Beatles News
Music promoter Tony Calder, who helped The Beatles score their first hit single, has died at the age of 74.
He started his career at Decca Records in the 1960s and went on to work with the Beach Boys, Marianne Faithfull, Black Sabbath and Eddy Grant.
The executive also co-founded his own independent record label, signing acts like Rod Stewart and Fleetwood Mac.
Andrew Loog Oldham, his former business partner, tweeted: "A member of the family has left us."
Born in Surbiton, Surrey, to Scottish parents in 1943, Calder was one of the busiest agents on the music scene of the 1960s, working at Decca Records by day and as a DJ for Mecca dancehalls by night.
In 1962, he was tasked with promoting the Beatles' first single, Love Me Do.
Source: BBC
Ringo Starr will bring the latest edition of his All Starr Band to the Event Center at Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City, June 2. Tickets, priced from $89 to $129, go on sale Jan. 12 at 10 a.m.; visit theborgata.com.
The group’s lineup will include Steve Lukather (of Toto) and Colin Hay (of Men at work) on guitars and vocals; Gregg Rolie (of Santana and Journey) on keyboards and vocals; Graham Gouldman (of 10cc) on bass and vocals; Gregg Bissonette on drums; and Warren Ham on sax, harmonica and other instruments.
Starr, 77, released his 19th studio album, Give More Love, in September, and was honored with knighthood at the end of 2017, “for services to music.” Click here for a review, with setlist, videos and a photo gallery, from his Nov. 16 concert at NJPAC in Newark.
Starr has not released the full itinerary of his 2018 United States tour, so it is possible that more New Jersey shows will be added.
Source: JAY LUSTIG
You wait all year — or the year’s 10 days so far, which is long enough for British pop addicts — and then two rockumentaries come at once. Lili Fini Zanuck’s Eric Clapton: A Life in 12 Bars is not exactly a bus. It’s more a cart without a horse. It tells us everything we need to know about this rock guitarist except why we need to know it. Surely Zanuck could have spared five minutes — out of 135 — to appraise or analyse the man’s music? What’s unique about Clapton? How did he achieve that uniqueness? What separates the prodigy from the twangling herd? . . .
Source: Nigel Andrews
TO celebrate 50 years since The Beatles visited the Ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India a special exhibition will be launched.
Opening on February 16 at The Beatles Story - the new 'Beatles in India' exhibition will discover the secretive part of the story with never seen before memorabilia, imagery and personal accounts from people who were there in 1968.
It will mark 50 years to the day that John Lennon, George Harrison and their wives Cynthia Lennon and Pattie Boyd arrived in India.
A sitar used by the legendary Ravi Shankar will go onto display within the new immersive area, loaned to The Beatles Story by the Ravi Shankar Foundation.
As George Harrison’s mentor, Ravi’s influence on the Beatle ultimately helped to popularise the use of Indian instruments in 1960s pop music.
The exhibit will also include photography from Paul Saltzman, a sound engineer for the National Film Board of Canada at the time, who photographed The Beatles during their stay.
He is responsible for some of the most iconic and intimate images of the Fab Four in India.
Pattie Boyd, former wife to George Harrison, and her sister Jenny Boyd, who were amongst the star-studded list of attendees in India, will be providing their personal insight into the time.
2018 will also recognise what would have been George Harrison’s 75th birthday.
Source: wirralglobe.co
Sir Paul McCartney and a host of rock and pop legends are backing a move in Parliament to protect music venues from closure.
Senior Labour MP John Spellar, a Government minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, is introducing a bill in the Commons to change planning laws.
The proposed new law is backed by stars including Sir Paul, Chrissie Hynde, Craig David, Sandie Shaw, Ray Davies, Billy Bragg, Feargal Sharkey and Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason.
UK Music, a campaign group representing both the recorded and live music industries, said that over the past decade 35% of music venues across the country have closed.
Among venues that have had to fight closure threats are London's iconic dance club Ministry of Sound and the 100 Club, where The Who, Sex Pistols and Oasis have performed.
