‘Beatles on tour’ documentary shows how they went global

IT’S February 9, 1964, and four young men from Liverpool step on to The Ed Sullivan Show’s stage.

Seventy-three million people watched the Beatles perform that night — the largest audience in television history.

But it was what the band did next that would forever weave them into the fabric of popular culture: they went on tour.

By August 1966 they had performed 166 concerts in 15 countries and 90 cities around the world — including their landmark show at Shea Stadium in New York, where they played to an audience of 55,600.

The “Beatlemania” that resulted was something the world had never seen before — and arguably hasn’t since.



Now a new documentary by Ron Howard telling the story of the band’s touring years is coming to Henley’s Regal Picturehouse cinema — just down the road from where guitarist George Harrison lived at Friar Park.

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years is billed as an intimate portrait of the band and a behind-the-scenes look at their life on tour at the peak of their worldwide fame.

Featuring present-day interviews with the surviving Beatles, the film explores the effect their touring years had on their relationships, as well as their musical evolution.

The film is showing in Henley at 6pm on Thursday, September 15 — followed by 30 minutes of footage from the legendary 1965 Shea Stadium concert, presented for the first time in a digitally restored format.

To book tickets, visit www.picturehouses.com