogue to Oberon and Titania’s shady garden of delights. The effect of moonlight on The Beatles’ creativity took root early and continued to grow throughout their career. As soon as they were given the keys to the kingdom of EMI Studios, for example, their preferred recording hours began late in the day and ended as the sun came up. Indeed, one of the few ‘covers’ they would record in 1964 was Roy Lee Johnson’s ‘Mr Moonlight’, the opening address of which is scream-sung by John Lennon as if he were a wolf howling at the song’s titular subject. The first verse of the song continues:

You came to me one summer night And from your beam you made my dream And from the world you sent my girl And from above you sent us love

This is comparable to the lines spoken to the moon by Bottom’s Pyramus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In Around The Beatles, it is Paul, dressed as Pyramus, who delivers the first of these lines, the following three of which were cut from the 1964 performance:

Sweet moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams. I thank thee, moon, for shining now so bright; For by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams I trust to take of truest Thisbe sight (5.1.261-264).

One of the best jokes staged in ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ is the absurd personification of ‘moonshine’ (complete with a lantern, thorn bush and dog) reluctantly played by the serious-minded Starveling, whose name means ‘undernourished’. In The Beatles’ performance , the character is well-represented by George Harrison, the most gauntly thin Beatle and often considered to have been the sourest (his first song was called ‘Don’t Bother Me’). Shakespeare’s character and George’s public persona are in perfect harmony when, frustrated by the heckling interruptions of the show’s audience, he says:

Look, you! All I have to say is to tell ye that this lantern is the moon, ye see. Got it? I’m the man in the moon, this thorn bush ‘ere’s my thorn bush and this doggy-woggy ‘ere is my dog! [sic][5]

The same rehearsal tape made by Murry ‘The K’ in which Ringo alerts the DJ to the date of Shakespeare’s birthday also includes a moment suggesting that Good knew exactly what he was doing when he cast George as Moonshine. The Beatle can be heard delivering the lines above before Good interrupts him with this note: ‘George, you mustn’t smile at all, you mustn’t sort-of realise it’s a joke’[6]. Clearly, Good knew that Starveling was meant to be a grumpy, frustrated character and that he is funniest when played ‘straight’.

Next to Puck (the mischievous sprite) the best-remembered character from A Midsummer Night’s Dream is probably Bottom (the weaver), the most enthusiastic of the rude mechanicals. He doesn’t appear in the Beatles’ version of Act 5, Scene 1 in any proper sense: it’s true that Bottom plays ‘Pyramus’ in the play-within-the-play, but Paul appears to be playing Pyramus fairly straight too: as a young lover, rather than as Bottom-playing-Pyramus (which wouldn’t make a great deal of sense outside of the play’s larger context). Despite this, Bottom is a character appropriate to Paul. For one thing, he shares Paul’s natural charm and enthusiasm. He also has something of Paul’s desire for control and thirst for the spotlight, wanting to play both Pyramus and Thisbe himself: ‘An I may hide my face, let me play Thisbe too. I’ll speak in a monstrous little voice: “Thisne, Thisne!”’ (1.2.43-44). Bottom's eager versatility is comparable to Paul’s facility with a range of musical instruments that sometimes led him to encroach into his bandmates’ territory. Ringo, at least, would complain of Paul’s tendency to mess with his drums.

In some respects, it is actually Ringo himself who is reminiscent of Bottom: both are the most loveable member of their respective band of entertainers. Bottom is always greeted by his companions with unfeigned joy, and his presence has the effect of defusing tension, just as the three other Beatles would still rally around Ringo when otherwise at odds with each other. Like Bottom, Ringo doesn’t always appear to understand everything that’s happening to him - think of that moment in the Maysles brothers’ What’s Happening! The Beatles in the USA at which Ringo exclaims ‘It’s great to be here in New York! Oh, Washington, is it? Just moving so fast…’[7] Most characteristically, Bottom and Ringo both have an endearing tendency to speak in malapropisms as profound as they are naïve. ‘A hard day’s night’ is a phrase that could easily have issued from Bottom’s lips after hours of weaving work, just as Bottom’s reference to his dream as ‘Bottom’s Dream, because it hath no bottom’ matches the homespun profundity of ‘Tomorrow never knows’.

