Beatles News
The Beatles’ multi-million revival machine is set for another boost from the White Album’s 50th anniversary. Before the package is released on November 9, its new producer Giles Martin has revealed more discoveries he made while he worked on the remixed, remastered and expanded box set.
The album, which has the formal title The Beatles but is most commonly referred to by its minimalist white cover by the artist Richard Hamilton, is the successor to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which was last year’s best-selling reissue and revived a form of lucrative Beatlemania. Martin, the son of the original producer, the late Sir George Martin, spoke about the new discoveries at a listening event in London.
Source: Mark Beech/
This list started when Alastair Campbell tried, via Twitter, to persuade Abba to object to Theresa May jiving on to the stage at the Conservative Party conference to “Dancing Queen”. The band had objected to the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party when it played “Mamma Mia” at rallies (changing the “Mia” to “Pia” after their leader, Pia Kjaersgaard, Robert Boston told me). But Björn Ulvaeus, asked by journalists, refused to comment on the British prime minister’s homage.
1. Abba: The band’s publishers also served John McCain with a cease and desist letter for using “Take a Chance on Me” in 2008. A somewhat un-reassuring political message, I thought, nominated by No Ordinary Cat.
Source: John Rentoul/independent.co.uk
He was the Dundee photographer who took the iconic image of one of music’s most famous albums.
Paul McCartney chose Iain MacMillan’s shot for the Abbey Road cover in 1969.
The street would eventually become as famous as the music itself thanks to the photograph Iain produced.
Mr MacMillan’s work with John Lennon and Yoko Ono also included working on record sleeves for Live Peace in Toronto, Give Peace a Chance and Happy Xmas (War is Over).
He also shot the album cover for Something’s Burning by Kenny Rogers and took portraits of various celebrities from the world of sport, acting and pop music including Stevie Wonder, Twiggy, Floyd Paterson and Maggie Smith.
Mr MacMillan’s rich legacy in print is now being fondly remembered by those who knew him best to mark what would have been his 80th birthday.
Source: thecourier.co.uk
Paul McCartney announced the latest installments of his ongoing Archive Collection, a pair of deluxe reissues dedicated to the Wings-era LPs 1971’s Wild Life and 1973’s Red Rose Speedway. Both reissues arrive December 7th.
For the 3CD/1DVD limited deluxe edition of Wild Life, the newly remastered original album will be paired with two discs worth of rough mixes, home recordings, b-sides, single edits and other unreleased material, including a minute-long home recording of “Indeed I Do.” The DVD for the set boasts rare footage of acoustic home videos, rehearsals and more.
“The Wild Life deluxe package includes a 128-page book written by David Fricke telling the story behind the album
Source: Daniel Kreps/Rolling Stones
It seems fitting that, when you read about the creation of The Travelling Wilburys in 1988, it's hard to sort out which stories are true and which are apocryphal. After all, the five megastars who made up the supergroup went by pseudonyms and claimed to be half-brothers: Nelson (George Harrison), Otis (Jeff Lynne), Lefty (Roy Orbison), Charlie T., Jr. (Tom Petty) and Lucky (Bob Dylan). Other legends abound: Did the name “Wilbury” come from Lynne telling George Harrison, during sessions for the former Beatle's comeback record Cloud Nine, that “we'll bury mistakes in the mix”? Did the four other members ask Orbison to join the band right before he went on stage? Did George Harrison announce the project for the first time during a radio interview? The answers are no, kind of and maybe — at least according to Jeff Lynne, who recalls the group’s formation as quick and simple. While working on Cloud Nine, he and Harrison started throwing out names of people with whom they’d love to be in a band. “Whenever we asked somebody, they would join immediately, so the group was formed in about 15 minutes,” he tells Billboard.
Source: Joel Keller/billboard.com
Having played nearly 3,000 shows with Elton John since 1972, Davey Johnstone — the Rocket Man’s trusted musical director and guitarist — says it’s tough to pick favorites. Maybe Thursday’s or Friday’s stop at Madison Square Garden as part of Elton’s long farewell tour will end up on his list. But there is one 1974 concert at the Garden that stands out from all the rest they have done in New York.
That’s when John Lennon joined them onstage on Thanksgiving Day as part of a deal he’d made when Elton played piano on the Beatle legend’s single “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.”
“I was at the studio at the time,” says Johnstone, “and Elton said, ‘Well, I’ll play on it, but if it gets to No. 1, you have to come onstage with us at Madison Square Garden.’ And John went, ‘Yeah, OK’ because he never expected it to be a No. 1 hit, which it was. So John had to make good on his promise.”
Source: By Chuck Arnold/nypost.com
It’s been almost fifty years since The Beatles‘ seminal White Album was released, and despite its age, it still manages to make news the world over.
In light of the upcoming anniversary release of White Album Super Deluxe Edition, a previously unheard demo of While My Guitar Gently Weeps has been made public for the first time since it was recorded.
Only a few seconds in, George interrupts the Abbey Road crew: “Maybe you’d have to give him [Paul] his own mic”.
George also sings the original lines he later ended up discarding: “I look from the wings at the play you are staging / As I’m sitting here doing nothing but ageing.”
This demo gives a glimpse into the band’s refinement process. It took another three months of recording to get the final product, the version which we all know and love.
Source: hhhhappy.com
October 9 saw the annual lighting of the Imagine Peace Tower of Light on Viðey outside of Reykjavík.
Created by Yoko Ono in 2007, the Imagine Peace Tower stands as a tribute for Ono’s late husband, musician John Lennon. The tower is illuminated between the October 9 until the December 8, marking the birth and death of Lennon. The tower stands tall as a symbol for the world peace campaign Lennon and Ono began during the ‘60s.
During this year’s lighting of the tower, spectators were able to see a video message featuring Ono before the peace tower was lit. The path toward the light tower was signposted by a romantic trail of torches. Although the drizzly weather dampened the visibility of the surroundings, a spectacular surprise display of the Northern Lights were a memorable addition to the event.
Source: Words by Mulan/grapevine.is
The Beatles may arguably have had the first fandom ever, so insane was Beatlemania.
But every day the lives of men and women around the world are changed by fandom, whether that’s a film star, a book, a TV show, a game, or a boy band, and new documentary I Used To Be Normal: A Boyband Fangirl Story tells the wonderful stories of four women who have had their lives dramatically changed by their love of a boyband – Backstreet Boys, One Direction, Take That and The Beatles.
From the craziest thing she ever did to get close to her idols to the moment that left her heartbroken, 68-year-old Susan tells Metro.co.uk what it means to be a life-long Beatles fangirl…
Susan, The Beatles:
Susan, 68, has been a Beatles fan since the band’s early days in the 1960s but says the craziest thing she ever did to get close to the boys took place when she was 14.
Source: Rebecca Lewis/metro.co.uk
Beatles fans are going to get their fix this weekend.
This year’s annual London Beatles Festival was canceled due to downtown construction, but organizers have instead put together a two-day mini-festival to whet fans’ appetites for 2019.
Two Groovy Nights, sponsored by A Taste of Britain, is on at the Palace Theatre Friday and Saturday, featuring a renowned Ringo Starr tribute artist, Ringer Star (Mike Callahan), and Canada’s top tribute band, The Caverners.
Saturday afternoon there will also be a forum of music and Beatles experts talking about the band, which continues to influence pop culture more than 50 years after they arrived on the scene.
“We scaled back the festival after last year’s three-day success (5,000-plus fans turned out), but we still wanted an event for Beatles fans to whet their appetites for next year when we’ll be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ Abbey Road album,” said organizer Paul Rivard.
“That will be big.”
Source: lfpress.com
