FEATURE:
She Loves You
IN THIS PHOTO: Anna Sawai will portray Yoko Ono in the 2028-due Beatles films from director Sam Mendes/PHOTO CREDIT: Andie Jane for Vanity Fair
Why We Need to Give Proper Respect and Credit to the Women Who Defined and Shaped The Beatles’ Lives
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IT is exciting learning…
IN THIS PHOTO: Saoirse Ronan will play the exceptional Linda Eastman in Sam Mendes’s Beatles films/PHOTO CREDIT: Matt Winkelmeyer/WireImage/Getty Images
about some important casting for Sam Mendes’s new Beatles films coming in 2028. We know who will play each of the Beatles, but we also know who has been cast as some hugely significant women in the band’s life. What has troubled me is how articles refer to them as ‘Beatles wives’ or reducing them to supporting cast. Not important as the band members. Almost like afterthoughts. Whilst many might think of Yoko Ono, Patti Boyd, Maureen Cox and Linda Eastman as the wives/partners of John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, they are so much more than inspiration, muses or lovers. Not only did the band write timeless songs about them. They are as important regarding their career and success as female fans. The screaming and impassioned girls who were devoted to the band. I shall come to that later. Even though there were darker times (fans getting too attached and possessive; fans screaming so loud The Beatles couldn’t hear themselves play), they are unsung heroines and crucial people in the legacy and importance of The Beatles. As are the compelling, fascinating, strong and wonderful women who have just been cast. Let’s hope that they get plenty of screentime and they are explored and as big a part of the dialogue as The Beatles’ members:
“Sam Mendes’ ambitious four-part Beatles film has confirmed the casting of four main female roles.
Sony Pictures officially announced that Mia McKenna-Bruce will play Maureen Cox, with Saoirse Ronan as Linda Eastman, Anna Sawai as Yoko Ono and Aimee Lou Wood as Pattie Boyd. All four had been strongly rumoured to have been in line for their parts, but only now has their participation been confirmed.
Each of the four real-life women played significant roles in the Beatles’ story. Cox met drummer Ringo Starr as a 15-year-old trainee hairdresser in 1962, when the band were still regulars at Liverpool’s Cavern club; they married in 1965 but were divorced 10 years later. Eastman was a photographer who met Paul McCartney in 1967; they married in 1969 and she joined his post-Beatles band Wings and performed regularly with him until her death in 1998. Ono, an artist and musician, met John Lennon in 1966; they were married in 1969 after Lennon divorced his first wife, Cynthia, and they remained together until Lennon’s death in 1980. Boyd, a successful fashion model, met George Harrison in 1964 on the set of the Beatles’ film A Hard Day’s Night; they were married in 1966 and divorced in 1977 after she had become the object of attentions from Harrison’s friend Eric Clapton, who co-wrote the 1970 song Layla about her.
IN THIS PHOTO: Mia McKenna-Bruce has been cast as Maureen Starkey (née Cox) in The Beatles (the working/current title of Sam Mendes’s four films)/PHOTO CREDIT: Iona Wolff
Mendes said in a statement: “Maureen, Linda, Yoko and Pattie are four fascinating and unique figures in their own right – and I’m thrilled that we’ve managed to persuade four of the most talented women working in film today to join this amazing adventure.”
Currently titled The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event, Mendes’ project was first announced in 2024 with the aim of making four separate fiction films, one for each member of the band. In April, the band members’ casting was announced – Paul Mescal as McCartney, Harris Dickinson as Lennon, Barry Keoghan as Starr and Joseph Quinn as Harrison – and in May reports emerged that award-winning writers Jez Butterworth, Peter Straughan and Jack Thorne had been hired to work on the films”.
