#Beatles Monthly

[mclennonlgbt]

McLennon on the cover of Beatles Monthly magazine

[longforyesterday]

Beatles Monthly is significant for fan studies for two main reasons. Firstly, it was a forum for proto-feminist girl fans to express their sexuality – admittedly in a very euphemistic and wholesome manner – and secondly, the publication is an example of transformative or progressive nostalgia. […] Beatles Monthly is a forward-looking publication: the girl fans challenge Brian Epstein’s cosy boy-next-door image with letters and commentary that are feminist and transgressive. A scrutiny of Beatles Monthly demonstrates that new theoretical positions are constantly developing, new perspectives on fans and Beatlemania, more importantly a feminist discussion concerning sexuality and the incipient sexism of the music industry. It is not just relevant as a 1960s cultural artefact, but it is appropriated into new debates by fans. Beatles Monthly is an emancipatory feminist space, it is unmoored from its context in later years by technology and there is a sexual subtext: all of these aspects of fandom demonstrating that it is not an ‘inhibiting phenomenon’ rooted in nostalgia.

Richard Mills, The Beatles and Fandom

[ceofjohnlennon]

Paul McCartney for The Beatles Monthly Book n°40, November/1966.

[themagarchive]

Drawings of all four Beatles from the final Beatles Monthly Book #77, 1969.

[crepesuzette2023]

from The Beatles Book Monthly, No 23, June 1965.

JOHN: This month, Beatle People, I would like to give you an unbiased lecture about a truly sensational new book to be published, price ten and sixpence, on 24th June by Jonathan Cape, who are very good publishers as everybody knows.

PAUL: Hey! Wait a minute. He said an informal conversation not a flippin' commercial. We're both supposed to discuss things. Like the film frinstance.

JOHN: You discuss the film, frinstance, and I'll discuss this book. It's called "A Spaniard In The Works", folks, and it would be cheap at half the price.

PAUL: Don't you mean twice the price?

JOHN: You see, Beatle People, my learned colleague agrees that it's worth twice the price. Printed throughout in two glorious colours. Brown and green. Printed on real paper too, Beatle People. You can't lose, can you?

PAUL: Don't forget what John says. 24th June. Jonathan Cape. Ten and six-pence. "A Spaniel In The Circs.”

JOHN: "A Spaniard In The Works." Good grief, you'll have a Rolling Stone rushing out a book called "A Spaniel In The Circs" and all my good work will be undone. I say again, sir, undone with a capital UN.

PAUL: As I was about to say before I was Beatled, we've finished filming "Help!". Actually the last scenes were done at Twickenham a couple of weeks back but we've been called into the studios several times since for overdubbing. That means, well, you know when you see an outdoor scene in a film and the actors are miles away from the camera. Well, they can't use microphones or you'd notice them growing out of bushes or sticking round the corner of buildings. So if there is any dialogue in scenes like this they have to put it on the soundtrack afterwards. That's called overdubbing.

JOHN: There is no overdubbing in “A Spaniard In The Works" folks. No cheating and miming like that. A Spaniard If The Works" is live, LIVE, L-I-V-E. All Live. The book was written indoors using only close-range microphones, typewriters, ciggie-packets and green and brown ballpoint pens for the drawings. Remember, folks, only "A Spaniard In The Works" comes to you completely free from skin-irritating overdub.

PAUL: In Nassau we had to keep out of the sun because the scenes we did out there come at the very end of “Help!" and it would look funny if we were all brown and tanned in the snow sequence which you see earlier on and then pale and unhealthy in the Bahamas bit. All sorts of odd people that you'll know play parts in "Help!". Roy Kinnear, Frankie Howerd. The Queen Mother was nearly in one scene—but that was unintentional. She was driving by the film location in Nassau on her way to the airport after touring Jamaica.

JOHN: Pity she didn't stop and join us.

PAUL: We had a fabulous time down on Salisbury Plain a couple of weeks back. We did four days of location filming there with tanks and troops which were on loan from the Army. Bit chilly after Nassau with lots of rain showers and a cold wind but, without giving away any production secrets, I think the Salisbury scene is one of the funniest of the lot!

