Beatles News

Turner prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller is to stage a haunting tribute to the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, in the run-up to events in Liverpool marking 50 years since the release of the band’s groundbreaking album, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The artist, who created the centenary commemoration of the lost soldiers of the Battle of the Somme last year and a controversial re-enactment of the Battle of Orgreave, has designed a series of posters that will go up around the city later this month. They will bear powerful slogans about Epstein’s devotion to the Beatles, some associating his sacrifices with those of a religious martyr.

“Rock music is a belief system, in a way, and Brian Epstein dedicated everything to the Beatles and to their success. His main concern was their well-being,” said Deller. “In terms of its characters and stories, the way we feel about rock’n’roll music since the Beatles is like religion, or at least an alternative belief system.”

When the city’s mayor, Joe Anderson, announced a carnival of arts that will begin on 25 May, the Merseyside statue of the band members – John Lennon, George Harrison, Pa details

It was 36 years ago today (May 7th, 1981) that George Harrison released his tribute to John Lennon, called "All Those Years Ago." The song is notable for being the first record since the Beatles' 1970 breakup to feature all three surviving group members, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr.

According to several sources, the song was originally taped the year before for inclusion on Ringo's 1981 Stop And Smell The Roses album. Harrison had written the song with different lyrics for him to sing, with the song's basic track featuring himself on guitar and Ringo on drums. The song was left off the album, and after Lennon's murder in 1980, Harrison revamped the song into a tribute to his late bandmate.

In early 1981, Harrison, Paul and Linda McCartney, and Wings co-founder Denny Laine recorded the song's distinctive backing vocals at Harrison's home studio Friar Park. The vocal sessions were supervised by legendary Beatles producer George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick, who at the time were recording with McCartney for hisTug Of War album.

Denny Laine who had known the Beatles intimately since touring with them in the mid-'60s while still in the Moody Blues, says that there was no difference b details

We were genuinely excited as we made our way into Tokyo Dome, a 55,000-seat baseball stadium, to see Paul McCartney’s “One on One” tour. That feeling waned a bit as a helpful Japanese ticket attendant led us to our seats… up higher and higher… past the Sherpas and centerfield bleachers… to a pair of seats resting three rows from the top. Oh, well. At least we were facing center stage. And we were there to see Paul McCartney

. An actual Beatle! A bucket list perennial, now safely checked off. Buying tickets from Viagogo — a reliable online vendor — doesn’t guarantee you the best choice of seats, and we just snagged the first ones we found and could afford (somewhere in the neighborhood of $140). We could only drool and imagine how much the front-section seats fetched.

A shuffle of remixed Beatles/Wings/Macca songs played over the loudspeakers before the show started, and it was an opportunity to watch the baseball stadium fill up, leaving only a handful of empty seats. There for a three-night stand, McCartney, at age 74, shows no signs of letting up. When he bounded onstage, amid the opening guitar chime of A Hard Day’s Night, there was that thrill th details

Tom Murray is not surprised to see his photographs turning up on the internet but they are not usually connected with major drugs dealers.

Bury St Edmunds town councillor Tom was a photographer with the Sunday Times Magazine in the 1960s, photographing many stars and top people, including The Beatles.

It seems a collectors set of his 1968 Mad Day Out colour prints of the fab four had appealed to an Irish drug dealer, who had been arrested with 60kg of cocaine so the pictures were auctioned last week in Belfast with other illgotten gains including luxury cars, Rolex watches, horses and Gucci shoes.

Tom said: “I don’t know whether to be flattered or what! He obviously had good taste. He had a complete artist’s proof set, number 11 of 19.”

Tom says individual prints like this have gone for £3,000 to £8,000 but the auction raised about £10,000 for the set of 23. “If someone was clever they should have bought the whole set – you’d never get a set for that now.”

Source: Bury Free Press

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1989 was the year classic rock surged back into the international mainstream.

It was a year that saw Lou Reed release his best album of the ’80s with New York, the Grateful Dead craft their final studio recording with Jerry Garcia with the better-than-you-remember Built to Last, Tom Petty go solo with Full Moon Fever, Billy Joel dropping his final classic LP with Storm Front, Neil Young returning to Reprise with Freedom, Rush bringing back the guitars on their Atlantic Records debut Presto and the Rolling Stones reclaiming their stake as the World’s Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Band with the exceptionally underrated Steel Wheels and its subsequent world tour. And, of course, Cycles by the Doobie Brothers.

However, perhaps the greatest record to emerge from the world of AOR in 1989 was Paul McCartney’s Flowers in the Dirt, the latest Macca LP to receive the deluxe-edition treatment as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection.
An album that impressively reclaims the artistic credibility that was nearly derailed by his creative output in the mid-’80s, McCartney’s eighth studio album is an absolute pleasure to rediscover today.

