Beatles News

A cheeky Lennon and McCartney were perhaps expecting to bring some friends back to the room. A hotel directory signed by all four of The Beatles is estimated to sell for £10,000 at auction.

The 1962 document from The Bull Hotel in Peterborough was filled in by the Fab Four ahead of a gig in the town with John Lennon and Paul McCartney perhaps expecting to bring some friends back to the room. While Lennon wrote on the form there would 33 people staying in his room, McCartney went 15 better with 58. George Harrison said there would be two staying in his room while manager Brian Epstein and Ringo Starr wrote just one apiece.

The gig in Peterborough came shortly after the release of Love Me Do. It appears McCartney was doing the driving as he was the only one who filled in his car registration on the directory. Auctioneer Paul Fairweather said: “It is a unique piece of early memorabilia and will have huge appeal with collectors worldwide.”

The directory will go under the hammer in Merseyside as part of Omega Auctions, Beatles Auction on March 24.

Source: Independent

In February 1968, the Beatles embarked on their famous discovery of India to study transcendental meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Now 50 years later India is rediscovering the Beatles — or at least the tourism potential of the world’s most famous rock band seeking salvation in the country.

A yoga festival in Rishikesh is having a Beatles special this month. A tribute band from England, the Fab Four, is supposed to perform there. There are plans for a Beatles Museum and what’s left of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram, a 14-acre compound where the Beatles stayed, has been spruced up for tourists.

Of course, when the Beatles actually came in 1968, the Indian government was far warier.

“There was strong opposition in parliament to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram and these international celebrities coming. The Communists felt that they were CIA spies,” says Ajoy Bose, a political journalist who has just written the book “Across the Universe,” which is about the Beatles in India. Maharishi’s meditation compound, known as Chaurasi Kutia, was built using money given to him by the American heiress Doris Duke on land leased by the Uttar Pradesh fo details

With talk that Paul McCartney is gearing up to release a new album, revered UK mega producer Steve Lillywhite says that iconic artists such as McCartney and Elton John have made "too many albums".

Appearing on The Music's latest Producer Series podcast, Lillywhite, who has worked with the likes of The Rolling Stones and U2, discussed the topic when asked if he would work with Queen if they were to record a new album with frontman Adam Lambert.

"I'm a big believer in artists who don't clog up the airwaves with new music just because they think they must release a new album," Lillywhite said.

"I love Paul McCartney, I love Elton John… I think they've made too many albums.

"Someone like Billy Joel, who I'm not a big fan of, but he's a good songwriter; he has not made an album for 20 years [excluding the 2001 Joel-composed classical LP, Fantasies & Delusions] because he hasn't really thought of what he wants to say.

Source: themusic.com.au

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Women practice yoga in front of Beatles-themed displays at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, northern India, on Feb. 25, 2018. The area, which marks the 50th year of the British rock band's stay, has attracted many fans from around the world.

In February 1968, the Beatles embarked on their famous discovery of India to study transcendental meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Now 50 years later India is rediscovering the Beatles — or at least the tourism potential of the world’s most famous rock band seeking salvation in the country.

A yoga festival in Rishikesh is having a Beatles special this month. A tribute band from England, the Fab Four, is supposed to perform there. There are plans for a Beatles Museum and what’s left of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram, a 14-acre compound where the Beatles stayed, has been spruced up for tourists.

Source: pri.org

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It didn’t work out the way they thought it would. They left sooner than they intended. The parting was ugly. They did not learn the secret to happiness. But their brief sojourn in India changed the Beatles in ways they never expected.

“I think it might have just sort of saved their sanity,” says Rock biographer Philip Norman. Norman spoke recently at the Jaipur Literature Festival about the Beatles and India with Ajoy Bose, the author of the just-released book Across the Universe: The Beatles in India.

50 years after that famous trip, we can look back at it with rose-tinted glasses. After all, nostalgia can be good for the tourism business. “We have earmarked the last three days of the [International Yoga] Festival to celebrate 50 years of the Beatles' visit to Rishikesh,” says Uttarkhand Tourism Minister Satpal Maharaj. In fact, the 14-acre Chaurasi Kutia Ashram where they stayed had fallen into disrepair, the buildings crumbling, covered in graffiti, largely ignored by the local government after Maharishi Mahesh Yogi left. “At the last minute, they are waking up to the possibility,” says Ajoy Bose, “Now I am hearing there will be a museum.” A California-bas details

As hairdresser to the Beatles in the 1960s, Leslie Cavendish was exposed to sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. However, working for Vidal Sassoon, the most famous hairdresser of the time, he was under strict instructions that the female clientele – including Jane Asher, Mary Quant and singer Shirley Bassey – were off limits. And drugs didn’t float his boat. But rock n’ roll and the Beatles were a dream come true.

