Beatles News
Liverpool's world famous Cavern Club is to become the centerpiece of an official Beatles Quarter to develop its global tourism appeal, the city's mayor announced Friday.
Mathew Street where the club is located at, famed for the rise of the Beatles pop group, is already a mecca for thousands of fans.
Mayor Joe Anderson is to ask the city cabinet to back a masterplan to attract new investment to the area to attract more tourists and fans to the area. It will also generate a more diverse mix of complimentary uses of buildings in the Mathew Street area that operate 24 hours a day.
The mayor's strategy will give the city council control over the future use of buildings in the quarter to attract new investment to build on Beatles heritage tourism which already earns the city nearly 130 million U.S. dollars a year.
A recent economic impact report found the Beatles related industry has been growing at up to 15 percent a year following the city's year as European Capital of Culture in 2008.
Source: Xinhua
Hit recording artist Ed Sheeran is poised to make a more significant jump into the acting world, and the project couldn’t be more perfect. The Daily Mail first reported and Deadline confirmed that Sheeran is in talks to join the cast of Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire filmmaker Danny Boyle’s upcoming musical comedy from Working Title. The script for the untitled feature hails from Love Actually and About Time screenwriter Richard Curtis, and while the plot has been kept under wraps, The Daily Mail has some intriguing story details, assuming they’re true: It’s the story of a man who wakes up one day to discover he’s the only person in the world who remembers the songs of The Beatles.
Source: Christina Radish/collider.com
If these classic songs were released today, it would almost certainly ignite a scandal.Mick Jagger, left, and Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones perform in Tampa in 1994. Some of the English rockers' songs contain lyrics that would likely be frowned upon today.
There's nothing like hearing a song come on the radio or flicker across a Spotify playlist that you haven't encountered in a while, and realizing, "Was this song always this offensive?"
The answer: Yes, it probably was. Standards have changed quite a bit in terms of what references the culture at large deems offensive in its hit songs, from casual homophobia in pop songs from Katy Perry and Taylor Swift to the jaw-dropping lyrical content of some Rolling Stones classics.
Below, find a list of songs that, if released today, would almost certainly ignite a scandal.
Source: Maeve McDermott and Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY
Before he found fame with the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO), guitarist Randy Bachman cut his teeth playing in cover bands around his Canadian home town of Winnipeg. This was where his lifelong admiration of George Harrison crystallized.
“I was always the George Harrison guy in every band I was in,” Bachman says. “The drummers in those bands got to sing Ringo’s songs and I was always delegated to sing George’s songs.”
Many decades down the road, Bachman decided to relive that experience on his new album, By George, By Bachman, a collection of 11 songs written by George Harrison with one track, “Between Two Mountains,” that Bachman wrote as a tribute to the former Beatle, who passed away in 2001. Had he lived, Harrison would have turned 75 this year, and Bachman celebrates his own 75th birthday this September 27. So the timing seemed ideal to Bachman, who takes a very freehanded approach to Harrison’s compositions on the disc, departing markedly from the original chord progressions, melodies and grooves. But he feels that Harrison would have approved.
Source: Alan di Perna/guitarworld.com
A wise musician always pays attention to the other artists on the bill — you never know where you're going to hear them next, or when they might turn out to be the next biggest band in the world. Just ask Moody Blues drummer Graeme Edge, who still remembers watching the Beatles perform at a Liverpool gig where the Moodies were billed as "Birmingham's top band."
"They played a song called 'Long Tall Sally.'" Edge recalled during an hourlong Q&A session at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame held prior to the band's upcoming induction this weekend. "Well, at the time, that was dead in Birmingham, because we had no idea about sounding ethnic. ... So we're all there sitting in the back, having a beer and thinking these guys are going to, you know, bomb out because we were playing all the good stuff."
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
f you remember the '60s, you weren't there: so it is said of that explosive decade of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll when girls sashayed down the Kings Road in tiny skirts and Biba boots, boys wore ruffled shirts over tight velvet trousers and London was the epicentre of cool.
