“As designers, we wondered what it would look like to visualize The Beatles and chart their story–the evolution of their music, style and characters–through a series of graphics,” write John Pring and Rob Thomas, lifelong friends and authors of Visualizing The Beatles, coming May 1 in the U.S. from Dey Street Books. (The book was released in the U.K. in 2016 by Orphans Publishing.)
And so they have, with their magical “history” tour of the Beatles career, arranged chronologically beginning with the band’s pre-Beatles days through to Abbey Road and Let It Be.
The book also takes welcome detours with pages devoted to such topics as “Press Conference Humor,” “Style Through the Years,” “Fab Four Memorabilia Sales,” “Hairstyles Over the Years,” and so on.
Source: Best Classic Bands Staff/bestclassicbands.com
detailsIt is 20 years ago today that Linda McCartney passed away. I remember that day very well. I had met Linda on quite a few occasions over the years, and always found her to be very nice. She was certainly the love of Paul’s life, and a very devoted mother.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995, and pretty much disappeared from public life to fight this horrible disease. In 1997, she appeared with Paul at the premiere of ‘Standing Stone’ at the Albert Hall. Although she had a very different hair style, she looked healthy, and it was wonderful to see her again.
She was making public appearances up until a couple of weeks before her passing, one of the last at Stella’s fashion show in Paris.
The news of Linda’s passing didn’t break in the UK until the early hours of April 18th. I was running the London Beatles Fanclub at the time, as was rung up by CNN for a comment. I didn’t know what to say, as it was such a shock. I thought Linda was winning her battle. My wife, Esther, was going through her own battle with breast cancer at the time, and I suppose we both thought that if Linda couldn’t beat it, what chance did we have? Esther passed away in December 20 details
Drummer Pete Best was sacked from The Beatles on the cusp of them achieving fame, but he hasn't allowed himself to grow bitter
Losing a job you love is a challenge at any time, but losing a high-profile place in the biggest band in the world just as they were on the verge of mega-stardom has to be a particularly savage blow. This happened to Pete Best, who was sacked from The Beatles after two years in 1962. While it was devastating to the then 21-year-old man, Pete speaks without bitterness about the experience.
"The challenge in my life is proving that a catastrophe can happen to you, but if you're strong in character and determined enough, you can overcome it," he says. "I'd like to think people could use my experiences as motivation for themselves."
Source: independent.ie
detailsOne of Magical Mystery Tour’s most memorable sequences remains the ending, when the Beatles jog down a staircase in all white tuxedos, surrounded by an assortment of women in ballgowns, others in military garb, and more. Paul McCartney’s grin and exaggerated dance moves illustrate how much he enjoyed filming the scene, perhaps because the four were dancing to one of his own compositions: “Your Mother Should Know,” a track written specifically for a big production number.
In addition, the song pays tribute to his father’s music hall background as well as his family’s deep love for the genre. As McCartney told biographer Barry Miles in Many Years from Now, he envisioned a Busby Berkeley-style number while writing the song. He wrote it at his Cavendish Avenue home on a harmonium.
Source: Kit O'Toole/somethingelsereviews.com
detailsIf not for some good advice he received, Milwaukee DJ Bob Barry could have gone down in history as the guy who turned down the Beatles.
It's one of many stories he tells in his new memoir "Rock 'n' Roll Radio Milwaukee: Stories From the Fifth Beatle" (The History Press). He'll talk about the book and his adventures Wednesday at Milwaukee's Boswell Books.
In 1964, Barry was one of Milwaukee's best-known radio voices, a hard worker who took as many emcee and introducing gigs as he could, from CYO sock hops to the Dave Clark Five. These were all paid appearances.
When a promoter called to ask him to emcee the Beatles' Sept. 4, 1964, concert in Milwaukee, Barry asked what it paid. When told there was no budget to pay him, Barry declined the offer.
When he filled in WOKY music director Arline Quier about the call, she told him he "was crazy and to call him back immediately.
