Fans view George Harrison’s lead guitar as a key element in the Fab Four’s success, but according to a new book, Harrison took a backseat on many of the band’s greatest guitar songs — from “Day Tripper” to “Birthday.”
He didn’t play even a lick on large swaths of the groundbreaking album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” opting for harmonica, congas, comb-and-paper in studio sessions while dutifully practicing the sitar at home three times daily.
Liverpool's Beatles Story hunts for 25 Fab Four ambassadors to mark 25th anniversary
Calling all Beatles fans.
Liverpool’s Beatles Story is celebrating its 25th birthday by launching a search to find the Fab Four’s biggest fans from around the world.
The waterfront tourist hotspot is looking for 25 fans from across the globe to mark the occasion by becoming Beatles Ambassadors.
And one extra special Beatlemaniac will receive an unforgettable experience including a VIP trip to Liverpool including return travel, a stay at the Hard Days Night Hotel, a trip on the Magical Mystery tour and a visit to the Cavern, in addition to a trip down memory lane at the Beatles Story.
BY BARBARA ROSS , KERRY BURKE
Gary and Addie Tomei said in a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit that the 60-foot-high ailanthus tree in Sean Lennon’s front yard on W. 13th St. is growing into the concrete foundation of their townhouse. 'He refuses to do anything ... I like him personally but he’s stubborn and he has a lawyer who is very belligerent,' Gary Tomei said about his neighbor.
Marisa Tomei’s parents are tired of giving peace a chance with John Lennon’s son, demanding $10 million in damages because his front yard “stink tree” has pushed through the foundation of their Greenwich Village townhouse.
Paul McCartney announces a four-night, two-city run through Japan with his “Out There” tour scheduling three shows for Tokyo and one for Osaka.
It’s a good bet that Macca’s fans in Japan are hoping his April set of dates will come off without a hitch, unlike 2014 when illness forced the former Beatle had to cancel a tour of the country. At that time RocketNews24 said McCartney had “canceled on the country of Japan 51 percent of the time.”
The MBE medal that John Lennon famously rejected has been unearthed in a royal vault and now, 40 years after Lennon sent the award back to the Queen, Beatles historians are calling for it to be dusted off and put on public display.
The Fab Four were invested as Members of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 1965, after topping record charts around the world.
But later Lennon decided that he had sold out to the Establishment and returned his MBE to Her Majesty 25th November 1969 as part of ongoing peace protests masterminded with Yoko Ono.
by John Pfeiffer
When it comes to the subject of Yoko Ono, so much vilification has been written about her that it’s almost pointless to reiterate here. But love her or hate her, you have to think about the fact that if John Lennon saw something wonderful and original in Ono, what was the issue with the rest of the world? I happen to believe that it comes down to one of the planet’s oldest emotions. That illogical, crazy reaction we know as jealousy. The fact that millions thought she broke up The Beatles was really just a reaction to the fact that they wanted their very first “boy band" to continue dancing like monkeys for their entertainment. The world and especially America wanted the Fab Four to always be a cartoonish fabrication.
By Catherine Jones
Beatles tribute bands on the enduring appeal of Liverpool's Fab Four
THE legacy of the Beatles on popular culture is being celebrated in a new digital music documentary being released next week.
Come Together features performances by 10 of an estimated 8,000 international Beatles tribute bands keeping the music of the Liverpool icons alive around the world.
The film, being released as a digital VOD, was the brainchild of documentary makers Steve Ison and John Scofield and was shot primarily in and around Liverpool – including the Cavern Club – during International Beatleweek, five decades after the band was formed in 1960.
It is narrated by John Lennon’s half-sister Julia Baird.
BY RANDY LEWIS
A shirtless Mick Jagger, relaxing poolside in Savannah, Ga., in 1965, intently studies the back cover of Bob Dylan’s then-new “Bringing It All Back Home” album, still in the shrink wrap.
John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr gaze with delight as George Harrison tosses a yellow balloon into the air as the Beatles cavort in 1964 on the patio of a private Bel-Air mansion.
These are images (see our slideshow for many others) from a trove of 3,500 previously unpublished photos of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones shot from 1964 to 1966 by their road manager, Bob Bonis.
By Eleanor Barlow
Julia Lennon lived Blomfield Road house when John was a teenager
The former home of John Lennon’s mum, dubbed the “House of Sin” by his aunt, is up for auction.
The semi-detached home on Blomfield Road, in Allerton’s Springwood estate, was where Lennon’s mum Julia lived when he was a teenager and is due to go under the hammer at Liverpool Town Hall on March 31.
The Beatle’s sisters Julia and Jackie lived in the three-bedroom council house with his mum and her new partner John ‘Bobby’ Dykins.
Lennon lived with his aunt Mimi in nearby Menlove Avenue and was a frequent visitor to the house, where he would often stay over.
Former Beatle's 18th solo album will feature appearances by Joe Walsh, Peter Frampton and Richard Marx
By Kory Grow | January 29, 2015
Ringo Starr will not go quietly into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
. About a month before his induction, the ex-Beatle will release his 18th solo album, Postcards From Paradise, which will contain 11 original songs.
Among them are "Island in the Sun," the first he has written with his All-Starr Band – Steve Lukather, Todd Rundgren, Gregg Rolie, Richard Page, Warren Ham and Gregg Bissonette – and songs featuring appearances by a number of his famous friends. "If I am recording and you're in town and drop by, you're going to be on the record," Starr said in a statement. Joe Walsh, Dave Stewart, Richard Marx, Peter Frampton and Glen Ballard, among many others, will make appearances on Postcards.
