Beatles News
Sir Ringo Starr and wife, Lady Barbara Starkey, celebrated the Beatles drummer's 78th birthday July 7 in Nice, France, where he and his All-Starr Band were currently on tour, by joining with fans to say “Peace & Love” at noon all around the world, his representative told Billboard. Also on hand were his brother-in-law Joe Walsh and his wife Marjorie, who is Barbara's sister, plus All-Starr Band members Graham Gouldman, Colin Hay, Steve Lukather, Gregg Bissonette and Warren Ham, plus Matt Sorum, added to the group for the day.
Walsh, Sorum and the All-Starrs performed two of Ringo's songs in tribute to him, and Walsh played a bit of his old band the James Gang's "Funk #49" leading up to the noon countdown.
Source: Steve Marinucci/billboard.com
When the phantasmagorically weird Beatles film Yellow Submarine premiered 50 years ago, its psychedelic colors and peace-and-love sensibility quickly influenced fashion, graphic design, animation and music.
But the 1968 movie also influenced organized religion — a fact lost in the hubbub over the release of a restored and remastered version in American theaters on July 8.
Not long after the British-made film landed in the United States, "submarine churches" attracted urban, young people. They adopted the outline of a yellow submarine with a small cross on its periscope as their symbol and displayed it alongside peace signs, flowers and other popular emblems of the 1960s.
Source: Kimberly Winston/npr.org
Ringo Starr, accompanied by, from left, guitarist Steve Lukather, Olivia Harrison (George Harrison's widow), Marjorie Bach and Starr's wife, Barbara Bach, attend Saturday's 10th Peace and Love birthday celebration in Nice, France, on Starr's 78th birthday. (Randy Lewis / Los Angeles Times)
Ten years ago when Ringo Starr turned 68, the Beatles drummer recalled someone asking what he wanted for his birthday.
“I couldn’t think of anything, and I don’t know why I said it, but it just came out: I said I would like for everyone in the world to say, ‘Peace and love,’ at noon,” the Beatles drummer said Saturday at the 10th anniversary of a tradition born that day at a Hard Rock Café in Chicago.
This year, formal “Peace and Love” celebrations are being held on Starr’s 78th birthday in 26 countries, precisely at noon in each time zone, an expansion of that original spontaneous remark he considers the most gratifying aspect of his long-held desire to spread goodwill through music and philanthropy.
Source: Randy Lewis/latimes.com
He paid his dues because he wanted to sing the blues, and more than any other rock ‘n’ roll drummer, Ringo Starr knew that fame didn’t come easy.
Sure, he achieved stardom as a member of The Beatles, who took England by storm in 1963 and followed it up by spearheading the “British Invasion” to the United States in 1964. But the man born Richard Starkey Jr. in Liverpool on July 7, 1940, was a sickly child who spent a year in the hospital due to peritonitis and two years in a sanitarium for pleurisy.
The oldest Beatle has led a charmed life. Here are some fun facts about Ringo:
His nickname came from his penchant for wearing several rings.
Starr played drums for several bands in Liverpool before joining the Beatles, most notably with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes from 1959 to 1962.
He joined the Beatles on Aug. 18, 1962, replacing Pete Best.
Source: Bob D’Angelo, Cox Media Group
The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil presents a series of surreal tableaus woven together like the songs in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. As with the music from that album, there is so much happening onstage during some songs that it takes more than one viewing to absorb all the action and detail, while other songs are represented with graceful aerial choreography and dance. Characters such as Sgt. Pepper’s Eleanor Rigby, Father McKenzie, Mr. Kite and Pepper himself are brought to life, while Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird” and the Blue Meanies from Yellow Submarine are comically realized.
Source: Matt Kelemen /lasvegasmagazine.com
Malco Paradiso Cinema in Memphis will show a 50th anniversary edition of the 1968 animated classic "Yellow Submarine" at 7 p.m. July 10.
