"Because the world is round" "It turns me on" "Because the world" "Is round" "Ah" "Because the wind is high" "It blows my mind" "Because the wind" "Is high" "Ah" "Love is old, love is new" "Love is all, love is you" "I was really involved at the beginning because I nurtured a dream about a project with George." "For him, this project was not only doing a show, but it was also an opportunity to maybe have the Beatles members left alive working together on a creative project again." "(McCartney) I was introduced originally to the Cirque by my daughter when she took me to a show in the Albert Hall in London." "And then George and Olivia took me to see "O" in Las Vegas." "George, because he was friends, I think, with Guy, started talking about a collaboration between the Cirque and the Beatles." "There was the possibility that Cirque wanted to use Cirque's interpretation of Beatles music with possibly musicians on stage just like, you know, normal Cirque shows." "And I said, "No, it's got to be the Beatles' music."" "The brief that I was given was:" ""You've got to have 90 minutes of music and you create that from anything you recorded with the Beatles since 1962."" "(drum intro)" "(Starr) George knew where all the bodies were." ""That bass line that wasn't used, we can put that there." "There's a drum..."" "There was talk of, like, some new, hip guy, which sounds all very nice for a minute." "But, you know, suddenly the new, hip guy is..." "There's another new, hip guy." "So we got George Martin, who's always been hip." "Baby, you can drive my car" "And maybe I'll love you" "(George Martin) I've lived with these songs for 40-odd years." "It's great to listen to." "(man) I started, with my father, started working on this two years ago." "I suppose when I started doing it, I was full of fear, loathing and dread, thinking:" ""God, I've been given a Beatles tape and they want me to do something to it and people are going to hate me for this."" "It's a good retrospective song." "(George Martin) We've been running around in circles." "OK." "All I've got..." "I've got nothing left." "Oh" "Oh, yeah" "Oh" "Oh, yeah" "(man) I felt like un imposteur." "How do you say?" "The syndrome of the..." " (man) Impostor." " Impostor." "Who am I to be there, sitting in studio 2 with George Martin and dreaming of which tracks, which music we would play with?" "(George Martin) But also we're changing the actual tracks themselves." "And this is a tightrope of taste that we're walking because once you start tampering with Beatle material, you're tampering with the Holy Grail." "It's like, sort of, if I went in and we overlaid guitars to make things sound more rocky, people would go completely bonkers." "I'd find out my house had been burnt down." "(Champagne) Like yesterday, visiting all of those places and signs of that mythology..." "We went to Liverpool yesterday." "Some other guy, now" "Is taking my love away from me, oh, now..." " (Champagne) I feel like a pilgrim." " (George Martin) You're Scousers now." "(Champagne) So I feel really excited, actually." "Delighted, excited, honored and panicked." "I was told in the very beginning that this was going to be, or this was already, an impossible show." "And this is what I deal with from day one." "Get back" "Get back to where you once belonged" "Get back" "Get back" "Get back to where you once belonged" "Get back, Jo" "(Champagne) Honestly, I was very, very nervous, thinking that, from the time that they broke up," "the world is hoping for a comeback." "Oh, get back" "Get back" "Get back to where you once belonged" "(Champagne) You've got to go straight to your final destination, OK?" "Don't do the whole path." "OK, number two, go." "(man) I play Sergeant Pepper." "Sergeant Pepper is the band leader." "At this stage of the creation," "I would say he's more on paper." "I guess I'm a mix, maybe, of George Martin, in a certain way, and Dominic told me also that Sergeant Pepper, for him, represents the father of Paul McCartney because he played the trumpet in a band." "(shouts)" "Instead of just dully telling the Beatles' story:" ""It started here and ended there, and that was this, this and that,"" "I tried to touch the main emotions that went throughout their experience, building this show as a rock-'n'-roll poem." "("Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles)" "It is cold!" "I'm from Johannesburg." "I'm from the east side of Johannesburg, which is called Katlehong." "They chose me for one of the characters, you know, for the Beatles' music." "And at that time I didn't even know about the Beatles and all that." "Like, "I don't know about those people, so I'll know everything when I get here."" "He just arrived just now." "Nice to meet you." "Welcome." "We were worried." "We were not hoping anymore, actually." "I'm really glad you're here." "So it's going to be a cultural shock for you, but welcome aboard." "We're going to take care of you." "Thank you for being here." "Evelyne, you play with Hassan." "Hassan, tu fais un geste et tu stoppes." "Crab a locker fishwife, pornographic priestess" "Boy, you've been a naughty girl, you let your knickers down" "I am the eggman" "They are the eggmen" "I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob" "(Champagne) OK, stop." "Now, can I have everyone sing:" ""Oompah, oompah, everybody's got one, oompah, oompah, stick it up your jumper"?" "OK, so, stand by." "Three, four... (all chant) Oompah, oompah, everybody's got one." "Oompah, oompah, stick it up your jumper." "Oompah... ("I Am the Walrus")" "(Champagne) And keep, keep, keep, keep..." "OK, give your upper body a little bit more..." "Can you imagine?" "We're the first company that, in 35 years, has been able to make a deal - a business deal - with the Beatles." "We're partners with the Beatles." "This is big." "The Beatles, with the name they have, and us, who never give away creative control, it was..." "How could you find, you know, creative consensus?" "Well, partnerships are difficult." "If you've ever been married, you know that." "But partnerships where there's more than two people are even more complicated." "Exponentially." "Cirque has a done a lot of business with our company, MGM Mirage, and it's been a two-part partnership." "LOVE is unique because we have a third partner, which is the Apple Group that represents, of course, the Beatles." "One of the things about the Beatles and the shareholders now, it's sort of like an inverted democracy, right?" "That if one person doesn't want to do something, we don't do it." "It's not like three can overrule one." "Thank you." "This is something George wanted to happen from the minute he met Guy." "So, for me, this is really emotional and important." "And I know that he's on one of those bungee wires up there somewhere." "Ladies and gentlemen, I just want to thank George because he's the one who discovered you for us." "And thank you for doing this, Olivia." "We lost George and George's input into the show, and that's a... that's a great loss." "It made people more determined to see the project through, you know, and make it work and, uh..." "We would have done that anyway if George had been alive." "It just made us all more determined to do it for George." "I think so." "It did me, anyway." "Here comes the sun" "Here comes the sun and I say" "It's all right" "Little darling" "It's been a long cold lonely winter" "Little darling" "It feels like years since it's been here" "Here comes the sun" "(Starr) I've always loved Cirque." "God knows - it's 10, 12 years I've seen it, when it was in a tent in Santa Monica in LA." "So I had no problem with the Cirque du Soleil attitude, 'cause it's like this fantasy world, which I loved." "Found my coat and grabbed my hat" "Made the bus in seconds flat" "Found my way upstairs and had a smoke" "Somebody spoke and I went into a dream" "Ah" "We've always liked to associate ourselves with slightly crazy people 'cause we're slightly crazy." "Artists are slightly crazy, you know." "So to work with the Cirque, we're drawing on that same attraction." "("Back in the USSR")" "Flew in from Miami Beach BOAC" "Didn't get to bed last night" "On the way the paper bag was on my knee" "Man, I had a dreadful flight" "I'm back in the USSR" "I met Dominic, actually, from the inception of this idea, and I thought he understood John's songs, especially, very well." "("I Am the Walrus")" "It's not so much that John's character's personified " "I don't think that they're doing that so much as to really express the songs well." "Help me get my feet back on the ground" "Won't you please, please help me?" "Help me, help me, ooh" "Eleanor Rigby" "Picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been" "Lives in a dream" "(Olivia Harrison) When I went to watch, to have a visual imagination was really difficult for me 'cause I kept thinking, "That doesn't look right." "What are they gonna do there?"" "And they'd say, "No." "That's not going to be there." "The stage is going to come up and they'll be gone and that will be dark."" "So that was actually a whole new experience for me." "And also, you know, you have your concept about a song." ""Eleanor Rigby" to you might be something and it might be different to me." "And that's the beauty of music." "You know, the vision of it is in your head." "("While My Guitar Gently Weeps")" "I look at you all" "See the love there that's sleeping" "While my guitar" "Gently weeps" "I feel strongly about the two characters from the beginning of the show, that, you know, we have to let go of that at some point." "These characters will be emotionally very charged at this point of the show." " Can I speak freely?" " Yeah." "Yeah, I don't particularly like those characters." " And I don't know if it's, you know..." " You know what?" "I'll tell you what." "In the beginning he was in it too much, if you know what I mean." "(PA) This is a short pause." "If we count all the titles that we have, we have 14 John, 