With Ron “Richie” Howard at the helm, Eight Days A Week offers a very Americanised view of how the Fab Four went from the sweaty confines of the Cavern to Shea Stadium in five tumultuous years.
Whilst Whoopi Goldberg revealing that The Beatles’ was the first gig she’d been to where the audience wasn’t segregated offers some useful social context, Howard’s other Hollywood bezzie, Sigourney Weaver, has little to say other than that she was a fan.
Howard redeems himself by managing to get exceedingly good quote from Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, who cries as he recalls meeting John for the first time. Your eyes are likely to moisten too as Lennon reflects, in a 1970s interview: “I was an only child and suddenly I had three brothers.”
Those fraternal bonds were stretched to the limits as the shows got bigger, and the crowds batshit crazier.
The footage of hysterical fans being stretchered away after a 1964 visit to Vancouver ended in a full-blown riot captures the darker side of Beatlemania.
The best moments are John duping a hapless American reporter into calling him Derek and George using Lennon’s head as an ashtray during a TV interview.
Despite its very obvious flaws, the quality of the archive material means that Eight Days A Week is a must-watch.