Beatles News

This happened two weeks ago: I was on a train coming back from London to Hastings, where I live. I’d had a wakeful night with a baby and a long lunch with a television producer – not a good combination for rest – and was groggy. So I slept for the first part of the journey and, when I woke up, Paul McCartney was sitting on the other side of the aisle.

I love the Beatles. Like millions of middle-aged British men, I have all their records in every available format. I’ve also written a book about their White Album and a TV drama, Snodgrass, about John Lennon. I also love Paul McCartney’s music (I was, in fact, waiting to get a copy of his new compilation, Pure McCartney, to review for a rock music monthly). The first single I ever bought was “Mull of Kintyre”. And here I was, on a train and, as I say, tired and groggy – and Paul McCartney was sitting two metres away from me.

From time to time, passengers would hand him scraps of paper and ask for his autograph, and he would make eye contact with them, ask who it was for, and scribble a signature. (The eye contact is significant: once, while drunk, I asked Cliff Richard for his autograph and he signed it while looking details

Is this one of the earliest pictures in circulation of a very young Paul McCartney, with his even younger brother, Mike? It was taken at Oglet Shore, near Speke, possibly in the late 1940s – and a reader is convinced it’s the McCartney boys.

We showed the photograph to Mike McCartney, who told us: “I couldn’t say it is definitely us, but it might well be! “I’d say there is a 50/50 chance it’s us. We did wear shorts like that with the braces on. Our hair did look like that. And the height difference between the two boys looks right as our kid is 18 months older than me.”

Then there is the girl standing next to the boy who could be Paul... Mike says: “There was a girl, whose name I can’t remember – she was our next door neighbour in Western Avenue, Speke (we were number 72, so she would have been 70 or 74). She was more our kid’s age, and she did look like the girl standing next to the boy in the photo who could be Paul. It’s a fascinating story!”

He adds: “We did walk down to Oggie Shore a lot and, as for the clothes, my mum was a very proud woman and if those shorts with braces attached were worn by the young royals details

You don't have to browse the songs of the Beatles for too long before you come across the word "love" in the title, or a variation on the theme. From "Love Me Do" to "She Loves You" to "Lovely Rita," the lads from Liverpool made the heart-centered emotion central to their work, work that also frequently shined a light on the notions of understanding and connection. 

These important ideas have become the basis of Ringo Starr's annual public birthday celebration, and, by effervescent, Starr-shiny extension, much of his larger calling, too. #PEACEANDLOVE is an oft-seen hashtag when discussion of The Beatles drummer comes up, because that is the message he has long sought to promote, encourage, and live. The public is invited to join the icon on that journey on Thursday, July 7. That's Mr. Starr's 76th birthday, and, as is tradition, he'll appear outside the Capitol Records Building in Hollywood for his yearly "Peace & Love" salute. 

The time? The performances kick off at 11:20, while the salute is at noon. Joining the fun is free. Free, and quite popular, as you might guess, so best arrive by Metro, which has a Red Line stop at Hollywood and Vine, just south of the famous tower. Ringo Starr's family a details

Rock ‘n’ roll will never die. Today’s most listened to radio stations are dominated by songs made on computers with vocal tracks touched up by autotune. But throughout history, rock ‘n’ roll has been a constant, chronicling the country’s most joyous and turbulent events. On some days in history, rock ‘n’ roll is the story.

One of those days is July 6, 1957, when John Lennon first met Paul McCartney. At the time, Lennon was singing and playing guitar in The Quarrymen — a very early carnation of what would eventually become The Beatles.

For the brief time they were talking, McCartney showed Lennon, 16, a certain way to tune a guitar and covered a handful of Little Richard tunes. McCartney left the grounds before the Quarrymen hit the stage, but two weeks later he was formally invited to join the band.

In the five years that followed, George Harrison and Pete Best joined the Quarrymen, as Lennon and McCartney began to focus on more electric guitar playing rather than acoustic and banjo before changing their name to The Beatles.

In 1962 the band signed to Parlophone Records, and the rest is history.

By; Nicholas Parco

Source: NY Da details

Legal documents from the lawsuit between The Beatles and the group's ex-manager Allen Klein are up for sale.

Auction website Moments In Time are selling the settlement papers, which were signed by bandmember John Lennon on behalf of the band, and former manager Klein, for $95,000 (£71,000).

Klein began managing the band in 1969 after replacing their former British manager Brian Epstein who died of a drug overdose in 1967. The American businessman had previously managed the Rolling Stones, and had a reputation for being a ruthless negotiator. After The Beatles' final album Let It Be in 1970, Klein was still in charge of the group's affairs, but was fired in 1973.

He then sued the band and its label, Apple Records, for $19 million (£14 million).

According to Moments in Time, "On the day that the suit was settled, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, (Klein), and a group of the attorneys from both parties assembled in a suite at the Plaza Hotel . . . Photographer Bob Gruen . . . took several photographs, including some shots of John, Yoko and Klein sharing a limo and also posing with the newly signed document resting on a large loaf of bread, signifying that they were . . . making peace."

