Beatles News

Many people have claimed the title of “fifth Beatle,” the unacknowledged secret ingredient that made the greatest rock band of all time so successful. Vivek J. Tiwary’s and Andrew C. Robinson’s graphic novel The Fifth Beatle takes up the case of Brian Epstein, the manager who originally found The Beatles in Liverpool and helped guide them to superstardom.

Originally published in 2013 to much critical acclaim (including Eisner and Harvey Awards), The Fifth Beatle is now available in an expanded paperback edition, just in time for a planned TV event-series adaptation.

The new edition includes some extra behind-the-scenes content, including Robinson’s original pencils and inks for various pages. In the scene below, for instance, multiple ’60s rock stars converge at a party. The new edition features Robinson’s original breakdowns of the scene.

By: Christian Holub

Source:Entertainment Weekly

Read More >>

It was a mob scene at our Hearst Movie & A Martini recent screening of the Ron Howard Beatles documentary “Eight Days a Week” at the Avon Theatre in Stamford.

Perhaps it was not the Beatlemania madness of 50 years ago, but the film about the early touring days of the four “mop tops” from Liverpool filled the 271-seat venue. We joined forces with the nonprofit theater’s regular monthly Documentary Night to celebrate the preview of a movie that takes a new angle on the quintessential 1960s rock group — focusing on the live performances during the first half of the decade, when the Beatles’ music was taking off all over the globe.

Produced and directed by Howard in collaboration with the Hulu streaming service, “Eight Days a Week” features newly restored concert footage with the soundtracks cleaned up digitally so that the live performances are more powerful than ever. For many years, the inferior sound mixing of the concert footage allowed the screams of thousands of fans to overpower the songs the Fab Four was playing on stage.

As a result of the digital restoration of the music, tunes such as “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “A Hard D details

Sir Paul McCartney once offered to write and produce songs for the Four Tops.

The 74-year-old Beatles legend is a massive fan of the Motown band and the only surviving original member, Duke Fakir, has revealed when he met the guitarist at their manager Brian Epstein's party in London in 1966, he said he'd love to write some songs for them, but the 'Reach Out I'll Be There' hitmaker never took up his offer.

Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz - ahead of their UK tour which kicks off at Liverpool's Echo Arena on Friday (21.10.16) - Duke said: "Paul McCartney was very generous and came to me and told me he loved the Tops and he remembers when he first met us and we had a party in London, The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein threw a party for us, and Paul and I had a long talk. He asked me, 'Do you need some new music?' And I said we will call you, but I never called."

Despite a collaboration never happening, Duke, 80, wouldn't turn down the chance to have the 'Hey Jude' hitmaker pen some lyrics for the group now.

Asked if he would invite McCartney to work with them now, he said: "Of course. Are you kidding?"

And McCartney wasn't the only star who was desperate to work with the Four Tops as R& details

The Beatles get by with a little help from a friend.

 Picture it.

Bob Dylan, now the recipient of a Nobel Prize, emerges from a blue Ford station wagon and the frenzied thrum of Manhattan's Park Avenue, past a throng of screaming fans, into the Hotel Delmonico (now a luxury condominium tower owned by Donald Trump). He rides an elevator to the sixth floor and sleuths through a bevy of reporters, policemen and hangers-on into the annals of music lore and legend.

"That was rather a coup," Paul McCartney would later admit. The Beatles, in their hotel suite with managers Brian Epstein and Mal Evans, met Dylan for the first time that August night in 1964. They were also introduced to another cultural icon of the '60s: marijuana.

"Until the advent of rap, pop music remained largely derivative of that night at the Delmonico," argued rock journalist Al Aronowitz (the mutual friend who staged the encounter) years later. "That meeting didn't just change pop music — it changed the times."

