Beatles News

THE PHENOMENON WE know as Beatlemania was unprecedented in world history, and it has never been duplicated. True, other popular performers had generated “hysteria” in young girls, from Rudolph Valentino to Frank Sinatra to Elvis Presley. But the public reaction to these charismatic performers was far removed from the kind of mass pathology that the Beatles inspired in both England and America, where uncountable thousands of teenage girls fainted, wept, and peed themselves en masse, even as battalions of police officers herded them behind fences and barricades.

These images have long ago been anaesthetizied into the highlight reel of 1960s nostalgia. But it was all very disconcerting at the time. Journalists compared the sounds made at Beatles concerts to the nerve-shredding cries of pigs being brought to slaughter or the screech that New York City’s subway trains make as they grind along the rails. When the Beatles played Shea Stadium in 1965, The New York Times reported that the crowd’s “immature lungs produced a sound so staggering, so massive, so shrill and sustained that it crossed the lines from enthusiasm into hysteria and soon it was in the classic Greek meaning of the word ‘pa details

A Wirral treasure trove of rock and roll memorabilia - including a suitcase left by Beatle George Harrison - is going under the hammer. More than 40 items, among which are what are thought to be signed photographs of Elvis Presley, the Fab Four and Hollywood legends, are believed to come from a collection at the Fort Perch Rock museum in New Brighton.

They are to be auctioned at the request of the High Court at Clwyd Car Auctions in Ewloe on Monday, after being seized in the last few days. The exact reason for the seizure of the goods is unclear and no-one from the Fort Perch Rock museum could be contacted. One of the lots - believed to be authentic - is a suitcase that was left by George Harrison at a 1962 gig at the Village Hall in Thingwall Road, Irby.

A note attached, from a Mary Newton, says “I was responsible for booking the Beatles to appear ... on Friday 7th September 1962 ... I can confirm that George Harrison left his suitcase behind and despite contact with Brian Epstein’s office it was never collected and has since been in the possession of Mr James Irlam who was a steward on the night.”

By: Marc Waddington

Source: Liverpool Echo

details

A merger deal would give Sony full control of the rights to a music publishing giant with millions of songs, including the song catalogue of The Beatles.

The European Commission has cleared a proposed $US750 million ($A986 million) acquisition by Sony of sole control of the Sony/ATV music catalogue owned by the Michael Jackson estate. The merger would give Sony full control of the rights to a music publishing giant with millions of songs, including the song catalogue of The Beatles and music by Bob Dylan, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift.

The commission found that the transaction would have no negative impact on competition in any of the markets for recorded music and music publishing in Europe. In particular, the transaction will not "materially increase Sony's market power" in relation to digital music providers compared to the situation prior to the merger, the commission said. Sony/ATV, a music publishing company, is currently jointly owned and controlled by Sony and the estate of Michael Jackson, who died in 2009.

Sony/ATV is the exclusive administrator of the catalogue of EMI Music Publishing. Warner Music, a competitor to Sony, and Impala, a trade group representing independent music companies, opposed details

Step inside Liverpool's newest homage to The Beatles.

Sgt Peppers on Mathew Street is a new complex, on the same side of the famous street as The Cavern, featuring a bar, restaurant, music venue and upstairs there will be a Beatles themed museum.

The ground floor, which is open now, will be predominantly be a bar and grill with live music played everyday, with a strong Beatles theme - even down to the walrus on the wall.

On the first, second and third floor there will be a Beatles themed museum, featuring new exhibits and rare memorabilia.

Gary Bond, Head of Communications for owners JSM, says: “We have been working very closely with several experts including Rogue Best, Pete Best’s brother. This has led to us sourcing some amazing pieces such as gifts the band received from Elvis Presley as well as some very rare items such as a pair of John’s glasses.

By: Jade Wright

Source: Liverpool Echo

Read More >>

Is this the greatest album ever made? Here's the facts behind the album celebrating its 50th anniversary.

The Beatles' Revolver celebrates its 50th anniversary this year - an album many consider not just to be the band's greatest, but the greatest record ever made. Released August 5, 1966, Revolver defines the second half of The Beatles' career showing how they made a seismic shift from a singles oriented band into masters of the recording studio. Following on a mere six months from previous album Rubber Soul, Revolver saw the band move away from their beat-pop sound into a world of psychedelia, classical orchestration, tape loops and free-wheeling rock and roll.

Crucially, the album saw George Harrison step forward as a major song-writing force contributing three of the 14 tracks while imbuing the record with his love affair with Indian culture. From the opening riff of Taxman through to closer Tomorrow Never Knows - possibly the most influential track of all-time - Revolver is in a select bunch of contemporary pop albums which can be regarded forever as a timeless classic.

Here's 14 awesome Revolver facts

1. The album artwork won Album Cover Of The Year at the 1966 Grammys

By: Peter Guy details

On this date 45 years ago—Sunday, August 1, 1971—former Beatle George Harrison hosted the world's first-ever grand-scale rock 'n' roll benefit concert, the Concert for Bangladesh, at New York City's Madison Square Garden. Actually, it was two concerts in one; the matinee show took place at 2:30 p.m., followed by a second show at 8. All of it was inspired by Harrison's good friend and mentor, sitar master Ravi Shankar.

