Get a copy of Terry’s great book on Beatles memorabilia
NEMS and the Business of Selling Beatles Merchandise in the U.S. 1964-1966 (2ND EDITION)
The book covers the approximately 150 licensed items that dotted store shelves and helped fuel the band-crazed fan during the time right after the band landed in America and performed on The Ed Sullivan Show. Toys, games, dolls, jewelry, clothing, wigs, and more!
If you had to select the 100 Most Pivotal Moments of The Beatles’ career, what would you choose…and why? And by “The Beatles’ career,” I mean both their years together and their solo years. Quite a daunting task, isn’t it? But that was the opportunity afforded to Goldmine writer and author of John Lennon: Life is What Matters, John Borack. John was recently asked to write a great new book, The Beatles 100: One Hundred Pivotal Moments in Beatles History. And it is really, really interesting!
Please join Lanea Stagg, the author of The Recipe Records Series of rock’n’roll cookbooks and Jude Southerland Kessler, author of The John Lennon Series of narrative biographies as they sit down with Borack to discuss his choices.
This is one of the most thought-provoking, conversation-starting podcasts that “She Said She Said” has ever published. Here’s a teaser: Pivotal Moment #1 is John meeting Paul. Pivotal Moment #2 is America Greets the Fab Four in 1964 and Moment #3 is Pete Best is Replaced by Ringo Starr.
So, the moments are NOT in cause-and-effect, sequential order. You will agree and disagree. You will nod and shout at the show. You will be totally engaged. Don’t miss this lively podcast! And buy John’s intriguing book wherever great books are sold!
1964 in John’s life! “A Hard Day’s Night”, and created/recorded the accompanying, best-selling soundtrack; a World Tour, a Scottish sojourn, a lengthy North American Tour hitting cities all across the U.S. and Canada.
Recipe Records – A Culinary Tribute to The Beatles
Invite your friends to “jam” with recipes such as “Stuffed Sgt. Peppers,” “Strawberry Pie Forever,” “Savoy Truffles,” “You Say Goodbye, I Say Jell-O,” and more! The cookbook contains recipes which “pair well” with song selections, trivia, stories, quips, and quotes about the Fabs. 50 recipes to celebrate 50 years of the Fabs are cleverly set out, and feature recipes from Beatles Book Store friends, Jude Southerland Kessler and David Bedford! This book makes a terrific gift for anyone who likes to eat….and dig The Beatles!
Debbie Greenberg, our resident Cavern Club expert, looks back at the very first time The Beatles appeared at the legendary Cavern Club. In an excerpt from her book, Cavern Club: The Inside Story, Debbie discusses The Beatles debut.
“The Cavern’s identity started to change at the start of the decade. Rock ‘n’ roll replaced jazz and the Cavern became the heart that gave Mersey its beat.
Debbie with Paul McCartney at The Cavern
“We watched The Beatles debut at The Cavern lunchtime session on 9th February 1961. We were blown away. The Beatles were different, their music was incredible, their appearance raunchy, their energy infectious. They just oozed excitement.
“Six weeks later on the 23rd March, after a lunchtime session at the Cavern, they jumped on a train at Liverpool’s Lime Street Station on their way to Hamburg for a second time having previously played there in 1960.
We Missed Them
“This time they sped out of our lives for four months. We missed them, but still went down to the Cavern to watch the other groups, like Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Singing Blue Genes, The Remo Four, Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes and many more.
“They were all fabulous groups but they weren’t The Beatles.
The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show
Exactly three years to the day from their debut at The Cavern Club in front of a couple of hundred fans, they appeared in front of 73 million Americans on the Ed Sullivan Show.
This first-hand account of Debbie’s teen years frequenting and eventually helping to run the original Cavern Club is the authentic inside story of the Beatles launch pad, full of triumphs and failures – and surprise celebrity encounters.
£17.25Original price was: £17.25.£13.50Current price is: £13.50.
Two full years before Sergeant Pepper, with Rubber Soul the Beatles were beginning to write much more complex songs than the pop songs for which they first had become popular, and because of which Sergeant Pepper was so iconic. “Girl” was one of those songs. Many were focused on women, many on love in general, but they were a universe apart from the early songs. The narratives, the instrumentation, the lyrics, the interest in experimenting with different types of music all went to a new level.
