Beatles News

THIS picture shows the moments before a legendary York performance by The Beatles.

Taken shortly before their performance at York’s Rialto concert hall in February 1963, a fresh-faced Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are seen alongside co-manager of the Rialto John Hattersley-Colson in the never-before published photograph.

The Fab Four were already pretty fractured at this point, but Sir Paul McCartney made it official in a written Q&A included with his debut solo album: "I do not foresee a time when the Lennon & McCartney partnership will be active again in songwriting." It should also be noted that eight years earlier, original Beatles bassist Stuart Sutcliffe, bassist died of brain hemorrhage at 21.

Maybe bands should beware the Ides of April, since this week, in 1997, also marked the break-up of Soundgarden -- for a dozen years, anyway.

As Harrison, who came from an impoverished background, began to make millions of pounds, he soon found out about the unfairness of these policies and lashed out about them in song. He portrayed the government, in the voice of one of Her Majesty’s tax collectors, as unrepentantly greedy.

The lyric “Be thankful I don’t take it all” echoes the famous remarks by former Prime Minister Harold MacMillan, who, in 1957, said that “most of our people have never had it so good.While Britain’s economy at the time was strong, many considered it to be dismissive and condescending.

Paul McCartney is coming to Memphis. The Beatles legend has confirmed a May 26 concert date at the FedExForum, part of his 2013 “Out There” world tour.

Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Friday at 10 a.m. at all Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com or 800-745-300.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the death of artist 'Pablo Picasso'. In 1973, shortly after Picasso's death, Paul McCartney released his song 'Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)'. In an interview Paul McCartney says he was on vacation in Jamaica where he snuck onto the set of the film 'Papillon' where he met Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen.

After a dinner with Hoffman, with McCartney playing around on guitar, Hoffman didn't believe that McCartney could write a song "about anything", so Hoffman pulled out a magazine where they saw the story of the death of Pablo Picasso and his famous last words, "Drink to me, drink to my health.

Watching not just the Beatles but the Beatles' children grow older is one surefire way to be astonished at the quick passage of time. Julian Lennon, the most famous Beatlekid of them all, turns 50 on April 8, which would be cause enough for gasps or sighs, for those of us with a "where did the years go?" mindset.

It's all the more breathtaking when you consider that "little" Julian has now lived a decade longer than John did.

"It was a match made in heaven, rampant youth colliding," Andrew Loog Oldham, the Stones' first manager and now a Sirius XM deejay, wrote in his memoir.

Wings Over America features McCartney’s cover of Paul Simon’s Richard Cory and his own Soily, neither of which are available on any other album. The album also featured Wings’ cover of the Moody Blues Go Now with Denny Laine on lead vocals.

Laine was a member of The Moody Blues on the original version of the song.

Yoko is curating the festival and has recruited Boy George, Patti Smith, Iggy & The Stooges and Marianne Faithfull to perform for the 20th anniversary of the festival. Double Fantasy was John’s comeback album in 1980, after 5 years of being a house-husband and raising Sean.

It was also the album John & Yoko had in the charts at the time of John’s death.

Friday, May 17, 1963 was the day Beatlemania came to the city, when John, Paul, George and Ringo performed at the old Grosvenor Rooms, in Prince of Wales Road, supported by local band Ricky Lee and the Hucklebucks.

At the time, The Beatles had made an album, released Please Please Me and were on their way to becoming a household name.