Beatles News
“While we were recording ‘The White Album’, we ended up being more of a band again,” Ringo Starr would reflect, “and that’s what I always love. I love being in a band.” Increasingly over the previous few albums, The Beatles’ recordings had been crafted, layer upon layer of sound painstakingly assembled, rather than performed live in the studio as their earliest records had been. But for “The White Album”, they consciously set out to return to playing the songs as a band, getting closer and closer musically – and, in the case of John Lennon’s ‘Yer Blues’, physically.
By their own admission, The Beatles had started out playing heavy rock. “But when it was put down on the early records, there was never enough bass in it, the guitar solo never came through, because we didn’t know about recording then,” John explained shortly after “The White Album”’s release. “We sounded more like us on this record. We rid ourselves of the self-consciousness bit, so we were doing what we were doing earlier on, but with a better knowledge of the technique of recording. Quite a few of the tracks are just straight takes of us playing.”
Source: Paul McGuinness/udiscovermusic.com
Yoko Ono is to open next year’s Manchester International Festival with a message of peace to the world, it has been announced.
The artist, singer and peace activist’s work Bells for Peace will feature around 8,000 members of the public forming an orchestra of bells in Manchester’s Cathedral Gardens to welcome visitors to the biennial festival.
It follows the success of What Is the City but the People? which gave the people of Manchester a chance to present a self-portrait of themselves and the place where they live.
Idris Elba and Skepta have also been announced as part of next year’s festival.
Yoko Ono said: “The beauty of this piece will break the sky and more. One of the reasons this is very different is the fact that all of us will be making the sound together. More than ever, we must come together to heal each other and the world. Peace is power.”
The project comes following Ono’s newly recorded version of peace anthem Imagine, written by her husband John Lennon and inspired by Ono’s poetry, releeased earlier this month on her new album, Warzone.
Source: Dean Kirby/inews.co.uk
He's about to embark on his Freshen Up tour, which kicks off in Toyko this week.
And Sir Paul McCartney, 76, was supported by his wife Nancy Shevell, 58, as he touched down in Japan on Monday, causing a stir as they landed at Haneda airport.
The couple - who tied the knot in 2011 - were sporting matching kimonos, embracing the local customs.
Stepping out: Sir Paul McCartney, 76, was supported by his wife Nancy Shevell, 58, as he touched down in Japan on Monday, causing a stir as they landed at Haneda airport
Paul and Nancy opted for comfort for their long-haul flight, both dressed down in jeans and trainers.
The pair were in high spirits as they made their way thought the airport in their eye-catching attire.
The Beatles legend's first stop on his world tour will be the Tokyo Dome on October 31st.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
Amongst the large, deservedly legendary, and oddly expanding pile of officially released Beatles material, there is probably nothing as off the radar as “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number).”
The song that was released as the B-side of “Let It Be” in March of 1970 and has largely been under-appreciated ever since.
Recorded over a two-year period, “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)” is a strange cocktail jazz/ska/comedy mantra, and it is unlike anything else in the Beatles’ canon. (Well, aside from their often wonderful Christmas fan club records.)
On the surface, it’s a throwaway tune, and many students of the Beatles have regarded the song in that fashion for half a century.
But the Beatles did not throw away songs, and “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)” is absolutely no exception. It is not only a deeply intentional composition, but also a Rosetta Stone, an object that tells us a great deal about the Beatles.
A prime indication that we should take “You Know My Name” seriously is the fact that it is one of the only recordings that the Beatles worked on during one era, set aside, and completed in another era.
Source: Tim Sommer/realclearlife.com
A short chapter in Dublin’s musical history will be commemorated next month when a plaque marking The Beatles’ first, and only, appearance in Ireland is unveiled at Arnotts.
The band played two shows at what was then the Adelphi Cinema, Middle Abbey Street, on November 7th, 1963. Their debut album Please Please Me came out earlier that year and by November the newspapers were already reporting on the first flushes of Beatlemania: “It’s happening everywhere” declared the Daily Mirror.
If The Irish Times of the day failed to recognise the musical significance of the band, it succeeded in providing extensive coverage of Ireland’s only exposure to Beatlemania.
