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All You Need Is Love
By Peter Bowen and Steven Gaines
Published by Octopus (Hachette Australia)
ISBN 9781800962347
While, All You Need Is Love' is another book about The Beatles it is very different to the others.
'All You Need Is Love' is the name of a song, written by The Beatles, who were chosen to contribute a piece of their work by the BBC to represent the UK for an international program called “Our World”
In 1967, the BBC had an agreement with many other countries to take part in a worldwide program, which went out live, to showcase the new technology of communication satellites.
The program was called "Our World" and took place over a whole day, but many people in the UK were only interested in the UK's submission, which was a live broadcast from the studio where The Beatles were presenting their new song 'to the world.
Although this story is not in the book, it demonstrates the popularity of The Beatles. If you are not aware of The Beatles, they were four, no five, lads from Liverpool in the late '50s, who served their 'apprenticeship' in the seedy bars of the red-light district of Hamburg, Germany.
They played for almost a year at a time, eight hours a day, seven days a week, during their two tours of duty, before returning to Liverpool, billed as a 'band from Hamburg'. This made them popular through curiosity until they had gained quite a large fan base, with some of their fans asking for records at the local record shop.
The record shop was part of a department store and the owner's son was the manager. He was also curious about this band and took time off to visit the venue 'The Cavern' where they were playing. He was called Brian Epstein and he became their legendary manager.
Their names were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. You may have heard of them...
They went on to become the greatest pop group in the world and Lennon and McCartney are officially the greatest song-writing team ever, according to the Guiness Book of Records. They became the first pop group to be awarded MBEs by Her Majesty the Queen.
That's the background not included in this book.
The authors are two people who knew The Beatles well. Co-author Steven Gaines was a journalist who worked closely with The Beatles for many years. Co-author Peter Brown knew Brian Epstein and took over as manager of their three record shops when Brian Epstein became the full time manager of The Beatles. Peter moved to London with Brian and the band and became the managing director of Apple Corp after Brian's death.
They had conducted many interviews, over hundreds of hours, with a vast array of people involved with The Beatles and used some of that material to write their first book, 'The Love You Make’. The rest of the material was stored in a secure vault for use at a later date - which is now.
I spent my teenage years listening to, reading about and watching The Beatles on television. I studied music from the age of six into my mid teens, then I started my 'career' as a disc jockey (long story), so I was very much into popular music and especially The Beatles and the separate careers of the four members after they broke up in 1969-ish. But this book greatly expanded my knowledge.
This book is set durihg this period. These interviews have NEVER been published before.
The book includes interviews with three of the four Beatles, because they took place around the time John Lennon was killed on 8th December 1980 by Mark Chapman (that's another story and not included in this book).Therefore the authors did not manage to interview John, only his wife, Yoko Ono, a few weeks after his death.
They also interviewed all the Beatle’s wives and many people I have either never heard of, or didn't know were involved with The Beatles. People like Dick James, the founder of DJM Records, the label that launched Elton John and Annie Lennox.
Also people Magic Alex, Alister Taylor, Allan Williams, Pattie Boyd's sister, Jenny, David Puttnam, John Dunbar, May Ping, Ron Kass and more. all extremely interesting interviews and some, contradictory, either through distorted memory, or 'setting the record straight'. You have to make up your own mind.
This is a most revealing book, especially if you know of, or enjoyed the music of, The Beatles. However, even if you've never heard of them, it STILL makes very interesting reading.
The book is well written and a real page turner. Filled with information never before published and even some funny stories that made me laugh out loud.
I would whole-heartedly recommend this book.
Reviewed by Ken a.k.a. RJ the DJ.
This is independent review, I am not paid by the publishers, so.If you
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