Film Review : Nowhere Boy

When you tackle the portrayal of an icon on screen any director is playing with fire. Even moreso than a beloved novel, people have a vivid and perhaps fixed image of that person. In addition, the facts and figures of their lives may be well known to the target audience and woe betide any small changes in the name of artistic license.

John Lennon is the latest such icon to have their life (or, more accurately, the most critically formative part of his life) portrayed on the big screen. Nowhere Boy depicts the tale of young John starting with the death of his Uncle George through to the death of his mother in a car accident (knocked down by a drunken off-duty police officer).

This period covers not only his meetings with Paul and George and the genesis of The Beatles, but also his relationships with his errant mother and his Aunt May which helped to form the crux of his artistic drive in years to come.

My bookshelves are crammed with many Beatles books so the background to the story was familiar to me, and the good news is that the story told was largely faithful to my understanding of what happened. The major piece of artistic license taken is to overemphasise the extent to which the younger John had ready access to his mother - it's rather suggested that she was persona non grata to him until his mid-teens but I do believe that she was often in his presence before then.

However, this is more than compensated by identifying the sudden death of his Uncle George as a key moment, and it was after this that there wasn't a balance in John's life to counter his Aunt Mimi's strictures. Whether or not he had regular contact with Julia before then, this was almost certainly the point at which he sought more comfort from his natural mother.

The relationship between John and the more talented Paul McCartney is well handled as well, and with Julia's death it's clear that the shared bond of music and maternal loss forged a strength in their partnership which took them to the considerable success they achieved.

Kristin Scott Thomas is excellent as the strict and regimented Aunt Mimi, whilst Anne Marie Duff portrays the waywardness and attitude which must have been appealing to the teenage John. In the main role, Aaron Johnson is excellent as Lennon. In the opening scenes, you struggle somewhat to picture him as the familiar icon, but once he discovers rock'n'roll and reshapes his hair into a quiff the image is complete. He also has the familiar stare that provided such character to Lennon's face - all, of course, due to his extreme short-sightedness and reluctance to wear spectacles.

Whilst Thomas Sangster is perhaps a little too geeky for Paul, his portrayal does provide a good, reflection of the precocious talent that McCartney had even at that age and his recognition of the more primal talents that lay within Lennon. And for the musical pedants amongst you, Paul's playing of Twenty Flight Rock to the slightly drunk John is present and correct (as is George's bus journey audition of Raunchy to cement his place in the group).

In spite of all the danger (sic), director Sam Taylor Wood has crafted an excellent movie that provides an insight into Lennon's formative years which is well worth catching perhaps even for those of you less enamoured of The Beatles than I am.

Music Review : The Beatles Remasters - Everything You Might Ever Need.....

Its now been a week since I've posted something on here. Whilst I appreciate that it's not necessary to get a note from a responsible adult to explain this absence, it is certainly appropriate in the context of this post to attempt to share with you the event that's been consuming much of my spare time (both in anticipation and participation)

Last week, almost unnoticed to the mass media, The Beatles back catalogue was reissued (along with a version of RockBand about which I confess to being absolutely unable to pass comment on) on CD. The albums were made available on CD in 1987 and, apart from some specific projects since then (Yellow Submarine Songtrack, 1, Let It Be...Naked, and Love) their canon has been allowed to wither on the vine somewhat as technology has progressed and allowed older recordings to shine in the new digital era.

However, it would be unfair to describe these new editions as something that allows the recordings to simply shine. What they do is completely reinforce the towering achievement of the band during their relatively brief recorded lifetime from 1962 through to 1970. They are that good, and anyone who is wondering whether purchasing something that you may already have is worthwhile, then think no more - it absolutely is, and may be the best purchase you make this year. Or any year, for that matter.

Those of you who are familiar with the original stereo mixes on vinyl will be well aware of the extreme panning that was present with it sounding like the singers and musicians were separated by the musical equivalent of the Atlantic Ocean. We were thankfully spared these on the 1987 CD's where the early albums were issued in mono. The new stereo versions do manage to fill out that chasm although the vocals are still noticeably off to one side (whether that's to the left or right probably depends on how your speakers are connected) but they do provide a vibrant and involving soundstage which was utterly absent on the vinyl.