The casting news is great! Amazing actors will bring to life some incredible women. When we read books about the band and see documentaries concerning The Beatles, how much of their story is told? In terms of recognising their importance and the role they played in the success of The Beatles. People have reacted to the casting news and asked why we are not going to see Jane Asher (Paul McCartney’s former girlfriend) and Cynthia Lennon (John Lennon’s ex-wife) portrayed. Two incredibly important women, why are they being side-lined? I do hope that Sam Mendes ensures that Mia McKenna-Bruce, Saoirse Ronan, Anna Sawai and Aimee Lou Wood will be given big roles and they are not merely there to fill parts and have minimal dialogue or interaction. It made me wonder how much time we spend discussing the women behind The Beatles. At a time when their husbands and boyfriends were in the middle of a global media storm and being mobbed by fans, they often had to deal with attacks from the press, jealousy from fans and being overlooked. How lonely and isolating it must have been for these women a lot of the time.
IN THIS PHOTO: Aimee Lou Wood is going to play Patti Boyd in the forthcoming Beatles films/PHOTO CREDIT: Lulu McArdle for ELLE
However, these women had their own careers and lives. Fascinating, intelligent and supportive partners who have never really received their dues. I do worry that they are going to be side players in the films about The Beatles. Of course, people want to see the band and the films are going to be about The Beatles. However, you cannot ignore just how crucial Yoko Ono, Maureen Cox, Linda Eastman and Patti Boyd are. Ono and Boyd are still with us, so I will be interested to see how they react to the films. Patti Boyd said, when Aimee Lou Wood was rumoured to play her, how pleased she was. I am curious about Yoko Ono. In terms of the way she was treated and what she faced, her experiences were possibly the hardest and worse of any of the women! Not to say it was especially easy for the others, you do feel that Yoko Ono was especially villainised and affected. I want to bring in this article from 2022, that was published in response to the publication of Christine Barrett-Feldman’s book, A Women’s History of the Beatles. Whilst academics, authors and experts of The Beatles, in the past, were male-heavy, there are more women discussing the band and offering new perspectives. Critically, they are talking about how women shaped The Beatles! Highlighting the importance of their largely female fanbase, through to the wives of the band members, there are these great podcasters and authors who are shining lights on the girls and women who helped make and define The Beatles:
“I’ve been reading books about the Beatles for over a half-century but none have spoken to me like Christine Barrett-Feldman’s A Women’s History of the Beatles. This much-needed book shows us the mission-critical role of women in transforming four talented and ambitious young men into the Beatles, and the myriad ways the Beatles have, in turn, inspired and transformed the lives of women across three generations.
Feldman-Barrett, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science at Australia’s Griffith University, is a self-described “aca-fan”—an academic who studies a cultural phenomenon of which they’re a fan. Yet you won’t find the pretentious, obfuscating prose often found in academic books on fandom. It’s well-written, respectful of the reader, and acknowledges that fandom is joyful. Focusing on female perspectives gives the book a different kind of energy that is hard to describe.
Similarly refreshing is that the book is authoritative without the attitudes of expertise or ownership that characterize much academic and popular writing about the Beatles. Despite more women of all ages participating in Beatles scholarship and commentary in recent years, Boomer men shaped the discourse and still predominate. In my 2014 book, Beatleness, I described Beatles scholarship as a conversation among male observers, and offered a sociocultural analysis of first-gen Beatles fandom that broadened the conversation; others are broadening it as well.
Scholars such as Katie Kapurch, Holly Tessler, Kit O’Toole, and Erin Weber bring new perspectives, and podcasts such as bc the Beatles and Another Kind of Mind—hosted by millennial women—expand the conversation in that medium. But A Women’s History of the Beatles does something different.
By centering women in the Beatles story, which Feldman-Barrett likens to a fairy tale, it becomes clear how the surround and support of women—fans, friends, and family—made the Beatles possible, and shows us three generations of women—musicians, journalists, academics, fashion designers, ethnomusicologists, tour guides, visual artists, DJs, and TikTok stars— whose Beatles fandom inspired a range of personal and professional pursuits.
