Beatles News

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.

Okay so to be frank the question to ask after the year-long spate of rock star deaths is: Jesus, who's next? In a New Yorker cartoon at the end of 2016, God says to the Grim Reaper, "Maybe go easy on the much-loved celebrities for a while." This time last year was the pretty shocking death of David Bowie, and at Christmas there was the really sad death of George Michael. In between, there was...just about everyone. Bring out your listicles of the famous dead. 2016 saw what appeared to be record numbers of music royalty passing over to that great backstage in the sky. Prince. Leonard Cohen. Glenn Frey from The Eagles, Paul Kantner from Jefferson Airplane.

March 24, 2017 will see the arrival of the long-awaited next addition in Paul McCartney's award-winning Archive Collection: Flowers In the Dirt (originally released in 1989). But one particular decision has raised the hackles of McCartney's collective fan base—and understandably so. Unlike the previous nine entries in the series, a significant portion of the material slated for inclusion in the pricey "deluxe edition" will be available as downloads only. To survey the tracklist alone, the Flowers deluxe set appears to be the most comprehensive set so far. In addition to a remastered version of the album on disc one, discs two and three include the original demos and 1988 "band demos" of nine Elvis Costello collaborations (McCartney and Costello famously teamed up to write a batch of songs together, several of which were never officially released by either artist). A DVD will contain the long out-of-print documentary Put It There (no word yet on whether it's the original version or the truncated home video version), ten music videos, and three featurettes.

Musician Sean — son of superstar John, who died in 1980 — gave his support to fashion designer pal Stella. IT’S Lennon and McCartney — a generation after the Beatles legends. Stella McCartney, 45, struck a pose with Sean Lennon, 41, almost 50 years after their dads’ group disbanded. Musician Sean — son of superstar John, who died in 1980 — gave his support to fashion designer pal Stella, daughter of Sir Paul, as she launched a line at New York’s Cotton Club on Tuesday. Well, we all need a little help from our friends … Characters from the Dandy comic strip stepped into the world of high fashion on a new print by Stella.