Saturday 6th July 2024 – Opera Holland Park

The faithful gathered again to listen to the now familiar panelists discuss the theme of the day … A Hard Days Night, being its sixtieth anniversary. Hosted by our genial host Chris Shaw the first half panel consisted of Stuart Maconie, Laurence Rickard and David Quantick who delivered their own thoughts on the elements of both the film and accompanying music of this incredibly creative period of the Beatles early career. These guests batted opinions two and fro with the “left-field” interjections from Quantick adding many a laugh in particular.

What Chris has cleverly curated are guests that provide both insightful musical / film examination, personal opinion and forensic knowledge each served with a healthy dose of love and humour which is why the two events at the Opera Holland Park have proved to be so popular. The second half guests of Samira Ahmed and Mark Lewisohn were supplemented by actor David Janson who played Ringo’s new found friend during the walk scene of A Hard Days Night. David recounted his time working on those scenes and his perspective on being in the eye of the hurricane even though for just a short time. All fascinating stuff.

Chris Shaw having played a largely back-seat role for proceedings other than to nudge the sometimes “at a tangent” discussions back on track, stepped up near the end of the show to perform the fabulous Lennon corridor scene. Chris played the Lennon part while Samira took the part of Millie but as Chris [admittedly] couldn’t carry off the Lennon Scouse accent he replaced it with his very best Mick Jagger impression. Cue hilarity all round.

And so, we had sat back and absorbed all things ‘A Hard Days Night’ for a couple of hours in good company and then, all too quickly, it was the end. In a somewhat emotional finale Chris was joined on stage by a cluster of EggPod guests who hugged Shaw who was overwhelmed by the appreciation surrounding him. Samira Ahmed posed a simple enough question … should we not do this next and every year? The answer is, of course, absolutely. Let’s hope it comes to pass.

Long live the EggPod.

by Gwyn Jenkins.