A Women’s History of the Beatles is organized thematically rather than chronologically, though it does begin at the beginning, with the foundational support of mothers and aunties, and the unfailing devotion of female fans in Liverpool and throughout Merseyside—to whom the world owes an enormous debt of gratitude.
Feldman-Barrett suggests the Beatles’ rapport with their fans—locally and then globally—was a natural extension of their relationships with the strong, supportive women in their families who “served as role models and mentors.” Indeed, despite prevailing attitudes toward women in their Northern, working-class milieu and tales of sexual adventure on the Reeperbahn and on tour, A Women’s History of the Beatles shows that the Beatles’ “interactions with women were varied, multidimensional, and contextual.”
Many observers say there would have been no Beatles without Brian Epstein; others say George Martin was the sine que non. But after reading this book, it’s clear that Mona Best and Astrid Kirchherr come before either of them. Pete’s Mom provided a venue—even after the unceremonious sacking of her son—that positioned the band to continually expand and energize their loyal local fan base which, in turn, fueled their confidence and determination. This created a positive feedback loop that propelled them to Hamburg and their transformative residencies.
It was during a 1960 residency that the Beatles befriended Kirchherr, whose friend Klaus Voormann persuaded her to go with him to the red light district to see and hear them “mach schau.” Six years later Voormann would design the cover of Revolver, and three years after that would play bass in the Plastic Ono Band. But none of that would have happened were it not for the alluring and enigmatic Astrid, the educated, middle-class girl who wore leather and a Jean Seberg pixie cut. A musician and photographer who says Kirchherr was one of her biggest influences aptly described her as “a woman who went where she wasn’t supposed to go.”
According to Feldman-Barrett, Astrid played the role of fairy godmother in the Beatles’ fairy tale, the kindly, knowing figure who ensures good things will happen. Using her camera as a magic wand, she was the first person to take composed photos of the band; the first person to whom this idea occurred! Her female gaze showed these “Cinderlads” who they were and the Prince Charmings they would eventually be.
Feldman-Barrett writes: “Kirchherr was able to fully identify, document—and then further shape—the Beatles’ magnetic appeal. It is through her black-and-white photographs of the band that we first see the Beatles as objects of desire and Kirchherr as the ‘desiring subject.’” Even readers familiar with the story will come away with a new appreciation for Kirchherr—and gratitude for Voormann’s persuasive ability that October night in 1960.
We’ve heard hundreds of male musicians from David Crosby to David Grohl talk about how the Beatles inspired them. A Women’s History of the Beatles shows us female musicians—some famous, some not—who have been similarly inspired, and corrects the persistent narrative about girl fans liking the Beatles primarily because “they’re cute.” Readers will be surprised to learn about the Liverbirds, the four Cavern girls who started a band and opened for the Kinks, and the Rolling Stones on their early UK tours. (Check out Feldman-Barrett’s A Women’s History of the Beatles playlist here.)
Yoko, who Feldman-Barret says is the preeminent female figure in the Beatles fairy tale, “was not widely received as a virtuous maiden worthy of a princely reward. Instead, she was presented and viewed as a cunning sorceress who had Lennon spellbound.” She was also a “godmother of punk” whose influence can be heard in numerous punk, post-punk, and riot grrrl bands.
Other important contributions of A Women’s History of the Beatles are the overlooked voices of lesbian fans—who found the Beatles attractive “irrespective of their sexual orientation”—and black fans, like the woman from the south side of Chicago who moved to the UK because of them. Another black fan recalled, “There’s something about how [the Beatles] talk about the world that has always made me feel comfortable in my own skin and made me feel like it’s okay to like what I like and be who I am.”
Beatle wives and girlfriends— Cynthia, Pattie, Jane, Maureen, Yoko, and Linda — are presented as significant figures in their own right. But Feldman-Barrett also zooms out and puts their Beatle relationships in a broader context, showing how they were role models for fans as well as exemplars of changing gender dynamics throughout the decade”.
