Liddypod 31 – THE BEATLES BIOPICS AND MORE

Bedford and Beesley are back again, and this time over breakfast, they discuss the new Sam Mendes Beatles Biopics now filming in Liverpool, a new film David has been working on called “Blackbird” about Lord Woodbine and The Beatles, plus the “NEW” Anthology – worth a watch? Let us know what you think, and tune… Read More Liddypod 31 – THE BEATLES BIOPICS AND MORE

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to Liddy Pod, Beatles Banter with Bedford and Beasley.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Dave, um the listeners don't need to know what we've just done because they know every time what we just done, we just had breakfast.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Oh yeah, but we've got to talk about the breakfast. Here we are on Lark Lane. And I looked at your full English and I thought, yes, but when I saw French toast, they said, oh, sorry, French toast, drizzled maple syrup with fresh fruit. Don't my diabetic nurse isn't listening to this, I'm okay.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Otherwise we're gonna get yeah, we're on the uh a place called the Bookbinder on uh on Lark Lane, right down the bottom end of Lark Lane by Sefton Park, yeah, and it's it's absolutely fabulous. So we were we were first in half nine knocking on the door. You open. It's like we've never been fed. Uh but it's on the day we're meeting, uh, which is in um mid mid-February, uh it's freezing, absolutely freezing outside. Well, I mean they say freezing, anyone listening from you know cold countries will realize it's not really freezing, yeah. It's just it is to the Brits, you know. It's really it's really quite cold. Oh, sorry, we just we just mesh. Uh so Dave, uh good to see you again. Yeah, uh November, I think, was the last time we were together uh when we had another Happy Christmas, happy Christmas, happy new year, uh Happy Chinese New Year. That's just gone cave fat choy. Yeah, um so all good with you? All good, all good. Yeah, so much going on in Beatle World isn't it? You know what? We were just talking over breakfast, weren't we, about road closures that are coming up in Liverpool connected to the Sam Menders Biopics.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Yeah, of course that's coming up. There's been a lot of publicity, and every week there's another star getting announced. Yeah, um, I'm obviously I can't talk about my part in this yeah, many because it doesn't exist. Um but it's making big news, isn't it? And it is, yeah, all by yeah, Paul's house at Fourth Lee Moden, Menlov Avenue. It it is, it really is.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

I mean, the the it was funny actually, and I I won't I I'll I'll protect the innocent here, but I I was doing a I was doing a private tour, much the same as what you do, Dave. And we were at Paul's house, and no, we're at John's house, and there was a group coming out, and I noticed there were lots of national trust people around with lanyards on. So this this is a bit strange. And somebody came over to me and whispered in my ear, the four actors are on their way. Oh and and uh I had a private American uh family with me, and we were on a timetable, obviously. As you are, you know, you've got the drivers got commitments and everything else. So I thought, if I tell them, they'll probably say, Let's stay, of course, and it'll wreck the tour. If I don't tell them, they'll never know. So I took the latter decision, didn't tell them. Yeah, uh, none of us saw the actors.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

I I think the one that the photos that have been out quite recently, yeah, uh, where they're dressed and shaped like the Beatles, yeah, makes them look a bit more like them. Yeah, when they announced them, I mean they look nothing like Beatles.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Because the thing is when they announced them, obviously media was just using you know just the shots that they had of them, which inevitably, you know, none of them have played the Beatles before, so why would they look like them, you know? So uh, but yeah, you're right. Now now that they are beginning to be seen as the Beatles, then yeah, you can you can start to believe it a little bit more, can't you? Which is which is great. But yeah, so the uh as we speak, um, and probably by the time just about this time this podcast comes out, yeah uh the film is about to take place at Fourthlyn Road and uh Mendipse as well. So that'll be exciting, you know. When you you because it's always exciting, isn't it, Dave? When you see a film crew, whatever the film is, even if the film is just an advert, it doesn't matter. There's always a certain excitement around when there's a film crew. So obviously, with the film crews turning up at Fourthly Road and Mendips, it's gonna start the the whole exciting ball. There's gonna be a lot of news, and there's gonna there'll be all those stories throughout the day. We we saw Paul Moscow in KFC on Allen Road.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

All those stories which is nice now, it's open there.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

Yeah, I've been there actually. We're not doing an advert for KFC, but you know, it's quite nice actually. Yeah, bunch of food again. So all those little stories will be around, won't they, about you know, we saw this person in this place, uh, they're staying in this hotel, all that sort of thing will happen, which is great, it's really good. I'm still intrigued about how this whole thing is gonna pan out at the end of the day. Whenever it comes out, do you think what when do you think it'll be out there?

