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Beatles News
Vinyl Rewind tells the story of how Ringo Starr and the other three dudes got their iconic logo and, oh boy, it’s a doozy.
Basically, for the band’s first few years, there was no Beatles logo. It was never featured in any of the band’s original albums recorded in the U.K.
The logo started its life on the bass drum of Starr’s Ludwig drum kit in April 1963, three years after John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Starr got together in Liverpool and formed the most influential music group of all time.
Starr got this Ludwig set from a shop, Drum City, on Shaftesbury Avenue in London. Founded by a guy called Ivor Arbiter in 1929, the shop was a popular destination for jazz drummers. Arbiter later recalled the encounter with a certain “Ringo, Schmingo, whatever his name was, at that time I certainly hadn’t heard of The Beatles.”
Source: Jesus Diaz/fastcompany.com
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Yoko Ono unveiled a delicate rendition of the John Lennon classic “Imagine” on what would’ve been the late musician’s 78th birthday. The track will appear on Ono’s upcoming album Warzone, which arrives October 19th via Chimera Music.
Ono’s version of “Imagine” boasts a sparse yet intricate arrangement, starting with a simple synth drone that swells steadily beneath the 85-year-old artist’s candid vocals. Halfway through the track, the drone slips away for a piano that twinkles beneath Ono’s voice, letting the song breathe in potent new way in its final moments.
Source: John Blistein/Rollingstone
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The images were taken in 1965 on the set of the legendary band’s comedy-adventure musical, which was released that year. Help!‘s plot saw the band being chased around the world after Ringo Starr acquired a sacrificial ring.
Taken by German photographer Bernd Kappelmeyer on location in Obertraun, Austria, the 124 negatives show The Beatles filming scenes in snowy mountains. John Lennon is seen sporting a black winter coat, hat, and shades in the images.
The collection will go up for auction in Newton-Le-Willows, Merseyside on October 16.Other items up for grabs at Omega Auctions include an original sign from Abbey Road and costume patterns for the suits worn by the band on the iconic ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ album cover.In 2013, Help! was digitally restored and released on Blu-ray.
Source: Tom Skinner/nme.com
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Sure, those Liverpudlian lads knew how to knock out a tune or two, jingle-jangle guitars, "oooh!"s and all. But the modern male didn’t just dream of picking up a Rickenbacker and sounding like a Beatle; he wanted – perhaps even more – to look like one too. He wore out his Beatle boots as he did his coveted copy of Help!, strutted about in paisley caftans and filched his granny’s glasses, even if they made his world more topsy-turvy than it already was.
While Sergeant Pepper and his band occasionally fell out of style, the Fab Four have yet to lose an iota of their appeal, both musically and sartorially. Ahead of Paul McCartney’s Egypt Station 2019 world tour, as well as the release of the remastered and expanded White Album on 19 November (ever so slightly ahead of its 50th anniversary), we bring you 12 images of John, Paul, George and Ringo at their nattiest to show you what we mean.
Source: Joobin Bekhrad/gq-magazine.co.uk
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To the world, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were icons. But to Elliot Mintz, who met them in 1972 while a radio DJ in Los Angeles, they were close personal friends with whom he’d get together and talk about whatever came to mind. Usually, it wasn’t music.
“I first did an interview with Yoko on the radio station in Los Angeles and we became phone pals for a number of weeks and then I interviewed John on the air and we began a telephone relationship as well,” he told Variety in a recent phone interview. They later met in Ojai, California, while the couple was driving to Los Angeles as ordinary travelers mingling with those they encountered on the way. Mintz says their personal relationship was the same way. “The majority of our conversations were not about either me or them but the state of the world. Most of their time was spent talking about either current events or literature or history.”
Source: By Steve Marinucci/Variety
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John Winston Ono Lennon (MBE), the co-founder of The Beatles, singer, songwriter and peace activist was born on October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, England.
When John was 11 years old, he discovered his love for his music through Elvis Presley’s records and learnt Banjo. John’s mother’s death had a very deep impact on him which reflected in his behaviour, education and life.
Lennon formed the skiffle group, the Quarrymen. Skiffle is a music genre with blues, jazz, American folk influences, folk musical instruments which were a combination of manufactured and home-made instruments.
The Quarrymen evolved into the Beatles, with members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, a group which was widely regarded as the foremost and most influential music band in history.
Source: AuthorT Ivan Nischal/telanganatoday.com
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For many, John Lennon’s post-Beatles solo career never got better than it did when he released his iconic, Phil Spector-produced album Imagine in 1971. Now, just in time for what would have been Lennon’s 78th birthday on October 9, you can dive deeper into the sessions that produced that rich work than ever before, thanks to a massive, six-disc, 140 track box set that was overseen by his widow Yoko Ono.
Comprehensive doesn’t even begin to describe how much material has been packed into this new collection. It seems like they’ve gathered every conceivable piece of material that was available, including outtakes, isolated track arrangements, and demos, and arranged them in such a way to get the clearest sense possible for how this record came together. They’ve also gone back and cleaned up the finished tracks on the album for the most pristine sound yet.
Source: Corbin Reiff /uproxx.com
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The hit Netflix animated series “Beat Bugs” is being turned into a stage show and Connecticut audiences will be the first to see it.
Bert Bernardi, the artistic director of Pantochino Productions at the Milford Center for the Arts, snagged the rights to the developmental production before “Beat Bugs: A Musical Adventure” gets produced in theaters around the country next year.
“I really wanted to open the company up to more than one voice,” Bernardi says of trying to get away from writing and directing all of the original shows produced by Pantochino.
When he heard a stage version of “Beat Bugs” was in the works, he thought, “Oh my gosh, it’s perfect for families and kids, how can I get this?”
