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Beatles News
Apple Records partnering with Peter Jackson to direct a new Beatles documentary edited from the hours of footage recorded for the 1970 film, Let It Be is great news for the band's fans, but could this new edit of the Let It Be footage be rewriting the story of The Beatles' breakup?
Let It Be is a documentary about The Beatles rehearsing and recording the album of the same name. Filmed in the early part of 1969, the band would break up later that year before officially dissolving in 1970. It's notorious for including sequences that hint at the discord brewing between band members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, building off tensions that first surfaced while The Beatles were recording "The White Album."
Let It Be has since become an incredibly tough film to find, which makes the news of Jackson's restoration especially exciting. However, seeing as it's an officially sanctioned re-editing of the material, there's a real chance the film might soften just how badly the individual Beatles come across in the footage. In which case, might the purpose of Jackson's new documentary be to rewrite the history of The Beatles' breakup in the same way Bohemian Rhapsody changed the story of Queen?
Paul McCartney biographer Barry Miles used the example of the former Beatle recently thinking approximately $2.50 would buy a bottle of whiskey to demonstrate that it was impossible for him to be the “normal person” he’d love to be.
Miles, who wrote the 1997 book Many Years From Now, said McCartney had always been keen to remain as ordinary as he could, but the trappings of fame and fortune meant it couldn’t happen.
“He desperately wanted to be a normal person,” Miles told the Express in a new interview. “Wherever possible, he would take a bus somewhere … and was very anxious to stay in touch with what he regarded as ordinary people. ... I remember just a few years ago when I was at his studio, he asked one of the roadies to go out and buy him a bottle of whiskey, because he had people coming over, and he gave him £2. And the roadie said, ‘Well, it’s gone up since then, Paul.’”
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
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Everyone knows The Beatles right? Y’know four lads from Liverpool, the most successful and influential band of all time, responsible for some of the greatest music in history.
They’re also responsible for a whole wealth of films inspired by their career that stretch from touching and inspiring to downright bizarre. Almost as bizarre as the story of the band’s attempts in the 60s to obtain the film rights to JRR Tolkien's epic tale Lord Of The Rings in which they would star.
Unfortunately Tolkien declined but now over 50 years later The Beatles/Lord Of The Rings connection has resurfaced following news that esteemed Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson is to direct a brand new Beatles film based on their final album Let It Be featuring over 55 hours of unseen studio footage shot in 1969.
It will mark the latest celluloid chapter of The Beatles story to go alongside five of the most notable ones that we’ve highlighted below.
Source: ClashMusic
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The musical reputation of The Beatles LOVE is peerless. What other Las Vegas Strip production show boasts a customized soundtrack that has tallied three Grammy Awards? It’s difficult to believe today that when Cirque du Soleil and Apple Corps, the Beatles’ production company, teamed up to create and launch LOVE in 2006, their hopeful claim that it would run for a decade in Las Vegas was met with skepticism and even doubt. Twelve years later, it is nothing less than an institution on the Strip and around the world, one of the most popular productions in the city’s legendary entertainment history.
The iconic and beloved catalog of Beatles music has always been the foundation of the show and we’re all familiar with these songs. What you might not know is that the LOVE theater is built to be the best possible audio environment to consume those songs, and that ambitious claim comes straight from the band, their late producer Sir George Martin and his son Giles Martin.
Source: Brock Radke/lasvegasmagazine.com
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THE BEATLES star Paul McCartney was once denied entry to a French night club for not looking cool enough, says his official biographer in an exclusive interview.
January 30th marked the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ final live performance together, but some aspects of the band members’ lives might surprise fans. Speaking with Sir Paul’s official biographer Barry Miles, it turns out the music legend has always been desperate to be a regular guy – I wish which led to one incident where he was denied entry to a night club. Miles, who is working on The People’s Beatles Project, which aims to crowdsource an archive of Beatles’ fan pictures, said: “He desperately wanted to be a normal person. Wherever possible he would take a bus somewhere…and was very anxious to stay in touch with what he regarded as ordinary people.”
Miles, who has known Sir Paul since the mid-sixties, said: “There was one incident at the height of Beatlemania in 1965 when he actually drove right down through France to the south coast in disguise.
