Beatles News

Beatle Paul McCartney gave one of the most bizarre interviews of his life on this day in 1969 when he appeared on the BBC to deny rumours that he had died three years earlier.

The 'Paul is Dead' myth, which claimed the musician had been killed in a car crash in 1966 and been replaced in the band by a lookalike, first surfaced in a university newspaper in the United States in September, before being picked up by a number of radio stations.

The rumour-mongers claimed that clues left by the Beatles in their songs and on their album covers revealed the truth. In fact, they claimed that the photograph gracing the sleeve of the band’s latest LP Abbey Road (below) provided the biggest hints yet.

The image was claimed to show a funeral procession, with John Lennon dressed all in white as a priest, Ringo Starr in a black suit as undertaker; McCartney (the ‘corpse’) barefoot, eyes closed and out of step with the others; and the denim-clad George Harrison as gravedigger.

Furthermore, a Volkswagen Beetle car in the background has the number plate LMW 28IF. 28IF was interpreted as referring to McCartney’s age, if he had lived. However, at the time of the album’s release he would details

Beatlebone is an account of a journey, a psychedelic odyssey, its protagonist — at times its narrator — John Lennon, seen through the prism of Kevin Barry’s imagining. Barry’s first novel, The City of Bohane, was a dystopian nightmare of comic vernacular and violence, showered with praise and prizes. Think James Joyce and Flann O’Brien collaborating on a script for Tarantino. Beatlebone, his second novel (on the shortlist for the Goldsmiths prize for fiction) has Lennon fleeing New York in 1978 for a secret visit to Dorinish, the uninhabited island he bought 11 years earlier. Burned-out, creatively blocked, he craves a few days of solitude, to sit and stare at the surf. And scream. (In 1970 Lennon and Yoko took a course of Californian Primal Scream therapy. And he did buy the island.) Throughout the book, the fictional and the documented lives intermingle.

We first encounter Lennon in the back of an old Mercedes, bumping his way to the west coast of Ireland, driven by Cornelius O’Grady, an amiable but ambiguous cicerone, feeding Lennon’s paranoia with hints that the dreaded press could be on their trail. Barry captures the deadpan Scouser tone: arriving at a grim hotel, Lennon g details

Beatlemania has returned to Liverpool thanks to the West End hit stage musical LET IT BE – which sees audiences dancing in the aisles as they relive the sounds of the Fab Four.

The show celebrates the music The Beatles’ and charts their rise to global fame from humble beginnings. They were four boys from Liverpool who went on to change the world. And now the show has opened to rave reviews in the band’s hometown where it all began.

LET IT BE opened at Royal Court Liverpool with preview performances on Thursday, 8 October, marking the official relaunch of the multi-million pound refurbishment of the popular venue. The following day, the cast gave a special poignant performance to mark what would have been Beatles’ legend John Lennon’s 75th birthday.

The show has come direct from London’s West End, and a gala show for Press and VIP guests last Tuesday (13 October), has generated rave reviews and 5-star ratings for the show which runs until Saturday, 14 November.

This is what the critics say:

“A LOVING, LOVEABLE, TRIUMPH WITH NOT AN OUNCE OF FAT ON IT, 9/10” Liverpool Confidential.

By: Khyle Deen

Source: Purple Revolver

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McCartney was the first Beatle to officially go solo, and his self-titled 1970 debut drove the last nail into the Beatles’ coffin. You couldn’t really blame the guy for wanting to move on, so unpleasant had life in the Beatlemania bubble become for all involved, and so contentious was the environment fostered by the dubious legal advisement of Allen Klein – the real reason the Beatles broke up, not poor Yoko Ono.

And yet, blame McCartney they did, sending the guy, by many published accounts, into a serious depression. Most biographers credit the lovely Linda McCartney with helping her husband snap out of it.

What followed was a solo career that predated Wings, ran concurrently with that band’s activities until things fell apart following 1979’s mostly great “Back to the Egg,” and then continued without interruption to today.

Even a so-so McCartney album – think the losing-the-plot excesses of “Pipes of Peace” – is a better bet than the best efforts of the majority of the man’s peers. Here are 10 solo Macca efforts that are either full-on perfect, or ridiculously close.

“McCartney” (1970). A one-man, DIY, home-reco details

The Beatles’ “Revolution” is now on VEVO – restored and remixed for The Beatles 1 Video Collection, which is available for pre-order at thebeatles.com.

“I did the slow version and I wanted it out as a single: as a statement of The Beatles’ position on Vietnam and The Beatles’ position on revolution. For years, on The Beatles’ tours, Brian Epstein had stopped us from saying anything about Vietnam or the war.” – John Lennon.

“Plugging directly into the Abbey Road desk and pushing the needles into the red achieved the fuzz-guitar sound. According to George Martin “We got into distortion on that, which we had a lot of complaints from the technical people about. But that was the idea: it was John’s song and the idea was to push it right to the limit. Well, we went to the limit and beyond.”

Revolution was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg and filmed on the 4th September, 1968 at Twickenham Film Studios.

