Question 1 Of The 1960’s Coursework

From source A we can learn what a big impact the Beatles had on London. The origin of the source is the actress Joanna Lumley, the nature of this source is a written description and the purpose of the source to inform us about the impact of the Beatles.
‘Extraordinary silence’ this suggest the Beatles had such a massive impacted on London that everyone was watching the Beatles. ’emptiness had descended upon London, on England, on Britain’ this is showing us just what impact the Beatles made on the whole of Britain also ‘hurried’ and ‘sprinted’ is showing the excitement of this incredible god like band. ‘No one was seen by the flower -stall’ showing what people would give up just to see this band and yet again just showing how big they were. ‘Fab four’ showing there celebrity status. ‘It was very heaven to be alive’ this just sums up her feelings of what she thought it was like to live back in the 1960’s
Unfortunately this source is quite one sided seeing as this source is an account written 30 years after these events had happened and quite dramatic in her views. She knows how big they become and this also influences her memories, as back in 1964 they weren’t as big as they were later. Plus Joanna Lumley wasn’t your ordinary teen back then she had celebrity status and seen things a lot more differently than other teens back then.

This is a more realistic view on her views, ‘A hot summer’s evening’ not everyone is going to be inside watching the Beatles its not like everyone loves them. ‘London, on England, on Britain’ the whole nation wasn’t interested in them and they were barely known throughout Britain anyway seeing as this was only the start of the Beatles. ‘The nation held its breath’ the Beatles were mostly a teen band and not all teens would of even liked them and how would see know this anyway. ‘ instead of the rush hour an extraordinary silence’ this just shows how blinded she has become while writing this and its like she’s writing more on the impacted they did have on the 1960’s on a whole, not back in 1964. ‘Being cool, hip, smart, lippy, champing, and funny. How does she know what there personalities are like she didn’t even know them, no one did and that’s why they have drug allegations behind them so she surly didn’t know them that well.
In my conclusion she set’s up the impact the Beatles on a massive scale but reality how could she know this and we know this isn’t true seeing as they were more of a teen band and were barley famous at this time anyway. I fell this source is showing us more of the impact the Beatles had on Lumley personally and not what it had on the nation as a whole this is why we cannot trust this source completly.