1965

Marry Poppins & Help by the Beatles, are the first colour films that I saw, so that means that they are the 1^st colour reproduction of anything I saw.  Before 1965 the past and everything beyond my horizon existed in black and white.  I’d seen A Hard Days Night in Liverpool at about the time it came out, the studio photo in the 1964 post was from that visit.  I suppose being taken to see Help was a follow on from that.  A version of “if you liked that you will like this” of the day… I’d say I liked it, but if you asked me now I would definitely say I enjoyed the atmosphere of being out and in crowds more than the actual films.  I just don’t remember anything much about the Beatles films, I haven’t seen either of them since and (using the adult logic now in my possession) I think they were just vehicles to enable us to see the Beatles sing songs – there was no YouTube folks.

Having been taken to see both the films and therefore greatly influenced by my family when requested to pronounce on the “Beatles or Stones” debate in the Primary School playground I would have undoubtedly have said Beatles… unless of course I was being contrary, in which case I would have said Dylan…

An “all the school” photograph from the summer of 1965 although I don’t know why my brother isn’t there, most of the others from his year are, so maybe he was away ill or something.

This was about when my Dad brought home a dog, he stayed just long enough to get a name – Rex, and a rename, Fred – before disappearing again.  I’ve learned recently that the disappearance was mainly due to Rex, or probably Fred by this stage enjoying nibbling my sister, who at that time would have been 2 and a bit.

Track for 1965 is.  Help by the Beatles,

What Else Happened in 1965.

I was 1 of the 25 million Brits who watched Winston Churchill’s state funeral.  Ronnie Biggs and Goldie the Eagle escape from their respective incarcerations, Goldie is recaptured after 13 days – Biggs isn’t.  The (Mary Quant designed) miniskirt hits the streets and the bestselling model car of all time, the James Bond’s DB 6 from Goldfinger arrives on toyshop shelves in time for Christmas, I had one, but then so did everybody else.  The 1^st episode of the Magic Roundabout appears on BBC1 and cigarette advertising on television is banned.  In sport, Sir Stanley Matthews plays his final top-flight game having just passed his 50^th birthday and Jim Clark won the Formula One world championship for the 2^nd time, I wanted to be a racing driver.