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
THE BEATLES had a reunion last month with Sir Ringo Starr and Sir Paul McCartney, and the latter’s official biographer has revealed what it would take to happen again.
Paul and Ringo talk Beatles
They broke up almost 50 years ago and half the band have sadly died, but that doesn’t stop Sir Paul and Sir Ringo occasionally teaming up. Last month Sir Paul performed his last live show of 2018 at The O2 Arena. The former Beatle has been on tour to support his latest solo album Egypt Station and surprised fans by inviting The Beatles drummer Sir Ringo – alongside The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood – onto the stage for a surprise five-song encore. The last time the two surviving Beatles performed live together was in 2015 when Sir Ringo was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio – so it’s not exactly a common occurrence. Now Sir Paul’s official biographer Barry Miles, who is heading up The People’s Beatles project to archive fan photos from the sixties, has revealed what it takes to get the surviving Beatles back performing together.
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
“C’mon, I’m not going to answer that,” Ringo Starr says, exhibiting an atypical testiness when I ask him about Paul McCartney’s recent candid confession that he, John Lennon, and three of Lennon’s friends participated in a group masturbation session. “I mean, I wasn’t even there. What am I supposed to say?”
But Starr did once say that “it doesn’t matter; whichever one of us does something, we all have to answer for it,” and we do have a bit of history, so I decide to press my luck.
The words “but Paul said…” are barely out of my mouth when Starr interrupts.
“Well, Paul says a lot of things,” Starr says, his irritation palpable. But then he lets out a hearty laugh, an indication that all’s well, but also that he’s ready to move on.
In fact, Starr has been moving on for nearly fifty years, since the demise of the most famous rock and roll band in history. He enjoyed a string of hits in the aftermath of the Fab Four—surprising everyone, including John, Paul and George—and was the only one of them to entice all three of the former Beatles to contribute to a solo project. He a details
Ken Mansfield on his front-row seat to the Fabs' last public performance.
It was a frigid day on the Apple Corps rooftop in late January 1969, but the Beatles showed up anyway -- to play to a smattering of staffers and a camera crew. The informal show was filmed for the end of that year's Let it Be, a multimedia project that sought to return the Beatles to their roots.
It was an ad hoc gesture -- and the band was fatigued. Five stories below, clothes shoppers and stockbrokers watched on in a mix of amusement and indifference. They made it through a few takes of "Get Back," "I've Got a Feeling," "One After 909" and more before the gig fell apart due to complaints about noise and traffic.
But during those now-iconic 42 minutes, John Lennon and Paul McCartney exchanged a look that has stuck with Ken Mansfield, then the U.S. manager of Apple Corps, for fifty years now.
In that glance, Mansfield saw an understanding. "'It doesn't matter what we're going through. We're mates,'" they seemed to communicate in that second, he recalls. "'We've stood by each other's sides. And right now, we're being who we are.'"
Source: Morgan Enos/billboard.com
The Beatles have announced a new film documenting their final days.
The project is a collaboration with acclaimed Academy Award winning director Sir Peter Jackson and is based around 55 hours of never-released footage of The Beatles in the recording studio during January 1969.
These studio sessions resulted in The Beatles' Grammy Award winning album Let It Be.
The filming was originally intended for a television special that became the documentary Let It Be and ended with The Beatles' legendary performance on the roof of the Apple Records London office, which took place exactly 50 years ago today.
In a statement on The Beatles website , Peter Jackson said, "The 55 hours of never-before-seen footage and 140 hours of audio made available to us, ensures this movie will be the ultimate ‘fly on the wall’ experience that Beatles fans have long dreamt about."
Source: Jason Davis/wptv.com
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In 1985, the Beatle gave the King of Pop a business tip. What McCartney didn't realize is that Jackson would play him at his own game.
Offering helpful advice to a friend is often human nature at its best. When that advice comes back to bite the very person who offered it in the first place, well, it can be a cruel twist of fate.
Just ask Paul McCartney. The Beatles singer/songwriter found himself to be on the wrong end of the above scenario when words of wisdom he imparted to friend Michal Jackson came back to haunt him over rights to the Beatles song catalog, which Jackson would acquire in 1985.
