Beatles News

Recent years have seen plenty of new and “definitive” bios — some doorstop size — on John, Paul and even Ringo. Now, George gets his own entry with this U.S. paperback reissue of a recent UK effort by music journo Thomson, who also conducted dozens of fresh interviews with friends, collaborators and exes. Outside of the music, compellingly, the reader can’t help but come away realizing what a….sourpuss George Harrison was. No member was more reluctant and perturbed by Beatlemania than the group’s youngest member (who – in one of many dichotomies – nonetheless enjoyed and pursued all the perks that being a mega celebrity had to offer). And it often came across in his songwriting. After all, just look at even his early efforts: “Don’t Bother Me,” “If I Needed Someone,” “You Like Me Too Much.”

Ever needed to know if The Beatles are still alive or if they did drugs? Here's our helpful answers to the most-Googled Beatles questions on the net. As you’ll know if you’ve ever found the question ‘what is an EU, please?’ in your granny’s search history, people ask Google some pretty odd things. Here, for example, are the most-Googled questions about The Beatles, for which we’ve helpfully provided answers… Are the Beatles still alive?

On June 23, 1994, surviving Beatles Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr gathered at Harrison's house—better known as Friar Park in Henley-on-Thames, England—to shoot some extra footage for their new project, The Beatles Anthology. In case you don't remember, Anthology was a hugely successful documentary TV series (now available on DVD), a three-volume set of double albums and a massive coffee-table book that focused on the long and winding road that was the Beatles' incredible career.

George’s tenth solo, studio album, was largely recorded between early May and the end of August 1982, a little over a year since he had released Somewhere in England. It was the last album to be recorded under his contract to Warner Bros, and it has the feel of a record that was delivered with that in mind, but that would be too simplistic a summing up of what is an album that’s got its fair share of surprises. Released on Dark Horse Records in November 1982 George did not undertake any promotional activities for Gone Troppo, his mind was elsewhere on other projects. George’s opinions of the music industry at this time is probably best summed up by the album’s title, which is Australian slang for “gone crazy”, a feeling that’s reflected in the great cover art from Legs Larry Smith, formerly of the Bonzo Dog Band.

George and Amal Clooney, Paul McCartney, and Meryl Streep were among the celebrities who trekked to Washington, D.C., on Friday for President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama's farewell celebration at the White House. They were among those spotted arriving at the White House for the late-evening event, along with Gloria Estefan, Magic Johnson, Anna Wintour, Bradley Cooper, Harvey Weinstein, Lorne Michaels, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Kelly Rowland, Tracee Ellis Ross, David Letterman, Gloria Estefan, Tyler Perry, Robert De Niro, Jon Hamm, Ken Burns, Stevie Wonder, Al Roker, Chris Rock, and Lena Dunham.

His entry into show business was a film role, playing a son of then-Hollywood megastar Claudette Colbert in a movie made near the twilight of her storied career. For a time, he shared the top floor of his parents' home with Paul McCartney, and became a friend and trusted business associate of The Beatles. He played a key role in shaping the careers of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, serving as manager and record producer for both. But many know Peter Asher best as one half of British Invasion-era singing duo Peter and Gordon, who recorded a string of memorable hits in the mid-1960s including "A World Without Love," "I Go To Pieces" and "Lady Godiva." At 72, Asher remains an acclaimed record producer, currently nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for "Bright Star," the original Broadway cast album of the play with an original score by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell.

A unique piece of art depicting the bums of the famous Beatles foursome has been cordoned off. The copper moulds of the Beatles backsides on the Hoe have had metal railings placed around them, and it looks as if someone has been digging around the modern piece of art. One reader wrote to The Herald saying: "[I was] walking across the Hoe yesterday [and] I came across the sorry state of the Beatles Bums fenced off and the leg of part of the fence standing in the beaten copper nice to see the £19,000 cost has not been completely wasted." But Plymouth City Council it is "just carrying out some general maintenance work to reinstate the ground where it has worn away.

Liverpool’s legendary Cavern Club is about to celebrate a landmark birthday. The Mathew Street landmark turns 60 on Monday, January 16 – and Cavern bosses are planning a year of celebrations including concerts, albums and a new book. The original Cavern, based in the cellar of an old warehouse, was opened by jazz fan Alan Sytner on Wednesday January 16, 1957 – on the opening night the headliner was the Merseysippi Jazz Band. Of course it’s best known for its 60s incarnation as the pulsating heart of Merseybeat, and as the stage for one Liverpool band in particular. The Beatles played the Cavern 292 times between February 9, 1960 and August 3, 1963. But there’s more to the history of the club, which was closed in the early 1970s and resurrected a decade later, than just the Fab Four. Here are 25 things you might not know about the Cavern

History is a playground-abused soccer ball, touched by 88,000 grubby fingertips. Multi-dimensional, vastly panoramic, and full of lies and optical illusions, history can never be tacked flat to the wall: I suppose this is why you rarely see ninth graders with posters over their frilly pink beds of the evacuation of Dunkirk or the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Courthouse. However, myth, and the pop that comes before complicated desire, can be leveled, smoothed, and suitable for framing. But try framing a soccer ball! This particular sphere is larger than Everest (yet simultaneously as tiny as a perfect sugar grain, because it is familiar and sweet on each and every one of our lips). The titanic, light-speed-spinning orb we call the Beatles. Look below it, and you’ll see it balances on the out-stretched index finger of a short Welshman named Allan Williams.

An old newspaper that John Lennon used to forge the autographs of the rest of the Beatles is now tipped to sell for £1,500. The singer/songwriter, who was known as the joker of the band, faked the signatures of Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr on a photograph of the fledgling group. The image showed the young Fab Four crowning the 15-year-old Carnival Queen for the town of Northwich, Cheshire, in 1963. It appeared on the front page of Alkali News - an in-house magazine for chemical giant ICI and the teenager in the photo was the daughter of an ICI employee. The snap was taken by the late photographer Les Goode who later sent a copy of Alkali News to the Beatles in the hope they would sign it. It was returned with the message 'All the best from the Beatles,' followed by the apparent autographs of the 'Fab Four' all in the same blue pen. It is thought Mr Goode believed the signatures were all genuine. But when his widow recently took the newspaper to an auctioneers to sell it was realised they were indeed forgeries.