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It was over 50 years ago now that 60,000 lucky fans got to witness the fab four themselves, The Beatles, play a legendary gig at the now-demolished Shea Stadium in New York City. Today, you can live that experience for yourself.

A new exhibition dedicated to the legendary pop group, named The Beatlemania Experience, has just launched ticket sales for a run in São Paulo, Brazil, according to UOL. You can expect to see rare memorabilia from the band’s historic career, replicas of the clothes and instruments that John, Paul, George and Ringo used, and even a 4D movie based on Yellow Submarine. Perhaps the most intriguing part of the show, though, is a virtual reality experience that brings that Shea Stadium gig to life once more.

Details about this piece are sketchy right now, but from the sounds of it you’ll be able to sit in one of the best seats in the house and experience at least some of the storied show. Taking place on August 15th 1965, the memorable night saw the group perform hits like A Hard Day’s Night and Help!. Exactly how the event is being recreated in VR is unclear, though we’d imagine some CGI magic has been employed seeing as it would have taken a heck of a lot of fo details

Radio shot host Chris Carter said July 3 his “Breakfast With the Beatles” Sunday morning show on KLOS-FM in Los Angeles received a call from a special guest. It was none other than Ringo Starr. The call came right after Carter played two Ringo Starr tracks including “Cookin' [In the Kitchen of Love]” from “Ringo's Rotogravure” album.

“Yeah, push the right button, Chris. Good morning.” Ringo, who was on the phone, said as the call began. Carter asked him if he remembered the recording session from the album track he had just played. “I do. It was so much fun,” Ringo said with a smirk.

Ringo and his All-Starr Band closed out their summer tour Saturday night with a show at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. “So are you happy or sad when the tour ends?,” Carter asked Ringo. “You're absolutely both,” Ringo replied. “And you know you keep up your energy the whole month I've been touring, and now it's like, AAAAAH!, you can breathe out. You have to get used to being normal not living in hotels or traveling around. Suddenly, I go, 'Whoa, what am I going to do with all this time?”

Carter noted Ringo used to switch All-S details

Ken Scott has worked with some of the most influential artists in the history of pop music, including David Bowie and The Beatles The early years of his career as a producer and sound engineer were spent at the world famous Abbey Road studios, where one of his first jobs was working on A Hard Day’s Night at the age of just 17.

Alex Nelson sat down with Ken to hear some of the stories from his time at the studios, and to find out some of the things you learn when working with the world’s biggest band.

1. Getting a job at Abbey Road was easier than you’d think.

“It came about because I got fed up with school and wrote a load of letters to them. Then I had an interview and was accepted two days later – and started to work at what became the world’s most famous recording studio. “I started off in the tape library, and three or four months after that I got promoted and just happened to be put on the album with the biggest band in the world…”

2. You never know how big something is going to be.

“I don’t think we ever knew that we’d still be talking about them 40 or 50 years later. Rock and roll wasn’t even that old at details

It would be a memorable day, even for four young men by then living remarkable red-letter lives. Fifty years ago, on July 4, 1966, the Beatles were to play before 100,000 fans in Manila during a lightning stopover hurriedly tacked on to a series of Tokyo dates.

Tokyo had been tense for the band; they received death threats for daring to play the Nippon Budokan centre. To Japanese conservatives a Western rock band playing at Budokan was disrespectful to the country’s war dead, for whom services are conducted there.

The Japanese government mobilised 30,000 men in uniform to line the road from the airport to the Beatles’ hotel — including sharpshooters on the overpasses — at which they were essentially imprisoned, albeit with five stars.

The boys were glad to leave Tokyo to make their way to The Philippines, via a refuelling stop in Hong Kong.

The combined one-day audience for the Beatles in Manila would be their biggest, and for many years the world record for any band. The venue was the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium. Jose Rizal, a national hero, paved the way for Philippines independence and was executed by Spanish colonialists.

By 1966 a much less noble man ran T details

Ringo Starr has praised the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, saying Brexit will allow the country to get back on its “own feet”. The former Beatles drummer said he was “huge fan” of the EU when it started but it had failed to turn into a “love fest”. Reacting to the referendum result, Ringo told the Press Association: “I think (it’s) good. Get back on our own feet.

“I was a huge fan when (the EU) started. I’ve lived all over Europe so I thought ‘how great’. But it never really got together, I didn’t think. “Maybe in a business way it got together but everyone kept their own flags … it didn’t really turn into a love fest.” Ringo, who lives in Los Angeles, said he rarely returned to Liverpool but he still felt close to his home city.

“I don’t get back to Liverpool much at all,” he said. “I get back when I play there and that’s about it really.” Asked whether he still felt a close connection to Liverpool, Ringo replied: “Oh yeah, are you kidding? I came from there. I’m a scouser. I know I haven’t lost my accent.” Ringo ruled out reuniting details

What started as a neighbor-vs.-neighbor tiff over a tree has grown into a months-long, only-in-New York legal battle pitting actress Marisa Tomei’s parents against the son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Gary and Addie Tomei, who live in a stately town house at 155 W. 13th St. in Greenwich Village, say in their $10 million lawsuit that Sean Lennon, owner of 153 W. 13th St., won’t give peace a chance.

