Beatles News

The Nutopians, an elegant award-winning seven-piece ensemble celebrates Lennon’s genius and artistry. Tom Dean and Alana MacDonald, New Hampshire natives and members of the distinguished folk/rock band Devonsquare, perform with The Nutopians.

Tom Dean, after the passing of founding member Herb Ludwig, teamed up with Rex Fowler (Aztec Two-Step) in a labor of love to celebrate the genius and artistry of John Lennon. The Nutopians was a perfect fit for Alana; she continues to awe audiences with her “honey butter vocals” and violin playing. Their talent, coupled with years of performing together help create a one of a kind live performance. The Nutopians name was given to them by Yoko Ono herself. The band gives remarkably fresh acoustic treatments to Lennon’s Beatles and solo song compositions that often inspire a whole new appreciation for the late icon’s music. The Nutopians’ awe-inspiring live show features poignant song narratives, and like their award winning CD “Imagined,” compelling lead singing and three-part harmonies.  details

The sound of a 71-year-old Beatle getting back in the ring. McCartney plays to his strengths: Wings-like glam rock, Little Richard howls and, yep, some remarkably Beatlesque pop tunes and George Martin-ish arrangements (thanks partly to Martin's son, Giles, who produced several tracks).

"Early Days" challenges lingering misconceptions about McCartney's role in the Beatles ("I don't see how they can remember/When they weren't where it was at"). Sir Paul also engages 21st-century pop with sharp ears, bringing in young-gun producers like Paul Epworth, Mark Ronson and Ethan Johns. He even rocks a quasi-rap flow and some giddy, Gaga-style stadium chants on "Queenie Eye." As Macca understands better than almost anyone, rock & roll is fueled by a hunger for good times and an ageless exuberance.

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Six months before he died, John Lennon set sail from Newport, R.I., on an ocean adventure to Bermuda that awakened his desire to make music again and now is being chronicled in an electronic format he could not have conceived of.

A new app, "John Lennon: The Bermuda Tapes," is being offered for sale on Apple devices for $4.99. It's loaded with interactive features, music, photos and interviews that detail a relatively unexamined slice of the former Beatle's life. More important, it opens the door to a potentially potent new creative outlet for musicians and the struggling industry. Users of the app can simulate the six-day journey through the recollections of two crew members and Lennon himself, in a Playboy interview conducted shortly after the trip. They can virtually visit the disco where Lennon heard a recording of The B-52s' "Rock Lobster," which reminded him of his wife Yoko Ono's music and coaxed him back to work. They can eavesdrop on the creative process as Lennon's last recordings took shape.

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 Rock and roll icon and artist Ringo Starr joined today in the national #GivingTuesday movement by donating twenty-five autographed jackets to be sold on eBay in support of WaterAid beginning on Tuesday, December 3.

The hand-signed Timberland cotton khaki jackets will be available on eBay beginning at 10am PST on December 3, with bidding continuing through Friday, December 13.  Online shoppers also have the option of purchasing the jacket outright through eBay's "Buy it now" feature. All proceeds will benefit WaterAid, the largest international nonprofit dedicated to transforming lives through improved access to safe water, toilets and hygiene education. "I believe in my heart that everyone should have clean water," Starr said. "Two thousand kids die every day from the lack of safe drinking water and it's time to say 'enough'! details

Beatles Greetings Cards! Great for any occasion....Birthdays, Anniversary, Retirement, Christmas or just to say "Thinking About You" All Greetings Cards feature the Fab Four and come in many different designs. All Greeting Cards are blank inside so you can add your own very special greeting.....

Have a look at the Cards and celebrate with The Beatles to your loved ones there are age cards 30^th, 40^th , 50^th 60^th , Dad you’re a legend, Happy Birthday Brother , Twist and Shout, Let It Be. These cards can be added at checkout with a gift or purchase , Beatles Album cards are also available for general purchase in the USA from Fab Four Store website.

Check it out at The Fab Four Store.....

Source: Beatles Radio Exclusive

An ink sketch by Beatle John Lennon - drawn in a 'light-bulb moment' - is expected to sell for thousands of pounds in an online auction next month. The drawing has officially been valued at between £6,000 and £10,000, but an expert has said previous artistic works by Lennon have sold for £100,000 and that this offering could 'go through the roof'.

