Beatles News

Ever needed to know if The Beatles are still alive or if they did drugs? Here's our helpful answers to the most-Googled Beatles questions on the net.

As you’ll know if you’ve ever found the question ‘what is an EU, please?’ in your granny’s search history, people ask Google some pretty odd things.

Here, for example, are the most-Googled questions about The Beatles, for which we’ve helpfully provided answers…

Are the Beatles still alive?

Yes and no. The band itself suffered death by solo project in 1970, but half of the band’s members, Paul and Ringo, survive today. John Lennon was shot dead by fanatic Mark Chapman outside his home in the Dakota Building, New York, in December 1980 – terrifyingly, Chapman had a front row ticket to watch David Bowie in The Elephant Man on Broadway for the night after the Lennon murder; Bowie was second on his hit list. George Harrison died from cancer in 2001, his ashes are scattered in the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in India.

Who owns the Beatles catalogue?

Currently Sony/ATV Music Publishing owns the Beatles’ publishing, although Paul McCartney has begun the process of claiming his share o details

On June 23, 1994, surviving Beatles Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr gathered at Harrison's house—better known as Friar Park in Henley-on-Thames, England—to shoot some extra footage for their new project, The Beatles Anthology. In case you don't remember, Anthology was a hugely successful documentary TV series (now available on DVD), a three-volume set of double albums and a massive coffee-table book that focused on the long and winding road that was the Beatles' incredible career.

According to some sources, Paul, George and Ringo were originally supposed to perform the Beatles' "Let It Be" that day, and the resulting footage would've closed out the series. However, the late John Lennon's absence was apparently so overwhelming and upsetting that, after an unusually long discussion in George's garden, the three former Beatles decided to simply head to George's home studio and casually run through a few old songs—tunes that dated back to the Beatles' earliest days as a band.

In the video below, you can watch Paul, George and Ringo—"It was just two acoustic guitars and me on brushes," Ringo confirmed—play bits of "Raunchy" (0:01), "Thinking of Linking" (1:41) and "Blue M details

George’s tenth solo, studio album, was largely recorded between early May and the end of August 1982, a little over a year since he had released Somewhere in England. It was the last album to be recorded under his contract to Warner Bros, and it has the feel of a record that was delivered with that in mind, but that would be too simplistic a summing up of what is an album that’s got its fair share of surprises.

Released on Dark Horse Records in November 1982 George did not undertake any promotional activities for Gone Troppo, his mind was elsewhere on other projects. George’s opinions of the music industry at this time is probably best summed up by the album’s title, which is Australian slang for “gone crazy”, a feeling that’s reflected in the great cover art from Legs Larry Smith, formerly of the Bonzo Dog Band.

The record includes many of George’s musical mates – Britain’s go to percussionist Ray Cooper who also plays, marimba, glockenspiel, electric piano, drummer, Henry Spinetti, Herbie Flowers on bass, Billy Preston on organ, piano, keyboards, synthesizer and backing vocals, Jim Keltner plays drums and percussion, keyboard player, Mike Moran, Joe B details

George and Amal Clooney, Paul McCartney, and Meryl Streep were among the celebrities who trekked to Washington, D.C., on Friday for President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama's farewell celebration at the White House.

They were among those spotted arriving at the White House for the late-evening event, along with Gloria Estefan, Magic Johnson, Anna Wintour, Bradley Cooper, Harvey Weinstein, Lorne Michaels, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Kelly Rowland, Tracee Ellis Ross, David Letterman, Gloria Estefan, Tyler Perry, Robert De Niro, Jon Hamm, Ken Burns, Stevie Wonder, Al Roker, Chris Rock, and Lena Dunham.

Photos of the arrivals were posted on social media by reporters, including CNN's Betsy Klein, staked out near the White House entrance.

Many of the Obamas' friends who attended were donors and supporters throughout their White House years and two presidential campaigns.

The presence of so many celebrities may contrast to the turnout for Donald Trump's inauguration. His team has been trying to line up talent to perform at his inauguration festivities later this month. Performers like Elton John and Garth Brooks have declined.

By: Ted Johnson

His entry into show business was a film role, playing a son of then-Hollywood megastar Claudette Colbert in a movie made near the twilight of her storied career.

For a time, he shared the top floor of his parents' home with Paul McCartney, and became a friend and trusted business associate of The Beatles.

He played a key role in shaping the careers of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, serving as manager and record producer for both. But many know Peter Asher best as one half of British Invasion-era singing duo Peter and Gordon, who recorded a string of memorable hits in the mid-1960s including "A World Without Love," "I Go To Pieces" and "Lady Godiva." At 72, Asher remains an acclaimed record producer, currently nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for "Bright Star," the original Broadway cast album of the play with an original score by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell.

He also is working with Academy and Grammy Award-winning film score composer Hans Zimmer on the recordings for two DreamWorks animated movies. With a career like this, it's not surprising Asher has a lot of great stories to tell and that's exactly what he will do when he comes to Sellersvil details

A unique piece of art depicting the bums of the famous Beatles foursome has been cordoned off. The copper moulds of the Beatles backsides on the Hoe have had metal railings placed around them, and it looks as if someone has been digging around the modern piece of art.

