thebeatleshamburg
And That's A Start
Leather suits, pep pills, and cockroaches: The Hamburg Beatles.
Posts: 4
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Post by thebeatleshamburg on Jan 23, 2013 12:38:30 GMT
Hey guys, me and my colleague Megan posted this project on the 'Introduction' part of the forum, just thought I'd do an extended edition for the correct section of the forum. Thanks in advance! An exciting new film project - The Beatles in HamburgFuture Artists LTD is a film & media production company based in Manchester, we’ve produced multiple film projects including ‘Invisible Circus: No Dress Rehearsal’ with a limited edition vinyl-style DVD release, and ‘The Lost Generation’, soon to be released to Future Artists On-Demand video platform. I’ve worked here for just under 6 months now and my excitement for future projects is ever growing. We’re planning a film about something big, bigger than Elvis, bigger than The Who, maybe even bigger than Jesus. Thats right, The Beatles, the worlds biggest and best selling band of all time. I’ve been a Beatles fan for only about 3 years now, when I was 18 I started to appreciate their flawless style of songwriting and, being a music student myself, loved the more clever/experimental side of their music. I was given the Red (1962 - 1966) and Blue (1967 - 1970) albums on record a short time after discovering them, and from then on started collecting Beatles records. Now I know you must be thinking “Theres literally hundreds of films/documentaries about The Beatles out there, we don’t need another”, but I can tell you now, we wouldn’t even consider it less we felt there was a gap to fill in the broad story of The Beatles. Our film is going to be specifically about a vague and blurry part of their career, between 1960 and 1962. The time they spent traveling back and forth between Hamburg and Liverpool, the hard going years of pills, leathers and 8 hour shifts, in which these boys learnt everything there is to know about the Rock n Roll lifestyle. I was particularly excited to learn of this project as, like many others, I hardly know anything about this early Beatles era. Thats what makes a documentary interesting, exploring a familiar subject from an unknown angle, although it will require a lot of time for in-depth research and the help of others Beatles fans with stories to share. We’d like to encourage the mass Beatles fans to get involved in this project and help us spread the word of this documentary or by sharing any tales/general knowledge you have which may help us along. You can keep up to date with this project by following us on Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook (see below) and be sure to ask us any questions by emailing TheBeatlesHamburg@gmail.com. Thank you for your time, George, Researcher at Future Artists. thebeatleshamburg.tumblr.com/twitter.com/beatleshamburg/www.facebook.com/BeatlesInHamburg/
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Post by sheepdog on Jan 23, 2013 14:42:53 GMT
It sounds interesting, id like to see a documentary specifically about the hamberg days
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thebeatleshamburg
And That's A Start
Leather suits, pep pills, and cockroaches: The Hamburg Beatles.
Posts: 4
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Post by thebeatleshamburg on Jan 24, 2013 12:30:46 GMT
"We were born in Liverpool, but we grew up in Hamburg." - The Beatles
From August 17th through to October 3rd they played 4 and a half hours every weekday and 6 hours every Saturday and Sunday at The Indra Club, which was a strip club. They then played for 98 nights on the run at the Top Ten Club often working with Tony Sheridan.
Man they really worked hard back then. Did any of you guys ever get the privilege of seeing them play in Hamburg back then?
