Beatles News

Imagine. John Lennon's killer has been denied parole for a ninth time. Mark David Chapman met with a three-member parole panel during the week and was later informed he will be kept behind bars at least another two years, when he will be next eligible for parole, a state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision official told the Daily News. The official did not know the reasoning behind the decision. But in the past, the Parole Board — even while citing Chapman's clean prison record since 1994 — has routinely said that releasing him would "undermine respect for the law."

A lawyer and spokesman for Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, did not return calls for comment Saturday. Chapman, 61, shot Lennon on Dec. 8, 1980, as the famed ex-Beatle and Ono returned to their Dakota building home across from Central Park after a late night recording session. Sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, Chapman currently resides at upstate Wende Correctional Facility.

The News recently reported that since his last parole hearing in 2014, five people sent letters to the Parole Board seeking his release. There were also two letters during that time in opposition to granting Chapman parole.

By: Kenneth Lovett details

It was 50 years ago today on Aug. 29, 1966, that the Beatles played what turned out to be their final ticketed show at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. And Nancy Guida, who attended both that show, Paul McCartney's 2014 concert that closed the stadium and shows by others including the Rolling Stones, said there was nothing like a Beatles show.

“To this day, there is nothing like hearing, 'Ladies and gentlemen, the Beatles,' she says. “I mean you can't even put in words what it felt like. The energy, I have never felt that at any other concert.” And she said despite the insanity and the screaming at the concerts, she could actually hear the all of the Fab Four sing. Well, almost all of them.

“This is something I would love to tell Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. I could hear them. Even at the Cow Palace, I could hear them. The only time I couldn't hear the Beatles was when Ringo sang. I was screaming my head off and I could still hear them. I knew exactly what they were singing.”

One of the major problems at the 2014 McCartney concert was the traffic gridlock that kept some fans from getting in. But Guida said that problem didn't occur in 1966. “I don't remember at al details

It hung on the walls of the original Cavern for years. But for the past three decades and more, this framed painting of Ringo Starr has lain forgotten at the bottom of a drawer at the home of Hal Morris. Now the former club cleaner has rediscovered the picture, which was drawn by artist Pete Williams in the club itself. And he’s in talks with The Beatles Story to put it on display for Fab Four fans to see. Hal, from Ainsdale, explains: “I understand Ringo sat for Pete Williams in the Cavern, and John Lennon was sitting next to him.

“The picture was framed and screwed to the wall in the club and never left there. “I was a contract cleaner and used to clean in the Cavern and I remember the day it was due to finally close, I went along to collect all my equipment and the builders were just taking things down. “And this builder said to me, do you want this picture? I expect it would have just been put in a skip if I hadn’t taken it.” When Hal, who says he knew the Beatles ‘in the day’, took the back off the frame, he discovered there was a rough sketch of John Lennon on the reverse side of the picture, along with the artist’s signature.

He says he tried to details

A demo of a song The Beatles wrote for Cilla Black has sold for £18,000 at an auction. There was interest from buyers across the globe in the seven-inch Dick James demo disc, which feature a two-minute rendition of It’s For You.

The song was written and recorded on the tape by Sir Paul McCartney and John Lennon - but it was written for Cilla Black, who had a top 10 hit with the track in 1964. Long-lost Beatles demo sent to Cilla Black could sell for £20,000 at auction today The lucky buyer was willing to shell out thousands of pounds for a recording that had not been released - which Beatles experts say is extremely rare.

The demo, clocking in at just under two minutes, was sold at the Beatles Memorabilia Auction today at the Unity Theatre. Around 300 rare items are up for sale throughout the day at the 25th annual event, organised by the Beatles Shop on Mathew Street. The Beatles Shop confirmed it had sold for £18,000, after predicting it would fetch between £15-20,000. But the identity of the demo’s new owner is still a mystery at this stage.

The recording was originally posted by the Beatles to Cilla Black when she was performing at the London Palladium in 1964. But details

Was it John, Paul or George who decided that the Beatles' last concert would be played 50 years ago at San Francisco's now-demolished Candlestick Park?

One thing is certain: it wasn't Ringo Starr.

According to Starr, John Lennon was the most insistent. "There was a big talk at Candlestick Park that this had got to end," the affable drummer said later. "But I never felt 100 per cent certain 'til we got back to London.

"John wanted to give up more than the others. He said that he'd had enough." If so, it was Paul McCartney who realised how momentous an occasion this final scheduled appearance would be. ( They later appeared unannounced on the roof of their London Apple Corps headquarters in January 1969 to perform the five songs which appear in the movie, Get Back.)

McCartney asked their press officer Tony Barrow to record the Candlestick concert on his hand-held audio cassette recorder. Sadly Barrow forgot to flip the tape over after the initial 30 minutes – so there is no full recording of McCartney singing the final song, Little Richard's Long Tall Sally.

