Beatles News

I’m in a hotel room with a Beatle. And admittedly overjoyed to be there. For me there are stars, and then there are great songwriters and legends. And then, above all else, are The Beatles.

“Inspired?” he says with a laugh, when I use that word to describe the songs he wrote for his latest album, Postcards From Paradise. “We need to have you around more often!”

Seems like a great idea. His band The Beatles, as the universe knows, was the greatest ever, and the love they brought the world through their short but miraculous reign continues to radiate every day. He came together with John, Paul and George to churn out miracle songs from 1963 to 1969 almost non-stop, forever changing the art of songwriting as we know it.

It was Ringo who often came up with their titles and phrases (“A Hard Day’s Night,” he confirms, was his, though “Eight Days A Week,” often attributed to him, he says, was not) and also conceived distinctive drum parts. A songwriter’s dream drummer, he always crafted soulful parts that served the very essence of each song. Even his fills are legend: soulful grace and visceral power without ever overwhelming the song.

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Fifty years ago next week in the new Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, the British sensation known as The Beatles ran out to the stage at second base, tuned up a bit and immediately launched into the Isley Brothers’ hit Twist and Shout: “Shake it up, baby, now, twist and shout. Come on, come on, come on, come on, baby now, come on and work it on out!”

It was The Beatles – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – who were shaking up huge baseball stadiums on their second tour of America. An estimated 34,000 screaming fans that Wednes­day night of Aug. 18, 1965, saw what would be The Beatles’ only appearance in Georgia.

The tour had started three days earlier with The Beatles performing to 55,000 fans at Shea Stadium in New York City. Besides Atlanta, stops that August would include Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto; Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston; Comiskey Park in Chicago; Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Ind.; Memorial Stadium in Portland, Ore.; Balboa Stadium in San Diego, Calif.; Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, Calif., and Cow Palace in Daly City, Calif., near San Francisco.

During those stops, The Beatles would meet privately with The Supremes, details

The Beatles weren’t that good when they first formed.

Don’t take my word for it, Paul McCartney said in a recent radio interview: “We obviously weren’t that good. We were formulating it all.”

Record producer George Martin agreed. “When I first met them, they really couldn’t write a decent song. ‘Love Me Do’ was the best they could give me, yet they blossomed as songwriters in a way that was breathtaking.”

They became great because they worked at it. I’m not talking about that 10,000 hours Malcolm Gladwell has written about, though there’s no question that all the time in Hamburg helped. But if it was just down to putting the hours in, then Gerry and the Pacemakers would have become global icons. They were from Liverpool, managed by Brian Epstein and they too toured the Hamburg club scene; in fact, they stayed longer than the Beatles. Gerry and the Pacemakers focused on what worked, they wrote some huge hits and had three number ones in a row. But to shake up the world, the Beatles knew they were going to need a little something extra. Originality.

When Paul, John, George and Ringo were told how something was supposed to be do details

Do you have a treasure in your attic? Could you make your fortune with it?

It’s almost time for Liverpool`s Beatles Memorabilia Auction.

A treasure trove of all things fab four, he Beatles Shop, Mathew Street, Liverpool are hosting the auction at LIPA on August 29.

This year will be the 24th year, and already up for sale is Ringo Starr’s radiogram, John Lennon’s detention card and Cilla Black’s hankie.

Here we look back at some of the more interesting lots which have sold over the years

Fully autographed Beatles Love Me Do single from Dawsons Record Shop, Warrington 2007, £13,600

Original section of the stage from the Cavern Club, Liverpool 2009, £2.860

John Lennon`s Toilet from Tittenhurst Park 2010, £10,500

Membership card for the Casbah Coffee Club, Liverpool, 1961 2010, £2,860

By: Jade Wright

Source: Liverpool Echo

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An international hotel group is set to buy Liverpool's 110-room Hard Days Night Hotel after agreeing to pay almost £3m more than the asking price.

Millennium & Copthorne Hotels has agreed to purchase a long leasehold interest in the Hard Days Night Hotel for £13.8m in cash subject to standard purchase price adjustments. More than 113 years remain on the lease with Liverpool City Council.

The landmark property is located inside the grade II-listed Central Buildings on the corner of Mathew Street and North John Street. Named after the Beatles' film, album and song of the same name, the Hard Days Night Hotel opened its doors in 2008 during Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture.

In addition to 110 luxury rooms, including the famed McCartney and Lennon suites, the hotel has numerous bars and restaurants. The four-star hotel features exclusive Beatles artwork throughout including along the grand central staircase from the basement to the roof.

The hotel was put on the market in March with CBRE indicating that it was seeking bids of more than £11m on behalf of its private owner Concord Estates.

