Beatles News

Four new statues of the Beatles are to be erected in Liverpool. The Cavern Club is paying £200,000 for the 8ft tall bronzes of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr and donating them to the city of their birth. They hope they will be installed on Liverpool’s iconic waterfront.

People will get the first glimpse of the statues, sculpted by Andrew Edwards, on Sunday at the annual International Beatleweek convention at the Adelphi hotel. Two – Lennon and McCartney – have already been cast, and the other two are currently modelled in resin and clay. The Cavern’s Bill Heckle said today: “When we saw them for the first time it was really emotional – I thought I was going to cry. “We just shook our heads. We knew it would be good, but not as good as that.”

There are nearly 30 Beatles statues and monuments all over the globe, from Spain to Cuba, and Ukraine to Kazakhstan. Houston in Texas has a set which are 36ft tall.

Jon Keats, from the Cavern, added: “We want this to be the ultimate Beatles statue, here in Liverpool.” Claire McColgan, Liverpool’s head of culture, said: “Hats off to the Cavern. They’ve all details

Fresh off an undeniably historic headline performance at this year's Lollapalooza hailed without exception as the biggest and best in the festival's 25 year history, Paul McCartney has confirmed another new North American arena date on the universally acclaimed Out There tour.

Paul will return to Columbus, OH nearly 10 years to the day since his last appearance in the Ohio capital city to headline the Nationwide Arena on October 13. October 17 will see Paul back at Toronto's Air Canada Centre for the first time since 2010 on the Up And Coming Tour.

NEW NORTH AMERICAN DATES CONFIRMED

October 13 - Columbus, Ohio - Nationwide Arena

October 17 - Toronto, Canada - Air Canada Centre

Having already torn through 22 shows this year covering Japan, South Korea, Europe, the UK and the US, the Out There tour, as always, features music from the most beloved catalog in popular music, spanning Paul's entire career - as a solo artist, member of Wings and of course as a Beatle. The set list also includes material from Paul's most recent studio album NEW, a global hit upon its release in 2013.

The McCartney live experience is a once in a lifetime opportunity: in just three hours some of the greates details

If he was an ordinary musician without the famous last name, the assortment of music projects keeping Sean Lennon busy right now (producer, band member, solo artist, environmental activist) might cry out creative restlessness or workaholic.

He’s co-produced the forthcoming album by Fat White Family, and he’s also working with members of the group on a side project, a new act called the Moonlandingz who have an EP out in October. It’s released on his label Chimera Music, a label started by Lennon and his girlfriend Charlotte Kemp Muhl, and he’ll head into the studio next month to help produce and play on a Moonlandingz record, with an EP planned for October.

Meanwhile, Lennon has also started writing new music for his and Muhl’s band (they play together under the moniker The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger), in addition to new songs for himself – a batch of tunes that, once he’s ready to put them out, will comprise his first solo album in almost a decade. As if that’s not enough, he’s collaborating with his mother Yoko Ono on a new album she’s releasing in January. Oh, and he’s directing a documentary spotlighting some of his friends who work as artis details

Paul McCartney has admitted that he feared for his own life after John Lennon was killed. The former Beatle said he was on "high alert" when Mark Chapman gunned down Lennon outside his New York home in 1980, but said his own house in rural south England was still largely unprotected and in a remote woodland location.

McCartney said he was left terrified days after the killing when he spotted several armed men advancing on the property.

McCartney told Uncut: "It was weird because in the days that followed it, I was sitting in the house. We had a little perimeter fence, mainly to keep foxes out, because we had some chickens. I'm aware of security threats, so I'm on high alert and I look out and I see someone with a fucking gun, like a machine gun, an assault rifle – 'Wha?!' He's in full military gear, and then I see there's a whole patrol of them. I'm going, 'Holy shit, what's going on?'." 