By: Steve Meacham

Source: The Age

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We were in Canada when John Lennon told me he’d left The Beatles.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was just before Christmas 1969, and a few nights earlier, while discussing his Beatles’ song lyrics on the phone, he’d suddenly invited me to join him and Yoko in Toronto, where he was going to meet Canada’s Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. So, there I soon was being driven through snow-covered Canadian fields to the home of rock singer Ronnie Hawkins, where John and Yoko were staying. 

Almost as soon as I arrived, John, who had just washed his hair, excitedly insisted I follow him and Yoko up to the secrecy of their bedroom. And then, giggling happily, he casually announced his destruction of the world’s most popular musical attraction. ‘I’ve left The Beatles,’ he said smiling, and carried on drying his hair with a towel.

I was speechless. 

At the time, The Beatles absolutely dominated the world of popular culture, with their latest album, Abbey Road, still at No. 1 in the charts everywhere. Why would anyone in his right mind decide to destroy the most popular entertainment ensemble the world had ever known? It didn’t make details

It’s as much a part of Beatleweek as the marathon Cavern music sessions and the annual convention at the Adelphi. The Liverpool Beatles Memorabilia Auction, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, takes place on Saturday, this time at a new location – the Unity Theatre. More than 300 lots are set to go under the (silver) hammer in the event organised by the Beatles Shop in Mathew Street. Some items, like a rare acetate recording from 1964 or sketches doodled by a teenage Paul McCartney, are expected to go for thousands of pounds.

This year there are also a number of lots connected with Cilla Black, including an Escada jacket she wore on Blind Date, tour programmes and acetate recordings of her singing. A number of items, meanwhile, were formerly the property of Beatles Fan Club secretary Freda Kelly or Alf Geoghegan, who owned the Cavern between 1966 and 1970.

Here are 17 rare, valuable or just plain wacky lots you could bid for at the auction on Saturday.

Got £20,000 to spare and fancy owning a slice of 60s music history? Then a rare Beatles acetate disc from 1964 of Paul McCartney accompanying himself on the piano as he sings It’s For You – a song he penned for Cilla Bl details

To promote new documentary Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr reunited to reflect on their time as part of The Beatles. Ron Howard's new film hones in on the height of Beatlemania which began in 1963 and culminated with a live show at San Francisco's Candlestick Park in 1966. The quartet famously performed live only once more in 1969 on the roof of Apple's headquarters on Savile Row.

In a brand new interview, Starr told Mojo that the band never truly intended on quitting live shows stating: "The Beatles were never gone. And they could have come back." NME also reports how McCartney went on to recall the moment the band decided to call time on touring.

"By then we were totally fed up and getting actually put in the back of a stainless steel box [which] is like some weird sci-fi thing from 2001 or something. It was a very weird place. What it reminded me of was… you know these rough rides that police do where they put you in the back of a van but you’re not strapped down? And they were accused of killing that guy. Well, that’s what it was like," he said.

By: Jacob Stolworthy

Source: Independent

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It’s the most famous club in the world – and it’s a 365-day-a-year, eight days a week mecca for Beatles fans. But while there’s always something going on, the Cavern Club is even busier at this time of year, as one of the must-visit venues for Fab Four devotees who flock to the city for International Beatleweek.

Beatle tribute bands from across the universe play on the famous Cavern stage, with more than 12 hours of music a day taking place over this weekend. And with Beatleweek starting yesterday, the Mathew Street attraction is already busy with crowds from home and abroad – and busy for everyone who works there too of course.

We thought it was an ideal time to pay a visit and get a snapshot of a ‘day in the life’ of the Cavern and its people. The first day on International Beatleweek couldn't have been a more fitting one to set up shop and meet some of the fans who pass through those doors and the staff who have kept the legend alive for years.

Assistant manager Paul has worked at the Cavern for seven years - and admit before he started the job he didn’t really like the Beatles. He says: “My dad tried to drill it into me, he’s a big Beatles f details

Here's something I find remarkable: There are only three professionally made recordings of The Beatles playing live in concert. Sure, there are bootleg recordings that don't sound very good. And there's a single-microphone recording from the band's days performing in Hamburg in the early '60s, but that's it.

All three professional recordings were done at The Hollywood Bowl. One is a performance from August 1964 and the other two from August of '65. And "professional" in the mid-'60s means they were recorded on three-track analog tape. That's the best they could do. Even the label, Capitol Records, concluded the recordings didn't sound good enough to release. They eventually did, but not until 1977, and even then the album they put out, The Beatles Live At The Hollywood Bowl, sounded just okay.

All that's changed thanks to the remarkable work of Giles Martin, son of the legendary Beatles producer, George Martin. Using new technology, Giles Martin has brought new clarity to the recordings, more presence and reduced the overall roar of the crowd, a sound that was so loud it drowned out much of the band's performance. Give a listen to Martin's reworked version of "A Hard Day's Night."

By: Bob Boilen

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The story of Revolver began in a night of hell and illumination.

"We've had LSD," John Lennon told George Harrison.

