Beatles News

For Beatles fans – or at least this lifelong one – the thought of traveling back in time to see the band in its early days at The Star Club in Hamburg or, better yet, the legendary subterranean Cavern Club in Liverpool is alluring.

The Star Club closed in 1969 and burned 18 years later. The Cavern – at which the Beatles played nearly 300 times, including their earliest appearance as the Quarrymen in 1957 – was demolished in 1973, its underground arches filled with the rubble from the building above. A replica version was built on the site in 1984 using some of the bricks from its predecessor.
Milwaukeeans might not realize it, but in an unassuming low-slung office building at 510 Hartbrook Dr., adjacent to a strip mall in Hartland, 25 miles west of Brew City, local technology entrepreneur and veterans' rights activist Dave Meister has built his own replica of The Cavern Club, using whatever specifications he could muster.

Source: Bobby Tanzilo/onmilwaukee.com

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Although the Beatles were only together for a decade, their musical legacy has endured for almost 60 years, as John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr continued to find success in their subsequent solo careers. Now, YouTube user Angel Nene has created a video which tracks the musical journey of the Beatles (together and apart), and that also features the band aging before our eyes with a 3D morphing effect.

We first spotted this video at Laughing Squid, and it really is fascinating to see the Beatles physically change with the passage of years as their songs from each era play in the background. According to Angel Nene, the photos were assembled from studio portraits, interviews, documentaries, live concert performances, and other events. Sadly, two of the Beatles have passed away in the ensuing decades. The video marks the absences of Lennon and Harrison by replacing their images with candles in 1980 and 2001, respectively.

Source: nerdist.com

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In the 1980s, engineers transferred the Beatles' albums from their analogue master tapes to digital recordings so they could be put on the new compact-disc format. For many of us who had only heard those beloved songs on the radio, low-quality cassette tapes or on scratched and worn vinyl albums, the result was amazing.

Suddenly, we had crystal-clear recordings of some of the best rock music ever recorded, in a format that would never wear out or degrade and could even be played on portable devices. It was a revelation.

In 2009, the process happened all over again. Technology had improved so much that those crystal-clear CDs sounded more like a cassette tape by comparison to modern recordings.

But both of those had a major weakness: They were pulled from the original master tapes recorded and mixed in the 1960s. That sounds like a strength, not a weakness, until you understand how the recordings were made.

While today's technology can accommodate almost any number of tracks — one track for each instrument or microphone — in the recording studio in the late 1960s, a four-track tape recorder was state of the art. When the Beatles recorded "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" in 1967, details

Driving down Vauxhall Street in Waterford at dawn, Sirius radio’s Classic Vinyl played the Beatles tune “I Feel Fine” from 1964.

My mind wandered to those young lives on the verge of unimaginable mega-stardom.

Never mind Yoko Ono, I thought, what about Cynthia Lennon, the quiet Beatle wife who stood by her husband for 10 years as their world was transformed by wealth, fame and LSD?

I picked up Cynthia Lennon’s 2005 autobiography titled “John” to hear her tale of Beatlemania and finally, bullets.

Cynthia Powell Lennon was a reserved English girl who married a complicated man whom she describes as “a creative genius who sang movingly about love while often wounding those closest to him.”

They fell in love while attending the Liverpool College of Art in 1958 and, with Cynthia pregnant, they married in 1962, just before the release of “Love Me Do” started the meteoric rise to fame that changed their world.

Source: theday.com

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New Ringo Starr photography exhibit featuring previously unseen pics opening next month in the UK

Rob ShanahanA new exhibition featuring the photography of the recently knighted Ringo Starr, including archival images appearing in the ex-Beatles drummer's 2013 book Photograph, will open next month at Genesis House, headquarters of Genesis Publications, in Surrey, U.K.

The display also will mark the unveiling of a portfolio of previously unseen photo prints by Starr, as well as additional series of pics first made available in 2013 and 2015.

The Photograph Portfolio 2018 includes candid pics of Starr's Beatles bandmates -- John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison -- as well as a famous shot Ringo took of some excited Fab Four fans in a car during the group's first visit to New York City.