He added: "I don't know what I did. I think I rang the police. It turned out to be army manoeuvres. [They said] 'Oh, sorry. Are these your woods?' I'd put two and two together and made a thousand. God, I don't know how I lived through it. You think you'd just faint dead on the ground. But they were all t details

It was the high summer of love, and the Beatles had just returned from an abortive trip to Greece in search of an island on which they could all live together and build a recording studio; it was John’s idea, but it quickly proved to be honey pie in the sky and they all gradually began to drift home.

Ringo had left early as Maureen was due to have a baby, George and Pattie flew home on 29 July 1967 to prepare to fly to Los Angeles.

Arriving in Los Angeles on 1 August, George rented a house on Blue Jay Way and while he was waiting for Derek Taylor, the Beatles former PR man who had moved to California where he set up his own PR business, to arrive, having got lost in the fog, George wrote a song named after the street, which was included on the Magical Mystery Tour album.

Over the next week George spent time at Ravi Shankar’s Music School, attended his musical mentor’s concert at Hollywood Bowl, and went to a Mamas and the Papas recording session before flying to San Francisco and walking around Haight-Ashbury, which was the centre of the counterculture and Hippies. before flying home to London on 9 August.

Two days after George arrived home, the Beatles were photographed by Rich details

Just two years separated Paul McCartney's second and third solo albums, 1980's McCartney II and 1982's Tug of War, but a lot changed for the ex-Beatle during that time. Two months after he reunited with Beatles producer George Martin in October of 1980 to begin recording Tug of War — which comes out as a deluxe CD/DVD reissue on October 2nd, along with its 1983 companion album, Pipes of Peace — John Lennon was shot and killed, and McCartney and Martin put their work on hold. They reconvened after a two-month break, bringing in high-profile guests such as Stevie Wonder (who would duet with McCartney on two songs, including future Number One "Ebony and Ivory") and Carl Perkins. Wings guitarist Denny Laine was on board as well, but he would announce his split from Wings in April, 1981, effectively ending that band.

Despite all the turmoil, Tug of War would turn out to be a major success, going platinum and spawning two Top 10 hits. We're offering an exclusive premiere of a remastered single edit of one of those songs, "Take It Away," a version that won't be among the many bonus tracks featured on the Tug of War reissue.

The new reissues are the latest volumes in the Paul McCartney Archive Collection, a details

The Mathew Street Festival may be no more, but International Beatleweek continues. And thousands of Fab Four fans and band from all over the world are set to descend on Liverpool this week to celebrate all things John, Paul, George and Ringo.

They will be joined by some of the most important people in the Beatles’ story, with the city alive with music and talks from Wednesday onwards. The annual week-long event is organised by the Cavern.

Here are 10 events and people that you shouldn’t miss.

1. Anniversary Concert- Cavern Club, August 27 from 6pm.

Join Hal Bruce and a host of the best Beatles’ tribute acts for this anniversary concert in the Cavern’s Live Lounge from 6pm to 2am. A Cavern Club all day and night tickets, which also gives you access to 14 hours of music, noon to 2am, in the front room of the Mathew Street venue, costs £10.

2. Donovan- Royal Court Theatre, August 28 at 7.30pm. Adelphi Ballroom, August 30 at 3pm.

The legendary troubadour that is Donovan returns to Liverpool to take part in International Beatleweek and celebrate 50 years in the music business. He’s due to play a special Shram-Rock Concert at the Royal Court details

SOME TWO YEARS ago, David Gilmour very kindly sent MOJO a cover version of The Beatles’ Here, There And Everywhere.

We enjoyed his reworking of the Fab Four so much that we wanted to share it and after a spot of cajoling he’s finally agreed to let us include it on free CD that comes with the new edition of MOJO (October 15 / #263), on sale from Tuesday, August 25.

“I really wish I had been in The Beatles,” Gilmour tells MOJO of the genesis behind his cover. “[They] taught me how to play guitar, I learnt everything. The bass parts, the lead, the rhythm, everything. They were fantastic.”

