Beatles News

1. My first musical memory is riding around in my dad’s car listening to cassette tapes. In a reflection of the times and my parents’ effort to keep things kid-friendly, most of them were contemporary Christian pop albums like this or this or even this. But there was also Abbey Road. I remember “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” in particular because children always gravitate toward the goofiest music, and because I found it shocking that such a cheery little ditty was actually the story of a blunt-object serial killer. My dad and I have watched our tastes diverge and intersect many times in the ensuing years, but the Beatles and Paul McCartney in particular were always our common ground. (Ours and billions of other people’s, but still.) So it was special to see McCartney together Sunday night in Cincinnati, especially from the kind of incredible seats you imagine when you begin dreaming of yourself as a professional music critic. My dad’s smile when we rolled up to floor seats about 10 rows back was thrill enough for the night.

2. You will not be surprised to learn that a Paul McCartney concert was great, but let me emphasize the greatness: Before this night, I cannot remember attending details

LAST month Paul McCartney turned 74 and to mark the occasion he has released a compilation of his post-Beatles records called Pure McCartney.

It’s been a while since Beatle Paul has been cool. Not since the Fab Four broke up and John Lennon dismissed his former partner’s stuff as “as Muzak to my ears”, you could argue.

When I was a kid, Wings were considered sort of OK if a bit daggy. For every gem Macca produced, like Band on the Run, there was a lot of dross and some truly cringe-worthy moments: The Girl is Mine, anyone?

But a couple of years ago a friend persuaded me to listen to Ram, McCartney’s second solo record. I don’t know why I’d never heard it before. It’s the record that prompted Lennon’s Muzak insult and dismissed by one critic at the time of its release in 1971 as “pop for potheads”. Actually, thinking about it, that’s probably the reason I’d never tracked down a copy.

More fool me. It’s a brilliant inventive record, brimming with great tunes. And unlike like Lennon’s solo records, which have dated badly, it still sounds fresh. The Beatles produced so much great music of such diversity, it&rsqu details

An image appeared of John Lennon wearing Adidas trainers in 1967

Liverpool and Adidas have had a ‘special bond’ for over 40 years because of the casual movement of the 1970s created by football fans. It all began in the late 70s when fans would travel around Europe and bring back rare trainers from the continent, usually Adidas being the choice of the fashionista.

At the end the decade Adidas Samba trainers were worn by many on the terraces of Anfield and Goodison Park, and also around the streets of the city. Adidas Stan Smiths shortly followed and wearing trainers as everyday footwear was now a trend. In 1981, Wade Smith opened and it became the heart of casual fashion in the city.

With the terrace culture taking over the city, 21-year-old Robert Wade Smith, a former Adidas worker spotted a gap in the market. Trainers that football fans had purchased in Europe could now be bought on our doorstep. The rarer the import, the better. It all began on Merseyside and it quickly became a national trend.

But, does a rare photograph of the Beatles actually show that the John Lennon started the movement in 1967?

By: Paul Philbin

Source: Liverpool Echo

details

A shirt stained with John Lennon’s blood from the night he was murdered on the Upper West Side has sold for more than $41,000.

After being shot by deranged fan Mark David Chapman, the former Beatle stumbled through the door of The Dakota apartment building and collapsed into the hands of concierge Jay Hastings, who was wearing the shirt that sold Saturday, the Mirror reported.

“Jay Hastings kept this shirt all these years and never really spoke about it. It has just been sitting in a drawer for years and now he is getting older he felt it was time to sell it,” said Garry Shrum of Heritage Auctions on Park Avenue off East 57th Street.

“There are remnants of blood on the shirt. Some people might be appalled but it’s a piece of history. We did ask ourselves, ‘Is this too dark or wrong to sell?’ But I don’t think it is. He is not exploiting John Lennon’s death. He is telling the story of how he tried to help John Lennon in the last few minutes of his life,” Shrum said.

Hastings was on duty Dec. 8, 1980, when Lennon and wife Yoko Ono returned home after a photo shoot for Rolling Stone magazine, and a radio interview.

By: Yaron Steinbu details

Five Beatles authorities from different corners of the seemingly infinite Fab Four universe gathered Thursday at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles to revisit and analyze the group’s impact on popular culture in conjunction with the museum’s just-opened exhibit “Ladies and Gentlemen … the Beatles.”

Museum executive director Robert Santelli moderated the discussion among Debbie Gendler, a 13-year-old fan when Beatlemania erupted in the U.S. who was in the audience for the group’s history-making live U.S. television debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show”; former KRLA-AM deejay Bob Eubanks; historian and author Bruce Spizer; and super collectors Chuck Gunderson and Russ Lease, who also co-organized the new exhibit with museum officials.

“We’d noticed there were museum exhibits on Lady Di’s dresses, the Titanic,” Gunderson said at the outset of the 90-minute session in the museum’s 200-seat Clive Davis Theatre. “Chocolate,” inserted Lease, prompting Gunderson to add, “and we thought, ‘Why not the Beatles?’”