During the summer it was released, details

In 1971, early one morning on a Steinway piano on his resplendent Berkshire estate, John Lennon reflected on the seismic uprising of a peaceful counterculture, of united students and workers, which could have scared a thousand kings by reviving the egalitarian ideals of the 1871 Paris commune.

Against this raw new zeitgeist, and against the backdrop of uprising in America, he sung, famously, to the times: “imagine all the people... living life in peace.” Of all the memorable, piquant and mordant comments he made, that one is the one which has most transcended time; everybody is touched by those words with their beauty time can not erase with the bludgeon of her years. They are words worthy of being spelled across the stars.

Moreover, as a form of acknowledgement of the critical influence of the radicals on the febrile atmosphere of protest worldwide, he hailed, in the song’s middle eighth, with an equally breathtaking lyricism: “you may say I’m a dreamer... but I’m not the only one,” paying heed to a fresh generation of activists who had proclaimed an era of permanent struggle, a species of rebellion in which intellectual renegades like John and themselves saw possibilit details

John Lennon is without question one of the greatest musical geniuses ever to live. Whether as a member of The Beatles, a solo artist, or with Yoko Ono, his contribution to popular culture has stretched for decades. But much of his story has been told from the outside looking in by critics and historians. Now, in a new graphic novel from writer Eric Cobeyran and French artist Horne, Lennon will tell the story of his life from his own point of view.

Described as a “true biographical fiction,” Lennon: The New York Years is based on the 2010 novel Lennon by David Foeniknos. The story imagines the late Beatle during his time living in New York City, recounting his life to an unnamed, unseen therapist who lives in his building. As one does when speaking with a therapist, the character of Lennon traces his entire timeline, from his difficult upbringing in Liverpool, to the rise of The Beatles, and through his solo career.

The graphic novel is due out later this month from IDW. As a preview the comic publisher has shared a brand new trailer, which you can watch above. Below, find the cover art and a few interior pages to get an idea of what reading Lennon: The New York Years is like

By: Ben Kay details

In a conference room at the Beverly Hilton, Ringo Starr prepares for an upcoming auction with proceeds going to his non–profit Lotus Foundation. Gary Astridge, The Beatles' drum archivist and gear curator, stands by to answer any obscure questions about Ringo's drum memorabilia on the auction block.

A photo shoot ensues, with a confident yet modest Ringo standing in front of his first Ludwig kit, missing his favorite snare. This would be the last time Ringo would ever see his iconic set.

Someone suggests that Astridge take a photo with Ringo. Ringo cheerfully agrees. Each with one arm around the other, Ringo and Astridge both flash a peace sign with their fingers. Astridge is in this element among his two passions: his favorite drummer and his favorite drummer’s drums.

In some ways, Astridge knows Ringo's drums better than Ringo does. Astridge has been a huge Beatles fan for a long time and has spent decades — and over six figures — researching and investing in Beatles–era drum kits and gear.

When his obsession became a sought–out expertise by way of Ringo Starr himself, Astridge was finally able to solve a mystery that had been eating away at him since just ab details

So why do it? Remix Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 50 years after the album's original release? Giles Martin (above), son of Sir George and the man behind the new remix, said the answer is simple. Because the original tapes are in pristine condition we can.
And then there's the all-important context: record labels need something to sell. And after all we are talking about the Beatles here. If there is anything like a sure thing, a guaranteed hit, in the music business, it's John, Paul, Ringo and George.

Better face it now Beatles fans: we are all going to be buying "new" Beatles reissues for the rest of our time upon this mortal coil. When it come to the Beatles, and the trove of unreleased outtakes, alternate takes, and live tracks still in the vaults, it's best to just admit we want if not need it all. And now that the sonics are said to be improved, price is really no longer an object. Think about the coming reissues—nothing has been announced, but rest assured there's a plan—of the The Beatles "White Album" and Abbey Road with outtakes, alternates and a fresh remix. I will pay, within or without reason, whatever they ask.

That said, the new remix of the Sgt Pepper's is a welcome fres details

Sir James Paul McCartney is one of the greatest musicians of all-time. He has “Sir” at the beginning of his name for a reason. While most people who don’t live under a rock know Paul McCartney as the legendary bass player for The Beatles and later as the leader of Wings, his solo career over thirty plus years has been just as impressive.

Even today he is still making ripples in the industry, collaborating with none other than Kanye West on the singles “FourFiveSeconds” and “All Day.” McCartney has been such a huge part of music, and has obtained such a large pedigree, that I’m going to try my best and stick with the task at hand of re-visiting one of his more acclaimed solo albums from 1982, Tug of War.

What’s important to note about this album is, prior to its release, McCartney was going through some tough times in his life. Not only was his former bandmate and revolutionary rock legend John Lennon senselessly murdered, but McCartney was coming off of his worst reviewed solo album to date, McCartney II, which was deemed as a worthless project by one critic. Tug of War was the album that would redeem his career. And it did more than that. Thirty-five years l details

Throughout the past three decades, drummer Zak Starkey has enjoyed a unique career that shows no signs of slowing down. The son of legendary Beatle Ringo Starr (real name: Richard Starkey), the younger Starkey inherited the drumming bug and has successfully navigated the upper echelons of rock ever since, whether drumming for Oasis or joining the performing lineup of The Who in 1994.

