The Beatles, ‘Get Back’ and the Britain of 1969 and the Present
The Beatles, ‘Get Back’ and the Britain of 1969 and the Present Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 1 December 2021 The Beatles still fascinate, mesmerise and speak to us – a timeless phenomenon from post-war British society and another age and world. Peter Jackson’s opus ‘The Beatles: Get Back’ - released last week on Disney+, an eight-hour extravaganza of the band in three parts – shows their work and different personalities up close in an unprecedented fly in the wall film that drew from 56 hours of footage and 150 hours of audio tape. The result is spell-binding and transfixing, inviting
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Lennon at 80 and the enduring relationship of John and Paul
Lennon at 80 and the enduring relationship of John and Paul Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, October 7th 2020 John Lennon would have been 80 this Friday. To add to the poignancy, two months later is the 40th anniversary of 8th December 1940 when Lennon was killed in front of his home, the Dakota Building, New York City, aged 40. Lennon’s life, talent and genius are wrapped in mythology and iconic images and stories. He was central to the uniqueness of the Beatles; his partnership with Paul McCartney redefined and reset popular music and culture and, after they broke up, he
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When music could make the future: The legacy of Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney
When music could make the future: The legacy of Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 17th 2020 Music is pivotal to what it is to be human. It is part of our universal language and connected to how we live, breathe and at a fundamental level the rhythm of the human heart. A world without music would seem to be missing part of the human spirit – and to an extent the current COVID-19 pandemic seemed like the day the music stopped. Concerts big and small, festivals corporate and local, records shops and many new
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Linda McCartney: A Life, Love and Family in Photographs
Linda McCartney: A Life, Love and Family in Photographs Gerry Hassan Sunday National, July 14th 2019 Linda McCartney is a name known to most people but many will relate to her through her thirty-year relationship and marriage to Paul McCartney, not being fully aware of her undoubted talent as a photographer. Now, and not before time, she is the object of an outstanding exhibition – the ‘Linda McCartney Retrospective’ at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, and its UK premiere. It covers the arc of over thirty years of photographic work - from the mid-1960s to close to 1998 when she
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The Continued Allure of the Beatles and the Sixties and Listening to ‘The White Album’
The Continued Allure of the Beatles and the Sixties and Listening to ‘The White Album’ Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, November 20th 2018 The Sixties never really went away. We have had the baby boomers and their endless nostalgia about themselves and their youth - followed by the soft disappointment for many of the decades that came after, culturally and politically, which has meant that the allure of the sixties has continued to burn bright. The Beatles ‘White Album’ turns fifty this week - last year it was ‘Sgt. Pepper’ and next it will be ‘Abbey Road’. It has been marked
