Beatles News

THE BEATLES refused to play their music at a gig in 1964 after they learned about segregation in their audience, prompting Paul McCartney and John Lennon to hit out at the idea. The band went on to draft a contract preventing them from being forced to perform to separated crowds from then on.

In 1964 the segregation of Black and white people was still rife in the USA. Although Black performers, such as The Supremes, were becoming more popular and accepted at the time, racism was still prevalent. The Beatles fought alongside the civil rights movement when they arrived at their gig at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida, USA.

Once the band learned they would be playing to a segregated crowd, they refused to get on stage.

Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk

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John Lennon's iconic 'bed peace' cardboard placard is among the most expensive pieces of music merchandise ever sold.

As one-quarter of the legendary and phenomenally influential band The Beatles, Liverpool-born John Lennon achieved global success and a legion of fans.

His legacy and impact on the music industry are still relevant today, so it'll come as no surprise that memorabilia from his life sells for a hefty sum.

According to online valuers valuemystuff.com, there are four important factors to bear in mind if you're looking to auction off your old pop and rock memorabilia; condition, provenance, demand - and your own patience.

Awesome Merchandise, who make everything from personalised apparel to pin badges, have compiled the top five most unique and costly items of music merchandise ever sold - which includes Lennon's cardboard placard.

Source: Jess Flaherty/liverpoolecho.co.uk

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Beck delivered a supremely funky, electro-pop interpretation of Paul McCartney’s “Find My Way,” a song off McCartney III. The single was commissioned for McCartney III Imagined, which finds an array of artists – including St. Vincent, Josh Homme, and Phoebe Bridgers – offering their own renditions of the legendary artist’s newest material.

While McCartney’s original recording of “Find My Way” was certainly upbeat, Beck transforms the song entirely – swapping out guitars for synth-driven melodies and dropping in infectious beats.
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“I remember hanging out with Paul and his wife Nancy several years ago, and Nancy mentioned that she wanted to go out dancing before calling it a night,” recalled Beck in a statement. “We ended up at some club in West Hollywood and I remember noticing that Paul and Nancy were tearing it up – really enjoying themselves more than anyone else on the dance floor. Last year, when he asked me to remix this track, I remembered that night and details

Sir Paul McCartney is set to release a cookbook filled with recipes from his late wife Linda McCartney.

The Beatles legend – who is now married to Nancy Shevell – was married to his first wife Linda from 1969 until her death from breast cancer in 1998, and is now set to honour her memory and her love of meat-free cooking by releasing a cookbook.

Paul will release ‘Linda McCartney's Family Kitchen: Over 90 Plant-Based Recipes to Save the Planet and Nourish the Soul’ alongside his and Linda’s daughters Mary, 51, and Stella, 49, on June 29.

According to a press release, the book will feature a collection of Linda’s best-loved recipes reimagined for the modern cook, and will "bring Linda's kitchen up to date, reinventing her best-loved recipes for the plant-based cook, alongside their favourite family stories and the dishes that they now eat at home”.

Source: The West AustralianSat/thewest.com.au

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On March 22nd, 1963, The Beatles released their first album titled “Please Please Me”. No one really knew how much music history this 32 minute album would kick off in the 1960s, but it definitely started a whirlwind of a life for John, Paul, George and Ringo. Voted 39th on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time,” this is “Please Please Me.”

I was able to get my hands on a “Please Please Me” original record a few years ago when I was given a turntable for my 16th birthday and started collecting vinyl records. Although it was the first full album that The Beatles released, it was not the first Beatles record that I could find at a record store.

I began listening to The Beatles at a very young age; I think I was about three or four years old. But I didn’t listen to their earlier albums, like “Please Please Me” and “With The Beatles” until years later when I really began to appreciate the history of the band. Most people my age only know The Beatles for their most famous albums like “Magical Mystery Tour”, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, “Let It Be” an details

JOHN LENNON and Yoko Ono spent their honeymoon in a rather bizarre protest, known as the ‘bed in' - but can you stay in the same hotel room now?

