Beatles News

It's something you have to imagine. And while visiting the beach area, he drives his car into a library parking lot just as the radio starts playing a Beatles song, Please Mr. Postman.All of this happened as I went to interview Julia Baird, the sister of former Beatles leader John Lennon, whose music, as she told me, will never disappear.

She's so right. She has examples from all over the world. She was once doing research in India at the Dali Lama's. She was looking for his assistant and found the Buddhist monk listening to a Beatles tune, Yellow Submarine. She has been living with the Beatles and its mania most of her life.

In Panama City for a Beatles tribute concert and signing her book, Imagine This: Growing Up With My Brother John Lennon, Julia, named after her and John's mother Julia, travels with the tribute band the Mersey Beatles, whose members grew up in Liverpool and still live where Julia and John called home.

"The band, I think, is the best of the tribute bands. They grew up in Liverpool, live in Liverpool and do the best tribute of the Beatles." Julia, a half-sister to John, born to the same mother, has written a book to set the record straight about her brother's upbringing, lacing it wit details

George Harrison's widow Olivia rejected calls for a statue of her husband in Henley-on-Thames, where he lived for much of his life, fearing her home would be overrun by Beatles fans. But, undeterred by her wishes, local councillors are now determined to press ahead with some form of lasting monument.

The mayor of Henley, Councillor Lorraine Hillier, is beating the drum for the former Beatles guitarist once more, and has suggested a memorial garden on a green triangle of land, which a developer has offered to the town council free of charge if it agrees to maintain it.

Harrison moved to Henley- on-Thames, in Oxfordshire, in 1970, when he bought Friar Park, a 120-room Victorian neo- Gothic mansion, set in almost 30 acres. He died of cancer aged 58 in 2001. The town's deputy mayor, Julian Brookes, says: 'We don't have any memorials in the town for George Harrison, who lived here for 30 years. Perhaps he should be recognised.' The council is now proposing to approach Olivia to see whether she would welcome the garden initiative. 

Various proposals for a memorial have been considered over the years, including a petition for a statue, which gained 2,000 signatures of support. However, that idea was droppe details

Ringo Starr broke the news of Sir George's death on Twitter as he wished "peace and love" to his family. He posted a picture of The Beatles and Sir George with the caption: "Thank you for all your love and kindness George peace and love."

Sir George's son Giles, who is also a producer and has worked at Abbey Road studios, tweeted: "RIP dad. I love you. I'm so proud to have been your son. I'll miss you more than words can say. Thank you for the all times we had together." Meanwhile, Sir George's manager Adam Sharp said: "The family would like to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers and messages of support. "In a career that spanned seven decades, he was an inspiration to many and is recognised globally as one of music's most creative talents. He was a true gentleman to the end."

Sir George, a carpenter's son from Holloway in north London, studied at Guildhall School of Music and played the oboe professionally before joining the recording industry. During his early career, Sir George produced comedy and novelty records in the early 1950s, working with Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan. He was head of the Parlophone record label when he first heard The Beatles's demo tape in 1962, with the band releasing their details

I’m so sad to hear the news of the passing of dear George Martin. I have so many wonderful memories of this great man that will be with me forever. He was a true gentleman and like a second father to me. He guided the career of The Beatles with such skill and good humour that he became a true friend to me and my family. If anyone earned the title of the fifth Beatle it was George. From the day that he gave The Beatles our first recording contract, to the last time I saw him, he was the most generous, intelligent and musical person I’ve ever had the pleasure to know.

It’s hard to choose favourite memories of my time with George, there are so many but one that comes to mind was the time I brought the song 'Yesterday’ to a recording session and the guys in the band suggested that I sang it solo and accompany myself on guitar. After I had done this George Martin said to me, "Paul I have an idea of putting a string quartet on the record". I said, “Oh no George, we are a rock and roll band and I don’t think it’s a good idea”. With the gentle bedside manner of a great producer he said to me, "Let us try it and if it doesn’t work we won’t use it and we’ll go with details

George Martin, the urbane English record producer who signed the Beatles to a recording contract on the small Parlophone label after every other British record company had turned them down, and who guided them in their transformation from a regional dance band into the most inventive, influential and studio-savvy rock group of the 1960s, died on Tuesday. He was 90.

“We can confirm that Sir George Martin passed away peacefully at home yesterday evening,” Adam Sharp, a founder of CA Management, a British company that represented Mr. Martin, said on Wednesday in an email. Mr. Sharp did not say how Mr. Martin had died.

“God bless George Martin,” Ringo Starr, the former Beatle, wrote on Twitter.

