Talking With Good Ol’ Freda

freda bioFreda Kelly was a teenager in Liverpool when she went to work as a secretary for a  small band called The Beatles, and she continued to work for them for the next 11 years.  In Good Ol’ Freda, Freda tells her stories for the first time in 50 years. She and director Ryan White stopped by the SiriusXM studios to talk about the new documentary with Ron Bennington.  Excerpts from the interview appear below.  You can her the interview in its entirety exclusively on SiriusXM satellite radio.

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Ron Bennington:  Freda Kelly is here with the director of the film, Ryan White. Thank you both for being here, but also for just putting this film together. It’s incredibly sweet. I don’t know if you can go anywhere on the planet where we don’t have Beatles fans. And to watch this film and just know that Freda was there at ground zero for the entire thing – it’s a fantastic story. 

Freda Kelly:  Thank you.

Ron Bennington:  It really is. Ryan, how did you find out about Freda?

Ryan White: So, my uncle is Billy Kinsley of the Mersey Beats. We actually interview him in the film. So, I’ve grown up around that generation of people who came out of the Cavern scene – from the Liverpool music scene in the 1960s. And Freda is part of his group of friends. And so, I’ve know her my whole life, virtually. I did not know she was the Beatles’ secretary as we explore in the film. She lives a life of extreme privacy and anonymity. And it just never came up at family wedding receptions, or Christmases, that she had this backstory. And she brought the idea to me through our producer Kathy McCabe about 3 years ago. And my mind was sort of blown. Freda is still a working secretary in Liverpool today. She works for a law firm. Even the people at her law firm don’t know she was the Beatles’ secretary. And so my mind was blown that she had this backstory. But I was sold right away when we began talking about it.

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Freda Kelly Talks About Becoming a Beatles Fan

Ron Bennington:  Even before we find out about the work Freda did, being at the Cavern for that many shows, basically in my opinion, being at the birth of the 1960s – and London was behind Liverpool at the time. When you really think about it – this one little club was the seed that was going to change the world. And you were there. 

Freda Kelly:  Yes. Wasn’t I lucky?

Ron Bennington:  Yeah. It’s an amazing thing. But it’s one thing to be lucky, but another thing to have the eye and ear for this. In life, you never want to pass beauty without recognizing it. And you were able to see what was happening before it happened. 

Freda Kelly:  Once I saw them that was it. I wanted more. So, I kept going back to the Cavern.

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Freda Kelly Talks About The Beatles Becoming Famous

fredaRon Bennington:  The excitement level must have been incredible at the time. 

Freda Kelly:  In the beginning, it…because they weren’t just famous. They weren’t famous when I first started working for them. They were famous around Liverpool. But they hadn’t had “Please Please Me” or anything like that. So, they weren’t like big in the country. So, we just ran along with it.

Ron Bennington:  Just slowly, but surely. Every show getting a little bigger. When did it start to feel like Beatlemania? When did that feeling…how long…?

Freda Kelly:  About the second, third record into it.

Ron Bennington:  Yeah, and that point, everybody is just looking around going – aahh.  

Freda Kelly:  What’s here?

Ron Bennington:  Yeah. We’ve got nothing to compare this to. How did it feel for the people who lived in Liverpool where now, suddenly the town itself is becoming world famous?

Freda Kelly:  It’s funny. Liverpool didn’t appreciate what they had. Even the girls that worked in the office, some of them weren’t Beatles fans. I was the loony Beatles fan. And my friend who worked on reception, we were the only 2 Beatles fans. The other girls were…by golly, I don’t know what music they followed, but they didn’t follow pop music. So, it wasn’t the whole of Liverpool behind them.

Ron Bennington:  So, how long before Liverpool found out though…

Freda Kelly:  Woke up, you mean?

Ron Bennington:  Yeah, woke up and said – this is playing all over the world.

Freda Kelly:  The Civic Reception. That’s when.

Ron Bennington:  Yeah. That was amazing. 

Freda Kelly:  That’s when Liverpool decided – oh, Hello! What have we got here?

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Ryan White Talks About The Rarely Seen Footage 

Ron Bennington:  Ryan, where did you get some of that footage from? Because there is so much in this film that I’ve never seen before. 

Ryan White:  Well, we had a major goal at the very beginning of the film because we knew our niche audience was Beatles fans – to illustrate the film in a way that had never been seen before. And so, we went to great lengths to find collections of photos that hadn’t been used before. Freda was always kind of living in the shadows. Although she was there for everything, newspaper articles and photos weren’t archived under her name. She was always kind of in the background. So, it was it was a real treasure hunt just to find things of her. But, through footage and photos, we tried to use really rare collections that had never been used before in film or television. And hopefully, that’s a huge plus for Beatles fans when they get to see this film. It’s been very rewarding at film festivals so far, when big Beatles fans stand up and say – I’ve never seen most of that before. That’s kind of the biggest compliment to us as makers of the film.

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Freda Kelly Talks About Getting To Know The Beatles’ Families

Ron Bennington:  Yeah, I had never seen some of the shots that you said there. And across the board, it was amazing just to get a new perspective. Because of what we normally just get of the 4 guys themselves or some historian. But the fact that you knew them, knew their familes, it just suddenly felt like a new dimension in this. You got to see them as regular people, I think. 

