Anfield Road

THE EARLY days of one of Liverpool’s most famous exports is the subject of a film getting a special screening at FACT later this month, followed by an exclusive Q&A session with one of its stars. Not a story about former Juventus and Liverpool striker Ian Rush, not a story about Liverpool FC at all, it’s about the band that headed the city’s domination of the music world at a time that coincided closely with Bill Shankly’s revolution in the football world.

The movie, BACKBEAT, is a dramatisation of the experiences of The Beatles in that period before they made the big time, a time when they were trying to make their name in Europe, with a line-up that had some key differences to the one that would go on to be known around the world as the ‘Fab Four’.

Made in 1994, the film takes up the story of the most famous band in the world when it was unknown and struggling in Hamburg as a bar band. The fresh-faced musicians set sail from Liverpool to Germany with Stuart Sutcliffe their bass player and a close friend of John Lennon.  As the story unfolds the relationship between Sutcliffe (played by Stephen Dorff) and Lennon (played by Ian Hart) begins to suffer as Sutcliffe’s love for a German art student gets in the way of both that friendship and the future of the band.

The script was based on 1988 interviews that the movie’s writer and director, Iain Softley, had held with Astrid Kirchherr (Sutcliffe’s German girlfriend, played in the movie by Sheryl Lee) and Klaus Voormann (played by Kai Wiesinger).

The Beatles were a five-piece band at this time, Lennon and Sutcliffe joined by Paul McCartney (Gary Bakewell), George Harrison (Chris O’Neill) and the original drummer Pete Best (Scot Williams). History tells us that by the time a four-piece Beatles was dominating the charts, Best had been replaced by Ringo Starr (Paul Duckworth) and tragedy had befallen Sutcliffe.

The band on stage at the Kaiserkeller

The special screening takes place on Monday 14th November at FACT’s cinema in the ‘Ropewalks’ area of the city and comes shortly after the stage version of BACKBEAT made its West End debut.

Scot Williams will take part in a Question and Answer session with the audience after the movie, to be chaired by Liverpool writer, poet and Journalist Peter Grant. There is also a complimentary after show drink on offer, sponsored by Matthew Clark, at 3345 Parr Street.

The screening is being held as part of the ‘Clapperboard Presents…’ series and income from these events goes towards the Clapperboard Youth Project.

Ticket prices are £11 each with concessions at £8.00 and can be got direct from the FACT box office on 0871 902 5737 or online at the following link: BACKBEAT screening and Q&A tickets.