John Lennon and Yoko Ono took the idea of spending your honeymoon in bed to a new level. Rather than getting up to what most would consider expected on such an occasion, they lay in bed together in a hotel room, inviting the world’s press. This was a protest against the Vietnam War which began on March 25, 1969, and continued on and off until June 1.
Can you stay in the hotel rooms from the Bed-Ins for Peace?

John Lennon fans can absolutely stay in the first hotel room the couple slept in - but for a big price.

The Bed Ins for Peace began at the Amsterdam Hilton on March 25, 1969, the room for which has been permanently memorialised.

Source: Jenny Desborough/express.co.uk

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The Beatles weren’t an especially political band, however, John Lennon revealed one of their most famous No. 1 hits, “Come Together,” was originally supposed to be a campaign song for a famous 1960s politician. In addition, John said the original version of the song sounded like another famous British band — The Kinks.In Jann S. Wenner’s book Lennon Remembers, John discussed his attitude toward The Beatles’ classic album Abbey Road. He liked the A-side but wasn’t a huge fan of the B-side. He ultimately deemed Abbey Road “competent” but lifeless. When discussing Abbey Road, he couldn’t even remember most of the songs on the album. However, he said one of the most famous songs on the album, “Come Together,” was “alright.”

In addition, John revealed he wrote “Come Together” for “the Learys.” He was talking about noted psychedelic drug advocate Timothy Leary and Rosemary Leary, his fourth wife. “See the Learys wanted me to write… them a campaign song. And their slogan was ‘Come together.’ I wrote it, I’ve still got it, it’s actually very like The Kinks – (sings) ‘Dra-a- details

GEORGE HARRISON was a huge part of The Beatles' first film, A Hard Day's Night, and the movie's director Richard Lester revealed the "quiet Beatle" was the best actor in the band. Lester also said he didn't give any of the band members scenes which they couldn't handle, even though he axed Paul McCartney's solo shots.

A Hard Day’s Night was released in 1964 to critical acclaim. The two-time Academy Award-nominated film showcased a fictionalised version of The Beatles dealing with their fame. On top of working with the press, fighting back their fans and working up to a prestigious TV performance, they were given scenes which showed their humour and personalities. The BAFTA-nominated director explained years later how he found working with each of the band members and touched upon the quality of their acting.

George Harrison, in particular, was the “best” actor out of the band, Lester said.

While talking at the BFI in 2014 the director revealed: “George, I think, was the most effective actor all the way through.

Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk

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The former Beatle released his latest album on Friday, a five-song package he appropriately named Zoom In after the videoconferencing service.

Mr. Starr made the record last year from his home studio in Beverly Hills, California, under conditions that US virus czar Anthony Fauci might have approved. Musicians who joined him were tested for the coronavirus, and no more than two at a time took part. They wore masks when they came and stayed six feet apart.

“It’s a weird way of making a record,” Mr. Starr said in an online press conference Thursday. “But if it’s the only way, you get on with it.”

The artist, who turned 80 last year, had no problem attracting big names to participate, including Dave Grohl, Ben Harper, Jenny Lewis, Sheryl Crow, and Toto’s Steve Lukather. Former Doors guitarist Robby Krieger recorded his contribution from home. The pandemic, which has shuttered the concert business for the past year, gave a lot of musicians free time.

“I think everyone was looking for something to do,” Mr. Starr said.

Source: Neil Charm/bworldonline.com

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 "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" Was George's Song... And He Wasn't Happy At First.

For a band that is so beloved and so obsessed over, there really are a ton of things that are still unknown about The Beatles. At the very least, there are many little-known facts about the Fab Four as well as what they did after the band broke up. This includes which Beatle claims he spoke to aliens and which ate a celery stick in the background of another famous band's song. There's even a lot to be discovered (or re-discovered, if you're one of The Beatles biggest fans) about their most famous songs.

Without a doubt, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is one of The Beatles' most famous songs off of their most famous album, "The White Album"... But did you know that it was almost a VERY different song?

Source: Dylan Parker/thethings.com

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GEORGE HARRISON divorced his first wife Pattie Boyd in 1977. Just two years later she married guitarist Eric Clapton, one of Harrison's best friends. According to Clapton's biography, the star used voodoo to steal Boyd away from The Beatles singer. Meanwhile, Harrison worked hard on putting the sadness from his divorce into a heartbreaking song on his fifth solo album.

