Beatles News

In 1964, Italian photographer Emilio Lari was 24, newly arrived in London and looking for work. Back in Rome, he’d shot promotional stills on the set of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, starring Sofia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni, and for The Bobo, featuring Peter Sellers and Britt Ekland.

Now he was hoping to do the same in Britain. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for him to hear about a new film just going into production: A cheap black-and-white comedy meant to cash in on that latest fad, the Beatles. Lari went around to see the film’s director, Sellers’ old friend Richard Lester, and got invited to the first day of shooting. He was on the set of A Hard Day’s Night only that day, but Lester liked his photos and invited him to do more work on his next film, which turned out to be the Beatles’ Help!

In vivid color and crisp black and white, this book shares dozens of the results. There are great candid and posed shots of the Beatles, many unseen for years or never published, throughout. Musicians will enjoy the close-up images of the band with its famed guitars: George Harrison with his Gibson acoustic, John Lennon with his Rickenbacker, Paul McCartney with his violin-shaped details

A West Malling kebab house had something to twist and shout about, after a blue plaque was unveiled to mark its place in musical history.

John Lennon and Ringo Starr can be seen buying tickets at the former town news agency, now in the high street, in the opening of the Beatles’ 1967 film Magical Mystery Tour. Now the building is one of six in the town to have had its heritage marked with a blue plaque.

The Fab Four spent several days filming in the town, with the disused West Malling Airfield the most visible local location in the film. But high street shops also appear in a number of scenes. Minister for culture MP Tracey Crouch unveiled the plaque at a ceremony. Peter Cosier is the mastermind behind the scheme, which aims to bring the borough’s heritage to life by highlighting the places where important people from history once lived or worked.

The vinyl markers also have QR codes, allowing smartphone users to learn more about the history behind the plaques in 12 different languages. Mr Cosier said: “We are opening windows to the past to people who did important things locally and sometimes nationally, to learn more about our community and the culture we share. “There is much r details

He sang about being a Day Tripper with The Beatles. And on Saturday Sir Paul McCartney took a leaf out of his old song-writing notes when he and wife Nancy Shevell were seen enjoying a romantic Autumnal stroll in New York. Strolling through the Big Apple's sunny streets, the 73-year-old singer and his wife, 56, looked the picture of happiness as they enjoyed some quality time together in Manhattan.

Heading for a spot of lunch at the Surrey Hotel's Cafe Boulud, the former Beatle and music icon appeared to be in high spirits as he chatted to his wife of four years.

But despite wearing a pair of sunglasses, Sir Paul was obviously keen to keep the chill in the wind at bay as he wrapped up for the stroll through the city's sunny streets. Rocking a typically casual but on-point ensemble, the FourFiveSeconds hit-maker looked younger than his years. 

Teaming a black Harrington-style jacket with a pair of navy chinos, the Knight of the Realm also sported a white and red scarf. Rounding his look off with a pair of green suede loafers, Sir Paul accessorised his look with a pair of retro shades. Nancy appeared to have coordinated her outfit with her husbands, as she teamed a pair of figure-hugging jeans with a details

Two Dutch Beatles fans are involved in a legal wrangle over their claim to own 504 tapes made during a Beatles recording session in 1969, the Volkskrant reported at the weekend.

The two men say the recordings were illegally taken from them by Dutch and British police 12 years ago and should be returned. They also want €700,000 in damages from the Dutch state in compensation for wrongful arrest.

The tapes feature members of the Beatles composing and in conversation during the Get Back sessions, which became the basis for the film Let it Be. The recordings were made on Nagra tape recorders and are thought to be the basis for a large number of bootlegs.

Stan Snelleman and Jos Remmerwaal say they bought the tapes from former Apple Records worker Nigel Oliver for the equivalent of €36,000 in 1992 after being outbid by Apple for other tapes at a memorabilia auction.

12 years later they were caught in police sting when Oliver got in touch again and claimed to have a serious buyer to take the tapes off their hands. In January 2003, Snelleman and Remmerswaal were arrested and charged with money laundering and fencing stolen property. The case against them was formally dropped in 2007. 

He was back for a sell-out concert earlier this year - but it wasn’t the first time Paul McCartney got back to where he once belonged.

Scouse superstar Paul returns regularly to Merseyside... The musical maestro and former Beatle has kept us all entertained over the years, both with the Beatles, on his own and with Wings. Not least in the 70s when he was a busy boy across the UK and indeed the world and, certainly, in his home town.

There was a UK Tour in ‘73 which saw him play two nights at the Liverpool Empire Theatre; his Wings All Over the World Tour in which he was back at the Empire in September ‘75 and his Wings UK Tour 1979 which he launched with his band members including lovely wife Linda in November for four nights at the Royal Court Theatre.

One lucky person who saw him then was Susan Lee, Liverpool ECHO print editor, who remembers: “As a 12-year-old my experience of going to gigs was fairly limited, which makes it all the more astonishing that one of my first – and that of a whole host of other Liverpool schoolkids – was to see an ex-Beatle.

