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Beatles News
Ringo Starr was already a well-known drummer in Liverpool before The Beatles added him to the roster. But the fame he achieved in the Fab Four was a different beast. The notoriety led Ringo’s family to treat him differently, which he said was “quite a blow” to his ego. He ignored his family’s advice to pursue music as a full-time job. When Ringo achieved international superstardom because of it, he felt like an outsider among his relatives.
In the middle of 1962, Ringo was an ace timekeeper and a key member of Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, a well-known Liverpool band. By August of that year, he upgraded when The Beatles added him to the roster. By March 1963, he was the drummer in the hottest group in England.
The Beatles became world famous by the end of 1964. They never wanted for anything. Fans monitored every move they made. Sycophants, groupies, and people-pleasers surrounded the Fab Four hoping to grab a sliver of the spotlight. People treated The Beatles like royalty — superior beings surrounded by mortals.
Source: Jason Rossi/cheatsheet.com
In the mid-1960s, Beatlemania swept through the New York home of playwright Adrienne Kennedy. One of her sons, Adam, would sing I Want to Hold Your Hand; his older brother, Joedy, talked of the Fab Four as if they were the centre of his world. It was a tough time: Kennedy had just separated from the boys’ father and they were about to leave their apartment. But for the eldest child, “the Beatles were all that were on his mind,” she remembers. He treasured his copy of John Lennon’s book In His Own Write, a collection of poems and tales, which she read herself.
“Somewhere in those months of turmoil and Joedy’s passion” Kennedy decided to adapt the book as a play. It was a project that would take her to the heart of London’s theatreland and bring Kennedy both joy and pain. And, in a neat case of symmetry, she revisited this period of her life four decades later in her 2008 play Mom, How Did You Meet the Beatles? which is presented as a conversation with Adam. “He asked me again and again those questions,” she says. “Finally we decided he would tape my answers.”
Source: Chris Wiegand/theguardian.com
May Pang, John Lennon's love interest and companion during the 18-month "Lost Weekend" era in the mid-’70s will be exhibiting her candid photos of Lennon at the Up Front Art Space in Cuyahoga Falls on Friday, June 9, through Sunday, June 11, as well as a hosting a special Q&A session after the screening of her documentary on her life with Lennon at The Nightlight cinema in Akron on Thursday, June 8.
Pang was with Lennon during the recording of his only No. 1 post-Beatles song, "Whatever Gets You Through the Night," with Elton John. She was with Lennon and David Bowie as they created the song "Fame." She was involved in the recording of Lennon's "Walls and Bridges" album, his "Rock 'N' Roll" album with Phil Spector, and the production of Harry Nilsson's album "Pussy Cats." She even once lived in a beach house with Lennon, Nilsson, Ringo Starr, Keith Moon and others.
Source: beaconjournal.com
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Sir Paul McCartney and his wife Nancy looked in good spirits as they hung out with Jay-Z at his wife Beyonce's final London concert at Tottenham Stadium on Sunday.
The former Beatles star, 80, was seen chatting with the billionaire rapper, 53, as he and Nancy, 63, enjoyed the show.
Paul cut a casual figure for the gig, sporting a navy jacket and a light blue shirt which he wore with a pair of dark trousers.
Nancy opted for a black low cut top along with a matching shirt and a pair of light blue slim-fitting jeans.
Letting her brunette locks fall loose down her shoulders, Nancy was all smiles as she chatted with her pals during the show.
Source: Sean O'grady/dailymail.co.uk
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Ringo Starr has had an incredibly successful career with his music. Still, he admitted his life could have turned out much differently. Starr explained that when he was growing up in Liverpool, he, like many other people his age, joined a gang. He spoke about the shocking violence he witnessed while growing up and noted how lucky he felt that music came into his life when it did.
According to Starr, most people he knew growing up were in gangs. It was either join them or put a target on your back.
