Beatles News

The EP by music collective Mercblecket was released in 1964, a full three years before the Fab Four unveiled their creative tour-de-force, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, in 1967. The Mercblecket EP, which ironically features the band performing covers of four Beatles songs and is titled Mercblecket Beats The Beatles, has a cover featuring several of the musicians standing centre-stage in front of a bass drum daubed with the band's name, while wearing military guardsman's jackets. They are flanked on either side and behind by other members of the group.

The Sgt. Pepper cover famously features the Fab Four wearing guardsman's jackets while standing in front of a bass drum daubed with the album's title. On both sides, and behind them, is an array of black and white cutouts of the band's heroes. Although the sleeve was designed by Peter Blake and Jann Haworth, they were working from an ink drawing by MCCartney showing the basic concept for the artwork.

It is believed a member of Mercblecket, Roger Wallis, gave MCCartney a copy of the record when The Beatles visited Sweden in 1964. Record dealer Jorgen Johansson has tracked down a rare copy and is trying to unravel the mystery.

Source: Contact Music details

Sir Elton John was "quite intimidated" by John Lennon.

The 'Rocket Man' hitmaker used to enjoy hanging out with the late Beatles legend - whose last public performance came with Elton in New York's Madison Square Gardens in 1974 - but admits he was wary of his "abrasive" humour, though he only ever saw the "kind" side of his pal.

He said: "We got on like a house on fire. We hung out for a couple of years. "[I don't know why we got on so well] Sense of humour? I found him very kind, very funny, I don't know why we clicked by we did, and he clicked with my band and the people around me. And we had so much fun.

"I was quite intimidated by him because I knew he was razor sharp and could be abrasive, but that side of him never came out with me, only the kind side and the funny side." Elton was also intimidated when he worked with one of his performing idols, the late Nina Simone, when she sang at Sting and wife Trudy Styler's biannual Rock the Rainforest gig at New York's Carnegie Hall in 2002.

He recalled: "I played on Nina Simone's last gig at the Rainforest [benefit] and Elizabeth Taylor did her last work with me, in 'Original Sin' in the video, so three incredible legends, I did their last thing w details

What may be the world’s most famous car is outta sight most of the time but it is not forgotten.

The Royal B.C. Museum has posted the job of caring for the mechanical needs of its bright yellow 1965 Rolls-Royce Phantom V, first owned and customized by Beatle John Lennon. Jim Walters, owner of Bristol Motors, which specializes in Rolls-Royce and Bentley vehicles, was the car’s caretaker between 1993 and 2015. B.C. regulations now require the opportunity to be posted publicly, he said.

Walters plans to apply.

The museum intends to line up mechanical services as needed for three years, with options to renew for two one-year periods, bid documents state. The closing date is Feb. 18. Walters’s time with the car started after he was contacted 23 years ago to do some work on a Rolls. Entering an underground parking lot, he was “flabbergasted” to see Lennon’s car. “To be asked to look after the car was a mind-blowing experience.”

Under an agreement with the museum, Walters stored the car for free, paid its insurance and was able to use it in advertising. That eventually turned into a paid arrangement. Lennon’s Rolls was a gift from Vancouver businessm details

Ringo Starr's Liverpool birthplace is likely to be saved after years of uncertainty and wrangling.

Liverpool City Council is being asked to approve proposals by developers Place First to demolish and refurbish terraces in the Welsh Streets district. Some homes will be knocked together to appeal to families, while others will be knocked down.

Last year, then Communities Secretary Eric Pickles overturned his planning inspector's backing for a housing plan.

The streets are known as Welsh Streets as they are named after the Welsh towns of the construction workers who built the terraces in the 19th Century.

Ringo Starr used to live at 9 Madryn Street - which is one of the 200 homes that would be refurbished. Sources differ on how long Starr lived there, with some suggestions it was three years before his family moved to nearby Admiral Grove, where he was living as a teenager shortly before The Beatles found fame.

'Insult to injury' Joe Anderson, Liverpool's Mayor, said 80% of residents backed the original plans for this area. "As a result of the prevarication over this scheme from different outside interest groups, we have lost a £13m government grant," he said. "However, given that the details

The Beatles Story has been shortlisted for national awards for two campaigns it has run in the past year.

The Albert Dock attraction’s Imagine No Food Poverty and Beatles Ambassadors campaigns are in the running for the accolades. It is shortlisted for Integrated Campaign of The Year and Digital Campaign of the Year for its Imagine No Food Poverty and Beatles Ambassadors campaigns in the Marketing Minds Awards.

A chocolate brownie was created by Merseyside charity Can Cook to sell at The Beatles Story to celebrate what would have been John Lennon’s 75th birthday.

Proceeds from the 1,200 sold since October have paid for almost 600 meals to feed those in need in Merseyside.

Meanwhile the Beatles Ambassadors competition saw people from 52 countries all over the world compete to be named the biggest Beatles fan. There were 25 Ambassadors chosen, while the ultimate prize was presented to Tere Chacon, from Mexico.

The Imagine No Food Poverty Campaign is also shortlisted in the Marketing Campaign of the Year SME in the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Awards. Beatles Story marketing manager Diane Glover said: “We’re immensely proud to have been shortlisted for three details

IS Paul McCartney being a rock tease?