A more general point of connection between Shakespeare’s play and The Beatles concerns the fact that A Midsummer Night’s Dream had frequently been considered the most suitable of Shakespeare’s plays for children, stuffed as it is with fairies, slapstick and strong rhymes. In 1964, at least, an atmosphere of Victorian-era wholesomeness and whimsy attended it, as though it were a precursor to Peter Pan. Such an unthreatening, ‘family’ appeal suited the neatly-pressed image for The Beatles that Brian Epstein had crafted over 1963. By the time Around The Beatles was taped, The Rolling Stones had entered the British popular consciousness as a more dangerous and pouty alternative to the smiling, chirpy Beatles, reinforcing the latter’s wider appeal.

This, at least, is how the media were encouraged to see things, though the truth was more complex. The Beatles’ genesis on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn belies the squeaky-clean aspect they had cultivated, just as John’s on-stage presence tended to cut through the professional sheen that Paul lent to proceedings. It was in 1964 performances, for instance, that John would often change the lyrics to songs (secure in the knowledge that they couldn’t be heard over the audience’s screams), the coy overture ‘I wanna hold your hand’ sometimes being replaced by the more confronting and sexually aggressive ‘I wanna hold your head’.

Just as there was a suggestive (perhaps even predatory) side to The Beatles if you knew where to look, so too are there more dangerously adult aspects to the desire that seethes beneath the surface of A Midsummer Night’ Dream. Emma Smith writes of the way ‘our schoolroom version’ of the play has polished away its rougher edges (or, if you like, replaced its leather jackets with a shiny, collarless suits):

…the ‘dream’ of the title is more Dr Freud that Dr Seuss, and the vanilla framing device of marriage creates an erotic space for a much raunchier and riskier set of options, from bestiality to pederasty, from wife-swapping to sexual sadomasochism. This really isn’t a play for children…[8]

If you know your Beatles’ history well enough, you might be reminded of how the band’s giggly, innocent appearance often concealed private bacchanalian affairs. In both Shakespeare’s play and The Beatles’ story, subversive elements occasionally bob up to the surface, however hard some try to submerge them.

It would appear that the connection made between The Beatles and Shakespeare at the outset of Around The Beatles struck a chord with the British public, including with the band themselves. In 1965, Peter Sellers would make an appearance on The Music of Lennon and McCartney (another Beatle-themed television special) in order to recite the lyrics to ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ in the style of Laurence Olivier’s Richard III. At the time, Olivier’s film versions represented the high-water mark of Shakespearean performance in the British collective consciousness, something which is also evident in Around The Beatles: the special begins with a trumpet fanfare and flag raising ceremony which is almost identical to that at the outset of Olivier’s own film of Henry V. Sellers’ performance of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ is tonally comparable to The Beatles’ own attempt at ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’, too, both celebrating and gently mocking its source material.

Paul may have recalled the Shakespearean dialogue he was required to recite in Around The Beatles a few years later, when choosing the name ‘Thisbe’ for a pet cat. He was certainly aiming for the grandeur of Shakespearean verse when composing ‘The End’ for Abbey Road. Hunter Davis notes in The Beatles’ Lyrics that the song’s final couplet is ‘almost Shakespearean’[9] in effect. He attributes this to the lines’ familiarity, but it is worth pointing out that Paul's lyrics achieve a Shakespearean effect partly because they are metrically identical to the verse form of Shakespeare’s epilogues: both employ an iambic tetrameter that is less expansive and more formal than their authors' common rhythms, which in Shakespeare's case is the 'blank verse' of iambic pentamer. Changing the meter for an epilogue allowed Shakespeare to place the tidy symmetry of his play's resolution within a pleasing metrical frame, just as the final words of ‘The End’ draw the threads of Abbey Road's song suite together and tie them in a satisfying bow that also contains a parting message of hope and comfort. When set next to each other, the similarities between Paul's and Shakespeare's lines are evident, and they serve as a better end to this article than its author can devise for himself:

Give me your hands if we be friends And Robin shall restore amends. And in the end the love you take Is equal to the love you make.