The double-sided doodle, which features surreal characters in red ink on both sides of a piece of paper, measuring five inches by ten, was hand-drawn by the late musician in 1964. Music memorabilia expert Ted Owen said: ‘What’s lovely about it is he’s obviously been sitting down at the dinner table or out to dinner somewhere, picked up a piece of paper and had an idea. ‘It’s the lightbulb moment. This took him into a whole different genre of being an artist.’ The front of the paper features three characters, including one smoking a cigarette. The reverse side has varying forms of head and face shapes. Similar characters appeared in Lenno details

“Valiant Paul McCartney, I presume?” said John Lennon. “Sir Jasper Lennon, I presume,” responded Paul McCartney. Such was the manner in which the two former Beatles greeted one another when McCartney showed up, unexpectedly, at a recording session Lennon was conducting on March 28, 1974.

In the throes of his “Lost Weekend” period, Lennon was in a Los Angeles studio overseeing production of Harry Nilsson’s Pussy Cats album. Present were a number of players – including Stevie Wonder, guitarist Jesse Ed Davis, saxophonist Bobby Keys and Nilsson himself. McCartney was accompanied by his wife, Linda. Lennon’s then-girlfriend, May Pang, was there as well. “We had no clue he was coming,” said Pang, referring to McCartney’s visit in Peter Ames Carlin’s recent McCartney biography, McCartney: A Life. “All of a sudden we turned around, and Paul was there.” So began the only instance in which, post-Beatles, Lennon and McCartney ever joined forces in t details

When Gordon McIntosh and his wife honeymooned in Torquay, little did they know that they would come face to face with The Beatles. 
Gordon's wife had seen The Beatles when they appeared in Hull in 1963.

During their stay in Torquay, they were near a hotel situated on a cliff top, and became aware of a brightly painted single decker bus. It turned out to be The Magical Mystery Tour bus that was being used in filming, with the Beatles on board. Gordon decided to find out where they were filming, determined to meet them and obtain their autographs for his wife. This turned out to be a Magical Mystery Tour for Gordon. He found the location was a large field. The set looked like a large tent from the front but there was no back to it and he watched as hundreds of film extras filed into the small tent. The bus came trundling into view and Gordon saw John Lennon on board looking out of the window. He rushed across and tapped on the window, mouthing to John, "Can I have your autograph?” 

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For more than four decades, a canister of film lay in a damp London garage, unopened and forgotten. Stacked among 64 other unmarked cans, it sat for decades gathering dust, without anyone suspecting the nine minutes of music gold that rested inside.

Then, after a chance look at a faded, scribbled label buried within the can, a long-lost interview with The Beatles was found. First broadcast on Scottish Television in April1964, the film footage captured the Fab Four being interviewed on ‘Roundup’, an hour-long children's current affairs programme on Scottish television network STV. Now, the Scottish public are being invited to view it in its entirety for the first time at theEdinburgh Filmhouse this weekend. “We think it may be the longest surviving television interview of the Beatles on record,” said John McVie, Media Coordinator for STV. “We have so little footage left of the 1960s, this is a rare chance for people to see this valuable interview.”

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George Harrison didn’t write ‘Something’ for his former wife Patti,learn where to freeze frame Monty Python’s Life of Brian to see him and who ended up winning the My Sweet Lord case? George Harrison answered all of those questions when I takes to him in 1993.

The highlight of my media career was definitely having the chance to interview George. He was funny, informative and up for a chat. Today November 29 marks the 12th anniversary of the death of the one we all called `the Quiet Beatle`. Here is a candid chat with Beatle George. Paul Cashmere: I’m going to start off by talking about movies. I don’t know how many times I’ve see “Monty Python’s Life of Brian,” in which you have a cameo. I’ve searched for your part, even on freeze frame. The problem with that movie is that everyone in it looks like George Harrison. Put me out of my misery. Where are you in it? George Harrison: Well if you’re looking for me, then everybody’s going to look like that. There’s just one little shot details

If your vibe is psychedelic free-jazz grooves set to experimental live movie projections, Sean Ono Lennon has your ticket to boogie with a limited-edition record from his new project called Mystical Weapons.

