Beatles News

At 26, Paul McCartney should have been on top of the world. He was single, rich beyond most people’s dreams and a member of the most successful pop band of them all.

Back home at the Beatle’s home in St John’s Wood, London, though, it was a different story. His beautiful green velvet sofa was covered in dog hair and the state of the carpets was indescribable. Unwashed wine glasses, plates and dirty ashtrays littered the living room.

Meanwhile, women fought like cats for a place in Paul’s grubby bed. Indeed, when his friend the writer Barry Miles came round one day, he found several semi-clad girls in residence. It was all too much — yet not enough. 

So Paul reached out to the one woman who had made sense to him in recent months: American photographer Linda Eastman.

But when he called her in New York to invite her to London, she was already committed to photographing the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane in San Francisco — so he had to wait.

As in the past, Linda ended up in bed with one of the musicians — this time Marty Balin, founder of Jefferson Airplane. But this time, at least, she applied the brakes.

Balin recalls: ‘She details

Records from John Lennon’s school days suggest there may be more than a grain of autobiographical truth in Getting Better, the Beatles song that includes the line “I used to get mad at my school, the teachers that taught me weren’t cool”.

Auction house Sotheby’s said on Wednesday it would be offering a lined sheet, torn from a 1950s school notebook, listing the 15-year-old Lennon’s detentions for such transgressions as “impertinence” and “not wearing school cap”.

Sotheby’s said the sheet, listing 29 detentions imposed on Lennon between September 1955 and July 1956 at Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool, was rescued from a bonfire of old school records by an eagle-eyed member of staff in the 1970s.

“The frequent entries on this sheet from six different teachers reveal that John Lennon’s rebellious nature and irreverence were well established traits of his character even at the age of 15,” Sotheby’s said in a news release.

On one day, September 12, 1955, Lennon received five detentions from two teachers for a range of offences from “no hwk” (homework) to “talk after two warnings” and & details

The late Ray Charles—the great American singer, songwriter, musician and composer—was born on this date (September 23) in 1930.

No, this factoid doesn't have a lot to do with guitars.

It does, however, bring to mind John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers' interesting 1966 version of Charles' 1959 hit "What'd I Say." The Bluesbreakers version features a young Eric Clapton on guitar.

To put it bluntly, even though it appears on a groundbreaking, legendary guitar album—Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton—"What'd I Say" is not a standout track by any means. It just sort of sits there, and its lengthy drum solo (played by Hughie Flint) isn't exactly "Moby Dick." Who knows, maybe it was a crowd favorite at the Bluesbreakers' live shows.

Anyway, there is this oddity to consider: When the rest of the band comes back into the song after Flint's drum solo (at 3:36), Clapton is playing the very-hard-to-miss guitar riff from the Beatles' late-1965 single "Day Tripper"—over and over again. Blues Breakers was recorded in March 1966, so there's no question as to whose riff it was.

Is it theft? Plagiarism? Maybe by today's standards. But in reality, it's just a 21-year-old guitarist details

Unpublished negatives of John Lennon with his wife Yoko Ono, taken just two days before he died, are set to go on sale at auction in the US, with prices expected to reach tens of thousands of dollars.

The set of photographs was taken by BBC producer Paul Williams just 48 hours before the former Beatle was gunned down outside his home in New York, and is part of the same lot as a controversial peace of film footage showing John Lennon and the other Beatles on stage in Blackpool.

The photos were taken during John's final interview at the Hit Factory, a legendary Manhattan recording studio. DJ Andy Peebles conducted the interview for the BBC, and the material to emerge became known as the Last Lennon Tapes. Williams shot nine photos of Lennon with Ono, and one solo shot of Ono. 23 of the photos feature Peebles with unidentified people. Bidding for the negatives begins at $14,000 for the lot at Nate D Sanders Auctions.

The very last photos of John Lennon were taken by Annie Leibovitz on the day of his death.

Part of the same collection going under the hammer is 3 ½ minutes of 8 mm footage of the Beatles performing at the ABC Theatre in Blackpool, England along with backstage clips.

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In 1989, a Liverpool-born music journalist was contacted by Paul McCartney's office in London and invited to interview the star. They had met before and enjoyed a good rapport. In the years that followed, Paul Du Noyer (right) continued to meet, interview and work closely with McCartney, their conversations moving between music – life as one of the Beatles and later with Wings – and his most private feelings on John Lennon and his beloved Linda, among others.

Over the last 35 years Du Noyer has interviewed McCartney more often than any other magazine writer. Conversations with McCartney is the result. Drawing from their interview sessions and coupling McCartney’s own candid thoughts with Du Noyer’s observations, the book is an intimate portrait spanning McCartney’s entire musical career.

THE nearest I have come to dying, so far, was an asthma attack in childhood. I found myself in a Liverpool hospital with an oxygen mask clamped to my face and radio headphones on my ears. The station was broadcasting the Beatles’ new record Abbey Road in its entirety. That is why, when people call the group’s music ‘life-affirming’, I understand them in a very literal way. At details

What is it that keeps the phenomenon of The Beatles going and going and going?

