Beatles News

When EMI signed a recording contract with The Beatles, it was a new frontier for the band as they went from being on top of the hill in Liverpool to the bottom rung of the ladder in the bigger picture. Rabid fans lining up to see them at the Cavern Club were sure to purchase a new record by their hometown heroes, but nationwide success was not guaranteed. The Beatles regularly made the roughly 225-mile drive to London to record with producer George Martin at Abbey Road Studios before they secured living quarters closer to the musical epicenter.

Just as they had cleaned up their image when Brian Epstein took over as their manager, The Beatles felt a need to behave when they entered the hallowed halls on Abbey Road. The engineers were older and more business-minded than the scruffy musicians from the north who played rock ‘n’ roll music. The Beatles looked at these studio technicians as authority figures who were rarely in the mood for joking around or experimenting with different sounds or techniques. Martin appreciated their sense of humor and allowed the group to push the boundaries of what was acceptable at the time. Of course, it didn’t happen all at once, but as the band found success on the charts details

The Beatle wrote that he 'hope life begins at 40' in the letter written in 1979. In December 1980 - two months after his 40th birthday - Lennon was murdered. The letter will go under the hammer at RR Auction of Boston, Massachusetts.

A poignant letter penned by John Lennon saying he 'hopes life begins at 40' just mere months before he was murdered has emerged for sale for £30,000.  The Beatle also says he wishes for a little less 'trouble' in his life when he reaches the milestone in the letter to his cousin Liela Birch.  He then talks about the 'many b******s I've met in the last 40 years or so' when lamenting people who he felt were after his money.  He was tragically shot dead by Mark Chapman outside his New York apartment in December 1980, two months after his 40th birthday.

He writes: 'I'm 40 next year - I hope life begins - ie I'd like a little less 'trouble' and more - what?'

Source: Francine Wolfisz/dailymail.co.uk

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A hurricane couldn’t stop them. Segregationists didn’t even slow them down. Disputes with a musicians’ union and some rogue filmmakers were just temporary roadblocks.

The Beatles were coming to Jacksonville, come hell or high water.

Sept. 11 marks the 60th anniversary of the Fab Four playing to a screaming crowd at the old Gator Bowl stadium. They played for about 30 minutes, but the echoes linger six decades later.

It's a show that almost didn't happen for a number of reasons: Hurricane Dora had just roared through town, bringing President Lyndon Johnson in to survey the damage; the band nearly canceled in a dispute with stadium management, which wanted to segregate the audience; and a group of rogue filmmakers caused the band's road manager to threaten cancellation if they didn't stop shooting unauthorized footage.

Thousands of fans, having paid $4 and $5 for a ticket, couldn't make it to the show because power was out in large parts of the city. The band played a 30-minute set in conditions so windy that Ringo Starr's drums had to be nailed to the stage so they wouldn't topple over.

Source: jacksonville.com

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Their concert lasted only 30 minutes, but the Beatles’ one and only visit to New Orleans 60 years ago this month still brings vivid memories to many. On Sept. 16, 1964, the Beatles played their sold-out concert at City Park Stadium, later renamed Tad Gormley Stadium. It was one of 24 stops on their 32-day North American tour.

Beatlemania hit New Orleans just before 3 a.m. that day, when the chartered plane carrying the Fab Four — John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — touched down at the airport in Kenner. Like most everywhere they went, the band was mobbed by fans when they arrived at the Congress Inn, a motel on Chef Menteur Highway in New Orleans East. They held a press conference, where Mayor Victor Schiro presented them with keys to the city, proclaimed it Beatles Day and made them honorary citizens.

At the Beatles’ request, they were visited that night at the stadium by Fats Domino, who met them in their trailer. Meanwhile 12,000 frenzied fans grew impatient during the opening acts, which included Clarence “Frogman” Henry, Jackie DeShannon, the Bill Black Combo and the Exciters. By the time the stars took the stage, the crowd was hysterical and hu details

Songwriting is a delicate balance between vulnerability and universality, as Paul McCartney learned while working on the “angst-ridden” song he wrote to make himself feel better after a particularly arduous time in his life. After all, the more commercially available the music, the finer the line between sounding desperate and speaking to everyday experiences.

Luckily, McCartney was able to work through his initial concerns that he was leaning toward the former and continued writing this quintessentially Paul tune, angst and all.  Paul McCartney Wrote This Song To Help Feel Better.

When Paul McCartney first sat down to write what would later become the opening track of his 2018 release Egypt Station, he worried that he was creating a song that was too “angsty.” In an interview with GQ, McCartney said he feared the song sounded too desperate. But eventually, he realized he enjoyed angsty music, so why wouldn’t others?

“People like that,” he said. “I like that. So, I’m gonna write something. You can often take a moment you remember where you had, let’s say, an argument, and you think of that situation, and you work it out in the song. Just by details

Ringo Starr is getting ready to kick off another tour with his All Starr Band, and he just gave fans a peek behind the scenes at rehearsals for the trek.