It is, in hindsight, a kairotic moment after which the Beatles, and music, were inarguably changed. Thanks to Dylan, they had graduated from pills and drink. A year later, they chanced on LSD. Rubber Soul details

On the verge of last month's release of Eight Days a Week -- The Touring Years, a Ron Howard-directed film showing live performances of The Beatles, a surprising lawsuit was filed by the company assigned Sid Bernstein's intellectual property.

Bernstein was a well known rock promoter in the 1960s, credited with bringing The Beatles to the United States, who passed away at the age of 95 in 2013. The lawsuit focused on the role he enjoyed for The Beatles' 1965 performance at Shea Stadium, which has been featured on ABC in 1967, in the 1995 television docuseries, The Beatles Anthology, a 2010 Billy Joel concert film called The Last Play at Shea, and last and not least, as supplemental material following screenings of Eight Days a Week. The footage is also streamed at the Beatles.com website.

After five decades, Sid Bernstein Presents is now claiming rights to both the footage from that Shea Stadium performance, and despite seeing the Copyright Office reject its copyright registration application in July, asserts infringement on the part of two Beatles-related companies, Apple Corps Limited and Subafilms Limited.

On Wednesday, defendants filed a motion to dismiss the complaint that rejects the "frivolous" not details

Paul McCartney is, of course, best known as a member of the Beatles and as a prolific songwriter. At the age of 74, he tours the world relentlessly playing songs old and new to the delight of fans young and old, mostly in ballparks across America. It’s not by accident though that he finds himself on second base for a two and a half hour show…

Here’s a portion of a interview conducted by the Boston Herald just prior to a concert appearance at Fenway Park in 2009: Herald: With two nights at Fenway and dates at New York’s Citi Field last month, you’re spending a lot of time at ballparks. Are you a baseball fan?

McCartney: Baseball to us is a game called rounders we played as kids. Actually, I accidentally broke a girl’s nose when I was a kid with my back swing. I still remember her name. Shirley Prytherch. P-R-Y-T-H-E-R, um, C-H, I think. I don’t know, but it sounds Welsh to me. It’s something like this that accounts for all the armor you guys wear now playing baseball. She didn’t have any and look what happened to her.

Does that mean you’re not really a baseball fan?

No, no, my friend. (“Saturday Night Live” producer) Lorne Mi details

It’s eerie: the voice on the other end of the phone line is a dead ringer for that of John Lennon. That’s no accident.

Daniel Taylor has masterfully taken on the vocal inflections of the late Beatle in the musical/play Lennon: Through a Glass Onion, which comes to Club Soda on Tuesday, Oct. 25.

Taylor — a Liverpudlian, like Lennon — has the late Beatle’s look and mannerisms down pat, too. So much so that the hair stands up on the neck of many a patron who catches the show. The resemblance, physically and vocally, is that uncanny.

Lennon: Through a Glass Onion has bowled over audiences in the U.S. and the U.K. The Club Soda date marks the show’s Canadian debut, before it moves on to cities including Toronto and Vancouver. And that’s only fitting.

Lennon, who was murdered in New York 36 years ago, had a special connection with this city. In 1969, he and bride Yoko Ono conducted a Bed-In for Peace at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. Joined at their bedside by Timothy Leary, Dick Gregory, Tommy Smothers and Petula Clark, among others, Lennon and Ono recorded Give Peace a Chance, their protest against the Vietnam War.

Through a Glass Onion was co-created by details

The cover photograph of the Beatles Abbey Road album is one of the most iconic images of pop history. Taken in 1969, it shows the group walking across a zebra crossing. Led by a white suited John Lennon, the Fab Four cross from left to right. Paul, of course, is barefooted.

But there are other versions, including the group crossing the other way, and there are even shots with Paul wearing sandals.

Now these rarely seen alternative takes are being put up for auction in New York next Thursday. In all there are six photos taken by Iain Macmillan, who only ever made a handful of sets of the images. For decades Macmillan, who died in 2006, just sat on the negatives, said Nigel Russell, director of photographs with Heritage Auctions, which is conducting the sale. This set was given to an executive with the Capitol record company, which had the US rights to the Beatles’ music at the time. It was sold onto a collector who has put them up for sale.