[1] The Beatles. ‘Around the Beatles Rehearsal Tape’. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF7845r9WIo. Accessed 11.05.2020.

[2] Marjorie Garber. Shakespeare After All (2004). New York: Anchor Books, p.233.

[3] Stephen Greenblatt (Ed.). The Norton Shakespeare (1997). New York: W.W. Norton and Company, p. 807.

[4] Garber (2004), p. 213.

[5] The Beatles. ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream Excerpt’. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owin8pcoyBQ. Accessed 11.05.2020.

[6] ‘Around the Beatles Rehearsal Tape’.

[7] Albert Maysles and David Maysles (Dir.). What’s Happening! The Beatles in the USA (1964). Maysles Film.

[8] Emma Smith. This is Shakespeare: How to Read the World’s Greatest Playwright (2019). London: Pelican Books, p. 85.

[9] Hunter Davies. The Beatles’ Lyrics (2014). London: Weidenfeld &Nicolson, p.378.

[messrmoonyy]

hello, what kind of music do you listen to, messr?

Hi!

I love Harry styles. Like. I adore the man. I also love Ariana Grande and Melanie Martinez. As far current music goes they’re my favs. But I also really like old music I love 50/60/70s music, like that sorta era of music was just so fuckin good. The beach boys, ABBA, Dolly Parton, Cilla Black yk . Oh and like cheesy 90s pop cause I grew up with that. So mostly pop.

[dhr-ao3]

Blind Date

Blind Date https://ift.tt/xyBQWtJ by Bunnybunkins So here we have a series of episodes of Blind Date, which was an old UK dating show. Each chapter is a different show and I will chapter title who is in it. They will range from G to M mostly for suggestive language and remarks. I will add in the notes the shows I have done as I add them. Also there will be some specials which will include a mix of characters not pick in the original episodes they were in. Words: 4095, Chapters: 3/?, Language: English Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Sherlock (TV), What We Do in the Shadows (TV) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: F/M, M/M Characters: Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, Ginny Weasley, Draco Malfoy, Jim Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes, John Watson, Greg Lestrade, Guillermo de la Cruz, Nandor the Relentless (What We Do in the Shadows TV), Laszlo Cravensworth, Colin Robinson, Cilla Black Relationships: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Guillermo de la Cruz/Nandor the Relentless Additional Tags: Dating, Speed Dating, Reality TV, Blind Date, Love, Jealousy, First Kiss, Possessive Behavior, Flirting, Awkward Flirting, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Boys Kissing, Suggestive Themes, Sexual Tension, Sexual Humor, Blushing, Kinky, Colin Robinson Being Colin Robinson, First Dates, Teasing, Rough Kissing, Angst, Relationship(s), Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy In Love, Sherlock Holmes Loves John Watson, Possessive Nandor the Relentless (What We Do in the Shadows TV), Surprise Kissing, Identity Reveal, Enemies, Nervousness, Passion, Fluff, Alternate Universe, Alternate Canon, Humor, Jokes, Dirty Talk, Snogging, Seduction, Obsession, Shyness, Jim Moriarty is a Little Shit, Mild Smut, Suspicions, Lust at First Sight, Banter, Submissive Guillermo de la Cruz via AO3 works tagged 'Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy' https://ift.tt/SNmxYZc May 20, 2023 at 01:13AM

[rodeoromeo]

So I've looked into George's friendships with women a bit and there def were limitations for various reasons. 1. A general lack of women in these spaces bc of the male domination of the time. Female musicians and comedians in the areas George liked were also more likely to be American. 2. The cultural aspect of the guys hang with the guys and the ladies hang with the ladies. 3. A mixture of George's friendships being intense and him being a whore, making platonic relationships with women tricky.