JOHN: Fun, fun, fun, with them chasing us, and us chasing them, and me chasing you and where's the tea Mal.

PAUL: One of the greatest free evenings we had during the making of the film was at Obertauern in the Austrian Alps. There isn't a great deal of night life but we made some of our own. It was the assistant director's birthday and we were at the Marietta Hotel. Dick Lester found an old piano in the hotel and we all had this gear sing-along session.

JOHN: It's a new craze. Yes, folks, it's all the rage. Have your own read-along session at home! A complete do-it-yourself read-along kit comes free inside every brown and green copy of "A Spaniard In The Works" PAUL: There's not much more I can say about the film without giving away very hush-hush secrets about the story. There's going to be a Royal Premiere in London on 29th July. At the Pavilion in Piccadilly Circus where "A Hard Day's Night" opened last summer. Then the film will start going the rounds in August and there's a New York premiere a week later. We do a European tour in June but we'll be back home long before the premiere. All I can say is I hope everyone enjoys the film. In a lot of ways we're all sorry the production is finished 'cos we had a great time making it.

JOHN: Is that all you've got to say?

PAUL: Yes, I think so.

JOHN: Well, if you've quite finished, perhaps you don't mind me having a quick word with Beatle People about this book.

PAUL: Which book is that, John? it says on this ciggie paper you've just handed me.

JOHN: I don't like talking about it really. People will think l'm plugging.

PAUL: Ah, go on, John, nobody'll think that.

JOHN: No, I can't. I'm bashful.

PAUL: Please…

JOHN: All right. Read all about "The National Health Cow" and "Cassandle" (on different pages). Read all about “Silly Norman" and "Benjamin Distasteful" (both in glowing green and beatle brown). These and fourteen other unbelievable fables before your very mouth in "A Spaniard In The Works”

PAUL: Aren't there drawings too, John? you asked me to say when you stopped the tape recorder just now.

JOHN: Yes, yes. Well, sort of. One of them (in brown and green which are very artistic colours and especially cheap to print, you see) is a full-page drawing of a fat budgie. Beatle People will be interested to know that I ate nothing but SWILL, the new deodorant bird seed, for six weeks in order to get into the right mood to draw this particular picture.

PAUL: What happened?

JOHN: I fell asleep on my perch but the picture came out O.K. I drew it in two minutes flat. Flat on my face at the foot of he perch.

PAUL: And what is the title of this new book of yours, John?

JOHN: Oh, I'm so sorry. Didn't I mention it?…

[harrisonstories]

Posted on the Apple Scruffs Facebook page today:

“In February 1971 we featured a ‘centre-fold’ in our magazine, wishing George a ‘happy birthday’ with drawings by our Lucy depicting the All Things Must Pass cover. Remembering George today, happy heavenly 80th birthday." [x]

[julifelovr]

these are from the beatles monthly magazine, i cant remember which ones

hes just so pretty

[thislovintime]

The Monkees at their New York City press conference on July 6, 1967.

“‘Goin’ Down’ was originally to be a part of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. as well but was omitted when ‘Love Is Only Sleeping’ was added to the album’s lineup at the last minute. With ‘Goin’ Down’ secured as the flip side of ‘Daydream Believer,’ the powers that be felt no need to include this exclusive track on the album. […] The song itself was a product of the band’s increasingly frequent studio jam sessions. ‘That was originally the track for Mose Allison’s Parchment Farm, and it came out real good,’ Dolenz recalls. ‘I remember Mike saying, ‘Why should we cover someone else’s tune. We’re not stealing the melody.’ ‘Peter had always loved to jam to Mose Allison’s Parchment Farm and started off on this thing,’ says Nesmith. ‘Then Micky started riffing this thing over the top [of] it, and we just headed off into la-la land.’”- Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones Ltd. 1995 CD liner notes

