Script

Documentary Script

ANIMATED STILLS

The Beatles consisted of Paul McCartney, the singer and bassist, John Lennon, singer and guitarist, George Harrison, guitarist and backing vocals and Ringo Starr the drummer.

AUSTRALIA LIVE VIDEO

The Beatles formed in 1957 and they came from Liverpool, England. They are one of the biggest bands in the world. In 1964, the Beatles set the record for having the most top ten hits on the billboard hot 100 in a single year. The Beatles held that record for 54 years until the rapper Drake broke it in 2018.

It all started out when John Lennon had a skiffle band called the Quarry Men and invited Paul to join. They had several name changes until 1960 when they settled on the Beatles.

In 1962, the band auditioned for Decca records to see if they would sign them but they were rejected. Straight after, the Beatles released their first single ‘Love Me Do’ in October 1962 which charted in the UK and reached the top of the US single charts and that must have been embarrassing for Decca records.

IMAGES OF BEATLES IN LONDON

Soon after this all happened, the Beatles started playing more shows and they made London their home in October 1963. After the group moved to London, they played the London Palladium which gave them more recognition in the UK and initiated the Beatlemania in the UK.

IMAGES/VIDEO OF THE BEATLEMANIA

The Beatlemania is a huge fan base of their fans that constantly went crazy everywhere they went. It got so bad that the band had to spend weeks on end in the studio as a way of escaping the mayhem of their fans.

IMAGES OF THEM PLAYING

The group were getting so much recognition now and so many people knew about them. Everyone knew who the Beatles were. In 1964, the group released their song ‘I want to hold your hand’. This was their first song to reach the billboard hot 100. The songs debut hit number 45 and soon hit the top spot two weeks later.

There was an estimated 73 million people that tuned in to see their first appearance on ‘the Ed Sullivan Show’. This just showed how huge the band really was and still is to this day.

The band had done a lot of things in the year of 1964 but one main thing that happened, was them meeting Bob Dylan. The reason this is significant, is because they met in New York and this was when he introduced the Beatles to marijuana.

Drugs was a massive thing for the Beatles ever since this time. The group began to smoke weed nearly all the time. The Beatles took many drugs and there’s a quote from Paul McCartney that says ‘we were immediately nailed to the sofa and I saw god, this amazing towering thing, and I was humbled’. The Beatles then used many drugs whilst song writing and there is a theory that their song ‘Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds’, stands for LSD. John Lennon was on an interview on TV and said he had no clue about it and that it was a coincidence. He says on the interview that his son drew a drawing and said its Lucy in the sky with diamonds. John thought it was unique so he wrote a song about it straight away.

John Lennon came from a rough background in Liverpool and his mum died as well as Paul’s mum. This helped them connect more and understand each other on a different level. This could be the reason for John’s cocky personality and his feeling of not caring what anyone thought. He just wanted to be himself through his whole life and especially being part of the Beatles. John didn’t want to change just because of money and fame.

SHEA STADIUM BEATLES

 If you have ever seen a live video of the Beatles playing, you will probably have seen their famous show at the Shea Stadium in New York city on August the 15^th 1965. The band played on sketchy little stage in the middle of a baseball field IMAGE OF THE STAGE and there was an attendance of 55,600 people that went to see them play.

IMAGES AND VIDEOS OF SHEA STADIUM

 The Beatles concert at Shea Stadium set a world record for attendance figures and gross revenue. The band earned $160,000 of the $304,000 box office takings. This show was so big that there were 2,000 security guards that were enlisted to handle the manic fans of the group.

IMAGES/VIDEO OF CRAZY FANS

During their 12-song set that lasted roughly 30 minutes there was many girls that fainted because they went crazy about the band. There were also hundreds of fans that broke through barriers and attempted to reach the stage so the fans had to be held back by security and none managed to get close to the Beatles.

Although this was one of the most famous concerts, this was also a contributing factor to the bands split in 1970. The band couldn’t hear themselves over the screaming of their fans so they couldn’t play properly which would’ve been annoying for all of them. This was also because the sound wasn’t as good as it is in this day and age. There were no monitor speakers and the sound was being pumped through a tannoy system more regularly used for making baseball announcements.

The Beatles also believed that no one actually came to see them play their songs and listen to music, they believed people just came to see them as people and it must have been quite annoying when you’ve been working hard on all these songs and people cared more about them other than the music. At the end of the Beatles songs at Shea stadium, no one really clapped. There was constant screaming but very little actual applause.

There were some statements of people that attended the Shea stadium concert and they said that they couldn’t hear the Beatles playing. One because of the screaming fans but also because the sound was very poor. The Beatles really wasn’t enjoying themselves in this show and straight after the concert was finished, the band was bundled into the back of van with big metal sheets and it just wasn’t an enjoyable time for them.

At the time of the show, The Beatles were one of the best live bands on the planet. A year later, the band played Shea Stadium again and they fell 11,000 seats short of a sell-out. After this happened, they quit touring to become the best studio act in the world at that time.

A BEATLES MUSIC VIDEO

The Beatles also did so much to the music industry of today. The band pioneered the first music video. They had done promotional videos for some songs but the colour video for ‘Rain’ was among, if not the first, video to use cinematic techniques. America famously became the first country to have an all music television network called MTV. MTV stands for MusicTeleVison which debuted in 1981. George Harrison lays claim to the band inventing MTV. Music videos became big in the 1980s and the Beatles were one of first to jump on board.

Many people believed that The Beatles changed the sound of music because they were the first British band to write their own songs and music. They are also said to have been the first real ‘boy band’.

An important thing that The Beatles changed, was how they were to the media and press. The group was just being themselves and didn’t care about what anyone would think. They were all quite cocky but John Lennon was especially. He said in an interview that The Beatles were more famous than Jesus and this caused outrage in many people. The interview had been published in the ‘London evening standard’ that March without controversy. When it was reprinted in the American teen magazine ‘Datebook ‘on the 29^th July, the quote set off an international hatred from some people that threatened the Beatles future and their lives. This changed the industry because they were just being themselves and they didn’t have to change just because of the media. No one had seen this before.

The Beatles had a different style from any other band at that time because they worked in many different genres of music. They started off with 1950s rock and roll and later expanding into pop ballads, psychedelic rock and also having some classical influences in their songs.

IMAGES OF THESE PEOPLE

The band has influenced many other popular musical acts such as Dave Grohl, Nirvana, The Foo Fighters, The Beach Boys, Oasis and many more. They really were one of the most influential bands in the world.

VIDEO OF SOMEONE TALKING ABOUT THE BEATLES AND WHAT THEY’VE DONE