About the Awful

Except for the last two pics (from the Beatles' Australian trip, which I just threw in for good measure) this set of screen captures originate from two of John Lennon's TV appearances relating to the publication of In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works. I've posted them out of order--hope you won't hold that against me.

The screen captures of John with Norman Rossington and/or Dudley Moore are from his late '64 taping of Not Only...But Also, which aired in January of '65. This is a hilarious show--John, Norman, and Dudley (in an earlier taped film) act out John's poem "Deaf Ted, Danoota (and Me)," John holds a cute and lively dog as he and Norman recite "Good Dog Nigel," Dudley and Norman narrate "Unhappy Frank," and John and Norman recite "The Wrestling Dog."

The other captures are from a live June 1965 broadcast of the British show, Tonight. John appears to enjoy this interview, as host Kenneth Allsop treats him with respect as an author, not just as a Beatle. John explains to Allsop that he tried writing a longer story but he had so many characters that he became confused. When Allsop responds that this happens to other writers, too, John chuckles and repeats "Other writers!" It seems as if he was surprised to be considered a "writer."

I apologize for the poor quality of some of these screen captures; unfortunately, my source material is quite poor, and this is as good as it gets. The caps sourced from the Anthology are the best from this series.

("About the Awful" refers to John's pun-titled autobiographical blurb from In His Own Write.)

Get Back To Where You Once Belonged

This post comes courtesy of my good friend Jeff, who made it possible for me to have an original copy of the Beatles' Get Back book. There are a plethora of gorgeous Ethan Russell photos in the book that I will get around to scanning in the near future. Some may be common, but I hope you'll enjoy them in a higher resolution. Love seeing Mal in these pics.

I am very sorry for the lack of updates lately; I've been very busy and just haven't had the time. Another deadline for Ugly Things is quickly approaching, as it is now a biannual publication. You can click the link to the right if you'd like more info about the magazine.

As summer approaches, I'll have more opportunities to work on the blog.

Cheers!

Trading Cards

I enjoy collecting various Beatles-related items, so I thought I would share large scans of a few trading cards from my collection. (Click photos to enlarge.)

The first set of Beatles trading cards are termed "Series One" and consisted of numbers 1 through 60. I'm missing 11 cards from this set. In "Series Two," (61 - 115) I'm missing 25, and the most complete set I have is from "Series Three"--I'm only missing five out of numbers 116 - 165. I have a few Color Cards, Diary Cards, and A Hard Days Night cards as well. From more recent years, I have a complete set of the 1993 River series, and a few of another set released around that same time period. I also love to collect Beatles books (I'm up to 141 now) and Beatles magazines from any time period.

If you'd like, please comment on some items from your own collections!