By 1974 George Harrison and his wife Boyd had unofficially separated. Their official divorce came two years later in 1976. The couple first met in 1964 on the set of The Beatles’ first film, A Hard Day’s Night. A prominent photographer at the time, Boyd became famous in her own right as a well-regarded model, who epitomised the fashion industry throughout the 1960s, and into the 1970s. But after years of infidelity on Harrison’s part, Boyd said she couldn’t take any more and left the singer.

The pair’s divorce wasn’t finalised until 1977, long after she had already started a relationship with singer-songwriter Clapton.

Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk

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Before John, Paul, George and Ringo became the Beatles, they were simply four teenagers from Liverpool. Never could John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr have imagined they would go on to form one of the most successful groups in modern history, influencing the popular culture in not only music, but also fashion, film and global representation.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, it was difficult to imagine a band hailing from the relatively poor northwest port city of Liverpool, England, could get a gig in the thriving London music scene of the south, let alone export their eventual homegrown success to a world eagerly opening up to the counter-culture movement of the '60s and the burgeoning phenomenon that was called rock 'n' roll.
A fateful meeting between two music-loving teenagers in 1957 is where it all began. Sixteen-year-old rhythm-guitarist Lennon, the son of a merchant seaman, was performing with the Quarrymen, a skiffle (folk music blended with jazz or blues) band booked to perform at events at a church fete in Woolton, Liverpool. While setting up their instruments for the evening performance, the band’s bass player introduced Lennon to a classmate, 15-year-old McCartney, who details

The Beatles’ albums are widely considered classics, however, John Lennon wasn’t fond of all of them. In fact, he found some of them downright embarrassing. He said one album marked the point where “something just happened” and The Beatles’ music became a lot different.In 1968, Jonathan Cott of Rolling Stone interviewed John. During the interview, Cott asked John what he felt about The Beatles’ first few albums. “Depends what track it is,” John said. “I was listening to the very first albums a few weeks back, and it’s embarrassing. It was embarrassing then because we wanted to be like this. We knew what we wanted to be, but we didn’t know how to do it, in the studio. We didn’t have the knowledge or experience. But still some of the album is sweet, it’s all right.”

Source: cheatsheet.com

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The Beatles took Paris by storm as they played 18 days of concerts in January 1964 at the Olympia Theater.

They stayed at the iconic George V hotel, now a Four Seasons property and the gold standard of luxury in the city since its construction in 1928. The accommodating staff granted a request for a piano in the Beatles' suite, where Paul McCartney began to experiment with some blues phrasing. The result was the first draft of a future hit called "Can't Buy Me Love."

They were on a roll. The Beatles landed their first chart-topping song in America at the end of December 1963 and were on their third in the U.K. with "I Wanna Hold Your Hand." Now, demand for the latest material from McCartney's hit songwriting partnership with John Lennon was at a fever pitch.

At the same time, EMI was determined to make the Beatles happen in as many territories as possible. That's how the Fab Four found themselves in the EMI Pathe Marconi Studios in Paris to record German-language versions of "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand."

When the session wrapped up early, they decided to record the song McCartney had been working on in the hotel, the first version of "Can't Buy Me Love." This marked the first ti details

Elvis Presley and The Beatles are two of the most famous classic rock acts of all time. However, that doesn’t mean Elvis liked all of The Beatles’ songs. Here’s a look at which Beatles songs the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll liked, which ones he didn’t like, and which ones he performed.

Joe Esposito was Elvis’ friend and road manager. According to Elvis Australia, he opened up about the singer’s feelings on the Fab Four.

“Well, Elvis loved the Beatles’ music,” he said.” I mean, let’s face it, he recorded three of their songs. He just did — ‘Yellow Submarine’ that period of time. He didn’t care for those songs.”

“Yellow Submarine”

Esposito added “Elvis… believed in songs with a lot of good words and meaning with something behind them like ‘Michelle’ and ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Hey Jude’ and those songs. He didn’t care for that period of time. That was a drug time which was ironic. So, those songs he didn’t care about. But he didn’t say anything bad about the Beatles. I mean, there’s always stories about him putting the Bea details