13 Paul, four George and one Ringo." " But you know what?" " So?" "What I'm saying is we're concerned about trying to respect a balance in between..." "Yeah, but, you know, you use John for the early-day ones, and here comes..." "This is the time that they were the best, and so..." "And, anyway, it's not just about that." "It's about what makes you feel the best." "Hey, Jude" "Don't make it bad" "Take a sad song" "And make it better" "Remember to let her into your heart" "Then you can start" "To make it better" "Uh..." "I would say first that I was given a lot of freedom to write and direct this show by the Beatles." "And I really appreciated that, knowing that the balance in between them is a very fragile one." "If you have a school photograph and everybody's clustering around, the first thing is, "Where am I?" You don't look for your friend, you look for yourself." "So that if Paul is listening to a mix of a song, he's going to listen to himself." "And the same with Ringo." "And Olivia and Yoko do the same thing." "They are, in a way, looking after their own territory, perhaps with more care." "Of course they're looking at the broad elements too." "But you have to juggle with that and sort of make sure that everybody is satisfied, that we have a consensus of approval." "Hey, Jude" "Na na na" "Na na na na" "Na na na na" "Hey, Jude" "Na na na" "Na na na na" "(cheering and applause)" "My background is theater." "In England, I'm an actor." "You come to an environment like this, which is incredibly challenging for an artist because of the nature of the company and the shows it does." "It's very much like a factory as well." "I'm not used to big productions." "I'm used to, like, people that I know, people that I understand and doing the same things and all that, you know, so it's quite..." "It is hard because you're trying to work through not just interpreters, but coaches as well and assistant directors." "You're at the bottom of the food chain, trying to get through so many people to articulate what you're trying to say or your concepts." "Also, in the show itself, there's a director and eight or nine different coaches..." "See you in Vegas." "Forget the snow." "It's over." "Forget the snow." "It's over." "The devil lives here for a South African." " Take care of yourself." "Have a safe trip." " God bless." "You'd think that you couldn't go wrong with Cirque and the Beatles, and I hope that's true." "But risk in the entertainment business is just about as scary as risk in a poker game - there are no sure bets." "The aggregated investment in the Beatles show is... approaches $180 million." "As long as it's empty, it costs me about $5 million a month, so I'm incentivized to get the show room up and running." "Everything was on fast-track - to do all the negotiations with Cirque, Mirage, Apple, and do the storyboards and build the theater." "All that was happening at the same time, so it was pretty frenetic at times." "Still is, actually." "(Hudson) My reaction was, "I know where we are now and the world we're in."" "And that's the most important thing to me." "For the first time, it went, "Oh, it'll be nice to come to work tomorrow."" ""It'll be nice to come in and say, 'I see what you want." "That makes sense."'" "Because we've had five months of not knowing how to navigate through this." "I think we're going to be able to see all the characters and we're going to sense the emotion on stage because it's very intimate." "So I think this is a very good thing." "(Champagne) Welcome to the casino." "I'm very happy about the intimacy of the theater." "It's a room good for actors and characters, much more than other, let's say, big, impressive scenery, but where the human being is, like, very small or part of a machine." "And that leads me to what I think should be one of your challenges and state of mind for this creation - what we would call "showmanship."" "OK." "Sometimes it happens, OK?" "The trap is open, but we need the stage to be closed and it's not working and you're all alone on stage." "I want you not to leave, not to escape, but to stay there and to make this show as good as it was one minute ago up until the light turns green." " Did you ever stop "O"?" " (man) Many times." " Many times?" " You have to go on stage and improvise." "Sometimes it takes time, like 10 minutes or 15 minutes." "You're doing, and suddenly there's a green light and the show continues." " OK, you go on stage and you improvise." " (Hudson) That's the best way, I think." "(Champagne) "OK, let's play with it."" "That's the first reaction you have to have, so this is why I insist on that." ""We're panicking now." "Let's have fun." "Let's play with that."" ""We have nothing to lose somehow."" "Yeah, OK." "So save the show." "I don't think he's like that, as piggy as that." "I think he has to save..." " He has to keep some control." "Exactly." " Right." "OK." "It's..." "I don't know, because now we're working with professional people who have learnt things from the school and all that." "Because with me and what you call pantsula and gumboots dance," "I've never been to school for that." "I learnt it from the streets - from the streets of South Africa, from Johannesburg." "So I'm learning from them as well and there's small things that I can pick up and then make use of them." "(Champagne) OK, so how many times..." "We have 10 minutes?" "Well, we could work on "Lady Madonna"." "No?" "Just show me." "I just want to see you performing together, face to face." "("Lady Madonna")" "(Moloi) Working with Natasha, it's a different thing because I've only worked with guys." "And I was even..." "The first time, I was even scared to touch her because I'm not used to working with ladies." "I'm not just dancing because I know the style, the routine, but I'm giving." "I want to make people happy, at the end of the day." "I want to sit down here and know that people are happy, you know." "Baby at your breast" "Wonder how you manage to feed the rest" "("Lady Madonna" continues)" "Tuesday afternoon is never ending" "Wednesday morning papers didn't come" "(George Martin) Listening sessions have been important for analyzing the theater, which, let's face it, isn't an ideal place for putting out music." "We're used to working in a studio where everything is geared to a good sound." "Now, here we have an auditorium which is very, very large and it's oval - almost circular." "And above what you can see, there is as much space as there is below it." "(Baldwin) We did allow for the most sophisticated audio system ever devised." "They had to have speakers everywhere." "I had to pay for the speakers, too." "They were in the seats and in the seat in front, and behind your right and left ear." "And they ended up with several thousands of speakers." "And they felt like, "We have to give them the music as if the Beatles were in the room performing."" "Get back" "Get back" "Get back to where you once belonged" "Get back" "(Proteau) I think it's something like a historic moment to do this show." "All the characters and all the people in the show, we realize that." "But as a stage performer, the way that I will play, the way that I will approach my character, is the same." "Dominic says, "I remember that your father is a policeman and I see you being Sergeant Pepper."" "And, strangely, when I tried the uniform, it was like the photo of my father." "So it was very special." "And also because my father is now in a hospital because he has Alzheimer's disease." "He doesn't remember me." "He cannot say who I am and that I am his son." "So it touched me greatly." "("Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band")" "(Giles Martin) I'm of a different generation." "I was born in late '69, when they broke up." "Since I was about 17 or 16," "I started working in studios with him." "And I learnt a lot through the fact that his hearing was failing, and so he needed another set of ears." "And that was my training, and a fantastic honor." "I mean, despite him being my dad, he is George Martin." "Wednesday morning and five o'clock" "As the day begins" "Silently closing... (Giles Martin) It's funny, the studio he's chairman of has been sold and he said to me, "I might take early retirement."" "You know, he's much younger mentally than a lot of other people in the music industry," "much more keen on innovation, and this appeals to him, this show." "He may not have the ears he had and he's old, but he still has the brain." "He never accepts second best." "I think that's the best thing for me with him on this project, 'cause I've had to do lot of chopping around and a lot of changes." "And..." "I know that if he thinks it's good, then it's good." "(musicians tune up)" " (George Martin) Nice to see you again." " It's nice to see you." "I know." "I never thought I'd be here again." "We wanted to use George Harrison's song, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"." "And the version that everybody knows, which is on the albums, was going to be used in the show." "But then Dominic, who has been trawling through the Anthology all the time, listened to one of the tracks where George virtually made a demo, and he liked this very much." "And I did agree with him." "It had a wistful quality that the master didn't have." "(Olivia Harrison) There was a version that everyone wanted to use except me." "It's really beautiful and intimate, and I was worried that, um... it would not sustain in a big theater." "And it was really Dhani that said, "No, no, no." "They have to use it."" "(Giles Martin) So everyone said, "What can we do?" You know, mixing tracks." "And there was nothing that you could take from another Beatles song." " Hello, Olivia." " Hello." "Nice to see you." "Come in." "Actually, I was really quite nervous about it because this song is such a tender song for George and George isn't with us anymore." "And my responsibility in adding music to this, it weighed very heavily on me." "("While