But! He did have some lovely female friendships. Astrid ofc, Freda Kelly, Chris O'Dell, Lakshmi Shankar, Cilla Black, Ronnie Spector, Mary Wilson, Beth Chatto (gardener), Yvonne Innes (gardener and wife of Neil Innes), Carinthia West (photographer), Vicki Brown, Jenny Boyd, and Pattie, Maureen, Linda were always close. He was also super close to his sister-in-law Irene and there's this interesting story of a Russian lady named Natalya Sazanova who taught him Hindi in India: harrisonstories /post/187842182188/in-this-photo-natalya-sazanova-is-on-the-far

Anyways, obvs not the *same* as what he had with men but I feel like in a way George might've had more female friendships than John and Paul bc they were so invested in their wives and he and Olivia were friends with a bunch of other married couples. O'Dell's friendship with him is particularly interesting bc she refused to sleep with him out of loyalty to Pattie. She had potential to be one of his deeper friends but unfortunately had her own issues to sort out.

Sorry for the essay lmao but in case anyone was curious!

very interesting research!!!! thanks for sharing!!!!

[parkerbombshell]

Rules Free Radio Feb 13

Tuesdays 2pm - 5pm  EST Rules Free Radio With Steve  Caplan bombshellradio.com On the next Rules Free Radio with Steve Caplan, we’ll hear tributes and a commemoration. Unfortunately, we’ve lost several people in music in the last week or so. We'll start with a tribute to Aston “Family Man” Barrett, the prolific bass player with Bob Marley and The Wailers who also did some solo albums and played with many other artists. His work has a distinctive deep, clean, funky bass sound that is the standard of bass rhythm in Reggae and Ska music. Wayne Kramer was a guitarist with the band MC5, and Mojo Nixon was a singer known for his comical songs such as Elvis Is Everywhere. In the second hour, we’ll do a set with music from both of these artists. Beatles and British Invasion fans will want to stick around for the third hour when we celebrate the 60th anniversary of The Beatles' first American television performance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9th, 1964. We’ll hear some of the audio from that performance, other songs by The Beatles, songs they gave to other artists, and a bunch of British Invasion songs that go deeper than the eras’ overplayed hits. Before that we’ll hear some new music from The Decemberists, Kula Shaker, The Paranoid Style, Frank Carter and The Rattlesnakes, Brigitte Calls Me Baby, Papa Schmapa, Alkaline Trio, and Gentleman Jesse. Plus Harry Nilsson, The Beach Boys, Martha and The Muffins, Elvis Costello, and more. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Midnight Ravers Aston Family Man Barrett - Dubbing Naturally Alpha Blondy - Bloodshed In Africa Bob Marley & the Wailers - War Burning Spear - Red Gold And Green Peter Tosh - Legalize It Alton Ellis & The Flames - Girl I've Got A Date Desmond Dekker & the Aces - 007 (Shanty Town) The Bodysnatchers (feat .Rhoda Dakar) - Ruder Than You Dandy Livingstone (feat. Rico Rodriguez) - Rudy, a Message to You Frank Carter and The Rattlesnakes - Man of The Hour Harry Nilsson - Gotta Get Up The Paranoid Style - The Ballad of Pertinent Information (Turn It On) Martha and The Muffins - Women Around the World at Work Kula Shaker - Gaslighting The Decemberists - Burial Ground The Beach Boys - Sloop John B Elvis Costello - (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes Alkaline Trio - Scars Papa Schmapa - That's Just Fine Brigitte Calls Me Baby - Impressively Average Gentleman Jesse - Where Time Stands Still Love - Seven & Seven Is MC5 - Kick Out The Jams Mojo Nixon - I'm Gonna Dig Up Howlin' Wolf The Clash - Jail Guitar Doors Was (Not Was) - The Party Broke Up Mojo Nixon - Gin Guzzlin' Frenzy MC5 - Future/Now Wayne Kramer - No Easy Way Out The dbs - Lonely Is (As Lonely Does) The Beatles - Ed Sullivan Intro  All My Loving The Beatles - Please Please Me (Washington Coliseum February 11, 1964) The Strangers with Mike Shannon - One & One Is Two The Applejacks - Like Dreamers Do Peter And Gordon -  I Don't Want To See You Again (Live on Ed Sullivan) The Beatles - I Got to Find My Baby The Beatles - Ed Sullivan Intro I Saw Her Standing There The Fourmost - I'm In Love Billy J. Kramer And The Dakotas - Bad To Me The Chris Barber Band - Catwalk Cilla Black - It's For You Gerry and the Pacemakers - Hello Little Girl The Rolling Stones -  I Wanna Be Your Man The Undertakers - Watch Your Step The Yardbirds - I'm Not Talking The Pretty Things - Oh Baby Doll The Kinks - So Mystifying The Merseys - Sorrow The Remo Four - Live Like A Lady Chad & Jeremy - From A Window The Animals - It's My Life Read the full article