So, Gunderson noted, over a period of several years, he and Lease and two other collector friends details

Thursday is former Beatles drummer, solo musician and noted emoji fan Ringo Starr's 76 birthday. The legendary artist was born July 7, 1940, and Thursday he planned to celebrate by spreading peace and love, which in recent years has become his motto.

Starr became a Beatle in 1962, helping to pen songs like "With a Little Help From My Friends," "Octopus' Garden" and "The No No Song." The famous English rock band broke up eight years later, but their place in pop culture was set. Over the past few decades, Starr has won nine Grammy Awards, published three books and released more than 15 studio albums. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year.

For his birthday, Starr will host a live #PeaceAndLove event in Los Angeles at noon PDT. Fans can meet up with Starr and his wife, Barbara, at the Capitol Records Tower, according to his website.

If you can't make it out, spread the peace and love on social media by sharing these Starr quotes, collected from PBS, Rolling Stone and BeatlesQuotes.com:

"I truly believe that, you know, the world would be a better place with peace and love. And my dream, and on my birthday, we have the peace and love moment at noon. Wherever you are, go peace a details

This happened two weeks ago: I was on a train coming back from London to Hastings, where I live. I’d had a wakeful night with a baby and a long lunch with a television producer – not a good combination for rest – and was groggy. So I slept for the first part of the journey and, when I woke up, Paul McCartney was sitting on the other side of the aisle.

I love the Beatles. Like millions of middle-aged British men, I have all their records in every available format. I’ve also written a book about their White Album and a TV drama, Snodgrass, about John Lennon. I also love Paul McCartney’s music (I was, in fact, waiting to get a copy of his new compilation, Pure McCartney, to review for a rock music monthly). The first single I ever bought was “Mull of Kintyre”. And here I was, on a train and, as I say, tired and groggy – and Paul McCartney was sitting two metres away from me.

From time to time, passengers would hand him scraps of paper and ask for his autograph, and he would make eye contact with them, ask who it was for, and scribble a signature. (The eye contact is significant: once, while drunk, I asked Cliff Richard for his autograph and he signed it while looking details

Is this one of the earliest pictures in circulation of a very young Paul McCartney, with his even younger brother, Mike? It was taken at Oglet Shore, near Speke, possibly in the late 1940s – and a reader is convinced it’s the McCartney boys.

We showed the photograph to Mike McCartney, who told us: “I couldn’t say it is definitely us, but it might well be! “I’d say there is a 50/50 chance it’s us. We did wear shorts like that with the braces on. Our hair did look like that. And the height difference between the two boys looks right as our kid is 18 months older than me.”

Then there is the girl standing next to the boy who could be Paul... Mike says: “There was a girl, whose name I can’t remember – she was our next door neighbour in Western Avenue, Speke (we were number 72, so she would have been 70 or 74). She was more our kid’s age, and she did look like the girl standing next to the boy in the photo who could be Paul. It’s a fascinating story!”

He adds: “We did walk down to Oggie Shore a lot and, as for the clothes, my mum was a very proud woman and if those shorts with braces attached were worn by the young royals details

You don't have to browse the songs of the Beatles for too long before you come across the word "love" in the title, or a variation on the theme. From "Love Me Do" to "She Loves You" to "Lovely Rita," the lads from Liverpool made the heart-centered emotion central to their work, work that also frequently shined a light on the notions of understanding and connection. 

These important ideas have become the basis of Ringo Starr's annual public birthday celebration, and, by effervescent, Starr-shiny extension, much of his larger calling, too. #PEACEANDLOVE is an oft-seen hashtag when discussion of The Beatles drummer comes up, because that is the message he has long sought to promote, encourage, and live. The public is invited to join the icon on that journey on Thursday, July 7. That's Mr. Starr's 76th birthday, and, as is tradition, he'll appear outside the Capitol Records Building in Hollywood for his yearly "Peace & Love" salute. 

The time? The performances kick off at 11:20, while the salute is at noon. Joining the fun is free. Free, and quite popular, as you might guess, so best arrive by Metro, which has a Red Line stop at Hollywood and Vine, just south of the famous tower. Ringo Starr's family a details

Rock ‘n’ roll will never die. Today’s most listened to radio stations are dominated by songs made on computers with vocal tracks touched up by autotune. But throughout history, rock ‘n’ roll has been a constant, chronicling the country’s most joyous and turbulent events. On some days in history, rock ‘n’ roll is the story.

One of those days is July 6, 1957, when John Lennon first met Paul McCartney. At the time, Lennon was singing and playing guitar in The Quarrymen — a very early carnation of what would eventually become The Beatles.

For the brief time they were talking, McCartney showed Lennon, 16, a certain way to tune a guitar and covered a handful of Little Richard tunes. McCartney left the grounds before the Quarrymen hit the stage, but two weeks later he was formally invited to join the band.

In the five years that followed, George Harrison and Pete Best joined the Quarrymen, as Lennon and McCartney began to focus on more electric guitar playing rather than acoustic and banjo before changing their name to The Beatles.

In 1962 the band signed to Parlophone Records, and the rest is history.

By; Nicholas Parco

Source: NY Da details