Other articles like this observe how “There is a cultural tendency to link mainstream music with women, specifically young girls and teenagers. Burdened by societal levies on age and femininity, teenage girls are a scarily undermined social sector. As both women and popular music are deemed simple, female fans are positioned as the appropriate counterpart. One of the most culturally significant bands of the modern era, The Beatles, is a prime example of this undervaluation. The Beatles were fandom-less, unknown and non-credible until teenage girls started paying attention to their art”. In terms of the casting of The Beatles’ wives, let’s explore their influence (this word is going to repeated a lot, so apologies, but I think it is necessary and accurate). Last year, Women’s Weekly paid tribute to the feminist forces behind the greatest and most influential band ever. Patti Boyd had a huge impact:
“English model and actress Pattie Boyd first met her soon-to-be husband, George Harrison, on the set of the 1964 promotional film, A Hard Day’s Night.
“On first impressions, John seemed more cynical and brash than the others, Ringo the most endearing, Paul was cute, and George, with velvet-brown eyes and dark chestnut hair, was the best-looking man I had ever seen. At a break for lunch, I found myself sitting next to him. Being close to him was electrifying,” Pattie would later recall of the fateful meeting.
Whilst Pattie eventually became George’s wife, inspiring songs like Something and I Need You (as well as an infamous rock love triangle with Eric Clapton), one of her biggest contributions to The Beatles is often overlooked.
It’s no secret that LSD played an integral role in The Beatles’ discography, but it was Pattie Boyd’s dentist, John Riley, who first introduced the band to it. The unassuming dentist laced John, Cynthia, Pattie and George’s coffees with the psychedelic during a dinner party in 1965.
“We were just insane… we were just out of our heads… we all thought there was a fire in the lift, but it was just a little red light, and we were all screaming, all hot and hysterical!” John recalled of the night.
Meanwhile George said of the experience: “I had such an overwhelming feeling of well-being, that there was a God, and I could see him in every blade of grass,” he said. “It was like gaining hundreds of years of experience in 12 hours.”
Pattie also was responsible for The Beatles’ introduction and deep interest in Hinduism and Indian culture. She had been previously introduced to Transcendental Meditation by her sister, and convinced the band to join her to watch a lecture by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1967. This interaction sparked the famous trip to India the following year which had a monumental impact on the band’s music and direction”.
Linda McCartney/Eastman was massively crucial. Not only in terms of what she gave to The Beatles. The solo work of Paul McCartney, and her role in Wings. She was someone who had a profound effect on McCartney. Let’s hope that Saoirse Ronan is given the chance to fulfil the multiple sides and the sheer brilliance of this incredible woman:
“Though Paul and his long-term girlfriend, Jane Asher, broke up in 1968, the Beatle wasn’t single for long because he quickly met the love of his life, Linda Eastman. The pair met at the Bag O’Nails nightclub in London in May 1967 and again for the launch of The Beatles’ latest record, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
From the moment they got together, Paul and Linda became an inseparable force. Though Linda only saw the last few years of The Beatles, she’s credited with guiding Paul through the emotionally tumultuous breakup of the band and the ugly ensuing legal battles that followed.
With a trusty Nikon camera by her side, Linda snapped some of the band’s most candid and authentic moments in the final years of their time as a group. She continued to photograph Paul through his solo career and in the Wings era giving Beatles fans a comprehensive visual narrative to pore over for years to come”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Paul McCartney and Linda Eastman at a press launch of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, held at Brian Epstein’s house at 24 Chapel Street, London on 19th May, 1967 (Eastman and McCartney first met four days earlier at the Bag O’Nails club. They would marry on 12th March, 1969)/PHOTO COURTESY OF: The Paul McCartney Project
Yoko Ono is the most maligned and vilified of The Beatles’ wives. Still recording today, you would hope more than anyone, her importance is brought into brilliant focus! I am sure that Anna Sawai will do a phenomenal job. She is an extraordinary actor and it is only right that she is given proper flowers and space. That these amazing actors portraying these often forgotten women are not reduced to a few lines or being at the back. How they impacted The Beatles and the legacy they leave is as vital, I think, as the band’s:
“When a married John Lennon step foot into the Indica Gallery in 1966, he wasn’t aware that the woman he was about to meet would irreparably set The Beatles on a different musical path. Yoko Ono’s avant-garde approach to art quickly spilled into John’s creative processes, which undeniably exasperated tensions within the group, but ultimately pushed John to create some of The Beatles’ best music.