Teaming up with fellow multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, drummer Greg Saunier (Deerhoof), and projection artist Martha Colburn, Mystical Weapons will release their new record on November 29th for Record Store Day. Entitled Crotesque, the 20-min one-sided album includes a live broadcast on WNYC's Spinning On Air from last January, with Side Two sporting an original screen-printed illustration by Sean Lennon. The record is a one-time pressing by Northern Spy Records and is limited to 1,500 units. Spy Music Festival here. WNYC's Garland wrote "Both Sean and Shahzad share electric guitars, basses, and keyboards. Martha Colburn handles her films the way a performing DJ handles records: using the projectors like turntables, the images are mixed and manipulated live, with visuals forming an essential component of the Mysti details

Mike Mitchell's photographs of the Beatles 1964 first U.S. concert in an exhibition entitled "Heading for the Light," are now on view and on sale in Taos, New Mexico, throughout 2014. These photos represent a defining moment in American pop culture and are a medium that enables art lovers an accessible way to collect art.

Mike Mitchell's photographs of the Beatles 1964 inaugural United States concert in an exhibition entitled “Heading for the Light,” will remain on view and on sale at David Anthony Fine Art in Taos throughout 2014. February 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of the Beatles first concert in America, which took place on February 11, 1964, at the Washington Coliseum. Mitchell, then 18-years-old, had been granted a press pass to the concert but had no flash available for his camera and therefore was forced to use existing light. Some of the resulting negatives, taken with low ambient light, were barely readable until the advancement of technology allowed their full realization. Today, Mitchell's dynamically nuanced images are appreci details

Most famous for her relationship with John Lennon, Yoko Ono has a considerable—if unusual—oeuvre of her own. In 1964, she performed Cut Piece, in which she appeared on stage draped with fabric that she invited audiences to snip away, leaving her nude.

Later, she made experimental films centered on human buttocks, and installed Wish Tree in the sculpture garden at the Museum of Modern Art. Maintaining an empty multimillion-dollar apartment in a Manhattan co-op building would seem a not-unlikely avant garde maneuver for Ms. Ono, and for years she did just that. Ms. Ono’s son Sean occupied the penthouse at 49 Downing Street, which Ms. Ono purchased in 1995, only briefly, but an October lawsuit against the co-op boardsuggested that the unit’s vacancy was not a performance art piece. (Ms. Ono claimed that the board arbitrarily blocked potential buyers because they preferred the penthouse empty, rather than occupied by a family with ch details

The Beatles archive collection On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2 is just out. But there may be even more Fabs music in the vaults. “There are no plans at the moment,” says Kevin Howlett of Apple Corps. He tells Billboard , “I think these two albums [inc Volume 1] are wonderful from the point of view of presenting the real highlights of the Beatles' BBC sessions.”

The new BBC volume also contains a pair of songs The Beatles never recorded for release during their regular sessions for the E.M.I label - covers of Chuck Berry's “I’m Talking About You” and a revved-up version of the pop standard “Beautiful Dreamer.” You think The Beatles’ well must be dry by now? Maybe not. There are more Beatles archives being worked on, says Howlett. “There is something, but I don’t think we’re allowed to talk about it yet. If you’re involved in these Beatles projects, you have to be very discreet. It’s all top secret.”

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England got a lot more of The Beatles  than Americans did during the group's formative years. Between 1962 and 1965, The Beatles were featured on 53 BBC radio programs, including their own series, Pop Go the Beatles. They performed originals and covers and chatted with BBC hosts.

The Beatles: On Air-Live at the BBC Volume 2 has just been released. Kevin Howlett produced both that and the newly remastered reissue of the first volume, which was originally released in 1994. For reasons he explains to Fresh Air host Terry Gross , Howlett had to search for many of these recordings, and they weren't easy to find. Howlett has written a new companion book called The Beatles: The BBC Archives,which includes transcriptions of the band's BBC radio and TV interviews as well as fascinating internal memos about the Beatles and their music. My quest to restore the BBC archive [of the Beatles] goes way back to 1981 when I joined the national pop network in this country, BBC Radio 1, as a young rooki details