The later stereo albums are simply superb with the White Album and Abbey Road revealing many hidden features that wasn't apparent on previous releases. None of this is to the detriment of the music, or your memories of it. Quite the opposite, and the White Album will almost certainly be the beneficiary of some revisionist thinking about its place in the Beatles canon.

The mono versions of the album - yes, I am one of those who indulged in both the stereo and mono box sets - are much punchier and provide a different listening experience. Not better or worse, just different. As such, I can just about justify the purchase of both boxes.

An additional bonus for the mono box is the delightful covers which are facsimiles of the original album covers. And not just that, there is also an appropriate dust sleeve (including the black sleeves for the White Album), inserts (yup, you've got the Sgt Pepper cut-out sheet and the White Albums poster and photograph) but perhaps the icing on the cake is the cover of Magical Mystery Tour with the booklet present and correct on the centrefold.

There's been considerable debate about the way in which the albums have been presented, not least about the availability of the mono versions only being by purchase of a boxset - the stereo versions are available individually. That will make things frustrating for those who can't afford such an expense and who would have preferred to be able to build up their Beatles collection more slowly. That was never an issue for me, though, and I was always committed to buying both boxes from the moment that the releases were confirmed.

Having spent most of my life with the work of The Beatles stamped on my DNA it would be fair to suggest that there are times when the sheer quality and consistency of their work has been taken for granted. These new editions mean, if nothing else, that they take their rightful place at the top of the tree. I, for one, will be spending many a happy hour reacquainting myself with the delights on these albums. And perhaps, despite my prodigious purchasing habits over the years, there really isn't any need for anything else to let you know all about what matters in music.

What I Surrounded Myself With On Holiday

I'm just back from a relaxing week in Ireland - to be more precise in Cushendall on the Antrim Coast. As much of a family visit (my wife's mother and brother live over there) as a holiday we had rented a rather lovely holiday flat for the week as the picure below shows. The weather was a little iffy but this did not cause too much concern on my part, not least as in my advancing years my need for activity on holiday diminishes and the availability of books to read and a ready supply of liquid sustenance (and that's usually coffee!) is good enough for me.


There was one considerable additional attraction to our home for the week and that was the presence of a 5.1 Surround Sound system. Much as I love movies I've not yet indulged in a home surround system and have been a little sceptical of the benefits of this to music. For the latter, I remain wedded to the view that I'm (at least in theory) listening to a performance by a band where I'm in the audience and they are on stage in front of me, and not surrounding me. In other words, my preference seems to sound very much like stereo

Conclusions? Mixed, I think.

The live concert DVD's I took along with me (all Bruce Springsteen as it happens) did not much more than to give an expanded version of the Stereo soundstage. The back channels were not much more than the sound of the audience and it did give some impression of sitting in a concert hall right down to, rather bizarrely in my opinion, the echo of the drums coming off the back wall! As such, much of the music was drenched in a greater amount of echo than is the case for the stereo mix.

I also took Brian Wilson's DVD's of SMiLE and That Lucky Old Sun. Although live performances (and I remain of the view that there has been an element of post-performace sweetening) these were set out with a view to recording and so are not the same as a live concert as such. My first disappointment was in being reminded that my version of SMiLE was a Region 1 disc so it would not play. That Lucky Old Sun was able to play and was thoroughly enjoyable but I'm not sure how much of a benefit there was to my ears - it certainly put you in the middle of the stage but that does seem a false place to be when listening to music.

I had also taken the 40th anniversary DVD of Pet Sounds and this was most interesting as the 5.1 mix allowed a better seperation of the instruments from the voices. If anything would encourage me to invest in surround sound this would have been the best advocate amongst the things I took along.

I did have another disappointment when listening to the DVD of the The Beatles' Love album - this plays as a continuous edit but there were gaps between the tracks which broke the magic of this album and I must confess that I didn't listen to it fully.

At this point in time, I think home surround sound is grand for movies (and probably those of a particular kind with lots of effects) but I think the jury remains out for music.