By: Richard Frost

Source: Insider Media

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In the late summer of 1966, the Beatles’ popularity in America – previously unshakeably strong - had been threatened after a comment made by John Lennon to a British journalist that the band were now “more popular than Jesus” was reprinted in a US magazine.

When the interview, by Lennon’s friend Maureen Cleave and originally published in the Evening Standard in March 1966, appeared in the American publication Datebook in the July, reaction among some Christians, particularly in the south of the country, was immediate - and angry.

Several radio stations banned the playing of Beatles music; some organised public bonfires in which fans were encouraged to bring their Beatles records and memorabilia and toss them into the flames in order to register their disgust.

The Beatles arrived in Chicago for the first leg of a US tour on August 11, and met the American press for the first time since the controversy had broken. A visibly nervous Lennon was asked to explain – and apologise for – his comments.

"If I had said television is more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it...” he began. “I used the word 'Beatles' as a remote thing… as details

In a recent interview with our friend Scott Raab of Esquire, the Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards told Raab that The Beatles’ legendary Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band platter is “a mishmash of rubbish”. Thus our question of the day, of course, is why did Keith Richards badmouth the classic album? There are actually a couple of simple reasons:

One: Richards is known for “talking sh*t” about other musicians. This is especially true when he has something to promote. 

Raab himself confirms that Richards spoke to him because he wanted to talk “about his new solo album, Crosseyed Heart” and the simultaneous Netflix premiere of “the documentary Keith Richards: Under the Influence.” Controversy garners page hits and gets you trending on Facebook.

Two: Richards was drawn into it by Raab himself who told Richards: “I’ve been thinking about Rubber Soul, Revolver, ‘Sgt. Pepper’ and ‘The White Album’ and listening to Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St. Over the past 20 years, I’ve ?listened to that Stones stuff far more often.” 

Richards actually t details

Revolver, released in America on August 8, 1966, is seen by many today as the Beatles’ big-bang moment. Over the course of 14 tracks, they consolidated everything they’d mastered even while hinting at most of the experiments still to come from principal songwriters John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.

Not that they necessarily sensed this breakthrough moment, as the Beatles gathered at Abbey Road Studios with George Martin earlier that spring.

“That’s kind of difficult to say,” McCartney tells KGVO. “I mean, we knew we were having great success with the Beatles. Me and John were starting to really cook on our writing. So, we knew we were getting better and better from the first single, like ‘Love Me Do.’ You know, we knew we were now writing better songs. We knew we were playing better.”

Powered along by a double-sided No. 1 in “Eleanor Rigby / Yellow Submarine,” Revolver would top both the UK and American album charts, staying at Billboard’s No. 1 for six weeks.

If the project had little in common with the Beatles’ most recent release, 1965’s more folk-leaning Rubber Soul, that was also in keeping wit details

The rare snapshots of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison while taken on summer vacation in Los Angeles, California were taken by Bob Bonis, their tour manager from 1964-1966 The band was in town for their August 23 historic show at Hollywood Bowl The Ambassador Hotel cancelled their room reservation for fear they would be swarmed with crazy fans so they stayed at the Bel Air mansion of British Actor Reginald Owen.

They were renowned for their playfulness. And these photographs, revealed for the first time, show The Beatles at their cheeky best, giggling and playing with a beach ball by the pool in Los Angeles, California. It is 1964, and John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison are in town for their historic show at the Hollywood Bowl, which was recorded and later released as a hit live album. 

Had everything gone to plan, they would be confined to their suite in The Ambassador Hotel preparing for the gig. But at the last minute their reservation was cancelled because management could not cope with the scale of swarming fans. 

Luckily for The Beatles, Reginald Owen offered up his Bel Air mansion for just $1,000. It meant for a rare break from the fa details

According to Keith Richards’s tell-all autobiography, on the night of the 1967 Redlands drug bust, the guitarist had taken so much LSD that as the police arrived at his Sussex country mansion, he genuinely thought they were uniformed dwarves and welcomed them in with open arms. You’d assume that a man known for his acid-inducted exploits would be partial to the trippy sensibilities of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, an album so littered with drug references that tracks like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and A Day in the Life were banned by the BBC.

As it turns out, however, Keef has little patience for the record once described by Time magazine as “a historic departure in the progress of music – any music”.

As it turns out, however, Keef has little patience for the record once described by Time magazine as “a historic departure in the progress of music – any music”. “Some people think it’s a genius album,” Richards recently told Esquire, “but I think it’s a mishmash of rubbish”.

He’s not the first artist to assassinate the Beatles record. In 2007, Billy Childish told the Guardian of his hatred for the al details

East Hampton Historical Society's newest exhibition will send guests on a walk down memory lane as they admire photographs taken by Susan Wood during the 70s. Some of the more iconic images in the exhibit feature The Beatles' John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono.

