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Well, survived my first of two days at the Fest. It’s been overwhelming but fun. I went to the meet the guests panels, the Beatleness panel, and one by Ringo’s photographer. I had a good talk with the Beatles cartoon artists who was given a license by Apple to sell his hand-painted cels. As we talked, he introduced me to Billy J. Kramer. It’s an intimate space in the lobby where most of the signings are taking place, so I’ve also seen Freda, Denny Laine and Denny Seiwell. I won a prize at the Name That Tune contest – Anthology 1 and 2 posters. And I requested (and received) Appreciate at the dance party, so my work here is done.  

I’m posting pics throughout the weekend at my Instagram.

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Day 2 Report:

I’m listening to Breakfast with the Beatles broadcasting live from the Fest. I’m not there as the budget just barely allowed for 2 days including parking, so the Fest is over for me. I’m sorry I won’t get to see Peter Asher’s concert today. But it’s just as well because I stayed to the bitter end and I am hurting this morning. But what an incredible weekend it was (documented throughout the day at Instagram of course): 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

The day before, I bought my first Beatles t-shirt (previously I only had my Paul concert tee) – a classic black, dropped-T logo one – so I wore that. Yesterday I got a later start than I’d wanted, but I had a feeling that would happen with the late-night dancing, so I missed the Good Ol’ Freda screening. That was okay since I’d gone to the ones when the film was released. Later, had a Freda encounter anyway.

My first stop was Dee Elias’ Confessions of a Beatlemaniac panel. I was the first in the room and waited as she walked around enticing others to come in. As more people gathered, she asked someone if he knew about her book. He replied, “No, I came in because you asked and were you delightful.” I think I was the only person who’d read about the book before the Fest. And she’s adorable – she still has the spirit of a teenager, and her stories reminded me of some of my own as a teenage Duran fan. And I not only bought her book, but read it this morning. It’s a breezy read about the three years leading up to her meeting The Beatles in their hotel room in Cleveland. And she wrote the book to inspire others; if she could achieve the dream of meeting The Beatles, anything can be accomplished.

During the Q&A, I asked her an admittedly gross question about the stories of girls peeing themselves in concert. “Is that exaggerated? Because I’ve never been to a concert where that’s happened.” You know, I keep thinking, what happened to bladder control between the 1960s and 1980s that they finally had it together? Dee laughed and said she never did it, but she understood how it happened. She said everyone was hysterical back then. She said when A Hard Day’s Night came out, people were literally mobbing the screen and trying to kiss it. They were holding onto the metal bar in front of the seats and managed to dismantle it by the end of the screening. And she admitted to literally ripping the stuffing out of a seat. And she said that when girls saw The Beatles in concert, they didn’t just want to sway and sing along; they didn’t want to just hear them. They wanted to grab them: “Just… rrrrr... eat ’em all up, they were so cute!”

I’m glad I asked the question, because hearing the words directly from a first-generation fan made it more visceral for me. The way the media reported or reflects nowadays on Beatlemania is always with a sense of detachment – like it just sprang Out Of The Blue – and it’s hard to envision what it really was like. And what hooked me on buying the book is, as Dee put it, if you want to know what is like to be a teenager back then, this book tells you. My fascination with fandom and fan encounters and trying to get into the heads of these girls (and boys) experiencing that kind of celebrity infatuation for the first time. By the time I was born, the hysteria of fandom was still there, but the newness and confusion of it was gone, so we look at it with a sense of amusement and even irony, so I love reading about and talking to fans that experienced and negotiated the Beatlemania hurricane first-hand. Later, when I bought the book, she autographed it with colored-in hearts.

Afterward, I went to Laurence Juber’s acoustic concert. It was almost exactly like his Grammy Museum performance, but I won’t turn away a chance to see him. At some point, Ringo’s musical director, Mark Rivera, joined him on flute. I admit, I giggled a bit because every time I see a flute I think of Ron Burgundy, but he’s an incredible musician.

