All You Need is Love is a ground-breaking oral history of the Beatles and how it all came to an end. Based on never-before-published or heard interviews with Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and their families, friends, and business associates, this is a landmark book, containing stunning new revelations, about the biggest band the world has ever seen.
In 1980-1981 former COO of Apple Corp, Peter Brown and author Steven Gaines interviewed everyone in the Beatles’ inner circle and included a small portion of the transcripts in their international bestselling book The Love You Make, which spent four months on the New York Times bestseller list. But left in their archives was a treasure trove of unique and candid interviews that they chose not to publish, until now. A powerful work assembled through honest, intimate, sometimes contradictory and always fascinating testimony, All You Need is Love is a one-of-a-kind insight into the final days, weeks, months and years of the Beatles phenomenon.
The Beatles are a band that mean so much to so many, and are sure to be a band never forgotten despite the passing of time. They are a group that I am fond of but am most definitely not an expert on. I could reel off a list of songs that I love but would struggle to give you much more detail beyond the major headlines. When I heard about this book I was really excited to join the #blogtour as I felt this would be a good way to learn something about the Beatles without feeling under pressure to already know loads.
I really enjoyed how this was a book compiled of interviews with many people who played a key role in the band, or who worked closely with them. Quite a few names were familiar to me and it’s quite interesting seeing how they come across in an interview. Sometimes I get a bit overwhelmed with lots of long paragraphs in a non fiction book so having this style of writing made it feel very accessible and a good choice for a chapter at the end of a day.
As I’ve mentioned, I wasn’t anything like an expert on Beatles trivia before reading so I am reluctant to make a judgement on how a super fan might feel about the book in terms of new information. Given that these interviews haven’t been published before I think it would be highly likely to be a great addition to a fan’s collection and I think it would be well received within this group of readers.
Every year I get my dad books for his birthday and Christmas presents, and am always on the look out for good quality music and sports non fiction. This would definitely meet the brief for what he enjoys and so it can now go on my list for his next birthday! If you have music fans who like to read in your life, they don’t need to be Beatles super fans to enjoy this book, I think anyone with a love of music and music history would find it fascinating. It’s really well put together and I’m very happy to have had the opportunity to read!
About the authors:
Steven Gaines is the New York Times bestselling author of Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons and The Love You Make: An Insiders Story of the Beatles (with Peter Brown). His journalism has appeared in Vanity Fair, the New York Times, and New York magazine, where he was a contributing editor for 12 years. Mr. Gaines is the co-founder and a past vice-chairman of the Hamptons International Film Festival. He has lived in Wainscott, a small hamlet on the East End of Long Island, for 40 years.
Peter Brown is the former COO of Apple Corp, the Beatles’ financial empire. He’s been a Beatles intimate since their earliest days in Liverpool. Their passports were locked in his desk drawer. He was best man at John and Yoko’s wedding, he introduced Paul to Linda Eastman, and perhaps the most charming of his credentials is that he’s the only real person ever mentioned in a Beatles song, “Peter Brown called to say, you can make it okay, you can marry in Gibraltar near Spain,” from the “Ballad of John and Yoko.” Mr. Brown is now chairman of the international public relations firm of Brown Lloyd James LTD.
Intensive Gassing About Books 
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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