My Guitar Gently Weeps")" "While my guitar" "Gently weeps" "With every mistake" "We must surely be learning" "(Olivia Harrison) I don't think you can put into words what was George like." "You know, he says in some of his songs, "beware of sadness,"" ""all things must pass, " "life goes on within you and without you."" "And that's sort of practical advice that I have to apply in my life." "He's not here." "("While My Guitar Gently Weeps" continues)" "Ah, lovely." "That was great." "The string players, they realized the significance of..." " It'll be your last string session." " Yeah, absolutely." "And playing, you know, a Beatles string session." "And at the end of it, they gave you a big bouquet of flowers." "They gave me two dozen red roses, the musicians." "Normally they hand out invoices, so there's a... (George Martin) No, I was knocked out by that." "(Champagne in French)" "How long was this, Armand?" "Was it 45 seconds?" "("Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!")" "(Champagne) A crash with the machine?" "(PA) Stand by, please, same place." "We had an automation crash." "(Champagne) Armand, tell us when you're ready to bring them down." "OK, so we have a couple of events I would say that we need to prepare for." "On Saturday, as you know, we have also some visitors from Apple." "Paul McCartney will be here." "We're going to do the listening of music with him." "So they will have a lot of people around this week, so we just need to get focused at the same place." " Do you know what you're doing?" " Not yet." "Because I'm sure it would be enormously helpful if you could show Paul as much of the show visually as is possible." "Because he hasn't seen it and he's terribly, intensely curious about it." "The thing is that with the machine, with the state of the process now, if we launch ourselves in a complicated act, it might stop for an hour and a half." "This is where we're at." "Like this afternoon, we worked four hours and then we were ready to run through, and we waited 45 minutes because everything was turned upside down." "(Champagne in French)" "(Laliberté)" "(Champagne)" "We stick on the plan." "This is what we do." "We're on a work time frame here." "There's no way we're going back there." "This is staging." "It's not true that we'll expose ourselves to things that are unfinished that will create another debate for two hours and long letters." "Excuse me, but we're past that." "("While My Guitar Gently Weeps")" "(man) They're outside." "They just arrived." " (George Martin) Oh, there's Paul." " (man) Here he is." " Mon ami." " Bonjour!" "Bonsoir!" "Bon afternoon." "Hi." "All right." " You know Dominic." " Welcome." "How are you?" " (McCartney) Good, good." " We're thrilled to have you here." "Everyone has butterflies in their stomach." "(McCartney) Good." "I like to keep everyone in a state of tension." "My only problem was nobody knew what we were gonna do." "I'd say, "Well, what is the show?"" "(French accent) "Don't worry." "It's OK." "It's OK."" ""The Cirque will be good." "The Cirque and the Beatles, very good."" "I'm going, "No." "No, no."" "Then finally they came up with this idea that the show is based on, with the ladders, bringing up the building," "World War II and Eleanor Rigby coming through." "So, you know, I felt, "Oh, that's enough." "It's all I needed."" "Just, "What are you going to hang the show on?"" "(Champagne) Stop." "Stop it." "("Get Back")" " (Champagne) Stop." " (woman) We're going to have to stop." "(Champagne in French)" "What's new?" "It's much taller than I thought it would be." "I'd like to have a speaker like this." "Doing a concert, you wouldn't have it up there." " No." "That's true." " So..." " But then we wouldn't be in the round." " That's right." "(cheering)" "(McCartney) The only time we ever were in the round was our first American gig, in Washington." "And they stuck us there and kept asking Ringo to move his kit." "He had to physically move them each time." "I remember, poor Ringo was facing..." "We'd never seen the likes of it." "They're saying, "But you've got to do this."" "We said, "No!" They said, "Yeah, there's audience there."" "We said, "Well, they'll just see our backs." "No, you've got to move."" "So we're moving." "Poor old Ringo picking up his bloody drum kit and repositioning it between numbers." " And then, to make it worse, jelly babies!" " (George Martin) Yeah." " (McCartney) The stage..." " They were thrown at you." "We'd said that our favorite sweet was jelly babies, so all the Americans threw them at us - Bassett's jelly babies." "And the whole bloody floor was like glue." "("I Want to Hold Your Hand")" "Oh, yeah, I'll" "Tell you something" "(Starr) I just loved the front line of that band." "You know, John, Paul and George were that band." "And in Liverpool, if they were playing, it'd be, like, a band I would go and see if I wasn't playing in the band I was with." "And then, by chance, there was a knock on the door at 12 o'clock in the afternoon and Brian Epstein said, "Would you play with the Beatles just for today?"" "And I did, and that's how we became friends." "We were just a couple of kids walking around town in black with a guitar over our backs, walking down the streets like that." "So I remember that - the very beginnings - or just going to John's house and learning chords and playing things." "Then it would be, like, in hotel rooms, and saying, "OK, I've got a bit of an idea."" "So you'd fire off each other." "And it nearly always took us about three hours, top." "We never took any longer than three hours." "And every day we did it, every single time we came to do it, we did it." "We finished a song." "We had a knack for it." "We understood what we were trying to do." "Eleanor Rigby" "Died in the church and was buried along with her name" "Nobody came" "Father McKenzie" "Wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave" "No one was saved" "All the lonely people" "Where do they all come from?" "All the lonely people" "Where do they all belong?" "It's strange, isn't it?" "But for me, what's really strange about this is, um... remembering writing these things, you know, which was so little - little guitar, little old piano, bit of paper and a pencil, the back of an envelope." "You know, "Sergeant Pepper" or something." "So it was such a little process, and look what's happened to it." "(George Martin) It is amazing." "(George Martin) It's very difficult to escape this heritage that we have." "I've been having memories brought back every day of my life." "There will be a little knot of Beatle fans somewhere who says:" ""They shouldn't do that." "They should leave the masters as we know them."" "But we're embarking on a new direction here." " (Lennon) I'm sorry." "I feel useless." " (Champagne) No noise up there." "It's critical." "No noise there." "It'll alter the sound." " (man) We're not going to..." " (Champagne) But McCartney is there." " (McCartney) Ringo!" " Beep, beep" " (Lennon) Phew!" "OK, let's go." " (McCartney) Don't, John." "Don't... (Harrison) Sorry." "OK?" " (McCartney) I love that sequence." " (Champagne) You liked it?" "I was playing it safe." "I'm glad I came and said don't be nervous." "It's something to not be nervous about." "It's great." "But I can play you some more and have your opinion on that." "I'm sorry for the rest." "It's like..." "It's great." "Man, come on." "Hey, come on, man, we understand." "We've been at this a long time too." "So a piano will appear... (Lennon) Are you ready, Ring?" "What should I do now?" " (McCartney) Swing it, man." " (Lennon) Swing it." " (McCartney) Let's go." " (engineer) Take four." " (McCartney) Hey, Jude, don't..." " (Lennon) Paul, it's very hard to sing this." " (Starr) Do I love you?" " (McCartney) Ringo, stop." " (Harrison) We'll get that other one." " (McCartney) Un, deux, trois, quatre." "I love the talking, 'cause it put us in that environment, you know, in the studio, and the fun we used to have before we made these records, which was always about the music." "But the chatter I loved." "I thought it made it..." "It seemed like it could be now, in a way." "I thought they could have made me a bit taller." "That's the only thing I thought, "My God, can't I be taller now?"" ""Seeing as I'm a shadow."" "How did the guys get together to do a tune right?" "You were always on top of one another like this." "I think that's a good thing." "It shows the humor of recording." "We always said..." "How could you put up with them?" "I'll tell you." "This is what I was going to say." "Because he did Peter Sellers, the Goons..." "He did all the comedy records." "My favorite memory of you lot is when we were doing "Kite"" "and I had to do the harmonium." "I became the artist and you four were the producers." "And you were saying, "Yeah, another take, please, George."" "And I was pumping my guts out." "And they were doing it deliberately, keeping me going." ""Just try one more, George." "It's not quite right."" "George Martin was like the grown-up in the group." "George was..." "We were like the kids." "In fact, they used to call us "the boys."" "That was the working title of this show, wasn't it?" "And we always used to joke, but we were, like..." "In the later years, we were, like, 28 and we were still being called "the boys."" "We were, like, married with kids and stuff, "the boys."" "But, um..." "So George Martin was fantastic." "He could do so much." "He could guide us, he could understand what we were doing, he could encourage us, and he could also pick up the experimental ideas that we threw at him." "I mean, all I had was a bit of tape and a pair of brass scissors." "And now it's incredible what the computer power is, and stretching sounds and bending them, putting them in different keys." "It's amazing what you can do." "(McCartney) You work how you're told to work." "You work with what technology you have." "Now, of course, everyone's got so much technology, they take