The Fab Four

The Beatles were a rock and pop group from Liverpool. They formed a band in 1960. There were four members of band: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. 

 In 1957 Paul McCartney first met John Lennon and asked him to join a band called The Quarrymen. In 1960 the band started to play under a new name, The Beatles. In 1962 Ringo Star replaced Pete Best who left the band. The same year they recorded their first song, Love me do.

 In 1964 they made their first album, Please, Please Me, whish soon become a big success. The same year they visited the USA for the first time.

They appeared on one of the most popular TV shows. 75 million people watched them on TV and there were screaming fans wherever they showed up.

 In 1967 they recorded their most popular album, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which brought about a lot of new ideas in music. They used a lot of different instruments. They made the recording sound unusual, too.    

 


My Favourite Group

Can you think of a day without music? I think it’s impossible. There is music everywhere: at home, in concert halls, in parks, at the seaside and even in the forest. But in the forest, of course, it is better to listen to birds singing and other natural sounds like the wind in the trees.

Role of music in the life of different people is different: some compose music or play music and others just listen to music. A lot of people who cannot play any musical instrument, love to listen to music either at home or at a concert. I think music isn’t a combination of pleasant sounds only. It is an art which reflects life. Music reflects people’s ideas and emotions.

I am fond of many kinds of music: pop, rock and roll, folk music, jazz and others. My favourite group is the Beatles. The Beatles were formed in 1957 (nineteen-fifty-seven). Those were the times when the real earnings of young workers had grown rapidly, creating a generation who had money to spend on leisure and luxury. Clothes and music became the symbols. No band was more important than the Beatles. They provided British teenagers with an identity that cuts across the barriers of class, accent and religion. In 1963 (ninteen-sixty-three) their song ‘From Me to You’ became their first Number One hit single. Soon the Beatles performed live in eighty-four different places in England, fifteen in Scotland, six in Wales and two in Ireland.

A national and a global phenomenon, the Beatles played all over Europe, as well as in Australia, Japan and the USA.

Beatlemania swept the country. When BBC failed to broadcast the music that people wanted, pirate radio stations filled the gap. That was a cultural revolution.

Word List

  • a combination of pleasant sounds – поєднання приємних звуків
  • reflect – відображати
  • earnings – заробіток
  • rapidly – швидко
  • leisure – дозвілля
  • luxury – розкіш
  • an identity that cuts across the barriers of class, accent and religion – ідентичність, яка долає бар’єри класу, акценту та релігії
  • perform live – виступати наживо
  • a phenomenon – феномен
  • Beatlemania swept the country. – Бітломанія охопила країну.
  • fill the gap – заповнити прогалину