![]() Magical Mystery Tour’s sensibility was more rooted in working class entertainment and tropes than the Pythons’ Oxbridge-infused references. The very concept of a coach journey – albeit one largely filmed at a decommissioned RAF base – was based on the “charabanc” trips ( group bus excursions) of the band members’ childhoods. The film evokes the past – both a British past in general and, more specifically, as filtered through the Beatles’ own histories. ![]() It certainly shows them pushing the boundaries of what a rock band of four Liverpudlians (whose post-school education essentially took place in the nightclubs of Hamburg) could attempt, both artistically and institutionally. Their commercial and creative clout allowed them to broadcast the film during a key annual peak slot for British television viewing. Magical Mystery Tour occupied a particular space in the history of mass entertainment – from the “end of the pier” shows, through the Donald McGill postcards that George Orwell defended against artistic snobbery, to the anarchic weirdness of the likes of Mr Blobby on Saturday night TV. The Beatles infused that particular strand of entertainment with the forward looking experimentalism of their music, while retaining a characteristic, widely recognisable Britishness. It was this that paved the road for Python and others to follow. That Magical Mystery Tour was their first real failure since breaking through into the mainstream was also partly a matter of practicalities. Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering.While still flowering creatively, they were logistically rudderless after the death earlier that year of their manager Brian Epstein.Step aboard the colourful Magical Mystery Tour bus for a fun and fascinating 2 hour tour of Beatles Liverpool. ![]()
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