Eight Days A Week: The Touring Years[DVD]

WOW! Totally fab!! My face hurts from grinning so much. Ron Howard has done it again. In my opinion, he has produced and directed THE definitive documentary of the Beatles days' on the road - from 1962-1966. In those 3 1/2 short years, the Beatles played almost 800 performances! For some perspective, in one month, they did 25 separate concerts in 25 different cities! In the middle of all this touring and interviewing (between Jan. '63 to the middle of '66), they also went into the studio and produced 7 albums and 14 singles plus B-sides (approx. 120 songs in 42 months). This turns out to be a little over one song every 10 days. And remember, all went on to become hits! This volume of production has been unparalleled by any one at any time. Mr. Howard not only tells the story of the concert years from THEIR perspective, but like he did in "Apollo 13", he actually is able to transport us back to those times, so that we're able to almost FEEL the oppression that their fame put on them. We feel as though we are going through it with them. There is not one second of anonymous voice-over in the film. It is voiced by the members themselves and the people closely involved with them during this time. There is also great deal of footage that I and others have NEVER seen (and those that know me, you know how voracious a fan I am). And the clips and concert footage that HAVE been seen, have been beautifully cleaned up. About that. A BIG tip-of-the-hat to Music Supervisor Giles Martin (George Martin's son) and Sound Re-recording Mixer Chris Jenkins for their audio work [...] You and I have seen SOME of these clips before, but you've NEVER heard or seen them like this! The concert clips were "re-mixed" (using technology learned from making the "Rock Band" video game) to sound fuller and clearer that we have EVER heard them. And getting all the various interview sound bites and film clips that were recorded over the yeas to sound like they all belong in the same film must have taken a shed-load of work (believe me, I know how hard this task can be). The two-disc blu-ray disc has one whole disc devoted to the documentary itself and the other disc dedicated entirely to special features (expanded concert footage, the making of A Hard Days Night and MUCH more). Also included, is a thick booklet with extra pictures and an introduction by Ron Howard and an essay by Jon Savage. All worth the price of admission. This is a must-have for even the casual Beatle fan. It provides a new perspective for those who were either not yet born, to young to have actually experienced the "mania", or for those who's memories of almost 60 years ago have started to fade. Buy it, rent it, watch it. You WON'T be sorry!!

Eight Days a Week The Touring Years 2-DVD set is an exceptionally produced documentary by Ron Howard of the most legendary bands in musical history The Beatles. The documentary captures the initial years in which the band performed live with members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr from 1963-1966 and in consort with their first seven albums. Amongst the hundreds of live film footage are full performances and a few abbreviated of their hit songs that started it all in the United States “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You.” But what diehard and new fans will definitely see throughout the film what Beatlemania was all about and countering events that occurred during the 1960s that paralleled with when the band performed, which summed to a tumultuous time. The discs include the 100 minutes of documentary material with interviews and performances interspersed within the film. Fans that may already familiar with previous documentaries The Compleat Beatles or Beatles Anthology series, several photos and film and sound bites from the Anthology audio re-mastered recordings are also infused in this documentary; but there is also new material as well, interviews by Paul and Ringo and older ones from John and George and other members of Beatle assistant Neil Aspinall and Promoter Derek Taylor and Producer George Martin. But for the fans that are accustomed to the authenticity and preservation of material, especially with the live filmed performances watching a snippet from band play at their historic first live concert in Washington, D.C. there will be the missing of the original black and white frames replaced by very noticeable colorized tints, this may also be found on other segments from shows in England and the Ed Sullivan show – artistic expression or a blend of home movie segments that were also in the mix? Nevertheless, the live shows were the highlight within the entire documentary and to conclude the band’s concert journey there is a short loop of the rooftop performance in 1969 from the “Let it Be” film where the band plays “I Got a Feeling” and “Don’t Let Me Down”. And as added treats the second disc is a mini-documentary of the band’s musical transitions from their earliest days in Liverpool to there most experimental periods during Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, commentary by close colleagues that they band help to pen songs. And additional live performances “She Loves You,” “Twist and Shout,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “You Can’t Do That,” and “Help!” If that is not enough, there is a beautifully written booklet of over 40 pages of photos and commentary, imagine being 10 years old and to see all of this happen before your eyes – it was an amazing time. Words can say so much about the documentary and by far the music that is still memorable. The entire DVD set is a step back in time but also shows the timeless quality that the band produced that would be emulated but never repeated. The Beatles were one of a kind.