The whereabouts of the other remaining sets is unknown. “It doesn’t appear the rest were sold in a gallery, we think they were given away to others involved in the 1969 recording,” he said.

The pictures were taken on August 8 1969 when t details

Phil Collins thinks Sir Paul McCartney is condescending. The 65-year-old star is former fan of the legendary singer, but his perception of Sir Paul took a sharp downward turn following an encounter at the Party at the Palace event at Buckingham Palace in 2002, which marked the Golden Jubilee of Britain's Queen Elizabeth.

He said: "I've got to preface this by saying McCartney was one of my heroes. But he has this thing when he's talking to you, where he makes you feel ...[putting on a condescending Scouse accent] 'I know this must be hard for you, because I'm a Beatle. I'm Paul McCartney and it must be very hard for you to actually be holding a conversation with me.'"

Phil admitted he has "never forgot" the way he was treated by Sir Paul at Buckingham Palace. He explained to the Sunday Times newspaper: "I met him when I was working at the Buckingham Palace party at the palace thing back in 2002.

"McCartney came up with Heather Mills and I had a first edition of The Beatles by Hunter Davies and I said, 'Hey Paul, do you mind signing this for me?' And he said, 'Oh Heather, our little Phil's a bit of a Beatles fan.' And I thought, 'You f***, you f***.' Never forgot it."

Source: Hamilton Spectator

There are places I remember All my life, though some have changed. 

Some forever, not for better Some have gone and some remain.

All these places have their moments -- "In My Life" The Beatles

In February 1964, our somber nation, still reeling from the November 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, was invaded. Not by communists but by the British. Instead of arriving for battle as their forefathers had, these four mop-topped, 20-something Liverpool lads came in rockin' and played a role in a cultural revolution fueled by music. Soon on a first-name basis with America, John, Paul, George and Ringo made quite the first impression. Beatlemania swept the 50 states. And we were forever changed. "Ladies and Gentlemen ... The Beatles!" an interactive, artifact-driven traveling exhibit examining the phenomenon opened at the Clinton Presidential Center on Oct. 8 and runs through April 2. "It's really a look at the touring years," says Ben Thielemier, communications manager with the Clinton Foundation.

The exhibit of more than 400 items, including records, rare photos, instruments, clothing and tour artifacts, was curated by the Los Angeles-based Grammy Museum and Fab Four Exhibits LLC. Th details

During the heyday of Beatlemania, there was a commonly agreed-upon way of keeping up with each of the Fab Four…

Paul is the cute one George is the quiet one Ringo is the funny one John is the smart one

By “smart” I’m sure the fans meant John was witty, clever and—since his name appeared first on almost all Beatles songs–the real brains behind the band. Of course, John was very witty; most Beatles press conferences left reporters in stitches as he would fire wise cracks with machine gun speed. He also was extremely clever and despite the arrangement of the words “Lennon/McCartney” being a bit overblown, he was a brilliant songwriter. But he was also “smart” in that he was sometimes an icy smart alec. Sometimes it was charming, like with this little shot during a concert in front of the freaking Queen of England…

Other times however, he could come off as entirely cruel. He used to mock disabled people and often showed contempt for political leaders in cities and countries he visited. There’s also the fact that he abandoned his first wife and son, and occasionally was violent against women. Interviews from friends and associates often details

Desert Trip has offered several surprises. And on Saturday night the bright light was Rihanna who joined Paul McCartney onstage to belt out FourFiveSeconds. They first performed the song together at the 2015 Grammy Awards. The 28-year-old beauty wore a baggy pin-stripped suit as she made her way through the hit with the 74-year-old on his guitar. 'We finally found someone under the age of 50,' McCartney joked after she left the stage.