forever." "We were told to make four songs a day, so we did." "Not just ready to mix some other time, mixed, finished, ch-ching, put it up on the shelf." "There's "Michelle"." "Right, let's do "Nowhere Man"." "Ch-ching." "Put that up on the shelf." "So that meant at the end of the week you'd done 20 songs." "So, you know, the early albums, we only did..." "It took us, like..." "The first album was a day." " (Giles Martin) I'm pleased he's happy." " (Champagne) I'm relieved." "I'm relieved." "I'm not sure what I'd do if he wanted to change the music." "It would rather bugger everyone up, wouldn't it?" " Now the ball is on my camp." " (Ste-Croix) You think he will like it?" " You think he will like it?" " Ringo?" "Of course he will." "Because he's only coming the day before the premiere." "He cannot come to a session like this." "So to have you..." "He'll love it." "He's heard this music." "It's just a cool idea." "The way you put the sound is beautiful." "He's never sounded so good." "They mixed 15 minutes of the music first and we went to hear it and I was blown away." "And I just kept saying, "Make it crazier."" "You know, you can... you can go broader, as far as I was concerned." "Not for broad's sake, but just because it was so cool." "Well, I had to..." "Once I opened out the drums, I had to open out the vocals." "Oh, right." "Is this the cool fight?" "(man) Yeah, yeah." "("Lady Madonna")" " It's in process." " No, it's good." "(applause stops)" "(laughter)" "(Champagne) We trained for that." "Yeah, what to say?" "We just watched a little bit of it." "We think it's fantastic, very exciting." "I think you're great acrobats, great performers." "And I think it's going to be a fantastic show." "Really fantastic." "So thank you." " But I want you to work harder!" " (laughter)" "Harder!" "Much harder!" "That's it!" "(men sing African song)" "("Octopus's Garden")" "(Champagne in French)" "Every morning, before I get out of bed, I put the Beatles on and order room service." "No, I don't." "I don't." "You know, if it's on, it's on." "Sometimes, I'll play a Beatles record and say, "Wow, look."" ""Listen to that on that track."" "Any combination, it seems that Beatles tracks work because the tracks are strong enough." "That's the deal." "("Octopus's Garden")" "(Giles Martin) Ringo loves the fact that his..." "He's a great drummer." "I mean, I've learnt how good a drummer he is because I had the ability to remove him from a song and put him back on so the song becomes..." "He plays the song unlike any other drummer." "He doesn't play necessarily a fixed, "This is my drum part," he'll play the song." "He really is a song-playing drummer." "But he has a groove that's his own." "So if I can take him playing one song and stick it in another, he loves it because it's like, "It's me, but it's more me."" "("Drive My Car")" "Asked a girl what she wanted to be" "She said, "Baby, can't you see?"" "(Starr) My dream at 13 was to play drums." "I started in hospital." "I was in hospital with tuberculosis for a year, and so to keep us busy..." "I learned to knit." "So they'd give you, like, things to do 'cause we couldn't do a lot." "So then, every couple of weeks, a music teacher would come in with little drums, tambourines, maracas." "I fell in love with the drum." "I wouldn't be in the hospital band unless I got a drum." "Then I came out of hospital and made my own snare drum out of a biscuit tin and pieces of firewood as sticks." "I couldn't play, but I could hit." "You know, and that's how it started." "Now they give me a drum set a week, you know, if I want one." "It's so hard." "You got nothing, you get nothing." "You got everything, they'll give you anything." "("A Day in the Life")" "I read the news today, oh, boy" "About a lucky man who made the grade" "Well, I think that the show has to have some gritty or sad moments too, because that was life." "That is life, you know?" "And it can't just be happy-go-lucky from the beginning to end." "I remember when I went to the Dakota building and Yoko Ono's apartment to present the concept of the show." "And I remember the moment of John Lennon's murder." "And when I came up there, I was really, like... (sighs)" "I was really shaken by just being there." "And she offered me a cup of tea." "She told me, "Welcome into this."" "Then I just felt more comfortable, and simply I expressed what I thought the show should be, and I left the meeting with great encouragement and strength." "I read the news today, oh, boy" "Julia is the character of a song on the White Album, but she is also John Lennon's mother who was killed by a policeman driving a car when he was a teenager." "And as you can hear him singing "Julia" or "Mother" in his solo career, you can appreciate how sensitive he was about her." "Then, is it too sensitive to be there with the blessing of the Beatles?" "(Ono) I'm very glad that "Julia" is something that they're working on." "John had an incredible, incredible love for his mother." "He was very, very saddened that his mother never saw him become so famous." "And that was one thing that he regretted all the time." "("Julia")" "(George Martin) People say, "What's your favorite song?"" "I say, "I don't know - there were so many of them."" "But if I had to pick one of John's it would probably be "Strawberry Fields Forever"." "It's such an extraordinary song." "And the first time I heard it, we'd been..." "Up to that point, we'd been making albums which we had to rush, until they made the decision, wisely and rightly, not to do any more touring but to concentrate on recording." "And the very first song we recorded after that decision was John's "Strawberry Fields"." "As usual, I perched myself on a high chair, like a bar stool, and John stood in front of me with his acoustic guitar and started singing." "No one, I think, is in my tree" "And I was knocked out." "I thought, "What an extraordinary song."" ""What a beautiful song."" "He was a marvelous man, but he was never really satisfied with anything he did." "In the year before he died I spent a night with him, and we talked about old times." "We had a lovely evening." "Then out of the blue, he said to me:" ""You know, George, if I could," "I'd record everything we did again."" "I said, "You can't be serious, John." "We did some great stuff."" ""What are you on about?" He said, "We could have done it better."" "I said, "What about 'Strawberry Fields'?"" "And he looked at me over his glasses and he said, "Especially 'Strawberry Fields'."" "And I thought, "Gosh," you know." "I practically bled for that song." "Nothing is real" "And nothing to get hung about" "(Giles Martin) After we did it using the different versions," "Yoko said it was nothing to do with the music at all, it was that he didn't like his voice on it, he didn't like his singing on it." "He had a great voice and yet he was always asking me to distort it:" ""Put more tape echo on it." "I can't bear that."" "I think that also John had this vision in his mind which was a fantastic sound and he wanted it to be realized." "But he was never very practical." "He would talk to me in terms of colors and so on, and dreams." "And I had to pin him down, saying, "OK, what instrument do you use?"" ""How do we get this off the ground?"" "He didn't want to be bothered with that." "He wanted to create something that would just flow." "("Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds")" "(man) Le prochain." "Regarde ta boule." "Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly" "A girl with kaleidoscope eyes" "(George Martin) I want you to fix me up so that I can do one of those things." " You mean hang with harnesses?" " I could join her up there." " Well, no problem." " (both laugh)" "(cheering and applause)" "So today with your presence, we do the traditional "Lion Den."" "It's the first time we run it with the public." "So you are our lion, and we hope that you don't eat us." "Well, we try to run it, as much as possible, smoothly for you guys, and enjoy everything with love." "(cheering and applause)" "("Gnik Nus")" "Something in the way she moves" "Attracts me like no other lover" "Something in the way she woos me" "I don't want to leave her now" "You know I believe, and how" "(Champagne) Go, go, go!" "They're all late." "They're all late." "("Within You Without You"/ "Tomorrow Never Knows")" "We were talking" "(woman) Guys, pull north." "Pull north." "And the people" "Who hide themselves" "Behind a wall" "Sitting on a cornflake" "Waiting for the van to come" "(Champagne in French)" "Man, you've been a naughty boy" "(Champagne) His gas mask?" "Where his gas mask is?" "I am the eggman" "They are the eggmen" "I am the walrus" "Goo, goo, g'joob" "Here come old flat top" "(Champagne) Video, no?" "They're late." "This looks bad." "He got hair down to his knee" "Got to be a joker, he just do what he please" " I want to talk to him." " Well, he's going to come." "Guy's..." " Why don't we just go to that table?" " Sure, sure." "I mean, what is it?" "It's sleazy." "This "Come Together" is not a sleazy song." " It's a song of political coming together." " I see what you mean." "(Ono) You're not inspired with John's songs?" " (Champagne) I am, honestly." " Great." "Tell me what you were inspired about, and the words." "He's singing so well and I feel so sorry for him because nothing's going on." "It's just making it like..." "Oh, "atmospheric" is the word." "But it's not atmospheric." "Beatles' thing is power." "Also..." "I have, you know, a lot of respect for him, for having done this much." "And of course we're all still saying, "Well, could you just..." et cetera, et cetera." "Olivia is going there and I'm going there because we are very protective of our husbands' songs, you know." "So he's got a lot to deal with, really." "(Champagne in French)" " (they laugh)" " Oh, la, la, la, la." "(woman over PA) OK." "("All You Need is Love")" " All you need is love" " All together now." " All you need is