Just when you think all the angles of the Beatles story have been covered comes a documentary from the perspective of their fan club secretary. Good Ol' Freda, tells the story of Freda Kelly who, as a seventeen year old in 1962, became an insider to the incredible rise of the band and was there at the fall.
Kelly has an incredible amount of integrity and has protected her privacy to such an extent that many of her close family and friends had no real idea of what she did during the sixties.
The film is far from a tell-all or a money grab. Kelly has specific reasons to document her story and while telling some lovely anecdotes refuses to sling any mud. Kelly is far from destitute but has had some underlying tragedy in her life. She told some incredibly sweet stories about how she befriended the parents of the Beatles, especially Ringo's. Another impressive things about the Kickstarted production is that there are original Beatles songs in the soundtrack, the rights of which were waived by the surviving members of the group. That's the respect they have for Kelly and the film makers.
My one peeve was during a montage of the inner circle who have died, there was no mention of Mal Evans, which was disappointing. Otherwise it's a remarkable documentary about a girl who was a fan of the band who became a key member of the team. For Beatlemaniacs it's a must see part of the canon. Not an exploitative work, but fair and honest insight from an until now unheard of insider.
4 comments:
I was wondering the same thing about no mention of Mal. Since she seemed to have so much integrity I wonder if there was an issue between the 2, and she decided to "not say anything, if you can't say something nice"
That's a possibility, but I'm not sure I ever heard about Mal giving off that kind of vibe. Obviously he had a tragic death, but we never quite learned what made him tick.
Aspinall took it all with him.
I am married to Mal's son Gary. We contacted Freda about this as the family were extremely saddened to see that she had 'forgotten' about Mal. She said that it was just an oversight as when she was being asked about whom to put in at the end it had been a long and tiring day and she just forgot. We are still saddened that they couldn't even be bothered to put just a small note to the end of it in production but apparently not! Have talked to Mals wife Lily, she said that she had met Freda on several occasions and that there was no 'ill feeling' or anything else between Freda and Mal. Thank you for remembering him though..x
Thank you so much for your comment and information. Pleased to know that Mal's not being mentioned in the doc was a slip up and nothing deliberate. All the best.
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