Beatles News

After feverishly reading Robert Rosen's updated 15th anniversary eBook edition of Nowhere Man: The Final Days of John Lennon, you feel like you are inside The Dakota with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. This isn't quite your average rock n roll biography. In a twist of fate, John Lennon's personal diaries landed in Rosen's lap on May of 1981, about a year and a half after the famed ex-Beatle was killed outside his apartment by a crazed fan.

The making of this book is as intriguing as the book itself. Here is an excerpt from the Prelude of Nowhere Man, where Rosen recounts the process of transcribing Lennon's diaries:

"Still, it was not until Wednesday, October 21, that I began the process of transcribing Lennon's diaries. It was exhausting work that continued unabated until the end of November. No matter how much I transcribed, there was always more; the task seemed endless. I forced myself into a routine that rarely varied: I woke up at 5 A.M., rolled out of bed and tore into the journals. Then, for the next 16 hours, fueled by coffee and amphetamines, I wrestled with Lennon's scrawls and codes and symbols. As I transcribed his words on my IBM Selectric, I said them out loud like an incantation, and I began to feel w details

What kind of contrarian would single out 1970 as his favorite year for Beatles music? That was, after all, the year the Beatles disbanded and broke the hearts of millions of music fans around the world.

That’s Chris Carter, host of the long-running “Breakfast with the Beatles” radio show heard Sunday mornings in Los Angeles on KLOS-FM (95.5).

“We got something like 14 Beatles records that year: not only the ‘Hey Jude’ and ‘Let It Be’ [Beatles] albums, but solo albums from Paul, George, John and two from Ringo, plus John’s ‘Instant Karma’ single, ‘My Sweet Lord’ from George, etc. So it really is my favorite year.

It certainly was a year of dramatic transition for all four Beatles — and Beatle fans — as the group that brought so many innovations to pop music during its relatively brief eight-year recording career called it quits, and each member of the quartet moved forward with solo endeavors.

The biggest surprise of all, however, may have been Harrison’s emergence from the long shadow under which he’d been working for so long being in the same band with Lennon and McCartney.

He did it wit details

Two Dutch Beatles fans are demanding hundreds of thousands pounds in damages over the “unlawful” seizing of behind-the-scenes tapes of the band.

Stan Snelleman and Jos Remmerswaal, who are music traders, allege that more than 500 audio tapes of recording sessions in 1969 – which formed the basis of the film and album Let it Be – were seized by British and Dutch police 12 years ago and taken back to London.

They are pursuing a civil case for damages of €650,000 (£459,000) plus €50,000 in costs from the Dutch state. The tapes were given back to Apple Films Ltd, owned by the Beatles and their heirs. Their case is expected in an appeal court in The Hague in January. Apple alleged that the tapes had been stolen.

Two British men, Nigel Oliver and Colin Dillon, were charged in July 2006 over the disappearance of the tapes. Dillon was given a suspended sentence for trying to sell them. Charges against Mr Snelleman – who said he bought the tapes in the Nineties – and Mr Remmerswal for handling stolen goods were dropped. They sued for the return of the tapes in 2013 and lost, but are appealing.

The tapes feature songs, covers and conversations between Joh details

Olivia Harrison visited Boston, Massachusetts in early October to address the 60th Annual Meeting of UNICEF National Committees and visit with children who participated in the groundbreaking UNICEF Kid Power (unicefkidpower.org) program last spring. During her visit, she met with local UNICEF leadership in Boston and served as the closing keynote speaker for the UNICEF meeting that brings together senior UN officials and UNICEF leaders from more than 40 countries around the world.

In her speech, she spoke about her experience with UNICEF and what she learned from George about philanthropy. She encouraged the group of 75 attendees to continue to come up with new and lasting ways of motivating people to support UNICEF’s work to put children first around the world, much like George used the Concert for Bangladesh and the copyrights from his Living in the Material World album for the higher good. She closed her speech with a reference to the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF and the Fund’s newest investment in UNICEF Kid Power, which allows kids to get active and save lives using the world’s first wearable-for-good™

Following a standing ovation, Olivia traveled to the Morse School in nearby Cam details

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