In his recently-published book, The Cutting Edge: The Story of the Beatles’ Hairdresser Who Defined An Era, Cavendish (who is pictured above, strumming the Gretsch guitar John Lennon used during the recording of Paperback Writer), lifts the lid not just on Beatlemania, but also on popular culture in an era when the BBC only played “safe and proper” music by artists speaking “the Queen’s equerry”.

As he was blow-drying her hair one day in 1966, Asher turned to the 19-year-old Jewish boy from Burnt Oak – who had fallen into hairdressing after following his best friend Lawrence Falk into it, seduced by the fashionable lifestyle the salon seemed to offer – and asked: “Would you cut my boyfriend’s hair?”

Source: details

BROOKLYN, New York --

If you only listened to them, you might think you were listening to the Beatles themselves. But they are two twin brothers from Brooklyn, and their performances are sweet music to the ears of straphangers. Amiri and Rahiem Taylor are identical twins, born and raised in Bed-Stuy. The brothers are also featured in a viral video, that at last check had 18 million views. As children, their home was always filled with music, both jazz and classical.

But when their grandmother gave them a Christmas gift when they were about 15 years old, their musical world expanded. The teens became obsessed with the Beatles rock band video game and fell in love with the group's universal sound. Amiri and Rahiem also write and produce their own music and are half of the group Blac Rabbit, a psychedelic rock band. About three years ago, the brothers wanted to go visit their mom in Puerto Rico but didn't have enough money.

Source: Kemberly Richardson/abc13.com

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I have to quibble with the “modern Schuberts” moniker. As gifted of tunesmiths as Paul, John & co. were, they don’t compare to Schubert or any other classical master. There is an immense gulf in the level of craftsmanship between, say Schubert’s 9th Symphony and Sgt. Pepper (especially as the craft in that album largely came from George Martin). The Beatles main schtick was introducing more diatonic, folk-influenced melodies and harmonies to the largely blues / rockabilly based popular music of the late 50’s & 60’s. But the comparison with classical music is off base. The Beatles are no more the modern Schuberts as Cole Porter is the modern Bach or Burt Bacharach is the modern Beethoven. They are all very talented musicians, but I would look to composers such as Part, Schnittke, Penderecki, post-war Stravinsky or Wuorinen (all either Catholic or Orthodox and significant composers of sacred music by the way) as my candidates for the “modern Schubert”.

Source: Dave Armstrong/patheos.com

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The Sun Kings’ motto is “A Beatles Tribute as Nature Intended.” Eschewing costumes, wigs, mustaches or faked accents, the San Francisco Bay Area-based band focus on capturing the essence of the Beatles and faithfully recreating their music on stage.

On March 10, 2018 at the Downtown Theatre in Fairfield, they will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the release of “The Beatles,” the so-called White Album, by performing it live in its entirety, in record order. The Sun Kings are Drew Harrison as John Lennon (vocals, rhythm guitar, percussion), Scott Southard as Paul McCartney (vocals, bass guitar, piano), Bruce Coe as George Harrison (lead guitar, keyboards, vocals) and Steve Scarpelli (drums, percussion, vocals).

While the real Beatles had a number of people sometimes referred to as the unofficial “5th Beatle” ranging from their producer Sir George Martin to musician Billy Preston, The Sun Kings have an actual full-time 5th Beatle, Michael Barrett as the orchestrator (keyboards, harmonica, percussion, vocals).

Source: Tony Wade/dailyrepublic.com

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The award-winning ‘The Beatles Story' in Liverpool has unveiled a new special exhibition celebrating 50 years since The Beatles travelled to Rishikesh, India.

The exhibition explores the particulars of John Lennon and George Harrison's trip to Rishikesh. Photo courtesy: The Beatles Story Liverpool

The exhibition explores this key and a relatively secretive episode of the Beatles’ story with memorabilia, imagery and exclusive personal accounts from the people who were there with the band in 1968.

Quite a bit of the Beatles tryst with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, their vow to give up drugs in favour of Transcendental Meditation, heartbreaks, breakups and bursts of creativity that marked the band's quest for quietude and spirituality in Rishikesh in 1968 has remained shrouded in secrecy.

Source: Pradeep Rana/connectedtoindia.com

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And if anyone would know, it would be Paul McCartney, whose words those are.