20 of the films and videos were not used in The Beatles’ Anthology and of the remaining 30 included on The Beatles 1+ these were only seen in part or in alternate edits. The 27-track DVD and Blu-ray have a running t details

A documentary about the school friend of John Lennon, directed by a Georgian, has been nominated for an award in the US.

Rod, Lennon and Me/Story of the Old Photograph by Giorgi Janelidze, won the nomination in the short documentary movies category at Great Lakes International Film Festival in the USA.

Another documentary by the same director, The Girl is Mine, has also been nominated in the same category.

Rod, Lennon and Me/ Story of the Old Photograph tells the story of Rod David, a school friend, and band mate in skiffle band The Quarrymen, of legendary singer-songwriter John Lennon. Davis was later replaced by Paul McCartney when the Beatles were formed.

The story also includes an eye-witness account of the famous July 6th 1957 day that John met Paul, a relatively unknown story. The film is dedicated to what would be the 75th birthday of John Lennon.

Great Lakes International Film Festival annually takes place in Erie City on the banks of one of the biggest lakes in the USA.

Source: Georgia Today

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If you didn’t get the chance to see legendary musician Ringo Starr during The Beatles’ heyday—or at a Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band show—you can catch him in Boston this week. For free.

Turns out Starr’s creative talents extend well beyond music. He’ll be showcasing his art at the Citi Wang Theatre from Wednesday, October 21 through Friday, October 23.

You can purchase original, hand-signed pieces at the art show, and all proceeds will benefit Starr’s Lotus Foundation, which helps multiple charitable projects.

“I think I’ve got three parts of my brain,” he told The Boston Globe.

“I am a musician. Whatever else I do, I am a drummer; that’s my main joy and passion. And then I’ve got lots of time around that. So I’ve got the computer art, and I actually paint with brushes, and that’s just for myself, and I’m still taking photographs. Some days I can do a lot of just sitting around — I’m good at that too. I just like something creative going on.”

By: Ashli Molina

Source: boston.com

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At one point, George Harrison’s catalog was available on a number of the streaming services but it was slowly withdrawn a few years ago.

As of last Friday, such albums as All Things Must Pass, Living in the Material World and Dark Horse, have returned and are available on such services as Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Google Play, Rhapsody, rdio and Tidal.

Harrison joins his former Beatles bandmates who also have their music on the streaming services; however, the music by the full band is among one of the great missing pieces to the streaming revolution.

Harrison was known as the quiet Beatles and that continued on into his solo years. Never as prolific as his three bandmates, releasing just ten albums post-breakup with only the four making the U.S. top ten and three in the U.K. All Things Must Pass was the biggest of his career, which included the double sided hit My Sweet Lord / Isn’t It a Pity along with What is Life and the followup, Living in the Material World, which included his second of three number 1 singles Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth).

By: VVN Music

Source: Noise11.com

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Former investment analyst Isabel Garvey plans to make the world-renowned Abbey Road Studios a music tech and innovation powerhouse.

'This is the legendary studio where The Beatles recorded. You can see cigarette burns left by John Lennon on this Steinway honky-tonk piano. Men have been known to cry here when they get this close to the history," says Isabel Garvey, with a laugh.

Having worked her way up through the ranks of record companies EMI and Warner, the Ranelagh native and would-be tech start-up founder is overseeing a multi-million pound revamp of London's Abbey Road Studios as it repositions itself to become a leader in music technology and innovation as well as the go-to recording studio.

Part of the new strategy has seen the business link up with Cork Institute of Technology's Nimbus Centre, partnering with sound engineer and researcher Dr Derry Fitzgerald there, who hopes to secure Enterprise Ireland funding for a clever software innovation he calls "Photoshop for audio". It aims to make it easier to separate out different sounds on a piece of music and sample, remix and remaster the tracks.

He has previously worked on remastering songs for The Beach Boys and The Beatles Rock Band comp details

It’s a pretty safe bet that ice hockey wasn’t a big part of Paul McCartney’s world growing up in Liverpool.

But for decades, the superstar musician has carried a bit of the Detroit Red Wings with him around the world — and now it's on the way home.

Fans are likely to see it Wednesday night when McCartney plays his first-ever Joe Louis Arena show: his classic Epiphone Texan acoustic guitar, adorned with a bright Red Wings decal.

It’s become an iconic feature on an instrument with a rich history. This was the guitar, after all, used by McCartney in the studio and onstage for “Yesterday” during the Beatles years.

The sticker’s precise origins are murky, though it seems certain to date to a May 1976 concert by McCartney and his band Wings at Olympia Stadium, then the Red Wings’ home. Varying stories circulated for years, some contending that McCartney was given the decal by a fan or team staffer, others claiming he found it in a dressing room before the show.

In an online Q-&-A last year, McCartney finally addressed the topic, albeit with few specifics:

“We were on a Wings tour quite a while ago and when we played Detroit details

The latest releases in the Paul McCartney Archive Collection represent two turning points in McCartney’s career. Tug of War emerged in the wake of personal chaos: John Lennon’s death and McCartney’s pot bust in Japan. A year after the critically acclaimed album, McCartney released the followup Pipes of Peace, which represents his attempt to embrace 1980s pop.

