Beatles News

When The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band fifty years ago, they inspired an entire generation of artists, musicians and, as it turns out, scientists.

One of the album’s most iconic songs, ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’ was immediately branded a psychedelic anthem, though John Lennon said it was inspired by a drawing his 3 year-old son Julian made of his classmate Lucy and the whimsical poeticism of Alice in Wonderland and The Wind in the Willows.

“When we sat down to write the song at John’s house, Julian’s drawing of Lucy and the stars was what inspired us,” said Paul McCartney. “At the top of the drawing Julian had written in childlike script, ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.’”

Almost a decade later, the song would become the backdrop to one of the biggest scientific discoveries of our time. On 24 November 1974, a team of scientists was digging in an isolated area in the Afar region of Ethiopia when paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson spotted a small fossil elbow bone. He immediately recognised it as coming from a human ancestor and soon discovered more parts that made up almost a complete hominin skeleton.

With the music world celebrating 50 years since the release of the Beatles' landmark album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," new details are emerging about the Canadian police officer who inspired the title.
The original Sgt. Pepper was a straitlaced, no-nonsense Ontario Provincial Police officer from Aurora named Sgt. Randall Pepper, who forged an unlikely friendship with the band while running their security detail during a 24-hour visit to Toronto in 1966. His identity had long been a mystery to the music world, fuelled in part by the OPP officer's badge Paul McCartney wore on the album cover.
Pepper's granddaughter, Cheryl Finn, says the whole matter had been a mystery to her as well, until her mother told her it was one of the family's "little claims to fame."

"My grandfather supposedly kept them out of some trouble and they wanted to recognize his good work and his kindness," Finn told CTV News Channel on Thursday. But, despite the honour, Finn says the real Sgt. Pepper was not a Beatles fan at all.
"He always thought they were kind of hooligans, and men in the Sixties should be clean-cut and clean-shaven," she said.
Music journalist Alan Cross says Pepper softened on the Beatles during details

An evening in early April. Outside Abbey Road Studios in north-west London, tourists are performing their customary dance with irate motorists as they attempt to have themselves photographed on the zebra crossing across which The Beatles walked in 1969 for the cover shot of Abbey Road.

Inside the complex, a group of 100 people are seated in Studio Two – another historic landmark, if one less easily accessible to the public. Here, guests are looking around, taking photos on their phones, peering up the stairs to the control room: spaces once populated by living, working, actual Beatles as they went about their business making some of the world’s greatest music.

It is 50 years ago today, pretty much, that the Beatles released their album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The record starts with an orchestra warming up and ends with a thunderous piano chord. There are sentimental songs and otherworldly trips, rooster noises and laughter. It’s the pinnacle of the band’s achievement but possibly also marks the beginning of their end. Shortly after, John Lennon and Paul McCartney became creatively estranged. Here, though, they are still working genuinely in partnership and it&rsq details

The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which Rolling Stone named as the best album of all time, turns 50 on June 1st. In honor of the anniversary, and coinciding with a new deluxe reissue of Sgt. Pepper, we present a series of in-depth pieces – one for each of the album's tracks, excluding the brief "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" reprise on Side Two – that explore the background of this revolutionary and beloved record. Today's final installment tells the full story of the late Swinging London socialite immortalized in "A Day in the Life."

Just past midnight on December 18th, 1966, a light blue Lotus Elan sports car slammed into a parked van on Redcliffe Gardens, an affluent residential street in southwest London. The driver, 21-year-old Tara Browne, heir to a million-pound Guinness Brewery fortune, died of his injuries a shortly thereafter. The story was still making headlines a month later, when the coroner's verdict was published in the January 17th, 1967, issue of The Daily Mail. John Lennon, a voracious newspaper reader since childhood, had a copy propped on his intricately carved upright piano in the den at Kenwood, his English country estate. He scanned the pages while his hands details

A remarkable letter in which Beatle George Harrison pleads poverty while at the same time boasting about a new Jaguar car he had just bought has come to light.

Writing just as the Beatles were on the verge of international stardom, the lead guitarist appeared concerned songwriters Paul McCartney and John Lennon would become 'very rich' while he would be 'poor and hungry'.

He then outlined a money-making idea he had of writing a book about the Beatles - and wrote to friend Astrid Kirchherr in August 1963 for help.

Kirchherr, a German, had been the fiancee of the so-called fifth Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe, who tragically died of a brain haemorrhage in April 1962.

Four months earlier Kirchherr had accompanied Paul, George and Ringo Starr on holiday to Tenerife and took some intimate photographs of the band.

In the letter that is now up for sale for £20,000, Harrison asked her to send him the photos so he could use them in his book.

He also included a tongue-in-cheek pic of his new Jaguar while lamenting his lifestyle.