“We were by the docks in Liverpool and each and every area had its own gang,” he said in The Beatles Anthology. “It was like New York or Hamburg. I was a Teddy boy; you had to be. Where I lived, you had to associate with some gang, otherwise you were ‘open city’ for anybody. The choices were: you could either be beaten up by anybody in your neighbourhood, or by people in other neighbourhoods (which I was, several times).”
Starr adapted to this lifestyle. While he wasn’t good at fighting, he was good at running. Still, he saw shocking violence in his youth.
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
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Paul McCartney recalled the Beatles’ first trip to the United States and how it convinced the members they weren’t just another band that would simply “fizzle out” after a short period of success.
In an excerpt from a book that accompanies his new photo exhibition in London (via The Guardian), McCartney explained his feelings when he rediscovered lost photos he’d taken during the 1964 trip, during which the Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show three times and secured their future.
“Anyone who rediscovers a personal relic or family treasure is instantly flooded with memories and emotions, which then trigger associations buried in the haze of time,” he wrote. “It was a period of – what else can you call it? – pandemonium. We four guys from Liverpool couldn’t possibly realize then the implications of what we were doing. By the end of February 1964, after our visit to America … we finally had to admit that we would not, as we had originally feared, just fizzle out as many groups do. We were in the vanguard of something more momentous, a revolution in the culture.”
Source: wbsm.com
George Harrison wrote The Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” because he liked descending chords. The star who inspired the song also inspired The Beatles’ “Dear Prudence” and “Blackbird.” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” was not a single in the United States.
A star said he helped inspire George Harrison to write The Beatles‘ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” The star revealed what he thought of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” when he first heard it. Subsequently, the tune appeared on a hugely successful album.During a 2016 interview with Westword, folk singer Donovan revealed he learned to play the guitar in a fingerpicking style from Maybelle Carter of the Carter Family. For context, the Carter Family was a folk group that recorded songs between the 1920s and the 1950s. Subsequently, Donovan taught John Lennon to play guitar in this style, and he also influenced George.
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
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The Beatles all considered Elvis Presley to be one of their rock idols. Much of their love for the genre comes from listening to early records by the king of rock. Paul McCartney said The Beatles tried to utilize some of Elvis’ techniques in their own work, and one song perfected what he called the “Elvis echo.”
One Elvis Presley song that profoundly impacted Paul McCartney was “Heartbreak Hotel”. McCartney was in awe of the Memphis singer’s vocals, but he also was fascinated by the blaring echo that gave the track a distinct sound. The Beatles wanted to replicate that echo, and McCartney said one song that perfected it was “A Day in the Life” from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
“Elvis is a truly great vocalist, and you can hear why on Heartbreak Hotel,” McCartney said in 2005 (via Guitar World). “It’s a perfect example of a singer being in command of the song. Musically it’s perfect, too. The double bass and the walk-in piano create this incredibly haunting atmosphere.
Source: Ross Tanenbaum/cheatsheet.com
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I always knew I had taken some pictures in the 1960s. At first, I couldn’t pinpoint the year, but I was certain we were quite young, just when the Beatles were really taking off. I never tried to find this collection – consciously, that is – but I kind of thought that it would just surface at the right time. There’s often a certain amount of serendipity involved. And while we were preparing for an exhibition of my late wife Linda’s photographs in 2020, I learned that my own had been preserved in my archives. When I first saw them after so many decades, I was delighted that these images and contact sheets had been finally located.
Source: Paul McCartney/theguardian.com
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The Beatles released their penultimate album, Abbey Road, in 1969, and it has widely been recognised as one of their best works.
Included in the record - aside from such classics as Come Together and Here Comes The Sun - was Something, one of George Harrison's best-loved songs.
The tender track was written as a love letter to Harrison's first wife, Pattie Boyd. But its origins come directly from another song from American star James Taylor.
