Beatles News
The last notes of "Please Please Me" still hung in the stale air of EMI's Studio Two on November 26th, 1962, when George Martin's disembodied voice crackled over the talkback from the control room above. "Gentlemen," he addressed his young moptopped charges, "I think you've made your first Number One." The veteran producer had a finely tuned ear for hits, but it would be several months before the Beatles rode their second single to the top of the charts. Released on January 11th, the song received an unexpected boost from Mother Nature the following week. The winter of 1963 was one of the most brutal in England's history, and the record-breaking cold forced many to spend their Saturday night at home in front of the television, just in time to catch the band making one of their earliest national broadcast appearances on ITV's pop-music program Thank Your Lucky Stars.
Source: Jordan Runtagh/rollingstone.com
In his truly epic Vulture interview with David Marchese last month, legendary producer Quincy Jones reminisced about his experience with “the worst musicians in the world,” the Beatles. As for his thoughts on the group’s drummer, Ringo Starr, Jones opined, “Don’t even talk about it.” Luckily everyone else, including Buckingham Palace, disagreed.
This week, Starr was finally knighted by Prince William under his birth name Richard Starkey, 21 years after Paul McCartney received the same honor. The Beatle was also made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire way back in 1965 along with his bandmates. If you’ll recall, Quincy Jones later apologized for saying a number of “silly things” off the cuff, which is probably why he was the first in line to let Ringo know how much he really deserved that honor, and more. Jones tweeted the producer on Tuesday evening, “Congratulations to my dear friend & brother @ringostarrmusic, Sir Richard ‘Ringo’ Starkey! You deserve this & every other honor that comes your way.”
Who’s Laughing Now, Quincy Jones? Ringo Starr Gets Knighted!
From the fall of 1966 through to spring of 1967, The Beatles were in the studio recording what would become their eighth studio album, the critically acclaimed Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The album, which is still a staple to this day (Rolling Stone named it the best album of all time), was immediately a commercial and critical success, known for its innovative production, ability to bridge pop music and high art, and psychedelic sensibilities that came to represent the late 60’s counterculture. While all the tracks have gained their own life in the fifty years since, the creation of the fourth number on the iconic album, John Lennon– and Paul McCartney-penned tune, “Getting Better”, has become fabled in Beatles lore.
An extensive piece by Rolling Stone details the rich history behind “Getting Better”. The song, while innocently conceived by McCartney on a walk with his sheepdog, Martha, also was the cause behind a favorite Beatles story—the time that John Lennon accidentally dosed himself in the studio, which led to McCartney’s first acid trip with one of his Beatles bandmates.
Source: Ming Lee Newcomb/liveforlivemusic.com
HARD DAY'S KNIGHT
Described as the 'most overdue knighthood of all time' by musical writer Sir Tim Rice, the honour was presented by the Duke of Cambridge
20th March 2018, 12:43 pm
THE Beatles' Ringo Starr finally received a knighthood at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace today.
Described as the "most overdue knighthood of all time" by musical writer Sir Tim Rice, the honour was presented by the Duke of Cambridge. Starr, 77, previously said: "It's great! It's an honour and a pleasure to be considered and acknowledged for my music and my charity work, both of which I love. Peace and love. Ringo."
Sir Paul McCartney was knighted in 1997 but Ringo was said to have given up all hope before a letter arrived from the Palace last year. A close family friend of Ringo said at the time: “It came as a bolt from the blue.
Source: By John Shammas/thesun.co.uk
Ron Campbel was about 6 when he saw his first cartoon in a movie theater. He went home and started drawing.
And that was the beginning of the 78-year-old's art career.
Campbell kept drawing until his own pictures came alive on both television and in the movies. Some of those drawings even escalated into legendary status when The Beatles boarded their "Yellow Submarine."
That's some of his animation in The Beatles' 1968 feature film "Yellow Submarine." Those psychedelic images will be on exhibit this week in Lafayette and New Orleans.
Campbell is showing and selling his work at Gallery 912 in Lafayette on Tuesday and Wednesday, then at the Boyd Satellite Gallery in New Orleans from Friday through Sunday.
Even if you've never watched "Yellow Submarine," you've probably still seen Campbell's work in such classics as "Scooby Doo," "The Jetsons," "The Flintstones," "Yogi Bear," "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and "The Smurfs."
Source: ROBIN MILLER | romiller@theadvocate.com
Orange Amplification is helping to raise funds for the Salvation Army’s Strawberry Field campaign. This charitable cause aims to reopen the Strawberry Field site, immortalised in the Beatles song ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.