The exhibit, titled "Right On! The Lennon Years, Photographs by Susan Wood 1968 - 1978," will debut during an opening reception on Saturday, August 8th from 4 to 7 p.m.

"I came of age in Ireland looking at images of New York in the 1970s: the mood, the clothes, the films, and TV series," Deirdre Brennan, the curator of the exhibit, said. "In curating Susan's work, I wanted to show the breadth of the subject matter Susan has covered, and of course to include the years that she photographed John and Yoko — the Lennon years." She noted that Wood's work is synonymous with the 1970s.

The photographer's work captures different art icons of the time, as well as fashions and cultures that we still appreciate today. Through the photographs, exhibit visitors will take away a taste of the times and a feel for this decade in history. "Right On! The Lennon Years, Photographs by Susan Wood 1968 - 1978" marks the first time that this collection of photograp details

Music publisher Sony/ATV and Beatles company Apple Corps have both asked a New York federal court to dismiss litigation relating to a dispute over a documentary about the fab four. The producer of said documentary wants its lawsuit to be ‘administratively closed’, so taken off the agenda for now, but with the option to resume proceedings later.

As previously reported, in 2013 a company called Ace Arts went legal against the Sony publisher and Apple Corps over a documentary it was making featuring footage of The Beatles’ first ever US concert in Washington in 1964.

Ace Arts claimed that Sony/ATV had originally agreed to licence the publishing rights it controls in the various Beatles songs that appear in the concert recording, but later bailed on that agreement citing a clause stating that it was always subject to Apple Corps approval. The claimants alleged that the change of heart was because Sony/ATV and Apple Corps had decided to collaborate on a similar project about the Washington gig, and that that breached American competition laws. 

Ace Arts originally filed a complaint in California, though then moved its lawsuit to New York. But Sony/ATV, aside from disputing most of the f details

From January 2012

A discarded piece of The Beatles' 1969 hit is found in Abbey Road studios.

The guitar solo from The Beatles' 1969 hit single 'Here Comes The Sun' has been discovered after 43 years.

The solo, which failed to make the final cut of George Harrison's major contribution to The Beatles' 11th studio album 'Abbey Road', was found by Harrison's son Dhani, Beatles' producer George Martin and his son Giles during a visit to the studio which gave its name to the album. 

In a video, which you can see by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking, the three men are sat at the mixing desk playing the original master tapes of 'Here Comes The Sun' when they stumble upon the solo, which Dhani Harrison admits he had no idea existed.

'Here Comes The Sun' has been covered by numerous artists since its release in 1969, with soul singer Nina Simone, singer Pete Tosh, folk star Richie Havens and Swedish doom metallers Ghost among those to create new versions of the single. 

By: Jules Grant

Source: NME

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After the one-two punch of the “Instant Karma” single and the galvanizing Plastic Ono Band album, it appeared that John Lennon was beginning to believe his own press. The man who had also given his generation a pair of embraceable slogans, “All You Need is Love” and “Give Peace a Chance,” began 1971 with a slice of illogically hollow rhetoric, “Power to the People.”

Then came “Imagine,” a pretty, optimistic ballad praying for world peace. Fair enough. In years to come, it would be brought to the world’s attention that the sensitive ex-Beatle who so sweetly sang “imagine no possessions” was, in this period, extremely wealthy and something of a pack rat – and more than happy to be coddled and treated, in private and in public, like a demi-god. In fact, this very incongruousness was one of the reason that idiot would shoot him in the back in 1980.

Back to ’71. John Lennon clearly loved being perceived as “the voice of the people.” Every utterance was treated in the rock press as if it were of biblical proportions. Certainly he was a smart man, and blessed with genuine and one-of-a-kind artistic ability. But he was details

Keith Richards gets no satisfaction from one of the greatest rock records of all time — in fact, he thinks it’s a "load of s---."

The outspoken Rolling Stones guitarist ripped The Beatles' classic work, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," in a recent eye-opening interview for Esquire's September issue.

"Some people think it's a genius album, but I think it's a mishmash of rubbish, kind of like 'Their Satanic Majesties,'" Richards revealed, referring to the Stones’ own psychedelic 1967 LP, “Their Satanic Majesties Request,” which was released months after the Beatles’ effort. "If you can make a load of s---, so can we."

The wrinkly rocker — who still tours regularly with his mates and even has a solo album coming out — said his Beatle bashing wasn’t limited to the Fab Four’s music, but also their stamina.

"Chicks wore those guys out. They stopped touring in 1966 — they were done already," said Richards, who also recently admitted that he likes to wake up with a daily joint. "There's not a lot of roots in that music. I think they got carried away."

The Beatles released three more legendary albums after 1966: "The Beatles details