Aside from prepping for an upcoming summer tour with The Who, Starkey is hot off of a series of gigs at South by Southwest with latest project SSHH alongside partner Sshh Liguz. The long-gestating electro-punk project is readying for an album later this year, and today on Billboard, Starkey premieres the video for a SSHH cover of the Bob Marley/Peter Tosh-penned classic “Get Up, Stand Up." He also talks life on the road with The Who, how SSHH came to be, and teaming up with Mick Jagger’s activist daughter Lizzy to spread a message of equality.

You’ve been playing with The Who since 1994 and have a tour coming up with them this summer. How do you prepare for something like that?

How it started last time was, I walked off the plane in London and went straight straight into a windmill. We arrived at 10 in the details

John Lennon's original album art sketch for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band will anchor Julien's Auctions' upcoming sale in New York City. The "Music Icons 2017" auction will take place May 20th at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square.

The drawing was found in a sketchbook uncovered at Lennon's former home in Surrey, England, where he lived with his first wife Cynthia starting in 1964. Lennon wrote several Beatles hits in the Surrey mansion, as well as much of Sgt. Pepper's. The early album artwork sketch features a bass drum emblazoned with the LP's title and is estimated to be worth between $40,000 and $60,000.

Along with the Sgt. Pepper sketch, "Music Icons 2017" will feature other Beatles memorabilia including a Lennon-signed "Please Please Me" album cover, a George Harrison-signed Fender guitar used by the Beatle and a program page from 1963, which all four Beatles autographed.

A number of Beach Boys items are also set to hit the auction block including photographs, manuscripts, handwritten notes and lyrics, music sheets and band contracts. Several Elvis Presley items will also be up for sale, including his first piano and the King's chest X-ray.

By: Jon Blistein

Source: Rolling details

James McCartney is a man of few words, preferring as it were to let his music do the talking.

So McCartney, the only son of Paul and Linda McCartney, doesn’t turn up with a lot of hype. Nor does he do anything to contribute to any buzz that would be generated by talking about his life and family, playing Paul’s songs or, in an opposite strategy, coming out against his dad’s kind of music.

Rather, the 39-year-old simply plays his own songs — he’s released a pair of EPs and two albums since 2010 — and flies quietly under the pop culture radar.

After spending his first two and a half years on the road with Paul McCartney and Wings, James grew up in the county of East Sussex in southeast England, attended the local state secondary school, and in 1998, graduated from Bexhill College, near his East Sussex home, having studied art and sculpture.

A guitarist since he was 9, when his father gave him a Fender Stratocaster once owned by Carl Perkins, McCartney played on a pair of Paul McCartney and Wings albums, taking a guitar solo on 1997’s “Flaming Pie” and contributing guitar and percussion to 2001’s “Driving Rain.”

By: L. K details

Rock ’n’ roll staples don’t come much bigger than “Twist and Shout.”

More than half a century since it was first penned by Bronx-born songwriter Bert Berns (and his occasional partner Phil Medley), it can be heard everywhere from cable reruns of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” to encores at Bruce Springsteen concerts. It’s even been adopted as the unofficial fan anthem of Coventry City FC — a once-elite English soccer team.

But, as explored in the new documentary “Bang! The Bert Berns Story” (out now), it was a song that went through some changes.

Here’s how the classic came about.

The Top Notes (1961)

Berns (also known as Bert Russell) wrote “Twist and Shout” with a slight Afro-Cuban swing to it. Atlantic Records honcho Jerry Wexler heard it and presented it to a struggling R&B duo called the Top Notes. A young Phil Spector produced this version, adding rewrites and a changed tempo — much to Berns’ fury. It flopped.

By: Hardeep Phull

Source: The New York Post

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PHOTOGRAPHER Mike McGear McCartney’s passion in photography has led to an out-of-the-box thinking that fuels his thirst to discover, develop and see the common surroundings in a fresh perspective.

Composing an image is simple but with a little thought plus a creative angle, Mike, gives a freshness and progression to the common perspective.

He encourages young people to be observant of their surroundings and see things with a fresh angle.

Mike, who is the younger brother of Paul McCartney from the famous English group Beatles, said teenagers who have a higher-than-average exposure to arts, be it photography, music or drama tend to take their imagination a step further that allows them to create something from abstract ideas.

It was Paul who gave Mike a Rollei camera in 1962, which made him pursue photography.

“Photography, music and drama allows a person to explore their own creativity,” he said.

Mike said he was grateful to his late father, Jim McCartney, a cotton salesman and part-time pianist, who encouraged him to pursue music by giving him and his brothers a guitar and banjo, and later a drum kit.

“It was my dad who gave us the gift of music.