Book Review: The Beatles and Ireland by Michael Lynch and Damian Smyth 230 pages Publisher: The Collins Press Published October 1st,2008 Paperback ISBN-10: 1905172788 ISBN-13: 978-1905172788
The weather in Norway has been terrific as of late, and this week-end provided me with not only a terrible sunburn (now there's a Farrah Fawcett - Wings connection), but was also an opportunity to catch up on my reading.
There are good reasons why the book I reviewed earlier
was called “The Beatles in Scotland”, while this one bears the title
“The Beatles and Ireland”. While the Beatles played 22 concerts in
Scotland at the height of Beatlemania, as well as having their first
tour there as The Silver Beatles, Ireland on the other hand was only
visited by the band once for a concert. On the 7th of November 1963, The Beatles gave their only concert in the Adelphi Cinema,Dublin (yes,
Bob Geldof attended). That's talking about the Irish Republic, of
course. Ireland is, as we know, divided in two, Eire or the Republic of
Ireland became an independent country in 1922, but the British
government refused the six northernmost counties to become part of the
new republic. These counties then became Northern Ireland, which is
part of the United Kindom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
(commonly referred to as the UK).
Belfast
is the capital of Northern Ireland, and in the whole of Northern
Ireland there are today about 1,6 million inhabitants. The Eire
constitution of 1937 has a united Ireland as a goal, but this demand
has not been as strong of late, possibly because the Republic has
experienced much economic growth for the past decade, something that
can not be said about Northern Ireland.
The Beatles also gave two concerts in Northern Ireland when they played in Belfast the day after Dublin, and gave a return performance the year after,
on November 2nd, 1964. These concerts are also chronicled in this book.
After that, with no more concerts to write about, the bulk of the book
explores other connections between Ireland and The Beatles.
Belfast, 1964
And it all starts with family ties.
Both Lennon, McCartney and Harrison has Irish roots, the strongest of
which belong to George, whose Irish mother can trace her family all the
way back to when the Normans left France for Ireland in the thirteenth
century. While we read about Lennon's visits to his family in Edinburgh
in "Beatles in Scotland", this time it's George who takes time out during the Dublin visit to seek out his relatives. His mother also came over to Dublin on this occasion.
Apart from this, we could sum up the rest of the book by mentioning that both John and Paul wrote songs about Ireland
in 1972 (“Luck of The Irish” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday” from John,
“Give Ireland Back To The Irish” from Paul), that John bought the
island of Dorinish in 1967 and had it until he died, and that Paul McCartney married
Heather Mills in Ireland. The songs are only discussed in brief, but
those other subjects are scrutinized thoroughly in the book. We have
never before read such a chronology of the island Dorinish before, and
we are almost flies on the wall at the McCartney-Mills-wedding, as this
event is told by a hired Irish camera man. McCartney and Mills were
keen to document their wedding thoroughly, so they hired a movie team
with unlimited access to the couple for several days before and at the
wedding and reception.
The resulting wedding video has never been
showed to the public, it was the couple's private momento - just a
little bit better filmed and edited than most people's wedding videos!
One particularly interesting piece of information from the proceedings
was the fact that Paul's daughter Stella specifically asked the camera
crew not to include her in the video. This may be evidence that she was
opposed to the wedding, as has been rumoured in the press for years. We
also get to know that Ringo Starr, who held a speech at the wedding, split from the reception after a very short while.
Lennon had Alistair Taylor
buy him the island of Dorinish in 1967, when he planned to make it his
private retreat, together with Cynthia and Julian. The marriage broke
up, and it was John and Yoko
who paid the island a visit after a while. When they chose to live in
New York City, John gave a group of hippies permission to start a
colony there, but they left after a couple of years. With the island
abandoned, Lennon still had a romantic dream of returning, perhaps to
spend his autumn years there with Yoko. This dream seems to be
portrayed in the “(Just Like) Starting Over”-video that Yoko
commisioned years later.
That dream burst at the slaying of John, and Yoko eventually sold the island
to the Gavin family in 1985. The family originally planned to make use
of the island as gracing fields, but it was instead left as a wild life
reservation.
We also get to hear about the easter holidays in 1964, when George and his new girlfriend Pattie took John and Cynthia to the Dromoland Castle Hotel
in Co Clare, Ireland. After a pleasant first day there, they woke up
the next morning besieged by journalists and photographers. George and
John agreed to a photo session, but their holidays had to end and the
girls were smuggled out of the hotel in a laundry basket. At this time,
George wanted to keep the lid on his new relationship. Also after The Beatles split up, few solo concerts have reached Ireland, but Ringo held a concert at “The Point” in Dublin in 1998 and Paul held a concert in the Royal Dublin Showgrounds during his “Back in the world” tour of 2003. Both are of course presented here, with track listings and concert reviews.
