Review: Hard Day’s Night Exhibition, The Beatles Story, Albert Dock, Liverpool – 10th July 2024

AUK’s Barry  Jones gets a sneak preview of the latest addition to The Beatles Story permanent exhibition in Liverpool’s Albert Dock. And in case you were wondering why,  in the words of our editor Mark (a proud Liverpudlian), “I know the Beatles are hardly Americana but I think they get a free pass around these parts!”

It’s hard to believe that it’s sixty years since The Beatles visited the USA for the first time in February 1964. That visit produced a shock wave which swept around the world with aftershocks that are still rocking to this day. For those of us alive at the time, and living in Liverpool, the significance of it all, to popular culture in general, and especially music, cannot be overstated.

Other voices are less convinced, and it’s not for me to try and persuade them otherwise, so I’ll just nail my colours to the mast and say that The Beatles, and indeed the Beatles industry, has been a major and profound part of my life. Needless to say then that I leapt at the opportunity to preview the new exhibit at The Beatles Story at Liverpool’s Albert Dock.

The exhibit is about The Beatles Film “A Hard Day’s Night” which premiered in the same year as that first USA visit, and the significance of the exhibition launch date is that it is the 60th anniversary of the Liverpool Premiere. Later the same evening a sold out charity showing of the film at the Liverpool Odeon demonstrates that it’s still a hot ticket despite a widely viewed televised football match.

For those familiar with The Beatles Story, an independent museum of narrative timelines and memorabilia, the new exhibit is housed in the room which previously featured The Beatles in India which will be incorporated into the permanent exhibits at some point.

Along with an original autographed copy of the “Hard Day’s Night” LP, the key feature of the exhibit, which resembles a platform on Marylebone Station, one of the locations in the film, is a display of four suits as worn in the film, lovingly re-created using the original measurements and patterns by Gordon Millings, the son of the original tailor. Gordon, as a young man, worked with his father in the family tailoring business in Soho, adjacent to the famous Two I’s café, from the early sixties. Arnold “Dougie” Millings was tailor to the stars, having made suits for anybody who was anybody in the world of entertainment in the 50’s and 60’s. The list contains such well-known faces as Cliff Richard and The Shadows, Adam Faith, Marty Wilde, Tommy Steele, The Everly Brothers, The Four Tops, The Rolling Stones, the Small Faces, Gerry and The Pacemakers and Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin’s manager, and many more, as well as 500 suits for the Beatles themselves. The featured replicas in the exhibition cost £134 for all four in 1964 which equates to about £3,400 today. Dougie was at the studios one day during the filming, measuring up The Beatles, when  Richard Lester, the film’s director, decided to quickly write a scene to include him doing the measuring in the film!

Gordon Millings himself attended the preview and proved to be a personable, knowledgeable and entertaining character. Immaculately attired as befitting a tailor of his generation, his anecdotes and personal knowledge, and recall of people and places, were fascinating, it’s just a shame that he won’t be there for all visitors! Perhaps a video of him talking of his experiences would be a useful addition to the exhibition!

If you haven’t seen the film, I certainly recommend it, the two Oscar nominations it received were well-deserved. The influence on subsequent music videos is plain to see, and the soundtrack music is as good as it gets! If you have any interest in The Beatles, a trip to The Beatles Story, Albert Dock, is well worth an hour or two, and this latest exhibit is an intriguing and worthwhile addition. Booking details are here.