Macca, Starr reunite for ‘freak show’

Singer-songwriter Paul McCartney and muscian Ringo Starr of The Beatles arrive to attend a special screening of documentary film The Beatles Eight Days A Week: The Touring Years in London on Thursday. (Photo: AFP)

The two surviving Beatles took to the blue carpet on Thursday for the London screening of a new documentary with the film’s archive footage described as “very emotional” by Paul McCartney.

Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years follows the band on the road for four years from their native Liverpool in 1962 through a series of US tours characterised by Beatlemania.

Appearing at the screening in London, which followed the world premier in Liverpool earlier on Thursday, McCartney said the documentary brought back fond memories. “We’re getting great memories obviously of playing with John and George. So that’s very emotional and very special to see that again,” he said. McCartney, 74, was joined at the screening by fellow Beatle, 76-year-old Ringo Starr. John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono, and Olivia Harrison, widow of George Harrison, also attended, in addition to celebrities, including Madonna. Half a century since the Beatles played their last major concert, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Starr said their enduring popularity was “beautiful”.

“People love the Beatles. We happen to be two of them and here we are,” he said. The film, directed by Ron Howard, includes previously unseen footage which shows the toll fame put on the band as they were mobbed by fans around the world. In one interview, Lennon said the hysteria at their performances turned Beatles concerts into “a freak show”. “The music wasn’t being heard,” he said. McCartney said he was the last of the band to decide to give up live performances.