Sunday, July 8, marks the 50th anniversary of the release of the Beatles third movie, the animated feature "Yellow Submarine" in 1968. Movie theaters all over the country will be celebrating with a special anniversary screening this week.
The film was a venture the Fab Four felt squeamish about after the mixed reviews accruing to their movie "Help!" in 1965.
The Brits were mildly receptive -- especially compared to the Beatlemania of the early 1960.s. In America, the reaction was much more positive with reviewers praising the film's splashy psychedelic style.
Source: Neil Earle/commercialappeal.com
Paul McCartney has revealed he will kick off his upcoming world tour with four straight shows in Canada.
The former Beatle will play Quebec and Western Canada in September as part of his "Freshen Up" tour.
Beginning in Quebec City on September 17, McCartney will play Montreal on September 20 before heading west to play Winnipeg on September 28 and then wrap up the Canadian tour in Edmonton on September 30.
The Freshen Up Tour comes in support of McCartney’s new solo album Egypt Station which is due on September 7.
“We’ve always had such a fantastic time playing shows in Canada,” said McCartney.
“We can’t wait to return in September for what should be another special run of shows. We are looking forward to freshening up our show and playing some of our songs from the new album alongside those songs we know you like to hear. Get ready to rock Canada!”
Source: KelownaNow
A newly-restored version of ‘Yellow Submarine’ is screened July 12 at the Empress Theatre in Vallejo.
In the town where I was born, lived a man who sailed to sea. And he told us of his life ...
There’s no mistaking the opening line of the 1966 Beatles’ tune, “Yellow Submarine,” written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and sung by Ringo Starr.
Steve Dunsky was always a big fan of the song. And bigger fan of the namesake 1968 film. Yes, it was 50 years ago today. OK, maybe not today. But this year.
And the man who picks the films for the Empress Theatre Film Club wanted to honor the milestone.
Cue the music.
And he told us of his life. In the land of submarines. ...
Yep, “Yellow Submarine” screens at the downtown Vallejo venue next Thursday, July 12, at 7 p.m. and it’s not just the newly-restored version but the sing-along version, Dunsky said.
“So that will be a lot of fun,” he noted. “We’re also inviting the audience to dress like their favorite Beatle ... or in vintage hippie clothing.”
There will be a prize for the best outfit, added Dunsky.
Source: Richard Freedman, Vallejo Times-Herald
In June 1966, George Harrison’s fascination with the sitar reached its apotheosis when he met Ravi Shankar. The meeting between the Beatle and the sitarist occurred at Hampstead in London, at the home of the Angadis, Patricia (née Fell-Clark) and Ayana Deva, who was originally from Karnataka’s Belgaum district. In 1946, the couple had set up the Asian Music Circle, which functioned out of their home. It was Patricia’s family home, but for two decades and more, the Asian Music Circle served as the hub where musicians from India gathered. It was largely through the AMC’s remarkable efforts that these musicians were introduced to the West (mainly Britain, at first), and found opportunities to perform there.
Source: Anu Kumar/scroll.in
"It made them seem okay for 7-year-olds again," Beatles professor Glenn Gass told TheWrap, on the film's 50th anniversary
Once upon a time — or maybe twice — there was a gloriously colorful and strange film called “Yellow Submarine.” The 1968 cartoon helped usher The Beatles out of an odd, hectic period for the band and would serve as a gateway for subsequent generations of Beatles fans to come.
When “Yellow Submarine” was released in the summer of 1968, the Beatles were bigger than Jesus (or so John Lennon had famously said two years earlier, to plenty of criticism). But things had gotten a little rocky within the group. Their longtime manager, Brian Epstein, had died the previous summer; they endured their first flop, the British TV film “Magical Mystery Tour,” at the end of that year; they alienated some fans with a trip to India to meditate with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in early 1968; and Lennon was heavily into LSD and, in October, would be arrested on drug possession charges with his new girlfriend Yoko Ono, whose constant presence was not always embraced by the band or its fans.
Source: Brian Welk,sfgate.com