Source: Jim Higgins, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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Liverpool's world famous Cavern Club is to become the centerpiece of an official Beatles Quarter to develop its global tourism appeal, the city's mayor announced Friday.
Mathew Street where the club is located at, famed for the rise of the Beatles pop group, is already a mecca for thousands of fans.
Mayor Joe Anderson is to ask the city cabinet to back a masterplan to attract new investment to the area to attract more tourists and fans to the area. It will also generate a more diverse mix of complimentary uses of buildings in the Mathew Street area that operate 24 hours a day.
The mayor's strategy will give the city council control over the future use of buildings in the quarter to attract new investment to build on Beatles heritage tourism which already earns the city nearly 130 million U.S. dollars a year.
A recent economic impact report found the Beatles related industry has been growing at up to 15 percent a year following the city's year as European Capital of Culture in 2008.
Source: Xinhua
detailsHit recording artist Ed Sheeran is poised to make a more significant jump into the acting world, and the project couldn’t be more perfect. The Daily Mail first reported and Deadline confirmed that Sheeran is in talks to join the cast of Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire filmmaker Danny Boyle’s upcoming musical comedy from Working Title. The script for the untitled feature hails from Love Actually and About Time screenwriter Richard Curtis, and while the plot has been kept under wraps, The Daily Mail has some intriguing story details, assuming they’re true: It’s the story of a man who wakes up one day to discover he’s the only person in the world who remembers the songs of The Beatles.
Source: Christina Radish/collider.com
detailsIf these classic songs were released today, it would almost certainly ignite a scandal.Mick Jagger, left, and Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones perform in Tampa in 1994. Some of the English rockers' songs contain lyrics that would likely be frowned upon today.
There's nothing like hearing a song come on the radio or flicker across a Spotify playlist that you haven't encountered in a while, and realizing, "Was this song always this offensive?"
The answer: Yes, it probably was. Standards have changed quite a bit in terms of what references the culture at large deems offensive in its hit songs, from casual homophobia in pop songs from Katy Perry and Taylor Swift to the jaw-dropping lyrical content of some Rolling Stones classics.
Below, find a list of songs that, if released today, would almost certainly ignite a scandal.
Source: Maeve McDermott and Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY
detailsBefore he found fame with the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO), guitarist Randy Bachman cut his teeth playing in cover bands around his Canadian home town of Winnipeg. This was where his lifelong admiration of George Harrison crystallized.
“I was always the George Harrison guy in every band I was in,” Bachman says. “The drummers in those bands got to sing Ringo’s songs and I was always delegated to sing George’s songs.”
Many decades down the road, Bachman decided to relive that experience on his new album, By George, By Bachman, a collection of 11 songs written by George Harrison with one track, “Between Two Mountains,” that Bachman wrote as a tribute to the former Beatle, who passed away in 2001. Had he lived, Harrison would have turned 75 this year, and Bachman celebrates his own 75th birthday this September 27. So the timing seemed ideal to Bachman, who takes a very freehanded approach to Harrison’s compositions on the disc, departing markedly from the original chord progressions, melodies and grooves. But he feels that Harrison would have approved.
Source: Alan di Perna/guitarworld.com
A wise musician always pays attention to the other artists on the bill — you never know where you're going to hear them next, or when they might turn out to be the next biggest band in the world. Just ask Moody Blues drummer Graeme Edge, who still remembers watching the Beatles perform at a Liverpool gig where the Moodies were billed as "Birmingham's top band."
"They played a song called 'Long Tall Sally.'" Edge recalled during an hourlong Q&A session at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame held prior to the band's upcoming induction this weekend. "Well, at the time, that was dead in Birmingham, because we had no idea about sounding ethnic. ... So we're all there sitting in the back, having a beer and thinking these guys are going to, you know, bomb out because we were playing all the good stuff."
