Pleased!

By A.B. Finlayson, Alexander Gibbs, Andrew Lawston and 7 more

60 years... 14 stories...

 

Get ready to be entertained with a brand new short story anthology in celebration of the 60th anniversary of one of the most iconic albums of all time: The Beatles' Please Please Me! This unique anthology features a collection of short stories written by a group of talented writers, each inspired by one of the album's classic track titles.

 

From a modern fan's perspective of discovering the The Beatles in I Saw Her Standing There to escaped beasts stalking the Australian suburbs in Twist & Shout, this anthology takes readers on an eclectic journey through the ups and downs of life, love, death and beyond. Each story is infused with the energy, spirit, and creativity of the Fab Four, capturing the essence of the legendary band.

 

Whether you're a die-hard Beatles fan or simply someone who loves great storytelling, this anthology is sure to delight and inspire. So come along and join the fun as we celebrate the enduring legacy of one of the greatest bands in music history. It's time to turn up the volume, let your hair down, and immerse yourself in the magic of Pleased!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gayle Ramage
• Release date: Mar 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223772361

Book preview

Contents

Introduction

I Saw Her Standing There - Cáithlin Mulligan

Misery - Gayle Ramage

Anna (Go To Him) - Gayle Ramage

Chains - Andrew Lawston

Boys - A.B. Finlayson

Ask Me Why - Alexander Gibbs

Please Please Me - Kaye Daxter

Love Me Do - Michael Wombat

P.S. I Love You - Garry Abbott

Baby It’s You - Stephen Goss

Do You Want To Know A Secret? - Gayle Ramage

A Taste of Honey - Gayle Ramage

There’s A Place - TK Toppin

Twist and Shout - A.B. Finlayson

About The Authors

Suggested Charities

Introduction

The Beatles. The Fab Four. John, Paul, George and Ringo - always said in that order. You know their songs, recognise their faces - youthful and clean-cut peering down at you on the Please Please Me album or, still youthful (they were, after all, only in their twenties when they disbanded in 1970), though decidedly hairier, performing on the Savile Row rooftop in 1969 - and your favourite band or musician has probably been inspired by them in some form.

This book is a celebration of the 60th anniversary of The Beatles’ debut album, Please Please Me, released in the UK on the 22nd March 1963. Each writer has been tasked with taking one of the song titles from the album and coming up with a piece of writing for it. They have done an excellent job, and I can’t wait for you to enjoy the tales within these pages. There’s an eclectic mix of stories by writers from Australia, Barbados, and the UK. Perhaps you will discover your new favourite author here!

Any proceeds made from the sale of this book will be split between the charities supported by the authors. You can find a list of those charities at the end of the book, with links to find out more information.

Later on this summer we plan to release a limited podcast series which will include audio versions of the tales you’re about to read. Look out for more information in the coming months.

So, without further ado, please enjoy Pleased!

Gayle Ramage

I Saw Her Standing There

Cáithlin Mulligan

One, Two, Three, Four! The first words of the first song on the first Beatles album. I try to imagine what it would be like, to be in 1963 and dropping the needle on Please Please Me, hearing The Beatles for the first time. It’s a normal thing to do, to count in a song, but here it's almost poetic, here they are counting in their entire discography and the excitement of the 1960s.

I love that concert they did in Blackpool in 1965, the audience is screaming throughout, this is Beatlemania. But then George steps up to the microphone and says "we’d like to do something now which we’ve never ever done before, and it’s a track off our new LP. The song’s called Yesterday and so for Paul McCartney of Liverpool, opportunity knocks!" The lights dim, and Paul on his own starts plucking his acoustic guitar. The audience is silent as they hear Yesterday for the first time, being performed live by the guy who wrote it.

A little note is that I love that Ringo hasn’t left the stage during the performance he’s just chilling in the darkness sitting behind his drum kit, and when John and George run back on, John has to make a remark to change the mood, and he jokes thank you, Ringo whilst handing the flowers to Paul. The audience was mostly silent for this performance; of course there were still a few screams here and there, very similar to one the American audience got, but except this time you can hear a couple of girls yell SHUT UP! and QUIET! to silence the noisy lot. They knew this was special.

It took a long time for me to experience a wave of this Beatles magic - 50 years. I know. It was 2016 and I was 16 and a trailer for a film called Kubo and the Two Strings draws my attention, and I like the song that plays. It has a melody line that goes like this – hmm hm hmm hm hm hmhm hm - oh wait. You can’t hear that... you’ll know in a few sentences. I watch the film and fall in love with it. It has such beautiful animation and story, but my favourite part ended up being the credits. Yes! The Credits! They were gorgeously animated illustrations that perfectly complemented the song that played. The song being While My Guitar Gently Weeps by Regina Spektor. Haha. I loved this song so much that I had to buy it on iTunes even though I didn’t need to ‘cause it’s just there on the internet. It’s the first and only song I ever bought to download. I played it again and again. I had a banjo, and I decided I would learn While My Guitar Gently Weeps on it. I figured the banjo sounded pretty similar to the shamisen instrument that featured in the song. I managed to pluck out the melody by ear and then went into my parents bedroom one night, sat up on the bed and played While My Guitar Gently Weeps on the banjo to them.