“She wanted more, do it more, do it double, be more daring, take all your clothes off,” Paul explained during an interview with Barry Miles for his book Many Years from Now. “She always pushed him, which he liked. Nobody had ever pushed him. Nobody had ever pushed him like that. We all thought we were far-out boys, but we kind of understood that we’d never get quite that far out.”
Paul and John had both previously experimented with tape loops and other sound engineering marvels in songs like I’m Only Sleeping and Strawberry Fields Forever. However, the White Album saw John’s experimentalism reach new heights on songs like Revolution 9 which, thanks to Yoko’s influence, is eight straight minutes of unbridled cacophonous mayhem. Unlike John, who was a self-taught musician, Yoko was classically trained which also saw her lend a hand to composing songs like Because and The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill.
Though Yoko is often unfairly cast as the villain who broke up The Beatles, it’s well-documented by the band themselves that factors like Brian Epstein’s death and the ravages of fame and time had eaten away at their comradery long before Yoko entered the picture. But what Yoko did do was open John’s mind to endless musical possibilities which made for boundary-pushing art and music”.
I am being pretty liberal when taking from this feature, though it is pertinent and very relevant. I will bring in sections about two women not included (as yet) in Sam Mendes’s films and why their omission would be an oversight. Maureen Starkey is someone who many overlook and do not see as important:
“Maureen Starkey was the most enduring feminine force behind The Beatles. She met Ringo back in 1962 and stayed married to him through Beatlemania, the breakup of The Beatles all the way through to 1975 when the pair divorced.
As a 15-year-old trainee hairdresser in Liverpool, Maureen was a regular at the Cavern Club where she quickly became acquainted with The Beatles and other skiffle groups. It was here where she met Ringo as he was standing on the precipice of unprecedented fame and adoration.
“Richy was just the drummer at the time,” Maureen recalled in a 1988 interview with the French magazine Le Chroniqueur. “I don’t remember when he first asked me out on a date, but he did just after he left the Hurricanes and joined the Beatles.”
Maureen and Ringo became a couple as The Beatles fame soared and the pair married in 1965 after learning they were pregnant with their first child. Along with the other Beatles and their partners, Maureen joined Ringo in India in 1968 where their musical prowess was opened up to unlimited bounds. Though she didn’t directly inspire any officially released Beatles tunes, that’s not to say she wasn’t a muse.
George Harrison, who would later have an affair with Maureen to the horror of his other bandmates, once sang a pointed song titled ‘Maureen’ during the 1969 Get Back sessions. Though he claimed the track was penned by his pal Bob Dylan, sceptics and die-hard Beatles fans argue otherwise. Ringo also commissioned Frank Sinatra to sing a special rendition of The Lady is a Tramp for Maureen’s birthday in 1968 with the song title being changed to ‘The Lady is a Champ’.
