Beatles News
You are aware of India’s contradictions from the moment you land in Mumbai. Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport is a thing of sleek steel and glass, complete with its own waterfalls, clusters of rainforest, faux life-size temples and state-of-the-art art. But just outside, families live in large corrugated tin cans, piled on top of each other like human filing cabinets, and everyone acts like this is perfectly normal.
Let me tell you why I’d come to India. About a year ago I met Pattie Boyd, the ex-wife of George Harrison and later the ex of Eric Clapton. She travelled with the Beatles to India back in 1967, when they hung out with the Maharishi in Rishikesh. I’m sure a seed was planted in my brain back then, which influenced the rest of my life, right up to my recent interest in mindfulness. So when I met Pattie, I brazenly asked her if she ever planned to return to India, and if so, could I come too?
Source: telegraph.co.uk
The Beatles’ final studio release Let it Be was an effort to get back to the basics. The album was recorded almost completely live and had little to no over-dubbing or effects. This, however, didn’t last long.
Phil Spector was brought in after the fact to add string arrangements and choir, and then suddenly “basic” was quickly in the rearview.
The album served as the soundtrack to the film of the same name. Even more humorous is that an album with a peaceful-sounding title like Let it Be was recorded in such a hostile environment, despite the film omitting the band's numerous tensions.
In spite of this, Let It Be would go on to yield classics like the title track, “Across the Universe,” “The Long and Winding Road” and “Get Back.”
Released a month after The Beatles broke up, Let It Be would top the charts all over the world. The corresponding film was released on May 13, which featured the iconic rooftop concert that was the band's final public performance.
Source: Erica Banas/wror.com
Dozens of battered black equipment cases line the stage of the Keller Auditorium on the morning of April 17. Sound and lighting cables snake around the cases, finding their way to amplifiers and control consoles. Battens - long steel pipes hung from the ceiling that span the width of the stage - have been lowered to waist level, and an assembly line of stagehands affix lights and backdrops to them.
In a few hours, cast members of "RAIN: A Tribute to The Beatles" will arrive for rehearsal - but until then, the stage crew is busy unloading equipment and assembling the stage.
Loading in and setting up a large stage production like RAIN is a performance unto itself. The cast is made up of stage hands, sound and lighting technicians, engineers and carpenters. The set is made up of equipment cases, unassembled set pieces for the show, lighting rigs, speakers and amplifiers, and miles of electrical cables. All the action is directed by stage and productions managers.
"Hey, Marty, can we get the screen pipe in?” one manager shots.
“All cables run off stage left!” yells another.
The crew work in small teams to complete various tasks including assembling arrays of hanging loudspeakers, tying a painted cloth backdrop onto a lowered batten, and tuning all of the musicians’ instruments.
Source: Pierce Girkin/Metro News
Peter Asher has revealed he is ready to run to Sotheby's with the music at a moments notice
The number is World Without Love, a discarded Beatles track written by Macca which he kindly donated to the then unknown Peter and his music partner Gordon Waller, aka harmonising, cut glassaccented British folk rock duo Peter and Gordon.
The mournful but catchy ditty became a number one smash hit for them on both sides of the Atlantic in 1964 as part of the "British pop invasion" led by The Beatles and made university student Peter - older brother of McCartney's teenage actress girlfriend Jane Asher - an overnight star.
"Paul wrote out the words and the chords of the song for me on a piece of paper," recalls Peter.
"You'd better believe I've locked it away in a safe for the time when the music business goes completely to hell and I can run to Sotheby's like the wind," chortles the delightfully humorous and self-deprecating Peter, 73.
Source: Kathryn Spencer/express.co.uk
The Edgewater Hotel in Seattle has transformed two of their suites into a super-fan's wildest dreams, paying homage to two of the most iconic rock bands of all time.
The Beatles-inspired suite is 750-square-feet, with a king bed, living room, dining area, fireplace and European spa bathroom. Beatles albums, LP covers and Beatles-related art span the walls of the suite, which overlooks Elliott bay and the Olympic mountains. The Beatles stayed in room 272 of the hotel in August 1964, the site of their famous window fishing photos.
