Movie's Rock

BACK BEAT (1994)

A pre-fame Beatles head for the seedy clubs of Hamburg in search of success. The band meet up with a group of trendy German beatniks, one of whom (Astrid Kircherr) bass guitarist Stuart Sutcliffe falls in love with. Whilst best friend John Lennon can only watch, Sutcliffe has to choose between rock 'n roll and a new life in Germany... Written by Douglas Baptie

John Lennon and the rest of his new rock-and-roll group - Paul McCartney, Pete Best, George Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe - travel to Hamburg to try their luck. Word soon gets out and they become increasingly popular, especially with the girls. But Stuart still thinks he is a better painter than bass guitarist, and he has fallen seriously in love with a German girl. He and the rest of the group have to make some decisions. Written by Jeremy Perkins {jwp@aber.ac.uk}

Backbeat is a 1994 movie that chronicles the early days of The Beatles in Hamburg, Germany. The movie focuses primarily on the relationship between Stuart Sutcliffe (played by Stephen Dorff) and John Lennon (played by Ian Hart), and also with Sutcliffe's German girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr (played by Sheryl Lee).

The movie is generally more accurate, both about Sutcliffe's life and the early Beatles history, than the 1979 TV movie Birth of the Beatles, which covers mostly the same period. It also has a darker, more detailed storyline, and The Beatles history as such, is background to the main story.

The film is based on the book The Real Life Story Behind Backbeat - Stuart Sutcliffe: The Lost Beatle by Alan Clayson and Pauline Sutcliffe (ISBN 0330335804, 1994).

Paul McCartney, however, was not impressed with the movie, stating: "One of my annoyances about the film Backbeat is that they've actually taken my rock 'n' rollness off me. They give John the song "Long Tall Sally" to sing and he never sang it in his life. But now it's set in cement. It's like the Buddy Holly and Glenn Miller stories. The Buddy Holly Story does not even mention Norman Petty, and The Glenn Miller Story is a sugarcoated version of his life. Now Backbeat has done the same thing to the story of The Beatles."

The soundtrack to the movie features no Beatles songs, but the cover tunes they used to play in Hamburg, written and recorded by other artists.

Rather than re-create the period sounds, iconoclastic, rebellious musicians were recruited (as a producer noted, The Beatles' pre-recording stage act was "the punk of its day".) This was done to better convey the way the music came across to the audience, at the time. The musicians were all members of well-known American rock bands:

• Dave Pirner (Soul Asylum): vocals
• Greg Dulli (The Afghan Whigs): vocals
• Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth): guitar
• Don Fleming (Gumball): guitar
• Mike Mills (R.E.M.): bass guitar
• Dave Grohl (Nirvana/Foo Fighters): drums

Ian Hart also played Lennon in the film, The Hours and Times.^[1]

Gary Bakewell later reprised his role as Paul McCartney in the television film The Linda McCartney Story.

Scot Williams played Pete Best again in the television movie In His Life: The John Lennon Story.

Additionally, the film's distributor, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, was then under common ownership with the label which owned the rights to release and distribute the Beatles' music from the Hamburg days, Polydor Record