A concert film of John Lennon and Yoko Ono‘s monumental 1972 Madison Square Garden concert will hit cinemas this spring. The film, whose official title is longer than its 81-minute running time, Power to the People: John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band With Elephant’s Memory and Special Guests – Live at the One to One Concert, New York City, 1972, will hit theaters on April 29 and May 3. Tickets go on sale March 20 via a special website for the film.

As every armchair Lennonologist and Onoologist knows, the former Beatle performed only two full concerts, the now legendary benefit gigs to raise a reported $1.5 million for developmentally disabled children, after the Fab Four broke up. Both took place on Aug. 30 with a truncated matinee preceding a full-length, star-studded extravaganza. Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack, Melanie, and Sha Na Na all made appearances at the gig. The set list included “Give Peace a Chance,” “Imagine,” “Come Together,” and “Instant Karma!” among other hits.

Director Steve Gebhardt filmed the concerts, which originally came out as a 40-minute TV special, John Lennon and Yoko Ono Present the One-to-One Concert, and was later re-edited into the 55-minute John Lennon Live in New York City in 1986. Footage from the concerts was later used in Kevin MacDonald and Sam Rice-Edwards’ recent documentary, One to One: John & Yoko, which focused more on rehearsals and preparation for the concerts.

Source: Kory Grow/rollingstone.com

Read More<<<

Cinematic Event is one of the most ambitious on-screen projects of all time: four interconnected biopics of each member of the seminal British Invasion band. As the project's Ringo Starr, Barry Keoghan is loving the experience, especially as they film on location in Liverpool. He recently spoke with Collider's Steve Weintraub while promoting his latest film, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.

Keoghan discussed getting to know the Beatles, both in person and via his extensive research for the role. When asked about his experience filming the project for Sam Mendes in the same locations where the band had their formative years, Keoghan told Collider:

He also expressed his admiration for the artistry of cinematographer Greig Fraser, who also worked with Keoghan on The Batman. While he couldn't share any updates on The Batman 2, Keoghan was quick to praise Fraser's incredible work alongside Mendes."It's been great working with Greig," said Keoghan. "I've learned so much from watching him and Sam [Mendes] work together and just being a part of that, and how they work together and seeing the stuff he's doing. I've also really upped my game on my photography, and Greig has been showing me a lot of film and photography. I'm addicted now, basically." The Beatles is filming now, but it won't be released in theaters until April 7, 2028.

Source: collider.com/Rob London, Steven Weintraub

Read More<<<

There was some consternation when this release was announced. The Anthology series was being expanded to four double albums — but that fourth one was only going to be available as part of this deluxe box set. And while the previous Anthologies had mostly featured unreleased tracks, Anthology 4 has a slimmer margin: of the 36 tracks, only 13 are previously unreleased.

As we know, the decision was ultimately made to release Anthology 4 as a stand-alone release as well as in the deluxe set. Hooray! That provides more incentive to pick up the new disc if you didn’t want to splurge for the entire box set, which was looking like it was going to be of most interest to completists.

But there’s more to this release than meets the eye. Anthology 1 through 3 have all been remastered (they were first remastered for digital release on iTunes in 2011). And that isn’t the only sonic upgrading that’s been done. The pre-1962 tracks on Anthology 1 (including the earliest known Beatles studio recording, “That’ll Be The Day,” recorded at a Liverpool home studio in 1958), have all been spruced up and sound vastly improved. Select tracks (e.g. “All My Loving,” from the first Ed Sullivan appearance in 1964), have been given new mixes by Giles Martin, son of original Beatles producer George Martin, who’s worked on all the album deluxe reissue box sets since 2017’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Other tracks have been tweaked with new stereo processing (described as “a subtle spread of the mono signal”). And some tracks have been swapped out for the bonus track versions that appeared on the deluxe reissue box sets. In all, there are changes to over 30 tracks, meaning these Anthologies aren’t entirely the ones you remember.

Source: goldminemag.com./Patrick Prince

Read More<<<

The Beatles made quite a splash on the film world with A Hard Day’s Night. Along with starring in the 1964 film, the group also churned out an album that left most of their peers behind in terms of the depth of the material.

Many of the songs on A Hard Day’s Night are no less than pop music standards these days. But do you know the stories behind these songs and this album? 

The title track of the album and film has gained great notoriety for the memorable opening guitar chord (which is actually a few different instruments playing multiple chords). Many people also know the story of how they came up with the name of the song. Ringo Starr uttered the phrase when he came out of a session and realized that the group had worked into the darkness. But John Lennon had also used the phrase in his book In His Own Write, the publication of which predated the recording of the song. 

The Beatles recorded not only the songs that went into the film but also the remaining tracks that filled out the album. That’s 14 songs in all. And every one of them was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. For the first time, The Beatles had recorded an album of all original material, something that was unheard of in the world of pop music at the time. Because he still wasn’t confident as a writer, George Harrison was relegated to singing a Lennon/McCartney song (“I’m Happy Just To Dance With You”) to get a lead vocal on the album. 

Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia

Read More<<<

On the 10th of April 1970, Paul McCartney announced what had, by then, been falsely reported so many times as to seem almost impossible – The Beatles, biggest band to ever do it, were finished.

Within a week he’d released his first solo record. Before the year was out, all three of his former bandmates had done the same, and as of today, the solo careers of each ex-Beatle have between them produced, depending on how you count it, something in the region of 85 albums.

That’s a lot to wade through for anyone keen on venturing beyond the band’s mere-12-studio-album discography. But wade we must, and there is so much to learn in our wading. These records are charged with parting barbs and so variously excellent and awful and bewildering. They contain in their collected mass not just a huge quantity of interesting and enjoyable music, but a path toward an understanding of what it was that made the band work as it did. Who was good at what? Who needed what from whom, whose instincts were balanced by whose, and what kinds of adventures might result from the removal of the structures of the band?

Source: gq-magazine.co.uk/Killian Faith-Kelly

Read More<<<

The most controversial moment in The Beatles’ career was certainly when John Lennon called the band “bigger than Jesus.” While the comment was meant to be a bit of hyperbole about how big Beatle mania was, it was taken literally. Many album-burnings later, The Beatles lost their seemingly unshakeable grip on the world.

While Lennon apologized for his comments, it never truly erased this dark spot on the band’s tenure. As the band’s time together drew to a close, Lennon became more and more open about his lack of faith in religion, as well as other systems of belief. This change didn’t help his case with the infamous “Jesus” comment. After shouldering a pretty big PR crisis during his band years, Lennon proved he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind in his solo career, releasing a song that felt like him doubling down on his prior controversy.

Lennon famously pondered a world without religion in “Imagine.” He wasn’t shy about his opinion that many organized religions did more harm than good. His solo career was riddled with songs that explore the idea of “false idols,” including the topic of conversation today: “God.”

Lennon wasn’t an avid atheist. He often explored spirituality and religion, but in the end, he always returned to his view that belief is usually misguided. In “God,” Lennon rejects pretty much everything other than the one force he did believe in: love.

Source: americansongwriter.com/Alex Hopper

Read more<<<