Bernardi looked into who owned the stage property, emailed them, and was surprised and delighted to learn that the writers of the show, David Abbinanti and Sean Cercone, were well aware of Pantochino’s success in recent years.
Source: Joe Meyers/ctpost.com
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Beatle stomp
Picture a 76-year-old man, looking 20 years younger on the Jumbotron, leading a sea of humanity in singing, “Na na na nana na na nana na na, hey Jude.” You can't help but wonder if Sir James Paul McCartney CH MBE ever asks himself, “Damn! Did I write that?!”
If he does, he must do that with virtually every song in his set-list. The sheer amount of hits Paul McCartney lobs at you live – “From Me to You,” “Love Me Do,” “Lady Madonna,” “Hey Jude,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Live & Let Die,” “Band on the Run,” “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da,” “Maybe I'm Amazed,” etc. – is dizzying. You start to wonder if the man's ever written a bad song.
He has, but he’s not playing them!
Source: Tim Stegall/austinchronicle.com
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Paul McCartney gets to “hang out” with dead Beatles pals John Lennon and George Harrison – in vivid dreams.
Macca, 76, said they’re so real he has to pinch himself afterwards.
He said: “I often have dreams about John or George. I often dream about people who aren’t here any more.
“It’s one of the great things about dreams – you get to re-meet them and you get to hang out with them.
“They tend to be very good. And it’s only when you get to wake up you go, ‘Oh yeah, it was a dream’.”
Lennon was shot dead aged 40 by deranged fan Mark Chapman in 1980. And George died of cancer in 2001 aged 58.
Sir Paul, who has just released new album Egypt Station, also admitted moments of self doubt and insecurity – just like his friend John.
Source: Mirror
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Record producer Quincy Jones has described the Beatles as the “greatest songwriters that ever lived”.
In February, it was reported he had labelled the seminal British group as the “worst musicians in the world” and called Paul McCartney “the worst bass player I ever heard”.
New York Magazine also quoted him as saying of Beatles drummer Ringo Starr: “And Ringo? Don’t even talk about it.”
On Saturday, Jones appeared at the Carousel of Hope ball in Los Angeles and said the reports were “BS” before heaping praise on the band.
He told the Press Association: “They’re the greatest songwriters that ever lived. McCartney is like my brother, Ringo too.”
Jones, 85, has picked up 27 Grammy awards and a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during an illustrious career.
When asked for his thoughts on Kanye West, Jones made a zipping motion across his lips.
Source: irishexaminer.com
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Sound engineer Geoff Emerick died Tuesday at age 72.
The Beatles had become a phenomenon with Rubber Soul and Meet the Beatles, crafting intricate, melodic tunes, but the Fab Four were growing creatively restless. They wanted to expand the band’s sound, to push the limit of what a song could be — so by 1966, they quit touring and focused on doing just that.
And now Lennon wanted to sound like the most important Gelug monk sitting on a mountain for the psychedelic Revolver cut Tomorrow Never Knows. In today’s world, computer programs for such sonic alteration abound — just look at the rise of Auto-Tune. But at the time, the studio itself was considered a place to record musicians, not an instrument in and of itself.
"When I was asked by George Martin, 'Do you want to do the Beatles?' I was just terrified, and the little eeny-meeny-miney-moe thing (in my head), it stopped on 'Yes, I'll do it.' — Geoff Emerick
Source: Travis Andrews/winnipegfreepress.com
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A short film inspired by one of the most infamous conspiracy theories in rock has been released.
The Paul Is Dead conspiracy originally kicked off when Sgt. Pepper was released, where the back cover pictured McCartney with his back to the camera, next to the words ‘Without You’, as if he'd been replaced for the session by a doppelganger. It gathered pace following the release of Abbey Road, where a series of supposed clues hinted at McCartney's apparent demise.
Paul Is Dead tells the story of what might have happened had the cheery mop top actually died. Rather than taking its cue directly from the conspiracy, which has McCartney perishing in a car accident, the film places the band a retreat in the Lake District, where he passes away after an unintended drug mishap. The remaining Beatles set out to replace the dead musician with a local singer, Billy Sheers, and to secretly bury the deceased atop a nearby hill.
Source: By Scott Rowley/loudersound.com
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For the most part the original name of the their self-titled album “The Beatles,” got an additional tag and has been universally re-christened, “The White Album,” and for one really good reason, the sleeve is all white!
As far as “re-releases” go and the never ending “deluxe” album packages that have flooded the market, this is one I am truly looking forward to! This was “the” Beatles album that I was able to get lost in. I grew up on my Mom’s record collection so the Fab Four (among a slew of other Rock artist) was predominate in my life. (Thanks Mah!)
On Friday, November 9th the 50th anniversary of The Beatles White Album will take place and is one date I am seriously looking forward to. Hell the expanded version of Helter Skelter alone is worth the price of admission, and if that wasn’t enough the legendary (pronounced eee-sher) “Esher Demos” are part of the package as well!
Source: Haze/nh1.com
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London's world famous AIR Studios, originally founded by Beatles producer Sir George Martin in 1969, has been sold to a Russian investor for an undisclosed sum.
The studio was put up for sale earlier this year by its owners Richard Boote and Paul Woolf, both aged in their late 60s, who wanted to pass it on to someone younger who could grow the business.
Its new owner has not been officially named, but Billboard understands it to be Maxim Demin, a Russian businessman who has fully owned British Premier League soccer club Bournemouth since 2013.
The Financial Times has also named Demin -- a low profile figure who does not give press interviews and is believed to have made his fortune in the petrochemicals industry -- as AIR's buyer. The studio, based at Lyndhurst Hall in Hampstead, North London, is yet to comment.
Source: Richard Smirke/Billboard
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