Reviews
Ladies and Gentlemen…The Penguins!
Bound to capture the attention of music buffs, fledging ornithologists, and enthusiastic geographers, Ladies and Gentleman … The Penguins is as entertaining as it is educational. Author Ivor Davis has filled his jaunty tale with well-placed Beatles puns, and ends the book on a high note by adding facts about penguins and the Falklands, a puzzle that teaches the names of the actual members of the world famous band, The Beatles, as well as some fun coloring pages featuring The Penguins band members. Dave McTaggart, the illustrator of over 30 children’s books, adds plenty of pop to the pages with bright colors and characters with pizazz. Bursting with fun, Ladies and Gentleman … The Penguins will surely appeal to a wide range of young readers, but particularly those destined to be rock stars—either the singing in the shower type or those sure to head out on a world tour at any chance they get. See the full review here.
“Ladies and Gentlemen….. The Penguins” is a delightful children’s illustrated book about Sadie, a musical king penguin who stars in a hot rock group from the British owned Falkland Islands, down in the Southern Hemisphere, off the coast of South America. Living on the Falklands where the population is one million penguins, half a million sheep, and three thousand humans, Sadie and her friends decide to form a rock band called the Penguins. Written by the fifth Beatles, Ivor Davis, “Ladies and Gentlemen…. The Penguins!” is a total Falklands based spoof on the Beatles, with tons of in jokes, plus actual facts and figments about the Falklands. Sadie and the Penguins achieved high fame with their music, but not without competing with rock groups such as the Rolling Rockhoppers, and the Macaronie Plumes. Sadie and her brother Elias and cousins Levi and Ezra toured and sang their hits, managed by their manager, Brian Fishstein. They sang on the Ed Pelican Show, winning a prize for “We All Live in a Yellow Marine Ecological Reserve.” The Queen even gave the Penguins the order of the Penguin Empire. But one day, Sadie woke up with a sore beak and falling out feathers. The Penguins were homesick. Touring wasn’t fun any more. So they quit, cold penguin. But they still perform on cruise ships, and even write their memoirs. That’s why Sadie wrote “Ladies and Gentlemen….. the penguins!!” This delightful Beatles homage story wouldn’t be complete without “Everything You Wanted to Know About Penguins But Were Afraid to Ask, Fun Facts About the Falklands, and a cool Penguin Puzzle challenge which highlights the names of the four Beatles hiding in the preceding pages of the book. Last of all are four lovely black and white coloring portraits of each favorite Penguin, Sadie Elias, Levi, and Ezra. Kids of all ages will love “Ladies and Gentlemen…The Penguins!” The Beatles and Me On Tour
Davis, a British journalist transplanted to Los Angeles, was commissioned to go with on a tour of the U.S. the Beatles in the summer of 1964, mostly to be a ghostwriter for George Harrison’s column in the London Daily Express. He got to know “the boys” and the intricacies of their relationships, witnessed their sexual peccadilloes on the road, and became close to their manager, Brian Epstein. He was present when the Beatles met Elvis and when they smoked pot with Bob Dylan for the first time. Fans of the Beatles will absolutely delight in Davis’s insider account of a frenetic tour, and there are several stories that enthusiasts have never heard before. Read more…
A Rollicking Recounting of a World Gone Mad
By David Boldt ( a Pulitzer Prizing-winning journalist and former editor at Philadelphia Inquirer and Wall Street Journal) 5 STAR REVIEW
This is a book for people who believe books about entertainment should be entertaining. It is not for those intent on calculating (to the second decimal) what percentage of a given Beatles’ song was written by Paul, and how much by John, a scholastic debate that seems to be in vogue currently. Ivor Davis ‘extensively researched account of The Beatles first US tour (and he was there), while chock full of interesting information, is much more an account of Beatlemania than a treatise on Beatle-ism. Read more…
One of the best things about this book is Ivor’s honesty about what went on. Reading this book, you get a personal insight into John Lennon on that 1964 tour in particular. He references other writers and media in the book and also clarifies some of the many legends that have built up over time. One such story in the book is what really happened when Bob and the Beatles got together on the tour. Read more…
Through 34 days and 24 cities, Davis traveled with The Beatles watching them make rock and roll history. He enjoyed unrestricted access to the Fab Four – from their hotel suites to backstage concert areas to their private jet. He fended off excited girls, played all night games of Monopoly with John Lennon, became the ghostwriter of a newspaper column for George Harrison and witnessed the night Bob Dylan turned The Beatles onto marijuana. Read more…
