Beatles News

A popular restaurant known for its ‘fab’ selection of groovy food is celebrating a landmark anniversary.

For more than three decades Mike Power and his staff at Sgt. Peppers restaurant in Lowestoft have worked many a hard day’s night. And this year marks the 35th anniversary since the restaurant opened in 1982.

Mr Power, managing director at Sgt Peppers restaurant, said: “We are surprised to reach this landmark especially in the current climate. “Every year we are amazed at the number of people who continue to support us. As well as tourists we have visitors come from Beccles and Great Yarmouth which is very gratifying.”

Previously a pinewood furniture shop, Mr Power opened Sgt Peppers with his former partner, Marie Power, on August 19, 1982. A hotelier by trade, he had worked in hotels and restaurants across country, before moving to Lowestoft to establish Sgt Peppers.

This year’s milestone also coincides with the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ iconic Sgt Peppers album after which the restaurant is named. And with musical instruments hanging from the ceiling and images of famous faces from the swinging sixties covering the restaurant’s wall details

A record sleeve covered in doodles by John Lennon as he brainstormed ideas for an album cover has emerged for sale for £15,000.

The black felt tip pen sketchings are believed to have been Lennon's initial ideas for the cover of his 1974 album Walls and Bridges and span both sides of an opened-out record sleeve. The record sleeve was given by the former Beatle to Jesse Davies, a session musician who provided lead guitar on the album.

One of the drawings depicts a flying saucer with the word "UFOer" written on the bottom of the object, most likely influenced by Lennon's UFO sighting that year. This sighting was mentioned in the album liner notes: "On the 23rd Aug. 1974 at 9 o'clock I saw a UFO J.L."

On the record sleeve, in amongst the numerous doodles, he wrote the names of four people who were central to his life. These were himself, Yoko which refers to his wife Yoko Ono , May for his lover May Pang and Julian, his son who he had become reacquainted with.

This album was produced while John and Yoko were separated and Lennon was with May Pang who also worked on the album. It was a chapter in his life he called his 'lost weekend'. The word 'home' is written multiple times and to reflect his details

Paul McCartney has announced that he’ll release a three-track cassette for this year’s Record Store Day. Titled Flowers In The Dirt – The Cassette Demos With Elvis Costello, the limited edition release features I Don’t Want To Confess, Shallow Grave and Mistress & Maid which were all recorded in 1989.

It’ll be on sale on April 22 and comes after the re-launch of the Flowers In The Dirt Archive Collection, which will arrive on March 24. McCartney says: “The demos are red hot off the skillet and that’s why we wanted to include them on this boxed set. “What’s great about these songs is that they’ve just been written, so there’s nothing more hot off the skillet as I say. That was the kind of great instant thing about them. “I hadn’t listened to them in ages but when I did I knew we had to put them out. We made a little tape of them and sent them to Elvis, who loved them too. We said we should put out an EP or something and now the moment’s finally arrived.”

Last month, McCartney released a studio demo and video for My Brave Face along with an audio stream of Twenty Fine Fingers from the record.

Along with a standard details

Before he was a Led Zep, before he was a Yardbird, Jimmy Page was an incredibly busy London session guitarist with several notable production credits under his belt.

And we're not talking about long-forgotten recordings made under a flickering lightbulb in his cousin's basement; Page played on countless high-profile sessions, appearing on seminal tracks by the Who, Donovan, Joe Cocker, the Kinks and many more.

One thing he never did, however, is play on a Beatles song. That honor went to only a handful of non-Beatles, including (but not limited to) Billy Preston, Alan Civil, Beatles producer George Martin, the Rolling Stones' Brian Jones, good ol' Anil Bhagwat and, of course, Eric Clapton.

It turns out, however, that Page was involved in a seriously Beatles-related session in 1964; his guitar playing can be heard in the score for the band's first film, the hugely successful A Hard Day's Night.

According to a 7-year-old article by U.K. broadcaster Tony Barrell, Page would typically show up for a session "cold," as in, not knowing what he was going to play that day, exactly who had hired him, where and how the music would appear, etc. One day in early '64, he arrived at EMI Studios in London for a details

In new court papers, the song publishing giant says the former Beatle is "clearly forum-shopping."

Paul McCartney waited decades for his opportunity to reclaim rights to songs he authored as a member of The Beatles. Now, Sony/ATV Music Publishing is telling a judge he should have to cool his heels a little longer.

McCartney made his move in January, suing to confirm that under the termination provisions of U.S. copyright law, he gets to recapture his share. The lawsuit in New York federal court followed a stunning U.K. decision, Gloucester Place Music Ltd v. Le Bon, where it was ruled late last year in a dispute involving Duran Duran songs that American termination law took a backseat to an interpretation of contracts under English law.