It was spring 1965. Lennon and his wife, Cynthia, and Harrison and his wife, Pattie Boyd, were attending a dinner at the London home of dentist John Riley and his girlfriend, Cyndy Bury. Before the foursome left, Riley asked them to stay for coffee, then urged them to finish their cups. Shortly after, he told Lennon he had placed sugar cubes containing LSD in the coffee. Lennon was furious. "How dare you fucking do this to us?" He knew something about the drug: It was a powerful hallucinogen – termed a psychedelic – and it caused changes in thoughts, emotions and visions that frightened some observers. Psychologist Timothy Leary had famously been fired from Harvard University in 1963 for conducting experimental therapeutic sessions with the substance.

"It was as if we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a horror film," Cynthia Lennon said. "The room seemed to get bigger and bigger." The Beatles and their wives fled Riley's home in Harrison's Mini Cooper. (According to Bury, John and George had earlier indicated a willingness to take LSD if they didn't know beforehand that details

The man who wrote the Beatles’ only authorised biography has revealed his picks for what he considers their worst songs, while cheerfully admitting he is “asking for trouble”. But if anyone can get away with such a bold move, it’s probably Hunter Davies.

Hunter is the man behind Four Lads Who Shook The World, which was published way back in 1968 after he had spent 18 months living in their shadows. It’s an exciting time for Beatles fans. International Beatleweek (August 24-30) is upon us, and Hunter, now 80, is heading to Liverpool to discuss his “legacy” – The Beatles Book (to be published on September 1 by Ebury at £30).

Four years in the making, it is the definitive guide to everything and everyone associated with The Beatles, and is divided into sections: People, Places, Songs and Broadcast and Cinema. Its rating system (using mop tops!) grades particular subjects out of 10 – and includes lists such as 10 Best Songs, 10 Worst Songs and 10 Most Influenial People. Though Hunter had the final say, he was helped by a top trio of Beatles experts and authors who worked with him on the book: Spencer Leigh and David Bedford from Liverpool and Keith Badman.< details

In September 1974 George Harrison’s record label, Dark Horse Records, released its first two singles. The first was Ravi Shankar’s ‘I Am Missing You’. Produced and arranged by Harrison, it is a rare Shankar composition in a Western pop style. The other single to come out that same day was Splinter’s ‘Costafine Town’, which went top 10 in Australia and South Africa and made the UK top twenty.

Two years later, with his contractual obligations to other labels at an end, and with the winding down of Apple Records, George signed to his own label. In the intervening years there had been other Dark Horse Records releases by Stairsteps, Jiva, Henry McCullough (following his departure from Wings), and a band called Attitudes. First brought together on Harrison’s 1975 album Extra Texture (Read All About It), Attitudes included keyboard player David Foster, who also played on George’s debut for Dark Horse, Thirty Three & 1/3.

George’s seventh solo studio album was recorded at his home, Friar Park, between the end of May and mid September 1976, and was released two months later on 19th November. Shortly after beginning to make this record, George contracted hep details

In the days before the internet and social media, posters were the main way of promoting a gig. And one of those who helped sell Merseybeat – and some up and coming band called the Beatles – to the Liverpool public was Tony Booth. Now more than 50 years after he created a slew of posters for Brian Epstein and his stable of rising stars, artist Tony is set to hold his first ever exhibition of his work, coinciding with International Beatleweek.

The 83-year-old’s show will open at the View Two Gallery on Wednesday, just down the road from the Cavern Club in Mathew Street. Only a handful of the original posters produced in the hundreds by Tony in the 1960s have survived, with the majority thrown away once the gigs had taken place.

Although one Cavern Club poster, which he produced for a fee of five shillings (25p), sold to an American collector in a London Auction House for £27,500. Instead Tony, who trained as a poster artist after leaving school at 15 and started off creating promotional sales material for the Epstein furniture business and record shop, has faithfully reproduced 40 of his favourite posters for the exhibition. He says: “I never imagined in a million years they would on details

I'm not sure if you are aware, but it seems like sh*t has gotten seriously real. Honestly, I'm pretty surprised when I look out my window and don't see the four horsemen of the apocalypse in a steady cantor down Broadway. We live in a crazy world, and it seems like it's getting crazier by the nanosecond. This is stressful. Add that to the stress of being a human being, and magnify that by ten or twenty (because I'm stressed and a workoholic New Yorker) and that could be described as my state of being. In case you haven't heard, we wear our bitterness and sometimes bad attitudes as a badge of pride.

Here's the thing, all of this can get really wearing on your morale. It's easy to feel down at the end of the day. I'm a creature of habit and often seek solace in a number of things: friends, a darn good spin class, and my sacred self-maintenance rituals like bath and shower time. Putting the time and effort into taking care of myself, or yourself, really does affect your entire demeanor.

But lately, a shower or a bath wasn't cutting the mustard. Maybe I needed to take a vacation or maybe I needed to stop reading the New York Times every morning because life had started to drag me down in a major way. This girl was p details