“Many arrested as city crowds riot” ran the front page headline on November 8th, accompanied by a photograph of a crowd of young people breaking through a police cordon on O’Connell Street. The paper referred to them throughout as “Beatle ‘fans’ ” , with the word fans usually in quotation marks.
Source: irishtimes.com
It’s been a hard day’s fight, but a group of Japanese Beatles fans have lost their bid to get police to hand over historic footage of the band’s 1966 Japan visit.
The superfans took their battle for the film — recorded by police as a security measure — all the way to the Supreme Court, arguing it was a “historical document.”
Police had offered to release the footage, reportedly about 35 minutes long, but only after blurring the faces of everyone in the film except the Beatles, citing privacy reasons.
Two lower courts backed the police against a group of citizens from Nagoya who wanted the entire film released uncensored, saying it would be almost impossible to identify people in the footage more than 50 years later.
But the long and winding legal battle ended last week when the Supreme Court rejected their argument, the group announced.
Source: japantimes.co.jp
Stormzy has revealed what it was like getting a piano lesson from Sir Paul McCartney.
The British grime star met the Beatles icon after an intimate show McCartney played at Abbey Road, where Stormzy apparently sought advice to help advance the sound of his music.
“He’s (Stormzy) looking to advance his music,” Paul told The Sunday Times in September. “As a rapper, I thought he’d have words down, but there was a piano, so I showed him basic stuff – how you get middle C, make a chord, a triad and, just by moving that, get D minor, E minor, F, G, A minor, and how that’s enough for anyone.”
I was just so compelled, in the presence of someone that great, to get advice — anything for my career an OG [original gangster] like him can give me,” Stormzy told the publication, in a new interview. “But I know the stigma that comes with being a rapper, so I introduced myself as a songwriter: ‘Can you teach me something?’
Source: Roisin O'Connor/msn.com
A short chapter in Dublin’s musical history will be commemorated next month when a plaque marking The Beatles’ first, and only, appearance in Ireland is unveiled at Arnotts.
The band played two shows at what was then the Adelphi Cinema, Middle Abbey Street, on November 7th, 1963. Their debut album Please Please Me came out earlier that year and by November the newspapers were already reporting on the first flushes of Beatlemania: “It’s happening everywhere” declared the Daily Mirror.
If The Irish Times of the day failed to recognise the musical significance of the band, it succeeded in providing extensive coverage of Ireland’s only exposure to Beatlemania.
“Many arrested as city crowds riot” ran the front page headline on November 8th, accompanied by a photograph of a crowd of young people breaking through a police cordon on O’Connell Street. The paper referred to them throughout as “Beatle ‘fans’ ” , with the word fans usually in quotation marks.
Source: irishtimes.com
Stern Pinball, Inc., a global lifestyle brand based on the iconic and outrageously fun modern American game of pinball, in collaboration with Ka-Pow Pinball, proudly announced today the availability of the one-of-a-kind Beatles pinball machine. Only 1964 units will be produced in recognition of the year in which the world forever changed when Ed Sullivan introduced America to four young mop-topped musicians from Liverpool, England. The deal was brokered by Bravado Merchandising, the Beatles North American licensing agent.
The game is available in three models named for the recording industry's sales award levels. The Diamond Edition, the highest level and most difficult to attain, is limited to only 100 units. The Platinum Edition is limited to only 250 units. The Gold Edition is limited to 1614 units.
The Beatles pinball machine will immerse players in 1960's Beatlemania and feature eight timeless hit songs from that era:
Source: prnewswire.com
Ringo Starr fondly recalled The Beatles' historic 1964 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on Thursday night, as he and Michael Jackson were honored at The Paley Honors: A Gala Tribute to Music on Television.
The Paley Center event, which featured packaged salutes to musical performances and themes over nearly 70 years on television, took place at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills.
“The Ed Sullivan Show. Yeah, we did that,” Starr said, garnering a laugh from the audience. “We came to America, and you don’t know where things are going in life. I was in a factory and I left there to play drums. I had a three-month gig, and after that, I was on my own, and then I was introduced to the other three lads. I’m here because we are celebrating the four of us. I well up a little bit because two of us aren’t here.”
Source: Melinda Thomas/Billboard