Besides this, Maureen was arguably the most die-hard Beatles fan who was present for every stage of the band’s lifespan from Cavern Club rockers to global music phenomenon. Her unwavering adoration is best seen in the Get Back documentary where she can be seen head-banging and cheering on the band during their rooftop performance”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Maureen Starkey
Maybe Jane Asher did not want to be included in the films. She has never spoken about her time with Paul McCartney, and she has remained private. However, her role cannot be diminished: “Some of Paul’s greatest love songs including And I Love Her and Here, There and Everywhere were inspired by his whirlwind relationship with Jane. The pair also had quite the tumultuous relationship which saw Paul pen some of The Beatles’ best melancholy tracks like You Won’t See Me and I’m Looking Through You. But Jane’s impact wasn’t just being a muse, her high-profile career and London abode introduced Paul to a range of new experiences including the theatre – which may have played a part in Paul’s burgeoning interest in fusing operatic orchestras with his rock music”. The same goes for Cynthia Lennon. Often discarded and abused, would it be too troubling, dark and problematic focusing on a woman who was often mistreated horribly by John Lennon?! It would be very harsh if she were left out: “As other girlfriends and wives entered and exited the tightknit foursome, Cynthia proved to be a grounding force that helped them adjust into the fold. Often to the detriment of her happiness and wellbeing, Cynthia also stoically braved loneliness, affairs, single-handedly raising a child, and at times, violence, as John and The Beatles’ career flourished. Eventually, it was John’s spiral into LSD that caused a rift between the pair. “John needed to escape his reality. I understood completely but I couldn’t go along with him.” Cynthia later said of John’s experimenting with drugs. She and Julian Lennon directly and indirectly inspired many great Beatles tracks including You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Across The Universe, Hey Jude and Julia”.
We must not overlook also the role women in music played on The Beatles and their own music. It is wonderful that such a strong quartet of actors are filing the shoes of women who were more than just ‘Beatles wives’. Instead, these women had incredible influence and were instrumental when it came to growth. Inspiring so many incredible and enduring songs, behind closed doors, I think their importance in keeping The Beatles grounded is pivotal. Although articles have been written about the women behind The Beatles and there are great podcasts out there, a lot of books and recent articles do not cover that. In light of Sam Mendes releasing new Beatles films in 2028, I hope that provided impetus for journalists, writers and fans to discuss the significance of women in The Beatles’ story. Not just their wives. The adoring and loyal fans. Women in music who compelled The Beatles. Without these women, then the band would undoubtedly not be as enduring, successful and important as they are. My concern is that the films might not delve too deeply regarding the lives and multiple sides of these fascinating women. We cannot underestimate the role of these women. This article argues why The Beatles’ screaming fans mattered: “The teens who shrieked for John, Paul, George, or Ringo were learning that their desires could matter on a public scale, and later in the sixties that would start changing gender dynamics in ways we’re still adjusting to”. The Beatlemania fandom and teenage hysteria provided a chance for revolution and expression: “If you were a girl, especially one on the cusp of adolescence, Beatles fandom possessed an additional frisson. The critic Barbara Ehrenreich noted in a 1992 essay that while mainstream culture was increasingly sexualised (paging Philip Larkin), teenage girls were still expected to be paragons of purity. "To abandon control – to scream, faint, dash about in mobs – was, in form if not in conscious intent, to protest the sexual repressiveness, the rigid double standard of female teen culture," wrote Ehrenreich. "It was the first and most dramatic uprising of women's sexual revolution”.
Maybe I am going slightly off the main track: that which concerns The Beatles’ wives. However, they form part of a discussion that needs to be reignited and continue. How compelling and influential these people were! We often talk about women like Patti Boyd and Yoko Ono in terms of the songs they provoked. That rather sexist idea of ‘the muse’. Instead, they were these independent and extraordinary women whose roles and significance is much deeper. How they almost had to remain under the radar because of press and fan intrusion. Stabilising, inspiring, evocative, talented, and superlative, there almost should be a film about them. Or a documentary. A perfect opportunity to emphasis and recontextualise their role, I am hopeful Sam Mendes’s casting reflects this desire. By casting these multifarious and multitalented actors who, between them, have appeared in some extraordinary films and T.V. shows, he is preparing to explore the incredible lives of The Beatles’ wives. They are more than that. The Beatles’ She Loves You contains these lyrics: “Yes, she loves you/And you know you should be glad”. That seems insincere and too little when we think of Yoko Ono, Maureen Starkey, Patti Boyd and Linda Eastman (and the other women in The Beatles lives that may never make it to the screen). These are the phenomenal women whose roles and importance is…
BIGGER than you can imagine!