The first Fest for Beatles Fans of 2024 will be a very special event. The Metro Fest will mark the 60th anniversary of the Beatles landing in America in February, 1964. The group’s arrival was at JFK Airport and that is where the Fest will be held, at the retro-themed TWA Hotel. The weekend-long celebration, occurring from February 9–11, will also include festivities to honor the 50th anniversary of the Fest itself.
Some of the guests who will be on board for the weekend include British Invasion legend Billy J. Kramer, who will premiere music from his upcoming album recorded at Abbey Road Studios, Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees, Ringo Starr’s co-drummer in his All-Star Band Greg Bissonette, former All-Star band member and current member of Billy Joel’s band Mark Rivera, and former members of Wings Laurence Juber and Steve Holley. Juber is the producer of the new Billy J. Kramer album.
Other Beatles luminaries attending include Freda Kelly and Chris O’Dell, who worked for The Beatles, and Jenny Boyd, sister of Pattie Boyd and one of the members of The Beatles’ entourage who accompanied the band on their historic trip to India in 1968. There will be many other musicians, artists, and chroniclers of The Beatles, including many authors. The following recently released books are by authors who will be attending the Fest.
Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans (Dey St.) by Kenneth Womack
Those who know the history of The Beatles are likely aware of the exalted place Mal Evans holds in the group’s story. While Brian Epstein and especially George Martin could be viewed as that elusive fifth Beatle, Evans, along with Neil Aspinall, was about as close as anyone was to the group in the 1960s as well as in the early 1970s, after the group broke up. There were others, but Evans, by sheer dint of his oversized, yet understated and hardworking personality was a beloved figure.
Evans had planned on writing his own memoir and having it published in his lifetime, but as Womack so meticulously documents, it never came to be. Womack gives us the story of Evans’s life with The Beatles, but lays out what went on afterwards as well. As he has shown with all his previous books, Womak is a peerless chronicler of The Beatles, befitting membership in the same small honored club that includes Mark Lewisohn and Bruce Spizer. This is the first book by Womack on Evans. The next book will be a coffee-table book featuring the massive memorabilia archive that Evans owned.
Fashioning the Beatles: The Looks that Shook the World (Sutherland House) by Deirdre Kelly
This is yet another new book on the Beatles that proves there are still fresh and enlightening ways to explore the group and its impact beyond music. Veteran Canadian journalist Kelly eloquently and masterfully writes on how the group’s trend-setting fashion style sense both influenced and reflected the seismic changes that exploded in the 1960s.
While early on, their manager Brian Epstein carefully orchestrated the look and image that catapulted them to fame, the group, individually and collectively, were influenced not only by a wide variety of fashion ideas from their German friends (Klaus Voormann, Astrid Kircher, Jurgen Vollmer) who helped them with a very French look as well as by their love affair with everything American.
The influence of Italian fashion on British modernism also cannot be overstated and the ways in which it impacted the group and England’s mid-’60s fashion explosion. Kelly writes about the people and in some cases the chemical substances that influenced The Beatles’ psychedelic style. From there, the look of the group almost becomes anti-fashion and awash in hippie stylings. The band’s interest in fashion partially influenced their burgeoning Apple business empire, particularly the unfortunate business bust that was the Apple boutique. This is a gorgeous coffee-table book, filled with wonderful photos and a must for fans of the ’60s, fashion, and the fabs.
The Beatles Please Please Me to With the Beatles (498 Productions) by Bruce Spizer
Along with Mark Lewisohn, Bruce Spizer may be the world’s most esteemed expert on the music of The Beatles. This new book is his seventh in his album series. The eight books prior focused on the various record labels the group recorded with were how he established himself in the world of Beatles scholarship.
This book is the most comprehensive edition in the album series. It is the third book where he covers multiple albums, with previous books covering Yellow Submarine and Magical Mystery Tour and another covering Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Yesterday and Today. This book is focused on Please, Please Me, Introducing the Beatles, With the Beatles, and Meet The Beatles.
The hefty tome is very much a chronicle of the birth of the group as recording artists. The beautiful hardcover book begins with pages upon pages of illuminating text on the four albums and singles from this period, along with album jackets, singles sleeves, and a plethora of eye-popping memorabilia. There is also coverage of other Beatles music out at the same time, current movies, and further context on the news and cultural climate of the day. Further sections include fan recollections and an extensive and detailed track annotation. This is one of those books that make for a great read but can also be pulled off the shelf and perused.
Jennifer Juniper: A Journey Beyond the Muse (Sandstone Press) by Jenny Boyd
Jenny Boyd is known to people who are keen observers of the 1960s music and cultural explosion. Jenny is the sister of Pattie Boyd, who was married to George Harrison and later Eric Clapton. Like her sister, she became a top model in the 1960s. She joined the entourage that accompanied The Beatles to India on their life-changing 1968 sojourn.
Donovan wrote the song “Jennifer Juniper” about her. Jenny was married to Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac and the book opens with how they met as teenagers and an account of her life once The Beatles hit in England. Boyd mostly tells her story during the heady days of the ’60s, and ’70s, but also brings the story up to date.
While she lived through some of the most tumultuous and culturally explosive times, she also chronicles the excesses and dark roads that were brought about mostly through drugs and fame in that period. The book also illuminates the precarious and uncertain place women found themselves in during that so-called enlightened time. This is a riveting read and is a fine companion her sister Pattie’s memoir. That book provides more history and insight into their family including when the sisters were children.
Steve Matteo will be interviewed by Darren DeVivo of WFUV at the Fest for Beatles Fans at 12:15 PM on February 10th in the Paperback Writer Discussion Villains and Legends Room. The author will be at the Fest on February 9, 10, and 11 singing his new book Act Naturally: The Beatles On Film, published by Rowman & Littlefield.
