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    Beatles Doc

    Anyone else seen this yet?

    Eight Days a Week.

    It showed up on Movie Central last night, on the same day it was released to theatres.

    It's definitely worth a look, or it was for me, mainly for the concert footage, most of which I hadn't seen before. The stuff from the ABC in Manchester in 1963 is particularly impressive. Aside from the RSG sessions it might be the best live Beatles I've seen.

    I say "might" because I've never sure how much we hear in docs like this is down to audio enhancement, and how much is an accurate representation of what was heard at the time. I've felt the same with other archival performances, such as the Dylan '66 tour. They're great now, but is this really what they really sounded like? Having attended concerts in the late 60s I'm sceptical. Ringo says in the film that they never had a PA system, nor monitors. The final US concert at Candlestick, for example, was played through the tannoy system.

    That aside, it's an excellent study of how the expectations of artists and audiences changed dramatically over three or four years.

    #2
    Beatles Doc

    Saw a trailer for this while waiting on the, ahem, new Ricky Gervaise film. Certainly won't be paying to see it. Might seek it out on some free site.
    With regards to the PA technology it really was a different world back then.
    Apparently they used a 600W system at Shea Stadium in a mad attempt to lift the Fab Four above the 135dB screaming female racket. That's like whispering into a jet engine.
    To put that in context I run six monitor mixes through six 1200W amplifiers for stage sound only.

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      #3
      Beatles Doc

      I doubt I'd have paid directly to see it either, but was happy it was available on cable.

      With regards to the PA technology it really was a different world back then.

      The lack of experienced road crews is also touched on. There's a funny clip from a show in Europe(?) The drum kit has been assembled the wrong way around on it's riser. Ringo is desperately trying to turn it around, while the other three are about to start playing.

      In terms of sound Ringo, again, claims he couldn't hear a thing. The only way he could tell where Paul and John were in a song was by watching what they did with their heads. That's what makes me think they just couldn't have sounded as good as they do in this film. I've a couple of friends who saw them in 63 or 64, and they could barely hear a note over the screams, which must have been the case for the group too.

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        #4
        Beatles Doc

        The difference between what older musos, and punters, perceive as 'loud' is staggering compared with younger people.
        I've worked with older guys who don't want any monitors. One old drummer guy said 'what do I need a monitor for? Those fuckers have to follow me, right?'
        These days the younger guys like to feel the moving air and they use in-ear monitors, floor wedges AND side-fills.
        It would've baked Ringo alive.

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          #5
          Beatles Doc

          Giles Martin is listed as music producer, which suggests some tweakery with the audio. The timing seems a year or two late, as the Shea Stadium peak was August 65 and it was downhill from there until they quit touring in Aug 66.

          In addition "1963-1966" is not strictly correct as their "touring years" began in 1960 or 61, depending on the source, and there is Cavern film from 1962.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_Beatles%27_live_performances

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            #6
            Beatles Doc

            It includes The Cavern footage ("Some Other Guy") and bits and pieces from Hamburg. It also concludes with the Apple rooftop performance which is well outside the date range of course. The 1963–1966 years are used, more-or-less, as chapters. The 'pre' and 'post' stuff as preface and conclusion.

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