Movie news: 'Eight Days'/'Shea' report, new trailer and S.F. Bay Area screening news

Richard Porter, who leads the London Beatles Walks (more info at the Beatles in London website) was among the first to see "The Beatles at Shea Stadium" special footage that will air with "Eight Days A Week: The Beatles Touring Years" in theaters at a screening in London. He posted a lengthy description of what he saw on his Facebook page and he has graciously allowed us to print it here. (Thanks, Richard.)

Just back from the screening of The Beatles Live at Shea Stadium. It was held at a private cinema in the basement of the Soho Hotel, literally around the corner from Trident Studios, where the Beatles recorded Hey Jude, and 2 minutes from MPL in Soho Square.

The film was introduced by Jonathan Clyde of Apple, who told us that when 'Eight Day's a Week' was being planned, that it was decided to add something extra to the cinema released, and Shea seemed to perfectly fit the bill. It was shot in 35mm and therefore ideal to be shown in cinemas. The original showing in the UK was on TV, in black and white, which didn't really show it at it's best advantage.

Giles Martin produced the audio, and reduced the screams using the same software as he used for the Hollywood Bowl CD.

The film itself was just of the Beatles 30 minute performance, so didn't include the support acts. The picture and sound quality was amazing and brilliant to see on a big screen, as the shear immensity of Shea Stadium, and the occasion, really come across.

The highlight is certainly I'm Down, with John going totally mad at the keyboards. It's also great seeing John and Paul singing eyeball to eyeball on Ticket to Ride.

John is his usual rebel self, being the only one to have his jacket unbuttoned. I also love the scene with Brian Epstein watching 'his boys'

I'm really glad Shea is being shown at the cinema - go see it!

To answer the question you are asking, there's been no word that the footage will definitely end up on the "Eight Days" DVD that's coming in November, but that's certainly on everyone's wish list.

But here's some news for those of you in the San Francisco Bay Area. We'll be hosting the "Eight Days"/"Shea" screening at 7 p.m. Sept. 16 at Rialto Cinemas Elmwood in Berkeley. We'll watch the movie with you and talk about the Beatles. Look forward to meeting you all.  

And here's a new trailer for the movie posted by the UK Guardian:

Beatles' 'Eight Days a Week' film -- U.S. theaters, Hollywood Bowl CD thoughts, more

Courtesy Apple Corps. Ltd.

As the Beatles "Eight Days a Week" film gets closer, there's some news to be had. A long list of U.S. theaters to show the film has been posted online. The theaters for other countries are on the site, too, but the U.S. list has finally been more available. (We kept getting the European lists.)

We've been listening to the new "Live at the Hollywood Bowl" CD for about a week. We'll talk about it in a little more detail (no audio, sorry) on the next "Things We Said Today" show, but suffice to say that despite our misgivings that there isn't more on the disc, what's there sounds wonderful. For those used to the bootlegs (and who isn't?), the audio has been cleaned up and, as Allan Kozinn notes in our discussion on the show, the voices seemed to have had some reverb added. The new show should be up as early as Wednesday and possibly by Thursday on our Podbean site,  on the show's YouTube channel, my personal YouTube channel and on iTunes. We're also on WCRP1. Subscribe to us on iTunes and you can have the show downloaded automatically when it's available. 

And finally, look for the video for "Boys" to be used to promote the film, sources tell us. You won't find it on the BeatlesVEVO YouTube channel at the moment, though it was there recently, which is a good hint that something might be in the works.

And thanks to a certain C.F. for the picture of the ad in the September Record Collector, shown below.

And here's a review from the Hollywood Reporter..