Birth of the Beatles

Birth of the Beatles is a 1979 biopic film, produced by Dick Clarks company Dick Clark Productions and directed by Richard Marquand. The film was released into cinemas worldwide except in parts of the United States, where it was shown as a TV film. The film focuses on the early history of the Beatles. It was released only nine years after the announced breakup of the Beatles themselves and is the only Beatles biopic to be made while John Lennon was still alive.

The film goes on a flashback to 1959, when the Silver Beatles as they were called then consisted of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe. They need a drummer and a manager, and Sutcliffe cannot play an instrument, only being in it because he is Johns friend and none of the others want to play the bass guitar. They go and audition for an agent, where they meet Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and become good friends with the Hurricanes drummer, Ringo Starr. The agent at the audition says that if they get themselves a permanent drummer they can have a job in Scotland and then afterward a job in Hamburg, Germany.The Scotland gig occurs, but is not seen onscreen. The band finds a long term drummer in Pete Best, whose mother owns the teenagers hangout spot the Casbah Coffee Club. They begin to prepare for the trip Hamburg which lasts several months and they encounter disapproval from Cynthia and Johns Aunt Mimi. When they reach Hamburg, they discover they are playing in the Indra Club on the Reeperbahn, Hamburgs notorious sex district. They play long, grueling hours up tohours a night, seven days a week, and have to stay active by taking Preludin, a slimming drug. They are living in the back of the Bambi Kino, a run down old cinema. While in the Indra, they play loudly and wildly, eating, spitting and drinking onstage, inviting women to dance on stage with them, etc. Things get so loud the club is eventually shut down. ........

Source: Wikipedia