Beatles News

On a sultry summer night in 1965, 55,600 people took part in a historic musical and cultural event. It was Aug. 15, the day The Beatles played the very first major stadium concert at Shea Stadium in Queens. This week marks its 60th anniversary.

The Beatles had already become popular at home in England, although “popular” is perhaps an understatement. Young people were screaming, crying and fainting in the band’s presence, and it seemed that mass hysteria followed everywhere they went. One British tabloid, the Daily Mail, coined a name for the phenomenon: Beatlemania.

Beatlemania first hit U.S. shores when the four lads from Liverpool arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Feb. 7, 1964, just two months after the assassination of the 35th president prompted a name change for the facility. The band would be exposed to a wider audience through their performance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” two nights later.

The sold-out performance at Shea Stadium the following year, which set world records both for attendance and for revenue, was the peak of Beatlemania. According to concert promoter Sid Bernstein’s 2002 memoir “It’s Sid Bernstein Calling,” Joh details

Paul McCartney has always been generous in giving credit where it’s due. Throughout his legendary career, he has openly acknowledged the artists who inspired him, but one musician stands out above the rest — Brian Wilson. Wilson’s masterpiece, “God Only Knows,” is a song McCartney once described as “brilliantly done.”

In a 2007 interview with BBC Radio 1, McCartney opened up about why this Beach Boys classic holds such a special place in his heart.

“It’s one of the few songs that reduces me to tears every time I hear it,” McCartney confessed. “It’s really just a love song, but it’s brilliantly done. It shows the genius of Brian.”

Coming from the man who penned “Yesterday,” “Let It Be” and “The Long and Winding Road,” this wasn’t just casual praise — it was the greatest tribute.

McCartney’s admiration for Wilson’s composition went far beyond words. The track directly inspired some of the Beatles’ most beloved songs. “God Only Knows” served as the blueprint for McCartney’s own “Silly Love Songs,” which incorporated the sa details

1969 was a bit of a heavy time for Paul McCartney. He was desperately trying to keep The Beatles together via a project that would force them to play together once again. Maybe it was only natural that his mind would wander off to more innocent days.

It was around that time that McCartney started writing the teenage-themed “The Back Seat Of My Car”. Although he’d never record it with The Beatles, he and his wife Linda would eventually make it the closing track of their 1971 album Ram.
Taking a “Back Seat”

On The Beatles’ 1968 double LP The White Album, individual members often went their separate ways in the studio to record songs without input from the others. With the Get Back/Let It Be project that began in early 1969, Paul McCartney sought to bring everyone back together into a tight musical unit.

He did this via an album that they planned to build from scratch in rehearsals, all while being filmed. As we know, the project ended up exposing more rifts than repairing them. After the rooftop concert at the end of January, the album/documentary was put on ice for over a year, by which time the band had broken up.

Band members were encouraged to bring what details

The Beatles released their fifth studio album Help!, which was the soundtrack to their film of the same name.

The album produced three #1 singles, including the title track, “Yesterday” and “Ticket to Ride.”

Help! was a critical success, and hit #1 on the Billboard Albums chart, spending nine weeks in the top spot. It was also nominated for album of the year at the Grammys, marking The Beatles’ first Grammy nomination in that category.

Help! was the second film to star The Beatles, following 1964’s A Hard Days Night. It had the band trying to protect drummer Ringo Starr, who’s the target of a sinister cult and mad scientists trying to obtain a sacrificial ring he received as a gift from a fan.

Source: everettpost.com

John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s friend and confidant Elliot Mintz was the guest on the latest episode of Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan’s interview podcast The Magnificent Others. Mintz, who was Lennon and Ono’s publicist during their years living at the Dakota building in Manhattan, recently published a memoir about his experiences with the legendary couple titled We All Shine On: John, Yoko, and Me.

During his conversation with Corgan, Mintz discussed being a witness to what he believes was the final time Lennon and fellow Beatles legend Paul McCartney ever spent time together.

According to Mintz, the get-together happened around Christmas time in 1978. He told Corgan that John and Yoko had invited him over to the Dakota, and while he was sitting in their living room, some other guests arrived at the building.

As Mintz recalled, “[T]here’s a knock on the door … and [John] opens it, and Paul and Linda McCartney walk in, and they greet each other.”

Elliot noted that this was the first time he’d ever met McCartney. Continuing his story, Mintz said. “And [Paul and Linda] come in, and John just said, ‘This is our friend Elliot.&rs details

Even During Their Feud, Paul McCartney and John Lennon Still Defended Each Other

When the other three Beatles signed with Klein, Paul McCartney was forced to take drastic measures that would affect their relationship forever. In an effort to dissolve the band's partnership so he wouldn't be tied to Klein, the bassist took his former bandmates to court. McCartney, to this day, acknowledges that his decision was a big part of what led to the feud, but at the same time, it was inevitable.