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
detailsf you remember the '60s, you weren't there: so it is said of that explosive decade of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll when girls sashayed down the Kings Road in tiny skirts and Biba boots, boys wore ruffled shirts over tight velvet trousers and London was the epicentre of cool.
Oblivion came with the territory: Eric Clapton was supposed to have slept with more than 1000 women but as he told me in an interview for Fairfax Media, "I wouldn't know, I was in a blackout for quite a few of them".
Pattie Boyd and her then husband George Harrison in England in 1968.
Pattie Boyd was both muse and wife to Clapton, to George Harrison before him and no stranger to drug and booze-fuelled partying. But there was little danger of failing memory for her. She kept a record of the wild years – portraits and reportage style snaps taken with a Polaroid and, later, on a Hasselblad.
Source: Jane Wheatley/smh.com.au
detailsRingo Starr has signed an exclusive worldwide publishing deal with BMG, the company announced on Tuesday (April 10). The agreement covers Starr's Beatles and solo catalog, spanning nearly 50 years, as well as future compositions.
Among the over 150 titles included in the deal are his songwriting contributions with The Beatles'
"What Goes On" from Rubber Soul, "Flying" from Magical Mystery Tour, "Don't Pass Me By" from The White Album, "Octopus's Garden" from Abbey Road and "Dig It" and "Maggie Mae" from Let It Be, as well as other rarities.
As a solo artist, Starr has released 19 studio albums, spanning from 1970's Sentimental Journey to last year's Give More Love. His 1973 album, Ringo, peaked and No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart and is RIAA certified Platinum, with singles "Photograph" and "You're Sixteen" topping the Hot 100 chart.
Source: billboard.com
detailsThe handwriting of Kurt Cobain, David Bowie, John Lennon and other rock stars has been turned into fonts.
The Songwriters Font project includes typefaces developed from “original handwritten letters and notes” by Cobain, Bowie and Lennon, as well as Leonard Cohen and Serge Gainsbourg.
“Songwriting is about inspiration,” say creators Julien Sens and Nicolas Damiens. “Write songs as the ones who inspired you before. The Songwriters fonts have been created to give musicians inspiration.”
“Writing lyrics with the handwriting of influential songwriters helps imagination to develop. Being in the mood of Bowie, Cobain, Cohen, Gainsbourg, Lennon, might be purely imaginative… but that’s precisely the point.”
See some examples of the fonts beneath.
Source:
detailsA piece of Beatles memorabilia is going up for sale for $375,000 — lyrics handwritten by Paul McCartney for the 1968 classic “Hey Jude” at a recording session.
The same lyrics are seen being used by John Lennon in a videotaped recording, hung from a mike stand. The song is credited to Lennon and McCartney and adapted from a ballad McCartney wrote for Lennon’s son Julian, originally called “Hey Jules.”
Moments in Time dealer Gary Zimet, who is selling the item, said, “This rare lyric sheet was seen being used by Lennon in a filmed recording session and is written all in McCartney’s hand.”
Source: Page Six Team
detailsGeorge garden idea grows
A GARDEN inspired by musician George Harrison is set to be created in Mill Meadows in Henley.
The location is favoured by the late Beatle’s widow Olivia, who still lives at Friar Park, the home they bought in the Seventies.
Henley in Bloom is working with Gae Exton, from the Harrisons’ charity the Material World Foundation, to develop the idea. Mayor Kellie Hinton, who chairs Henley in Bloom, said the charity would fund the project.
She said: “They are keen for the garden to be at Mill Meadows. It’s a great location by the flowing water and away from traffic as well as being looked after by the council’s parks team.
“They are happy to fund the garden and are not expecting us to come up with a huge amount of money as they are aware of our budget constraints.” Giles Reynolds, the head gardener at Friar Park, will be involved with the design.
Councillor Hinton and council administrator Becky Walker will look around Mill Meadows for several possible locations for the garden. These will then be considered with Mrs Harrison and the charity as well as the Henley in Bloom committee. The final design will be signed off by t details