George Harrison once said that the MBE he and his fellow Fab Four bandmates were awarded in 1965 stood for Mr Brian Epstein.

Epstein was the musical entrepreneur who discovered The Beatles during a lunchtime performance in The Cavern Club in November, 1961.

He said: “I was immediately struck by their music, their beat and their sense of humour on stage. And even afterwards, when I met them, I was struck again by their personal charm and it was there that, really, it all started.”

They signed a management contract in February, 1962 — a document sold at auction in 2008 for £240,000.

But it took months of hawking the band around disinterested record labels before George Martin finally agreed to sign them to Parlophone — largely because of Brian’s conviction they would become internationally famous.

Epstein had briefly attended RADA — where his classmates included Albert Finney and Peter O’Toole — and this influenced his decision to smarten up the group, swapping their jeans and leather jackets for suits and introducing the famous synchronised bow at the e details

A Stowmarket auctioneer has announced it will be putting a very valuable piece of Beatles memorabilia up for sale next month.

Bishop & Miller, one of the region’s leading independent auction and valuation firms, will welcome bids for a band card autographed by the legendary foursome, worth an estimated £1,000-£1,500.

The sale will be the key highlight of Bishop & Miller’s first Toy and Memorabilia auction on March 10, which will also feature a number of other collectable items up for grabs.

The 55-year-old band card belongs to Mike Nicholson, a retired carpenter/joiner from King’s Lynn, who bagged the autographs at a Great Yarmouth gig way back in 1963.

Mr Nicholson, then a musician himself, luckily knew the stage manager at the concert who was able to meet the band backstage.

Source: Amy Gibbons/eadt.co.uk

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The year was 1968. Four hallowed visitors left the speedy life of London and reached Rishikesh, a city in India's northern state of Uttarakhand, located in the Himalayan foothills besides the holy river Ganges.

Beatlemania was in full swing then, but the Beatles themselves were grief-stricken over the sudden death of their manager and struggling to reboot their identity.

They were to learn Transcendental Meditation in the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in a quest to find some inner peace.

The spiritually inclined George Harrison and John Lennon arrived in New Delhi on Feb. 16 and took the road towards the hill city for Maharishi's ashram.

Close behind them were practical-minded Paul McCartney, who was less sure about giving up his music and fame for an illusive mystical path, and Ringo Starr, the band's good-natured drummer, carrying suitcases full of Heinz baked beans in case the ashram's food failed to satisfy his appetite.

Source: english.kyodonews.netenglish.kyodonews.net

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It's not uncommon for celebrity cars to pop up at auctions. Next month at the Goodwood Members' Meeting, the hammer will drop on Nick Mason's Ferrari Dino, Rod Stewart's Lamborghini Diablo and Paul McCartney's Lamborghini 400GT. But sometimes it's refreshing when the auctioned piece of Beatles memorabilia isn't a luxury car, but something else entirely.

A Honda Monkey. That's right, John Lennon used to have a Honda Monkey bike as well as a Mercedes 600 Pullman and a psychedelic Rolls-Royce. He bought the bike new in 1969, and used it to ride around the premises of his country house near Ascot, England. The 49cc Z50A is one of the earlier Monkeys, as the model line was originally introduced in the mid-Sixties and made commercially available in England by 1967. Monkeys or other Z-series mini bikes are still being made. The fantastic thing is that the bike is still as rough and dirty as Lennon left it, when he sold it in 1971, at the same time as he sold the house and moved to New York. In the early '70s, his celebrity status was so strong that the family purchasing the bike decided to just store it, instead of running it to the ground. Well, any further into the ground than Lennon had — there's certainly some patina details

A half-century ago, in a quest for fulfillment, the Beatles traveled to India and produced what would become a wildly popular double album. However, tensions that arose on that excursion foreshadowed the eventual breakup of the Fab 4, according to a band historian.

The 50th anniversary of what is widely known as the White Album, which was released to the public in November 1968, was the focus of a Feb. 15 talk at the Glencoe Public Library by Gary Wenstrup, a Beatles historian and lecturer.

"Glencoe is well ahead of the curve in terms of celebrating it," noted Wenstrup, who said he gives about 40 lectures a year on the iconic band.

Wenstrup told the story of how in the early part of 1968, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr journeyed to India at the suggestion of Harrison's wife, Pattie, who had become intrigued with meditation and thought it could help everyone in a trying time.

While the Beatles had a major commercial success with Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band the year before, the price of fame was also eating away at them, compounded by the death of their manager, Brian Epstein, in August 1967.

"The Beatles had found that fame, fortune and drugs hadn't gi details