After Lennon left England, he and McCartney stopped seeing each other for a while, but they were certainly still thinking and talking about each other. More importantly, even though their songwriting partnership had effectively ended with The Beatles (except for "Give Peace a Chance," but that's a different story), they were still influencing each other's writing. They were both writing songs about each other, mostly to attack each other, and that, apparently, made people think that they could get on their good side by badmouthing the other to them. But according to Alice Cooper, who was friendly with Lennon in the '70s, they quickly learned that wasn't the way to go.

"When they were after each other’s throats, when details

Paul McCartney is set to hit the road again this year. The Walton-born Beatles icon, 83, revealed last month that his Got Back tour will kick off again in September as he makes his way across North America. ‌

The tour will launch on September 29 in Palm Desert, California, making stops in cities like Las Vegas, Denver, Tulsa, San Antonio, New Orleans, Atlanta, and Montreal before wrapping up in Chicago in November. Paul's latest live performance was at Anfield on June 7 when he joined Bruce Springsteen on stage at Liverpool FC's home ground. ‌

He also performed intimate shows at the Bowery Ballroom in New York in February, which were revealed at the last minute and had fans rushing to the venue for tickets. The previous leg of Paul's ongoing Got Back tour wrapped up in December, after concerts in Manchester and London brought the European run to a close.

The final evening in the capital saw him reunite with fellow Beatle Ringo Starr on stage, as the duo performed 'Helter Skelter' and the reprise of 'Sgt Pepper' together.

Source: themirror.com/Connor McCrory, Dan Haygarth

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It’s been 55 since the Beatles split up, but a show that’s coming to Guildford in September could possibly be the next best thing to hearing them perform.

An audience at G Live will hear all 30 songs from the “White Album” played by a Canadian touring company just as they sound on the record, note for note.

The “White Album” – officially titled simply The Beatles – must surely be one of the most diverse music projects of all time, containing styles as varied as folk, country rock, blues, old time music hall, hard rock, psychedelia and avant-garde. So this performance by Classic Albums Live could be the ultimate Beatles challenge.

Craig Martin – “We pay the album the ultimate respect” 

CAL is no tribute band in the usual sense. Their founder, Craig Martin, says: “The concept take is simple: perform classic albums exactly the way they were recorded – note for note, cut for cut, as the original artists intended it to be. No gimmicks, just pure musical excellence.”

From that first few seconds when you hear the rushing sound of a jet coming in to land (in the opening track, Back in the USSR) the audience i details

“What goes on tour, stays on tour” goes the old adage, yet for Paul McCartney on January 16th 1980, some secret ‘sustenance’ for Wings' long-anticipated Japanese tour became global news as the beloved ex-Beatle was locked up for a staggering nine days when a sizeable bag of marijuana was found on his possession.

To confound matters even further, Paul’s 7.7 ounce (219 gram) bag of fresh Hawaiian cannabis wasn’t even hidden. It had been naively stuffed within within his carry-on luggage alongside clothes and other essentials. Seemingly, without a hint of subtlety.

As Paul and his wife (and bandmate) Linda passed through security at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport, a diligent customs officer opted to be as thorough with his screening of the incoming music legend as he had been with the rest of the new arrivals.

After all, Paul had form.

Having been arrested in Sweden in 1972 and at his home in Scotland the same year for pot-related offences (possessing it, and growing it respectively), simply getting permission to come to the hyper-stringent Japan had been something of a legal hoop-jump, as the country’s rigid laws had zero tolerance for drugs of details

 Why Moon wanted to join The Beatles as a drummer has nothing to do with jealousy, but more to do with admiration. Moon had always been a fan, a friend, and an occasional collaborator who even offered backup vocals in their track “All You Need Is Love,” long before The Beatles’ breakup. As iconic and essential to rock music as Moon is, he would have never fit in with The Beatles.

The Beatles and The Who, although friendly, were also compared to each other by music fans. Both bands were on a trajectory to greatness, as The Who climbed the charts and England and worldwide descended into Beatlemania. However, while tension was well and truly alive in The Beatles, something even more violent was occurring in The Who.

