Review of ‘It’s All Too Much: Adventures of a Teenage Beatles Fan in the ’60s and Beyond’ by David Stark

Do we need another book about The Beatles? ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah!’ – of course we do, when it’s as fab as this one. David Stark, a lifelong fan, drummer (including with the Trembling Wilburys tribute band) and music industry guru, shares his experiences in a very readable and entertaining memoir.

The book is mainly chronological but it does go back and forth a little. David was lucky enough to be in the right time and right place quite often to meet his musical idols. Just as often, he is adept at making connections and smoothly talking his way in. He is quite rightly proud of sneaking into the Yellow Submarine premiere at the age of 15 and sitting right behind the band. He ended up meeting them all often enough to be recognised and his subsequent career in music promotion and publishing meant that he began to be invited to events instead of sneaking in! Most of the content is of course about The Beatles, their families, friends and associates, but there are also anecdotes about The Who, Elton John, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones and others. I also enjoyed his reactions to the first time hearing each album and seeing each film as they were released.

There are fewer anecdotes in the second half of the book and it does begin to feel like a portfolio of everything he’s been involved with in the last couple of decades. Every so often he tells us about a concert that was due to take place in 2020 but was postponed for the obvious reason and that we don’t know if it will go ahead in 2021. This information could have been left out as for anyone reading the book in the near future it will already be out of date. There are no photos included in the Kindle version. These issues aside, it’s worthwhile reading for Beatles fans and has some trivia that perhaps you won’t find anywhere else.

Published in 2020.