Seeing as it was Paul McCartney's 70th birthday yesterday, I thought I'd take this opportunity to discuss my ties to the fab four, even if they are pretty thin.
I live around the corner from Twickenham Studios, where two of the Beatles films were made - Help! and A Hard Day's Night - and every once in a while there'll be loads of Chinese tourists with guide books and big cameras outside my house taking photos of my road. Not once did I stop and think 'there's a group of tourists outside my house.. that's a little strange' until one day Mr Rider came in after witnessing the same phenomenon and brought it to my attention.
After some light googling, we came across this photo.
This is John and Ringo, stood on my street, outside my house when they came to sleepy St Margarets in 1964 whilst filming Help!. Both the postbox and green hedge have gone, and the road is now full of cars, but it still manages to attract hardcore fans from far and wide.
So far and wide in fact, that a tour group of fifteen Americans came to the pub to take photos, watch A Hard Day's Night and eat some food. They knew where their heroes had been stood, and even took photos of my manager serving a pint in the exact same spot where Ringo was served nearly fifty years ago. Each of them had paid two and a half grand for a week of Beatles memorabilia and mania, touring the country and visiting all the major places in Beatles history.
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| Ringo Starr at the bar in The Turks Head |
There is certainly money to be made from exploiting the loyalty of such die-hard fans. Last week it was announced by various music moguls that they are to organise international tours of the holograms of Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix. The stars of the show can be packed up and put into the back of the trucj alongside the lighting rigs and sound equipment, with organisers even stating that their main attraction will be better behaved than their original real-life counter-parts. Attendees will be able to watch their idols on-stge, a revival of the good old days for some, and an opportunity to witness a piece of musical history to fans too young to have seen them in real life.
I like the idea that the Beatles have walked down my road and been into the pub I work in, it's a great feeling to know a band I love so much have some (very weak) connections to my life. But I'm not sure I'd pay a substantial amount of money to follow in their footsteps to an obscure corner of London to take a few photos of barmaids and trees. And why would you want to pay an extortionate amount of money to watch what is essentially a 3D video of a legend? (We're going into old territory here now, I've mentioned this before, I'm saying no more about the subject.)
Anyway, if you fancy checking out the Beatles films made in Twickenham, the full movie 'Help!' is currently on Youtube, and for more information on the Jim and Jimi holograms, here's an article from the Rolling Stone.