Source: wjbdradio.com

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A new, digitally-remastered version of The Beatles’ classic animated movie Yellow Submarine is returning to cinemas for the first time since 1999. The new film is set to play in UK and Ireland cinemas via an event-style release on 8 July, 2018 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of its original release. Tickets are due to go on sale on Tuesday, 17 April.

Directed by George Dunning, and written by Lee Minoff, Al Brodax, Jack Mendelsohn and Erich Segal, Yellow Submarine began its voyage to the screen when Brodax, who had previously produced nearly 40 episodes of ABC’s animated Beatles TV series, approached The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein with a unique vision for a full-length animated feature.

Yellow Submarine, based upon a song by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, is a fantastic tale brimming with peace, love, and hope, propelled by Beatles songs, including "Eleanor Rigby," "When I’m Sixty-Four," "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," "All You Need Is Love," and "It’s All Too Much." When the film debuted in 1968, it was instantly recognised as a landmark achievement, revolutionising a genre by integrating the freestyle approach of the era with innovative animation techniques.

So details

The Beatles‘ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band has made its mark on the music world in many ways, and now the influential 1967 album will be heading into the Guinness World Records book thanks to a recent chart achievement. The album is being recognized for the longest gap between stints at #1 on the U.K. chart, uDiscoverMusic.com reports.

Bolstered by a deluxe 50th anniversary reissue that came out in late May, Sgt. Pepper returned to the top spot of the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart on June 8, 2017, 49 years and 125 days since the last time it held the #1 position — — on February 3, 1968. The album with the next longest gap between stints at #1 in the U.K. is The Rolling Stones‘ 1972 record Exile on Main St., which returned to the top spot after the release of a deluxe reissue on May 29, 2010, 37 years and 353 days since it had previously been at #1.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band first hit the top of the chart on June 10, 1967, and spent 23 straight weeks there. It then reached #1 four more times between November 1967 and February 1968.

The album has sold 5.1 million copies in the U.K., making it the bestselling studio effort and third most successfu details

The 50th anniversary of the world-famous Beatles travelling to Rishikesh in India is to be marked with a new exhibition in their home city of Liverpool.

The exhibition, Beatles in India, at the award-winning Beatles Story museum will open on Feb. 16 and run for two years. It will look at what was a key and relatively secretive part of the lives of the four-strong band, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

It will feature never-before-seen memorabilia, imagery and personal accounts from the people who were there with the band in 1968.

A sitar used by Ravi Shankar will go onto display within the new immersive area, loaned to The Beatles Story by the Ravi Shankar Foundation. As George Harrison's mentor, Shankar's influence on the him ultimately helped to popularise the use of Indian instruments in 1960s pop music.

Source: xinhuanet.com

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Music promoter Tony Calder, who helped The Beatles score their first hit single, has died at the age of 74.

He started his career at Decca Records in the 1960s and went on to work with the Beach Boys, Marianne Faithfull, Black Sabbath and Eddy Grant.

The executive also co-founded his own independent record label, signing acts like Rod Stewart and Fleetwood Mac.

Andrew Loog Oldham, his former business partner, tweeted: "A member of the family has left us."

Born in Surbiton, Surrey, to Scottish parents in 1943, Calder was one of the busiest agents on the music scene of the 1960s, working at Decca Records by day and as a DJ for Mecca dancehalls by night.

In 1962, he was tasked with promoting the Beatles' first single, Love Me Do.

Source: BBC

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Ringo Starr will bring the latest edition of his All Starr Band to the Event Center at Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City, June 2. Tickets, priced from $89 to $129, go on sale Jan. 12 at 10 a.m.; visit theborgata.com.

The group’s lineup will include Steve Lukather (of Toto) and Colin Hay (of Men at work) on guitars and vocals; Gregg Rolie (of Santana and Journey) on keyboards and vocals; Graham Gouldman (of 10cc) on bass and vocals; Gregg Bissonette on drums; and Warren Ham on sax, harmonica and other instruments.

