There were “truths in screaming” of the girls at early Beatles concerts, he writes, “that many religions have yet to grasp”. Love and Let Die works well as a collection of sharp and pacy stories, though it is a pity Higgs has a weakness for grandiose flourishes. Photograph: Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo/Alamy Ringo Starr with his mum, Elsie, and stepfather, Harry, in their new house in Liverpool, March 1964. One article depicted them as monkeys and called them “Dung Beatles”, while a propaganda film, reports Higgs, bizarrely “intercut unflattering photographs of together with images of the Ku Klux Klan, ecstatic pop fans dancing, burning crosses and images of rural poverty from the American south”. The rulers of the Soviet Union, anxious about the rise of western youth culture, made strenuous efforts to discredit the Beatles. A friend admitted it was “awkward, particularly as the toilet was still in the yard”. His mother, Elsie, politely offered them sandwiches – which they took away, uneaten, as souvenirs. In the early days of Beatlemania, Ringo Starr’s house was surrounded by fans 24 hours a day. Though he inevitably covers some well-trodden territory, much of the detail is poignant and entertaining. John Higgs, however, had the intriguing idea of exploring their creation, development and afterlives in parallel. No one could have predicted that we would still be thrilled by the band’s music six decades later, or that the film franchise would still be going strong. I t is a curious fact that the Beatles’ debut single, Love Me Do, and the first James Bond film, Dr No, were both released on Friday 5 October 1962.
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