love" " Everybody." "All you need is love, love" "Love is all you need" "Love is all you need" "Love is all you need" "Love is all you need" "Love is all you need" "Love is all you need" "Love is all you need" "Love is all you need" "Love is all you need" "(cheering and applause)" " See you later." " See you." "(Olivia Harrison) OK, see you later." " You like it?" " When the pictures come up..." " The smile?" " The smile, it just kills me." "And, you know, Dhani is just like him, so to see exactly..." " It's amazing." " It's like twins." "Oh!" "No, you can take that after." "Very cold ice." "My feet are going to shatter." " (man) If only you could feel them." " Exactly." "Do you think this is a departure, this is a change for Cirque?" "The dancing, the staging, the way it's presented?" "Yeah, it is." "This is more a musical than a Cirque show." " You could have told us!" " Huh?" "Yeah, you know, 'cause I think people are gonna be surprised." " In terms of not having many acrobatics?" " I hope they're not disappointed." " Yeah, that type..." " Well..." "I don't think they expect..." "People will come for the music, the encounter of the Cirque du Soleil and the Beatles." "Now it's a question of tidying up things and clarifying things." "That's why it's important to get..." "That's what I like about the opinion of Yoko." "This is what we need, because we were not there with them." "You know, especially with Yoko and you, we were not there." "With George I didn't have time to go into detail of each of the songs." "I want to make sure the details are addressed." "Like I said, at the end we have to make a decision because we can't do a show in a community way." "As long as there is something..." "each one has something going," " and there's some focus." " But it's the same thing." "That's what I always bring back to the people I work with." "I said, "It's not about who has the best idea."" ""It's what is the best idea, who will prevail."" "Of course, everybody has his personality, his pride and his ego, and I totally understand that." "But at the end, we're all there to serve one thing   the show for the public." " The show." "They will decide who will live or die with what we do." "(Proteau) In Montreal, I have a family." "I have three sons." "May we present the Beatles?" "So this is a kind of sacrifice that maybe I do." "The last time I saw them was at the end of March because my father died." "When I open the show, I just feel that..." "that I'm doing that for my father." "I bring a message from Apple, my boss Neil Aspinall, and from Paul and Ringo and Yoko and Olivia to wish you the very best for tonight, and express their profound respect for your skill, your energy, your courage." "One day, this will all seem like a long time ago, so savor the moment, and you have my best wishes." "(Champagne) We all know we worked really hard." "It was not an easy one." "All the Beatles themselves" " Paul, Ringo, Yoko and Olivia and their family, tonight we have the honor to have also Cynthia Lennon, first wife of John Lennon, is going to be here with Julian Lennon and Sean, and Dhani Harrison." "And all those people gathered around with what you've done, with what we've all done together." "I think it's great that..." "You know, bodies go." "George Harrison is dead, but we can really say that his spirit is with us." "And we gave a body to that spirit all together." " Peace and love." "I love you." " (applause)" "(hums to himself)" "You told me once that you had le symptôme de I'imposteur." " Yeah." " How's that now?" "Well..." "It's hard to answer that, you know?" "I'm happy that we..." "I've been a lot... very nostalgic of the '60s, you know?" "All those years of freedom and revolution." "And I felt I was having my 20s more in a decade of cynicism." "And I've been pretty cynical myself." "And I feel like today I'm back to the roots, you know, of dreaming that we can take a sad song and make it better, as the man said." "("Because")" "Because the world is round" "It turns me on" "Because the world is round" "Ah" "(Giles Martin) It was a great experience." "I've tried to get away from the George Martin mantle, you know?" ""George's son, in he comes."" "But it's been a huge learning curve for me." "And it's your dad, you know?" "You spend time going through his stuff." "In a way, a father and son team, you know, in years to come," "I'll probably remember this more than I'll remember the show." "Ah" "Love is old, love is new" "I guess I'm used to all these celebrities and stuff." "Even in South Africa, I've been performing for big people, like even the president of South Africa, which is Nelson Mandela." "I've performed for him." "So it's not a big deal." "It's not a big issue." "I'm just going to do what I do best." "You know what I'm saying?" "("Get Back")" "(cheering and applause)" "Jo Jo was a man who thought he was a loner" "But he knew it couldn't last" "Jo Jo left his home in Tucson, Arizona" "For some California grass" "Get back, get back" "Get back to where you once belonged" "Get back, get back" "Get back to where you once belonged" "Get back, Jo Jo" "(Starr) If you hear that music, there's four people." "It doesn't matter that only Paul and I are here, there's still four people." "There are only two of us now, but in spirit there's four of us, you know?" "("Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!")" "The band begins at ten to six" "When Mr. K performs his tricks without a sound" "And Mr. H will demonstrate" "Ten somersets he'll undertake on solid ground" "Having been some days in preparation" "A splendid time is guaranteed for all" "And tonight Mr. Kite is topping the bill" "(cheering and applause)" "("Drive My Car")" "Asked a girl what she wanted to be" "She said, "Baby, can't you see?"" "I wanna be famous, a star of the screen" "But you can do something in between" "Baby, you can drive my car" "I was sitting next to Ringo, so it was great because I just kept saying to him:" ""What a fucking great band we were."" "I should be more modest." "I should say, "It was good" and, "Thank you very much. "" "But I don't care now." "The Beatles is over." "It's a body of work." "And I can now stand back and say, "That was great."" "("Octopus's Garden")" "I'd ask my friends to come and see" "An octopus's garden with me" "I'd like to be under the sea" "In an octopus's garden in the shade" "We would be warm" "Below the storm" "(Starr) You think, "Oh, you know, it was a long time ago."" "And what's interesting is that now we are these people but the music still carries on." "It's not our personalities, it's the music." "("A Day in the Life")" "I read the news today, oh, boy" "Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire" "And though the holes were rather small" "They had to count them all" "Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall" "I'd love to turn you on" "(applause)" "(Lennon) Just keep going, then." "(Starr) Just keep going." "(Harrison) Keep going." "(McCartney) Keep going." " (Harrison) Peace." " (Lennon) Peace." "I look at you all" "See the love there that's sleeping" "While my guitar gently weeps" "I look at the floor" "And I see it needs sweeping" "Every time I heard George's voice or saw the image, you just want to pull them off the..." "You want to pull them right there because it's so close and the voices are so intimate and so familiar, the way that they just resonate in your ear in a vibration that nobody else has." "How to unfold your love" "Dhani said it was hard for him." "It made him very sad because it's so close, and yet, you know..." "physically unsatisfying." "But, spiritually, very satisfying." "("Within You Without You"/ "Tomorrow Never Knows")" "Try to realize it's all within yourself" "No one else can make you change" "And to see you're really only very small" "And life flows on within you and without you" "(cheering and applause)" "(Lennon) Come on, George." "You ready, Ring?" " (Starr) I think." " What shall I do now?" " (McCartney) Swing it, man." " Swing it, swing it." " (McCartney) Right, let's go." " (engineer) Take four." "(strums)" " Ringo." " Do it again." "One, two, three, four." "("Strawberry Fields Forever")" "No one, I think, is in my tree" "I mean, it must be high or low" "That is, you can't, you know, tune in, but it's all right" "(Ono) It's the light that is not here anymore, you know?" "It's that one, isn't it?" "John was there." "But it's very different from listening to his songs and seeing a show of it, you know?" "It always makes me feel a little bit..." "Well, sad is not the word." "Well, it is, you know." "I feel sad that he's just a voice now." "He rollercoaster" "He got early warning" "He got muddy water" "He one mojo filter" "He say one and one and one is three" "Got to be good-looking 'cause he's so hard to see" "Come together" "Right now" "Over me" "(Starr) John had a huge heart, you know." "He was a good man." "He was very sharp and, you know, had this quick wit." "And George in the band was my best friend." "Paul is incredible." "An incredible man." "He's still the most melodic bass player out there today." "You know, it was a really, really great band." "("Back in the USSR")" "Show me round the snow-peaked mountains way down south" "Take me to your daddy's farm" "Let me hear your balalaikas ringing out" "Come and keep your comrade warm" "I'm back in the USSR" "You don't know how lucky you are, boy" "Back in the USSR" "Let me tell you, honey" "I'm back, I'm back in the USSR" "It's so good to be" "Well" "Back in the USSR" "("Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)")" "We're Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" "We hope you have enjoyed the show" "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" "We're sorry but it's time to go" "Sgt Pepper's Lonely, Sgt Pepper's Lonely" "Sgt Pepper's Lonely, Sgt Pepper's Lonely" "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" "(McCartney) I'm very proud, of course, of the music we