SPEAKER_01 4:45

I think 28. 28. And they're talking about, and of course, it's four films, so we've got four separate films and things.

SPEAKER_02 4:52

I I'm intrigued. I I mean, I'm I have complete faith in Sam Mendez. I'm sure he's gonna do a good job, but I'm intrigued as to how they're gonna intertwine them without being repetitive.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

And I I think the continuity person has got a job on their hands, yeah. You know, because you're going, I'm imagine you know, John and Paul on the bus together, it's the Paul story, yeah. John gets off, Paul stays on, but then the John story will carry on with him off the bus, but doing what he all that sort of thing of meshing together, I think it's gonna be really interesting.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Yeah, I mean, as you say, Sam Menders, he knows what he's doing, and the only way I can think is maybe that the key events will overlap, but maybe because there's so many events to cover in Beatles history, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

Does it mean they can cover more events because just four movies? Or yeah, it's a good point because they can't they can't be repetitive, can't they? They can't have the same type of scene in all four movies, they've got so that yeah, like that's you know, if the movie's what, let's say for sake of arguments, it's two hours long. You've got eight hours of movie time to tell the story of what you know, 13, 14 years, haven't you? It's gonna be interesting, it's gonna be interesting.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

And how much of the early years are they gonna cover? And of course, obviously, Ringo's part in the story from a Beatles' point of view, doesn't start till August 62. Yeah, whereas John starts back in 1956 with the quarry men, yeah. Um Paul and George from 57.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

So, how are they gonna cover that?

SPEAKER_02 6:24

How are they gonna do it? Yeah, it's gonna be so interesting.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Yeah, are they gonna include important people like Alan Williams, yeah, Lord Woodbine, Mona Best? Yeah, now what about Rory's son of the Hurricanes for Ringo, especially? Yeah, are they gonna include all of that? Or is that just gonna be like with a lot of Beatles history, like anthology, which we'll mention in a moment? Well, we'll give it a little of a nod, but we'll we'll cover over that because the Beatles story, in their eyes, starts in August 62 as the Fab Four, yeah, and becomes a Fab Four set of Fab Four films and biopics.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

Yeah, it's gonna it's gonna be interesting. Uh, but we leave it in the hands of Sam Menders.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

And grateful we don't have to come up with the ideas, but we'll see. We'll see.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Uh, talking about movies, Dave, yes, moving seamlessly on. I love that, and you mentioned Lord Woodbine there as well. Yes, you you you uh have just uh put into the can your movie, haven't you, Dave?

SPEAKER_01 7:21

No, I can't speak about that.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

No, you are something that does yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

No, we've just finished uh three weeks of filming, yeah. Um can't reveal too much yet, but because there will be publicity, and we'll we'll cover this in in future episodes, but um, yeah, first drama I've ever worked on, yeah, which is really interesting. And um, project title is Blackbird. Yeah, and we're going to be covering some of the Lord Woodbine story.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

That's interesting. Um, because that's a part of the Beatles story, and there'll be people listening to this who go, Lord Woodbine? Yeah, who's this? Remember the House of Lords? Yeah, so this is a part of the story, another part of the story, really, that that is important but has never really had full attention.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

No, it hasn't. It's a part of the story that I've I've been covering and writing about and researching for about the last 15 years. Um, and within my book, The Fab 104, I did um a section called The Black Roots of the Beatles. And nobody really has picked up on this, but it's one of those advances of being in Liverpool, you get to know the Liverpool people. Um, so try and tell his important part of the story, which um when we we talked about the Shake It Up Baby, the play I was involved in last year. You know, of that the Hamburg story is so important. Well, as Alan Williams told me on several occasions, if it wasn't for Lord Woodbine, they never would have gone to Hamburg. Right, it it was down to him. He was important because you know he's a um Calypsonian singer songwriter, the first singer songwriter John and Paul met. And yeah, with without him, Hamburg wouldn't have happened, and as we did, and the documentary came out last year, uh, No Hamburg, no beatles.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Well, no hamburg, no beatles, and in the world of Dave Bedford, what if you know what if what if I love that as well?

