Russia’s Ural city of Yekaterinburg is playing host to the exhibition “Lennon with us”, which opened on the eve of UNESCO-established Beatles Day in honor of the legendary Liverpool quartet The Beatles. It is celebrated worldwide on January 16th. We have more from our correspondent Tatyana Zavyalova.

The Beatles is deservedly acknowledged to be one of the 20th century brightest phenomena. Even despite its break-up, the band has been overtaking other musicians in popularity for many years, as testified to by the constantly growing number of its fan clubs worldwide. It is an understatement to say that Russia is no exception here - our country can be called a sort of a leader in this respect. But Yekaterinburg apparently stands out among other Beatlemania-obsessed Russian cities as a paradise for Beatles fans. The country’s first monument to the band erected here on May 23rd 2009 features the four musicians as “white silhouettes fixed to a brick wall”. A nearby yard regularly hosts performances of famous Russian and foreign bands. The ongoing “Lennon with us” exhibition displays works by Ural artists, such as Felix Smirnov presenting a series of his brilliant graphic designs; avant-garde painter Sergei Pafenyuk, whose pictures are included in the Beatles Art collection and were appraised by Sir Paul McCartney himself; and Olga Shaerman with her gorgeous portraits of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, which she made after listening to the White Album tracks.

There has always been something magical about The Beatles that influenced and inspired nearly all representatives of Russian underground art. One of them - rock musician and writer Vladimir Rekshan, who is also the organizer of the Beatles Music festival in Russia - recollects:

READ MORE

” I remember every little thing as if it happened only yesterday. It was in the mid 60s that I heard several Beatles’ songs on the radio accompanied by commentaries like “those were our friends - cargo loaders from Liverpool”. All of us developed an affection for this band - an affection that was later replaced by real Beatlemania, this never-ending search for photos and recordings.

And it gradually grew into a global youth revolution in the West, as well as something of this kind but smaller in scale here in Russia. Music by the Liverpool quartet is a sort of international cultural Esperanto comprehensible for everyone, Vladimir Rekshan said.

Blog posts of the band’s new adherents read as follows: “Listening to Beatles’ music is similar to reading an ABC book. That is what the process of studying any foreign language starts with. It is absolutely impossible to read Dostoyevsky or Kierkegaard without a thorough examination of an ABC book. Musical literacy should also have something to start with. And that is The Beatles.”

The band’s well-known songs are often included in concert programs of young Russian musicians, such as The Beatween, a Beatles-tribute band from Moscow. It should be noted that even the United Kingdom applauded their performance of songs from the early Beatles repertoire.

source