made with the Beatles." "I can hardly believe it." "It's a slightly strange feeling." "It's like, I wake up some mornings and think, "I was in the Beatles?"" "There's only four people who could say that in the world, in the universe, and I'm one of them." "So it's a slightly sort of strange feeling, but an amazing one." "("All You Need is Love")" "Love, love, love" "Love, love, love" "Love, love, love" "There's nothing you can do that can't be done" "Nothing you can sing that can't be sung" "Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game" "It's easy" "Nothing you can make that can't be made" "(Starr) You can't help but feel with the chat, with the songs, that we're all still there." "It's a bit like when we did "Free As A Bird", when John had left us." "We all had to pretend that he was making a cup of tea in the kitchen or something." "You have to get over it, you know?" "Because we were this incredibly close-knit four-man band." "All you need is love" "Everybody." "All you need is love, love" "Love is all you need" "Love is all you need" "Love is all you need" "Love is all you need" "(George Martin) Each generation, as it grows up, finds the Beatles for themselves." "And now..." "My children found it for themselves and my grandchildren have found it for themselves." "And it will go on." "It really will." "Love is all you need" "Love is all you need" "Love is all you need" "(cheering and applause)" "Just one special round of applause for John and George!" "(loud cheering and applause)" "(McCartney) All right, fade it there, Charlie." "(Harrison) Take seven." "OK, put the red light off." "(Lennon) This is Johnny Rhythm saying good night to yous all, and God bless yous." "(laughter)" "(The Beatles:" ""Can You Take Me Back")" "Can you take me back where I came from?" "Brother, can you take me back?" "Can you take me back?" "Nobody was very sure how this was going to work." "It was the first show that Cirque had that didn't have live musicians." "We were thinking about perhaps using live musicians for which I would score, together with tape." "What we didn't want to do is to do what everybody else had done for the last 35 years since their separation, which is a replica of The Beatles on stage playing imitation of The Beatles' music." "So we thought, "We've got to do something different, not just play one Beatles song after the other." "We have to offer something new."" "We have the technology to do something different, so we thought we'd give it a go." "("The Word")" "It's so fine" "It's sunshine" "It's the word, love" "Beep-beep, beep-beep, yeah!" "(man) Because of the nature of the project, we felt we had to do it with computers." "So obviously the next stage with that is that all the tapes have to be digitized - put into a format that then George and Giles could manipulate and play with." "(Giles) We took all the Beatles catalog on tape - original Beatles four-tracks, eight-tracks and two-tracks." "So, in layman's terms, what we're doing is deconstructing what's happened and putting it back together so it works in a surround format." "(Hicks) Even though the rhythm track is on one track, another tape has the bass, the drums and the guitars separated." "So they have a way where they can lock that tape up to the master tape, then just have all your separate elements to work with and play with." "So that was just really sort of delving back, dissecting history, really." "(Ringo Starr) Not just a mix of the music, not just the same track remixed." "It's the track reworked." "So it's like it's new, you know?" "And how difficult is that when most of it was on four-track?" "'Cause that's how we worked when we started - four-track to eight-track." "We never got to the 72s, like they have now." "So it was great." "(Paul McCartney) We'd said to them, "Be as experimental as you can."" "And so they gave us this little demo playback." "And suddenly they'd taken "Within You Without You"" "and put the "Tomorrow Never Knows" drums on it, and then started to bring in a guitar from here and a thing from there." "And we went, "That's it exactly." "That's what we're talking about."" "And I think we were all amazed at how well it worked." "I'll bring in the song gradually." "("Tomorrow Never Knows" intro)" "(segues into "Within You Without You")" "If I take down "Tomorrow" now... (Yoko Ono) George Martin and Giles Martin did justice to The Beatles' music." "And not only that, but I think they went a step further." "This is showing that the music is so strong, an incredible artistic power that it has, that it can be used in a different way." "(Giles) You're playing with what everyone holds so precious and dear." "They heard it and loved it." "They loved the idea of not doing something ordinary." "And The Beatles never, never did anything ordinary." "(George) "Tomorrow Never Knows" has got a great rhythm sound to it." "Ringo's drums are very hypnotic." "And, of course, "Within You Without You" is a well-known George song." "It was a matter of fitting, really, because there are moments when you have to stop it, then start again." "You have to work with the original rhythm and tabla sound, and so on." "I think George's love of those sounds of Indian instruments was so prescient." "They're timeless instruments and he always knew that." "That's why he loved them and he loved to use them." "But it's amazing that today they actually add some kind of edge to the music." "(Giles) The Beatles recorded in a very..." "My father was economical - he always says this - with how things were done." "People go, "You could use the drums from Help!"" "You go, "No, I can't." "They're with the guitars and the bass." That's a challenge." "People go, "Why didn't you use this?" But they're tied together." "Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream" "It is not dying" "It is not dying" "There's so much space in what they did." "Suddenly the tablas had more importance and the different instruments just flying around the room." "I think that was the one that really sold everybody on it." "Life flows on within you and without you..." "Ringo and Paul were constantly saying, "Go as far as you can."" ""We will stop you." "Go as far as you can."" "But there's only so far you can go before you start completely losing your mind." "And "Octopus's Garden"..." "I had an idea to put Ringo on his own, you know, because it's such a..." "To leave his vocal kind of bare." "(George) We wanted to use one of Ringo's tracks, and the show director was very keen on using "Octopus's Garden"." "We started off with a very orchestral and dreamy beginning, and most people who listened to it said, "Where did that come from?"" ""That doesn't sound like Beatles to me."" "Well, of course, it was Beatles and it was something I had scored." "And we cut up Ringo's voice, so that instead of singing the track as it is, he does it quite slowly and leisurely to begin with." "(Ringo) I'd like to be" "Under the sea" "In an octopus's garden" "In the shade" " He'd let us in - ("Yellow Submarine" starts)" "Knows where we've been" "In his octopus's garden" "In the shade" "I'd ask my friends to come and see... (Giles) Ringo was dead interested in this." "He'd come in, and I worked in order, so "Octopus's Garden" hadn't been done." "He kept saying, "How about 'Octopus's Garden'?" "You done it yet?"" "He'd come in, and I'd go, "No."" "And so there was this pressure mounting up. "You go mad on it." "Go mad."" ""Don't, you know..." "Don't skimp on my song!" It was one of those things." "And I'm thinking, "Oh, OK."" "So originally I tried the end of "Glass Onion"." "I put that with his vocal and actually it sounded too dark and eerie." "I wanted him on his own" " Ringo on his own - 'cause he's such a character." "Then I took the strings from "Good Night", put them up a tone and changed the key slightly." "And, it's funny, it just fitted." "And I did the whole of "Good Night", and my dad came in and goes:" ""What are you doing?" I said, "Well, I thought this might be kind of cool."" "He goes, "Oh, my God!" He goes - and this was good direction - he goes, "But you should just chop the first verse back in again."" ""Don't play the whole thing." So there's a bit of a clash going on." " The rhythm track to "Octopus's Garden"." " ("Octopus's Garden" plays)" " It's just very light." "And so..." " That's the original?" "That's the original." "So we combined "Lovely Rita"." "(drumbeat)" "Yeah." "And it's the same groove 'cause it's just Ringo." "We didn't sample or move anything." "And he's exactly right, too." "It has to be right on the nose." "(Ringo) I'd like to be" "Under the sea... (Giles) Because you wanted the double time in this section here, in comes "Polythene Pam"." "(percussion on "Polythene Pam")" "(segues into "Helter Skelter")" "The end goes into "Helter Skelter" - the guitars and rhythm are "Helter Skelter"." "So I really threw in the kitchen sink." "It finished off with "Sun King"." "I threw everything at that song, to make Ringo happy." "I was so nervous when he came." "He knocked on the door and opened the door to my studio - a lot like this one at Abbey Road." "I played it and I stood in the corner." "First of all, I thought he had my voice a little too loud." "I always tried to hide it a bit." "But it works 'cause it's very pure." "(Ringo) I'd like to be" "Under the sea..." "When he heard the strings of "Good Night", his face dropped - he's not that keen on his vocal on "Good Night" apparently, so he was delighted that it didn't happen, and he loved it." "In an octopus's garden with you" "In an octopus's garden with you" "(intro of "Lady Madonna")" "(Giles) The Beatles did a lot of amazing psychedelic stuff, really heartfelt stuff and a lot of rock stuff." "But "Lady Madonna" is slightly more, I suppose, funky in a way." "So we got the track up and I listened to it on four-track." "What we do is listen to each four-track." "They bounced, so we put them together." "The first track you hear when