Best remembered for “Say Say Say,” the hit duet with Michael Jackson, Pipes of Peace received a lukewarm critical reception, unlike its predecessor. The remastered Archive Collection releases allows listeners to revisit this turning point in Paul McCartney’s career, determining his place in the 1980s musical landscape.

Tug of War finds McCartney in a reflective mood, embracing his Beatles past and paying tribute to his best-known songwriting partner. Beginning the album with the title track, Paul McCartney gently sings words of turmoil and conflict, longing for a better world (“In another world we could stand on top of the mountain, with our flag unfurled”) but recognizing that only through struggle and change can we achieve such lofty goals (“In a time to come we will be dancing to the beat, played on a details

John, Paul, George and Ringo grew up with the River Mersey and Liverpool's docks as the backdrop to their live and music and now, for the first time, the Beatles will be permanently honoured on a cruise ship.

Monday sees the unveiling of the Cavern Club on the newly refurbished Norwegian Epic - a replica of the cellar venue where the Fab Four played a frenetic residency in the days before their hit records. It was also the venue where the likes of Cilla Black and Gerry and the Pacemakers performed back in the early 1960s.

The on-board Cavern is a joint venture with the club in Liverpool, where crowds are daily entertained by tribute bands and original acts. Launching the Norwegian Cruise Line version are the original's regular act, the Cavern Club Beatles, with a high energy rock 'n' roll set - although whether they play Yellow Submarine isn't known.

Cruise passengers will be able to enjoy the Beatles music daily with live acts along with regularly changing tributes to other artists as well as original bands and singers. The colour and atmosphere of the original club - the warm, dark setting with trademark brick arches, the brightly-coloured posters, the 1960s style - have all been recreated in the ship' details

As a child, Paul McCartney hated classical. But as Liverpool's favourite son has matured, he has found a way back to the music that so appalled his younger self. In his latest book, Conversations with McCartney, Paul Du Noyer spoke to the former Beatle about that journey and his growing catalogue of classical compositions.

'I’m primitive on music,' says Paul McCartney. 'I don’t want to learn music. It’s too serious, too like homework.' And nothing about his childhood inspired him with a love of classical music. 'Classical used to get switched off in our house,' he remembers. 'My dad was a bit of a jazzer. If a symphony came on the radio he’d turn it off.'

School was no better: 'You would have just had to play one Elvis record and we would have been hooked. We’d have turned up in droves to that lesson.' To this day he can’t read music, and his parents’ attempt to encourage the boy’s potential came to nothing: 'That’s what put me off learning the piano. The minute they gave me stuff to do at home, "This is it, I’m jacking it in." I hated homework. When the piano lady gave me some stuff, "Go and learn these crotchets", bloody hell, I hated that. I just cou details

A letter signed by all four members of the Beatles petitioning for Mick Jagger to play the lead role of Alex in the film adaptation of A Clockwork Orange has hit the auction block. Paddle8 will offer up the unique item, which carries an estimated selling price of $18,000 to $25,000.

As the story goes, in February 1968, Jagger's famous friends – including John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg, among others – sent the autographed petition to Dr. Strangelove screenwriter Terry Southern. Southern was working on the big screen adaptation of Anthony Burgess' dystopian, ultraviolent novel and the letter implored that Southern cast the Rolling Stones singer, and not Blow Up star David Hemmings, in the leading role of the film. 

"We, the undersigned, do hereby protest with extreme vehemence as well as shattered illusions (in you) the preference of David Hemmings above Mick Jagger in the role of Alex in The Clockwork Orange," the typewritten, all-caps letter reads. The front side of the petition is signed by Pallenberg, Faithfull, French filmmaker Christian Marquand and others, while the back of the letter finds the signatures of all four Beatle details

If you're one of those pop-culture obsessives whose Venn diagram of interests include both The Beatles and "The Simpsons," you may have already heard this anecdote about the famous overlap. But with Slate's recent account of the behind-the-scenes story of how Paul and Linda McCartney came to guest star on "The Simpsons," one particular piece of trivia seemed worthy to highlight once again.

On Slate, Alan Siegel details how "The Simpsons" writers felt they would need an idea McCartney would connect with in order to convince him to be on the show. When they happened to have a script about Lisa becoming a vegetarian in the mid-'90s, showrunner David Mirkin felt that might be the opportunity.

Mirkin, who gifted the McCartneys with a then rare turkey substitute from New York, got the two famous vegetarians to agree, but the musicians had one condition -- Lisa would have to remain a vegetarian forever.

As Slate notes, Linda told Entertainment Weekly at the time that doing the show gave them an opportunity "to spread the vegetarian word to a wider audience."

The show aired on Oct. 15, 1995, and featured the McCartneys hanging out with "Simpsons" character, Apu, who was revealed to be vegan in the episod details