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Friday 16 September 2016

8 Days a week on DVD and Bluray

As advertised by Amazon in the UK
Bluray DeLuxe edition
21. November sees the release of the new Beatles documentary in the UK, according to listings on Amazon. The film will be available on a single disc or double disc deluxe DVD, and similarly a regular or deluxe Blu-ray.

Links:
Single Disc DVD (UK) / (USA)
Deluxe Double Disc DVD (UK) / (USA)
Regular Blu-ray (UK) / (USA)
Deluxe 2 disc Blu-ray (UK) / (USA)

Update: Now also listed at Amazon in the USA for November 18.

2-disc Deluxe Collector’s Edition (DVD/BD) includes:
1 x BD/DVD feature disc
+ 1 Bonus Disc (containing approx. 100 minutes of extras, highlighted below)
64 page booklet with an introduction from director Ron Howard, essay by music journalist and author
Jon Savage and rare photos from The Beatles’ private archive.

Generally speaking, the bonus disc material is similar to the film. Pretty general. The Cavern/Hamburg section is more developed, but not much. There's a section about fans who saw them. A longer bit with Richard Lester about "A Hard Days Night". There's also more about the studio work and songwriting during the period. All of it is very similar to the style of the final film but just didn't fit for story and/or time constraints. So, here's the breakdown of the bonus disc (with our comments in italics):

Words & Music (24 mins)
John, Paul, George & Ringo reflect on songwriting and the influence of music from their parents’ generation, Lennon/McCartney writing for other artists, The Beatles as individual musicians, and the band as innovators. Also featuring Howard Goodall, Peter Asher, Simon Schama and Elvis Costello. The interviews with Paul and Ringo are previously unseen.

Early Clues To A New Direction (18 mins)
A special feature touching on The Beatles as a collective, the importance of humor, the impact of women on their early lives and songwriting, and the band as a musical movement. Featuring John, Paul, George & Ringo, along with Paul Greengrass, Stephen Stark, Peter Asher, Malcolm Gladwell, Sigourney Weaver, Whoopi Goldberg, Richard Curtis, Elvis Costello and Simon Schama. Again the interviews with Paul and Ringo are previously unseen.

Liverpool (11 mins)
The early days in Liverpool of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s are brought vividly to life by those who worked closely with them at that time including fan club secretary Freda Kelly, Allan Williams an early manager, and Leslie Woodhead multi-award winning documentary film director. Probably Bill Harry too. Ron Howard wanted the film to focus on when the fabs were already a phenomenon, so the Liverpool/Hamburg/Europe section was heavily scissored off.

The Beatles in Concert (12 mins)
Five great but rarely seen full length performances of The Beatles live in concert - Twist and Shout, She Loves You (both manchester '63), Can’t Buy Me Love (NME Poll Winners '64), You Can’t Do That and Help! (Blackpool, colourised). These are just the full versions of songs already in the final film.

Three Beatles' FansInterviews with three women from the USA who saw the Beatles. One met them and has a picture. It's sweet.

Ronnie Spector and The BeatlesRonnie talks about knowing them, Phil not wanting her to be around John, and generally places herself in the story. Standard extra.

Shooting A Hard Day’s NightMore detail from the Richard Lester section, about working with them at the height of Beatlemania.

The Beatles in AustraliaLonger than in the film. This was cut for narrative/time issues. More fan footage. Cool but short.

Recollections of Shea Stadium - no idea, fans? Paul and Ringo?

The Beatles in Japan - Likely the extra footage used in the Japan edition of the film.

An alternative opening for the film - no idea, probably exactly that.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Roger:
Amazon now have the extras listed on the 2 disk set version.

Unknown said...

Additional information from Amazon about the 2 disc sets..

2-disc Deluxe Collector’s Edition (DVD/BD) includes:
1 x BD/DVD feature disc
+ 1 Bonus Disc (containing approx. 100 minutes of extras, highlighted below)
64 page booklet with an introduction from director Ron Howard, essay by music journalist and author
Jon Savage and rare photos from The Beatles’ private archive

Words & Music (24 mins)
John, Paul, George & Ringo reflect on songwriting and the influence of music from their parents’ generation, Lennon/McCartney writing for other artists, The Beatles as individual musicians, and the band as innovators. Also featuring Howard Goodall, Peter Asher, Simon Schama and Elvis Costello. The interviews with Paul and Ringo are unseen.

Early Clues To A New Direction (18 mins)
A special feature touching on The Beatles as a collective, the importance of humour, the impact of women on their early lives and songwriting, and the band as a musical movement. Featuring John, Paul, George & Ringo, along with Paul Greengrass, Stephen Stark, Peter Asher, Malcolm Gladwell, Sigourney Weaver, Whoopi Goldberg, Richard Curtis, Elvis Costello and Simon Schama. Again the interviews with Paul and Ringo are unseen.