SPEAKER_01 9:20

I think it's my turn to buy breakfast, you yeah. The what if, of course, was um is is the book that my friend uh Andrew Phillips and I brought out last year. And one of the big sections, of course, in there is it's what if there was no hamburg.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

You know how important that was. You know, thinking that you know Alan Williams and Lor Wolfbank get the group together, they call themselves Silver Beatles, they get them to Hamburg. Now, what if that doesn't happen?

SPEAKER_02 9:52

You know, yeah, the Beatles learned how to be a band on the stages and and and and they came back with a certain mystery to them, don't we? Yeah, yeah. The Litherland Town Hall gig, you know, direct from Hamburg, you know, and people are these German? Are these German? Are these German, you know? So yeah, I mean it's such an important part of the story, and as your movie will tell, Lord Woodbine was integral to the decisions that were made that led to them going to Hamburg in the first place.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

You know, and the Hamburg story, you know, the transformation of when they come back, you know, that Lidland Town Hall gig is so important because at that point all the other groups were dance groups, they were hired to play music so people could dance, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:39

So that so they they were really just the musicians for what was going on on the dance floor, yeah. Whereas this was different, this was this was a show, max show. It was absolutely right.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

The job of the group was play the songs like the records, so people knew because they listened to the records and danced to them. Yeah, the Beatles come on, and of course, they're in in jeans, cowboy boots, black leather jackets, yeah, yeah, and they're doing their own versions of the songs, and this is the important thing is that you know when they launch into Long Tall Sally, you know, Paul at his peak for doing Little Richard, yeah, yeah. The sound is incredible, and the people stopped dancing, yeah, to watch the show.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

To watch the show, yeah. And and the important thing you said there, David, is yeah, they were still doing covers at that time, but they were doing them in their own way, yeah. They weren't just trying to be the same as the people who recorded these songs in the first place, they were doing them in their own style. Uh, when when when's the publicity gonna come out? I'm excited about this.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

That's really good. So hopefully, um the film should be out this summer. Right. Um, it's definitely in the US, obviously, got to sort out distribution for the rest of the world, yeah. Um, and the the working title is Blackbird. Yeah, great at the moment. So, yeah, it's been put up by um a company called uh Maverick, right? Um, who has um a side production company called Liverpool West, which is concentrating on uh Beatles films and stuff. So they've been working on um The Miss Odell, story about Chris Odell. Um, they've got the Real Love about the Beatles fans. There's so many great titles now, and in America they're carrying the No Hamburg, No Beatles documentary that I worked on as well. Um, so that's now getting picked up, and that's out on DVD in blue, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Yeah, forget San Mendes. Yours is yours has got about this summer. Exactly. It takes forever to get his out, you know.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Exactly. Four films telling the same story. I put it all into one.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

So probably Lord Wood buy more even featuring his Dave.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

You can guarantee that. I think so.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

Brilliant. That is great. Looking forward to that. Looking forward to the publicity even that that'd be brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

You're listening to Liddy Pod, Beatles Banter with Bedford and Beasley.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Um, when we last met in November, um, the anthology was was was just I think it was just about to rejoin. Yeah, and to my shame, I haven't actually been doing for I've been messing around over, I've been hibernating over the winter time. What's what's your view on it, Dave?

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Um, having watched uh the original anthology earlier last year in preparation, then watching this one, I thought it's really good. There's some new bits in there, yeah. Each episode's shorter than the original, yeah, which disappointed me. I was hoping we were gonna get more new stuff put in, yeah, which would add to the story, sure. Which had really done and so all those things we've just been talking about, you know, those early years, yeah. You know, Allah Williams hardly gets to mention Hamburg gets a bit of a mention, but that's even scaled back again. Yeah, so that the important foundation years are really scaled back, um, which is the bit that's always interested me. And so I was disappointed with that, and there wasn't anything really great in there. They've added the the new episode in which covers a little bit of um post beatles and making of now and then, yeah, sort of stuff, but you know, which was nice, yeah, yeah. But no, for anybody who's got the original, I think the original's better.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

Right, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:27

Apart from obviously the the extra episode, so yeah, I it's one of those opportunities missed for me. Yeah, I think with all the hundreds of hours of filming they must have with the Beatles themselves, with Neil Aspin and the others, it would have been nice to add some more of that into the story, but yeah, it wasn't to be.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

Yeah, we uh is it on Disney?