That love is manifested on the wonderful harmony-filled cover of the 1966 Revolver original recorded with his son Joe. Previously unreleased anywhere, it forms the cornerstone of our collection of music designed to celebrate the Pink Floyd leader’s life, work and influence, David Gilmour & Friends.

A number of Gilmour’s closest collaborators appear on our bespoke compilation while the guitarist is featured on six of the tracks himself, including songs from Phil Manzanera, Robert Wyatt and The Pretty Things.

The CD is accompanied by a major new interview wi details

If only, even for one day, you could blink yourself back in time — to when you felt freest, when you felt boldest, when the sheer power of youth made you certain you'd succeed

. More than half a century ago, as the Beatles took the world by storm, a group of teenage girls made a pact. They would find a way to meet their idols, face to face, when the band arrived in L.A.

Who cared that theirs was a dream shared by a million screaming, bawling fans? These girls didn't cry. They plotted and succeeded, pulling off a caper so audacious that Life magazine pinpointed it as the moment when "Beatlemania reached its apogee."

Who wouldn't want to try to relive that glory?

And so even though one of their crew, Sue Candiotti, said she couldn't make it, Paula (Glosser) McNair, 67, flew in from Salt Lake City, and Californians Kay (Zar) Crow, 66, and Michele "Mikki" Tummino, 67, made their way south, determined to recapture the thrill of their wild quest.

Crow remembers its start, lying in her bedroom in 1964, listening to her little gray Zenith transistor radio, hearing "I wanna hold your hand..." In seconds, the Hamilton High 15-year-old was dialing a friend on her turquoise Princess phone, conv details

Much of what the average rock aficionado knows about the break up of the Beatles comes from either Jann Wenner’s interviews with John Lennon or from casual attention during those years to news reports about the legal hassles the Fabs endured while extricating themselves from their partnership in Apple. Like any break up, personal or professional, (and this was both the severing of an indescribably successful musical collaboration and the splintering of friends who’d been almost inseparable since childhood), the Beatles’ demise was messy and hurtful for all involved.

Tom Doyle’s superb book Man on the Run: Paul McCartney in the 1970’s fell into my hands as a birthday present from my beloved sister a few days ago and I dropped my usual reading to devour it, both because I wanted to make sure my sister knew I appreciated her thoughtfulness and because I will read anything written with something approaching competence about The Beatles generally and Paul McCartney specifically. Hell, I even read the incompetent stuff.

This book is as good as any I’ve ever read on these subjects. Kudos to Tom Doyle and to my sister Janis.

Doyle is a good journalist as well as a good writer details

The Beatles Symposium returns with a powerful lineup of experts on the Fab Four, according to organizers of the Beatles at the Ridge Festival. The symposium helps kick off the annual music festival in downtown Walnut Ridge Sept. 18-19.

Among the highlights at this year’s symposium will be an on-air presentation from Beatles experts Richard Buskin and Robert Rodriguez. They produce a popular podcast, “Things We Said Today,” which they will do live at the symposium.

Another recent addition is vendor Bud Loveall, who is bringing his Beatles Shop from Austin, Texas. Loveall is noted for his supply of Beatles memorabilia, T-shirts, books and other items.

Symposium headliners include Ivor Davis, who traveled with the Beatles on their North American tour in 1964, and Seth Swirsky, the filmmaker who created the movie “Beatles Stories.”

Davis was the only journalist to join the Beatles for all 34 days of their first American tour, and he was also the only newspaper writer invited to accompany the Beatles for the “Rock and Roll Summit,” when the band finally met Elvis Presley in Los Angeles in 1965.

In 2014, Davis broke his long silence and shared the &ldqu details

OK, so the real Fab Four never performed in Edmonton.

However, wax versions of John, Paul, George and Ringo did briefly touch down at the airport.

“The Beatles! Travelling second class?” read the headline on a story about the Beatles arriving at 11:55 p.m. aboard an Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Toronto.