In a new video, Ringo shared clips of him and his band at work rehearsing the song “Matchbox.” He also revealed that there’s something very special about the drum kit he’ll be playing on the tour, noting it’s the same model he played when The Beatles were on The Ed Sullivan Show.

 “I had the small kit because I wanted to be seen,” he explained. “But then I had the great idea and said why don’t you give me a rostrum, and they built the rostrum and I’m up there having a great time.”

For this leg of the All Starr Band tour, Ringo will be joined by Toto’s Steve Lukather, Men At Work’s Colin Hay, Warren Ham, Hamish Stuart, Gregg Bissonette and Buck Johnson.

The tour kicks off Saturday in San Diego and wraps Sept. 25 in New York City. A complete list of dates can be found at ringostarr.com.

Source: ABC News/deltaplexnews.com

It was another Monday afternoon in September in Pittsburgh, with the usual industrial smoke scenting the air on a day that had seen drizzle and fog.

At exactly 4:36 p.m. on that day in 1964, the wheels of a Lockheed Electra aircraft traveling from Baltimore hit the runway at Greater Pittsburgh Airport, as the airport was then known. There to greet the passengers were an estimated 4,000 people, hordes of reporters, and two limousines and an escort of six police cruisers.

The Beatles had come to town.

Plenty of concerts in Pittsburgh’s history have gained legendary status, whether it’s a newly-electric Bob Dylan cranking up “Like a Rolling Stone” at the Syria Mosque in 1966, Elvis Presley belting out his hits at a New Year’s Eve show at Civic Arena seven months before he died, or Bob Marley playing his last concert ever at the Stanley Theatre eight months before he died. But perhaps the most legendary of them all is the Beatles’ Sept. 14, 1964, appearance at Civic Arena, the only time the Fab Four played Pittsburgh.

The stop in Pittsburgh 60 years ago was part of a 24-city, 32-concert blitz across North America six months after John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George details

The Beatles are the bestselling music group of all time, selling 183 million units and setting the all-time mark for Billboard No. 1 hits. The band rose to popularity in the 1960s and was equally beloved on both sides of the pond, both in their native England and in the United States. The Beatles albums in order show the impressive growth and evolution of the band’s sound as they matured. Listening to the Beatles’ discography is like strolling down memory lane. They had so many hits, and you can enjoy them all when you listen to the 12 Beatles albums that make up their live studio work.

The Beatles were a British rock group made up of four members: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They got together in 1960, and their distinctive musical style blended rock ‘n roll, pop, beat and even some classical music. The “Fab Four,” as they were called, released 12 studio albums.

Lennon and McCartney began as songwriting partners, and they started playing with Harrison in the 1950s. Pete Best drummed with them briefly before they settled on Starr. Producer George Martin was sometimes referred to as the fifth Beatle. The group heralded the British invasion of rock mu details

A John Lennon-inspired golf buggy owned by Noel Gallagher of Oasis is expected to sell for between £5,000 and £10,000 at auction.

It joins more than 60 lots being offered by Propstore, an auction house based in Chenies, near Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire.

The auction includes a collection of 18 of Noel's guitars, among them a custom Silver Sparkle Gibson Les Paul Florentine he once described as "the best guitar in the world", which is expected to sell for between £200,000 and £400,000.  Propstore said the lots were part of an auction due to begin in November.  John Lennon's bespoke Rolls-Royce was created in 1967

The golf buggy has a psychedelic paint job is in the same style as Lennon's Rolls-Royce Phantom V limousine.

The vehicle was given to Gallagher in the late 1990s by his then-wife Meg Mathews, and was used to travel around the pair's Buckinghamshire estate.

A tambourine used on stage by Noel's brother Liam is also on offer, along with a number of Noel's handwritten lyrics to Wonderwall, which are estimated to go for between £4,000 and £8,000. There is also a set featuring Supersonic and Live Forever lyrics, with the latter autographed b details

George Harrison asked Eric Clapton to contribute a guitar solo to his new Beatles song, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

Clapton initially declined Harrison’s request, saying “nobody ever plays on Beatles records,” but Harrison eventually convinced him to participate, and Clapton recorded the solo that night.

The song appeared on the band’s album The Beatles, also known as The White Album, which was released in November 1968. The track was one of Harrison’s songs on the album. It went on to be an iconic track for him and has often made it on lists of the greatest guitar songs of all time.

Harrison eventually paid Clapton back for his contribution by cowriting and playing guitar on Cream’s “Badge.”

Harrison and Clapton performed “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” live together several times. In November 2002 Clapton performed the tune at the Concert for George at London’s Royal Albert Hall backed by a band that included Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. The concert took place on the one-year anniversary of Harrison’s death.