Instead, the lawsuit says, he’s “arrogantly” demanding that the Tomeis alter the entrance to their landmarked brownstone in Greenwich Village’s historic district so he can save a diseased ailanthus tree on his property that has encroached on their house.

“To suggest that [the Tomeis] forever transform their 170-year-old property so that [Lennon] may temporarily enjoy viewing its tree is absurd,” the couple’s lawyer, Gerald Walters, says in court papers filed this week in Manhattan Supreme Court.

The Tomeis are asking a judge to force Lennon, 40, to remove the 24-inch-diameter, 60-foot-tall rotting tree from in front of his home. They say the roots have cracked their stoop, crept into their basement and compromised their foundation.

Though Len details

Looking good doesn’t have to ruin the environment.

That’s the message of a new video featuring fashion designer Stella McCartney, who’s partnering with environmental nonprofit Canopy to push clothing companies to stop sourcing fabric from ancient and endangered forests.

The video, which dropped this week, explains how producing fabrics like viscose and rayon, which is made from wood pulp, pose a serious threat to ancient forests across the globe. And it describes how major fashion brands and designers, like McCartney, are working with Canopy to stop sourcing materials from imperiled woodlands.

When we think about fabric, we tend to think cotton, wool, polyester. But ballooning cotton prices have caused wood-based fabrics to make a comeback. That’s a problem, environmental groups say, because around 30 percent of the rayon used in clothing comes from ancient or endangered forests.

“These man-made cellulosic fabrics like rayon, viscose and lyocell, are created from trees cut down exclusively to feed dissolving pulp mills,” Nicole Rycroft, founder and executive director of Canopy, told The Guardian in 2014.

The result? “Ancient and endangered rainfor details

There's nothing quite like a princess bride!

Five years ago on July 1, 2011, South African beauty Charlene Wittstock wed Monaco's Prince Albert. For the grand royal wedding – a four-day, $70 million extravaganza – Charlene asked her friend, musician-photographer Julian Lennon, to join her in her final moments before she faced the world stage.

An estimated 150,000 spectators flooded the principality's streets eager to see the bride in her jaw-dropping Giorgio Armani gown with its 66-ft. silk tulle veil and train, with millions more watching on TV and online around the globe.

Just minutes before, Lennon photographed Charlene at Monaco's Hermitage Hotel as she made her last preparations to walk down the aisle.

"She appeared so serene," he says of the shot he took of her in hair rollers. "I think for a second she was able to block the world out of her head, eyes and ears, and just observe herself in that moment. The future Princess of Monaco. A natural beauty."

But that's not to say there were no wedding-day jitters. Lennon recalls being "entitled to no more than 10 minutes" – with Charlene, who was practically due to leave the hotel as he entered the suite. As he first sat details

Last week’s ‘Sticking Out Of My Back Pocket’ featured ‘Dear Boy’ from RAM and one of Paul’s most elegant and precise counterpoint arrangements. This week we’re stripping it right back with the song ‘Warm And Beautiful’ taken from the 1976 Wings album At The Speed Of Sound.

We rediscovered this ‘deep cut’ ourselves back in 2014 when At The Speed Of Sound was reissued as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection, and it’s been a favourite ever since. As we were putting together that release, we also discovered that it’s one of Paul’s favourites too who commented in the liner notes for the reissue: "I like 'Warm and Beautiful' very much, I think it’s one of my very good songs.”

The ‘Warm And Beautiful’ arrangement is so different from ‘Dear Boy’ that apart from Paul’s singing and piano, the listener gets halfway through the song before any other instrument is heard. Here’s Paul again,

"I find it a very emotional melody, and in the middle there’s a sort of slide guitar in the instrumental thing where it suddenly goes into harmonies. And it’s funny I always think details

After the break-up of The Beatles in 1970, Paul forged ahead of the frontman of Wings, and apparently wanted to emulate his old group's on-screen success with films like A Hard Day's Night and Help!

An avid fan of the Star Trek TV series, the musician decided to hire its creator to write a science-fiction epic that would feature Wings as part of an intergalactic battle of the bands competition.

In a new book about the history of Star Trek, The Fifty Year Mission, serialised in The Hollywood Reporter, Gene's assistant Susan Sackett reveals, "Paul contacted him and was a Star Trek fan. He invited us to a concert, which was great, and we met backstage.

"Paul hired Gene to write a story about the band and it was a crazy story. Paul gave him an outline and Gene was supposed to do something with it. It was bands from outer space and they were having a competition."

At a loose end after the cancellation of the Star Trek TV series in 1969, Gene accepted the opportunity to turn the rocker's bizarre movie idea into a script. However, the possibility of returning to Star Trek scuppered the collaboration as Susan explains, "Gene was open to things at this point; Star Trek wasn't happening and he wasn't getti details