Author: Ivor Davis
Publisher: Cockney Kid Publishing
ISBN: 978-0990371076

From the start, we saw ourselves as part of Team Beatles, and all pretense of objectivity was thrown out the window as we adopted a them-against-us attitude. We shared the band’s frustrations about the wearisome shriekers, the lousy sound systems, the would-be-hangers-on, even their acne,” Ivor Davis pens in his book, The Beatles and Me on Tour.

Covering the famous rock band on their 1964 North American tour, the three hundred and thirty-eight page paperback targets those who love the Beatles and enjoy reading about their adventures when touring the United States and Canada. Included are forty black and white photographs from world photographers. Due to profanity and topics of drug and alcohol use along with sexual encounters, it would not be appropriate for immature readers.

After acknowledgements, a day-by-day diary that includes daily venue, crowd count, hotel, and odd fact, and an introduction, there are twenty intimate chapters written by the West Coast correspondent for the London Daily Express. Bibliography, photo credits, and index complete the book.

Starting with Davis’s job requirement to hang out and get to know the most popular rock and roll group of the Sixties, each chapter discusses one person or topic related to the Beatles. The author’s perspective describes John, Paul, George, and Ringo’s personalities, beliefs, antics, and pet peeves. Also mentioned are the over-whelming fans, endless parading of sex, alcohol, and drugs, and jamming with Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley along with behind-the-scene individuals such as Brian Epstein, Derek Taylor, Neil Aspinall, and Mal Evans to name a few.

Being the Fab Four’s first tour of North America, the twenty-four cities in thirty-four days with thirty-two performances are spread throughout the book, overlapping the chapters, being listed in chronological order only at the beginning.

Reiterating that each concert was kept under a half hour and contained a mere twelve songs, attendees were charged anywhere from two and a half to eight and a half dollars. Money became the driven force, especially when a Kansas gig was added for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, leaving twenty-thousand seats empty.

Traveling via jet, helicopter, bus, limo, and a myriad of unsuspected vehicles, interesting stories are gleaned of parties at actors’ homes complete with an indoor/outdoor pool, Paul and John’s important scuffed brown briefcase, “pulling” women to keep the boys happy, George’s ghost-written weekly newspaper articles, giving back Ringo’s St. Christopher, and designing “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album cover.

Written fifty years after the strange but amazingly fast-set pace of concerts, the compilation of Davis’s well-written work may not “chuff” readers; however, it becomes easily evident that the Beatles changed the youth in America by their public personifications that were polished by a perfectionist manager.

Thanks to Bookpleasures.com and Kathleen Kaiser & Associates for furnishing this complimentary book in exchange for a review based on the reader’s honest opinions.


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