Beatles News

A BEATLES fanclub magazine unwittingly donated to a charity shop in a box of records has sold for almost £6,500 because it was autographed by the Fab Four. The unlucky owner did not realise the valuable programme was inside the box before they went to an RSPCA shop in Somerset to hand it over. When staff sifted through the old vinyl records they plucked out the Beatles magazine that had a colour photo of a John, Paul, George and Ringo on the front cover. Crucially, the item had been signed by all four members of the group in Biro at the same time, probably after one of their concerts in the early 1960s.

“It’s a love that lasts forever, It’s a love that had no past.” When John Lennon sang these words in “Don’t Let Me Down,” he was also living them. He had found new love with Yoko Ono, and his life and art were rapidly changing. Recorded during the Get Back sessions and released as the B-side to the “Get Back” single, “Don’t Let Me Down” provides a snapshot of Lennon’s private side; in addition, his passionate performance demonstrates how he possessed one of the best voices in rock. “Don’t Let Me Down” can be seen as a companion piece to “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” another song about his love for Ono. In “She’s So Heavy,” the narrator takes on an almost desperate tone: He needs his lover to save him, not just seduce him. “When you’re drowning, you don’t say ‘I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,’ you just scream,” Lennon told Rolling Stone in 1971. In Barry Miles’ Many Years from Now, Paul McCartney explained that the lyrics accurately described the emotionally turbulent period in Lennon’s life. “‘Don’t Let Me Down’ was a genuine plea. … It was saying to Yoko, ‘I’m really stepping out of line on this one. I’m really letting my vulnerability be seen, so you must not let me down.’ I think it was a genuine cry for help. It was a good song,” he said.

December 1 signals one of the cheeriest times of year for holiday music fans. Radio stations and retail stores flip their playlists to all-seasonal tunes, which increases the odds of hearing “Christmas Wrapping” and “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” in the wild. Putting together playlists of nothing but versions of “Last Christmas” becomes a perfectly viable time-waster. Not every holiday song is a winner — for example, the modern critiques of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” are long overdue — and those who despise seasonal music are in for a long few weeks. However, festive cheer more often than not beats out Grinch-like grumbling.

As the year winds to a close, there seems to be a consensus that The Claypool Lennon Delirium is one of the best new projects to come out of 2016. Consisting of Les Claypool, the legendary madman bassist of Primus, and Sean Lennon, infamous guitarist of The Ghost of A Saber Tooth Tiger, the two have been blowing minds across the US with their dark and twisted psychedelic rock. To acquaint new listeners to the project, Front Row Boston, a project produced by WGBH Music and Crossroads Presents in association with NPR Music, was there to capture the Claypool Lennon Delirium’s show in August at the House of Blues in Boston.

Imagine seeing the biggest band of all time. At a venue near Surrey. With just 17 other people. For a few lucky souls, this actually happened. Saturday December 19, 1961. The day The Beatles came to Aldershot - and played to just 18 people. It's a date etched into local folklore, but for all the wrong reasons. Friday marked 55 years to the day since the fateful gig at the Palais Ballroom, organised by promoter Sam Leach. The night was billed a Liverpool vs London Battle of the Bands, but the first in a whole host of issues was the only London outfit, Ivor Jay and the Jaywalkers, failed to turn up. And then, when the doors to the Palais opened, the crowd was conspicuous by its absence, with no more than six people stood outside waiting to get in.

On the evening of Friday, December 5th, 1980, John Lennon spoke to Rolling Stone editor Jonathan Cott for more than nine hours at his apartment on New York's Upper West Side and at the Record Plant recording studio. Three nights later, Lennon would be murdered as he was returning home from a mixing session. The interview had originally been scheduled to run as the cover story of the first issue of 1981, but after Lennon's killing, Cott instead wrote an obituary for Lennon and ended up using very little from their conversations. In fact, he never even fully transcribed his tape. On the 30th anniversary of Lennon's death, we present, for the first time, the full text of Lennon's last major print interview: the joyous, outrageously funny, inspiring, fearless and subversive conversation Lennon shared with us that night, as he was preparing to jump back into the limelight after five years of private life with Yoko and their young son, Sean.

No matter how much you think you know about the Beatles, Mark Lewisohn probably knows more. Hundreds of books have been written about the band, but none with such care and authority as those by the 58-year-old British author. His resume includes comprehensive releases on their concert performances (“The Beatles Live!”) and studio work (“The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions”), for which he was given a Beatle obsessive’s dream job, getting paid by EMI Records to enter the inner sanctum of the Abbey Road studio and listen to the band’s recordings.

On the 36th anniversary of the untimely assassination of John Lennon, we wanted to step back and reflect on one of rock’s greatest songwriters and poets. Lennon’s musical contribution was enormous, his pathos and introspective soul spoke to a nation of lost British souls, and then to the rest of the world. John Winston Lennon was born October 9, 1940, into a working class family in Liverpool, England. His early life was difficult. His father took off to the seas, leaving his young mother to raise her son alone. When he was a teenager, Lennon’s mother was killed in an auto accident. Lacking parental guidance, Lennon was a troubled youth, prone to rage and anger. Eventually he channeled his passion into art school and then into music.

It's a cool, sunny morning when the busload of tourists descends onto Havana's John Lennon Park. That's Aleeda Rodriguez Pedrasa's cue. She jumps out from under the shade of a nearby tree and scurries toward the bronze statue of the Beatles legend -- all the while fishing for a pair of spectacles in her purse. She quickly places them on the bridge of Lennon's nose, seconds before the first of the tourists moves in for a picture. Padrasa has one of the most unusual jobs in Cuba: She's the keeper of Lennon's glasses. It's a job for which the government pays her 245 Cuban pesos a month, more than what many other Cubans make. "I've been working here for two years," says the 72-year-old Padrasa.

On 8 December 1980, John Lennon was shot four times in the back outside of his apartment building in New York City. He was 40 years old. 7 days after his death, millions of people paused their daily routines to honour Yoko Ono's request for ten minutes of silence in commemoration of his contributions. 30,000 gathered in Liverpool, 225,000 in New York City's Central Park. The radios went silent, too.