Freda Kelly:  Yeah. Well, I mean I knew all their families – went to the houses, went to Ringo’s house every Wednesday. God, for years. I went to Mimi’s (Smith. John Lennon’s aunt) when she lived in Liverpool once a month. Even Brian Epstein’s home, I used to go there. Just to help them out with the mail and everything. And then I became extremely close to all of them. I would go out with them socially. I would go to the weddings, the christenings. It was just part of their circle for want of a better word.

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Freda Kelly On  the End Of The Beatles

Ron Bennington:  One of the things that happened for you though, that when it ran its course – you were ready to get off.

Freda Kelly:  Off the roller coaster.

Ron Bennington:  Yeah. We’re you that ready for it?

Freda Kelly:  Yeah.

Ron Bennington:  Just too much? 

Freda Kelly: No. Just the timing was right.

Ron Bennington:  The party is ending. Don’t be the last person leaving. 

Freda Kelly:  I had grown up with them and they were grown up. We were adults now. We wanted a family life.

Ron Bennington:  But no regrets about any of the stuff? No regrets about spending that much time and then once it’s over.

Freda Kelly: No regrets at all.

Ron Bennington:  How come you didn’t…it comes up in the film that you didn’t share a lot of this with your children and any of these stories.

Freda Kelly:  Well, I didn’t have time. My daughter hadn’t even been born. So, with a new baby and she’s a toddler, you’re not talking about the Beatles. You’re talking about going to school. Just normal life. You’re not talking about what you’ve done in the past.

Ron Bennington:  Here’s the amazing thing though. That past has never really left us. Like kids today know the Beatles.

Freda Kelly:  Yeah, but my kids – they’re listening to music and it’s all types of music because their father is a bass player. And he worked in a record shop and he was bringing loads of different records home and everything. So, they’re not laying in just one group.  The first group that Timothy went to see was the Average White Band. He was 9. We took him to that. So, they were not listening to a lot of Beatles music. And not, for want of a better word, brainwashed by Beatles stuff. Because I didn’t have anything “Beatles” around the house.

freda 3Ron Bennington:  I was surprised to see that. That you had a few things up in the attic, but no memories out to look at. Stay in the present. Keep looking forward. 

Freda Kelly:  One of the reasons I didn’t do that was a friend did that. She had a lot of Beatles photographs on her wall and everything. So, people go in and ask her about it. I didn’t want any of that. If you came into my house, I didn’t want people to go – hey, why do you have a picture of the Beatles up? Oh, I used to work for them. And then you go through all this rigmarole and I thought…(sighs).

Ron Bennington:  You don’t want to look backwards. And yet, you took the time to do this with Ryan. 

Freda Kelly:  Well, I am now, but not then.

Ron Bennington:  Are you surprised that there’s the interest in your story?

Freda Kelly:   (laughs) I just…I can’t get into my head what all the fuss is about. Maybe that’s the wrong word. I understand it’s a story. It’s my story for my grandson. And the Beatles are naturally involved in it. Okay, Beatles fans will be interested in it, but it’s like the Beatles thing. I couldn’t visualize all of this. Because I even remember saying to, never mind Ryan and the other guy that worked on it, Austin (Hardgrave) – do you really think people will listen to this?  Do you see where I’m coming from?

Ron Bennington:  Yeah. I can, but…

Freda Kelly:  Because it’s just an ordinary…I know he’d tap me off… To me, it’s just an ordinary little tale. Do you know where I’m coming from?

Ron Bennington:  I know what you’re coming from, but see, I think that’s the part of it that is so engrossing that it’s an ordinary person and we can all relate as ordinary people, who got to do something extraordinary. …It’s just a terrific film. It really is. 

Freda Kelly:  Thank you.

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Ryan White Talks About His Expectations When Filming 

Ron Bennington:  Ryan, you did such a great job with this. Did you have any idea how it would come together when you first started to shoot?

Ryan White: No. I mean the opening line of our film is Freda saying – I was just a secretary then. I’m still a secretary now. Who would want to hear a secretary’s story? And she’s still a working secretary at a law firm in Liverpool today. And so, I think part of me kind of drank her Kool-Aid in that way, even though I knew she was an incredible story teller and wondered in the back of my head – I knew I was interested in these stories. But I didn’t know if it would expand beyond that. And so, I think both of us have been nothing but pleased with the audience reception and the critical reception to the film so far. And I think that goes down to Freda’s personality and the way that she’s lived her life. I think there’s a beautiful symmetry to her life where she began as a secretary at 16 years old for some of the most famous people in the world. Lived this insane decade that none of us can ever imagine and 40 years later is now an anonymous secretary at a law firm. And so, I like to think of the film as how we can look back on our lives. And for someone like Freda, who I think is very rare, who has hidden from the spotlight and lives an anonymous life where even the secretaries that she works with today don’t know that she was the Beatles’ secretary. It begs the question of people in our lives – ask them the questions. In the people in our lives – what past do they have? What stories do they have? And you don’t know unless you ask the questions. So, I really like that sort of theme that comes out in the film.

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Ron Bennington:  The film is “Good Ol’ Freda”.  It’s Freda Kelly’s story of being with the Beatles in the 1960s.  Goodolfreda.com. Ryan and Freda, thank you so much for coming by.  And thank you so much for sharing your story. I think it’s fantastic. 

Freda Kelly:  Thanks very much.

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Visit GoodOlFreda.com for more information

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You can hear this interview in its entirety exclusively on SiriusXM satellite radio.  Not yet a subscriber?  Click here for a free trial subscription.

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You can learn more about Ron Bennington’s two interview shows, Unmasked and Ron Bennington Interviews at RonBenningtonInterviews.com.