Beatles News

Over 800 items owned by Ringo Starr and his wife, Barbara Bach, are going to auction, including rare Beatles memorabilia like his three-piece drum kit used in over 200 performances and a Rickenbacker guitar known as the "Beatle-Backer" that John Lennon owned and later gave to Ringo.

The unprecedented number of Beatles-owned objects will be offered Dec. 4-5 at Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills, California.

"We have so much stuff and a lot of it we haven't seen in 20 to 30 years," Starr, 75, said in a phone interview with Bach from London.

He said the idea for the auction came after The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles asked to do an exhibition about his life and music in 2013-2014.

"It started with me looking at storage units we have all around the world it seems. ... We found we had so much stuff," he said.

Then another project - an upcoming book and an exhibition currently at London's National Portrait Gallery of photographs Starr took of his former bandmates - turned up "boxes of negatives from the '60s onward," he said.

On top of that, the couple sold their country house in England and closed down their apartment in Monte Carlo.

"We thought, `What are we going to do with a details

A legendary producer-engineer for artists including The Beatles and David Bowie will be passing on his expertise to students at Leeds Beckett University.

Ken Scott has been appointed Visiting Senior Lecturer in the School of Film, Music and Performing Arts.

His 50-year career in the recording industry began when he got a job in the tape library at Abbey Road studios in London aged 16. He quickly worked his way up to the position of assistant engineer, where his first session was on side two of Beatles album A Hard Day’s Night and eventually became recording engineer on Magical Mystery Tour and the White Album.

Ken said: “I was lucky enough to start in the recording business by getting what I consider to be the best training ever and because of that I feel it essential for me to bring at least some of what I learned to the young and upcoming engineers and producers in this fast-changing world of music.

“It is with this in mind that I am pleased and extremely proud to be given this opportunity to be able to bring my experience to the students of Leeds Beckett University.”

Ken worked with a host of other big names in popular music including Pink Floyd and the Hollies details

Hollywood Vampires is a group of rock legends—with Johnny Depp on guitar—that pay tribute to their fallen hard-partying friends through rock ’n’ roll.

“We’re doing a Pink Floyd song today that I don’t know at all, ‘Welcome to the Machine,’” Alice Cooper tells me almost immediately after we say hello, with a hint of fear in his voice. “They’re doing some kind of a tribute album and they said, ‘We want you to do this song,’ and I'm thinking, ‘The timing on these lyrics is so wacky and the melody line just kind of lays there,’ and the more I listened to it the more worried I got. So this is going to be a nightmare today.”

When I tell Cooper that it took Pink Floyd friend Roy Harper to nail the vocal he’s instantly relieved. “Oh, good! Honestly that makes me feel better,” Cooper says, loosening up visibly. “Now I can walk in and feel OK. I have so little ammunition.”

Cooper is in New York with Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry to promote their new album, Hollywood Vampires, named for the legendary mid-’70s Los Angeles nightly drinking club that included Cooper, John Lennon, Ke details

Today, the most covered song in history, Lennon-McCartney’s famous love song, ‘Yesterday’ turns 50 years old. Where has the time gone, and what impact did this raw, beautiful melody have on the musical and social structures of the 20th Century and even today?

When the single of ‘Yesterday’ was released on September 13, 1965, it is all but likely that The Beatles, Apple Records and indeed EMI would have totally, undeniably underestimated the success and significance of this one simple, four-chord pop song. Yesterday topped the American chat in 1965 after its’ release as both a single and on the album Help! in August and September of 1965.

What’s unique about this single is the complete and seismic departure of the group from the then-high energy, simple love songs associated with that of the Beatlemania period and the large stadium tours that the group embarked on in the early 1960s. However, here, the single is so melodic, yet so simple. McCartney’s lead vocal is accompanied with a solo acoustic guitar and a string quartet, written by producer, George Martin.

Yesterday was voted best song of the 20th Century by the BBC Radio in 1999, in the following year, details

Abbey Road Studios will host a new series of public lecture events this November entitled ‘Sleeve Notes: From Mono to Infinity,’ and presented by music producer and recording engineer Alan Parsons. Parsons is indelibly linked to Abbey Road – most notably for his work with Pink Floyd, The Beatles and his own music with The Alan Parsons Project. The ex-Abbey Road staffer, now resident in California, will chart the development of his own skills and experience as an engineer, producer and recording artist alongside the developments in music technology at Abbey Road

He will share his first hand experiences – both anecdotal and educational - of his time working with the iconic artists who passed through the Studios’ doors. The talks will incorporate audio recordings, video footage, photos and vintage studio equipment used to create classic tracks. ‘Sleeve Notes’ will include an audience Q&A with Alan, which will be co-hosted by David Hepworth, whose journalistic and TV credentials including The Guardian, NME, Q, Mojo, and The Old Grey Whistle Test.

