Liverpool
One
South
John Street
L1
1
December 2011
Facebook
helpfully reminded me this morning that 5 years ago today I was lucky enough to
meet the late George Harrison's wife Olivia at a book signing event held at the
large HMV Store in Liverpool One. Here's some photos and memories of the night.
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Grammy
Award winning producer and philanthropist, Olivia Harrison celebrates the
release of her book, and the Martin Scorsese biopic film on DVD and Blu-Ray,
‘George Harrison – Living in the Material World’ with a signing session at
HMV’s Liverpool ONE store, South John Street on Thursday 1st December 2011.
This
was an opportunity not to be missed.
Leaving
my office in Mathew Street later than usual I made my way over to Liverpool One
with my mate Stephen to meet up with our usual crowd of Liverpool based
Beatles’ friends. I seem to recall some of them were quite near the front of
the queue so we joined them, and probably got a few dirty looks from the people
behind us.
The
doors opened around 6pm and we made our way inside where we were advised to
queue between the CD racks until we were called forward in turn to meet Olivia
and get our books and DVDs signed. But
first we had to buy them...
There
are many reasons why George is my favourite Beatle and any new product bearing
his name which contains previously unseen photographs or film footage or audio
recordings will usually get my seal of approval.
Olivia's
appearance was to promote the DVD release of Martin Scorcese's Living In The
Material World movie, and her companion book of the same name.
Prior
to the release of the DVD the film had been broadcast as a two part Arena
special on BBC 2 a fortnight earlier on 11 and 12 November 2011.
I
absolutely loved it. With seemingly unlimited access to the Harrison's archive
Scorcese uses never-before-seen stills and footage to trace George's journey
from his birth in 1943, through his years with The Beatles, his solo career
where he juggled music, philanthropic work and a career as a movie impresario,
the joys and pain of his private life through to his untimely passing in 2001.
I
particularly enjoyed the private home videos, photos and previously unreleased
versions of some of George’s most popular songs expertly chosen by Scorcese to
underpin the story of the "Quiet One". In fact, Living In The
Material World shows that George was anything but quiet.
Both
the film and Olivia's book are filled with reminiscences from Harrison’s family
including his son Dhani, first wife Pattie Boyd, his brothers Peter and Harry
and sister Louise; musicians Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Tom
Petty and Phil Spector; Pythons' Terry Gilliam, and Eric Idle, and many, many
others.
The
promotional material for the film described it a a profoundly intimate and
affecting work of cinema. I wholeheartedly agree. In parts I was laughing out
loud, in others I was in tears.
In my
opinion Tom Petty had the funniest stories to tell about George, including this
one about ukuleles: "He came in with two ukuleles and gave me one. 'You
gotta play this thing, it's great! Let's jam.' I have no idea how to play a
ukulele. 'Oh, it's no problem, I'll show you.' So we spent the rest of the day
playing ukuleles, strolling around the yard. My wrist hurt the next day. But he
taught me how to play it, and a lot of the chord formations. When he was going
I walked out to the car and he said, 'Well, wait... I want to leave some
ukuleles here.' He'd already given me one, so I said, 'Well, I've got this.'
'No, we may need more!' He opened his trunk and he had a lot of ukuleles in
there, and I think he left four at my house. He said, 'Well, you never know
when we might need them, because not everybody carries one around.'"
By
contrast the section where Olivia recounts the night they were attacked in
their own home by an intruder and how she fought off the man after he had
stabbed George is chilling and left me filled with a new admiration for her.
What an amazingly strong woman (and my opinion was reinforced by her candidly
talking about having to put up with George's infidelities. “Sometimes people
say: what’s the secret of a long marriage? It’s like: you don’t get divorced.”)
Paul
McCartney comes across as someone who sincerely loved George, and I personally
don't get why some people believe the edits in his interview segments were set
up to make him look foolish (implying the Harrison estate wanted to have a dig
at Paul).
Towards
the end of the Beatles Anthology series there's a bit where a clearly upset
Ringo Starr recounts the demise of the group. In Living In the Material World
it's Ringo again who gets to pull on the viewer's heartstrings, as overcome
with emotion he talks about going to visit George shortly before he died. It's
incredibly moving and I don't mind admitting I shed a few tears watching it.
Overall
the film is a rare glimpse into the mind and soul of one of the most talented
artists of his generation and a worthy successor to Scorcese's Bob Dylan biopic
No Direction Home. My only complaint is that even with a running time of 208
minutes it's still not long enough to cover all of George's solo records -
there's no mention of the Cloud Nine album for example, which rejuvenated his
career in 1987.
A worthwhile
companion to Scorsese’s film, similarly drawing on George’s personal archive of
photographs, letters, diaries, and memorabilia, is Olivia’s book which reveals
the arc of his life, from his guitar-obsessed boyhood in Liverpool, to the
astonishment of the Beatles years, to his days as an independent musician,
gardener and motor racing fanantic. It’s a great book, something I was happy to
tell Olivia when it was my turn to step forward.
She
asked me my name and began to sign. After telling her I enjoyed the film and
not really knowing what else to say to her I asked the obvious “How are you
doing?" and hoped I didn't come across as a scouse Joey Tribbiani.
She
stopped writing and looked up at me and smiled and then turned to her aide and
said 'I love it that whenever I come to Liverpool people always ask how I am'.
I said that was good to know. Olivia was charming and gracious and, I suspect, as
hard as nails. I thanked her and walked away, hoping Stephen had got a good
photo or two of me with her.
This
photo of my friend Ellie with Olivia made it onto the official George Harrison
website. She pops up everywhere that girl!!
Source:
http://www.georgeharrison.com/book-reviews-liverpool-signing-for-living-in-the-material-world/
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