Internal conflicts rocked his relationship with the band, and Moon grew frustrated with it, especially after he chased fellow member Pete Townshend with a knife. Moon was dealing with drug use during his time as a drummer in The Who, which contributed to the tension. Things came to a head when Roger Daltrey flushed his drugs down the toilet, prompting him to search for other bands to join.
Paul McCartney Turned Down Keith Moon’s Preposition

When Moon details

John Lennon's friend Elliot Mintz said the star was "insanely jealous" of Paul McCartney's success with Wings in the 1970s. Lennon stepped out of the spotlight in 1975 to raise his son Sean. Mintz appeared on Billy Corgan's The Magnificent Others podcast

After the Beatles broke up in 1970, its chief songwriters Paul McCartney and John Lennon experienced different levels of solo success — something that irked Lennon in the years before his tragic death, according to a friend.

Lennon’s longtime friend and confidante Elliot Mintz appeared on Billy Corgan’s The Magnificent Others podcast on Wednesday, July 30, and opened up about the “Imagine” singer’s complicated feelings toward McCartney in the 1970s.

After the Beatles went their separate ways, McCartney, 83, formed the band Wings, and saw commercial and critical success with hits like “Jet” and the chart-topper “Listen to What the Man Said.”

Lennon, meanwhile, released a number of solo albums, but stepped out of the spotlight in 1975 to focus on raising his son Sean, whom he shared with wife Yoko Ono.

“He spoke so lovingly of Paul. But then when John was not making any details

Ringo Starr is considered one of the most amicable Beatles. He was more or less left out of the three-way fight his former bandmates were entangled in towards the end of their career. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t have opinions on the way things soured. One nasty conversation with Paul McCartney in the middle of their breakup had Starr throwing the gloves off. Though his bandmates said much worse to each other, learn more about the surprising jab Starr gave McCartney in one of his solo pursuits. A Fight Between Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney Led to an Insult-Filled Song.

Though Starr has a reputation for being sweet and sympathetic, that didn’t mean he was immune to the fighting. The end of the Beatles’ career was marked by numerous issues. That kind of thing would weigh on anyone, even the middleman.

While the band was in conversations to end things (the legal part of their partnership, anyway), Starr went to see McCartney, who had all but given up on the band’s future. McCartney, believing that Starr had been sent by the rest of his bandmates and label figureheads, let his anger get the better of him.

“Ringo came to see me,” McCartney once recalled. &ldq details

 The director of the Cavern Club, the Liverpool nightclub described as the birthplace of The Beatles, says the venue "has to focus" on younger fans ahead of the city's annual International Beatleweek later this month.

Jon Keats told BBC Radio Merseyside "younger fans luckily are attending the festival more and more every year, which is important".

He said: "That's a big thing that we have to focus on and that is happening because younger people are finding The Beatles for themselves."

"At the heart of everything, it's about the music, it's all the emotions those four musicians left us," he added.

The week-long festival, which celebrates the legacy of the Beatles, begins on 20 August.

Source: bbc.com

In 1969, Paul McCartney wed Linda Eastman and adopted her daughter, Heather Louise, from a previous marriage.
The former Beatle and Eastman welcomed three more children together between 1969 and 1977: daughters Mary Anna and Stella Nina and son James Louis.  McCartney shares his youngest daughter, Beatrice Milly, with ex-wife Heather Mills. The couple welcomed Beatrice in 2003.

Paul McCartney might be a music icon to the world, but at home, he’s just dad. The former Beatles legend has five children: Heather, Mary, Stella, James, and Beatrice.

The singer-songwriter married his first wife, Linda Eastman, in March 1969. McCartney adopted Eastman’s daughter from a previous marriage, Heather, the same year. Over the course of their nearly 30 year marriage, the couple welcomed three more children together: daughters Mary and Stella and son James.

Eastman died of breast cancer in 1998, with her four children and McCartney by her side, People reported. “Any love song I write is written for Linda,” the musician had told People the year before. 

In 2002, he married model Heather Mills. The couple welcomed their only child, a daughter named Beatrice, in 2003. Mil details

On the morning of December 9, 1980, Paul McCartney received the devastating news of the death of John Lennon hours earlier at New York City’s Roosevelt Hospital. The ex-Beatle had been shot and killed just outside of his apartment in The Dakota just before 11 pm the previous evening. And while the global impact of Lennon’s death was immense, it paled in comparison to the painful shockwaves it sent through his closest associates, relatives, and friends.

Because many of those associates, relatives, and friends were just as famous as Lennon, the press flocked to the musician’s survivors to hear comments on how they were processing the violent tragedy. Years later, McCartney reflected on how the media twisted his shell-shocked reaction in the days and weeks that followed. 

The Beatles’ sheer gravitas and celebrity make it easier to forget that they were normal people, albeit famous ones, too. To receive a call about the death of your best friend, particularly one with whom you were not on good terms at the time, would be life-shattering for anyone. For a musical icon like Paul McCartney, it certainly was life-shattering. It was also glaringly, uncomfortably public.

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