Eight Days A Week: Inside The Beatles' Final World Tour

by Robert Whitaker

Eight Days a Week is the inside account of The Beatles' final world tour, through the lens and words of their official photographer, Robert Whitaker.

This lavish book, containing many preciously unpublished photographs, documents the tempestuous journey that began in Germany and included a visit to Hamburg, scene thereof the group's legendary early performances. After playing their last-ever European concert there, The Beatles made an unscheduled stop-over in Alaska before arriving in Japan, where they were confined to ther hotel between shows for their own security. Their final destination, Manila in the Philippines, turned into a nightmare after unintentional offense was given to Imelda Marcos, wife of the country's dictator.

Whitaker's intimate view of John, Paul, George and Ringo highlights their characteristic humor, even under the strain of touring, and documents the more serious inner world of The Beatles at a turning point in their career.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography

Hardcover

First published September 11, 2008

About the author

There is more than one author in the Goodreads catalog with this name. This entry is for Robert [3^] Whitaker, Beetles writer.

Reviews

[Antonella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lo leí en febrero y había olvidado reseñarlo :p
Fue todo muy raro porque este libro me acompañó en un finde largo que mi familia se fue de vacaciones, yo estaba sola en mi casa y sin luz durante c i n c o días D:. Todo muy creepy.
Las fotos son preciosas, y mi papá asegura nunca haberlas visto (que es raro porque se conoce todo de The Beatles) y las palabras de Robert buenísimas . Me encantó.

2016 Reading Challenge:

A book written by a celebrity✓

[黑 · Rating 3 out of 5]

【中译本】印的太糊了，抓拍那些基本都糊没了……还不如直接getty上看……

[Frederick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Whitaker was hired by Brian Epstein to photograph the Beatles on their 1966 world tour. This account not only contains a lot of great pictures of the Beatles, it is one of the few really straightforward written accounts by any eyewitness. I estimate this book is about 140 pages. (The pages aren't numbered.) The photos take up the majority of the space, but the explanations of the photos are direct and very informative. While most of the pictures are in black and white, there is a sudden burst of color about two-thirds of the way through the book, when the Japanese government gives Whitaker a color camera. He documents, in color, something I'd never read about before. The Beatles sat in their hotel room in Japan one night and, together, took some paint and created a painting which they donated to charity. In this phase of the tour they appear as relaxed as they ever would in front of a lens.
This book may have been published in the UK first, but the only hint that might be the case is this cryptic line on the copyright page: " This 2008 edition published by Metro Books by arrangement with Endeavour london Limited." Metro Books is based in New York. The lack of page numbers is typical of a book designed to be a "remainder." This book is currently being displayed prominently at almost any Barnes and Noble store in the country. It was just published and is designed as a remainder. Some bargain books are books which haven't sold well and which, therefore, have been marked down, but this is a book which came out as a bargain book. This means you probably won't see reviews of it, ads for it, or, otherwise, any indication of its existence. I had to put all the information I could into the Goodreads listing, which I created, I being a Goodreads Librarian. As a professional bookseller, I can tell you that this remainder will probably drop out of circulation in two or three years. So, if you're a Beatles collector, snap it up while you can.
This book has a co-author, Marcus Hearn. The back flap describes him as a journalist who has written about classic rock musicians and also about George Lucas. I gather Hearn wrote some of the background material about the tours and Whitaker provided the reminiscences.
Whitaker's Australian. (G'day, Mr. Whitaker.) He did some album covers for bands Brian Epstein managed and then got the '66 Beatles tour assignment. The pictures are basically behind-the-scenes images. Whitaker explains that pictures of the Beatles on stage would have required him to get far into any given audience in order to take them and he felt he might get lost in the shuffle; a very reasonable assumption. The result is he gets a look at the beatles even the best photographers didn't generally get. They never do that Richard Lester jumping up and down stuff for him. They do some humorous posing, but not in the way they usually did. Whitaker seems to have had a pretty good eye for the one-on-one moment. He saw each Beatle as an individual, a good four years before they split into solo acts.
I don't usually take to the photographic record of the Beatles. It's the music I like. I've gotten weary of the biographies. Burt EIGHT DAYS A WEEK: INSIDE THE BEATLES' FINAL WORLD TOUR caught my eye and did something most Beatle books can't do anymore: It held my interest, told me more about The Beatles and caused my already high respect for them to increase.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

a very nice picture book which is what i like. these pictures are from their last tour, most of which i hadnt seen. the photographer has little stories and explanations of the photographs in the captions. i found myself wanting to know more of the stories behind them. :) its interesting to see what he was doing technically; shooting b&w in very low/existing light. it made for some really great natural photographs but some were frustratingly dark or underexposed. being that i like shooting in natural light i wondered what i would have done because existing light can be so limiting to the picture. in some cases flash is just a must. it really made me miss shooting in b&w white and as always wish that i could have been there to photograph the beatles. he got a camera in japan and shot some color which i really liked too.

[Btlesluvr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book! Could not but down. Has great pictures of the Beatles final tour. Learnt a lot.