Backbeat is a 1994 movie that chronicles the early days of The Beatles in Hamburg, Germany. The movie focuses primarily on the relationship between Stuart Sutcliffe (played by Stephen Dorff) and John Lennon (played by Ian Hart), and also with Sutcliffe's German girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr (played by Sheryl Lee).

The movie is generally more accurate, both about Sutcliffe's life and the early Beatles history, than the 1979 TV movie Birth of the Beatles, which covers mostly the same period. It also has a darker, more detailed storyline, and Beatles history per se is background to the main story.

The soundtrack to the movie features not Beatles songs, but the cover tunes they used to play in Hamburg, written and recorded by other artists. Rather than re-create the authentic period sounds, punk rock musicians were recruited and their styles employed, as punk was itself inspired by the rebellious spirit of early rock 'n' roll. (As a producer noted, the Beatles' pre-recording stage act was "the punk of its day".) This was done to better convey the way the music came across to the audience, at the time. The musicians were all members of well-known american rock bands:

Dave Pirner (Soul Asylum): vocals
Greg Dulli (The Afghan Whigs): vocals
Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth): guitar
Don Fleming (Gumball): guitar
Mike Mills (R.E.M.): bass guitar
Dave Grohl (Nirvana/Foo Fighters): drums

For much more info, check out the Wikipedia article.

In general, a fanlisting is just a place for fans of a certain thing, such as a TV show, a band or in this case, a movie, to come together to share their love. For more fanlistings, please visit TheFanlistings.org.

I created this fanlisting for Backbeat because I love the movie and am a huge Beatles fan to boot. The name The Beginning was chosen because it describes the time of the Beatles' career that the film portrays. As for the layout, I manipulated the cover of the DVD. Links to brushes and patterns used can be found here.