I watched this on a plane last week, the worst place to appreciate this magnificent film, so apologies to Timbo for that. But wow a fantastic movie! It certainly was
the gear (if that's how one talks in 60s era scouse?)
The power of those early performances; the showmanship, the harmonies/two singing as one, and the mastery of their instruments, awesome!
Amongst the talking heads Howard Goodall describing Lennon and McCartney as the best songwriters since Schubert and Mozart is eye-opening, and partly explains why The Beatles changed everything. I thought all the talking heads made excellent contributions but particularly Richard Lester (who hasn’t changed a bit in 50 years !) and Larry Kane.
But probably my favorite bits are them just chatting with each other in Scouse;
gear, macca, gear etc. Just great to listen to
The live footage is electrifying - makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and playing those stadiums without monitors - amazing and I never knew about their refusal to play to segregated audiences in The South, no wonder Paul is still very proud of that. And the collective strength they had was fantastic, as George, I think, says: "there was only one Elvis", whereas there were 4 Beatles to navigate the madness of Beatlemania.
What a great film - even on a plane