Without the Beatles, music would simply not exist. Songwriting, musical innovation and comedy; the Fab Four were geniuses at everything. The depth of emotion with which they have written about love, it’s just incredible! Not just that, they have created music that can make you laugh, cry, smile and think.

Well, what have I learnt from them?

I have learnt that people change, people fall out, people get divorced, people forgive, people don’t forgive, people make mistakes, people get left behind, people die.

..and that you get one chance to live, so you better enjoy it.

I believe one of the reasons why they continue to affect us is because they taught us (and are still teaching us) lessons we’ll never forget. So, here, for example, are 11 of the most important things that we all learned from The Beatles:

1. There are many things we want in life, but in the end, All You Need Is Love

2. Everybody’s Got Something To Hide

3. Money Can’t Buy Me Love

By: Shuvro Ghoshal

Source: Storypick

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She was a vision of loveliness who attracted the eye of some of the best photographers in the world -- not to mention the fancy of two of rock 'n' roll's most iconic guitar heroes.

Today, though, Pattie Boyd feels most comfortable on the other side of camera. She's taken her passion for photography to a professional level, and is wrapping up a tour of five American cities this week with the Behind the Lens exhibit, presenting still and moving images while telling some of the stories behind her work.

It's the last part that the perpetually shy Boyd struggles to pull off, she admitted over the phone last week after sharing the stage at City Winery Nashville with award-winning rock photographer Henry Diltz on September 13.

"It was done really well," said Boyd, whose past exhibition experiences didn't require getting up in front of an audience to speak. "Everybody enjoyed it. My part was an hour but Henry likes to talk longer than me. I was a little nervous to say the least when we were in L.A. (at Largo for the first event). And then (in Nashville), I felt a little more confident, maybe because we were in the winery."

The classy venue even presented them with a bottle displaying a Behind the Lens la details

Being born in Liverpool I literally grew up on The Beatles. My mum and dad would have their songs on in the house 24/7 and when I hear the early stuff it really takes me back to being a kid. I admit I did fall out of love with them for a little while when I worked in terrible Elizabethan themed tea room in my home town of Brixham in Devon as a teenager. This was one of those situations, no doubt familiar to many where you work intensively in a place that has one CD that they play on repeat - forever. I admit even to this day if I hear 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' I feel physically sick AND get the strange urge to toast a teacake. I have the exact same situation with heavyweight Greek crooner Demis Roussos, there's one particular album of his that just makes me feel like I'm about to pass out and unusually incites me to prepare food for hungry tourists.

Anyway back to The Beatles, I've always felt like there's a strange impenetrability about the Liverpool legends, their songs are cherished cultural land marks that we've all grown up with and the general feeling is that the creative process should never be questioned. I've always suspected that if you were to mentioned in a Liverpool pub that you weren't that keen on the Be details

Western New Yorkers who tried to get Paul McCartney tickets but could not now have a reason.

Cyber scalpers used software knows as "bots" to buy virtually every ticket. It happened so fast, Congress is now taking action.

The tickets for the highly hyped show at First Niagara Center sold out in just three minutes. Scalpers and online hackers who used bots are now re-selling the tickets at sky-high prices. Schumer says new technology means software is able to trick systems that venues and legitimate ticket sellers use to keep bots out.

"Fans needed to be faster than a computer," says Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Schumer announced that he is introducing new legislation to the Senate that would make software acting as bots illegal. In addition, anyone selling tickets knowingly bought by bots would face a fine of $1,000 per ticket.

The senator says a similar version of the Bots Act has also been introduced into the House of Representatives. He says both bills have bipartisan support. "What this will do is stop the bots and online ticket sellers in their tracks," Schumer explains. "They sell a thousand tickets illegally -- that's a million dollar fine. They're not making that much money."

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Bermuda native Rosemary Jones recently released a full-colour guide to our island and its history dubbed Moon Bermuda, bringing together a wide variety of information that promises to familiarize readers with a range of knowledge pertinent to Bermuda, suitable for travel junkies, history buffs, and anyone with a taste for natural beauty.

Following below in an excerpt from the book that focuses on John Lennon’s visit to Bermuda in 1980:

Bermuda has reestablished a fascinating connection with John Lennon’s legacy. The former Beatle spent the final summer of his life on the island—a two-month sojourn in June and July 1980that’s been credited as a creative reawakening of the star who had stepped away from his career in 1975 to spend time raising his son Sean with Yoko Ono in New York.

Lennon sailed to Bermuda from Newport, Rhode Island, on a storm-wracked sailboat, landing in St. George’s before he rented a home in Fairylands, Pembroke. Ending a creative dry spell, he began to write again and during a visit to the Botanical Gardens, he was inspired by a flower bed sign bearing the fanciful name of a freesia—“Double Fantasy.”