Then I went to Denny Seiwell’s singing, and had him sign the book from inside the deluxe edition of Ram  that I got when I won the gift certificate from Amoeba. Denny not only signed the inside cover, but he thumbed through and found a photo of himself and signed that as well.

I caught up with a friend who was in line to meet Freda. She asked me to take a photo of her, so I snapped a few while they were talking and when they posed. The guy behind me also asked me to get some of him, so I did the same. And at some point, someone asked if I wanted a photo with her. Since I hadn’t gotten in line, I was surprised that everyone was so mellow about it, so I jumped in for my own photo. When I met her last year, I only had time to get her autograph and chat for a few seconds, but this time she gave a warm hug while we posed. That’s one of the great things about the Fest – the signings are usually blocked for an hour and they take place at multiple points throughout the Fest. So even if the lines are initially long, they thin out, and people don’t feel rushed.

We stopped by John Kosh’s panel. He was the art director at Apple Records, and he oversaw the Abbey Road  cover. One interesting tidbit from him was how in the midst of their deteriorating relationship, John and Paul set aside their differences to record The Ballad Of John And Yoko , and got along “famously” – taking “the piss” out of each other. It makes you wonder what could have been under different circumstances.

I hung out with my friend at the marketplaces and art galleries since she hadn’t attended the day before. I kept wanting to buy the Beatleness book. In case you haven’t seen the article I posted, Candy Leonard is a sociologist and first-gen fan, and her book is based on hundreds of interview hours with other fans that experienced Beatlemania firsthand. I admire her ability to stand back from her own experience and analyze it as part of the larger phenomenon. And it’s just so important for these stories to be told. It felt like the 2nd and 3rd generation fans far outnumbered the 1st generation fans at the Fest – or at least in the panel audiences they did – and already, and I felt a disconnect in some of the discussions, if that makes sense. But I’d already bought Dee’s book and I was trying not to spend more money that day.

Then we went to the women historians panel. To be honest, this is the one I was looking forward to the most. The focus was on A Hard Day’s Night and differences between 1st and 2nd generation fans’ experiences with it, then broadened to sharing stories of getting into the Beatles and reactions and support from our families. They touched on having to bring up their many academic credentials before they could be taken seriously as female historians, which is unfortunate and annoying. Afterward, the panelist had me take a group photo and I chatted with them a bit. Kit O’Toole of Something Else and I bonded over being from Chicago and being teenage Duran Duran fans, and I was honored to find that she had seen my Appreciate video.

Everyone on the women’s panel had spoken glowingly of Beatleness as the book that nails it on 1^st generation Beatlemania, and that segued nicely into the next panel, a conversation between Beatleness’ author, Candy Leonard, and Steve Marinucci of The Examiner. I came in just as she was talking about generational conflicts between parents and their children, and how sons were physically dragged to the barber to get their hair cut. I also thought it was interesting that she said that even in the earlier years, John came across to fans as someone who was challenging, or as someone put it, “He looked like the type who would sing ‘We Shall Overcome.'”

Otherwise, I had heard much of the talk before at the panel with Candy on Friday, and by then I was convinced to buy the book. So after the panel, I introduced myself to Steve, and then went to Candy’s table to get an autographed copy of her book. I told her how she’d been doing the kind of studies I might have been doing had I continued in academia.  She was fascinated to hear about how I wasn’t allowed to listen to rock music as a child, and I got into The Beatles by accident via the cartoon.  I also told her I realized for the first time this weekend that I had a different experience as a young girl, because I didn’t understand why anyone found them attractive. And that’s because I only had access to two albums which feature what might be the two worst photos ever taken of The Beatles – the back cover of Help and the steamer trunk photo on Yesterday and Today. So, we talked about the sexuality aspect of Beatlemania, and she told me that some fans were actually touching themselves at these concerts! And she pointed out that back then, no one was telling these girls what was happening to their bodies. That was a lightbulb moment, the distinction between fans back then and now being one of sexual ignorance, and that contributed to the uncontrollable behavior. In the end, she gave me her card, and asked me to let her know what I think of the book. I can’t wait to dig in.

