Mason Walker - The Beatles: The Quiz Book from Liverpool about John Lennon to Yellow Submarine

2018

Production and publishing house:

BoD Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt

ISBN 978-3-7460-4571-9

The Beatles are one of the most famous band of all times. The British beat and rock band achieved greater awareness in the 1960s. In total they sold more than 600 million recordings and this number makes them the most successful commercial band in history.

Everything started with the Liverpool student John Lennon who founded his band The Quarrymen in 1956. They played on private parties and school events. Due to John Lennons moody personality he could not keep any of his members longer than some months. The most important day in the history of The Quarryman was the 6th of July 1957, when Lennon got introduced to Paul McCartney who joined the band some days later. Soon McCartney and Lennon started to compose their own pieces. A year later a friend of McCartney visited a concert, his name was George Harrison. Of course as history tells, Harrison also joined the band.

They changed their name to Johnny and the Moondogs and later to the The Silver Beatles. Beatles represents a combination of the word beat and the word beetles. Once asked why Beatles, John Lennon explained: Many people ask what are Beatles? Why Beatles? Ugh, Beatles, how did the name arrive? So we will tell you. It came in a vision a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them From this day on you are Beatles with an A. Thank you, Mister Man, they said, thanking him. From 1960 on they abandoned the word Silver and from this time on called themselves only The Beatles.

In the summer of the same year they had their first performance in Hamburg together with two more members: Stuart Sutcliffe and Peter Best. They continued performing every night in the strip club Indra in the red light district of St. Pauli. They adapted to the conditions: sex, drugs, alcohol and violence. In Hamburg they also met the photographers Astrid Kirchherr and Jrgen Vollmer and the artist Klaus Voormann who shaped the later appearance of The Beatles such as their famous moptop.

Due to disturbance of the peace Indra had to be closed and they started playing in the Kaiserkeller where they met the drummer Ringo Starr who was playing in another band from Liverpool, Rory Storm & the Hurricanes. By the end of November they had to leave Hamburg as Harrison was still 17 years and not of full age yet and McCartneys supposedly arson attack. By the end of December McCartney took over the role of the bassist. After several performances all across the UK and also Germany, George Martin offered them a record deal in 1962. Shortly before they accepted they changed the drummer from Peter Best to Ringo Starr and The Beatles as we know them today with Lennon, Harrison, Starr and McCartney were born.

On 5th of October 1962 the first official single Love me Do was released in Great Britain. Through their commercial success in radio and TV programmes they managed to perform in broader areas not just around Liverpool. The more popular they got, the more they had to struggle with the enthusiasm of especially their female fans. Public performances became a mass event, a lot of their gigs they could only reach and leave with a police escort. The final breakthrough marks their performance on 13th of October 1963 at the popular Sunday Night at the London Palladium show with 15 million TV viewers. The world was infected by the Beatlemania.

After a short concert tour in Sweden, they went for a huge concert tour through all of Great Britain. This lead to hysterical screeching women and heavy police presence. In Birmingham they dressed as police officers on their own to escape their fans, in Plymouth they fled through the canal system. At the yearly Royal Variety Performance they performed in front of the queen mother. John Lennon introduced their last piece Twist and Shout with the words: For our last number Id like to ask your help: Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if youll just rattle your jewellery!

With I want to hold your hand they finally reached success in the US. In February 1964 they performed five pieces in the famous Ed Sullivan show; 73.7 million viewers followed the live show. In April The Beatles filled the five first places of the USA Single charts, in Australia even the first six. Additional they had seven more songs in the US-Top 100. They started their first world tour which was a great success.

With songs such as I want to hold your hand, Cant buy me love, Help, All you need is love, Hey Jude, Yesterday, Let it Be, Yellow Submarine and much more they wrote music history. In 1970 however several disputes and personal matters led to the splitting of the Beatles.

10 years later in 1980 John Lennon was killed in front of his apartment house in New York by the psychologically disturbed fan Mark David Chapman. George Harrison condemned his assassin in a press release: After all we went through together I had and still have great love and respect for him. I am shocked and stunned. To rob life is the ultimate robbery in life. This perpetual encroachment on other peoples space is taken to the limit with the use of a gun. It is an outrage that people can take other peoples lives when they obviously havent got their own lives in order. In 1997 George Harrison was diagnosed with lung cancer. The last meeting of the remaining three Beatles Harrison, Starr and McCartney was on the 12th of November. Two weeks later Harrison died in the age of 58. Paul McCartney found touching words for his former band colleague: His music will live on forever, as will his personality. We had just so many beautiful times together and that is what I am going to remember him by. He was just my baby brother and he will sorely missed. I understand the end was a very peaceful, golden moment thats a blessing.

The Beatles shaped a whole period in music history and their songs will never be forgotten.

1. Which English city did The Beatles come from?
   1. Manchester
   2. Birmingham
   3. London
   4. Liverpool
2. What was the nickname of The Beatles?
   1. The Famous Five
   2. The Fantastic Four
   3. The Fab Four
   4. The Marvellous Four
3. What genre of music did The Beatles mostly play?
   1. Folk
   2. Rock
   3. Electronic
   4. Disco
4. In which year did The Beatles release the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band?
   1. 1967
   2. 1963
   3. 1964
   4. 1970
5. In which German city did The Beatles play during the start of their career?
   1. Munich
   2. Berlin
   3. Hamburg
   4. Stuttgart
6. What was the name of The Beatles first bass player?
   1. Stewart Succlif
   2. Rod Stewart
   3. Mick Jagger
   4. Stuart Suttcliffe
7. In which city was Beatle member John Lennon killed?
   1. Tokyo
   2. Buenos Aires
   3. Liverpool
   4. New York
8. Who designed The Beatles logo?
   1. Ivor Arbiter
   2. Melvin Menrose
   3. Linda McCartney
   4. Yoko Ono
9. What was the name for the fan frenzy that surrounded The Beatles?
   1. Beatlemadness
   2. Beatleloopy
   3. Beatnik
   4. Beatlemania
10. Approximately how many records did The Beatles sell?
    1. 30 million
    2. 800 million
    3. 1 billion
    4. 10 million
11. Which Beatle album inspired an animated film?
    1. Let It Be
    2. Abbey Road
    3. Yellow Submarine
    4. Help!
12. Which song served as inspiration for The Beatles track Back in the U.S.S.R.?
    1. Back in the U.S.A
    2. Back to the Future
    3. Back in the Soviet Union
    4. Back to Back
13. Which band member wrote most of the Beatles songs alongside Paul McCartney?