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Beatles News
The British Library will be exhibiting the expanded archive of Hunter Davies, the only approved biographer of The Beatles.
Building upon Davies’ 2013 donations to the library, the collection will include “notebooks he used during conversations, photos and sketches” from his time spent working on The Beatles’ biography. There will also be a chance to see “Super 8 movie footage filmed by Hunter while on holiday with Paul and Linda McCartney”.
“The further we get from The Beatles, the bigger they become,” explains Davies. “I never thought all these years later my scruffy notebooks would be of such interest – and I’m pleased that they’ll be made available to a wider audience of Beatles fans and researchers through the British Library”.
Source: Kelly Doherty/thevinylfactory.com
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George Harrison had a reputation as the Quiet Beatle, but he wasn’t afraid to show his sense of humor, as a Beatles producer quickly learned. George Martin, a producer who worked with the band for years, took some convincing to recognize that Harrison was a valuable part of the group. This could have been due in part to a snarky comment Harrison made to him early on in their relationship.
“The best thing I can say to people that are curious about that is George was probably everything that you thought he was, and then some more,” Tom Petty told NPR. “Very funny man; he could just kill me with his humor. He was a great guy and I miss him terribly.”
Keith Richards also said that he appreciated Harrison’s humor.
“So George and I always used to have that thing of, ‘Well, how’s your end holding up?’ He was a very quiet and enigmatic guy in many ways,” he told Rolling Stone in 2001. “He had a very sly sense of humor, very quiet. But there was always this unspoken bond between us.”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney has been a working musician for so long that it’s hard to remember that he and The Beatles were once new to the game. The Beatles got a lucky break playing on The Ed Sullivan Show and soon became internationally famous. They started playing in front of massive crowds in arenas and stadiums, but Paul still got nervous about performing one song on the Sullivan show in 1965.
The beauty of the internet is that any musician can release a song or album and start building an audience. The Fab Four had to cultivate a following the old-fashioned way — by playing live.
The Beatles spent years playing concerts to build their audience. Paul, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and John Lennon honed their chops with residencies in Hamburg, Germany, in the early 1960s. When they weren’t entertaining the Germans, the Fab Four played shows across the U.K.
Source: Jason Rossi/cheatsheet.com
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The Beatles may have split up in 1970 after many growing personal feuds and arguments permeated their lives, but they were not always at one anothers' throats. In the early 1960s, the Fab Four were a tight-knit team and strong friends who worked hard, played hard, and spent all their time together.
Ringo Starr recently opened up about how one recurring argument almost got out of hand while on tour, but the musicians worked through it by being honest about their actions.
Ringo revealed that, during The Beatles' early days in the UK, they would travel across the country packed into one van with their musical equipment.
These uncomfortable journeys were no doubt stressful for a number of reasons. But it was the dynamic between the band that got them through the tougher times.
However, rage exploded between the band when someone passed wind in the tiny space. Yes, The Beatles had full-blown arguments over farts.
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
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A few weeks ago, a 1958 Gibson Les Paul with quite the backstory went up for auction.
The electric guitar in question had once been purchased by none other than George Harrison, as a ransom payment of sorts for the safe return of another Les Paul, the Beatle's beloved '57 "Lucy" model.
Now, via Heritage Auctions (opens in new tab), the '58 "ransom" Les Paul has reportedly been sold for an impressive $312,500 (opens in new tab), well over its original opening bid of $250,000.
After playing a significant role on the Beatles' White Album, Let It Be, and Abbey Road, Lucy – which, before Harrison, had been in the possession of the Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian, Rick Derringer, and Eric Clapton – was stolen from Harrison's Beverly Hills home during a 1973 burglary and sold to Whalin's Sound City music store on Sunset Blvd.
Source: Jackson Maxwell/guitarplayer.com
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George Harrison said The Beatles’ musical direction in 1967 was a big “joke.” He said the band wasn’t doing anything different, but that was the problem.
In 1977, George spoke to Crawdaddy (per George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters) about The Beatles’ musical direction in the first half of the 1960s. He explained that he missed the band’s days of performing in Hamburg, Germany. It was a very experimental and creative time for them. They played night after night, but everything and anything was on the table for their shows.
George missed that once The Beatles began touring the world. He said it was a “drag” touring and playing the same tunes.
“I felt stale, you know because you play the same riffs da-dada-ding-ding-dow, you know, ‘Twist and Shout’ and things,” George said. However, once touring stopped, George felt out of touch with the guitar. He’d repeatedly played the same five tunes for months and had turned to the sitar for a bit of excitement.
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
Prior to September 26, 1969, most people in the world were blissfully unaware that Abbey Road was the location of EMI’s London recording studios. Some keen fans may have spotted the name in news reports of The Beatles’ activities, but this was a time when it was of little importance to most fans where something was recorded. Ironically, given the album’s title, not all of Abbey Road was recorded at Abbey Road, and, in truth, the title is as much about the street and the zebra crossing outside as it is about the studio itself.But when all is said and done, the album is for many, including this writer, the absolute pinnacle of the band’s achievements. All this, despite having been recorded as the band was breaking up amid internal strife and bitterness.Abbey Road was The Beatles’ 11th studio album and the very last to be recorded (their 12th – and last-released – studio album, Let It Be, was mostly recorded prior to this record). Rolling Stone magazine called it “complicated instead of complex”, while Nik Cohn, writing in The New York Times, suggested that “individually” the songs are “nothing special”, The Guardian called the album “a slight matt details
The Beatles spent an extraordinary amount of time with one another, from their early days playing the Cavern Club in Liverpool to touring the world as the most famous band on the planet. Throughout these years, whether it was on the road or in recording studios, they were living in one another's pockets. And while the Fab Four came to an end in 1970 after a huge blowout that erupted from some personal feuds between the singers, things started to heat up back as early as 1962.