Oblivion came with the territory: Eric Clapton was supposed to have slept with more than 1000 women but as he told me in an interview for Fairfax Media, "I wouldn't know, I was in a blackout for quite a few of them".
Pattie Boyd and her then husband George Harrison in England in 1968.
Pattie Boyd was both muse and wife to Clapton, to George Harrison before him and no stranger to drug and booze-fuelled partying. But there was little danger of failing memory for her. She kept a record of the wild years – portraits and reportage style snaps taken with a Polaroid and, later, on a Hasselblad.
Source: Jane Wheatley/smh.com.au
Ringo Starr has signed an exclusive worldwide publishing deal with BMG, the company announced on Tuesday (April 10). The agreement covers Starr's Beatles and solo catalog, spanning nearly 50 years, as well as future compositions.
Among the over 150 titles included in the deal are his songwriting contributions with The Beatles'
"What Goes On" from Rubber Soul, "Flying" from Magical Mystery Tour, "Don't Pass Me By" from The White Album, "Octopus's Garden" from Abbey Road and "Dig It" and "Maggie Mae" from Let It Be, as well as other rarities.
As a solo artist, Starr has released 19 studio albums, spanning from 1970's Sentimental Journey to last year's Give More Love. His 1973 album, Ringo, peaked and No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart and is RIAA certified Platinum, with singles "Photograph" and "You're Sixteen" topping the Hot 100 chart.
Source: billboard.com
The handwriting of Kurt Cobain, David Bowie, John Lennon and other rock stars has been turned into fonts.
The Songwriters Font project includes typefaces developed from “original handwritten letters and notes” by Cobain, Bowie and Lennon, as well as Leonard Cohen and Serge Gainsbourg.
“Songwriting is about inspiration,” say creators Julien Sens and Nicolas Damiens. “Write songs as the ones who inspired you before. The Songwriters fonts have been created to give musicians inspiration.”
“Writing lyrics with the handwriting of influential songwriters helps imagination to develop. Being in the mood of Bowie, Cobain, Cohen, Gainsbourg, Lennon, might be purely imaginative… but that’s precisely the point.”
See some examples of the fonts beneath.
Source:
A piece of Beatles memorabilia is going up for sale for $375,000 — lyrics handwritten by Paul McCartney for the 1968 classic “Hey Jude” at a recording session.
The same lyrics are seen being used by John Lennon in a videotaped recording, hung from a mike stand. The song is credited to Lennon and McCartney and adapted from a ballad McCartney wrote for Lennon’s son Julian, originally called “Hey Jules.”
Moments in Time dealer Gary Zimet, who is selling the item, said, “This rare lyric sheet was seen being used by Lennon in a filmed recording session and is written all in McCartney’s hand.”
Source: Page Six Team
George garden idea grows
A GARDEN inspired by musician George Harrison is set to be created in Mill Meadows in Henley.
The location is favoured by the late Beatle’s widow Olivia, who still lives at Friar Park, the home they bought in the Seventies.
Henley in Bloom is working with Gae Exton, from the Harrisons’ charity the Material World Foundation, to develop the idea. Mayor Kellie Hinton, who chairs Henley in Bloom, said the charity would fund the project.
She said: “They are keen for the garden to be at Mill Meadows. It’s a great location by the flowing water and away from traffic as well as being looked after by the council’s parks team.
“They are happy to fund the garden and are not expecting us to come up with a huge amount of money as they are aware of our budget constraints.” Giles Reynolds, the head gardener at Friar Park, will be involved with the design.
Councillor Hinton and council administrator Becky Walker will look around Mill Meadows for several possible locations for the garden. These will then be considered with Mrs Harrison and the charity as well as the Henley in Bloom committee. The final design will be signed off by the full council.
Cllr Hinton said the River & Rowing Museum, which is in Mill Meadows, would also be involved. Meanwhile, plans to improve a town entrance could receive a cash boost. Henley in Bloom has backed plans to renovate a green area in Bell Street near the mini-roundabout at Northfield End.
Source: Henly Standard
