Phoenix Arts Club, London’s glittering West End, 15th November 2023

In the olden days, no, not just preCOVID but there were times even before the bat – people bought magazines in volumes that made it financially viable and advertisers threw their cash around. One such magazine was ‘Word’ that held the spirit of Smash Hits, Q, Mojo etc its founders and writers toiled for and was embraced by older pop kids who still cared. Sadly it printed its last issue in summer 2012 but it had two invaluable assets in its podcast and its online forum. Its unique flavour perhaps demonstrated in that a proportion of its online users started meeting in public at ‘mingles’, yes meeting people online in real life. Sometimes falling in love and getting married, divorced and spawning. Yet often friendships were created that have lasted until today.

Nothing Is Real holding a live podcast in London to crown 4 1/2 years of gabbing about The Beatles (sort of) comes from that spark.

Bereft, the Word community set up a new home and after a while I turned my hand to creating a podcast where we talked about anything and nothing. Sometimes we had interviews but more often than not a subject and an open ended discussion. I shared hosting duties with the others being about jazz, prog and beard music and mine are the ones with silly titles – I’m particularly proud of our episode on Bowie’s Blackstar LP entitled ‘Jazz & Dave’

The two people I always tried to get to discuss pretty much anything were Jason Carty aka Dr J and Steven Cockcroft because, they were so fucking good at it. Jason always had a theory and Steven a bag full of insightful and clever takes that I held together with undercutting cheap gags and violent changes of direction. The tapings always lasted between 2-3 hours which I chopped down to 75 mins as I believe above that is self indulgent. No one is that good, funny or interesting for any longer – every fleeting thought is not a pearl, you are enjoying your own voice far too much. Oh and cut the intro and get to the meat.

Steven was always the one to say “good luck with the edit” after 3 hours of yabbering. So when I heard that he and Jason were starting up a Beatles podcast I was in from the first tweet of the pod account. I hadn’t really listened to a Beatles podcast before because, with no irony intended, I felt that there was nothing they could tell me that I didn’t already know.

So jumping to last Wednesday night in a club in London, a stones throw from fabled music mecca Denmark Street and perhaps a world beating javelin toss from Paul McCartney’s Soho Square MPL offices. A pair of tickets were delivered there earlier just in case he fancied flying back from Mexico on his day off just to find out exactly what he did in the sixties. SPOILER – he did….not show up. Yet an audience of Beatles nerds and nerdesses sold the place out months in advance. So it’s just as well Paul didn’t show as he’d probably have to stand at the back or sit on the pinball machine

In front of an ace quality video screen Jason and Steven detailed the Beatles entire live career – ok, not quite but they skilfully demonstrated how their humble first tour of Scotland backing promoter Larry Parnes’ protégé Johnny Gentle in May 1960 created brotherhood bonds that enabled them to reach the heights they did until their final gig at Candlestick Park, 29th August 1966. That perhaps, once they stopped touring that energy and togetherness waned until they no longer needed each other.

That initial handful of dates was their Vietnam – you had to be there to understand the lack of money (they didn’t bring any as they didn’t know they would only ne paid at the end of the tour), clothes (they only had what they wore on stage) lack of practice (they allegedly got the set they’d be playing two days before) and the lack of a drummer with ancient old man Tommy Moore, 36, roped in with eighteen year old John & Paul and 15 year old George. The youngsters formed a tight little unit which meant Tommy got picked on, ridiculed and during one eventful night, sprung from his hospital bed to tub thump. On this tour, with no name, they rechristened themselves – Paul Ramon, Carl Harrison & Long John. This was a few months before Hamburg where they learnt their stage chops and possibly became the band as we know them.

At the other end of the telescope, the final date of their eventful and often miserable world tour at a very much not sold out Candlestick Park in San Francisco. There is a clip doing the rounds this week of American teens on a TV show reacting to Strawberry Fields and its promo film six months after their last live show. Some of the reaction to these moustachioed weird men and their new sound draws a clear dividing line between the tired guys still in their matching suits on stage that night and the hip psychedelic wizards they had become. The Beatles themselves took photographs on stage that night and Paul asked Tony Barrow to tape the set for posterity. Paul’s stage announcements that night perhaps suggest he was still clinging on to the idea of playing live. Maybe he knew what momentum and unity it produced and without it the wheels would come off.

All this was presented with a humour and easy going attitude that is key to what makes the podcast special for me. There is no one-upmanship or attempt to outdo each other with facts. Its all about presenting a narrative, exploring the offshoots and little known facts and trying to decide what it all means. Taking what can be dry, inaccessible and dull, dull, dull and finding something fresh in a story that, as the tagline goes, we all think we know – that’s a special skill.

After a knockabout Q&A with plenty of crowd interaction its was end of transmission. As I sat there watching Steven & Jason chat to people, no c’mon, lets call them FANS, who had travelled far and paid solid cash to see them talk – well I was a bit moved. I played absolutely zero part in the success of the podcast which bought them here tonight but I was very proud of my friends in all they have acheived. A series on the BBC, mentions in the New York Times, credit from Johnny Marr & Charlie Brooker, respect from Beatles author supreme, Mark Lewisohn for their podcast and interview skills as well as a few million downloads.

To get where they have in just over 4 1/2 years with no initial media presence, no celebrity, not standup comedians, journalists or authors. As just two Beatles fans who thought they had something to add to the rich history of the Fab Four – lads, congratulations, I think you’ve reached the toppermost of the poppermost

______________________________
Nothing Is Real – all the facts can be found here
@BeatlesPod on the X Twitter
The podcast can be explored here with over 150 regular episodes and half again of bonus for subscribers