“The mop-topped singers claimed row five, economy section of the flight. What’s more, there were no screaming, crying masses to greet them — only a handful of newsmen and photographers. They were the Beatles from Victoria’s London Wax Museum — John, Paul, George and Ringo in life-size wax images.”

The wax figures were en route to the Montreal Ville Marie Wax Museum, where they were to be displayed for an indefinite period.

The real Beatles were in Toronto, where they had picked up $100,000 for two brief shows for 36,000 wildly cheering teenagers.

How did the other passengers take to travelling with the fake Fab Four? “It’s all right,” quipped one, “as long as they do not start talking back.” Edmonton was swept up in Beatlemania that summer.

“You could tell by the hair,” the Jour details

While the youth of today may know him better as the old guy from that Rihanna video, there are plenty of fans from other generations that would be excited to see Paul McCartney live — and they're in luck.

Macca will be continuing his world travels on the "Out There" tour this fall, and he has now confirmed a Toronto date at the Air Canada Centre on October 17.

"I am pleased to welcome Sir Paul McCartney to perform in our city," said Toronto Mayor John Tory in a press release. ‎"One of my first acts as Mayor was to get to work on making Toronto a more music friendly city, and hosting an artist like Sir Paul McCartney is another example of how growing the music culture in Toronto is delivering results. Music not only creates jobs, it attracts investment, and I will continue to focus on making music an integral part of the cultural and economic fabric of our city."

McCartney will be performing hits from across his decades-spanning career, including beloved hits from his work with the Beatles and Wings, as well as solo material. The press release also notes that attendees can expect "massive screens, lasers, fireworks, unique video content and, of course, the best songs in the world."

  details

It’s a been a booming era for rediscovered Beatles photos, from the famous lost Beatles photographs taken by their tour manager to Linda McCartney’s tender portraits to Harry Benson’s luminous black-and-white photos of the Fab Four.

On this day in 1969, two days after their final recording session, the Beatles gathered at Tittenhurst Park, where John Lennon and Yoko Ono resided, for a photo shoot they didn’t realize would be their last — an instance of those bittersweet “unknown lasts” that wedge themselves between our lived experience and our memory, sometimes violently and other times with the tender wistfulness of nostalgia.

The cast of characters on that fateful August 22, captured by photographers Ethan Russell and Monte Fresco and Beatles assistant Mal Evans, included the Fab Four, Yoko Ono, a very pregnant Linda McCarney (a photographer herself), Apple Corps’ press officer Derek Taylor, Paul McCartney’s sheepdog Martha, and two donkeys Lennon and Ono kept on the property.

"Linda shot some 16mm footage on my camera. That turned out to be the last film taken.” ~ Paul McCartney

"It was just a photo session. I wasn’t there think details

A Minneapolis Tribune summer intern shared John Lennon’s potato chips in a Minneapolis hotel in August 1965 -- 50 years ago -- after posing as a hotel waitress, and got a front-page story out of it.

Holly (previously Susan) Stocking, now a retired professor of journalism at Indiana University, was a reporting intern at the Minneapolis Tribune in the summer of 1965 when the Beatles came to visit. Their one and only concert in Minnesota was on August 21, 1965 – 50 years ago. Stocking dressed up as a waitress at the hotel where the band was staying, in hopes of getting access to the band. Here is the story of her encounter – and how John Lennon took pity on a fledgling reporter, enabling her to get a page-one story, transcribed word-for-word below.

Monday, August 23, 1965

By Susan Stocking, Minneapolis Tribune Staff Writer

I didn’t faint, I didn’t scream. I didn’t even squeal. I ate potato chips. In a room with Beatles Ringo Starr, George Harrison and John Lennon – and all I did was munch potato chips! And nervously slop coffee in their saucers. “Half up,” said Lennon, sprawling on the blue spread of a bed in Room 528 of the Leamington Motor Inn. details