Beatles News

The Beatles take the US by storm: a revolution in music culture On February 9, 1964, the United States had just entered the peak of time known as the “British Invasion.” It wasn’t a military invasion, but an invasion of culture thanks to four young men: John, Paul, George, and Ringo, also known as The Beatles. On this very day 52 years ago, they took the stage on the Ed Sullivan show. They stole the hearts of young women across the country and helped with their oversea popularity.

Production will start this month on a new film that will tell the story of The Beatles through the recollections of the group's fans. “Here There and Everywhere,” projected to be an 80-minute documentary, will be shot through the year and is set for release in 2018, producer Simon Weitzman told AXS this week. An official announcement was made Feb. 8. The film has the backing of a number of Beatles organizations, among them the Cavern Club where the Beatles performed before they were famous, The Beatles Story Museum and the Hard Days Night Hotel in Liverpool, the British Beatles Fan Club and U.S.-based fan conventions Abbey Road on the River.

This month marks 53 years since The Fab Four first visited the USA. The fascinating images, from February 1964, show what happened after The Fab Four landed at JFK airport in New York – where they were met by 3,000 screaming fans. Once in NYC, the band performed on the Ed Sullivan show in front of a TV audience of 73million people. Their visit, which took place 53 years ago this month, marked the start of Beatlemania. The groundwork for their first US trip had begun months earlier, in October 1963, when presenter Ed Sullivan had been passing through Heathrow Airport as the Beatles were due to land from a Swedish visit and he spotted a huge gathering of fans waiting for them. At that time, the Liverpool legends had already achieved three UK number ones with Please Please Me, From Me To You and She Loves You.

Imagine being secretary to The Beatles. Freda Kelly does not have to imagine it; she lived it for 11 years, and the Docutah International Documentary Film Festival is bringing Kelly and the film about her life with The Beatles, “Good Ol’ Freda,” to St. George Feb. 23 and 25. Kelly went to work for a “new band” when she was just a shy Liverpudlian teenager, and as the Beatles’ devoted secretary and friend, she was there to witness the evolution – advances and setbacks, breakthroughs and challenges – of the greatest band in history.

Previously unseen footage of the Beatles performing on their first north American tour is expected to sell for more than £10,000 at an auction. The 8mm film is from the band's performance in Montreal, Canada in September 1964 and shows rare colour footage of the Fab Four backstage. SHARE Filmed by the father of one of The Four Frenchmen, who were supporting the Beatles, the film also shows part of their performance and a press conference after the show.

Music producer James Teej never expected Paul McCartney would give his stamp of approval to a dark remix of one of his songs. And he certainly didn't think his collaboration would take him to the Grammy Awards either. On Sunday, the musician will be in the running for best remixed recording alongside German producer Timo Maas for their update of Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five.Their version takes the song from McCartney and Wings' 1973 album Band on the Run and reshapes it with a new edge. "Quite frankly, doing an electronic remix of a rock 'n' roll song is pretty tricky," says Teej, who spent his childhood in Quebec and Alberta. "You're going to have some people that absolutely love the outcome and ... some people that absolutely hate it."

Recent news reports have noted that the best selling book at Amazon is currently George Orwell’s classic novel of dystopian horror, 1984. Given our national circumstances, I suppose this could be seen as a positive, an effort on the part of at least some of the populace to educate themselves, even if a significant number of others in the populace (including me) wish that this sudden urge toward historical and cultural literacy had occurred before a certain November event. Such, such is life, as the poet says. We seem only to want to listen to our poets and sages in times of distress.

Because it’s the dead of winter, because it’s bleak, because when something perfect is broken it sometimes comes back stronger — here are 10 of the best Beatles covers: • Fiona Apple: “Across the Universe.” Recorded for the 1998 movie “Pleasantville” and produced by pop maestro Jon Brion, Apple’s gorgeous version of the John Lennon classic induces a feeling akin to spiraling out across the galaxy, buoyed along by her rich, calm-to-the-point-of-almost-bored voice, an affect a deity or a supremely cool girl might assume about the wonders of the cosmos. It’s the rare cover that doesn’t radically change its approach to the song but manages to improve on the original.

He is rock ‘n’ roll’s leading memorabilia detective, a collector who has tracked down John Lennon’s Japanese language class doodles and Elton John’s first upright piano. Now Tom Fontaine is selling off his unique slice of music history with a warning that the market for mementos is flooded with fakes. An obsessive collector since first seeing The Beatles on US television in 1964, Fontaine, from Indianapolis, has acquired more than 2,000 items including autographs and signed contracts to stage clothing and furniture from stars ranging from Elvis Presley to Jimi Hendrix. Fontaine, 58, whose expertise in authenticating memorabilia is sought by auction houses, is now downsizing and has begun to place his archive for sale on the Pledge Music direct-to-fan crowdfunding site.

Even though the Beatles hired a film crew to document the 1969 recording sessions for what would become Let It Be, it's a bit uncommon to see studio footage of the band at work before that time. Which is why the "Hey Bulldog" music video is so unique. The February 1968 footage seen in the clip was originally utilized in the "Lady Madonna" promotional video, until someone (perhaps a talented lip reader) noticed the band was actually recording "Hey Bulldog" (The band recorded both songs during the same sessions). The footage was later re-cut to fit "Hey Bulldog," one of many standouts from the Yellow Submarine soundtrack album.