I saw this movie at the Angelika Film Center Mosaic in Merrifield, Virginia, on September 21, 2016. The movie is excellent, and I am delighted that it is finally available on DVD. Paul and Ringo are excellent in their interview segments, and there are plenty of archival interviews from John, George, and Sir George Martin. There is also plenty of historic concert footage. Some of the celebrity talking heads I could have done without - I really don't care what Whoopi Goldberg (Caryn Johnson) thinks - but that's a minor quibble. At the end of the film, everyone stood and applauded, particularly when the dedication to the late Sir George Martin rolled by during the closing credits. Theatergoers received an additional treat - a 30-minute edit of the 1965 film The Beatles At Shea Stadium , newly restored, with remixed sound, including Ringo's original Shea performance of "Act Naturally," which was replaced by an overdub of the record in the original film. The bonus DVD has several additional live performances, along with additional interview segments with The Beatles, celebrities, and fans, and an alternate intro to the film. Unfortunately, the Shea Stadium footage is not included in the DVD package, because Sid Bernstein's estate is suing Apple for some unknown legal reason. While Apple apparently owns the soundtrack to the film, the Bernstein estate still claims at least partial ownership of the film footage itself. Hopefully the parties will resolve their differences soon. If Apple releases the Shea concert as a standalone DVD or Blu-ray, I hope they use the unedited footage with the supporting acts, as well as the missing "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby" footage (the audio performance of this song is available on Anthology 2 ). I'd also like to see the 1964 Washington Coliseum concert, which was filmed by CBS, issued on DVD and Blu-ray as well. Believe it or not, the Coliseum has been redeveloped into an REI outdoor goods store, which opened on October 21, 2016, with other retail stores and offices to follow. Fortunately, posters from The Beatles' concert, as well as other Coliseum events, are displayed throughout the REI store. At least the Coliseum is no longer a trash dump. Along with the recently issued companion CD, Live At The Hollywood Bowl (see my review) this documentary is an essential purchase for all Beatles fans. Five stars.

I bought the two-disc special edition and I highly recommend this Blu-ray product. Be careful buying this, as some of the ones I've seen for sale on Amazon are not playable in Region A, which includes North America. The two-disc special edition includes the excellent documentary "The Beatles: Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years" on Disc 1. Disc 2 contains a bonanza of shorter features and live performances. The bonus material is well worth it too. Although there's a bit of material showing the Beatles' beginning as the Quarrymen and their experience in Hamburg, the film concentrates on the brief period between 1962-66 when they toured widely in the midst of "Beatlemania." They are shuffled from arena to arena amidst swarms of screaming girls. In 1966, the stress of touring, and even controversy and threats, turned them sour, so they stopped touring and devoted their energy to studio recordings. The film does not cover the studio years, although there is some footage of their very last live concert recorded on the roof of the Apple Corps studio on London's Savile Row. It's amazing now to reflect on how short the touring years were and how much the Beatles changed popular music. An excellent Ron Howard documentary with lots of enjoyable bonus material.

It's actually hard to believe over 50+ years has gone by since that night in February 1964 when Ed Sullivan announced their name and the Beatles took the stage. Just about every tv in America was tuned in to the show. This CD is an epic flash back to the years when the Beatles ruled the airwaves. The video and audio quality is outstanding by todays standards which is itself impressive since it was taken from 1963 to 1967. Another surprise that even hard core Beatle fanatics will appreciate are clips never seen before. One part that I found unbelievable is a clip of a concert and in the audience is a teenage Sigourney Weaver. How Ron Howard found her in the original reels is mind boggling in itself. Ron Howard has also achieved something that has never been done before, he literally takes you into the real world of what is was like for the band. Finally we get to see the four youngsters from Liverpool that turned the world upside down as real people and what it was like for them. You'll love them even more if thats possible because they really were cool, funny, charming and unquestionably the greatest rock and roll band that ever existed.