One reader wrote to The Herald saying: "[I was] walking across the Hoe yesterday [and] I came across the sorry state of the Beatles Bums fenced off and the leg of part of the fence standing in the beaten copper nice to see the £19,000 cost has not been completely wasted." But Plymouth City Council it is "just carrying out some general maintenance work to reinstate the ground where it has worn away.

The copper installment was revealed in November of 2015, and it received mixed reactions form Plymothians. The Fab Beatles tribute band was used to create the moulds. Each member of the band was lowered into a sandpit to create an initial impression before concrete was added. 

The image they are recreating was taken by music photographer David Redfern and shows the Beatles with an all-white Smeaton's Tower in the background. It has become one of the most recognisable pictures of the band.

By:C. Turner

Source: The Herald details

Liverpool’s legendary Cavern Club is about to celebrate a landmark birthday. The Mathew Street landmark turns 60 on Monday, January 16 – and Cavern bosses are planning a year of celebrations including concerts, albums and a new book.

The original Cavern, based in the cellar of an old warehouse, was opened by jazz fan Alan Sytner on Wednesday January 16, 1957 – on the opening night the headliner was the Merseysippi Jazz Band.

Of course it’s best known for its 60s incarnation as the pulsating heart of Merseybeat, and as the stage for one Liverpool band in particular. The Beatles played the Cavern 292 times between February 9, 1960 and August 3, 1963. But there’s more to the history of the club, which was closed in the early 1970s and resurrected a decade later, than just the Fab Four.

Here are 25 things you might not know about the Cavern

1. The inspiration for the Cavern when it opened in 1957 was the Paris jazz club, Le Caveau De La Huchette.

2. The Cavern did not have a licensed bar until 1967.

3. Ringo Starr was the first Beatle to play the Cavern on July 31 1957 with the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group. The Quarrymen’s first date at the venue was details

History is a playground-abused soccer ball, touched by 88,000 grubby fingertips.

Multi-dimensional, vastly panoramic, and full of lies and optical illusions, history can never be tacked flat to the wall: I suppose this is why you rarely see ninth graders with posters over their frilly pink beds of the evacuation of Dunkirk or the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Courthouse. However, myth, and the pop that comes before complicated desire, can be leveled, smoothed, and suitable for framing. But try framing a soccer ball!

This particular sphere is larger than Everest (yet simultaneously as tiny as a perfect sugar grain, because it is familiar and sweet on each and every one of our lips). The titanic, light-speed-spinning orb we call the Beatles. Look below it, and you’ll see it balances on the out-stretched index finger of a short Welshman named Allan Williams.

Of all the many fingers of fate, fickle and ridiculous, proud and pitiful, that the Beatles caldera-sized soccer ball balances on, Williams is one of the most important. Allan Williams died this past Friday, December 30, at age 86.

The Beatles’ unprecedented, seismic success and their filigreed, finessed sw details

An old newspaper that John Lennon used to forge the autographs of the rest of the Beatles is now tipped to sell for £1,500. The singer/songwriter, who was known as the joker of the band, faked the signatures of Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr on a photograph of the fledgling group. The image showed the young Fab Four crowning the 15-year-old Carnival Queen for the town of Northwich, Cheshire, in 1963. It appeared on the front page of Alkali News - an in-house magazine for chemical giant ICI and the teenager in the photo was the daughter of an ICI employee. 

The snap was taken by the late photographer Les Goode who later sent a copy of Alkali News to the Beatles in the hope they would sign it. It was returned with the message 'All the best from the Beatles,' followed by the apparent autographs of the 'Fab Four' all in the same blue pen. It is thought Mr Goode believed the signatures were all genuine. But when his widow recently took the newspaper to an auctioneers to sell it was realised they were indeed forgeries. 

The signature for McCartney resembles nothing like his autograph but Lennon's attempt to copy the impressions of Harrison and Starr were described as 'rather good'. But details

Sir Paul McCartney saw in the New Year with an unexpected appearance on stage with The Killers. The Las Vegas band were performing in St. Barts for Russian billionaire and Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich when the Beatle made a surprise appearance.

McCartney played one of his old band’s songs, ‘Helter Skelter’, with the four-piece, who are led by Brandon Flowers. “So far, so good,” read the caption underneath a video of the performance posted on The Killers’ official Facebook page. 

A day later, McCartney posted a New Year’s message on his website, writing: “Happy New Year’s Day. May this year be a happy and peaceful one for you and your family and everyone around the world. Love Paul.”

He had previously confirmed his first live dates of the year would be in Japan in April.

In December, McCartney led an a cappella performance of his seasonal hit ‘Wonderful Christmastime’. The new version was the brainchild of late night US host Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show, with his house band The Roots providing the entirely-vocal backing track. Fallon begins the cover, before lines are delivered by Matthew McConaug details

THE BEATLES CHANGED THE COURSE OF MUSIC HISTORY. BUT WHAT IF THEY HADN’T?

