Beatles News

According to the Beatles memorabilia dealer who sold the album; "This is easily the most important copy of any album i've ever offered to date. It is an original 1966 U.S. first state stereo Butcher cover 'Yesterday and Today' album that was the personal copy of Beatles manager and close friend to the band, Mr. Brian Epstein! 

In 1966, The Beatles 'Butcher' (album) cover was used in an early release of "Yesterday and Today." The album immediately drew criticism due to the image of The Beatles being covered in raw-meat and baby-doll parts. Things were so bad... When Capital Records first released the album, most stores would not carry it. Sears only carried the album for one-day before pulling it from their shelves. This led to a majority of albums being recalled so a less controversial image (sticker) could be placed over the original album cover, making the original (first-state) versions extremely scarce. Add the fact that this particular album was personally owned by The Beatles manager, Brian Epstein... and it adds whole new level of rarity. Back in January of 20 details

Veterans The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen have all enjoyed some of the highest grossing tours of 2013, reports Billboard.

Bruce Springsteen’s 53 live shows this year have brought in $147,608,938 – the fourth highest grossing tour of the past twelve months – while The Rolling Stones’ 50th anniversary concerts  have raked in $126,182,391. Paul McCartney collected the 16th biggest total gross of the year, with $69,584,403 coming in from 21 shows. Bon Jovi have the biggest tour of 2013, making $205,158,370 from 90 live gigs. The Cirque Du Soleil’s Michael Jackson production The Immortal World Tour is second on the list with a figure of $157,299,100 from no less than 205 shows.

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If you have missed the Powerpuff Girls, the animated series about three young girls with superpowers, then we have good news for you; the show is coming back for a special event. Cartoon Network will air a special one-night event for fans, Viacom confirmed the details earlier this morning.

The special is scheduled for early January, the original voice cast Catherine Cavadini, Tara Strong, E.G. Daily, Roger L. Jackson, Tom Kane and Tom Kenny are all set to return. Coming to the series for the first time is Ringo Starr, the popular member of The Beatles is set to join the girls on their latest adventure. Starr will voice Fibonacci Sequins, his character is Townsville’s most famous mathematician, there will also be an original music vido and song for the event titled “I Wish I Was A Powerpuff Girl.” In the episode, Mojo Jojo will kidnap the mathematician, who also pulls double-duty as an opera singer in an effort to steal the famous Chemical X. Mojo will create an evil video game called “Dance Pants R-EVILution” a mind-control device tha details

Foo Fighters made their official live return in Mexico last night (December 11), performing a huge open air concert during which they covered The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers. 

The band performed hits from across their career at the 55,000-capacity Foro Sol stadium, with The National providing support on the night. Among the covers performed were 'Blackbird' by The Beatles and Pink Floyd's 'In The Flesh'. No new material was played during the 27-song set. A picture of The National with Dave Grohl was posted onto the band's Instagram page after the show. Both bands will play a second date at the stadium on Friday (December 13). Earlier this week Foo Fighters surprised diners in a Californian pizza restaurant by playing a secret show (December 9). The band took to the stage at the 200-capacity Rock & Roll Pizza venue in Moorpark, playing a 23-song set of classic tracks. Foo Fighters' last gig was in New York in September 2012 at the Global Festival event. 

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THE BEATLES: THE BBC ARCHIVES 1962-1970 is a lavish 336-page tome by notable Beatle expert Kevin Howlett that documents the close but sometimes fractious relationship between the rock’n’roll revolutionaries and the UK’s national broadcaster.

Among the treasures in this beautiful package – boxed like a vintage 10½” reel of tape – are reproductions of some priceless documents, including the Beeb’s response to the group’s application for an audition, where Paul McCartney’s performances of ’Til There Was You and Like Dreamers Do are annotated with a curt “No”, but Lennon’s Memphis Tennessee and Hello Little Girl are more favourably received. “An unusual group,” concluded Beeb gatekeeper Peter Pilbeam, “not as ‘Rocky’ as most, more C&W, with a tendency to play music.” More fascinating still is the facsimile of the BBC Audience Research Department’s February 1968 report on the viewing public’s response to the Boxing Night scre details

Everyone loves Christmas and everyone loves the Beatles. Why not put them together? On Saturday in Las Vegas, artists including Pia Zadora, Adrian Zmed, Paul Shortino, Skye D. Miles and the Desert Angels Childrens Choir will sing holiday and Beatles songs at the fifth annual benefit for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve's Toys for Tots program.