Fantastically enjoyable film. Too short. I find I always want a different end, like "Having realized they needed some time off, the Beatles took a break from 1970 to 1975 - by which point they were all desperate to get out of the house and tour again. ' We really needed to take a break, so we did' said George. Etc. But the story unfolds the same way it did. You want to scream through the lens "You were too good to just let it go!" While, as other reviewers here have mentioned, several parts of this film have already been seen before, what they didn't mention was that the parts we'd all seen before had such terrible quality - black and white film that's scratched and silent or color with terrible sound... etc - that they weren't really entertaining, certainly not enough to hold up to our expectations. What Ron Howard et al appear to have done is resurrect the reality of the images, the reality of the sound AS IT WAS EXPERIENCED THEN. This must have taken heroic efforts. We're all familiar with the source material and should be familiar with the fact that the source stuff was unviewable, largely, except by the most dedicated Beatle fan. Not sure how Ron Howard did it but he filled in the blanks, fleshed out the sound... resurrected the experience. This film is not great art but it is great, thus my 4/5 rating. Given the scale of the mountain (that is representing the Beatles throughout their touring years) it's impressive that anyone scaled it at all - but I would dearly love to have seen the film broken up into at least 4 segments, maybe one for each year. Also, their tours started in England and I don't recall seeing much if anything from England (except their Liverpool concert briefly... which was amazing... and a short bit from the Cavern [which I have seen before in its erratic, soundless, shaky, original state].... but certainly nothing from their dues-paying period. They toured Britain for years before breaking big. No mention was made of their original drummer, Pete Best, either. He was in the Beatles for two years - while they were touring. So if you're going to cover their entire touring period... There were several unforgettable scenes in this film - some of which I have never even heard of before (the entire crowd at a soccer tournament singing a Beatles song... nothing like seeing 60,000 men [almost entirely] swaying to the beat and singing "I Want to Hold Your Hand" or something from that epoch). It was a Liverpool crowd and you could see their 60s-era machismo politely set aside to sing the song of the town's beloved band. All ages. Clearly working class. It was hilarious and amazing. And it conveys something that should have been noted but wasn't - that Liverpool had a tradition of group singing. Paul and Ringo's fathers had played in bands of their own around Liverpool... even John's performed on ships. There's a short film of Paul from the mid 1970s at a large pub in Liverpool, the camera seeks him out but most of the crowd doesn't. He's just there, sipping a beer in a standing room only crowd, letting two middle aged men command the floor with a song of their own. The Beatles grew up in a town that considered group singing to be natural AND masculine. The film also skips over Cynthia's relationship to John. She shows up in one photo of the family. It was almost certainly Cynthia's pregnancy that finally lit enough of a fire under John's ass to make him want to make money - and make enough capitulations to do that. He donned the appeasing smile, the cute suits, and the 'chirpy lad' shtick - which was critical to the Beatles' 'making it' - only after Cynthia's pregnancy had worked its chemistry. Prior to that he would have happily told anyone with business ideas for his band - that involved changing their appearance, stage conduct, clothes, song choices, etc- to go F themselves in no uncertain terms. I'm not sure why those choices were made but I guess a lot had to be culled to fit the film into a watchable time... if only they'd broken up the film, as I mentioned. Overall it's well-paced, informative and actually approximates a live show experience in several scenes.

Some of the negative reviews state that the stuff on this set is already on the Anthology set and this is nothing new. I'd like to respond by saying that 1- Blu-ray edition of Eight Days a Week is cleaned up and remastered and looks absolutely stunning in HD picture quality. So even if it is the same footage, there is no comparison to HD quality. 2- Ok, some footage is the same as in Anthology set but I'd say it's like 25%-35% at most. There is a lot of stuff in this documentary film that is not in the Anthology. I have to re-visit my Anthology set to get into the details (and I will update my review accordingly), 3- This documentary film has its own atmosphere due to its editing and narrative style so even though I own the Anthology set and I've never got the feeling as if I am watching the same thing. This set includes 2 disc and the content on both discs are just amazing, capturing the magic of Beatles in all its glory. I especially enjoyed the comments what made Beatles so appealing to the youngsters in those days, how Beatles talked back to the adults, that they were rebellious but in a cheeky kind of way, they embodied the rebellious spirit of teenagers but their cheeky British humor and sarcasm was what made them unique. Of course, their music was also quite revolutionary at the time, as there were no really rock band formations at the time and most of the artists were just solo (this is all depicted in the film very well). If you are a Beatles fan or even slightly interested in 60's music and pop culture, you will definitely enjoy this documentary. It's one of my favorite blu ray music documentaries in my library and standing right next to the Anthology and A Hard Day's Night Criterion Blu ray

Fantastic documentary with great film footage and interviews. I watched it multiple times and loved it.

Tres bien…

Gran documental de la historia de The Beatles. Todo aquel que le guste el cuarteto de Liverpool tiene que verla.

Excelente documental recopilación de las giras de los Beatles en vivo, entiende como se cansaron de que no se escuchara su música y actuaciones por eso dejaron las giras y se volvieron un grupo de estudio de grabaciones, buenos comentarios de los entrevistas muy recomendable para coleccionistas o interesados en los Beatles.

dvd histórico

Fantastic documentary on the most fantastic band.