Yeah Yeah Yeah

Many years ago, I saw a film script of the Beatles first film, A Hard Day's Night, complete with handwritten notes in the margins.

The group were in America playing a few cities on their initial whirlwind tour in 1964. The uncle of a school friend of mine worked at the venue in Cincinnati where the band was to play, and after the event he came across the film script backstage in a dressing room. It had obviously been forgotten by someone in the group's management.

About thirty years later, at an auction house in Colchester, England, I bid successfully on a box of memorabilia that included black and white photographs of the Beatles, playing at a small dance hall in Liverpool in 1963. The band had one or two hit records in England at the time, but no wider attention.

An old friend of theirs from Liverpool had married that day, and the wedding party were drinking and dancing the night away at this local club, and the Beatles had agreed to play a couple of songs as a favour. The photos were informal, with Paul McCartney standing nonchalantly by a couple of guests, John Lennon with a pint of beer, and a wide shot of the group performing.

A few years later I donated the photos to a charity auction to raise money for leukemia research.

I once saw Paul McCartney play at the O2 in London, I think in 2008 or 2009. Next to me, standing on her seat, a fifteen year-old girl was screaming and screaming, Yeah Yeah Yeah.