His answer: “Las Vegas Loves the Beatles.” Scott says he had the idea last summer, watching Clint Holmes — who co-hosts Saturday with spouse Kelly Clinton Holmes — sing “Eleanor Rigby” at his regular show. So most of the artists onstage at the Las Vegas Hotel will do a holiday favorite and/or a Beatles song. Yes, that includes the John Lennon solo tunes “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” and “Imagine,” although Scott says no one rushed to sign up for Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime.” Guests include Pia Zadora teamed with daughter Kady, Adrian Zmed, Paul Shortino, Skye D. Miles, the duo of Ben Stone and Jasmine Trias, comedian Steve Rossie and the Deser details

A Christmas song that has turned into a modern classic is John Lennon's Happy Xmas (War Is Over), first released in 1971. Lennon wrote it in 1969 at the height of his peace activism days, it references billboards sponsored by John and Yoko in 12 major cities reading "War Is Over! If you want it - Happy Christmas from John & Yoko".

Continuing our holiday-themed rewinds through December—another Christmas song that has turned into a modern classic is John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over),” first released in 1971. You don’t have to be a history buff to hear the socio-political leanings in this song, but a little bit of history will help. Lennon wrote this song in 1969 at the height of his peace activism days when he and wife Yoko Ono were protesting the Vietnam War. The song references a specific billboard campaign sponsored by the couple in which billboards in 12 major cities read, “WAR IS OVER! If you want it—Happy Christmas from John & Yoko”. He recorded and released the song two years later. After i details

LET IT BE is currently celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the world’s most successful rock’n’roll band, The Beatles. LET IT BE is a spectacular theatrical concert with forty of The Beatles’ greatest hits. The show is currently on at the Savoy Theatre, booking until 8th February 2014 , before going on a UK Tour.

Recently before a show, four of the cast took time out to answer some questions about themselves and LET IT BE, and this is what they had to say. Cast: Emanuele Angeletti (Paul), Reuven Gershon (John), Stephen Hill (George) and Luke Roberts (Ringo).

You are all primarily musicians, not trained actors?
Luke: Not us, there are a couple of guys in the cast that have more of an actor’s background. But it’s very much a musician’s gig.
Emanuele: It’s not really a musical, it’s c details

THE BEATLES’ IMPACT ON AMERICA is to be celebrated on the 50th anniversary of their culture-changing Ed Sullivan show appearance of February 9, 1964, and subsequent assault on US culture in toto during that crucial year.

January 20 next year (21 in the US) sees Apple Corps/Capitol Records release a box set of the US-only albums, from January 1964’s Meet The Beatles! to 1970’s Hey Judealbum. MOJO’s US readers won’t need reminding that their Beatles experience was a unique one, shaped by albums with significantly different tracklistings, artwork and even mixes from the records that hit the shelves in the UK. With debate always rife as to which constituted the stronger collections of songs, the US versions have always had an exotic allure to UK Beatle fans. Collected in a boxed set with faithfully replicated original LP artwork, including the albums’ inner sleeves, the 13 CDs are accompanied by a 64-page booklet with Beatles photos and promotional art 

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More than three decades after John Lennon‘s untimely death, a Bermuda museum remembers him with a stylized sculpture. The picturesque island of Bermuda is a long way and a far cry from the hectic urban settings of Liverpool, England where John Lennon grew up. 

And from New York City, where his life ended on December 8, 1980. The British musician and artist spent several months in Bermuda during his last trip abroad, and the island served as his muse. Bermuda pays special tribute with “Double Fantasy,” a sculpture dedicated last year in Lennon’s honor. Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art commissioned local sculptor Graham Foster to create the six-foot Cor-Ten steel structure. The work shows a stylized double-sided profile of Lennon and his “granny” glasses with his Rickenbacker guitar, doves of peace, and the double fantasy freesia flower. At approximately 4,000 pounds, it’s a weighty piece, and sits on a raised flowerbed in a courtyard near the museum’s entrance details

Everyone's favorite local Beatles' cover song festival, The Lennon Fest, returns this Saturday for its 14^th year. Local bands will perform classic Beatles' songs in the Public House of Jackie O's starting at 7 p.m. and at the Union Bar & Grill starting at 9 p.m.