SPEAKER_01 14:50

In the UK, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

It's uh I mean I must I will I will go and have a look at it. It's just just time has passed me by, but that's interesting to hear that. Yeah, interesting. And yeah, maybe an opportunity missed. Yeah, but you know, another piece in the jigsaw, maybe not a big piece, but another piece in the jigsaw already.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

I've I've got the jigsaw, and there's so many gaps in it.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

You're gonna fill those gaps though, Dave. It gives me something to do. Piece by piece, you will fill those gaps. Uh brilliant. Um, what else has been happening, Dave?

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Isn't that enough? No, it's it's that that's been fun. Been lots going on, yeah. And it's the great thing we keep saying every time, isn't it? The Beatles broke up in 1970, and they're still talking about new projects all the time.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

Yeah, I mean, this is the thing, isn't it? And I think we've mentioned this before that you know, people say to me, and say to you, Ms. You're working in tourism in in Liverpool, that you know, this is it's surely it's just gonna die out. Now, the the thing I always quote to them is well, if you go to Stratford on Avon, you know, you funnily enough, people are still talking about Shakespeare, yeah, 400 years on, you know. So uh no, it's not gonna die out, and as long as the media, the Sam Menders of the world, the Dave Bedfords of the world keep bringing this stuff out, people will still be intrigued with it, you know. And that's that's the great thing. And you know, Ringo and and and Paul are still doing stuff, which is amazing, you know, they're still performing, yeah, they're they're still doing stuff, you know. So um and it won't end when sadly they pass away, you know. It'll carry on, and you know, all the things like the anthologies and uh now and then and and you know the your movie coming out, Sam Mender stuff. It's it just continues to add to it, and you know, we still hear musicians, young musicians today, yeah, talking about Beatles songs that influence them, you know. So you know, that's it. Shakespeare's not gonna disappear, the Beatles are not gonna disappear. Yeah, he played centre forward for Willows.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Did he write his plays?

SPEAKER_02 16:59

Did he write his own play? Yeah, um, but yeah, it's it's gonna carry on, and you know, as you we both work in tourism locally, there's no diminution of people coming into Liverpool. And the quality of the Mersey is not strange, it's not strange, and I can guarantee you know, if we were to go down to the Beatles statue at the pier head now, there will be people there taking photographs, and they might not be Beatle fans, but they're in Liverpool, and when you're in Liverpool, you do something associated with the Beatles, that's that's what you do, and you know, we we guarantee if we set up a webcam now, Dave, we'd see those people uh at the statue taking photographs in all weathers, in all weathers, at all times of the day and night as well. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

It's amazing how many tourists are still coming into Liverpool, you know, the cruise ships due to start coming back in in big numbers now.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Yeah, absolutely. It's exciting for Liverpool. Yeah, it is it is really exciting. Uh, I recently took down somebody from Visa Britain who's based in New York. Wow. Uh, and and they were here on a on a visit just to familiarise themselves. And they will they, I mean, and and this woman was you know, youngish, she was probably in early 30s, yeah. But you know, she knew about the Beatles, she knew the importance of the Beatles to Liverpool, yeah. And most of them importantly, she knew the importance, she's based in New York, she knew the importance of the Beatles to American visitors. Yes, you know, they're coming across to the UK. UK by comparison is a tiny, tiny country, tiny country. Um, and you know, they can come and visit Liverpool really easily, two hours, ten minutes from London, and and they're there. And and those people are coming, they are still coming in their droves, and what a legacy that Beatles are about. Absolutely. Can you imagine if you if if any other city would give their right arm for an association with the Beatles?

SPEAKER_01 18:43

Absolutely. We've got it. London have tried. Yeah, yeah. Do you remember when Boris Johnson? I remember having to come on Radio Mercy site on that one when Boris Johnson said, Ah, but the Beatles were made in London.

unknown 18:54

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

No, okay. Sorry, Boris, no, maybe we're starving that one.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

But anyway, who's Boris Johnson?

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Let's not go then.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

Yeah. Um, so great to have great to catch up. Uh let's do it again because uh that's you know, I I won't be having breakfast between now and the next one, so let's make it not too long. And we found a lovely little place here, very accommodating. I love it. Because we we had breakfast downstairs where they've got background music playing, and they uh said, Oh, buddy, you go upstairs. It's it will turn the music off, give you a nice quiet environment. And we're sitting here in the bookbinder on Lark Lane, and it's absolutely perfect.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

It's a wonderful place, and the food was excellent. It was. I'm gonna have yours next time. No, you're not, you're not gonna do breakfast. Absolutely. Dave, I'll see you next time. Take care.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

You've been listening to Liddy Pod, Beatles Panter, with Bedford and Beasley.