By: Adam Aspinall

Source: The Daily Mirror

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The bodies of a woman and two children have been found at a flat in Liverpool that John Lennon lived in.

Police were called to a ground floor flat on Falkner Street, near Toxteth, Liverpool shortly before 19:30 BST on Tuesday.

A man, 30, was detained on suspicion of murder before being taken to hospital after falling ill.

Merseyside Police believe the incident was domestic in nature. It said it was not looking for anyone else.

A police spokesman said tests were being carried out on a substance found at the scene.

The arrested man was taken to hospital before being discharged and taken to a police station for questioning.

The force added a post-mortem examination will be carried out to establish the causes of death.

Neighbours said the property in the Georgian Quarter was regularly visited by Beatles fans on tours of the city.

The flat was once owned by the band's manager, Brian Epstein, and Lennon lived there with his first wife Cynthia shortly after they married in 1962.

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It is (almost) 50 years ago today that The Beatles released Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Liverpool is celebrating the landmark album's anniversary with a festival - and one event is taking it particularly close to home for locals.

When actress Brodie Arthur was asked to take part in Liverpool's official Sgt Pepper anniversary celebrations, she first needed to do some quick research.

"When they said 'Sgt Pepper,' I said, 'Oh no, I'll have to Google it because I don't know any of the songs on the album,'" the 25-year-old says.

"When I listened, I knew a couple of them, but I wouldn't necessarily have associated them with the album. I remember the cover and what it looks like, but I've never really been familiar with it."

Now more familiar, Arthur is the star of a play inspired by track six, She's Leaving Home.

Listening to it afresh as someone half the age of the album itself, the stirring ballad still "hits you in the feelers", she says.

The play is one of a number of events taking place in the Fab Four's home city for the anniversary.

Each song has inspired a different performance or artwork.

But none is what you might expect - there are no tribute gigs or details

The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which Rolling Stone named as the best album of all time, turns 50 on June 1st. In honor of the anniversary, and coinciding with a new deluxe reissue of Sgt. Pepper, we present a series of in-depth pieces – one for each of the album's tracks, excluding the brief "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" reprise on Side Two – that explore the background of this revolutionary and beloved record. Today's installment tells the story of how Paul McCartney's father's musical past inspired the "rooty-tooty variety style" of "When I'm Sixty-Four."

Alongside Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Buddy Holly, it's important to cite Jim Mac's Jazz Band among Paul McCartney's formative influences. The obscure ragtime combo never cut a record, but it happened to be fronted by the future Beatle's father, Jim. "My dad was an instinctive musician," McCartney recalled in the Beatles Anthology documentary. "He'd played trumpet in a little jazz band when he was younger. I unearthed a photo in the Sixties, which someone in the family had given me, and there he is in front of a big bass drum. That gave us the idea for Sgt. Pepper: the Jimmy Mac Jazz Band." Beyond inspiring the cover i details

Many a pop star has faced a public controversy over the past five decades – an unfortunately timed Tweet here, an interview aside there – but, arguably, none has weathered a storm of quite the proportion of that facing the Beatles in 1966, when John Lennon casually announced that the band was “bigger than Jesus”.

He said it in March of that year, and nothing happened. But, five months later, just as the Fab Four were about to head off on a tour of the US, the remarks got out, and they caused a storm. Protests broke out in America’s Deep South. Radio stations stopped playing the band’s songs, their records were burned, press conferences were cancelled and threats were made.

But to see the Liverpool quartet’s reaction, you’d never guess... watch these cool cucumbers in action below.

The clip is from the brand new documentary ‘It Was Fifty Years Ago Today! The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper and Beyond’ - charting the twelve months (Aug 1966 - Aug 1967) that would arguably be the most crucial in the band’s career, a year in which they stopped being the world’s number one touring band and instead became the world’s most innovative r details

The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which Rolling Stone named as the best album of all time, turns 50 on June 1st. In honor of the anniversary, and coinciding with a new deluxe reissue of Sgt. Pepper, we present a series of in-depth pieces – one for each of the album's tracks, excluding the brief "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" reprise on Side Two – that explore the background of this revolutionary and beloved record. Today's installment looks back at the rock summit meetings that took place during the recording of "Lovely Rita."

By early 1967, Abbey Road was one of the few remaining places on the planet where the Beatles could be guaranteed a modicum of privacy. As such, the studios had taken on an almost sacred significance, and outsiders were viewed with suspicion. It was an unspoken rule that wives and girlfriends were not welcome except on very special occasions, and even manager Brian Epstein entered at his own peril. Once during a studio visit, he dared to suggest that the singing sounded slightly flat. "You look after your percentages, Brian. We'll look after the music," John Lennon shot back. Epstein made himself scarce after that.

By: Jordan Runtagh 

Sou details

Is this George Harrison’s first ever guitar?

The dusty instrument surfaced after spending more than half a century being hidden in a Cheshire cupboard.