As a child John Lennon famously used to jump over the wall in the Strawberry Field grounds, where he would play and listen to The Salvation Army band. Lennon grew up just a stone’s throw away from the site which has lain unused for 12 years.
The Salvation Army has owned Strawberry Field since the 1930’s and want to build a hub that offers training, skills and valuable work placements providing real employment prospects to young people with learning disabilities and help them to achieve their full potential. They also hope to open the world famous gates of Strawberry Field to the public for the first time in summer 2019. The tranquil gardens will promote the theme of peace and love and feature a new exhibition dedicated to the history of Strawberry Field, the song and Lennon’s early life.
Source: Andrew Braith/musictalkers.com
Sandie Shaw believes John Lennon would still be alive if he had married her instead of Yoko Ono.
The 71-year-old retired singer had a huge crush on the late Beatles legend - who was murdered on December 8, 1980 - from a young age.
The two musicians would regularly cross paths during the swinging 60s in Britain but she was never able to progress their friendship to a romance, something she regrets.
Sandie - who has two children with Virgin Group co-founder Nik Powell and daughter Gracie Banks with fashion designer Jeff Banks - told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "I loved John and thought he should have married me. He'd be alive today if I had, I would have protected him and taken a bullet for him!"
The 'Puppet on a String' hitmaker - who is now married to third husband Tony Bedford - first met the 'I Am The Walrus' singer at a Beatles concert at The Royal Albert Hall by pretending to be his cousin.
Sandie - who received an MBE this year - recalled: "The Beatles were performing at the Royal Albert Hall so I rang up, saying 'I'm Sandra, John's cousin. I haven't seen him in ages, so I will pop in'.
Source: femalefirst.co.uk
A true blend of the Beatles and opera
Emotionworks Cut Opera presents La Beatles Boheme, a series of opera fusion on the Melbourne CBD Flagstaff Carpark rooftop with a bar. The performances run over two weekends, from Saturday April 21 until Sunday April 29. Cover for extreme weather is supplied.
The rooftop location is a reference to the final rooftop performance of the Beatles. As with most of Cut Opera performances, opera and rock go side by side, telling the story of the four bohemians imagined as the Beatles. In the 90-minute performance takes Puccini’s La Boheme mixed with the best of the Beatles discography.
The show is to be directed by Julie Edwardson, an award-winning director with Opera Australia and the cast will feature both operatic and contemporary singers.
La Beatles Boheme is opens on the Flagstaff Carpark rooftop on Saturday April 21, tickets via Try Booking.
Source: By Holly Denison/beat.com.au
“I had a lot of emotional abuse with my mother; she was schizophrenic,” said Kaya John as she discussed her book, “When Life Sends You Lemons, Make Lennonaid: What John Lennon’s Life Did For Mine” (Balboa Press, 192 pp., $14.99), a story of how The Beatles and, in particular, John Lennon saved her from a path of self-destruction due to, among other things, abusive parents.
“She went into a very dark period where her insane anger just overtook her, and I was the target for it,” continued John. “And on my father’s end, there was very violent sexual abuse and, of course, that’s coming to the forefront in our culture and our world right now in a lot of different areas. It’s interesting because it took me a lot of years to write this book, and the timing of it seems to be rather amazing considering how that’s surfacing.
“A lot of people like The Beatles (and) there’s been a lot of books written about The Beatles but I’ve never read a really serious, personal book, written by a Beatles fan (about) how they affected their life. How they transformed their life, what they learned from The Beatles. And in my case, they helped me survive a very challenging childhood and, I feel, kept me from despair. Now that’s a strong word but it’s true, and they anchored joy into me, and there was a lot going on in my life for a lot of years that wasn’t joyful, but because I had The Beatles, they seriously offset everything else that was happening and kept me from getting into trouble. You know, in the ways that people get into trouble when they have rough childhoods.”
Source: DANNY COLEMAN/njarts.net
In February 1968, members of the legendary rock band, The Beatles, arrived in Rishikesh for a "momentous" sojourn. A teenage rebel — a diehard Beatles fan himself — watched them with keen interest. Five decades later, he has compiled an account of their stay here, and maintains that the three-year period that marked their affair with India was particularly significant in the life of the band.
"This is when The Beatles reinvented themselves from being the world's most famous pop stars into pioneering musical artists, creating new parameters of contemporary music," says Ajoy Bose, who has written an exhaustive account of their journey in Across The Universe: The Beatles in India.
Musical note
Bose, a well-known journalist, finds it interesting that their growing relationship with India, "led by George Harrison, who was particularly into Indian music, culture and religion, went side by side with their experiments with narcotics and psychedelic drugs".
Source: The Tribune