“Girl” was one of the watershed songs from Rubber Soul, the last song recorded for the album. The subject matter, again, was about an idealized girl, “the kind of girl you want so much it makes you sorry,” who makes your very intake of breath accentuated. But the harmonies were impeccable as always, the staccato background vocals in the bridge were a naughty schoolboy joke that were sneaked in past the producer George Martin, the guitar solo at the end could have been for a Greek folk song, and the lyrics were…poetry:
Was she told when she was young
That pain would lead to pleasure?…
That a man must break his back
To earn his day of leisure?
“Love love me do, You know I love you” this was not.
The Beatles grew, and continued to grow. We can, too, including during challenging times. And in troubled times for an entire society, it is imperative that we grow beyond where we have been. If only the growth of our civic and humane sensibilities could be anywhere as rapid as the growth of the Beatles’ creative powers.
But. We. Cannot. Let. This. Pivotal. Moment. Go. By.
Get a copy of Tim’s inspirational book on Beatles lyrics
When We Find Ourselves in Times of Trouble: The Beatles: All Their Songs with Encouraging Words for Challenging Times
KINDLE (OR DOWNLOAD THE FREE APP TO READ ON YOUR LAPTOP)
This book addresses all the songs of the Beatles, from their earliest demos to Abbey Road, in a conversational, accessible format. Special attention is devoted to the band’s creative process and its influence on and synergistic relationship with the culture at large. The book’s genesis was the author’s hope that a daily Beatles song could provide a brief respite from the significant stress and uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and beyond that, from the challenges of any personally difficult time – our times of trouble.
Bill Zygmant took some of the most iconic photographs of the 1960s, with many of The Beatles. He took the very first photos of John and Yoko and, when told that John would be on the BBC show “Top of The Pops”, he gained exclusive access to the rehearsals.
“I took the last photos of John and Yoko together before they left for America in 1971. The photos of the two of them cuddling were really natural, and after a few pictures, Lennon signalled to me that that was enough, so I stopped.
Were They In Love?
“If anyone asks me if they were in love, then I say yes. You could tell when they were together, especially away from the camera. I was the only photographer allowed in the studio for the rehearsals, but not for the “live” show, because the BBC had their own photographers present, so I wasn’t allowed to be there then. John was singing “Instant Karma”, while Yoko sat there with what many thought was a napkin, but was actually a sanitary towel.
“I did lots of Top Of The Pops pictures over the years, through knowing the agents. I was well known at the BBC as I was there so often. A lady who worked there said that “you have first choice of anyone at the BBC”.”
Get Bill’s incredible book of photographs and stories now PLUS a FREE SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH of John and Yoko
Bill Zygmant – Where Did You Get That Shirt? (Signed Limited Edition)
Get your copy of Bill Zygmant’s portfolio book of unique photographs covering his career from the late 1960s to the 1980s.
This will be a signed, numbered edition – maximum of 250 numbered editions.
It comes with one of Bill’s signed photographs, which usually sells for £50!
Shirley was my client for many years at Vidal Sassoon and she often used to say to me that she accompanied Cliff Richard, Liberace and Engelbert Humperdinck on their shows.
When I was listing to The Beatles rehearse at Trident Studios, John Lennon happened to say if anyone knew an accordionist. I said to him that I have a client who plays accordion professionally.
John asked if I could you tell her to ring Derek Taylor and he would put her in touch with him.
When she came in a few weeks later I asked her what she has been doing. She said a few TV shows etc, then asked what I have been doing?
Go With The Beatles on a Coach!
Ringo on the set of Magical Mystery Tour
I said if you could keep it quiet and don’t tell anyone I have been invited to go with the Beatles on a coach and they are making a film called the Magical Mystery Tour.
She looked at me and said that if I could also not tell anyone she had also been invited by John Lennon to go on the coach.
Shirley’s Wild Accordion
And that is why we had “Shirley’s Wild Accordion.”
You can read may more stories about my time as the Beatles hairdresser in my book THE CUTTING EDGE which can be purchased
The Cutting Edge (Paperback)
The Beatles’ hair changed the world. As their increasingly wild, untamed manes grew, to the horror of parents everywhere, they set off a cultural revolution as the most tangible symbol of the Sixties’ psychedelic dream of peace, love and playful rebellion. In the midst of this epochal change was Leslie Cavendish, hairdresser to the Beatles and some of the greatest stars of the music and entertainment industry.