“Diane [Hildebrand] contributed lyrics to the Monkees’ collective group composition ‘Goin’ Down,’ which originated as a study jam and (as the B-side of their chart-topping ‘Daydream Believer’) would become one of their hardest-rocking and best recordings. Though she was just one of numerous names on Monkees songwriting credits, such was the group’s fame in 1967 and 1968 that she didn’t escape attention from the band’s more devoted fans. ‘Diane was always getting calls from Monkees fans who wanted to know all about Peter or Micky,’ says Colin Cameron, Hildebrand’s boyfriend of the time. ‘I really learned the value of an unlisted phone number!’” - Early Morning Blues And Greens 2006 CD liner notes

“It was October, last year that I met them at the TV studios. They’d just seen ‘Early Morning Blues’ and it was Peter who asked me over to meet everybody. I know it sounds crazy but I’d met Peter before somewhere and for the life of me I couldn’t remember just where it was. Lester Sill, the company boss, took me over there. Anyway I just watched things progress. I had only the simple one-note music, of the song written down. But the boys wanted to do it. Only problem was that they didn’t know where or when. What I noticed first about the way they work is that they’re always being hassled by people. They really do lead very busy lives and everybody pulls and pokes at them when they’re out anywhere. So it’s pretty strict security on the set. But they’re real exuberant when they’re working. Actually, I must tell you that Peter came up to my office in the Screen Gems’ Building and we wrote a song together after work one day. Oh, it has these broken-down merry-go-round lyrics… guess we’ll call it ‘The Merry-Go-Round.’ Peter had a couple of bars of the song going round in his head, so I got with him to finish it off. So it was Peter I got to know best. You know how people say Mike is a bit moody. Well, I went to Nashville where he was doing some sessions and I really got to know him well. And he’s great. You know he’s a boy from the South. Well, he told me: ‘It’s funny but everytime I come back to the South my I.Q. drops about twenty degrees.’ […] But let’s talk about Peter a little longer. I’m not going to talk about his personal life because I feel that’s wrong. These guys have to work darned hard and they deserve some privacy… But I’ll say this — Peter is very deep. Moody. But whether he enjoys something or not depends a lot on how he feels. Like we went sometimes to places in Hollywood where you can get Southern grits, and ham hocks and food like that. Or we’d go to teen clubs, to watch some real teenage talent. One club was a coloured place. But somebody always wants an autograph. Peter’s great, though, for joining in things if he’s in the right mood. You know, I play guitar and he plays guitar and banjo. Well, you go to some of these clubs and there are always instruments lying around. So he’ll get up and start jamming. Like he’ll meet a guy from the Modern Folk Quartet and soon everybody’s joining in a session. I dated Peter several times. But really when you go into it, the Monkees aren’t so much for going out. They just get some friends around them and have conversation and maybe a little jamming. […] [B]ack to Peter. He’s just got this Mercedes Sedan. But really he doesn’t spend much on himself — though he spends a whole lot on his friends. This guy is just TOO generous. Take clothes. He’s got a closet full of them that he doesn’t wear. But fans send him a lot of new clothes. His attitude is that if it suits him, he’ll wear it. Probably for ever. He thinks a lot of fans who go to all this trouble on his behalf. You know they were terribly impressed with meeting the Beatles when they were in London. I told Peter I was going to London and he said to send the Beatles his love. And really Peter, and the others, are interested in meditation — as from the Maharishi. I guess we see basic truth in his work and in his word… so we’re meditators. […] And Peter has helped out friends all over the place. Sure he gets depressed. sometimes, but who wouldn’t in his position. You can’t keep on at full pelt all the time. They’re all different individuals. I mean, Micky has his house in Laurel Canyon, which is a very popular area. He’s a fanatic over improving everything and making it into a show place. But Peter doesn’t seem concerned about his home at all. It’s somewhere to live and to entertain friends and that’s about the total of it. I adore the Monkees as characters and people.’” - Diane Hildebrand, Monkees Monthly, January 1968

[beatlesbeforepepper]