The 73 year old former Beatle posted a vintage photo of him draped in an Australian flag on his social media accounts yesterday. “Salutations to our cousins down under on Australia Day,” the message read. “Have a great one. Watch out for flying Kangaroos!”

The post, presumably by McCartney’s digital team, was flooded with comments from Australian fans hoping it meant he was finally ready to return down under. McCartney has not mentioned the occasion in the past. McCartney’s last Australian tour was in 1993, but whispers suggest he may be back at the end of 2016.

However the flag photo he used was taken 14 years ago to promote a cancelled Australian tour, which opened old wounds for some bitter fans.

Two shows in Melbourne for November 2002 were abruptly cancelled just a month before they were due to take place. McCartney cited the Bali bombing (which had taken place a fortnight before) as the reason and the fact he felt Australia was still in need of healing, not hearing Hey Jude. “This is not the appropriate time for a rock show,” McCartney said in a statement. He gave no date for a rescheduled event and said & details

Staring at her reflection in the old recording booth window, Michelle Graham recalled a seemingly long-lost era.

“It is very, very sad,” Graham, 48, said, pausing to look around the damp, moldy studio. “I just wish you all had seen it back the way it was before.”

When it was opened by George Martin in 1979, AIR (Associated Independent Recording) studio was a state-of-the-art recording facility which just happened to be in Montserrat, a tiny British Overseas Territory in the eastern Caribbean. Stars including Paul McCartney, Elton John, Boy George, Stevie Wonder and Sting passed through this studio to record some of the biggest hits of a generation.

Seventy-six albums were made here before the studio shut its doors in 1989, when the island was devastated by a hurricane. Six years later, Montserrat took another hit when the Soufrière Hills volcano began erupting, ultimately destroying the island’s capital, Plymouth, in 1997.

Nowadays the wasp-infested building which once housed AIR is a mere shell of its former self. But for many Montserratians, it remains a symbol for what their nation used to be.

By: Ryan Shuessler

Source: The Guardian

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BEATLE fans looking for an extra special bit of memorabilia could find themselves getting into the grove after it was announced that Ringo Starr's childhood Liverpool home is to go under the hammer.

Number 10 Admiral Grove, in the Dingle, where the teddy boy drummer lived until he was 21, is up for auction after its tenant of 37 years died last year.

Owner social landlord Plus Dane will be selling the two-up-two-down to the highest bidder at a special March auction at Liverpool's world famous Cavern Club. It has a guide price of £55,000, but auctioneers Countrywide are hoping it might attract investors with an interest in the Fab Four.

According Plus Dane, which says profits raised will be ploughed back into its housing stock in the area, the Victorian terrace was a regular haunt for the Beatles and Cilla Black in their younger days. If that wasn't enticement enough, it also points to The Empress pub, at the end of the street, which graced the cover of Ringo’s first solo album, Sentimental Journey, in 1970.

A number of restrictions have been placed on the sale of the house so it cannot become a tourist attraction or museum.

Source: Liverpool Confidential

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This weekend Creme Tangerine will be taking to a rooftop in downtown Kirkland to celebrate the Beatles final concert in London.

Creme Tangerine, headed by Kirkland Performance Center Executive Director Jeff lockhart, will perform on the rooftop balcony of the Livengood Alskog building at 121 3rd Ave on Saturday at noon. The free 45-minute event is put on by the KPC and the Kirkland Chamber of Commerce to benefit Northwest Harvest and will include well-known, memorable Beatles songs, including those performed during the last concert.

Previously, the rooftop concerts were held at Pike Place Market in Seattle starting in 2009 in tribute to the 40th anniversary of the Beatles last concert. This year, Lockhart said, they are holding the performance in Kirkland after they decided to play at Pike Place during the summer to accommodate the large crowds. “We just decided as long as people wanted to keep coming out we’ll keep doing it,” he said. “It’s been so cool over the years to see streets packed, shoulder-to-shoulder with people celebrating the music of the Beatles on the last weekend of January,” Crème Tangerine’s leader singer Byron Prather said in a press release. details

Butler University graduate Aaron Krerowicz has turned his love of music and the Beatles into a one-of-a-kind career. As in, he’s the only one. Krerowicz, who lives in Carmel near the border with Zionsville, bills himself as the country’s only full-time Beatles scholar, and fortunately for local Fab Four enthusiasts, he moved to the area in September after attending graduate school and living in New England the past seven years.

He’ll be giving his signature multimedia presentation, “The Beatles: Band of the Sixties,” at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 1 at the Hussey-Mayfield Memorial Public Library, 250 N. Fifth St., in Zionsvillle.

“That’s by far the most popular, because it’s just an overview in general scope,” Krerowicz said of the presentation. “A lot of the others are specific albums or specific songs or specific angles like Paul’s bass playing or something like that. We just go year by year, 1960 through 1970. It’s a very good survey of their career.”

While “Band of the Sixties” is Krerowicz’s most popular, it’s just one of more than two dozen Beatles presentations in his repertoire. Album- and song-specific prese details