Alan’s long career at Abbey Road began when he was a young trainee engineer working on The Beatles final two landmark al details

To celebrate the 75th birthday of John Lennon, Yoko Ono is inviting the general public once again to give peace a chance: in the form of a giant, human peace sign in New York's Central Park.

Having recently concluded the run of her solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Ono is taking on as her next major project an attempt to create the world's largest human peace sign on Oct. 6, three days before the date that would have been the late former Beatle's 75th birthday.

Organizers announced Friday that the general public is invited to participate in the event on the East Meadow of Central Park in New York. The gathering is scheduled to take place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., near the park entrance on 99th Street and 5th Avenue.

Participants are required to register online, but the event is free and open to all ages. The event, titled "Imagine Peace," is organized by the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, a traveling, nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing hands-on music education to students.

On Friday, Ono officially brought the Tour Bus to New York to commemorate her late husband's birthday in a public event attended by local officials. She was joined by former "Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark" details

In honor of his late mother, Julian Lennon's White Feather Foundation has announced it will establish The Cynthia Lennon Scholarship For Girls

The initial funding will be in partnership with Connect To Learn, a global education initiative of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, Ericsson and Millennium Promise. With a focus on Africa, scholarships will be provided to ten girls, covering a full four years of educational support for each recipient. In total, The White Feather Foundation is committing to multiple scholarships (in Cynthia Lennon’s name) over the course of five years.

For Julian Lennon, the scholarship arose from two events. The first: the April 2015 passing of his mother, a woman who aimed to live life as fully as possible, despite her hardships. Foremost, Cynthia Lennon was an artist and poet her entire life, as well as a published writer/author; a clever, wry woman with a heart of gold, yet nobody’s fool. The second was Julian’s visit to Kenya and Ethiopia in 2014 to witness the positive effects of clean water and education initiatives funded by The White Feather Foundation. An acclaimed photographer, Julian also captured images of local people and landscapes that were subs details

The English designer has enlisted fellow Brit Cara Delevingne to star in the campaign. Taking time out of her busy acting career, Cara stuns in the underwear shots. "[Cara] represents a generation of young women that we are really trying to reach,” Stella said in a statement.

Cara takes over from Kate Moss, who fronted the ads in its inaugural year in 2014.

Stella also spoke of her desire for the social media and web launch of the ads to “inspire all generations of women to be aware of breast cancer and be aware that preventing it is the most positive approach.”

The photos were shot by Sean Thomas, and in one image Cara is wearing a pretty pink lace set, making a heart shape with her fingers over her left breast.

The collection is called the Alina Playing range, and is made up of a balconette bra, a soft-cup bra and a bikini brief. All three are the same shade of pink.

A percentage of profits will be donated to three breast cancer charities, including Linda McCartney Centre in Liverpool, England, part of the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, which is the boyhood hometown of her Beatles legend father Paul.

Stella's mother Linda died of breast and liver cancer i details

In the decades since the arrival of John Lennon’s Imagine on September 9, 1971, most of its legacy has telescoped around the title track. But, as members of those sessions reminded us in this Something Else! Sitdown, thete is more to this album than “Imagine.”

“Jealous Guy,” for instance, has become one of the most covered of John Lennon’s solo tracks — with more than 100 reinterpretations, and counting. (Roxy Music had a memorable hit with it just after Lennon passed.) And yet, “Jealous Guy” still belongs completely to its author, as Lennon sings with an unmatched fragility over an atmospheric track that included Klaus Voormann, Jim Keltner, Joey Molland, Tom Evans and John Barham.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?,” says Molland, who had recently worked with his late Badfinger bandmate Evans on George Harrison’s post-Beatles solo debut, as well. “They just called up and invited us down there. John wanted to try out some things with acoustic guitars, and George had just come off All Things Must Pass. Phil Spector was also producing John’s record, so they asked us to play a bit. We went down and it was a great evening &mdash details

Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney admitted he was one 'proud' dad today after his daughter Mary was commissioned to take the official portrait of the Queen to celebrate her becoming Britain's longest reigning monarch.

Like any modern day parent, the 73-year-old star took to social media to express his delight over his daughter's amazing achievement. Writing on Twitter, Paul gushed: "Very proud of @maryamccartney What a way for me to celebrate the Queen’s achievement. God bless us all #longestreign."

The McCartney family have often been called upon to celebrate the Queen's time on the throne, with Sir Paul performing at both the Golden and Diamond jubilee pop concerts.

Today Queen Elizabeth became the longest reigning monarch in British history.

She has surpassed her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria's record on the throne and has reigned for more than 23,226 days, 16 hours and 30 minutes. The monarch, however, remained modest and matter of fact about the achievement.