Ringo Starr recalled how Paul McCartney - more than anyone else - was at the centre of one argument that left the band squabbling for hours on a British road.
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
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Rare censored footage of the tight security put in place by Tokyo police when the Beatles came to Japan to perform in 1966 has finally reached the public domain.
The nearly 36-minute black and white silent movie shot by the Metropolitan Police Department documents a level of security normally accorded to state guests.
The group was in Japan from June 29 to July 3. It was their first and last tour in Japan as a band.
It shows police meetings to discuss security measures and officers at checkpoints set up around Haneda Airport in the capital for the arrival of the four-member group.
The footage also captures a vehicle displaying a banner that read “Demoralizing Beatles must be driven out” heading in the direction of the cameraman.
Source: asahi.com
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George Harrison once revealed that he read his album reviews. However, that didn’t mean he cared about what they said. He read them out of curiosity, but they didn’t affect him or his playing. Anyway, George wasn’t making music for the critics.
The former Beatle never liked explaining himself or his songs. He said whatever he was trying to say was plain as day in the lyrics. If they weren’t obvious, he was OK with fans’ interpretations. However, George wasn’t making music for anyone but God. In the mid-1960s, Ravi Shankar taught him that “God is sound.”
So, it’s surprising that George cared enough to read about what others said about his music. George explained he read some reviews if he came across them.
“I canceled all my newspapers five years ago, so I don’t really know what people say,” he said. “If I do see a review of an album I’ll read it, although it doesn’t make too much difference what they say, because I am what I am whether they like it or not.”
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
George Harrison was “by far the best” musician in The Beatles during their seminal stint playing on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn, a German friend of the band has said. Meanwhile John Lennon was still learning, while former drummer Pete Best was still glum about his departure almost 30 years after he was replaced by Ringo Starr, Hans-Olaf Henkel added.
The 82-year-old former MEP told Express.co.uk he got to know The Beatles thanks to an old flame - photographer Astrid Kirchherr.
Ms Kircherr had introduced Mr Henkel to Stuart Sutcliffe, Lennon’s art school friend who was the band’s bass player, and whom she was later engaged to before he died at the tragically young age of 21 of a brain haemorrhage.
Mr Henkel said: ”During 1961 I went to the Top Ten Club located on the Reeperbahn many times to hear the Beatles - and see Astrid.
Source: Ciaran McGrath/express.co.uk
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It was 53 years ago today (September 26th, 1969) that the Beatles' final album, Abbey Road, was released. Although the Let It Be album was released the next year featuring earlier unreleased tracks, Abbey Road was the last album the group recorded together. The album's working title had been Everest — after a brand of cigarettes their engineer Geoff Emerick smoked — before the group simply chose the name of the street where their recording studio was located.
Abbey Road spent 11 weeks at Number One and featured the double A-sided single “Come Together” and “Something,” the highest-charting Beatles song written by George Harrison. Paul McCartney commented on the song in The Beatles Anthology saying, “'Something' was out of left field. . . It appealed to me because it has a very beautiful melody. I thought it was George's greatest track.”
Source: Music News/vermilioncountyfirst.com
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The light in John Lennon's old bedroom will be left on overnight next month.
Mendips, Lennon's childhood home in Woolton, where he lived from 1945 to 1963, is now owned by the National Trust. Lennon's widow Yoko Ono bought the house in March 2002, and donated it to the National Trust in order to save it from demolition and property speculators.
The childhood home of Paul McCartney - 13 Forthlin Road - is also owned and managed by the National Trust, with many citing it as the birthplace of the Beatles.
On October 9 every year, the light in John's old bedroom in Mendips is left on overnight by the managers of the house, to mark the former Beatles' birthday. This year would have been the music legend's 82nd.
John lived at the Woolton address with his Aunt Mimi. He would later move out in 1963 as the Beatles rocketed to stardom.
Source: Aaron Curran/liverpoolecho.co.uk
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The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr recently spoke to USA TODAY’s Melissa Ruggieri and reflected on how Paul McCartney and John Lennon prepared the song, ‘Yello Submarine,’ in which Starr took over the lead vocals.
‘Yellow Submarine,’ a product of the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership, appeared on the band’s 1966 album, ‘Revolver.’ The track became a big hit from the day it premiered, reaching number 1 in many countries. It was intended to be a fun children’s song and stood out with its simple lyrics and melody. What McCartney and Lennon had in their minds was to create a song specifically for Ringo Starr.
Source: Bihter Sevinc/rockcelebrities.net
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John Lennon said he would play Buddy Holly’s songs while he was just hanging out. He was more familiar with early rock ‘n’ roll songs than he was with The Beatles’ material. John covered a Holly song and it appeared on a hit album.
John Lennon said he was more familiar with early rock songs than he was with The Beatles’ songs. For example, he said he could play one of Buddy Holly’s songs “backwards.” Notably, John recorded the track for one of his hit albums. He said making the album was costly.The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono includes an interview from 1980. In it, John discussed rock ‘n’ roll. “I remember the old rock songs better than I remember my own songs,” he said. “If I sat down in a room and just started playing, if I had a guitar now and we were just hanging out singing, I would sing all the early and mid-’50s stuff — Buddy Holly and all. I remember those.”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
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