Eric Leighton, aka Junebug, created the event in 2000 to honor the late John Lennon along with a friend and local musician John Bartlett, known as Johnny B. Both Lennon and Bartlett died in December of different years. Lennon Fest quickly became an annual touchstone of the local music scene. The event serves as a fundraiser for The Johnny B Fund, which helps support young, aspiring artists pay for music lessons. The fest has grown over the years, Leighton said. It now brings in at least $1,000 for The Johnny B Fund each year. Leighton said this year's fest will bring the same positive vibes it has always carried. A variety of bands, including the Lennon Orchestra, Broken Ring and Controlled Folly will perform at the event. "The students are cramming for exams, and the musicians are all crammi details

Between 1962 and 1970, the Beatles recorded one musical masterwork after another, amassing some 27 No. 1 hits in the United States and the United Kingdom, while producing such timeless albums as "Revolver," "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,"

"The Beatles (The White Album)" and "Abbey Road," among a host of others. Yet for today’s listeners, the Fab Four’s annual Christmas offerings are all but forgotten, hidden within the shadows of their unprecedented pop music achievements. The brainchild of Beatles press officer Tony Barrow, the group’s Christmas records were originally conceived as a means of providing holiday greetings to their legions of loyal fans. Beginning in December 1963, British fan club members received annual Christmas messages as free “flexi-disc” record releases. For the inaugural release, the Beatles sang the Christmas carol “Good King Wenceslas” and the comic “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Ringo.” But 1963 was only the beginning. By December 1964, the Beatles had a full-fledged holiday tradit details

Many have tried to untangle the mysteries of Ringo Starr’s drumming — why it works when it looks so ungainly, how he remains so definitively in the pocket with so little effort.

Gregg Bissonette, who has just finished his third tour with the All-Starr Band, led as always by the legendary ex-Beatles drummer, has gotten an up-close-and-personal tutorial. Often, the two were featured side-by-side on stage for shows in 2008, 2010, 2012-13. “My main thing is: I stare at his snare drum,” Bissonette tells iDrumMag, “because any Beatle track, any Ringo solo track, any track that he’s played on for another artist — Tom Petty, or whoever it is — you never feel like it’s rushing or dragging. It just feels good. If he wants to pull back for a verse, or lightly push a chorus, it just feels right for the song.” His legendary fills, such an integral part of Beatles songs like “Rain” or “Strawberry Fields Forever,” are as unconventional as they are perfectly suited for the m details

The wax figures of 1960s British band Beatles are set to stroll from London's Abbey Road to Madame Tussauds here. To celebrate the 50th anniversary release of the band's first album.

"Please Please Me", which released in March 1963, the figures of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, late George Harrison and John Lennon, are now on a world tour. Popularly known as the "Fab Four", they went up to Sky Terrace 428 peak tower here for a 360-degree panoramic view across the city before continuing their walk along the classic "Abbey Road" setting at the city's Madame Tussauds. The setting is similar to their album "Abbey Road" cover, where the group traverse a zebra crossing . "The Beatles have always been an all-time favourite at the attraction," Kelly Mak, general manager of Madame Tussauds Hong Kong, said in a statement. "We are honoured to launch the new figures of the 'Fab Four' with the classic setting during this symbolic year, especially for all their fans out there. This is definitely an exciting addition to the attraction and we are looking to bring more details

Boris Johnson has controversially claimed it was London, not Liverpool, that propelled The Beatles to worldwide fame. The Tory Mayor of London, who already has a chequered history with Merseyside, has provoked the ire of Liverpudlians with his statement.

Speaking at the London School of Economics, in a speech entitled "London, the gateway to Britain," he said: "The greatest band in the world came from Liverpool, but in the end they recorded their stuff in London and it was London that helped propel them around the world. Johnson has previously issued an apology and visited the city over comments made in a 2004 Spectator article about Liverpool FC fans involved in the Hillsborough disaster. He caused outrage when the magazine he edited wrongly claimed “drunken fans” had played a part in the  disaster. The same article claimed Liverpool people “wallow” in their “victim status”, following the murder and beheading of contractor Ken Bigley in Iraq. Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson told the Mirror: “This i details