"That’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps, They said. by George Harrison!"

Who’s that? I thought. George Harrison?  Some old guy my parents like?

I went downstairs and took out Youtube to find this guy’s version of the song. I found it, listened and oh - I didn’t like it. It didn’t jump at me like the Kubo version. This guy’s one was slow and with an orchestration. It felt too serious. I didn’t venture any further into his music.

I still got a ukulele for Christmas that year though, I figured While My Guitar Gently Weeps would sound better on it than a banjo.

It eventually took two more years for me to finally start listening to Gorillaz. Ha! One of the members of the fictional band was ‘supposedly’ put in jail - Murdoc Niccals, the green bassist. They made a playlist on Spotify of songs he was listening to. It had classics such as Burning Down the House, I Want to Break Free, Jailhouse Rock and Help! I liked Help! It had downbeat lyrics but an upbeat tempo. I’d been painting a really really long fence when I heard it. My arm was aching so much that I couldn’t sleep, so I listened to this song called Help! on repeat to have some fun with the irony of the situation.

When that job was done I decided to listen to more of this band called The Beatles. Starting college really gave me the opportunity to do so. We had a painting class every week, and people were listening to music. I felt the need to have a wider range of songs to play so I picked a playlist on Spotify called ‘This is The Beatles’. A compilation of their best tunes. I find this strange now looking back, but I kind of thought that they were classical music? I know, but songs like Eleanor Rigby and She’s Leaving Home had them kind of classical arrangements. Even Yesterday. I thought I was listening to ‘high class’ stuff and felt pretty clever, I thought it was my little secret, cause I felt it also was making me better at painting. I soon came to realise that everybody knew about The Beatles and I was the last to find out. My parents knew While My Guitar Gently Weeps, but weren’t even fans. No one sat me down and played their music to me. Nobody said, look here kid, this is the greatest band in the world.

I went to the piano at a house party one night and started playing Hey Jude, all the college kids poured into the room and went Nah na nananananana for hours into the morning. I mean it, this went on for hours.

They really changed my outlook on time. Youtube caught on that I was listening to them and I would be recommended new videos every time I’d open the app. Most of these being in black and white. Before, my mind would shut off when I’d see something in black and white - I couldn’t get it. But when watching these interviews and clips of the Beatles, I realised they were normal guys, they didn’t talk strange in a posh accent, or one of those old-timey movie accents. They weren’t ‘la di dah’. Their humour too also felt relevant, not alien, not old. The way they talk to each other is like how I’d be with my friends and family.

When I learned about the 1960s in school the civil rights movement in America would be heavily discussed and the things that happened, the awful way of thinking of some back then. It felt like it had to have been a long long time ago for something like segregation to be able to exist. I realised it wasn’t long ago at all...

I quickly found that I already knew lots of Beatles songs. I wouldn’t remember where I heard them from, but they would have always been on the radio, in a shop, in a film or TV show. Yellow Submarine was one, of course, the classic campfire song. Hey Jude, definitely, All you need is love, and While My Guitar Gently Weeps! The proper version. I realised that the one I’d heard two years ago was a demo, which was repurposed for the Cirque du Soleil Love album. I came to appreciate it, too.

I watched The Simpsons a lot, always on RTE at 6pm and, my god, there was a reference to them in every episode that I had never copped. One of my favourite episodes of the show was Homer’s Barbershop Quartet. The narrative strayed differently from the other Simpsons episodes. The entire thing is a Beatles spoof. I always remembered that bit where they went on the rooftop of Moe’s tavern to play one last gig, and I had always hoped that I’d get to watch that episode again. Then I found that Paul and Linda are the reason why Lisa’s a vegetarian!

I also came to realise that John Lennon was the guy in the Forest Gump film, the guy who was shot. They were also the originators of many iconic images including the Abbey Road zebra crossing. I posed on one of these as a kid in an M and M shop, but I had no idea what it meant.

The Beatles were always there.

I’ve been a big fan of the band for four years now. It’s funny to say that I can’t really imagine what I would be at now if it wasn’t for them. They have inspired me so much. The first drawing I ever sold was a picture of John I did, at a car boot sale and I continue to make lots of Beatles-related art ‘cause it’s pretty fun! I picked up the guitar soon after I got into them. The first song I learned was While My Guitar Gently Weeps and it brings so much joy, I just absolutely love playing it.

It is amazing to think, and I