He remembered recording his own album while the Fab Four were very close: "I was making my first album at Trident Studios in London, just as the Beatles were recording the White Album nearby. I realised how lucky I was to be listening to the Beatles playbacks and watching their process in the studio, but at the same time that I was surrounded by this holy host of my absolute idols, I missed my home in North Carolina."
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
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Sir Paul McCartney shared how he came up with his James Bond theme for Roger Moore's Live and Let Die in a new 50th anniversary interview. And did you know The Beatles' legend almost didn't sing it?
When fans think of great James Bond themes the likes of Goldfinger, GoldenEye and Skyfall come up, but perhaps the very best is Paul McCartney’s Live and Let Die.
Three years out of The Beatles, Macca was recording and performing with his Wings band and was asked to write the new Bond song for Roger Moore’s first outing as 007 in 1973’s Live and Let Die.
Half a century on this week and the 80-year-old told his official website: “I don’t believe it, do you? I’m only forty-five!
“But no, it's always very weird when you get these kind of anniversaries because I don't keep count. I have no idea if it's coming up for fifty or sixty years or whatever.
“It’s shocking really, but in a nice way. I think, ‘Where did the time go?’ It’s nice that the song has lasted though, and people still enjoy it.”
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
The Beatles rocketed to international superstardom soon after they dumped drummer Pete Best. Ringo Starr entered the fray, the band sent its first album, Please Please Me, to the top of the charts in England, and the rest is history. John Lennon’s last words to Best in 1962 were fitting — a boring and simple sendoff to a band member about to lose his job.
Being remembered as the person who lost his job before the band found fame doesn’t show it, but Pete Best was instrumental to the early success of The Beatles.
His mother, Mona Best, owned Liverpool’s Casbah Club, a venue they frequently played in the early years. She also managed them briefly. The Beatles’ first drummer performed with them during their extended residencies in Hamburg, Germany. Best’s friend, Neil Aspinall, drove the group to gigs.
Source: Jason Rossi/cheatsheet.com
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An apology note The Beatles wrote to a schoolgirl back in 1963 has sold at auction in London.
According to The Mail, the band wrote the letter to a young girl named Diana after canceling a visit to see her on the Isle of Wight.
Diana’s aunt worked for Paul McCartney’s cousin Bette Robbins; the band had planned to visit Robbins after their April 1963 show in Southsea, Portsmouth, and Diana was supposed to get to meet them. Unfortunately, the band had to cancel to return to London for some TV and radio appearances.
Source: kslx.com
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Paul McCartney said The Beatles’ “Nowhere Man” is “an anti-John song.” In addition, he revealed what he thought about it compared to other Beatles songs. John himself explained the origins of “Nowhere Man.”
In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul revealed John penned “Nowhere Man” after a night on the town. “When I came out to write with him the next day, he was kipping on the couch, very bleary-eyed,” he remembered.
“It was really an anti-John song, written by John,” Paul added. “He told me later, he didn’t tell me then, he said he’d written it about himself, feeling like he wasn’t going anywhere. I think actually it was about the state of his marriage.” For context, John was still married to his first wife, Cynthia Lennon, at the time.
“It was in a period where he was a bit dissatisfied with what was going on; however, it led to a very good song,” Paul added. “He treated it as a third-person song, but he was clever enough to say, Isn’t he a bit like you and me?’
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
Lead Beatles guitarist George Harrison passed away after a battle with lung cancer in November 2001.Paul McCartney has again shared a photo of one of his Beatles bandmates as he gears up to release a huge photo collection to the public. Pictures snapped by Paul, using his own camera between December 1963 and February 1964, will be displayed at The National Portrait Gallery this summer.Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm will run from 28 June to 1 October as one of two major exhibitions to relaunch the gallery after three years of refurbishments. The never-before-seen photographs were taken by Sir Paul McCartney during the height of Beatlemania when the Fab Four were propelled from being the most popular band in Britain to an international cultural phenomenon.
Source: Kian Rains/liverpoolworld.uk
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