Beatles News
Studies show that it’s very rare for us to change our minds about a deeply-held belief. In a new series, writers reflect on their most memor
Studies show that it’s very rare for us to change our minds about a deeply-held belief. In a new series, i writers reflect on their most memorable U-turns
The Beatles have always been there, chasing me throughout my life. I had a tin yellow submarine on wheels when I was little. I had to sing “When I’m 64” in primary school. How I hated that song, and the weird Beatles, with their dirge-like songs – “Eleanor Rigby”, “Penny Lane”, “Nowhere Man” – forever on the radio.
You didn’t need to buy Beatles records to know the songs by heart and become depressed by their odour of a dreary post-war Britain.
Source: Andrew Johnson/inews.co.uk
His gig at the Hydro, in Glasgow 10 days ago will be long remembered by those lucky enough to get a ticket.
But the star was thinking of another gig, a concert 58 years before and the first time his band The Silver Beetles played north of the border.
It was May 20, 1960, when McCartney, who had travelled north with John Lennon and George Harrison, hit the stage in Alloa.
The trio split their £60 fee with two mates – bassist Stuart Sutcliffe and drummer Tommy Moore – as they took on the job of backing band for Liverpool heartthrob singer, Johnny Gentle.
McCartney, then an aspiring 17-year-old musician, had to get permission from his father to travel to Scotland because he was supposed to be at home studying for his exams.
Backstage at the Hydro, in his only Scottish interview, he revealed it was the show in Alloa which ignited his lifelong love of Scotland.
Read more: Paul McCartney thrilled late wife’s photographs going on display in Glasgow
Macca said: “We’d never really travelled anywhere. We’d pretty much always been in Liverpool, maybe only ever taking a little train trip to Southport, half an hour away.
“So coming up to Scotland was like travelling to a foreign country.
Source: Billy Sloan/sundaypost.com
McCartney is best known as the charming frontman of rock and roll supergroup The Beatles.
But wacky conspiracy theorists maintain the legendary Beatle died in a car crash during the golden age of Beatlemania, only to be replaced by a dead ringer.
And fans now believe they know the true identity of McCartney’s lookalike imposter, 52 years after his supposed death.
According to conspirators, the singer's replacement was a sweet-sounding Louisiana local called Michael Campbell Shears – better known as Billy Shears.
Source: Emmet McGonagle/dailystar.co.uk
Luckily, all went well and that’s exactly what he did.
Abigail ended up making a short appearance in a home video, shot by her father Leo in Austria at the time, which was released just a few years ago under the name ‘Snow Scenes’. It featured all four members of the band laughing and playing around together in the snow, appearing completely at ease with each other away from the stage.
“They were always really nice. Ringo was so sweet, I used to go tobogganing with him in the snow in Austria,” she recalled.
“John Lennon had only just had his son Julian Lennon at the time and he was missing him. My sister was six-months-old and he always used to say, ‘Can I hold Harriet on my lap?’ so he could cuddle her!”
Of course, forming a close bond with Lennon at such a young age stuck with Abigail’s sister for years afterwards, and she admitted news of his sudden death in 1980 hit her particularly hard.
Source: Starts at 60 Writers/startsat60.com
If you’re a member of the most famous band of your era, you’re likely going to want something special to drive around in. George Harrison of Beatles fame loved the smell of petrol and his car history further paints him as a true enthusiast.
From exotic Ferrari Dinos to elegant Jaguar E-types, Harrison had taste when it came to flash motors, but even more so when it came to being a little more incognito. His black-on-black Mercedes-Benz 500 SEL AMG will be up for grabs at an Anglia Car Auctions sale next January.
For those times when a red Ferrari wasn't appropriate, this still potent — yet more subtle — Mercedes fit the bill for Harrison. It provided all of the comfort and luxury of a contemporary German saloon, while also delivering thundering performance via the talented work of tuner AMG.
Source:autoclassics.com
Our multi-column salute to the White Album kicks off with the double LP’s end: the tender lullaby “Good Night,” sung memorably by Ringo Starr. While numerous tracks benefit from the 50th anniversary remastering, “Good Night” fares exceedingly well. The astounding outtakes, including a haunting rendition featuring George Harrison, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney harmonizing in the background, reveal the song’s delicate melody and exquisite arrangement.
Lennon originally wrote “Good Night” as a lullaby for son Julian, although he does not appear on the final version. Producer George Martin scored the orchestral arrangement. McCartney recalled in Barry Miles’ Many Years from Now that he overheard Lennon teaching the track to Starr during an early session.
Source: Kit O'Toole/somethingelsereviews.com
Mary Patricia McCartney, a Liverpool midwife, died of an embolism in October 1956, when her son Paul was 14. More than a decade later, Paul, who was going through a rough period and trying to keep his band going, had a dream where his mother came and spoke to him. To hear McCartney tell it, his mother told him to “let it be” — to rest easy, knowing that everything would be OK. McCartney took that to heart, and he wrote a song about it.
McCartney wrote “Let It Be” when the Beatles were working on their White Album, and it took a while to get the song out into the world. The album that became Let It Be was originally supposed to be Get Back, an LP of songs that the band had rehearsed in-studio and then performed, for the first time, in front of a live audience. But the rehearsals were hard on the band, and they ended up giving up the idea. The band recorded those songs, but then they went off and made Abbey Road. And then they broke up. And then they finished putting the album, retitled Let It Be, together.
Source: Tom Breihan/stereogum.com
British rock group ‘The Beatles’ at the President Hotel, Russell Square in London, on 12th September 1963
Norman Parkinson (1913-1990) was the Twentieth Century’s most celebrated fashion photographer. He pioneered epic storytelling in his images, taking portrait and fashion photography beyond the stiff formality of his predecessors and injecting an easy and casual elegance into the art. His photographs created the age of the supermodel and made him the photographer of choice for celebrities, artists, Presidents and Prime Ministers. He was a permanent fixture at historic moments photographing the British Royal Family, in private and public, as well as leading figures from the worlds of film, theatre, and music.
Source: 1stdibs
A box of rare photographic slides of The Beatles taken by a travelling salesman in 1967 is to go on sale at an auction house in North Hykeham on New Year's Day.
The lot also includes a letter the rep wrote to his wife in Lincoln, which he got John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison to sign as they stayed at the Atlantic Hotel, in Newquay, Cornwall.
The slides capture the Fab Four at work and play in 1967 as they shot scenes for the surreal film Magical Mystery Tour - broadcast on Boxing Day that year.
The musical movie is about people's adventures on a mystery bus tour and features songs from the accompanying album including Magical Mystery Tour, I Am the Walrus, The Fool on the Hill and Your Mother Should Know.
Darryl Kirk, valuer at Teal Park-based Unique Auctions, said the slides and the signatures in lot 1129 are expected to fetch £1,000 to £2,000.
Source: Paul Whitelam/lincolnshirelive.co.uk
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has revealed plans to dedicate a spring exhibition to some of the most iconic musical instruments in the history of rock and roll
More than 130 instruments used by such artists as Chuck Berry, the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Jimmy Page, Steve Miller, St. Vincent, Metallica and the Rolling Stones will go on display in Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll, which opens next April.
Most of the objects in the exhibition, which are drawn from 70 private and public collections and date from 1939-2017, will be seen for the first time outside their performance contexts. Themes will include emerging technologies and how musicians embraced them, the "Guitar Gods" phenomenon and the destruction of instruments during live performances.
Source: sg.asiatatler.com
