The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years, the documentary about the group’s concert performances from Oscar®-winning director Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13) which opened in theaters on September 15 and on Hulu on September 17, is available now for pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD. The acclaimed film is being released on both formats as well as on a 2-disc deluxe edition on November 18 via Polygram Entertainment and Capitol/UMe. Pre-order for the deluxe DVD is available here; and for the deluxe Blu-ray here.
The feature-length film explores the history of The Beatles’ touring years, from their early days playing small clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg to their unprecedented world tours in packed stadiums around the globe, from New York to Melbourne to Tokyo. The deluxe edition features rare and never-before-seen archival footage of shows and interviews, plus new interviews with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and numerous prominent observers.
Best Classic Bands‘ Editor Jeff Tamarkin called the film “A non-stop rush of adrenaline” and says, “Watching Eight Days a Week is experiencing what the film calls ‘the epidemic of Beatlemania’ all over again.”
Related: Full review of The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years
The film is a production of Howard’s Imagine Entertainment, White Horse Pictures and Apple Corps Ltd. The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years and is based on the first part of The Beatles’ career (1962-1966) – the period in which they toured and captured the world’s acclaim. The film explores how John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr made decisions, created their music and built their collective career together. It focuses on the time period from the early Beatles’ journey in the days of The Cavern Club in Liverpool to their last concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco in 1966.
Today’s announcement notes “the deluxe home entertainment editions contain a wealth of specially created supplementary material totaling 100 minutes of extras with exclusively created featurettes for fans to delve even deeper into the band’s world. Accompanying these are fully restored full length performances of some of the band’s most iconic tracks including ‘Twist and Shout’ and ‘She Loves You’ recorded at the ABC Theatre, Manchester in 1963 and ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ at the NME Awards, 1964, in London, bringing the experience of seeing The Beatles in concert fully to life for all fans.” A full list of bonus material is below.
Here’s the teaser trailer in which McCartney says “We were kids; we were all pretty scared”…
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In 2012, producers reached out directly to fans for home movie clips, photos and miscellaneous rare footage to use in the film. Concerts shown in the doc were fully restored by Giles Martin, who earned a Grammy for his work on the Beatles’ LOVE album (a soundtrack remix) with his father, Sir George Martin.
2-disc Special Collector’s Edition (DVD/BD) includes:
1 x DVD/BD 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 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. 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 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
