Beatles News

The Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) is banking on a priceless collection of Beatles memorabilia – most of it never before shown to the public – to boost what has been sagging attendance for its annual summer fair.

“The collection is probably worth about $100 million but it’s hard to put a price on it,” PNE spokeswoman Laura Ballance told Business in Vancouver.

“Jim Pattison bought John Lennon’s Rolls Royce in the 1980s for $2.5 million and that’s in our display of more than 200 items – many of them never seen before on display. Who knows what that car would sell for at auction today.”

The 105th annual Fair at the PNE opens August 22, which will be the 51st anniversary of the Beatles’ 1964 concert at Empire Stadium on the PNE grounds.

Five avid collectors of Beatles memorabilia recently came together and decided to pool their collections to start showing them in museums. The PNE was in discussions with that quintet’s exhibit company and it was agreed that the Fair at the PNE  could be the first place where the items would be shown, Ballance said.

The items, which are part of an exhibit named the Magical Mystery details

THE NME, once the Accordion Times and Musical Express, then the New Musical Express, is changing. The weekly publication, which currently sells about 15,000 copies, will be distributed free at train stations, shops and student unions around the country. Its content will expand to cover film, fashion, TV, politics and gaming.

Few believe that that it will last long, even if it outlived its rivals Sounds and Melody Maker. The title, once full of critical reviews and good writing, is likely to become another freesheet repository for slick self-serving PR handouts.

It is just one more indication that the world of popular music, always a battle between those who want to make music and those who just want to make money, has suffered another setback.

Today, when bands so often seem to be created by a team of smooth marketing people or cynically put together to win the latest TV talent show, it’s hard to believe just how many bands and groups there were in the late 1950s and ’60s scrabbling to make music and, if truth be told, to make it big in what would become the world of rock ’n’ roll.

Back in July ’57 a skiffle group called The Quarry Men entertained at St Peter’s details

Freda Kelly’s father was “old school,” she says, and so was John Lennon’s Aunt Mimi. More below about the other Beatle parents, but Mary Elizabeth Smith, who raised Lennon in middle-class gentility, indeed had a stern reputation. Still, she generally smiled for the camera, while Freda’s dad had the look of a friendly Irish farmer or Christian Brother.

He didn’t think much, though, of the leather-clad rockers known as the Beatles. “He’d approve of anybody with a suit and tie,” recalled his daughter.

We learn all of this from an absolute gem of a documentary, “Good Ol’ Freda,” which has been shown at venues all over America and is now available via livestreaming or disc on Netflix.

In 1961, the secretary of the Beatles fan club acquired a boyfriend and passed on her job to Freda Kelly, a fellow Liverpool teenager and regular at the group’s lunchtime gigs at the Cavern Club. She hung out with them there in the band room and she’d telephone Paul McCartney at home to request a song for a friend’s birthday the next day or approach him for money owed on postage.

The 16-year-old had left school and was working in a details

“You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” Harvey Dent’s words from The Dark Knight always remind me of John Lennon and Paul McCartney – the musical legend tragically gunned down by a madman, and his songwriting partner, who these days works with Kanye West, Rhianna, Jamie bloody Oliver and seemingly anyone who gives him a modicum of relevance.

Except there is a school of thought that it was John who lived to become the villain. Because Paul McCartney died in November 1966 and was replaced with a lookalike.

Sure, it sounds crazy, until you read all the evidence… Then it sounds even crazier.

But it’s an impressive example of the way a rumour can get, like, seriously out of hand decades before social media’s inventors were a twinkle in their fathers’ eyes.

The rumour kicked off in 1969, based on a number of ‘clues’ that fans had picked up on various records.

Musically, there was the outro to the 1967 hit ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’. For those who have only heard the radio edit, the final minute or so of ‘Strawberry Fields’ is a hodgepodge of sounds – the annoy details

Ray Crump has seen the eye rolls when he shares his story. "I know they think I'm lying," he says.Fortunately, Ray has the pictures to back up his claim.

Fifty years ago this week he spent several hours in a locker room with the Beatles. "I didn't know who they were, I'll be truthful with you," the 78-year-old says. "If I said I did, I'd be a liar." Ray was, at the time, the equipment manager for the Minnesota Twins. When the Beatles landed in Minnesota for their concert on August 21, 1965 at Metropolitan Stadium, Ray was responsible for keeping tabs on the home clubhouse occupied by the British visitors.

"'Where's Killebrew's locker?'" Ray recalls the Beatles asking. "That's all they knew was (Harmon) Killebrew."

Beds were brought in on which the Beatles could relax. Ray later sold the sheets for $1,500 to a department store chain that cut them up and raffled them off.

"They had never taken a sauna in their lives; they'd never seen a sauna. I said 'You want to go in the sauna?' They said, 'Yes we want to go in the sauna.' So they went into the sauna."

