This Friday, September 23, the Beatles are coming to the University of New Haven. The occasion: a new film entitled, Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years. Directed by Ron Howard, this documentary looks at the Beatles during the height of their fame during 1963-66, and how they handled life of the road.
UNH is one of 9 schools in the whole country to be chosen to premiere this new film, along with schools like NYU, Berklee College of Music, USC, and others. UNH was chosen because of “the quality of the music program” as well as the fact that the Honors Program currently hosts a course on the music and lyrics of the Beatles.
“When selecting colleges, we specifically targeted universities with a reputation for having the best music business programs in the country,” says Todd Goodwin, Vice President for College and Lifestyle Marketing at Universal Music Group.
“I couldn’t be happier to be partnering with Hulu and these select universities to introduce this film to college students in a way that was both educational and entertaining,” he added.
Being the only school in Connecticut to host this screening, the honor truly falls on the university as they host the CEO of Apple Records, Jeff Jones. Jones will have a discussion briefly following the film with the professors behind the Beatles course at UNH, Wes Davis and Guillermo Mager.
The movie itself has seen decent reviews, with one of the best being from Lori Majewski, of Sirius XM Radio. “I absolutely loved it. I was on the verge of tears for the first 20 to 30 minutes – such sweetness, innocence, brotherhood, and, of course, an unparalleled time in popular culture,” she says.
Wes Davis, an English professor at UNH and a lifelong Beatles fan, looks at each new piece of Beatles documentary differently, hoping to learn something new each time. Davis says he thinks this new film is aimed at the younger generation – those who weren’t alive when the group were at the top of their stardom.
The Beatles were also a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon, one that would not happen today, according to Professor Davis. “It was as if all the planets had arrived for them to work,” he explained. The Beatles would not have been the Beatles if one piece were out of place.
Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years will be showing in Bucknall Theater at the University of New Haven on Friday September 23 at 6 p.m. Students can get in free with their student ID. There is also an album of Beatles music released with the film, The Beatles: Live at the Hollywood Bowl.