For British journalist Ivor Davis, it became a reality in 1964, when as West Coast correspondent for the London Daily Express, he was tapped to travel with the four lads from Liverpool on their first U.S. tour (and second tour in 1965). Fifty years later, Davis penned his book, The Beatles and Me On Tour, an insider’s look at touring with The Beatles. All the behind-the-scenes antics, the late-night card games, the drugs, the meetings with Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan, and the girls — it’s all in there. Read more…
4.67 Stars out of 5
In the summer of 1964, the Beatles took America by storm and changed rock ’n’ roll forever. In this first-ever chronicling of that revolutionary tour from the inside, author Ivor Davis serves up the stories behind the stories as only an insider can. Read more…
In his rowdy and riotous recollections of that revolutionary tour from the inside, Ivor serves up the stories of the tour as only an eye-witness can, sharing his unrestricted access to the Liverpool lads. From inside the band’s hotel suites to the concert arenas to the private jets, the limousines, the madness and magic plays out through Davis’ personal accounts of living alongside the Beatles for thirty-four jam-packed days. Read more…
Journalist Ivor Davis paints a vivid picture for readers in The Beatles and Me on Tour, an account of his month traveling with the band as an embedded correspondent. At once humorous and terrifying, Davis’ recollections lend a new and thoroughly detailed perspective on how The Beatles coped with those early days of fame. Read more…
Fifty years and four Beatles ago today, they made Dallas the scheduled last stop on their very first U.S. tour. John Lennon very much wanted to visit the JFK assassination site, Ivor Davis writes in his new book The Beatles and Me On Tour.
“Let’s take a quick look at the scene of the crime,” Lennon is quoted as saying. But The Beatles’ controlling, ill-fated manager, Brian Epstein, would not relent. So The Beatles remained sequestered at the Cabana Motor Hotel before they took the stage on the night of Sept. 18, 1964 at the Dallas Memorial Coliseum. Read more…
Written fifty years after the strange but amazingly fast-set pace of concerts, the compilation of Davis’s well-written work may not “chuff” readers; however, it becomes easily evident that The Beatles changed the youth in America by their public personifications that were polished by a perfectionist manager. Read more…
A compelling read. Raced through it.
I doubt there is anyone who has not heard of The Beatles and, for the U.S. their astounding fame began in the summer of 1964. The Beatles and Me on Tour by Ivor Davis who was the only British newspaper writer invited on the entire tour. Over the course of 34 days and 24 cities, Davis watched them make rock history while enjoying unrestricted access to the four lads from Liverpool, from hotel suites to backstage to their private jet. He waited fifty years to write the book because the years in between were filled with other events that he also witnessed, from the assassination of Robert Kennedy to the Los Angeles Watts riots. In this book he recounts in frank and amusing fashion the adventures of the now legendary band. Fans of The Beatles will surely enjoy it.
“From the start, we saw ourselves as part of Team Beatles, and all pretense of objectivity was thrown out the window as we adopted a them-against-us attitude. We shared the band’s frustrations about the wearisome shriekers, the lousy sound systems, the would-be-hangers-on, even their acne,” Ivor Davis pens in his book, The Beatles and Me on Tour. Read more…
Rarely does the public get an inside look and an up close and personal experience with any rock group, let alone The Beatles. But Ivor Davis was basically embedded with the Fab Four during their first US tour in 1964. Read more…
Aug 11, 2014 – Book Patrol Review: Ivor Davis was front and center during the Beatles 1964 tour of America. Covering the tour for London’s Daily Express Davis he was one a handful of journalists that had unfettered access to the Fab Four…. There’s plenty of anecdotes and behind the scene nuggets to keep you reading. I would also recommend pairing the book with the film Hard Day’s Night. It’s nice way to wind down after finishing the book.
Aug 5, 2014 – Book Review -” The Beatles and Me On Tour” – DadOfDivas blog
In The Beatles and Me on Tour, Davis recounts in frank and amusing fashion, the rip-roaring adventures of the most legendary band at a critical moment in the history of rock ‘n’ roll. The book recreates a world long gone but not forgotten, especially for the hundreds of thousands of girls who spent a summer night fifty years ago screaming for their dream, The Beatles. Read more..
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