The Beatles in The Beatles Book Monthly, vol. 12, July 1964

[hammill-goes-fogwalking]

Theres no better feeling than to finally love the band so much like the moment when they were new to you. Life makes sense now, the return to old standards ✔️

[longforyesterday]

The Beatles organization cannily sells the fanzine to girl fans: the band is often pictured with girl fans (this is especially prevalent in issue No. 5), and the fanzine prints letters that obsess over the Beatles appearance. Alison from Stubbington, Hants, writes in issue No. 3, ‘if you take Paul’s hair and eyebrows, Ringo’s eye and neck and George’s chin and ears; put them together and you will have most handsome face to grace that has, or ever will, grace the pages of pop star mag’ (Beatles Monthly, No. 3, 1963).

Theresa Wareham, Dagenham, Essex, asks ‘if we can have one (a picture) of all of them in swimming trunks’ (Beatles Monthly, No. 3, 1963). By this stage of the publication the fans are calling the shots and demanding pictures of ‘Paul’s handsome suntanned face’ (Beatles Monthly, No. 5, 1963); the Beatles ‘improperly clad’ (Beatles Monthly, No. 8, 1964); Diane Dickinson, Norbury, London, writes that ‘I heard on the good ol’ London Transport the other day: “That Paul Macwhatsit is the most ‘ansome feller out”’. She continues to reveal her nose fetish: ‘the other one with the kissable konk (i.e. RINGO … don’t mind me, I’ve got a thing about noses’ (Beatles Monthly, No. 16, 1964). Letters would usually start with ‘Dear gorgeous, lovable Beatles’ and end with ‘lots of love and kisses’, Gillian and Lynn (Beatles Monthly, No. 20, 1964). Issue No. 4 has a fan describing herself as a ‘complete Beatles parasite’ (Beatles Monthly, No. 4, 1964); the language is so heavily charged with repressed sexuality that in my notes for this issue I wrote about a ‘double-centre spread of Porn’; this was in fact a Freudian slip, I meant to write ‘double page centre spread of Paul’.

Richard Mills, The Beatles and Fandom

[ceofjohnlennon]

The Beatles for The Beatles Monthly Book n°75, October/1969.

[johns-diqi]

happy late birthday to my boyfriend !!! (would you believe me if i told u it was ringo starr)

[cherry-velvet-skies]

Listening to the last 3 minutes and 10 seconds of I Want You (She's So Heavy) has got to be what sex feels like

[crepesuzette2023]

Dear Beatles: Annabel is not pleased with the RUBBER SOUL cover!

(From: THE BEATLES BOOK MONTHLY, No. 31. Feb. 1966)

When first I saw your latest LP sleeve My eyes, dear Beatles, I could scarce believe There's nobody, I feel, could like it much Except, perhaps, the vampire-minded Sutch. I tried to Work It Out, but I could not, Why such a very photogenic lot Should want to see yourselves portrayed as freaks; You look as if you'd all been dead for weeks. Believe me, Beatles, I admire you vastly And scarce can bear to see you look so ghastly. John's usual zest for living is so great I hate to see him looking like "the late". For innocent-appearing wide-eyed Paul This graveyard guise is not the thing at all. The Pretty Things are prettier by far Than that grey-yellow Dracula-type Starr. And so cadaverous seems Georgy Harrison That Jagger's an Adonis by comparison. What bird who over Beatle pictures drools Can want to see her idols look like ghouls? Twould be a bonus, giving extra pleasure, To make the photo one your fans could treasure. The album, lads, is wonderful; these strictures Are just directed at those 'orrid pictures.

Annabel Lee

[pleasantlyinsincere]

Lennon household expanses May 1968.

I love all the interesting little bits in these random documents. Alf getting more money than Mimi that month (I hope she never found out 😅), how freakishly expensive a swimming pool is (who pays more money for a pool than for food?), the trip to Rimini already being billed in May (helps me with dating all the vacations, which writers always get wrong), how much money was spend on the caravan being taken to Dornish Island (oh, the things that never were!),...