Ray grabbed a camera loaded with color film and posed for the photos he proudly display for the next 50 years. In one shot he's seated in details

Happy Days star Henry Winkler has revealed he was left starstruck by John Lennon.

Winkler recalled how Lennon attended a recording of the popular TV show in 1974, with his son Julian.

"John was very quiet and shy," he told Radio Times. "I didn't know how to engage him in conversation till I started talking about how much I loved his first solo album.

"Then he opened up like a flower." Winkler's role as Arthur Fonzarelli in the American sitcom propelled him to stardom. The Fonz or Fonzie, as he affectionately became known, also revealed he is a huge fan of Strictly Come Dancing.

"Would I appear on it? Only as a judge - I know my limitations. "It would break my heart to be voted off in week three."

He also revealed he's still in contact with his Happy Days co-star Marion Ross, the series' creator Garry Marshall and director Ron Howard, who starred in the show.

Source: The Independent

Read More >>

Dave Grohl recently told GoldDerby that he had dinner with the surviving members of The Beatles, and that Ringo Starr told Grohl that he was a fan of the Washington DC episode of Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways on HBO.

“It was an exciting episode for a few different reasons. One, because that’s my home town, and I grew up with all of these incredible musicians. My biggest influences, and my real heroes, are all musicians from Washington DC that most people don’t know about.

So, not only did I get the opportunity to tell the story of this amazing city, with these amazing people, and the amazing music that was made there, but I also got to sort of shed light on a city that most people wouldn’t consider a musical city.

You go to Chicago, you know that you’re going for the blues, you go to New Orleans, you know you’re going to get jazz, you go to Detroit you’re going to get soul, R&B, and Motown.

But DC, people are like what the fuck, whatever happened in DC? So that was really exciting, to be able to tell people about Go-go music. Not longer after that episode came out, I went out to dinner with Paul [McCartney] and Ringo Starr.

Ringo was like, &lsq details

"If anyone was the fifth Beatle, it was Brian,” said Paul McCartney in a 1997 BBC interview, in case you were wondering about the title of the drama at Pieter Toerien’s Monte-casino Studio Theatre titled Epstein.

Epstein: The Man Who Made The Beatles which opened on Sunday (see review) is a window into the private world of the music entrepreneur whose career as The Beatles’ manager made him a household name, yet whose controversial personal life remained in the closet.

Epstein died in 1967 of an accidental overdose at the age of 32.

And why should anyone care? We are dealing with a generation who don’t always know who The Beatles are. “I knew who they were – just,” says a youthful Sven Ruygrok who plays a character simply called “This Boy”.

“I rather liked that,” says Ruygrok who turned from his planned career as a gymnast after a serious injury and found his niche as an actor. Within three weeks at UCT as a drama student he was offered a film role and the university asked him to make a choice. It was study or work? He’s never looked back.

But, says the actor playing the illusive Epstein, Nicholas Pauling, he spent fo details

t’s been 45 years since the Beatles called it a day, but thanks to their influence on music during the decade or so they were together, people still have a lot to say about the foursome, and the Fringe is no exception.

The ‘cool’ one to those who haven’t given George Harrison a chance, Lennon’s untimely death contributes to his legend status, not having had the chance to turn into a thumbs-upping, ‘peace and love’-ing, stereotype of a Fab Four. Two shows this year take Lennon as their centrepiece: Lennon: Through a Glass Onion is a quasi-tribute act, taking in his life and career, focusing not only on the obvious big hitters, but allowing his lesser-known hits to take centre stage. John Lennon: In His Own Write, on the other hands, is an impressive undertaking – presenting Lennon’s first book on stage in its entirety. In His Own Write, composed at the height of Beatlemania, is a collection of poems, stories and drawings that are improvised, wry and nonsensical.

Spreading the Beatles net more widely, A Life With The Beatles explores the scene from a different point of view – that of trusted road manager Neil Aspinall – and takes place one night dur details

Susanna Reich, an Ossining resident, is introducing the Beatles to a new generation.

Reich is the author of "Fab Four Friends: The Boys Who Became The Beatles," a picture book that focuses on the childhoods of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr and the beginning of The Beatles. The book ends at the outbreak of Beatlemania.

"The story of The Beatles would never fit into an entire picture book," Reich, who has written seven books, said. "I thought kids would like to know how they became The Beatles and could identify with seeing them as children."

Reich said we often think of The Beatles being born from their famous appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show," but they were already famous in England and had been playing together for years.

"I've always been a fan of The Beatles since I was a child," Reich said. "Like all kids, I listened to every single record and followed them all through the 1960s."

In the book, readers will learn that Harrison was obsessed with his guitar and dedicated to becoming an excellent guitarist. "He used to sit and draw pictures of his guitar while sitting in the back of the classroom," Reich said.

Lennon was obsessed with the music of details

The Beatles’ first recording contract was signed in Hamburg, Germany, where the band honed its craft performing in the city’s boisterous nightclub district.

