AN EVENING WITH THE BEATLES

Dani Martín and Christian Alfayate, members of Jude Rock and Talk, came to IES Bergidum Flavium on Friday 20^th January to present “An Evening with The Beatles”, a fun show in English that introduced the students to The Beatles, the legendary British music band that rocked the world in the mid-sixties. 

The show combined live versions of a handful of well-known Beatles songs with an educational talk centred around how The Beatles were formed and its evolution as a band, from The Quarrymen to the eventually successful Beatles. 

The slide show was the perfect addition to a talk that was filled with humour. They made us laugh with a few jokes – a teacher´s favourite country, Expla-nation, or the teachers who love technology, instagrammers.  

After being introduced to the Fab Four, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, the students were told a few anecdotes, for example, how Paul McCartney came up with the tune of Yesterday while he was cooking scrambled eggs for breakfast. Scrambled Eggs was the original title of the song that has become the most covered song in pop music history. 

The audience learned about the strong friendship between Paul and John, the two founding members of The Beatles, and their sad family circumstances. Paul’s mother died of cancer when he was 14 years old, and John’s mother died two years later after being hit by a car. 

The song “With A Little Help from My Friends” was written by Paul and John with just five notes so that Ringo Starr could sing it as the lead vocal, since he couldn´t hit higher notes.

 George was first called the “quiet Beatle” when he fell ill with pharyngitis in New York and the nickname stuck when he developed an interest in Hinduism, meditation and Indian classical music.

“Bagism” was a word invented by John Lennon and YoKo Ono. It was used to mean that a person couldn’t be judged by their outward appearance if they lived in a bag that covered their entire body. Thus, the bag would end prejudice based on attributes such as skin colour or gender.

 German toilets were mentioned because when the Beatles went on a tour to Hamburg for the first time, they lived in deplorable conditions in the cold storeroom of an old cinema next to the ladies’ toilets. The reason why there was almost no crime in New York on February 9th, 1964, couldn’t be other than the 73 million viewers who remained glued to the television captivated by the Liverpool band in what was the beginning of the British invasion of pop music and Beatlemania. 

The show also featured an interactive quiz in which the audience enthusiastically took part using their mobile phones. The contestants were required to answer questions about the band. 

Competition was fierce, but only those who had paid close attention were able to get the first positions.

 Irene, Lucía and Germán still had to face the final challenge.

They had to open a lock with a three-number combination in order to win a prize. The clues for the three numbers were hidden in the songs! They had to give the correct number of times “yesterday”, “we can work it out” and “let it be” had been repeated in the songs. 

Germán in the third position received a badge, Lucía in the second position got a CD and a toy guitar, and Irene got the winning position and a lovely T-shirt. Congratulations! Well done!

Guillermo Vázquez López, a student of 4ºA ESO, who also attended the show has gladly written the following review. 

“The Beatles are already pretty interesting as it is being one of the most famous bands in history. This show really captures the interesting and wild nature of the Beatles telling the audience fun facts about them and the history of the band while also being pretty interesting and engaging when they perform the songs and ask questions to the audience. It’s a good show if you want to learn about an old band.” 

As for me, being the youngest of three siblings, I grew up listening to the Beatles, the music that my elder brother played at home. Listening to the Beatles brings to my mind sweet childhood memories of a time when there were no worries, and we spent the time playing and having fun. I couldn’t help feeling imbued with that lively music that made us all sing and dance together. I somehow felt part of that generation who were in the midst of a cultural revolution. I’ll never forget watching the atmosphere of excitement on TV when the enthusiastic fans flocked around the Beatles at airports and screamed hysterically. I’m pleased that the iconic songs of The Beatles, the most successful and critically acclaimed music group in history, keep on crossing generations and reach an audience that has had very different musical influences. 

And now the final test.Can you guess the names of the members of The Beatles?