Starr, 77, released his 19th studio album, Give More Love, in September, and was honored with knighthood at the end of 2017, “for services to music.” Click here for a review, with setlist, videos and a photo gallery, from his Nov. 16 concert at NJPAC in Newark.
Starr has not released the full itinerary of his 2018 United States tour, so it is possible that more New Jersey shows will be added.

Source: JAY LUSTIG

You wait all year — or the year’s 10 days so far, which is long enough for British pop addicts — and then two rockumentaries come at once. Lili Fini Zanuck’s Eric Clapton: A Life in 12 Bars is not exactly a bus. It’s more a cart without a horse. It tells us everything we need to know about this rock guitarist except why we need to know it. Surely Zanuck could have spared five minutes — out of 135 — to appraise or analyse the man’s music? What’s unique about Clapton? How did he achieve that uniqueness? What separates the prodigy from the twangling herd? . . .

Source: Nigel Andrews

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TO celebrate 50 years since The Beatles visited the Ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India a special exhibition will be launched.

Opening on February 16 at The Beatles Story - the new 'Beatles in India' exhibition will discover the secretive part of the story with never seen before memorabilia, imagery and personal accounts from people who were there in 1968.

It will mark 50 years to the day that John Lennon, George Harrison and their wives Cynthia Lennon and Pattie Boyd arrived in India.

A sitar used by the legendary Ravi Shankar will go onto display within the new immersive area, loaned to The Beatles Story by the Ravi Shankar Foundation.

As George Harrison’s mentor, Ravi’s influence on the Beatle ultimately helped to popularise the use of Indian instruments in 1960s pop music.

The exhibit will also include photography from Paul Saltzman, a sound engineer for the National Film Board of Canada at the time, who photographed The Beatles during their stay.

He is responsible for some of the most iconic and intimate images of the Fab Four in India.

Pattie Boyd, former wife to George Harrison, and her sister Jenny Boyd, who were amongst the star-studded details

Sir Paul McCartney and a host of rock and pop legends are backing a move in Parliament to protect music venues from closure.

Senior Labour MP John Spellar, a Government minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, is introducing a bill in the Commons to change planning laws.

The proposed new law is backed by stars including Sir Paul, Chrissie Hynde, Craig David, Sandie Shaw, Ray Davies, Billy Bragg, Feargal Sharkey and Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason.

UK Music, a campaign group representing both the recorded and live music industries, said that over the past decade 35% of music venues across the country have closed.

Among venues that have had to fight closure threats are London's iconic dance club Ministry of Sound and the 100 Club, where The Who, Sex Pistols and Oasis have performed.

Pledging his support for Mr Spellar's bill, Sir Paul said: "Without the grassroots clubs, pubs and music venues my career could have been very different.

Source: Sky News

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A book featuring rare photographs of The Beatles clicked by Emmy award-winning producer-director Paul Saltzman during the iconic group’s India visit 50 years ago will hit stores next month.
Titled “The Beatles in India”, the book celebrates 50 years of the band’s famous trip to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Ashram in Rishikesh.
During their visit, The Beatles studied transcendental meditation, and wrote some of their most memorable music.
No other person, except Saltzman, was allowed to photograph the group which had John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison.
The book, published by Simon & Schuster India, also contains a detailed narrative by Saltzman about the story of how “Dear Prudence” came to be and Harrison’s description of the first time he picked up a sitar.

Source: Richard Porter/Beatles in London

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Days after he was officially honored with a knighthood in the United Kingdom, world-famous drummer Ringo Starr amused his fans by misspelling the name of the iconic band that brought him fame.

Ringo — whose real name is Richard Starkey — was posing a trivia question to his 1.81 million followers on Twitter, while also attaching a decades-old photo of his former Beatles band-mate, Paul McCartney.

The drummer wanted to know which of the Beatles’ tracks was recorded in 1968 at Trident Studios.

However, instead of saying “Beatle,” he wrote “beetle.”

“1968 what beetle tracks where recorded at Trident studios let me know it’s also a good picture of Paul he was There to. peace and love I am having a good day I hope you are too,” the drummer wrote Thursday.

Source: Joe Setyon

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