In November 1970, a cyclone ravaged East Pakistan and West Bengal, killing 500,000 people and displacing thousands more. The disaster and its aftermath exacerbated tensions between the people of East Pakistan and the Pakistani government, leading to a war in 1971 and, later that year, the creation of Bangladesh.

"I felt I had to do something," Shankar told The Guardian in 2011. "I was in this terrible state of mind when George came to LA for a few days. He saw I was looking so sad, he was really concerned, and so I asked if he could help me. Immediately he called his friends."

The friends Harrison assembled for the shows included fellow former Beatle Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Leon Russell, Badfinger, bassist Klaus Voormann and guitarist Jesse Ed Davis details

PaulMcCartney.com recently asked the august subject of their site about writing the immortal song, Yesterday, which has been covered by other artists on over 2,500 recorded versions.

"The release of (the album) Pure McCartney got the office thinking how incredible it is that Paul was younger than some of us when he wrote so many of these classic songs, " enthuses the anoynmous contributor to the home page of the official site.

Thus was framed a question which was duly directed at the now 74-year old musician: “Do you ever find your relationship to your own songs altering from what you originally had in mind when you wrote them?”

“Yes, that happens all the time, " replies Macca. "When I wrote Yesterday, I was in my 20s. So my 'yesterdays' covered quite a small period of time.

"Now the significance of the song seems even more striking because of the time that has passed since writing it, and the events that have happened in my life.

"I must admit, I really like this aspect of songwriting and playing.” 

"It fell out of bed," Paul McCartney once declared concerning Yesterday's beginnings. "I had a piano by my bedside, and I must have dreamed it, because I details

Taken from George Harrison’s towering All Things Must Pass album this beautiful song has the distinction of being the first number one single in the UK and America by a former Beatle, as well as being the UK’s biggest selling single of 1971. George wrote the song, but did you know that he was not the first to record ‘My Sweet Lord’? George gave the song to Billy Preston to include on his September 1970 album, Encouraging Words that the former Beatle also produced.

Billy’s album included many of the musicians that were bound up in George’s musical world during this period, appearing on All Things Must Pass, including Eric Clapton, Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle and Jim Gordon who soon after formed Derek and the Dominos. Bobby Keys and Jim Price play horns and on Billy’s version of 'My Sweet Lord' it’s the distinctive sounds of the Edwin Hawkins singers that provide the backing vocals.

Harrison began writing ‘My Sweet Lord’ in December 1969, when he, along with Billy Preston and Eric Clapton were in Copenhagen, Denmark playing with Delaney & Bonnie's band. It was in the middle of a productive and spiritual period that saw George producing Preston's &lsquo details

In series five of Mad Men, Don Draper’s much-younger second wife Megan hands the advertising exec, who is concerned about losing touch with popular culture, a copy of The Beatles’ new record Revolver. The episode is set in August 1966. The album was released on August 5th. (The 8th in the US).

Megan Draper points to the final track with the advice: “Start with this one.”

Geoff Emerick actually did. Tomorrow Never Knows was the first Revolver track he worked on after being promoted by George Martin to engineer his first full Beatles studio album (and their seventh). Most of us have our first day at work marked by a trip to the HR department, a tour of the kitchen or having a photo taken for a security pass. Emerick worked on the recording of a song Jimi Hendrix and Noel Gallagher performed live, Public Enemy sampled, Van Halen’s David Lee Roth covered and a musical statement The Chemical Brothers claim as “their manifesto”.

It was both the final track and the first recorded. Revolver, 50 years young, itself is a record of firsts and lasts.

It was the first Beatles album with three George songs. It was the last time Capitol Records in the States tinkered wi details

One of the earliest and last tracks recorded for Abbey Road. The Beatles’ second entry into hard rock. Their final journey into the avant garde. Indeed, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” embodies these qualities, but it also provides a snapshot into John Lennon’s all-consuming relationship with Yoko Ono. Seething with sexual tension and featuring some of the band’s heaviest sound to date, the track demonstrates how much the Beatles had progressed in such a short time, willing to take risks in sound, form, and subject. A close examination of “I Want You” lifts the curtain on the creation process, showcasing how a song can take many twists and turns before appearing in its final form.

Expressing his life-engulfing passion for Ono, Lennon penned a track featuring only the words “I want you, I want you so bad, babe / I want you, I want you so bad it’s driving me mad, it’s driving me mad.” During his infamous 1971 Rolling Stone interview, Lennon addressed critics who panned his seemingly simplistic lyrics: “in fact a reviewer wrote … ‘He seems to have lost his talent for lyrics, it’s so simple and boring.’ ‘She’s So details

The world loves The Beatles, and it loves the statue of the Fab Four at the Pier Head – yeah, yeah, yeah! Since being unveiled last December, the giant bronze tribute to John, Paul, George and Ringo has become one of the must-see landmarks for tourists visiting the city. To find out just how popular they are, and what visitors think of them, the ECHO spent an hour in the company of the Four Lads Who Shook The World. And it soon became clear that they are a much-loved addition to our world-famous waterfront – and have the ability to put smiles on the faces of people from all over the world as soon as they see them.