Until now, it was believed his oldest surviving guitar was an Egmond, which was auctioned off to an anonymous buyer in the mid 1980s.

George’s mother Louise helped the 14-year-old buy the Egmond from a school friend for £3, after the family moved to a council house in Speke. With his mother’s encouragement, George mastered the beginner’s guitar after a few months and asked for a new one.

Louise saw her son’s musical flair and saved up until she could afford a Hofner President. The President was a middle-of-the-range electric guitar and cost Louise around £30, and was a step up from his primitive Egmond.

A year later, still aged 14, Harrison joined school pal John Lennon’s band ‘The Quarrymen’, on Paul McCartney’s recommendation.Lennon was unconvinced by George’s ability to begin with, but allowed him to remain in the band.

After changing the band’s genre from skiffle to rock and roll, all but Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison left and two years later, details

One of the great perks of being a Beatles buff is that the band left plenty of unalloyed masterpieces, and a couple of dark horses, that make for a lot of fun arguments you can have in your head, changing course when need be and reversing field like your last series of thoughts existed for the sole purpose of creating totally oppositional ones. That’s a pretty Beatle-y conceit, as if you’ve passed through that Sea of Holes in Yellow Submarine, with your previously held opinions shape-shifting in the process.

It’s not the case now, but as we mark the 50th anniversary of the June 2, 1967 release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, it’s worth noting that from the time of that release until, say, the mid-1990s, this was the album you were told was, far and away, the best album that had ever been released. To question this was to go against a veritable rock and roll Commandment in which it was writ: The Band Leader Hereforth Known as Sgt. Pepper Presides Over the Greatest Musical Platter There Ever Shall Be.

As a kid, I spent an ungodly amount of time ranking The Beatles’ albums in my head. I never had Pepper first, but I always had a qualifier for my argument, which we shall details

WALLINGFORD — More than 20 bands will come together for a Beatles music festival June 10 at the Oakdale Theatre, a new venue for the annual gathering.

The event said goodbye to Danbury, where it was held for the past five years, and hello to the Oakdale as part of an expansion, said Charles Rosenay, executive producer of Liverpool Productions.

“We have double the amount of bands,” Rosenay said. “Moving to the Oakdale gave the flexibility of being indoors and outdoors.”

The festival will incorporate the Oakdale’s dome stage, dubbed Pepperland, as well as the outdoor patio, called the Octopus’s Garden. If the rain comes, the outside stage will follow the sun inside to a breakout convention room.

Rosenay’s entertainment agency conducts Beatles history tours of Liverpool and London every summer, and also produced Beatles conventions for several years.

He said the conventions focused on memorabilia and special guests, but the festivals are “all about the music.”

A central Connecticut-based Beatles tribu details

Fifry years later, Dion DiMucci still isn’t sure how he wound up among the more than 50 colorful and familiar faces that make up the iconic collage that is the cover of The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album. But from “the kind of guess work I can do about that,” he thinks it probably comes down to a shared reverance for the roots of rock and roll and a shared love of brown fringed suede.

RELATED: SGT. PEPPER NOT THE ONLY GREAT ALBUM OF 1967

Whatever the reason, Boca Raton’s resident Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and certified musical pioneer is as tickled now as he’s always been to be part of one of pop culture’s most talked-about album covers, right there on the second to the back row, between ‘Dr. Strangelove’ writer Terry Southern and actor Tony Curtis.

And in the company of W.C. Fields, Karl Jung, Mae West, Lewis Carroll, Sonny Liston, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Lawrence of Arabia and Laurel and Hardy.

“I just remember people telling me when it came out ‘This is you on the cover,’” the 77-year-old singer of “Runaround Sue” and “The Wanderer” sa details

Artwork for "John Lemon Tart Pale Ale," a collaboration brew from Des Moines-based Exile Brewing Co. and Denver's Station 26 Brewing Co. (Photo: Ramona Muse Lambert/Special to the Register)

The beer isn’t the first from Exile to don the name of a dead idol. Shortly after the death of David Bowie in 2016 the brewery launched “The Rise of Ziggy Sourdust,” a dark Berliner-Style Weisse with chocolate and sour cherry that can be found in bottles or on tap.

A John Lemon launch party is scheduled for 4 p.m. on June 9 at the Exile taproom, 1514 Walnut St. Starting June 13, a limited supply of the beer will be available in bottles and kegs at central and eastern Iowa restaurants, bars and grocery retailers.

Des Moines Beer Week, founded in 2014, features a number of craft beer-related events across the metro. Self-described as a week that “aims to celebrate the Des Moines area’s growing craft beer scene,” events include the Iowa Craft Brew Festival, a meet the brewers night and beer sensory workshop.

More information can be found at exilebrewing.com and dsmbeerweek.beer.