FourFiveSeconds, which was also co-written by Kanye West, has been a regular song in both Rihanna and Paul's set lists since the single made its debut in January 2015. Neil Young was also on hand to perform A Day in the Life which was combined with John Lennon's Give Peace A Chance and Why Don't We Do It in the Road? Paul's daughter, fashion designer Stella McCartney, and her friend Kate Hudson were in the audience. 

This comes after the Rolling Stones hit the stage for the second weekend on Friday. Mick Jagger, 73, took the stage in a bright pink and red jacket to belt out some of his oldies like Start Me Up and Angie. Paris Hilton and Alessandra Ambrosio shared their images from the event on Snapchat and Instagram. 

Paris said she was 'thrilled' to be in the des details

John E. Carter doesn’t need the Internet in order to figure out which day of the week March 21, 1961 fell on. It was a Tuesday. Tuesday nights were when John’s band, the Bluegenes (which later morphed into the Swinging Blue Jeans), brought on a special guest at the Cavern in Liverpool. That particular night, he was on stage, introducing a local group making its nighttime debut in the popular, perspiration-drenched cellar club.

He did so reluctantly this time, and only at the insistence of club owner Ray McFall. “Our group didn’t want the Beatles on,” said John, 78, who played guitar with the Bluegenes, reminiscing at his home in Beaconsfield. “I’d seen the Beatles, and they were dirty. They were scruffy.” He had seen the not-yet-Fab Four play at a local church, St. Barnabas — where Paul McCartney had sung in the choir — and was put off by what he considered to be the group’s unprofessional attire, raw performance and rough demeanour.

After introducing the leather-clad quartet at the Cavern, John left the club for a pint. When he returned to resume his MCing duties, he was mildly shocked.

“George Harrison had broken a string,” h details

A new Paul McCartney song, written and performed by the former Beatle, appears on the soundtrack for the Raymond Briggs adaptation Ethel and Ernest, the Telegraph can exclusively reveal.

The animated film, based on Briggs's moving 1998 storybook about the lives of his parents, premieres this afternoon at the London Film Festival.

Jim Broadbent voices Briggs's father, milkman Ernest, while Brenda Blethyn plays his mother Ethel, who worked as a lady's maid before meeting her future husband in 1928. The film tells the story of the couple, from their marriage to the birth of their son (Briggs, played by Luke Treadaway), to their experiences during the Second World War and post-war years.

McCartney's new song, titled In the Blink of An Eye, plays over the end credits of the movie. Getting one of the most famous names in pop music to write a track for your film might sound like a bit of a daunting challenge but Ethel and Ernest director Roger Mainwood says he had an advantage: McCartney was already a fan of Briggs's work.

"I knew that Paul McCartney was a big animation fan and I knew that Raymond Briggs's book Fungus the Bogeyman had influenced Paul's 1980s track Bogey Music," he explained.

&nb details

This is the show I'm going to talk about on my deathbed--the day Sir Paul McCartney turned a high desert roadhouse into a modern day Cavern Club. It sounds like a dream, but it really did happen.

In between his Saturday night sets at Desert Trip, McCartney and his band blew in like tumbleweeds that can sing in perfect harmony to Pappy & Harriet's Pioneertown Palace on Thursday, Oct. 13, to play for a crowd of only a few hundred super fans who just found out about the show that morning when Macca announced it.

Some had seen McCartney's monster set at Desert Trip last weekend while others were headed to the Empire Polo Club this weekend. And there were high desert locals, like brothers Jaime and Mario Correa, 25 and 26, respectively, of Joshua Tree, who plunked down $50 each, in cash, for the show of a lifetime. Jaime Correa was working on a car engine when he heard about the show Thursday morning. "This is crazy," Jaime Correa said. "I didn't wake up this morning expecting to be here."

None of us did--well, except Macca and his band, and the merch guys, since there were posters ($10) and two different Pappy & Harriet's McCartney T-shirts for sale ($30).

Fans started unofficially lining up details