Cristina and Ramon Pardo, and their children Alejandro, 13, and Jacobo, nine, from Madrid, were among a large group of tourists from Spain who had arrived in Liverpool during an eight-day tour of the UK. And they made a beeline for the Fab Four as their bus arrived at the Pier Head, with Cristina saying: “All the family like The Beatles and we have really enjoyed being able to see the statue. We had to see it while we were here!”

London-based tour guide Jason Dennis, who is accompanying the tourists, adds: “This was a must-see on the tour of Liverpool. Everyone loves the s details

A 60-YEAR-old Austin Princess hearse with aircraft seats fitted by its previous owner JOHN LENNON is expected to fetch £250,000 at auction.

The Beatles legend used the British car as his personal limousine after buying it secondhand in August 1971. Records show the car was registered in the name of John Ono Lennon to 3 Savile Row, which was the Mayfair address of The Beatles. The logbook also says it was "kept in Berks", which refers to Lennon and wife Yoko Ono's country estate of Tittenhurst, which was in Sunningdale, Berkshire.

Lennon owned the 1956 hearse at around the time he was writing and recording the famous song 'Imagine', and the car appears prominently in the feature film which was released the following year. The Austin Princess was a popular model among celebrities in the 1950s and 1960s with The Beatles regularly travelling around in one. This famously owned hearse had five aeroplane seats fitted into the back by the musical legend which remain in the car today.

Lennon held onto the Austin Princess until 1972 when it was sold to a Californian. The car has remained in the USA ever since but it returning to Britain in September when it will be sold by RM Sotheby's at its high-profile Lo details

Opening with a sharp swipe at Harold Wilson’s supertax rate for big earners, it ends half an hour later in a revolutionary mystical soundscape sculpted from LSD and dope, and drenched in technical wizardry the like of which had never been heard before. In between, a dozen of the finest pop songs ever written – including Eleanor Rigby, Good Day Sunshine and Here, There and Everywhere – all wrapped up in a piece of artwork as unexpected and intricate as the music it was created to contain.

Half a century after the release of Revolver, the Beatles album hailed not only as the group’s creative summit but arguably pop’s greatest achievement, the artist who designed the record’s monochrome sleeve – itself acclaimed as one of the finest pop artworks – has revealed how he did it: on a kitchen table in an attic flat, for £50.

Klaus Voormann – veteran Beatles confidant, inventor of the mop-top haircut, and member of the group’s inner circle of friends since their formative years playing Hamburg bars and strip joints – has decided to tell the story of his relationship with the Fab Four not in words, but in pictures. Voormann’s graphic novel, Birt details

George’s first full solo tour following the breakup of The Beatles began in November 1974, prior to the release of his fifth studio album. This was also the first tour of North America by any of the four Beatles and, like his Concert For Bangladesh, this 1974 tour, which began in Canada on 2 November 1974, included Ravi Shankar the Indian master-musician.

Other musicians from the Bangladesh concert that also appeared on the 1974 tour included Billy Preston who had a couple of solo numbers and was prominently featured on keyboards, drummers Jim Keltner and Andy Newmark, and trumpeter Chuck Findlay. The rest of the band for the ’74 tour was made up of saxophonists, Tom Scott and Jim Horn, guitarist, Robben Ford, who all played with Scott in the LA Express, and who all featured on George’s Dark Horse album.

The tour became known as the ‘Dark Horse’ tour. George had signed Ravi to his new label of the same name and he played several songs from the album that was released towards the end of the 26-date run of gigs. However, it was not an easy time for George. He struggled throughout the tour with laryngitis and gargled nightly with a mixture of honey, vinegar and warm water to try and re details

On this day 60 years ago, the first ever Albums Chart was published in the UK - and we're marking the occasion by honouring a true chart diamond.

The Official Albums Chart represents the most trusted and longest established measure of album popularity in Britain, and to celebrate today’s landmark birthday, the Official Charts Company is honoured to announce Paul McCartney as the UK’s most successful albums artist of all time.

Paul becomes the latest recipient of the new Official Chart Record Breaker Award - a prestigious new accolade presented to a selected elite of artists achieving the greatest feats on the Official Chart.

The music icon’s impact on the Official Albums Chart across the past six decades is something most artists can only dream of; racking up an astonishing 22 Number 1 albums across his illustrious career. Paul has scored 15 Number 1s as a member of The Beatles, two with Wings, four via his solo projects and one with Linda McCartney to become the most prolific chart topper in history.

Reacting to the news, Paul told OfficialCharts.com: “Okay, you know how it really feels? It feels unbelievable, because when you write your songs you don't count how well the details