The Beatles: US reporter reveals what it was really like to go on tour with the band

Released in UK cinemas on 15 September, The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years takes cinemagoers on a look-back at the early years of the legendary band's career in the early 1960s. Using never-before-seen photographs, rare sound clips and archived footage, director Ron Howard brilliantly captures the group's live shows. Someone who didn't have to watch the film to know exactly what it was like on those tours, however, is journalist Larry Kane, who travelled with the band during all of their gigs across the pond.

Speaking with IBTimes UK about his experiences, Kane candidly admitted that despite knowing how great an experience it was now, he didn't want to go at first because he was "a news man in Miami and a lot of things were happening that year": the war in Vietnam; the Civil Rights eruption in America; and growing discontent following the assassination of JFK.

"I basically asked my bosses: 'Why would I wanna travel with a band that will be here in September and gone in November?' That shows you what a brilliant mind I had," he jokes.

Of course, despite Kane's reluctance, his superiors were keen for him to go and he wound up attending every show during their US tour and fortunately, it was "much different to what [he] had expected".

"It was just a remarkable experience," he said. "I was astounded by the intellect and the curiosity of the four of them. How extremely good they were as people. John [Lennon] and Paul [McCartney] consoled me after the death of my mother, both of them had lost their mother in their teenage years. Every night, they would go and talk to the opening acts who were often shouted off of the stage because [the audience] wanted The Beatles. They were just real, real people.

"Ringo was much more intellectually curious than anybody ever expected. George [Harrison] was talkative and very funny and had a great sense of humour and Paul made love to the audience through the microphone!"

But it wasn't just their personalities that impressed Kane all those years ago: "The other thing that I felt was pretty startling was just how good they were on stage," he continued. "I didn't know a lot about music but I knew a lot about records and they sounded as good on stage. And [director] Ron Howard does a great job in this movie of really showing you just what a great group of entertainers they were. They were a perfect band and when I first saw the film one of the things that really sort of blew my mind was the fact that I felt like I back there – I got chills."

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