Monday, June 16, 2014

Es-Say #16- You Never Give Me Your Money?!? Come On, Are You For Real?

As it seems like I haven't updated the blog, I might as well slam together a theme along with and overview of all my McCartney/Beatles adventures as of late. Since the end of May, I have attended a record show(and recorded a YouTube video of the purchases), bought tickets to see 'A Hard Day's Night in July', and have been joyfully reading Peter Doggett's excellent book 'You Never Give Me Your Money."
But first, as Paul decided to heed doctors' advice and postponed his USA tour until October, I have lost hope of attending a show myself and I have let go of worrying about how to finance the cost of a ticket. This seems to have left me wanting to just go back and continue buying various things. Tour, what tour? I can still carry on with my collecting.
Now, this is what I came back with after a huge publicized record show http://youtu.be/goP8Y_Kv0gA
I felt it was a huge disappointment and I won't be attending next year. I spent half of what I would normally spend at a show of this size and I was not impressed with the vendors as well. I didn't buy a McCartney 2013 Japanese show, partly because it cost £100 and partly because nobody could have stopped me from stealing it if I wanted to (I was ignored, at least some of the other vendors tried to sell me stuff). This same vendor was selling The Beatles 1963 recordings on CD from the iTunes collection for about £10 lower than iTunes. Luckily, I found my copy from another vendor for half of that discount. It may have gone differently had the higher-priced vendor made any attempt to simply say "hi."

After I left the show a bit underwhelmed and shaking my head, I went outside and found a few more things from an unrelated vendor who was more than happy to sell to me and take my money!!!! Hooray! They did have a McCartney soundcheck cd from last year but I opted for a 2000 Yellow Dog Beatles release. I think I'm holding out for a better recent Macca live concert collection on CD. I like to buy things that have particular tracks or significant meaning to me.

The upcoming DVD release of the 1964 film of "A Hard Day's Night" is something that would fit this idea of things that appeal to me. So much so, that I had tried to get a ticket to the preview British Film Institute screening on July 3rd. At least two months in advance, I thought I had been prepared for this. Only recently, did I find out that the Director of the film, Richard Lester, would be presenting the screening. I went to the BFI before non-member could purchase tickets only to be told the ticket were probably sold out already. As I opted not to pay £40 for membership and then another £11 for the show, I waited for the non-membership onsale time. Can you guess what happened next? I'm going to see "A Hard Day's Night" on another viewing time when Mr Lester won't be in the building and I saved £40! I hope to have slightly better luck in 50 more years, but I'm pleased to be seeing this movie on the big screen.

The blue-ray is being released in July and seems to be a good value for money. The US has been noted for getting a great design to the cover. I'm not that bothered with the UK version on missing a few things but the cover design is a bit questionable(I will point out Ringo's nose as an example, it doesn't look like his own). I know I may just fling the box in the air and hurl the disc in the machine to play regardless of my gripes. I've waited long enough for this but just need to part with the money and order it already.

Maybe I should just walk to work this week?