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Post by The End on Jan 24, 2013 17:20:48 GMT
I think this era is very important and definitely needs proper on-screen representation because if you compare what The Beatles sounded like (although admittedly there isn't much material to go by) prior to Hamburg and how they were described at that time (Allan Williams called them a "bum group") to what they would become and in such a very short space of time, something amazing must have happened (Bobber, you will agree with me here!). Sadly, no current Beatle Forum members actually saw them in Hamburg. Good luck with your project and please remember to dish out VIP tickets to us for the premier! AL
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Post by megbeatleshamburg1 on Jan 29, 2013 13:59:15 GMT
I agree, they must have had a real experience to undergo such a transformation in just 2 years. Heres an update on our project which gives a better insight into our goal: The Hamburg Beatles, week 2 We’ve been talking to a variety of people on social media and forums, gathering info and spreading the word for this film. Many of the responses we get indicate that there are already documentaries out there about The Hamburg Beatles, a few of them including ‘The Beatles with Tony Sheridan’, ‘Backbeat’, ‘Destination Hamburg’, and a small (too small) section of ‘Anthology’. We’ve looked into these documentaries, and can safely say our film will be a different, new approach to this early Beatles era. Previous films have told the story through pictures, interviews/vintage footage and music recordings like any regular documentary, or recreated a modern take on the Hamburg days (Backbeat). However there aren’t many recordings from around this time, and there is no film footage, it seems the best source of info on the Hamburg Beatles is stories from fans/people who worked with the Beatles. We’ll be tackling this subject from a different angle, through extensive research we will be accurately recreating the Hamburg music scene, the Beatles as we’ve never known them, their music, the vibe of these unknown years. This will lead the audience through the retro Rock n Roll world, only The Beatles could know. Our next step, which will very much help us progress through this project, is to contact Apple. We’re looking for their support, hopefully allowing us rights/access to pictures, music, archived material, and to generally reinforce our intentions. We also need you fans on board our team (thats right, YOU) to help us with research, contacts, and word-spreading. Any way you could help us out would be greatly appreciated! We’ll keep you updated with our progress, just follow us at twitter.com/beatleshamburgwww.tumblr.com/blog/thebeatleshamburgwww.facebook.com/BeatlesInHamburg?fref=ts
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Post by The End on Jan 31, 2013 1:55:10 GMT
Sounds like the project is coming along nice likely! For an exhaustive chronological look at the Beatles early years, check out the photos on Chaz Avery's site here: www.beatlesource.com/savage/main.html
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Post by megbeatleshamburg1 on Feb 5, 2013 12:59:29 GMT
I checked out that site, it has some great pictures! Thanks for that, I've included it, among other great websites, in our next weekly update Here it is: Week 3 update Hey guys! We hope all is well in the land of Beatle fandom. First of all I’d like to introduce you guys to the team who, for the next few years, will be working on this Hamburg Beatles Project: Mark Ashmore from Future Artists will be the project manager/producer, pointing us in the right direction, overseeing our progress and giving us pep talks. George Roberts is a Music Tech student from Huddersfield University who has worked with Future Artists the past year, and will be assisting in managing the project. Also providing his musical wisdom. Joanna Pomfret, a film graduate from Futureworks, will also be acting as an assistant project manager, providing her film-based wisdom. Sophie Broadgate is a young experienced film maker/film graduate from MMU and has previously worked with the likes of the BBC, providing her documentary-based wisdom. Megan Lewis is the apprentice of Future Artists and has much experience in media/social research. Carla Freeman is also a graduate from MMU in Interactive Arts, and will be helping with distribution and post production. Over the next few weeks we’re looking to collaborate with Beatles fans, sourcing any info/photos/contacts/websites which would help us along with our research. Our main reason for undertaking this project is because we beleive there are many people out there who, just like us, would love to see this film made. We’re hoping these people will help us through the different stages of the project (sourcing, funding, filming, distributing) to essentially label this a fan-made Beatles Documentary. We’ve received great support so far, which we are extremely grateful for, here’s some nice websites we’ve been recommended: anothergirl83.tripod.com/A great fan-made website archiving Hamburg Beatles media and information. adventurevisual.com/beatles_illustrationA website by the artists Mark Rehkopf, who produces stunning Beatles artwork, as well as none Beatles artwork too. www.schomakers.com/Index.htmAn archive of all releases from The Beatles ‘Apple’ label. www.beatlesource.com/savage/index.htmlA website sourcing all the Beatles records on different labels, containing lots of info and an excellent gallery of pictures. We want to hear from you via social media! Keep up to date with us in the following places: twitter.com/BeatlesHamburgthebeatleshamburg.tumblr.com/www.facebook.com/BeatlesInHamburg?fref=ts
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thebeatleshamburg
And That's A Start
Leather suits, pep pills, and cockroaches: The Hamburg Beatles.