Liverpool (11 mins)
The early days in Liverpool of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s are brought vividly to life by those who worked closely with them at that time including fan club secretary Freda Kelly, Allan Williams an early manager, and Leslie Woodhead multi-award winning documentary film director.

The Beatles in Concert (12 mins)
Five great but rarely seen full length performances of The Beatles live in concert - Twist and Shout, She Loves You, Can’t Buy Me Love, You Can’t Do That and Help!

Additional features are:
Three Beatles' Fans
Ronnie Spector and The Beatles
Shooting A Hard Day’s Night
The Beatles in Australia
Recollections of Shea Stadium
The Beatles in Japan
An alternative opening for the film

Gabor Peterdi said...

Sounds nice, but whoever is out there with movie tickets PLEASE record SHEA off the screen. I don't care about laws anymore. Here in Hungary I don't have a chance to see it at a theatres and I SO MUCH wanted them to include it in this blu-ray. I would pay for it, had in fact made many bootleggers a fortune alreay. If Apple still keeps it in the vaults I'd like to see it before I kick the bucket. Thousands who were there probably already did. So whoever is out there please push that record button. Thanks.

Unknown said...

Why in God's name not include the Shea edit? They've rescanned the negative for 4K and it looked and sounded stunning. Surely that one screening can't be it after all that effort?

wogew said...

Why no Shea on this release? Because this release is a joint venture between Apple and a whole bunch of other companies, none of who had anything at all to do with the restoration of Shea. So why on earth should we expect Apple to share the profits of selling the only colour concert film of the Beatles with all those companies when they would rather release it on their own later on?

Henry Taylor said...

Exactly Roger!

Apple will just drag it out, heck no concert in Washington DC out yet either??

Gabor Peterdi said...

"later on" - we had to wait almost 40 years for a Hollywood Bowl CD release (ok make it 30 if we expected it in 1987).

Theres are only 3 things I would like:

Shea on BD (with some extras if possible, Washington, Paris, Munich, Tokyo...)
Let It Be on BD
Albums remixed like YS Songtrack (and Love style 5.1 where possible)


... butI am forever grateful for the promo Blu-Ray. It took again something like 40 years to see a complete Strawberry Fields in great quality. But now Im in heaven.

Anonymous said...

Let's be grateful. I'm happy the way things goes. Let it be will come (it is not one of The Beatles or widows blocking it). Be patient.

Eduardo Ferreira Coelho de Souza said...

The Apple makes a great effort to displease all fans....

Anonymous said...
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torp it to full forward said...
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Unknown said...

Watched the movie yesterday. It was really good. I was really moved by the Whoopi Goldberg stories and particularly the Shea Stadium one. I loved watching the Shea Stadium concert and hope that it gets its own release, more so so I can play it loud! I must say that it's really sad how it all ended up in 1966... Japan, Manila and in the US. It always makes me sad when I think of the firecracker incident in 66 and how they thought one of the others had been shot and what ended up happening to John. The craziness finally caught up.
To just think of the happiness their music brings to people and still does...

Unknown said...

If you read Paul's comments in the latest Rolling Stone magazine, senangproducties, he says that Let It Be requires all four to vote on it — and he's not the one blocking it. Ringo has also indicated he wants it out too. That leaves Olivia and Yoko.

And my bet is on Yoko. Not because she wants to hurt The Beatles, but because John never liked the film and she wants to keep with his wishes. To be fair, it's not a flattering portrayal of The Beatles (or Yoko) and none of them really focus on the movie as something they are proud of. WHEN it comes, it will likely be because the financial incentive to go along with it will be quite strong.

James Peet said...

To be honest, I'm greatly disappointed by this package. The restored Shea footage not included in a project about their tour years? Again, I think employing someone with actual knowledge would have improved things greatly. It's another example of the void between Apple (etc al) and the hardcore fans. Harumph!

Peter said...

Shea needs to be its own release. As a standalone, it could include the preshow footage (dressing room, fans outside main gate and inside entry area, opening acts) which would definitely fill out into a more memorable release.

Anonymous said...

Maybe there really is an issue with copyright for Shea that with that have it to film company for free and why it's not on the DVD. I like how in the film they cleverly covered mccartneys n word quote on the date book magazine cover

Gabor Peterdi said...

Well I can't come up with any better timing to release Shea than now. If they finish the live project they will just say we said everything about that already and most of Shea is on the Anthology anyway.

There won't be any anniversary in the near future, it has past the 50th last year. There won't be much talk about the live Beatles anyway, now that Hollywod Bowl is out. I don't think they will ever release any more concerts.

Not getting out Shea means that it will be in the vaults for a long time to come. Even Let It Be will have more chance... wich is not very much either.

Maybe when Paul and Ringo joins the others the families will have an agreement, maybe in 2040.


georgefromhenley said...

probably the full manchester is - as in EDAW - synchronised with hollywood bowls audio.

torp it to full forward said...
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