This is the real history of The Beatles, told by the people who really knew them - their childhood playmates, family, friends, rivals, lovers, teachers, fellow musicians - and by John, Paul, George and Ringo themselves. Together these voices cast new light on the band's history, with revealing accounts of the early days in Liverpool and Hamburg, the touring triumphs and burnouts, and the secrets behind the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band . A chorus of distinctive voices tells us how The Beatles helped get The Rolling Stones rolling, why The Beatles stopped touring in 1966 at the height of their fame, and what really led to their breakup in 1970. This book is based on an award winning radio documentary. The first volume of 3 audiobooks compiled from the documentary will be available for download in May 2008. The story of the Beatles has become an industry in and of itself, and why not? Out of the chaos of twentieth-century history, it is a miracle that those four young men found one another at all, but then, maybe not. Pritchard and Lysaght lay out, once again, the story of the very human events, turns, and twists that led the talented four into history. Reading this delightful book, presented in Ken Burns^-like documentary style, for which principal players in the development of the Beatles were extensively interviewed, each adding just the right amount of additional information about who John, Paul, George, and Ringo were at any given time--not to mention valuable insight into the forgotten other Beatles of early days, Pete Best and Stewart Sutcliffe--should conjure no small degree of joy and excitement. Once opened, this book will induce something close to the feeling of waiting for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to get on with the show. Raul Nino Refreshingly personal.... brimming over with memories. - CNN --CNN Networks This may be the first book ever on The Beatles that manages to avoid falling into one obvious and reductive perspective. This seems fitting for a band that changed the world. --Publishers Weekly A superbly crafted recitation of The Beatles fabulous career.... absorbing, and a true reader's delight. --Goldmine Magazine Alan Lysaght is an award winning documentary director and producer, and co-author of the International Best-sellers The ABCs Of Making Money & The ABCs Of Making Money 4 Teens . David Pritchard was a legendary DJ in the 1960s in Toronto. He was an accomplished composer and painter. He died in 2006.