"As an initial matter, SATV has made no statement challenging the validity of Plaintiff’s termination notices," states Sony in a letter to the judge on Monday in anticipation of a conference that will lay out its forthcoming motion to dismiss. "Indeed, it has acknowledged they are valid, so there is no controversy regarding this issue. Nor has SATV claimed that Plaintiff’s service of the notices breached any agreement and SATV may never make such a claim. details

For Paul McCartney, it was an all-too-familiar feeling. There he was, paired with an acerbic, rough-voiced co-writer with Liverpudlian roots, sitting face to face as they strummed acoustic guitars, finishing each other's musical phrases and lyrics, singing in comfortable harmony. "We would write in the same method that me and John used to write," says McCartney, recalling his wildly productive late-Eighties collaborations with Elvis Costello. "I figured, in a way, he was being John. And for me, that was good and bad. He was a great person to write with, a great foil to bounce off, but here's me, trying to avoid doing something too Beatle-y!"

Those sessions, at McCartney's rustic Hog Hill Mill Studio in East Sussex, England, were intended to yield songs for what became the ex-Beatle's 1989 album Flowers in the Dirt, an Eighties high point. Four tracks, including the playful duet "You Want Her Too," ended up on that LP, two on McCartney's next one (1993's Off the Ground), and the rest on Costello's albums – most notably the hit single "Veronica."

But as an upcoming box-set reissue of Flowers in the Dirt reveals, the collaborative recordings – rough acoustic versions (long circulated as coveted bootlegs details

The scream at the end – “no reply!” – is one of the bleakest moments in the breakup song genre.

“It was my version of “Silhouettes”: I had that image of walking down the street and seeing her silhouetted in the window and not answering the phone, although I never called a girl on the phone in my life. Because phones weren’t part of the English child’s life.” – John Lennon on “No Reply”

This was going to be another essay. I had planned to write about what I am convinced is the greatest single ever released – “Strawberry Fields Forever” b/w “Penny Lane.” But that was going nowhere (though I can see what I want to say, I can’t quite seem to say it yet, which betrays a lot about my love of the Fabs) so I turn to another favorite, the opening song on both the British release Beatles for Sale or, if you were an 8th grade nerd like me, Beatles ’65.

“No Reply” opens both albums. This is one of those rare times that the British album and its American counterpart agree. That makes me very happy. Let’s leave it at that.

As John notes above, he was trying to write a song l details

Merseyside is packed with fantastic tourist attractions and some of the biggest Hollywood stars have been drawn here for a spot of sight-seeing. A-listers including Tom Hardy , Kim Cattrall and Bob Dylan have been seen snapping selfies and exploring our cultural hot spots. Here are 10 times a celebrity was spotted on the tourist trail in Liverpool .

When the Sex and the City star was in town filming Agatha Christie thriller Witness for the Prosecution, she squeezed in a quick trip to Crosby beach to see the Iron Men. Kim regularly comes back to Merseyside - she was born in Liverpool, before her family migrated to Canada - and was enthralled by Gormley’s “spectacular sculptures”, tweeting a picture of herself at the Another Place installation.

The Beatles have fans all over the world - including some huge celebrity admirers. So it’s no surprise that some have wanted to do the tourist thing in the Fab Four’s hometown. Paul Weller was pictured outside John Lennon’s childhood home Mendips in July 2014. The Modfather squeezed in the visit after a charity gig at the East Village Arts Club. Back in April 2009, singer Bob Dylan also visited Mendips when he joined one of the Beatles mi details

I watched a couple of documentaries (thank you Open Culture) this week featuring rock stars from the classic era, one about a living musician, the other about one who has, alas, shuffled off this mortal coil. What I found most interesting about each of these films is the reminder that it is very difficult for any successful artist, especially for a David Bowie or Paul McCartney, who have enjoyed success at the highest level of their art, to move forward. In a popular art form such as rock music has been, part of the problem is commerce; one who is successful and whose art is embraced by a wide public sells much “plastic ware,” as Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman wrote. They feel constant commercial pressure to repeat their sales success – a pressure that can make any artist choose a safe route.

Another, perhaps even greater part of the problem, especially for an artist like Bowie or McCartney, comes from those whose admiration (and money) made them acclaimed, and wealthy: fans. Any artist like Bowie or McCartney with a long career arc (given that the average length of a popular musical star’s career is 18 months, the nearly 50 year career of Bowie and the 50+ year career of McCartney are by any me details

The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl is the only official live Beatles album ever released. Recorded in 1964 and 1965 but not put out until 1977, the album is a fairly disappointing listen. Though recorded at the peak of Beatlemania, when the Fab Four were still riding a euphoric wave of success driven by their touring years, the concerts tapes were rendered near unlistenable by the insane racket produced by the 10,000 strong crowds.

The Beatles were on point on those nights, and George Martin can seldom be associated with any technical shortcoming within the band’s career. Rather, the limitations of mastering technology in the 70s are to blame for the dismal quality of the original recordings.

You may ask then, how did they get the recordings up to scratch for last year’s triumphant Live at the Hollywood remaster, which coincided with the August release of Ron Howard’s Eight Days a Week doco?

Technological wizardry of the mastering engineers at Abbey Road would be the answer.

“What became apparent when you compared it to what came out in 1977 is how hard Ringo is hitting the drums,” says Giles Martin, George Martin’s son and the producer of the remastered album. details