[brn1029]

On this date in music history. I have cut out all the crap from Madonna as well, so you won’t be bugged by that. One of these days I’ll post all of what I find and you’ll see what I mean…

March 14th

2006 - U2

U2 topped Rolling Stone magazine's annual list of the year's biggest money earners from 2005 with $154.2m. (£78m), The Rolling Stones were listed second with $92.5m (£47m) and the Eagles third with 63.2m. (£32.m). Paul McCartney was in fourth place with $56m (£28m) and Elton John in fifth with $48.9m. (£24.8m).

2001 - Peter Blake

Peter Blake, who designed The Beatles classic Sgt. Pepper album cover sued the group's record company for more money. Blake was paid £200 ($340) for the famous figures in 1967, but was now 'cheesed off' that EMI had never offered to pay more money. Blake also made sleeves for the Band Aid single, ‘Do They Know It's Christmas?’ (1984), Paul Weller's Stanley Road (1995) and the Ian Dury tribute album Brand New Boots and Panties (2001).

1982 - Metallica

Metallica made their live debut when they appeared at Radio City in Anaheim, California. Metallica formed in Los Angeles, California, in late 1981 when Danish-born drummer Lars Ulrich placed an advertisement in a Los Angeles newspaper, The Recycler, which read, "Drummer looking for other metal musicians to jam with Tygers of Pan Tang, Diamond Head and Iron Maiden." Guitarists James Hetfield and Hugh Tanner of Leather Charm answered the advertisement.

1981 - Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton was hospitalised with bleeding ulcers causing a US tour to be cancelled. He was back in hospital five weeks later after being involved in a car crash.

1968 - The Beatles

The promotional film for The Beatles 'Lady Madonna' was broadcast in black and white on Top Of The Pops on UK television. The video portion of the film clip was shot while the group were performing the song 'Hey Bulldog', but the 'Lady Madonna' audio track was paired with the video for the promo release.

1964 - Top Ten Singles

For the first time in British recording history, all Top Ten singles in the UK were by British acts. No.1 was 'Anyone Who Had A Heart' by Cilla Black, No.2 - 'Bits and Pieces' by The Dave Clark Five, No.3 - 'Little Children' by Billy J Kramer, No.4 - 'Diane' by The Bachelors, No.5 - 'Not Fade Away' by The Rolling Stones, No.6 - 'Just One Look' by The Hollies, No.7 - 'Needles and Pins' by The Searchers, No.8 - 'I Think Of You' by The Merseybeats, No.9 - 'Boys Cry' by Eden Kane, and No. 10 - 'Let Me Go Lover' by Kathy Kirby.

1963 - Cliff Richard

Cliff Richard and The Shadows were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Summer Holiday.' Taken from the film of the same name, it became Richards' seventh UK No.1 single.

1962 - Bruce Channel

Bruce Channel started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Hey! Baby'. The song features a prominent riff from well-known harmonica player Delbert McClinton who while touring the UK in 1962 met John Lennon and gave him some harmonica tips. Lennon put the lessons to use right away on 'Love Me Do' and later 'Please Please Me'.