Then there's a chapter about The Beatles Ireland
fan club, founded in 1993, and Irish Beatles cover band The Quarrymen
(later to become The Classic Beatles after John Lennon's original The
Quarrymen started playing together again).
One amusing chapter is about Irishman Richard Hall who on his way to a family wedding in 1968 decides to drop by Weybridge and
say hello to John Lennon! His cheekiness is rewarded when John and
Julian not only gives them a tour around the house, but also a great
parting gift: Lennon's Ivor Novello statuette, an award for “She’s
Leaving Home”! Presenting Irishmen with a reference to The Beatles
almost becomes a parody when we get to know the serviceman who serviced
Allan Williams' Austin J4 van, the car that brought The Beatles to Hamburg! The text of the book ends on page 114, but is filled out with six appendixes: Appendix 1:
An Irish Beatles “Who-is-who”, Listing people from Ireland with a
Beatles connection alphabetically, with info of varying length about
each one. The most interesting ones here are perhaps ex-Wings member Henry McCulloch, and Gene Mahon
who designed the back cover of Sgt Pepper and the Apple logo for the
record labels. Other well-known Irish Beatle people are Wilfred
Brambell, Freda Kelly. Paddy Delaney, Eamonn Andrews, Spud Murphy,
Geoff Rhind and Pattie Boyd!
Appendix 2:
“Day Trippers” deals with visits to Ireland from Beatles and people
from the Beatles' history. This is where Paul and Heather visit
Barretstown in 2004, Julia Baird lived in Belfast for a while, Donovan
brings George to Kilkullen in 1971, and George visits Ron Wood in 2000,
Cynthia Lennon lived in Ireland in the seventies, Paul and Linda drives
around Ireland looking for Percy Thrillington in 1971, and Yoko Ono as
well as John's sons Sean og Julian have also visited the country.
Appendix 3
is about the best known Beatles landmarks in Ireland, but
disappointingly the Adelphi Cinema in Dublin, where they played in 1963
has been knocked down. Just one wall is still standing, now part of a
parking house. Similarly, the Ritz Cinema in Belfast was torn down, and
has been replaced by a hotel. Fortunately, King’s Hall in Belfast is
still with us, the venue for The Beatles' 1964 concert.
Appendix 4
is of interest to many, we know. It's the Irish Hit Charts, with
Beatles and solo-Beatles releases featured. Let's just mention a few of
the more interesting chart facts: “She Loves You” and “I Want To Hold
Your Hand” only went to 2nd place in Ireland, and the three 1990's
singles “Baby It’s You”, “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love” went to
twelfth, fifth and sixth in the charts. We're also noticing that Paul
McCartneys “Fine Line” og “Jenny Wren” placed at positions 53 og 60,
far from hits, but still, in the charts!
John's “Imagine”-single made a
comeback at position no. 3 in 1999, and George's “My Sweet Lord” went
to number five in 2002. Ringo had a few good hits during 1971-1974, but
nothing after that. When it comes to album charts, they weren't
compiled in Ireland until the 1990's. Thus, the album chart lists
starts with “Live At The BBC” who went ninth in 1994, and the
“Anthology” collections all ended up on sixth. “Sgt. Pepper” made a
surprise appearance on the album lists in 1997 despite there not being
an anniversary edition, it still goes to a respectable eighteenth place
in the Top 40. “Yellow Submarine Songtrack” peaks at a disappointing
22nd place, but “1” bringes Beatles to the toppermost in 2001.
“Let It
Be…Naked” is in at seven, and “Love” peaked at a good 3d place in the
Irish album charts. Paul McCartney's album hits in Ireland starts with
“Flaming Pie” at 21. and ends with “Memory Almost Full” at 30. Highest
placement was “Wingspan” which ended up at 10. Lennon has two
collections in the charts with “Lennon Legend” on 5th, while “Working
Class Hero” only managed 21st as best placement. George is only
represented together with the Traveling Wilburys on the album charts,
with the 2007 boxed set which actually made it to the top and stayed in
the Top 40 for 13 weeks.
Appendix 5
is “Beatle Interviews”, starting with a transcription of the Beatles
chat on Granada TV's “Scene at 6:30” on the 20th of December 1963. A
bit less interesting is a transcription of a radio interview with Allan
Williams and Bob Wooler from 1984, but a good, long Ringo interview
from 1998 and a lackluster McCartney interview from 2003 saves the
chapter.
Appendix 6 is
called “Irish Broadcasting and the Beatles” and deals with what the
title says, Irish radio- and TV-shows with and about the Beatles and
ex-Beatles with a short description of each show. The book is
illustrated throughout, with photos, partly rare ones, and documents
and concert tickets, all rendered in black and white. It ends with
something every good reference book needs, an index. We at WogBlog
fully support these national Beatles book, every country should have
one!
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