We are now sixty years on from the crest of The Beatles' touring years, if you figure the August 15, 1965 Shea Stadium show that kicked off their second North American tour as "the top of the mountain," as John Lennon once did. 
Therefore, who better to talk about those three intense years and shows than Chuck Gunderson, author of Some Fun Tonight: The Backstage Story of How The Beatles Rocked America? It was published in 2014 in two slipcased volumes, richly illustrated with many never-before-seen photos of The Fabs onstage, as well as behind the scenes and of period ephemera. Chuck is the expert on those shows, and in this conversation - taped live in front of an audience at the 2025 Rosemont Fest For Beatles Fans - we convened to discuss Shea, Margies Candies, the Chicago mob, segregation, and how Brian handled the demands of sailing into uncharted waters. 
Check out the book here: https://www.somefuntonight.com/ 

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Ribbons of Rust: The Beatles' Recording History in Context is this first installment of a multi-volume series, building out the history of everything The Beatles did in the recording studio to reveal the influences around them and the world they created in. I (Robert Rodriguez)  am the author of or contributor to over half a dozen Beatles books, while Jerry Hammack is the creator of the five-volume Beatles Recording Reference Manual series. Both of us are award-winners as well. 
The book comes in standard mono(chrome) edition, richly illustrated in black and white, as well as the deluxe full colour edition. Both volumes are filed with QR codes, linking readers fo British Pathe newsreels, music and other sights and sounds of the era. The Beatles' times are brought to life thusly for a fully immersive experience. 
To give a proper assessment of this first joint project, we convened: 

This all boiled down to three people: 
producer John Leckie (Radiohead - XTC - Stone Roses - Simple Minds - Dukes of Stratosphear - many more) 

Sibbie O'Sullivan (author of My Private Lennon: Explorations for a fan Who Never Screamed)

Richard Mills (author of The Beatles and Fandom and the just-published The Beatles and Black Music) We also included some "civilians" who'd read the book as well. 

Here's what they had to say. For more info (including a "look inside" and book trailer), visit http://www.ribbonsfrust.net 

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In 2014, sociologist Candy Leonard published Beatleness: How the Beatles and Their Fans Remade The World. It was a groundbreaking work, representing a serious exploration into the phenomenon of fandom and the reciprocal relationship between artist and audience, and the impact that all of it had on lives - and the world - that reverberates ever onward even today, sixty years on. 

Candy has twice been a guest on the show (155: 1968 and 180: "...I buried Paul...") but for this conversation, we focused on the politics of Beatles: not their personal convictions per se but what they meant fresh out of the gate - what they represented and how they were received by fans and the establishment alike.   In this talk, we covered hair (as a statement) - drugs - evolution - One to One - Beatles '64 - feminism - Taylor Swift.  

Check out Candy's site for her essays and more (https://www.candyleonard.com/beatleness ). 

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Director Alan G. Parker's newest film is a personal expression of gratitude toward John Lennon for being a figure that helped him through some difficult years when he was growing up. Borrowed Time: Lennon's Last Decade includes interviews with dozens of figures who knew him; everyone from Aunt Mimi (archival footage) to journalists like Ray Connolly, Chris Charlesworth, and Anthony DeCurtis, plus writers like Philip Norman and Ken Womack and other figures of influence, like Tariq Ali.

The result is an impressionistic portrait of John's post-Beatles years, created through the creativity that comes from working without official sanction. Parker's other work includes 2017's It Was Fifty Years Ago Today on Sgt. Pepper, plus other films and books covering punk acts including The Clash and the Sex Pistols.    

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In late May 1969, producer Glyn Johns turned in a draft album, culled from hours of tape recorded in January 1969 during the Get Back/Let It Be sessions. His work reflected the original concept: catching The Beatles as they really were in the studio, with off-the-cuff performances of oldies, warm-ups, false starts and blown takes. It would have made for a fine tie-in with the original cut of the Let It be film, but ultimately, the group rejected the idea, instead moving back to their established productions values, with Abbey Road being the result.

The tapes, handed off to Phil Spector, emerged in May 1970 with a new tie-in: the group's break-up. Let It Be, the album, drew the worst reviews of their career, being a neither fish-nor-fowl collection of tunes bearing Spector's worst impulses (choirs and lush orchestration) alongside vestiges of the original concept (studio chat and tossed off improvisations).

In this episode, Robert and Olympiad partner Gary Wenstrup re-imagine the group's history - what if Get Back HAD been accepted and released in spring 1969, the missing link between the White Album and Abbey Road?

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In recent years, the quality of Beatles scholarship has risen considerably, and the old days of accepting and repeating any old data (even coming from sources that should be credible) - without examining it deeper to see if it really stands up - are long gone. With The Beatles, music is always at the heart of their story, and in particular, what they did in the studio. Examining how their recordings were produced tells us a ton about how the group operated, and therefore getting it right is pretty important to understanding what we're hearing. My two guests - Marcus Phelan and Andrew Shakespeare - are 2nd-gen fans, hailing from Australia. Both are musicians who've been playing for decades and have been studying The Beatles' music for just about as long. We selected a group of songs that have been disputed as to who is playing what and how the recordings were constructed for this first installment of Contentious Credits. 

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Beatle proteges Badfinger were an Apple band that simultaneously produced some of the finest pop/rock of their era while beset by management malfeasance leading directly to their decimation by suicide. It was fifty years ago that Pete Ham, their songwriter responsible for "No Matter What," "Day After Day" and "Baby Blue" and co-writer with Tommy Evans of "Without You" took his life at 27. Only a few months before, he and the band recorded one final album (at Apple Studios), Head First. Multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter Bob Jackson, the group's newest addition, was fully on board with the project, which went unreleased at the time but through his determination, was tracked down and fully realized in late 2024.

In this conversation, Bob discusses his tenure in the band alongside Pete, Tommy, Mike Gibbins and the late Joey Molland, as well as his work with them through the years that followed as well as the lasting impact of the two tragedies.

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My guest has produced one of those rare books in The Beatles' literary canon not penned by an insider (or by someone named Lewisohn) that has arrived with a tidal wave of press; in advance and since. Ian Leslie, who in the past has written about psychology, has put together a thesis examining the singular personal and professional relationship between Lennon and McCartney, and how it manifested in their art. That's a lot to unpack but we cover a lot of ground in our conversation.  

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On April 10, 2025, the film One To One: John and Yoko was released in US theaters. Gary Wenstrup (SATB Olympiad series) attended a screening, and in this SATB Special, have a discussion on what we saw: what was good - what we thought was less so - what was in it - what was not in it.

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An important part of understanding both rock history generally and The Beatles' history specifically is contained in a study of the fan magazines produced throughout the 50s and 60s. For the purposes of this discussion, Dr. Allison Bumsted's newly-published TeenSet, Teen Fan Magazines and Rock Journalism: Don't Let The Name Fool You is THE roadmap to understanding the role these journals played in both promoting artists and instilling a sense of community among fans, pre-internet and social media. Allison focuses much of her research on TeenSet, a groundbreaking magazine created by Capitol Records that began as one thing and ended as something else under the guidance of visionary editor Judith Sims.

You can check out Allison's research and new articles at www.allisonbumsted.com

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