you get it out is this." "(piano solo on "Lady Madonna")" " Yeah." " Which is..." " I think it's almost boogie-woogie." " Yeah." "It's great." "And then on top of that, they put this:" "(drum and bass play on a different channel)" "Obviously listening to themselves in the cans." " If you put them both together..." " (complete version)" "On "Lady Madonna" we departed from our normal procedure, because normally we would lay down a rhythm track and overdub things on it." "But this song was piano-driven, really - Paul on his piano, working away." "The bass and other things were added later, which was not what we normally did." "See how they run" "Lady Madonna, baby at your breast..." "You know, when The Beatles started, none of them played keyboards at all." "And when they were successful, I think Paul got himself a piano first, John later." "And yet in a very short space of time Paul became extremely good at playing piano." "And on "Lady Madonna" he plays a brilliant piano." "Lady Madonna, children at your feet," "Wonder how you manage to make ends meet... (Giles) I didn't realize that Paul wrote "Lady Madonna", then John wrote "Hey Bulldog" to compete with it." "I had no idea there was this thing going on." "They're both great piano parts and it's funny how they just work together." "So "Bulldog" on its own, which is:" "(instrumental section of "Hey Bulldog")" "I always wanted to get "Hey Bulldog" in the show 'cause it's such a fantastic riff." "So put some other tracks in." "I got it to work in the solo section, and I thought what would work over the top and found that Eric Clapton's guitar solo from "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"" "complemented it nicely and it just worked." "It took a while to get it all to work." "I used the organ from "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" to glue it together." "(guitar solo together with "Hey Bulldog")" " And you hear it sped up." " (fast-paced guitar)" "Billy Preston was very good but..." "There's the "Lady Madonna" vocals..." "and the guitar coming in." "And then back into "Lady Madonna"." "(George) Yeah." "It's mixed together nicely." "(McCartney) You finally hear Ronnie Scott." "The sax player in the middle is Ronnie." "I knew Ronnie, so I said to him, "Would you work on this record we're making?"" ""We just need a nice wild... (imitates sax) Sax solo." "You can do that, Ronnie."" "He said, "Yeah, mate, I'll do that."" "So he came along to the session, played it great, but in the mix we buried it." "I met up with him weeks later after and he'd heard it on the radio or somewhere." "He said, "What did you do to my solo?" I said, "Sorry, Ronnie." "It's pop."" ""This isn't jazz." "It's a different thing." "It still sounds good, Ron, great."" "But he was always a bit pissed at..." "you know. "What are you doing?"" "So now finally in the show, at the end of "Lady Madonna", you suddenly hear... (imitates sax)" "So he's not with us anymore, but he would have been pleased to finally be revealed in all his glory." "(sax solo)" "(applause and cheering)" "("Strawberry Fields")" "Let me take you down 'cause I'm going to... (George) "Strawberry Fields", I thought, would be difficult to handle because it's one of my favorite tracks and it's also a kind of icon too." "It's something which many people would say:" ""Don't ever touch it." "That is sacrosanct."" "No one I think is in my tree... (Giles) Yoko had some tapes from home, from John's house, with him doing early versions of "Strawberry Fields"." "(George) No one had heard this bit." "So this is him at home." "(Lennon) No one I think is in my tree... (Giles) So what we did is we took all of the versions we could find and tried to combine them in one long, expansive song that just starts off at home and finishes in the studio." "That is I think it's not too bad..." "And while I swanned around, you tuned all of the..." "You pitch-shifted on the tape machine, like in the old days, all the versions so they're all in the same key." "(George) It was near enough, but not near enough for what we were doing." "Living is easy with eyes closed" "Misunderstanding all you see... (Yoko) This show has to be something - especially John's songs - had to be something that John would be proud of." "That was my concern, in the sense that the spirit of the songs will come out well." "Nothing is real" "And nothing to get hung about" "Strawberry fields forever..." "So now this is the final version - the final four-track that was done." "I think I know I mean yes, but it's all wrong" "(George) Which is like the master, so... (end of "Strawberry Fields")" "(Giles) So we used this drumbeat as a foundation 'cause the song was faded in and out, and we still used everything that's there." "They faded in and out because, of course, in those days we had no click tracks to keep us in synch." "And, in fact, the rhythm went completely haywire at one point." "But there was a bit after it I wanted to include." "I couldn't edit them together, so the only thing I did on the mix was to dip them down to nothing, with the bit that was wobbly, then bring them back again." "So everybody said, "Great idea - fading, then coming back."" "I didn't tell them the reason, but now we don't need to do that." "(instrumental section of "Strawberry Fields")" "We should run through the separate elements, and the first thing we hear is "Hey Bulldog", very quietly." " And "In My Life"." " (piano solo on "In My Life")" " And "Penny Lane"." " (trumpet solo on "Penny Lane")" "All happening with the..." "And "Piggies" comes in." "Meanwhile, we have the whole rhythm from "Strawberry Fields" at the end." "And "Hello Goodbye"." "Hela, heba, helloa..." "I think, because The Beatles had so many musical ideas, that often they work together." "They're so sort of melodic in what they did, that it's amazing how..." "It's the same brain, it's just wedged together." "(Yoko) There's no other Beatles in the world." "It's one and only." "The Beatles were like acrobatics of the mind, and Cirque du Soleil is the acrobatics of the body." "And so when it comes together, it makes a kind of... something that's whole." "I like that, yeah." "("Baby, You Can Drive My Car")" "Asked a girl what she wanted to be" "She said, baby, can't you see... (Giles) No one has done this before." "No one has gone to their own library and used themselves." "It's great The Beatles have done this first." "Others will do it, and I hope people like the results that have come from it." "(McCartney) There will be people who are purist and want to hear it as it was." "And you know what?" "It exists as it was." "So, you know, just play your vinyl." "And I think that's great." "That is how it was." "But obviously, by allowing it to happen, we don't have a problem with the remix aspect." "(George) We're talking about probably the most important popular music of the 20th century, and it's historic what we're dealing with." "Of course, over a period of 90 minutes we can get in a lot of songs which are icons, which are wonderful." "And when you hear them in a big room with what we've been able to do with them in surround sound," "I think you'll have a few shivers going down your spine." "("Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite")" "Yeah, it's great." "I think that Lennon's voice all over," " it sounds very good." " (George) You're happy with it?" "Yeah." "What about you?" "I'd like to be able to hear the voice nearer, without being louder." "We can certainly play with that, see if we can, without increasing the level, bring it closer by using the center speakers on the back of the chair." "When we did the 5.1, I think we put a slight slap on him as well, and that may just make him boom a bit more." "He doesn't sound like he's a ringmaster." "I fear, with the experience, people thinking The Beatles are selling out to Las Vegas." "I think Las Vegas..." "There's a lot of money in Las Vegas!" "You can do things in Las Vegas you can't do anywhere else in the world." "Even The Beatles couldn't build a $100m theater to put their music into which has 6,000 speakers inside." " So each section has its own sound?" " Its own sound, yeah." "You get a little spill from..." "The idea of working with The Beatles' music is something that is unbelievable." "It's unbelievable because I grew up..." "That generation was my generation, and I know The Beatles' music inside out." "So the idea of working with The Beatles' music is just fantastic." "("La Marseillaise" opening of "All You Need Is Love")" "Love, love, love" "Love, love, love... (Deans) We started as a proscenium theater, then it went to a 360º theater." "So now the whole auditorium was around the stage, which for me, as a sound designer, it's like:" "Where do you put the speakers?" "(Giles) There's left and right, as you have at home" " The Beatles stereo." "Then we have a speaker in the seat - we can have this voice up close." "We have a speaker 80 feet away." "You can have strings or you can have..." "We have speakers in the ears - they're three inches away." "So my idea is to almost feel like you're dropping someone into a Beatles studio where they're surrounding you completely." " So I'll hear these two and this?" " Plus you'll hear..." "The subs for these are in the ceiling." "And then you have what's behind, like what we saw downstairs, what's behind, what's in front and then the main PA as well." "And then we can move sound..." " I can't hear a word, mate!" "Sorry." " ("Hey Jude" plays loudly)" "(all laugh as McCartney mouths words)" "(Deans) The kind of work I do, I like for the audience to be enveloped." "I like for the audience to be a part of the show." "And I'm not trying to do it so people go, "Oh, there's sound around me."" "It should just belong." "It should be as one unified joint production." "("Hey Jude" carries on playing)" " I know this song." "Yeah." " Takes a little time, but..." " Good singer." "Who's this?" " We're trying to find out." " French