McCartney taught Jackson how lucrative it was to own other artist's catalogs
McCartney and Jackson became friendly in the mid-1970s when they met to discuss possible songwriting collaborations. The two would eventually go on to have hits with the duets “The Girl Is Mine,” the lead single from Jackson’s hit album Thriller (1982), and “Say, Say, Say” that was featured on McCartney’s album Pipes of Peace (1983).
Source: biography.com
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Rocking out on a London rooftop on a raw January afternoon 50 years ago today, The Beatles delivered what would be their final live performance.
The surprise midday concert, which came to a halt after police responded to 3 Saville Row, capped a month-long recording session for what would eventually become the "Let It Be" album and film.
Backed by keyboardist Billy Preston, Beatles John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr performed five new songs for the crowd below and the few trusted insiders on the rooftop of their office building. The Fab Four would never play a live show again and packed it up the following year.
The 42-minute performance was recorded onto two eight-track machines by longtime producer George Martin, engineer Glyn Johns and tape operator Alan Parsons. Songs included "Get Back," "Don't Let Me Down," "I've Got A Feeling," "One After 909" and "Dig a Pony," as well as off-the-cuff bits of "Danny Boy," "I Want You (She's So Heavy)," "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody" and "God Save the Queen."
Source: masslive.com
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LUNCHTIME, Thursday January 30, 1969. The stately calm of Savile Row, long famed for distinguished tailoring and softly spoken service, has been invaded by the raucous sound of electric guitars, pounding drums and belting rock'n'roll singing. The owners of Number Three, a fine five-storey building, are making a din. The sound of neighbours' tut-tutting is loud but not as loud as the music
On the pavement below there's a growing and motley crowd, many of whom normally have no reason to come here.
To general amazement and with no warning whatsoever The Beatles - THE BEATLES! - are playing on the roof.
They can't be seen by the hundreds of eyes peering upwards from the street, but windows with a view are full of faces and people with access to neighbouring roofs are scurrying up, among them a man well into middle age in overcoat and trilby, smoking a pipe.
It's a cold day and the band are well wrapped up - Ringo in his wife Maureen's shiny orange mac, George and John in fur coats.
Source: DAVID ROBSON/express.co.uk
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Paul McCartney is one the richest entertainers in the world with a stunning net worth of $1.2 billion. When it comes to how he earned it, well, the easy answer is he's a Beatle, a member of Wings, and a solo artist with a music catalog (much of which he wrote and composed) that continues to earn royalties to this day. McCartney is one of the most successful composers and performers of all time. More than 2,200 artists have covered his Beatles song Yesterday, making it one of the most covered songs in popular music history. Needless to say, he earns money almost every time it is covered. Paul McCartney has won eight Grammy Awards. He has written or co-written 32 songs that have reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. He continues to be one of the top earning celebrities year after year. So how did Sir Paul McCartney come to be so incredibly wealthy?
Source: Brian Warner/celebritynetworth.com
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Composed by Rachel Fuller, this moving album was created to celebrate animals all over the globe – and there’s even a special memorial performance.
If you believe in a world where pets are treated with kindness and compassion, then Animal Requiem is the perfect album for you.
When our close companions pass away, many people struggle to cope with the loss – but this thoughtful animal charity album aims to celebrate the positive impact they have had on our lives.
Written by Pete Townsend’s (The Who) wife Rachel Fuller, the nine-track record is a heartwarming collection of pieces including The Beatles’ hit song ‘Blackbird’.
It’s the first time a Beatles song has ever been overdubbed – but as a long-time animal rights supporter Sir Paul McCartney was keen to be involved in the project.
Source: By Helena Asprou/classicfm.com
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On a cold, gusty, grey afternoon half a century ago, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr climbed the five storeys of their office building at 3 Savile Row in central London. They then made their way out onto the roof, where they played an unannounced 42-minute set for friends, employees and office workers who clambered out of windows and onto adjacent roofs. A crowd steadily gathered in the street below.
There was no way of knowing it then, but Thursday, Jan. 30, 1969, turned out to be the last time The Beatles performed together in public.
Accompanying them throughout the impromptu show was the keyboardist Billy Preston, who had been invited by Harrison to join them in rehearsals a week earlier.
Source: The Canadian Press/nationalpost.com
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