In ‘Part 1’ of the podcast series…

Mark, Desiree and I discuss the recently-unleashed big-screen British film, ‘Yesterday,’ directed by English movie-maker, Danny Boyle, perhaps best known for the flicks, ‘The Beach,’ ‘Slumdog Millionaire,’ and the ‘Trainspotting’ excursions. This latest release of his, the screen-play of which was written by ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’ writer, Richard Curtis, centres around the exploits of a budding but struggling singer/songwriter by the name of Jack Malik who wakes up one day after some form of brief world blackout to unexpectedly find that no one has ever heard of The Beatles or their songs either, they just don’t exist. Quickly noticing that friends of his are complimenting him personally in this new reality for the quality of tunes he sings and plays on his acoustic guitar, assuming that he wrote them, such as the Lennon & McCartney standard, Yesterday, he decides to continue this on a larger scale, passing off all the band’s songs as his own and, as a result, eventually reaching the edges of international stardom. This role of Jack’s as, effectively, an impostor posing as a genius songwriter, will – and has – prompted viewers of the movie to make comparisons to the P.i.D. scenario (‘Paul is Dead’), and, perhaps, especially because Malik’s post-blackout world deception starts after he’s the victim of a road-crash.
On the subject of movies, we also explore briefly some intriguing, and what folk have perceived to be (including myself), suggestive scenes and images perhaps pertaining to The Beatles and the so-called ‘Manson murders’ in a couple of old films that were released and/or shot quite a while before August 1969, the date that the killings took place in a well-to-do area of Los Angeles - 50 years ago this month of course. On viewing these, one might be tempted to think that some of them are occult, symbolic clues (predictions if you so like, or warnings) of the carnage that was to follow, a thought that might be bolstered by the fact that they both include involvement from Roman Polanski, widower of Sharon Tate, the actress who was murdered during the killing-spree by Charles Manson’s so-called ‘family’ and killings that are said to have been inspired by ‘secret messages’ he and his collective got from The Beatles’ 1968 ‘White Album’ and in particular the track from it, ‘Helter Skelter,’ which, it’s claimed, they perceived to be the announcement of an impending apocalyptic Race-war between Blacks and Whites. The films in question are the 1968 horror, ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ starring Mia Farrow and directed by Roman, and the 1969 Beatles-backed ‘The Magic Christian’ featuring Ringo Starr in a co-lead role with Peter Sellers, whose name has been linked to the events and the various characters surrounding the murders, as has actor’s, Yul Brynner, who has a brief cameo in this flick alongside Polanski whose appearance in the film is also short.
Also, in mind of the Tate murders, there’s an LA flavour to taste in another subject up for discussion in the first episode of this podcast, and that’s the recent release of a new movie-documentary looking back at the reported contributions made by US bands back in the 1960s in the Los Angeles region of Laurel Canyon. Ringo has been interviewed for this film, so, Desiree, Mark and myself discuss this to an extent and ponder on the links The Beatles have had in some shape or form (and continue to have) with this location, a location that was brought to the attention of all three of us thanks to the work of the researcher, the late David McGowan and his book, ‘Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream.’

This podcast was recorded, August 19th 2019…

https://theoccultbeatles.wordpress.com/

Check out Desiree's blog here:
https://thenumbernineblog.wordpress.com/

More from Mark Devlin here:
https://djmarkdevlin.blogspot.com/?m=1