Help! - The Beatles

I suppose everyone had a favourite film or TV obsession when they were growing up. I know some of our friends, because their children are hooked on a particular show, can quote verbatim Fireman Sam, Peppa Pig or Spongebob Squarepants. The fact that even I know the titles shows how deep the obsession goes. You could never accuse me of having an obsessive nature.....could you?

Well my movie obsessions were two-fold; Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory and Help! I knew every word, both spoken and sung. Actually it has just occurred to me that, even though I hate musicals, these two movies definitely lean that way. Mmmmm. OK.

Anyway in 1980, or thereabouts, a video recorder came into our house. A huge hulk of a machine - about the size of a modern washing machine - with fist sized buttons. Despite taking up most of the front room it became an essential piece of kit - It now meant that we could record things from the TV. And watch them over and over and over.... So in January 1981 the BBC aired Help! The movie was duly recorded and my obsession began. Now I know what you are thinking - "how on earth could I know the date so accurately?". Well I know because Help! was the second item on the tape - it was preceded by Swansea v Boro in the FA Cup. A sublime performance with saw the Teessiders net five goals, including an overhead kick by tricky winger Terry Cochrane. But I digress.....

....so Help! became essential viewing for me, my parents and sisters. Well at least it was for me - they were just along for the ride. A captive audience.

Help! is a great album and really demonstrates the talents of the songwriters, especially when you consider that the bulk of the tracks were written in the back of limousines between performances and appearances. Not bad considering some of the songs on offer are 'Ticket To Ride', 'You've Got To Hide Your Love Away', 'Help!' and 'Yesterday'. Not too shabby. Even Ringo's offering manages to be not too bad. But despite the presence of the headlining sings my favourite is tucked away on what was Side 2. 'I've Just Seen a Face', clocking in at a little over two minutes, is a pop-country gem and confirms The Beatles as master songwriters; that something so good would be used as essentially filler for a soundtrack album.

And yes my obsession continues to this day. I love the film; it's daft, touching, funny and is like a hug in celluloid form. I'll sign off with a little fact. The album cover was meant to spell HELP in semaphore. Unfortunately the arrangement of the fan fours arms didn't look good, photographically speaking, so they were repositioned. So instead of spelling HELP, the cover of one of pops most iconic records instead spells NUJV. I'd like to see Lennon and McCartney write a song with that as a title!