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The Beatles - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr - are widely regarded as the most influential act of the rock era. Here are their 17 UK Nos, in chronological order.

From Me To You: May 2,1963 (7 weeks at No 1). John Lennon and Paul McCartney began writing "From Me to You" while on a coach to Shrewsbury as part of the Beatles' tour with Helen Shapiro.

She Loves You: September 12, 1963 (6 weeks at No 1). Another Lennon-McCartney song, inspired by Bobby Rydell's song "Forget Him".

I Want To Hold Your Hand: December 12, 1963 (5 weeks at No 1). This Lennon-McCartney song had advance orders exceeding one million copies in the United Kingdom. A reluctant Capitol Records released the first Beatles record in the US on Janaury 13 1964, "to see how it goes". I Wanna Hold Your Hand became their fastest-selling single - one million copies were sold in the first three weeks

Can't Buy Me Love: April 2, 1964 (3 weeks at No 1). A Lennon-McCartney song written in Paris. Above, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison, take a fake blow from Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) while visiting the heavyweight contender at his training camp in Miami two months earlier.

Close to the end of the last century that quintessentially English band, Stackridge recorded a song called, ‘Something About The Beatles’.

‘Turning on, tuning in, everyone believing in love. Making the world go round’

Just like everyone else on the planet, for the past half century and more, Stackridge felt that John, Paul, George and Ringo, collectively, The Beatles, made the world go round. . .and not just the world of music. There really was something about the Beatles that seemed to reach out to everyone. From royalty, to those who simply wanted to touch them, share the same air as them or if all else failed simply to buy the records and bathe in their magical melodies and their wonderful words.

So here are some things about The Beatles…

1. For the week ending April 4th 1964, The Beatles held the top 5 slots of the Billboard Hot 100. They also had another seven positions lower down the chart. One week later they still had three discs in the top five and a further 11 slots within the Hot 100.

2. In the UK, the mono version of the Please Please Me album was rush-released by EMI on 22 March 22 1963. The stereo version was released in late April. All other a details

A video clip from one of The Beatles' gigs back in the 1960's has triggered widespread criticism, as John Lennon, acclaimed singer and songwriter, was shown clearly mocking disabled people while onstage.

The singer's offensive behavior was broadcasted on a Channel 4 TV show, "It Was Alright In The 1960s," on Saturday night, shocking the singers fan's and inciting outrage from other viewers, according to The Daily Mail.

The short clip features Paul McCartney in the background, as he encouraged the audience to clap their hands. Imitating him, John Lennon also asks the audience to do the same, though he delivered the lines with his tongue on the side, adopting a false speech impediment.

He then began an exaggerated clap while stamping his feet, mimicking the way people with disabilities move, reports The Daily Star. While he was doing this, the audience can be heard cheering him on, clapping and hooting.

The reaction to the video clip has mostly been negative, with many quick to point out that the joke, which clearly ridicules the difficulties encountered by disabled people, was done in bad taste. Others, however, state that the singer was simply trying to be a comedian who was putting on a show, ac details

If the Beatles are the soundtrack of your life, then you won’t want to miss a memorabilia collection that could leave you with a piece of the band.

“It’s really something to see; it’s like a Beatles museum. It really is great,” Doug Joswick said.

“You can’t pass anything Beatles, of course, right? so we had to come to check this out,” Matt Greene said.

“It captures the entirety of the Beatles’ career,” said Dean Harmeyer, consignment director at Heritage Auctions.

Harmeyer gave CBS2’s Dick Brennan a tour of the items that were ready to go on auction at the Ukrainian Institute on East 79th Street, on Saturday.

Among the items up for auction is the first contract the Beatles ever signed. John Lennon, Paul McCartneyand George Harrison’s names are all there, but original drummer Pete Best’s name appears on the fourth line rather than that of Ringo Starr.

A 45-RPM record of “P.S. I Love You” with the band’s autographs is also on display.

“(‘P.S. I Love You’ is) the B side for the first single ‘Love Me Do,’ which the song that really starts the stor details

Music-lovers at rateyourmuisc.com have judged nine of The Beatles' twelve studio albums to be among the best thousand ever made.

John, Paul, George and Ringo are well-represented in the list, however users of the popular site appear to favour the group's later studio years, with Please Please Me, With The Beatles and Beatles for Sale all missing out.

Abbey Road and Revolver both sit in the prestigious top 10 coming in at seventh and eighth, with six of the band's albums in total appearing in the top 100.

Three of the "fab four" also made the list with their solo records. McCartney's Ram and Band On The Run appear in the thousand as well as Lennon's debut record John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and chart-topper Imagine. George Harrison's All Things Must Pass comes in at 204.

A massive 300 of the 1000 were albums released in the 1970's while just 121 albums released since the turn of the century appear in the rankings - suggesting that according to the users of the website the best years of music are well and truly behind us.

Radiohead's critically-acclaimed 1997 album Ok Computer tops the list while other high-scoring artists include Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie and The Smiths.

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