Although she thanked the nation for their kind messages as she opened the Borders Railway in Tweedbank on the landmark day, she admitted that the milestone was "not one to which I have ever aspired".

By: An details

Ringo Starr has called on Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison to sift through their private photograph collections for a new Beatles project: “If they’re listening ... dig out the negatives,” he said.

Starr was speaking at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London, where a new display of recently found photographs that he took and then forgot about was going on public display.

They include images of his fellow Beatles larking around and relaxing, as well as photographs taken on the band’s first visit to the US in 1964.

The photographs are being published in a new book but Starr thinks there are many more fascinating pictures taken by his Beatles bandmates that could also be published.

“The other boys had cameras too, so the next plan is I want to get the rest of my pictures, Paul’s pictures, Yoko will have John’s pictures, Olivia George’s ... it would make a great book. I’ll be in a lot more photos.”

He added: “If I put it out there, they might respond.”

Starr said he discovered thousands of old negatives in boxes he hadn’t looked in for nearly 30 years.

By: Mark Brown

Source details

'All the Lonely People ' tribute disappears from Stanley Street bench

Liverpool's Eleanor Rigby statue plaque has been stolen.

The disappearance was spotted on social media after visitors to the iconic character from The Beatles’ 1966 song posted photographs from Stanley Street over the weekend.

The bronze statue of Eleanor Rigby sitting on a stone bench with a shopping bag looking down at a sparrow perched on the Liverpool Echo was sculptured by entertainer Tommy Steele. It was erected in 1982 as a tribute to The Beatles.

The plaque carried the words dedicating the sculpture to “all the lonely people”, and was situated on the wall behind the statue.

A spokesman for the City Council, which is responsible for the statue, said today that the plaque had been stolen. He said: “We are very concerned to see that the plaque has been taken and will be examining CCTV to find out exactly how it happened. Obviously we will aim to replace it as soon as possible.”

By: Eleanor Hayward

Source: Liverpool Echo

Read More >> details

On Sept. 11, 1964, the Beatles played in concert for the first and only time in Florida.

The 37-minute show at Jacksonville’s old Gator Bowl almost didn’t happen.

To set the stage: “A Hard Day’s Night” had premiered in the United States the previous month, and Beatlemania was in full swing.

The Beatles were scheduled to arrive in Jacksonville on Sept. 9 — two days before their show — but Hurricane Dora swept into town and left Jacksonville without power for several days.

The band’s plane was diverted to Key West, where they relaxed at the Key Wester hotel for a couple of days.

Because of storm damage in Jacksonville, almost 30 percent of ticket holders were unable to reach the stadium.

There was also tension between the band and organizers, who had planned to racially segregate the audience. The Beatles refused to play until their promoter assured them that concertgoers would be mixed.

Seats in front of the stage were $5, and bleacher seats were $4.

By: Staci Sturrock

Source: Palm Beach Post

details

JOHN LENNON WAS constantly bugged by fans congratulating him for writing The Beatles’ Yesterday, a song he had nothing to do with.

“Yesterday drove him crazy,” veteran New York journo/broadcaster Howard Smith told MOJO. “People would say, ‘Thank you for writing Yesterday, I got married to it, what a beautiful song…’ He was always civil. But it drove him nuts.”

Smith’s intimacy with the Lennons began in 1969, when he first interviewed the couple for the ABC-syndicated radio show he hosted in New York. He was to conduct a number of major interviews between 1969 and 1972. All have been retrieved, collected and made available to buy on CD or download from iTunes and Amazon as The Smith Tapes.

“Once we were in a Mexican restaurant, in a back room,” Smith recalled. “We’d just been to see the musical Lenny, about Lenny Bruce. In the main room John spotted this strolling guitar player, which used to be standard in Mexican restaurants. He turned to me and said, “Howard, in five minutes that guitar player is gonna come in, stand next to me and play Yesterday. And sure enough, it wasn’t even three minutes. We had hardly settl details

By the time The Beatles settled in to write the songs that would make up their legendary 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s songwriting partnership had drastically transformed from the early days when they would write songs face-to-face, trading lines. It was now far more common for one of them to write a song on his own and then bring it in so the other could edit, criticize, and maybe embellish upon the raw material provided.

In the case of Pepper’s monumental closing track “A Day In The Life,” the collaboration came from the melding of seemingly disparate parts of songs that the two had written separately. As Lennon told Playboy shortly before his death in 1980, “I was reading the paper one day and noticed two stories. One was about the Guinness heir who killed himself in a car. That was the main headline story. He died in London in a car crash. On the next page was a story about four thousand potholes in the streets of Blackburn, Lancashire, that needed to be filled.”

“Paul’s contribution was the beautiful little lick in the song, ‘I’d love to turn you on,’ that he’d had floating arou details