“Paul McCartney came to town with his band Wings as part of a 19 date tour – and promptly put on details

Music’s greatest songwriting duo, Lennon/McCartney penned and released an estimated 180 songs together between 1962 and 1970, including the likes of ‘A Day in the Life’, ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ and ‘A Hard Day's Night’. The partnership came to an end with The Beatles’ split in 1970 and, owing to the subsequently prickly relationship between the two, would never be revisited in the years prior to Lennon’s untimely death in 1980.

The tragic nature of Lennon’s passing undoubtedly played a major role in McCartney’s unwillingness to talk about his songwriting partner in the short time after his murder. But that tactic has naturally softened to the point where, in the past five years, the 73-year-old has followed a policy of openness in interviews about the dynamic of his and Lennon’s relationship. Having most recently told Billboard that Lennon’s “whole life was a cry for help” (more on that shortly), we’ve rounded up the key interviews that McCartney has given on Lennon in the past five years in order to piece together his contemporary take on his old friend. 

Speaking on the US chat show Late Night, McCartne details

Linda McCartney may be best known as the late wife of Paul, but she was an artist in her own right, a celebrated photographer who shot iconic images of musicians like B. B. King and who became, in 1968, the first woman to land a cover of Rolling Stone. She was also the mother of four children: among them, the designer Stella McCartney and the photographer Mary McCartney, known for her candid-feeling portraits of eminent subjects like Queen Elizabeth II and total strangers (the latter she posts on her Instagram with the caption “#someone”).

Mary and Linda, who passed away from breast cancer in 1998, have individually shown their work many times: at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (Linda); New York’s International Center of Photography (Linda); London’s Royal Opera House (Mary); and London’s National Portrait Gallery (both, separately). But never have their photographs appeared side by side.

Until now: On Friday, “Linda McCartney and Mary McCartney: Mother Daughter” opens at New York’s Gagosian Gallery. The idea for the show, Mary tells me from London by Skype, originated with the gallery, but it was a concept she’d been contemplating for some time. A details

Fuck “Don’t Pass Me By,” says Ringo. At least, that’s what we have to assume, now that he’s selling his copy of the White Album.

Earlier in the fall, we got wind that the drummer and sometimes-singer of famous rock’n’roll collective/enclave/project The Beatles would be auctioning off lots of his finest and most valuable memorabilia for charity. This was said to include a drum kit and guitars that he and his bandmates (singers, guitarists and songwriters John Lennon and George Harrison specifically, if those names mean anything to you) used back in their glory days.

Now, several Ringo-based items have hit Julien’s in time for the Christmas season, so parties interested in snagging a couple of Ringo’s World Music Award statues for the kids should head on over there now — as well as those interested in shelling out 60k and up for a copy of Ringo’s copy of the Beatles 1968 self-titled album, which was notoriously packaged all in white.

Apparently, Starr’s mono copy is usually thought to be the very first copy of the album ever to be pressed. It has a “Factory Sample, Not for Sale” sticker on it, and a “No.0000001” details

When disaster strikes, musicians respond the way they know best: with song. As composer Leonard Bernstein said three days after John F. Kennedy was assassinated, “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” And as the dust of a violent tragedy settles, you’re likely to hear one tune in particular: the contemplative strains of John Lennon’s 1971 “Imagine,” which reached number three in the UK when it was first released and sailed to number one after Lennon’s murder in 1980. On Saturday, Coldplay opened their L.A. concert with “Imagine” in tribute to the victims of the terrorist attacks in Paris. (The band had planned to unveil new material from their upcoming album, but ended up performing an acoustic set of older songs out of respect.) That same night, a man lugged his grand piano to the street outside the Bataclan—the site of the deadliest shootings—and delivered an instrumental version of Lennon’s hit to quiet applause and the flash of iPhone cameras.

These latest covers extend a long tradition of reaching for “Imagine” in the wake of terrible world events. The r details

The history of the $2 million drum head

You may remember last week we told you that a drum head used by Ringo Starr had sold for more than $2 million at auction. Well here's the full details on this incredible purchase.

The 20" Remo head was used during the Beatles' Ed Sullivan debut and was sold at Julien's auction in Beverly Hills. It fetched $2.125 million (a mere £1.4 million) and was purchased by Indianapolis Colts owner, Jim Irsay. It will now sit amongst Irsay's considerable collection of rare guitars.

After the sale Remo Belli, founder of Remo, commented the price was so sky-high that the company 'couldn't even afford to buy our drumhead back!'

The head was used for the duration of the Beatles' first American tour including all three Ed Sullivan appearances, a concert at Washington Coliseum and two shows at New York City's Carnegie Hall and was featured on the album covers The Beatles Second Album and Something New.

After the Beatles' American tour, the drumhead was kept at Abbey Road Studios, London, until it was auctioned by Sotheby's in 1984 and sold to an Australian restaurateur named George Wilkins for just under $9,000.

By: Rich Chamberlain

Source: Musi details