Beatles News

“Now the Time Has Come,” a song featuring Ringo Starr that debuted last September for the annual International Day of Peace, is being made available as a free download for the first time. “Now the Time Has Come” shines a light on peace initiatives and drops this Friday (Jan. 20), the date of the inauguration of president Donald Trump. Its lyrics include the line: “Now the time has come/Time has come for everyone/To lay down all your guns/And let the light of love shine on and on.” The song was created by Starr and producer Bruce Sugar and two versions are available to stream online, one by Ringo and friends Richard Page, Colin Hay and Billy Valentine, and another with Ringo and friends and Latin artist Fonseca.

It could become one of the most important legal battles in music - Sir Paul McCartney is suing Sony over control of The Beatles' back catalogue. The star has gone to a US court, seeking to regain the publishing rights to 267 of the band's classic songs. He's been trying to get them back since the 1980s, when Michael Jackson famously out-bid him for the rights. Jackson's debt-ridden estate sold the songs to Sony last year, along with others including New York, New York. Sir Paul's legal case, filed in a Manhattan court on Wednesday, is over what is known as copyright termination - the right of authors to reclaim ownership of their works from music publishers after a specific length of time has passed. It was part of the US 1976 Copyright Act and, in recent years, performers like Prince, Billy Joel and Blondie have used it to regain control of their work. However, Duran Duran recently lost a similar case - when the British High Court ruled that the contracts they signed in the UK took precedence over their rights in the US.

The Quarrymen's Rod Davis remembers Woolton Church fete 60 years on. The Cavern isn’t the only 60th anniversary taking place in Liverpool this year. On July 6, it will be 60 years to the day that John Lennon was introduced to Paul McCartney at the Woolton church fete. The 16-year-old Lennon was playing at the summer event with his group The Quarrymen, a line-up of school friends from the near by Quarry Bank High School. On banjo was Rod Davis, whose dad took one of the few images of that day – that of the Quarrymen’s float, with Lennon and the rest of the group on board.

The artist, who grew up in Kent, has created a collage for the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park hotel Artist Sir Peter Blake, best known for his work designing the cover of The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper album cover, has unveiled his latest commission - a giant collage across the front of a swanky five-star London hotel. The Dartford-born artist, dubbed the Godfather of British pop art, was commissioned by the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group to create a collage which will cover its hotel in Hyde Park during part of a major renovation project. It will cover in part the hotel’s iconic facade. The huge work, entitled Our Fans, will be the largest he has ever created and is a Sgt Pepper-esque collage of 100 famous fances who have regularly stayed at the hotel.

To mark what would have been George Harrison's 74th birthday on February 25th, the Beatles guitarist's entire solo catalog will be reissued on vinyl. George Harrison – The Vinyl Collection features 13 albums, including all 12 of his solo studio LPs – from 1968's Wonderwall Music to 2002's Brainwashed – and the live album Live in Japan. Each album has been newly remastered from the original master tapes and pressed onto 180-gram heavyweight vinyl. Those records are then housed in a high-quality slipcase that replicates each album's original artwork and track list. The Vinyl Collection also comes with two 12-inch single picture discs of "When We Was Fab" and "Got My Mind Set On You." Each of the reissued albums will also be made available individually, with the 3-LP All Things Must Pass only available as a limited edition piece.

To mark what would have been George Harrison's 74th birthday on February 25th, the Beatles guitarist's entire solo catalog will be reissued on vinyl. George Harrison – The Vinyl Collection features 13 albums, including all 12 of his solo studio LPs – from 1968's Wonderwall Music to 2002's Brainwashed – and the live album Live in Japan.

A life-size bronze statue of Cilla Black has been unveiled outside Liverpool's Cavern Club as the venue celebrates its 60th anniversary. The club, credited with launching the career of The Beatles, opened its doors on 16 January 1957 as a jazz cellar. Crowds gathered in Mathew Street to see the sculpture which shows a young Cilla performing one of her early songs. The TV celebrity and 1960s singing star, who died in 2015, started work as a cloakroom attendant at the club. It was commissioned by Black's sons Robert, Ben and Jack Willis, who said they backed the idea after being moved by the response from the city following their mother's death.

As the Cavern Club celebrates its 60th birthday people can now explore the iconic building - without leaving their home. The Cavern Club Chronicles allows you to take a virtual tour of the Mathew Street venue, where Brian Epstein discovered the Beatles . It means people from all over the world, who might never get the chance to visit the Cavern in person, can now ‘step inside’ and see it from every aspect. You can even take a close look at more than 35 pieces in the musical museum, including historic photos, quotes, stories and videos. Users can navigate their way round using the Google Street View arrows, or by clicking on the ‘Trivia’ button. The Cavern Club teamed up with Expedia to present the virtual tour in time for the club’s 60th anniversary.

A tourist visiting Liverpool fell in love with The Cavern Club so much he decided to build one of his own. Lifelong Beatles fan Kevin Robjohns, from Immingham, Lincolnshire, decided to recreate the famous club - which turns 60 on Monday - in his own back garden after a trip to Liverpool. The 36-year-old, who works as a HGV maintenance man, started the project in 2015 - converting a former pigeon loft into a miniature version of the “birthplace of The Beatles.” Dubbed “Club Cavern” the bar even has its own replica of the famous stage, complete with coloured brick wall, but instead of being signed by the great and the good of the music world, it’s signed by Kevin’s friends and family who have visited the club. Kevin says he decided to create the ‘man cave’ as a place to store the Fab Four memorabilia he has collected over the years. He said: “I’ve always loved music, when I was a teenager my room was covered in Beatles posters and memorabilia . I thought I’d keep it all and use it one day so it had all been in the attic.

Magic Alex of the Beatles, or Alexis Mardas as it was his legal name, was found dead from natural causes in his apartment in Athens, Friday January 13. Mardas was known in the 60’s by his nickname Magic Alex given to him by John Lennon when he was involved with the Beatles as the director of their company Apple Electronics between 1965 and 1969. Mardas arrived in England in 1965, exhibiting his Kinetic Light Sculptures at the Indica Gallery. He impressed John Lennon with the Nothing Box; a small plastic box with randomly blinking lights, and allegedly said that he could build a 72-track tape machine. Mardas was then given the job of designing the new Apple Studio in Savile Row, and was in India with The Beatles at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram in India.