Posts: 4
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Post by thebeatleshamburg on Feb 22, 2013 14:28:34 GMT
Hey guys, hope all is well. Heres an update on the documentary from Producer Mark Ashmore, plus a nice poster It is with great excitement that we at Future Artists are letting the world know we intend to make a feature length documentary film about ‘The Beatles’, following their exploits during the Hamburg years from 1960 through to 1962. The Beatles ‘ Young and Reckless in Hamburg’ (working title) A project that has been 6 months in development thus far at Future Artists HQ, we feel it is the right time to let the world know what we are up to and why, and we need your help! Mark Ashmore the films producer has this to say: ‘I grew up as a second generation Beatles fan, with the stories of my parents, listening to Beatles record, and hearing about the Beatles legacy. But any music fan will always seek out more knowledge and stories about the people behind the music and how they developed as artists. It’s this ‘creative development’ that is at the centre of the Beatles story we want to tell. With no manager, PR team or record label bosses standing over them, how did the Hamburg Beatles evolve into the band the world still celebrates today, - this film will hopefully act as an entry point for the 3rd and 4th generation Beatles fans around the world, to get to know the legends behind the music in their formative years. The documentary film, produced by Future Artists, will also be like no other before it, for the past 6 months the Future Artists collective have been talking with Beatles fans around the world, gathering insights, stories, images, memorabilia, art and collaborators, which will enable the team to create a unique film that is thought provoking, insightful and a re-imagining of Hamburg in the early 1960s. We are approaching this project with complete independence from the traditional film industry, instead we are working with Beatles fans around the world to crowd fund and crowd source the production. Its our intention at Future Artists to allow the true fans of an artist to enable that artist to grow via collaboration. We now live in an interconnected world of social media, for us this gives unlimited scope for new ways of working with members of our audience who are also artists and media savvy. Future Artists have done several productions in this manner, but nothing as big as the Beatles Hamburg story, this is a really exciting project to be working on, and to have the chance to collaborate with millions of Beatles fans world-wide’ So far we’ve had a huge response from Beatles fans across the world, people who are keen to work with us and keep us heading in the right direction, we are much appreciative of the help we’ve received so far! Here are some great examples of fan collaborations: Luc Porte, a Beatles record/rarities collector from Belgium, has given us a sneaky peek of his original Stuart Sutcliffe painting. Andrea from Hamburg has directed us to her massively informative website loaded with Hamburg Beatles archive information - anothergirl83.tripod.com/Mark Rehkopf from Adventure Visuals, Ontario, Canada, has allowed us to use some of his stunning Beatles artwork, as well as creating our first fan-made poster! We’ve been talking to Eric Krasker, author of ‘The Beatles - Fact and Fiction’ and Hans Olof Gottfridsson, author of ‘The Beatles - From Cavern to Star Club’, both offering their help and wisdom towards the project, which is welcomed and appreciated. So if you want to get involved in this production, please register your interest by heading to our Facebook group and introducing yourself. Join the discussion - www.facebook.com/groups/BeatlesHamburgFilmWe look forward to hearing from you, The Beatles Hamburg Team - Future Artists, Manchester, UK You can also Tweet us - @beatleshamburg Or get in touch via email - TheBeatlesHamburg@gmail.com
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Post by The End on Feb 22, 2013 14:34:52 GMT
I quite like "Leather suits, pep pills, and cockroaches: The Hamburg Beatles" as a title as opposed to "Young and Reckless in Hamburg"!
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Post by megbeatleshamburg1 on Feb 26, 2013 15:22:15 GMT
Haha well 'Young and Reckless' is just a working title for now. I like your thinking though, we'll be brainstorming film titles at a later date By the way if anyone wants to, come and join the ever-growing Facebook group we set up, there's been plenty of Hamburg-Beatles related discussions on there www.facebook.com/groups/BeatlesHamburgFilm/
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Post by megbeatleshamburg1 on Mar 8, 2013 12:33:11 GMT
We've just launched our crowdfunding campaign! /2580037 Have a look and let me know your thoughts
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