The 1961 recording session produced the single “My Bonnie.” It was released on the Polydor label in Germany only and never hit the top charts. But the tune led directly to the Beatles’ discovery back home, a contract with EMI the following year and their first hit, “Love Me Do.”

Heritage Auctions will auction the six-page contract in New York on Sept. 19 for an estimated $150,000. It’s the centerpiece of a Beatles collection spanning the band’s entire career. It’s being sold by the estate of Uwe Blaschke, a German graphic designer and noted Beatles historian who died in 2010.

“Not many people know that the Beatles started their careers in Germany,” said Beatles expert Ulf Kruger. “The Beatles had their longest stint in a club in Hamburg at the Top Ten Club. They played there three months in a row, every night. The style they invented in Liverpool, they cultivated in Hamburg.” 

“Without this contract all of the pieces wouldn’t have fallen into details

A phenomenal 250 million records in 50 years - only the Beatles have achieved that. They released their first single on October 5, 1962. Soon enough they were world superstars. The dream began in Germany.

Masses of ivy surround the front door of run-down building. There's nothing about the place that indicates the role it played in music history.

But when you get closer you notice a mirror. Above a photograph of the band, the large lettering on the mirror reads: "Here lived the Beatles 1960." Here, in Hamburg, the search for traces of the world's most famous boy band begins.

Peter Paetzold, who was 10 years old at the time, lived just around the corner. He grew up in St. Pauli, the district of the city around the infamous Reeperbahn where the Beatles' career was launched.

The shabby building used to be a cinema - the Bambi Kino, where Paetzold once watched Disney films. The four Liverpudlian lads lived in the cinema for three months.

"For us they were just the English rockers who lived here. They looked totally different to the usual Hamburg rockers," recalls Paetzold, now 62.

What sticks out in his mind are the black jeans the band wore. "We were happy when we got blue jeans five details

Ever wondered why they chose Ringo to sing Octopus’s Garden? The Beatles drummer looks like a natural gardener in an off-duty moment at the height of the band’s fame. Now released for the first time, the snap is part of a unique private collection.

All these fab photos were taken from 1963 to 1968 for the magazine The Beatles Book. But they never made it into print. As well as showing his cultivation skills, Ringo ­is snapped climbing to a ­treehouse and at the wheel of a supercar.

John Lennon is photographed ­drumming and drinking milk with guitarist George Harrison. Paul McCartney joins ­bandmates ­gazing at their reflections in a hotel ­mirror in Margate, Kent, in 1963.

Photographer Leslie Bryce travelled the world with the band and supplied shots for the 77 editions of the monthly mag, whose circulation ­rocketed from 80,000 to 330,000 in a ­single year.

When the publication’s founder and ­editor Sean O’Mahoney retired, his daughter Jo Adams realised he was sitting on an ­extensive photo archive. Bryce had more than 40 photo ­sessions with the band. There were far too many pictures to print at the time. Now the best are in a details

What was it like to be on the receiving end of Beatlemania? Nigel Robinson thinks he has some idea. Fifty years ago, the sixth-form student from Leamington Spa discovered that his English accent – aided and abetted by a pair of Chelsea boots and a John Lennon-style cap – made him an instant celebrity when he joined the 55,000-strong audience for the celebrated concert at New York's Shea Stadium that cemented their US and global success.

The boy, who was staying in New York with a family friend, was already a fan of the Liverpool band. He didn’t have a mop top – his private school wouldn’t tolerate it – but his hair was longer than the crew cuts sported by most of the American boys his age.

On 15 August, 1965, accompanied by his schoolfriend David Treadaway (father of the acting twins Luke and Harry Treadaway), he set out for Shea Stadium. The two 17-year-olds didn’t have tickets for the concert – those had sold out weeks ago – but they figured thought it was worth turning up to “soak up the atmosphere”.

“We realised it was a big deal,” said Mr Robinson, now 67. American radio stations were playing Beatles songs back-to-back and details

The fashion designer has immediately ceased buying material from Patagonian farms in the southern regions of Argentina and Chile after she was presented with video footage from PETA, which showed scenes of cruelty toward the animals, and insisted she will look to source vegan wool.

She said: ''As a designer who built a brand on not using leather, fur or animal skins in its designs, I can't tolerate it! I am devastated by the news but more determined than ever to fight for animal rights in fashion together and monitor even more closely all suppliers involved in this industry to end all innocent lives. ''We are also looking into vegan 'wool' as well, in the same manner we were able to develop and incorporate high-end alternatives to leather and fur over the years.''

The 43-year-old design icon began working with the farmers as part of a project to help maintain the area of land where the sheep graze.

But Stella says the farm where the sheep were allegedly mistreated is ''one too many''.

She wrote on Instagram: ''It was born as an amazing initiative to help protect a million acres of endangered grasslands in Patagonia whilst looking after the welfare of animals. Unfortunately, after conducting our o details