New film shows how Beatles helped fight segregation

‘It was a great ride’

LONDON, Sept 17, (Agencies): Music aside, the true power of The Beatles wasn’t the volume of their fans or the popularity of their hairstyles — it was the pull of their politics.

The band’s refusal to play to segregated American audiences in 1964 is one striking example explored in a new documentary about the band’s tireless years on the road in the 1960s before Beatlemania forced them to stop performing live.

Director Ron Howard mined archival footage to reveal the Fab Four’s shock at being asked to perform for a separated crowd for the film “The Beatles: Eight Days A Week — The Touring Years .” The movie is now out in theaters in the United States and the UK.

“We were kind of quite intelligent guys, looking at the political scene and, coming from Liverpool, we played with black bands and black people in the audience. It didn’t matter to us,” McCartney said.

“We played Jacksonville (Florida) and we heard that the whites and the blacks were going to be segregated and we just went, ‘Whoa, no. No way,’” he said. “And we actually forced them then, which is very early on in the 60’s, to integrate. We actually even put (it) in the contract.”

Reflected

McCartney and Ringo Starr reflected on their impact and the band’s overwhelming success during an interview this week in Studio Two at Abbey Road Studio, where The Beatles recorded their catalog.

“When we first of all came in that door, as young kids ... we weren’t even allowed up in the control room,” McCartney said. “That was for the grown-ups. So we grew up here.”

“We all thought, ‘Wow, we can make a record,’” Starr said. “That was the biggest deal in life at the time. And we kept coming back and we made some really great music.”

The movie focuses on the years The Beatles played live from June 1962 until August 1966, which saw them performing 815 times in 15 countries. Eventually the uncontrollable, hysterical crowds of Beatlemania made touring impossible.

“It’s funny to say how it felt because it was so crazy,” McCartney said. “We wanted to be famous. We wanted to do well. We were doing what we really wanted to achieve and it was getting better and better.”

“But it got out of hand and the story is that, in the end, it kind of forced us off the road so we had to come back to this studio and make ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,’” he said.

Those who saw The Beatles live probably didn’t hear them sound systems at the time couldn’t outplay screaming fans.

The movie features remastered music so audiences can actually hear the performances. A companion album, “The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl,” has also been released.

Now, the guys on stage can finally listen to what they were playing.

Fifty years since The Beatles ruled the world with their deafening global tours and fan hysteria, Beatlemania finally returned to London Thursday night.

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr welcomed their screaming fans in Leicester Square, for the world premiere of Ron Howard’s documentary “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years.”

Missed, but not remotely forgotten, the loved and lost George Harrison and John Lennon were represented by Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, both widows having given access to cherished memories and archive footage for the project.

Howard reminisced on the film’s vast collaboration, “With our group working together, it wasn’t always entirely pleasant, but it was always important to us to get at this story,” he said.

Using archive footage from far and wide, producer Nigel Sinclair told of the huge undertaking, “It was massive. We asked to public to send in clips in 2014 and were overwhelmed. In the film we have 2,000 clips and photos, 250 music cues and we interviewed 100 people,” he explained.

Within the Odeon’s grand screening room, the cast and crew came to stage. McCartney crooning “She Loves You” to the audience, to introduce his words, “I want to thank Ringo, John and George!” Concluding, “It was a great ride, you know. It still is. We were just four kids from Liverpool, who loved each other and we made decent music, and we had a great time doing it, so... great little band!”