- The follow-up to the successful Hard Day's Night, with rare unseen photos
- Help! is considered the forerunner to contemporary rock musicals and pop videos, with rare unseen photos
- The film includes a host of classic tracks such as Ticket To Ride, You're Going To Lose That Girl, and the title track, Help!
"Remarkable as it may seem, but this is the first book on The Beatles' film Help! and that in itself a rare milestone in Fab Four history. So put down your mobile phone, turn off your satellite TV and unplug the internet and travel back 50 years to wallow in the beauty of The Beatles as never presented before. It may seem clichéd to say this, but truly, a splendid time is guaranteed for all." Simon Wells, from the introduction.
Eight Arms to Hold You is a unique publication. It features both rare and unseen photos and materials from the movie Help!, drawn from archives on all four corners of the planet; all of which is forensically remastered by one of the country's best forensic art and image restorers, Paul Skellett. The book is curated by world renowned Beatles author, Simon Wells ( Beatles 365 Days and Beatles Japan ).
This is one of the most meticulously researched and restored Beatles titles to date, with support from Rex Features Archive, The British Film Institute, The Pete Nash Collection, The Vincent Vigil Collection, The Mark Hayward Collection, The Cavern Club, The Beatles Story Museum, The Hard Days Night Hotel, The Beatles Fest and many other private collectors. Richard Lester, the legendary director of Help! has also lent his assistance in releasing parts of his private collection (including the original hand noted script) as well as being part of the book's final approval process. The project has renowned Beatles researcher and author Simon Wells on board to curate and narrate the story, with specialist forensic art and photography restorer, Paul Skellett handling the full image remastering process.
Simon Wells has written on film and music for numerous magazines and newspapers including The Guardian; The Times and The Independent. He is a regular contributor to Empire, Record Collector, Hotdog, TV Zone, Total Film, and was a contributor to The Beatles' Book, the group's official magazine. In addition to his writing credits, Simon has researched projects for the likes of the BBC, Channel Four, C5, Discovery Channel and Virgin Media, as well as broadcasting live on LBC, ITN and the BBC on film and music. Simon is the author of nine books, including Beatles 365 Days and The Beatles in Japan. Paul Skellett is one of the country's most accomplished image restoration and remastering experts. As well as being a fine artist he is also a highly experienced illustrator, image curator, book designer, leisure brand creative and musician, in a career spanning over twenty five years. Paul is a self confessed Beatles fanatic and this is his first foray into bringing his unique image skills to the Beatles arena. His previous credits have included assignments for Penguin Classic Publications, Aston Martin, Virgin Megastores, Blood and Glitter NY / JP Tokyo and many more. His artwork has been displayed in London and Tokyo. He was also the co-author and book designer of the highly acclaimed publication, The Bible Of Golf.