The Pearl Jam suite was designed with the assistance of the band and its fan club. Industrial, grunge-inspired decor line the walls, including a Mother Love Bone logo which rests above the bed. The hotel has pledged 10 percent of all proceeds from the room from now until Pearl Jam's Seattle shows in August to end homelessness in Seattle.
Source: Eddy Lim/mixdownmag.com.au
London’s AIR Studios, one of the world’s largest and most prestigious recording facilities, has been put up for sale by its owners.
Founded by Sir George Martin in 1969, the studio has been used by some of the biggest names in music with Paul McCartney, Adele, Coldplay, U2, Muse, George Michael, Kate Bush, Liam Gallagher, David Gilmour, Mumford & Sons, Scott Walker and Katy Perry among the many artists to have recorded there.
The facility’s cavernous hexagonal shaped 300m squared live room big enough to house a full symphony orchestra and choir simultaneously -- has also made AIR an in-demand booking for film composers and Hollywood studios.
Source: Richard Smirke/billboard.com
July 28, 1968 was one of those perfect English summer dayswhen British photographer, Tom Murray, photographed the famed rock and roll group. The shoot was done on the run (literally) all over London in order to escape the hordes of screaming Beatles fans that followed them everywhere. Rushing from location to location inspired the name of the famous collection: The Mad Day: Summer of '68.These images would become the LAST publicity shoot of all four Beatles together- and represent the quintessential Beatles at the height of their psychedelic period and are considered the most important color photographs of the group. The Beatles officially disbanded in 1970.
After Tom created the photographs, he edited them to twenty-three slides on the advice of renowned photographer and friend, Eve Arnold who said, "keep the best, ditch the rest." And in his desk, the negatives stayed for 23 years. In 1986, Tom found the original slides of the Mad Day when he moved to LA to work with famed director, John Schlesinger. Tom did not publish the full series of photographs until he met gallerists Rick and Irene Rounick. The photographs, available in a 20 X 24 format size, are hand-signed and numbered from a limited-edition series of 185. They are also available in a 30 X 40 format size, hand-signed and numbered from a limited-edition series of only 50.
Source: broadwayworld.com
John Lennon's 1971 track "How Do You Sleep" levied a torrent of musical criticisms against Paul McCartney, but the former Beatles star didn't reserve judgment on his own work either. In fact, as the following list of 20 Beatles Songs That John Lennon Hated shows, he was an equal-opportunity critic.
Lennon tore into deep cuts, treasured favorites and no less than four songs that hit No. 1 on the American or U.K. charts. No sacred cow went un-slaughtered. Sometimes, he didn't like the arrangement or the take the group decided to use, other times he couldn't get past the lyrics. "I feel I could remake every fucking one of them better," he bluntly told David Sheff in a 1980 interview for Playboy.
All of it underscores just how brutally honest Lennon could be – even with the band that hurtled him to superstardom. Keep scrolling to see our list of 20 Beatles Songs That John Lennon Hated, presented in chronological order according to sessions dates.
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
The 2019 edition of The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival will be the 50th anniversary of the springtime tradition. Music lovers are already buzzing about the possibility of a super superstar headliner to mark the half-century mark.
We have no inside information at this time (though we do so hope producer Quint Davis shoots us a text just as soon as he has a contract in hand). But while we bide our time until the announcement of the lineup (usually near New Year's Day) there's no harm in speculating, right?
Who are you hoping for?
Beyonce and/or Jaz-Z? Pop's most powerful couple are scheduled to appear in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on Sept. 13. Would a return to Gentilly seven months later be too soon? OH HEAVENS NO!
Paul McCartney? At 76, Beatle Paul would be only a touch older than many of this years' Acura Stage closers. But does he have the song catalog to handle a full 90 minutes?
Source: nola.com
The Giro d’Italia bike race is set to enter its final stage in Israel Sunday with a 226-kilometer sprint through the desert from the city of Beersheba down to the port city of Eilat.
The Sunday race, which kicks off at 12:30, follows a Friday time trial in Jerusalem and a dash down the coastal plain on Saturday that marked the first time a major European bike contest was held outside of the Continent.
Residents of the southern region of the country are expected to come out to cheer the cyclists on Sunday, though the number of spectators may be impacted by the start of the working week. Tens of thousands lined streets in Jerusalem and a string of cities on the coastline for the first two stages of the race.
Source: Jessica Steinberg/timesofisrael.com
