The San Diego Beatles Fair will become Liverpool’s Cavern Club for one night! The news release says: “2023’s edition of The San Diego Beatles fair will feature The Cavern Club as it celebrates its 66th anniversary; their ethos has very much been about the Past, Present and Future. This San Diego Beatles Fair event will celebrate the history of the Cavern, as well as its 60’s pop Culture of bands that changed music, and giving Latin heritage it’s place in the industry. With brilliant tributes to the past, they’ve also given an opportunity for new artists to exhibit their music.”
This event is a musical tribute to the Fab Four featuring 12 hours of Beatles tribute bands and 18 of the best bands to ever grace the Cavern Club’s stage! It has an expected audience of 2000+ to the music festival, but it is also screening just two movies. “The History of the Cavern Club” and, drum roll please, “Yoko’s Grapefruit.” The event runs from 12 noon to 2 am!
This is a musical festival yet it is also screening two movies? This is “everything Beatles” and everything any fan of the Beatles would just love.
How did I get “Yoko’s Grapefruit” into this perfect target audience line up? I wrote about that here: Festivals? Thinking Outside of the Box!
“Yoko’s Grapefruit” was a labor of love. The world is at war, our rights are being taken away, the environment is going to hell in a hand basket, so it is a fitting tribute to the most famous Japanese woman in history, who fought for our rights, to get its movie debut at the San Diego Beatles International Music & Film Festival.
This is a tribute to the Beatles and the Cavern Club, the most famous club in the world.
You don’t want to miss these great bands and these great movies!
The two movies, will screen back to back repeatedly all day, so it doesn’t matter what time you get there and you can also see the hotly buzzing rock band, “the Falling Doves” featuring Christopher Leyva who just finished a successful Japan tour!
Yoko’s Grapefruit was directed by me, Mike Rogers, and stars sensation Natsuki from Japan with Hiroshi Matsumoto. Camera and editing by Henry Morse, camera by Les Deciduous, and sound by Ken Nishikawa.
The Cavern Club: The Beat Goes On was directed by Christian Francis-Davies & John Keats, Starring Paul McGann, Billy Butler, and Frankie Connor. Written by Bill Heckle.
It’s going to be a totally fab Fab Four day!
“Meshes of the Afternoon” (1943) was a big inspiration for “Yoko’s Grapefruit” as well as “Funeral of Roses Parade.” Usually Avant Guard films are under 16 minutes. Meshes of the Afternoon is considered classic cinema. Funeral of Roses Parade is classic Japanese cinema and was made in 1969. It blows my mind that a film like this was made so long ago in Japan. It is funny, horrifying, and just plain bizarre.
I got some amazing reviews:
‘Mike Rogers’ film, Grapefruit, captures the spirit and elegance of Yoko’s early poetry and performance art in a surreal, dream-like piece that harks back to the expressionist cinema of the 1920s. Stylish and wonderfully evocative.’ – Darryl W. Bullock (Author of David Bowie Made Me Gay and The Velvet Mafia. 2022 Winner of the Penderyn Music Book Award. Nominated for 2023 Shout-Out Awards & 2023 Penderyn Music Book Awards.)
“I like this movie very much. If this is an assault it is a very gentle one. The film captures Ono’s zen like approach to finding enlightenment in one’s life and environment. Hopefully it will lead people to Yoko’s book. We can’t always change the world but we can change the way we see it. Hopefully this beautiful film can change the way people think of Yoko Ono.” JP Valentine
“This film displays this by Peeling backwards to the first experiments in film, layering in a Kaleidoscope, dreams that money can buy through a more existential view point, entering the Grapefruit with sensual fingers, rip and coax, tear in half the flesh of the holy mountain, and draw backwards eating from the mouth, sweeping recollections in the absurd rhythm of this moral chain.” – Shaun Robert (Institute For Alien Research/factor X/mutantbeatniks/etc)
“We exist in a time where the avant guard perspective is scarce, in the flood of the spelling-things-out media that hits us every day. It is rare to be touched or challenged on an existential plane, provoking unexpected thoughts and impulses. To deal with the complexity (and simplicity) of being a human alive today, art is a life saver.” – Karin (Lovi Did This)
“Grapefruit has a very unique view of the world. Avant-garde like Yoko Ono.” – Naoko Yamano (Shonen Knife)
“Grapefruit” is brilliant. Yoko’s words are beautiful and wise. Music and cinematography is spectacular!” – Mr. Fab (Program Director, WFMU radio New Jersey)
“Mike Rogers has made a visually stunning and thought-provoking film. I watched the film with a friend and it sparked some great conversations afterward. Grapefruit is a film that captured my imagination and made me think. Two of the best qualities of a good film.” – Jeremiah Higgins (FM Radio Host in Los Angeles, Calif.)
“Beautiful and jarring.” – Keith Cahoon (President Tower Records Asia)
The San Diego International Beatles Festival June 3, 2023, be there!
Mike Rogers [aka Mike (in Tokyo) Rogers] is a director, producer, and a radio host. He was also known as “Nigel Nitro,” former lead singer of the Los Angeles punk band, The Rotters (who had the monster hit, “Sit on My Face, Stevie Nix” in the late 1970s.) Life Currently, he hosts the Mike Rogers Show on WFMU “Sheena’s Jungle Room” and Love FM 76.1 Japan. His show is also syndicated world-wide.
He is also the writer, producer and co-director of the features, “Ghostroads – A Japanese Rock n Roll Ghost Story” and “Matsuchiyo – Life of a Geisha” and his current film “Yoko – Grapefruit.” He is a founding member of the JIFF Japan Indies Film Festival and JIMA Japan Indies Music Awards.