Source: wdrv.com

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George Harrison asked Eric Clapton to contribute a guitar solo to his new Beatles song, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

Clapton initially declined Harrison’s request, saying “nobody ever plays on Beatles records,” but Harrison eventually convinced him to participate, and Clapton recorded the solo that night.

The song appeared on the band’s album The Beatles, also known as The White Album, which was released in November 1968. The track was one of Harrison’s songs on the album. It went on to be an iconic track for him and has often made it on lists of the greatest guitar songs of all time.

Harrison eventually paid Clapton back for his contribution by cowriting and playing guitar on Cream’s “Badge.”

Harrison and Clapton performed “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” live together several times. In November 2002 Clapton performed the tune at the Concert for George at London’s Royal Albert Hall backed by a band that included Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. The concert took place on the one-year anniversary of Harrison’s death.

Source: kslx.com

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The musicians who would become the Beatles played some of their earliest shows at the Casbah Coffee Club, a music venue in the basement of a Liverpool home. The house was owned by Mona Best, the mother of the band’s one-time drummer, Pete Best, who lived upstairs as a teenager.

Now, Pete and his brother, Roag, are reopening the building as an Airbnb. Guests can stay in Beatles-themed rooms full of the band’s memorabilia.

“The Beatles played here, the Beatles partied here and the Beatles slept here,” Pete, now 82, tells PA Media’s Eleanor Barlow.

Mona bought the building, located in the West Derby area of the city, after winning an unlikely bet, according to the Guardian’s Hannah Al-Othman. At the 1954 Epsom Derby, she pawned all of the jewelry she owned and placed the money on an inexperienced jockey riding a horse named “Never Say Die.” She watched the race with her family, who didn’t know about the bet.

“As the horse was winning and coming past the finishing post, she suddenly jumped up and started screaming: ‘I’ve won the house, I’ve won the house, I’ve won the house!’” Pete tells the Guardian. &ldq details

For almost 50 years, a recording of America at the Hollywood Bowl lay dormant as a lost treasure. But no more.

America – Live From The Hollywood Bowl 1975 has been restored and released via Primary Wave Music; distributed by Sun Records. The record comes out almost exactly 49 years to the day of the performance, which was September 5th, 1975.

The never-before-heard tapes were recently restored and recently mixed and produced from the original master tapes. Previously issued in limited quantities on Record Store Day, the 20-track album is now being released on CD, on a new red vinyl variant, and digitally.

Produced by Jeff Larson, Live From The Hollywood Bowl 1975 captures America at the peak of its performance prowess: The band was tight and spirited, nailing breezy harmony vocals, teardrop slide guitar parts, plaintive piano passages, and intricate folk guitar filigree. Adding to excitement was that America was joined by its producer Sir George Martin, often known as the “fifth Beatle,” who conducted an orchestra behind the band.

The album features live versions of classic tracks such as “Ventura Highway,” “Sister Golden Hair,” “I Need details

Recently I had a couple of items to be framed, so I visited Creative Framing Solutions on Chestnut Street. In my experience, owner Grace Burr has always done immaculate work. While chatting she mentioned that she was planning to have more shows on-site. Her next show coming up was by a photographer I was not familiar with. (Possibly showing my ’60s pop-culture ignorance.)

The exhibition, entitled “The Lost Weekend: The Photography of May Pang,” will provide fans a rare opportunity to see John Lennon in a new light, through the lens of someone who knew him intimately during one of the most creative periods of his life. May Pang’s candid photos will be on display and available to purchase. Pang will attend the exhibit, meeting customers and telling stories behind these amazing limited-edition photographs for sale of John Lennon.

The exhibit coincides with the recent digital release of the film documentary about John Lennon and May Pang called “The Lost Weekend: A Love Story,” available on many streaming platforms (Amazon Prime, AppleTV, YouTube, Vudu) and produced by Briarcliff Entertainment. 

Photographer May Pang knew John Lennon intimately. Pang was Lennon&rsquo details

With any artistic pursuit, the artist runs the risk of regretting their choices as time passes and their craft develops. Even the Beatles looked back on some of their earliest offerings and cringed. John Lennon was embarrassed by one song in particular. Find out why Lennon regretted writing “It’s Only Love,” below.

I get high when I see you go by
My oh, my
When you sigh, my, my inside just flies
Butterflies
Why am I so shy?
When I’m beside you

It’s safe to say that the lyrics to “It’s Only Love” are somewhat simplistic. That’s not always a bad thing. Some of the best songs–even the best Beatles songs–center around simple sentiments. Lennon, however, found them to be too juvenile. As he looked back on this track later in his career, he found it to be an embarrassing moment on his otherwise pretty stellar track record.

“It’s the most embarrassing song I ever wrote,” Lennon once said of this track. “Everything rhymed. Disgusting lyrics. Even then I was so ashamed of the lyrics, I could hardly sing them. That was one song I really wished I’d never written.”

It’s only lo details