Mr. Martin helped redefine a record producer’s role in pop music. He was one of a handful of pop producers — Phil Spector and Quincy Jones among them — to become almost as famous as the musicians they recorded. And when he left Parlophone, a subsidiary of EMI Records, to start his own production company in 1965, his reputation as the producer of the Beatles helped raise the stature of record production as an independent career, rather than a record label function.

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It may have been snowing on Monday morning here, but at Stella McCartney’s show in the Palais Garnier, the stars were shining brightly.

Amber Valletta and Doutzen Kroes were there; ditto the Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton; François-Henri Pinault, the chief executive of Kering, which owns the McCartney brand; and the art dealer Dasha Zhukova. In pride of place was the designer’s beaming father, Paul McCartney, alongside his wife, Nancy Shevell.

“Wasn’t it a stormer? Wasn’t it just great?” Mr. McCartney asked after the finale as he made his way down the sweeping grand staircase. “Of course I love every show because Stella is my baby. But I feel like this collection was particularly witty and sexy.’’

“And the closing song was pretty great, too, don’t you think?” he added with a wink.

The track in question was his own 1974 hit with the band Wings, “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five,” which had many in the crowd whooping with delight — Jess Glynne, the flame-haired British pop singer, among them. She had arrived in Paris that morning after completing the United States and British legs of her tour details

The earliest known letter written by John Lennon is expected to fetch more than £30,000 at auction next month.

The fold-out note, penned by Lennon when he was 11 years old, thanks his Aunt Harriet for presents she gave him, including a book about ships. He sent the thank you message shortly after Christmas in 1951 to his mother Julia's younger sister.

During his Beatles career, Lennon often wrote to friends and family but this is understood to be his first letter. In the letter, which has a few grammatical errors, the young Lennon says how much he is enjoying reading a book about famous ships.

He wrote: "Dear Harrie Thankyou for the book that you sent to me for Christmas and for the towel with my name on it, And I think it is the best towl (sic) I've ever seen. "The book that you sent to me is a very interesting one. I am at the bottom of page 18 at the moment. The story is famous Ships its all about a man called Captain kidd the pirate. "I am on the second chapter, the first chapter is called the Victory and the second is called the Mary Celeste. "Thankyou for the red jumper that you sent to me. "I hope you have a happy new year. Love from John x"

Source: BBC News

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The Fifth Beatle, previously developed as a feature by Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment, recounts the untold true story of the legendary Beatles manager and his effort to drive the unknown band from playing in a Liverpool cellar to international superstardom. Epstein overcame great obstacles, both personally and professionally, being a gay man in a time and place where homosexual acts were a felony. The project includes Tiwary’s access to the John Lennon-Paul McCartney song catalog, the first Beatles-related biopic to secure such rights.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Vivek to expand his vision to another medium and expose a whole new audience to his riveting and audacious work,” said Tom Patricia, EVP Event Series at Sonar Entertainment. “This story of the man behind the rise of the Beatles will captivate fans around the world and make for a compelling series that is both intimate and epic.”

Added Tiwary: “Brian Epstein’s story is rich in inspiration and is set amidst a backdrop of great cultural change and the legendary history of the Beatles, so an event series truly feels like the only way to do Brian justice. We’re going to do wonderful things w details

The stars of the ultimate Fab Four tribute show head for the resort which helped make the lads famous.

There may be four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire, but there are eight ‘Beatles’ in Blackpool. 

Well, that’s if you don’t count the ‘other’ tribute acts. Four of them can be found on permanent display at Tussauds, Blackpool, just opposite Morecambe and Wise, and with Ab Fab to the right. It’s one of the most popular displays there because it’s interactive, encouraging visitors to stop and pose on the Abbey Road zebra crossing. Only this time visitors were being halted in their tracks by the sight of not four but eight Beatles on the road.

The waxworks had been joined by a band hailed as the next best thing by Let It Be critics across the world - and about to prove it in Blackpool at the Grand Theatre (March 28 to April 2). And the lads fronting the show which has become an international sensation certainly caused more than a few double takes from visitors at the seafront attraction - and again on the Comedy Carpet as the four posed in their Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club band outfits.. not far, incidentally, from where Sir Peter Blake, details

“CHRISTIANITY will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that. I’m right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first, rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.” 

So said John Lennon of The Beatles in an article that appeared in the London Evening Standard 50 years ago tomorrow. The comments, which were published as part of a series by journalist Margaret Cleave titled How Does a Beatle Live? generated little response in Britain.

But when the quotes were reprinted in US teen magazine Datebook they provoked a ferocious response, particularly in the southern states of America. Apologies from Beatles manager Brian Epstein and Lennon himself did little to quell the anger and one radio station organised a “Beatle Boycott”, urging people to take their Beatles records and memorabilia to designated places to torch them.

Lennon’s comments were ill-considered in as much as he clearly hadn’t realised what a reaction he would get from the hundreds of thousands of fans in details