My friend and I killed time until the Wings concert flitting into various rooms. My only complaint about the Fest is there’s way too much going on. I did exactly the things I wanted to do, but I still managed to miss really huge events, like the drummer symposium in tribute to Ringo that included Sheila E.

We spent a bit of time in the video room watching pre-American Beatlemania clips. We caught the tail end of Jim Berkenstadt’s presentation on Jimmy Nicol. The more I hear about this guy, the more delusional he sounds. Supposedly, the thought he might have a chance at replacing Ringo on one hand, and when that didn’t pan out, he formed a band specifically to “compete” with The Beatles which died a predictably quick death. I half-wonder if he retreated from public view out of embarrassment.

Then came a conversation between Chris Carter and Joey Molland of Badfinger. I almost skipped out on that because their story is so heartbreaking, but my friend wasn’t as familiar with their story, so we stayed. He talked more in detail about the manager who stole their money, but Chris Carter rather skillfully skipped over the tragedies that followed.

A sound-a-like contest followed, which we soon fled after one off-key contestant too many, but returned for The Wings concert. But that started late because Mark Hudson – formerly Ringo’s producer, he of the multicolored beard – was still spinning tales of meeting John around the time of The Lost Weekend. To give you a taste of what a whirlwind this guy is – he told us how the first time he met John, he was working with Elton John. And he saw John sitting around reading a book, and he ambushed John and rambled on about how John was the walrus, and he wanted to be the walrus and John was with an Asian woman named Yoko, and he was dating a Black woman named Coco, so it was sort of the same thing… and on and on until John, half-amused, half-fascinated, told him to calm down and invited him to sit down, after which Elton apologized to John on Mark’s behalf.

There was a break for a raffle drawing with proceeds going to the Coalition to End Gun Violence, but most of the evening was devoted to an epic stream of concerts. The three former members of Wings – Laine, Seiwell and Juber – performed a set. I think the setlist was very close to the Denny Laine concert I attended a few months ago. The tribute band Liverpool came after. I was pretty impressed with them. They’re no Fab Faux, but they did an admirable rendition of “Happiness Is A Warm Gun ” among many others. And they stayed as the backup band for Billy J. Kramer, Mark Rivera, Joey Molland, the return of the Wings guys and finally, Mark Hudson for the Grand Jam Finale.

By now, we were closing in on midnight, and my friend had bailed, and I was considering doing the same. But I found my second wind and I’m glad I did. Mark Hudson may come across like a fool, but he’s amazing performer. He started with a medley of Paul songs that included an incredibly impressive hard rock rendition of “My Valentine .” You read that right. “My Valentine ” as a rock song. He then did a John medley. Then he did a version of “Working Class Hero ” that is probably the best I’ve ever heard, and that’s including that rehearsal take of John himself. I left in the middle of “Hey Jude ,” as that is not my favorite song, but I’m pretty sure that was the last.

If I find good clips, I’ll post in this thread.

Whew! I said yesterday that the Fest was overwhelming, but not in a bad way. It was just surreal to be in a space where I’m not the most intense Beatle fan in the room, and to be at Q&A’s where the questions were good and people knew what they were talking about. And people were just walking around smiling and casually meeting some of their idols in this weirdly non-stressful, decidedly blissful space. And right there were people who knew the Beatles and could tell you what it was like to friend them and work with them. It felt like I was entering a time machine the moment I opened the doors to the hotel. I made some new Beatle buddies and danced to some of my favorite music. It was hard to tear myself away. I hope we don’t have to wait another 14 years before the Fest returns to LA!

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Hollywood Revealed article on the Fest.

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Ivor Davis’ blog on The Fest.

I had no idea about Frank Stallone.

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Examiner article on the first guests announced for the next NY Fest for Beatles Fans.

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