Can you imagine music, culture or life in general without the past century’s defining moment in music history?

Just try to picture our world without the Beatles. It’s like going down a rabbit hole and finding hundreds more rabbit holes in front of you. Your mind spins, your head hurts, and when you think you’ve come up with a cohesive and plausible vision, the reality of your delusion sets in.

“Too depressing. No Beatles: no British Invasion. No British Invasion: no Stevie. No Brucie. No Byrds. Bob Dylan doesn’t plug in. Depressing,” said Steve Van Zandt of E Street Band and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Yes. All of that. And more. Nevertheless, we conducted a roundtable on the subject with several music history experts.

Our discussion began with the following: Without the Beatles, would the Rolling Stones have been the heir apparent to the crown? Would Dylan have plugged in at Newport 1965? Would there have been a British Invasion, or would the California sound — either northern or southern, Motown or Stax — have produced a wave strong enough to fill the vac details

They've been enjoying the sun-soaked weather in St. Barts over the festive period. Now continuing their romantic break away, Sir Paul McCartney, 74, and wife Nancy Shevell, 57, savored in a late evening dip on Friday on the West Indies island. The mega star's glamorous other half flaunted her enviable shape in a demure navy two-piece as she covered her petite frame with a festive red fringed blanket. 

Although wrapping her torso, the brunette beauty showcased her toned lithe limbs as she marched across the white sand with her long-term love. 

The businesswoman - who serves as vice president of her family's transportation organisation - teased at her taut stomach as her blanket tousled in the holiday paradise wind. Nancy - who first started dating the music maestro in 2007 - held onto her white towel as her wet locks were styled off her face into a sleek look while she smiled and joked with her music legend hubby. 

Accompanying his love, Paul sported a pair of coordinating navy swim shorts as he walked barefoot across the beach. The Beatles icon happily carried his towel and black T-shirt as he made his way back to the resort while his warm brown tresses rested on his forehead in a messy st details

The man credited with discovering the Beatles and who became the band's first manager has died at the age of 86. Allan Williams was also the original owner of Liverpool's Jacaranda Club. The Jacaranda tweeted: "Today our founder and the man who discovered the Beatles passed away. Allan Williams, you will be missed."

Williams worked with The Beatles from 1960 to 1961, getting the band gigs in Britain, and in Hamburg where their future development was shaped. Born in Bootle, Williams opened Jacaranda on Slater Street as a coffee bar in 1957 and it became a popular meeting place for many of the young musicians who were soon to make Merseybeat a worldwide phenomenon.

Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Lennon's fellow art school student Stuart Sutcliffe were among the customers and they asked Williams if they could play at the club. Initially, he asked them to work on decorating the venue before allowing them on stage. After helping to secure the band gigs at other venues, Williams personally drove the van to take the Beatles to Hamburg in 1960. But he parted company with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe in 1961. The following January, the band - minus Sutcliffe - signed a fiv details

George Michael bought the piano on which John Lennon composed the classic hit song Imagine so it would not end up in storage and could be 'seen by the people'.

The Wham! frontman anonymously paid £1.67 million for the upright historic Steinway formerly owned by the ex-Beatle at a pop memorabilia auction in 2000.

Purchasing it so it would stay in the country, Michael was later revealed as the owner of the instrument and announced he was going to hand it over to the Beatles Story museum in Liverpool. 

Before the auction, the piano had been loaned to the museum by a private collector who bought it in 1992, but when the collector decided to sell it there were fears it would be lost to wealthy Beatles fans in Japan or the US.

In an interview around the time of the purchase Michael said it was 'worth every penny' as he confirmed it would be returning to the city. 'Having paid one and a half million pounds for it I'd really like to play something on it and stick it on my next record,' Michael added. 'So as I'm recording right now I think I'll hold on to it for a couple of months and see if I can get it on to my new record and then it's going back to the museum in Liverpool where I think it ri details

Sam played a key role in the early years of the Fab Four.

A key figure in the early years of The Beatles has died, it was announced today.

Former concert promoter Sam Leach had been suffering from cancer and died at his Liverpool home early this morning, just days after his 81st birthday.

He was famous in the Liverpool area in the early 1960s for his concert promotions at venues such as New Brighton’s Tower Ballroom, where he put on shows including such rock ‘n’ roll giants as Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard.

Sam was once touted as a possible manager for the group before Brian Epstein took over the role. The concert promoter staged more than 40 Beatles gigs in 1961 and ‘62. Famously, he organised one in the Hampshire town of Aldershot to which only 18 people turned up after a newspaper advert failed to appear.

After The Beatles rose to fame, Sam continued to devote his life to Merseybeat history and toured the world lecturing on his former proteges. He was a regular sight at The Grapes pub in Mathew Street , where he signed copies of his book, and entertained tourists with tales of his days with the Fab Four. He kept in regular touch with Sir Paul McCartney and details