Interview for Record Mirror

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IT was a typical quiet evening at London’s Savoy Hotel. Quiet that is until the Beatles turned up to see Bob Dylan. They all trooped down to the restaurant and ordered Porridge and Pea Sandwiches.

They got them. Then one of the boys spotted Owls Legs on the menu. They ordered them as a joke. It didn’t take too long before the Owls Legs were actually served, piping hot, to the group.

“But we wouldn’t have known if they hadn’t been Owls Legs,” said Paul.

An evening out for the Beatles is something of a rarity nowadays. The boys are leading almost entirely self-contained lives and the latest development of theirs to entertain themselves are film projectors.

“We’ve all bought 16mm film projectors with sound and everything,” explained Paul. “And we hire loads of films — it’s surprising but you can get some of the really latest top films. For instance I’ve got “Topkapi” and “Tom Jones”. And we hire some of Elvis’s films too… I like them in the same way that I like “Double Your Money.”

“The projectors cost a lot of money, about two hundred quid I think. But they’re worthwhile to us at least, because we don’t get a chance to get out and see these films. John is the really keen one. He has it all organised, showing two films a night now. It’s just like a cinema round his place. We all sit there eyes glued to the screen. And he doesn’t start showing them until late, well, after television has finished and none of us get to bed until fantastically late hours.

“We all sit bleary-eyed in front of the screen making signs with our hands on the screen — little animals and all that…

“So far we haven’t got a copy of “Hard Day’s Night”. Not that it bothers me. I didn’t like the film anyway. Seriously, I mean that. The original novelty of seeing yourself on screen wears off. You know, like home movies of yourself at the seaside. The good thing is that at least you can come out with anecdotes every ten seconds about what happened behind the scenes.”

Paul talked about the Beatles next film “Help!”.

“I like this one better. It has been great filming it. But all the residents of the Bahamas hated us. Really. They’re so rich there and they were so rude to us that we just didn’t care. We all rented Triumph Spitfires and drove them around the island. They didn’t like that either.

“But there are some good scenes from the film. There are shots of us in a disused quarry, using it as a race track. We found it when we were waiting for the technicians. We were screeching around it like mad. Well, they filmed it slyly and put it in the film. Just like that.

“There are no speeded up shots, like in “A Hard Day’s Night”, but there are some other visual gimmicks. Like standing on a rock in the middle of the ocean playing our instruments. And the next shot with us up to our necks in water, still playing. And one of Ringo, lying on his stomach on the beach swimming in the sand.”

PAUL DIDN’T LIKE “TICKET”

Then Paul started to sing the Beatles next disc “Help!” to us, taking the part of all the voices, and even the backing. He maintains it’s much better than “Ticket To Ride”.

“Can’t say I liked ‘Ticket’ much,” he stated. “But this new one is — in my opinion — good. I hope I don’t sound big-headed. But I like it — it’s certainly the fastest record we’ve made and it’s very different. It’s a bit like the middle eight in “It Won’t Be Long”…

“I think that John and I are writing different sort of songs to what we were a couple of years back. I can’t say whether they’re better or worse but they’re certainly different. And that is O.K. by us because we wouldn’t want to stand still, to stagnate musically.”

Somehow I can’t imagine the Beatles ever doing that…