Pledging his support for Mr Spellar's bill, Sir Paul said: "Without the grassroots clubs, pubs and music venues my career could have been very different.
Source: Sky News
A book featuring rare photographs of The Beatles clicked by Emmy award-winning producer-director Paul Saltzman during the iconic group’s India visit 50 years ago will hit stores next month.
Titled “The Beatles in India”, the book celebrates 50 years of the band’s famous trip to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Ashram in Rishikesh.
During their visit, The Beatles studied transcendental meditation, and wrote some of their most memorable music.
No other person, except Saltzman, was allowed to photograph the group which had John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison.
The book, published by Simon & Schuster India, also contains a detailed narrative by Saltzman about the story of how “Dear Prudence” came to be and Harrison’s description of the first time he picked up a sitar.
Source: Richard Porter/Beatles in London
Days after he was officially honored with a knighthood in the United Kingdom, world-famous drummer Ringo Starr amused his fans by misspelling the name of the iconic band that brought him fame.
Ringo — whose real name is Richard Starkey — was posing a trivia question to his 1.81 million followers on Twitter, while also attaching a decades-old photo of his former Beatles band-mate, Paul McCartney.
The drummer wanted to know which of the Beatles’ tracks was recorded in 1968 at Trident Studios.
However, instead of saying “Beatle,” he wrote “beetle.”
“1968 what beetle tracks where recorded at Trident studios let me know it’s also a good picture of Paul he was There to. peace and love I am having a good day I hope you are too,” the drummer wrote Thursday.
Source: Joe Setyon
Former Beatles legend Ringo Starr has announced that he will perform in Israel next June as part of his 2018 European tour.
The former Beatles drummer’s band, Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, includes fellow rock legends Steve Lukather of Toto, Greg Rollie of Journey and Graham Gouldman of 10cc as the “All-Starrs.” The group will perform two shows in Israel at Tel Aviv’s Menorath Mivtahim Arena from June 23-24, according to Ringo Starr’s website.
Starr’s concerts come more than 50 years after the Israeli government barred The Beatles from performing in Israel in 1966 over concerns that the band would negatively influence the Jewish state’s youths. The government later apologized for the decision. Former Beatle Paul McCartney performed in Israel in 2008.
Source: breakingisraelnews.com
Jane Bown (1925-2014) worked for the Observer for 65 years, taking unforgettable images of hundreds of subjects. She used basic equipment and often relied solely on available light and is known for her iconic black and white photographs. She honed a deceptively simple technique to produce her highly distinctive photographs. The GNM Archive holds an extensive collection of her work.
Observer photographer Jane Bown and her beloved OM-1 cameras are the focus of this month's resource
In the 1960s Jane was asked to shoot in colour for the Observer’s colour magazine but was never comfortable using it and abandoned it after three years. She told Luke Dodd, her archivist, in an interview for the Unknown Bown book and exhibition in 2007 that: “In those days, colour was very inflexible - I had to learn to bracket them. With black and white it’s usually possible to salvage something in the darkroom however bad the shoot might have been. And with colour, editors tended to want photo essays and I was always best at the single shot. I’m a one-shot girl, always have been!”
In January 1967 Jane was walking the dog with her young nephew in Knole Park near her Sevenoaks home. They came across a bizarre scene; “the Beatles gathered around a piano in the middle of the park. They were filming Magical Mystery Tour and nobody knew they were there.
Source: theguardian.com
The vinyl revival continued in 2017 — and people clearly needed more Beatles records for their turntables, because the band took the top two spots on the year-end sales chart for the resurgent format.
Citing Nielsen data, Billboard reports that vinyl sales hit another peak in 2017, moving 14.32 million units and edging up 9 percent over last year’s previous high. That total represents the largest number of vinyl albums that’s been purchased in a year since 1991 — the year the company’s SoundScan sales data was incorporated into Billboard’s chart methodology, starting a new era in the process.