guy?" " Yeah!" "Thought so." "OK, let's move on." "("La Marseillaise" opening of "All You Need Is Love")" "Here we go!" "Love, love, love... (Giles) I've seen a lot of shows in Vegas and they sound very good, but they don't sound..." "English!" "I don't mean that in a nasty way at all - it's great - but I think The Beatles should sound like The Beatles." "Me and Paul are pretty good at getting that done." "Paul Hicks is..." "Funnily enough, he's Tony Hicks' son from The Hollies." "There was a band called The Hollies." "I've only worked with "son-ofs" - that's the most important thing: "Who's your dad?"" "He's been at Abbey Road for a long time, so we'll be here mixing in the theater." " I was going backwards and forwards." " There's too much sub going on." "(George) Cirque du Soleil has never had a show where the music has been entirely on tape or on recording." "They've always had live musicians." "And they were scared, because what happens if something goes wrong?" "You know, if a guy hurts himself and we have to fill in time." "So we've had to make our music continuous, but, at the same time, we've had to have flexibility within it." "There are a lot of places where you can stretch the music a little bit." "Or, if it comes to really dire straits, then the operator will be able to loop a particular section and keep it going." "("Help!" comes to an end)" "(man) On normal Cirque shows - other Cirque shows - the music is written in the creative process of the show itself." "And so that way the music is also eligible to be changed over the course of the show from minute to minute." "Here, once a song starts that the whole audience knows, you don't want to mess with it, and we don't want to mess with it either." "("Here Comes The Sun")" "Little darling" "It's been a long, cold, lonely winter" "Little darling... (George) We're playing back in 5.1 surround, which is quite a different experience to stereo or mono." "I love it." "I think it's great." "And it gives you another dimension to the music." "Hela, heba, helloa... (Whiteley) Because so many of the songs stay the same, projections are heavily synchronized to the music." "Lighting punches happen at the exact same time, so, from here, we're spitting out numbers those departments can synchronize too." "We've done a lot of preparation." "There's no other Cirque show with so many elements so tied together because they've never had the music established" "40 years before the show was created, like this one." " (George) They'll have a playback?" " (man) That's the first time for them" " to hear the real thing." " I hope they like it." "Because in the rehearsal room we have commercial versions." "And even then they haven't heard it like you and I have heard it." "We'll play you the opening of the show." "To explain what we've done with the music is, all of the music for the show is basically chopped Beatles stuff from all their tapes that my dad, who's here now, recorded from 1962 to '69 onwards." "(cheering)" "(George) We're embarking on a new direction here." "The sounds we are getting are not the sounds you would get in a studio." "It's a different thing altogether." "It's sounds that are designed to enhance the visuals and make the show exciting." "("Get Back" starts up/audience cheers)" "Jojo was a man who thought he was a loner" "But he knew it couldn't last" "Jojo left his home in Tucson, Arizona" "For some California grass" "Get back" "Get back" "Get back to where you once belonged" "Get back" "Get back..." "When I heard the show in Las Vegas and heard the sound quality," "I was blown away, 'cause I'm listening and thinking," ""Wow, that snare drum!" "I can't believe it!"" "It's just so clear, it's so original." "You just don't hear snare drums like that." "("Glass Onion")" "Oh, yeah" "Oh, yeah" "("La Marseillaise" opening of "All You Need Is Love")" "(man) I remember clearly when we decided with Dominic Champagne to work in 360 degrees." "For me it was impossible to see the show in an Italian way of seeing a show " "I mean, from being outside the frame of the theater." "It's very difficult." "It's a nightmare to work like that." "For the light, for the video, for the stage, for the artists, it's very, very tough." "All the exits of the stage are inside the audience." "Also, even the video projections are in the audience." "And it's very important because it means the audience can have the feeling that they are inside the show and can live an experience." "(man #2) The challenge is to use those screens as something who places you not outside of the scene, but inside the stage." "My approach is more working with optical effect, natural effect." "It's always better if I can shoot what I have to do, and then, of course, I put filters, I composite and everything." "But my first material, the roots are always better if I do it like a handcrafter." "And I'm sure of that." " It must be all right." " OK, let's go." " Don't, John." " Sorry." " (McCartney) OK?" " (Lennon) Yes." "(McCartney) Now!" " (Lennon) Yes, sir, that's my baby!" " (McCartney) Straight away." " (Lennon) We'll do this again." " OK." "Go!" "(Lennon) Sorry." "I feel less than useless..." "Apple Corps gave to Cirque all those recording sessions between '63 and '69, during which The Beatles were recording their songs, with which I could make a montage." "(McCartney) Are we still recording even now?" "(Lennon) No, I don't think so." "You're not being funny, are you?" " I can hear voices talking." " (Ringo) Nobody was listening." "(moaning)" "(Lennon) I get something in me head and all the walls of Rome couldn't stop me." "They had a great sense of humor." "That's what I tried to show with this montage." " (Lennon) Paul, it's very hard to sing this." " (Ringo) Do I love you!" "Ringo, stop!" "Of course, I had to sign so many papers to promise I won't sell it over the net!" "But for a year and a half it was such a terrific experience." " Let's get this show on the road." " (Lennon) OK, George." "Go ahead." "This is the greatest band in the world and you can hear them work together." "And it's clear as if it was now." "(man, in French) I think their effect was universal." "Their arrival turned the world upside down, seduced it and revolutionized it, and it was the same everywhere." "("Revolution")" "You say you want a revolution" "Well, you know..." "I started making costumes at the age of eight." "I like to give the impression that the character comes from an unknown world but, by the details in the costume, by the manner in which he or she moves, give the impression that that world exists and the character is a part of it." "(woman) So this is all costumes from the presentation." "(applause)" "There are references to absolutely loads of names, like Michelle, Polythene Pam," "Sugarplum Fairy, Father McKenzie, Lady Madonna." "There's an entire universe, an entire population of people, really, who exist most probably in the imaginations of thousands of people, because there were thousands of people worldwide who listened to The Beatles." "So we had an enormous responsibility in portraying these characters in the show." "All the lonely people" "Where do they all belong?" "(woman) I have two favorite props." "The first one is Eleanor Rigby's train because it's really made from junk parts." "So it's really made from antiques, so it has a real life." "It's not newly made." "This one carries a lot of..." "I remember each part of this train, where I buy it." "The other one is Sgt Pepper's bundle 'cause I think it's so..." "Because it's a sphere, it's like he's carrying the world on his back." "It's very poetic, I think, this image." "Dominic is a prop-consuming guy." "I heard in previous Cirque shows a lot of things were sent to the Cirque warehouse." "But on this show, I think I have two or three major props who were cut." "That's it." "And there are more than 600 props on this show." "And every day he's asking for more - he's still asking for more." "I'll continue to feed him because I like that my work is so integrated in this show." "Dominic is a guy who puts a lot of stuff on stage." "We are both big hockey fans, so we have a kind of a language." "We have one puck, OK?" "So where's the puck now?" "I have to put the audience to help them to focus, to follow the story." "Sometimes we have two pucks, but we try to keep the game at one puck on the ice!" "But it's a big, big challenge." "And after that, I have to express myself artistically, you know, with colors, with emotion in relation to the music, with rhythm, with beat, with counter beat, with a big "Whoo!"" "And I like to, you know..." ""Lucy In The Sky", it's a song that I like visually because I put a lot of hours on that, but with some other songs I'm more laid-back and just install a nice ambiance." "That means that we recreate a place, a space." "Woke up, got out of bed" "Dragged a comb across my head..." "Those tracks have been recorded 40 years ago, and everything that I discover with the lyrics and the way they were writing and the sense of humor they had..." "They were four guys, you know?" "That's what I'd like people to remember when they come and see the show." "("Glass Onion")" "Oh, yeah" "Oh, yeah... (man) The first time I get inside the Abbey Road Studio" "I was thinking about all the archives that I was supposed to check." "So many pictures." "I spent a week, ten hours a day, watching The Beatles." "And finally, I had this flash." "I was like, "We don't want to be documentary with our concept."" ""We want to bring the people inside their universe."" ""So why don't we use all the pictures to create one picture?"" "Finally it's a little movie, so you have thousands of movies inside the image, like a kaleidoscope of their life." "("All You Need Is Love")" "(refrain) Love is all you need..." "(McCartney) Right, fade it there, Charlie." "OK, put the red light off." "(Lennon) This is Johnny Rhythm saying good night to yous and God bless yous." "(applause and laughter)"