Beatles News
The ECHO has taken a look at Peter Asher's life as a new documentary on his career arrived in UK cinemas
Peter Asher has lived one of the great showbiz stories. The child star turned pop star turned record producer was at the centre of pop culture through the latter half of the 20th century.
His remarkable life story has been told in a new documentary titled Peter Asher: Everywhere Man. Filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine brought the movie to Liverpool for a special screening at FACT Picturehouse on Sunday (November 1). The San Francisco couple insisted on a screening in Liverpool as Peter's contribution to the Beatles story means he is a vital part of the city's history.
Dan told the ECHO: "It's amazing to do this. There's such a connection because so much of Peter's earlier life and the propulsion behind his career comes out of the Beatles, Paul and Apple Corps." You can read the full feature interview with the directors here.
Peter was a close confidant to all the Fab Four as Paul McCartney lived in his family house after he first moved to London at the start of Beatlemania. Sir Paul was in a high profile relationship with Peter's sister, Jane Asher, and it was during this time when he broadened his artistic horizons in the counter cultural movement of the Swinging 60s.
Peter's bond with the band remained after the couple split as he was appointed the first head of A&R at Apple Corps. He also founded Indica Gallery in London, which was famous as the location where John Lennon met Yoko Ono.
However, a scene in the movie sees Peter hilariously reject the idea he was indirectly responsible for The Beatles breaking up. The 82-year-old remains as busy as ever touring his musical memoir and we have trawled our archives to find some great images from one of his showbiz's great lives.
Source: liverpoolecho.co.uk/Ryan Paton
George Harrison never had any interest in reuniting the Beatles after the band’s breakup in 1970. While several members collaborated during their solo years — David Bowie even claimed he, John Lennon and Paul McCartney once discussed forming a group — the Fab Four never returned to the studio or stage together.
But Harrison hadn’t completely soured on his former bandmates. As he revealed in a 1974 press conference, he was open to forming a new band with one Beatle in particular.
The Beatles’ breakup came at an unfortunate time for Harrison. After years of being overshadowed by the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership, he was flourishing as both a writer and guitarist. Songs like “Something,” “Here Comes the Sun” and “Old Brown Shoe” proved he could match his bandmates as a songwriter, while his increasingly distinctive guitar work established him as one of rock’s most original stylists.
The release of All Things Must Pass, his ambitious 1970 solo debut, vindicated years of frustration. Powered by the hits “My Sweet Lord” and “What Is Life,” it became the most commercially successful solo album by any former Beatle in the immediate aftermath of the split.
By 1974, Harrison was preparing to launch the tour behind Dark Horse with a band that included organist Billy Preston, bassist Willie Weeks, drummer Andy Newmark and a young Robben Ford. During a press conference promoting the tour, he made it clear that a Beatles reunion held little appeal — but revealed there was one former bandmate he’d happily work with again.
“It’s all a fantasy, the idea of putting the Beatles back together again,” he said, as recounted in the book George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters. “If we ever do that, the reason will be that we are all broke. I’d rather have Willie Weeks on bass than Paul McCartney. That’s the truth, with all respect to Paul.
“Paul is a fine bass player,” he admitted, “but he’s a bit overpowering at times.”
Source: guitarplayer.com/Phil Weller
Phil McDonald, the record producer and recording engineer who worked on some of The Beatles' final records, has died at the age of 80.
His death was announced by Abbey Road Studios in a statement on its website. The studio paid tribute to a man who shared a Grammy for his work on the album Abbey Road. It read: "We’re saddened to announce the passing of the wonderful Phil McDonald.
“Phil was a highly skilled, deeply trusted, and much-loved engineer who started working here in 1964 at the age of 18. A man who went on to become one of the few credited on the back cover of Abbey Road, he started out in our tape library and worked in the cutting rooms before making the transition to tape op, and soon, balance engineer.”
The statement continued: “His first session with The Beatles is documented as 17 June 1965 for ‘Yesterday.’ The following years working on Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The White Album, he would’ve been trained up by the likes of Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott before taking a central role in the recording of Abbey Road.
“Phil’s philosophy was always to get as close as possible to recording the true sound he heard in the studio.
“Transitioning to Apple Records around 1971 and through 1974, Phil worked with all four Beatles on their first solo projects, before lending his talents to some of the world’s biggest artists including Eric Clapton, Harry Nilsson, Deep Purple, Squeeze and Roy Orbison.
"Across his career, Phil contributed to some of the most influential albums of all time: All Things Must Pass, Imagine, McCartney I, The Madcap Laughs, Plastic Ono Band, Deep Purple In Rock, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, Living In The Material World, A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night, Traveling Wilburys Vol.1, Mystery Girl and so many more.”
Source: the-independent.com/Greg Evans
We’re rewriting history again today as we revisit a year when one band completely took over and overshadowed many classic songs that deserved better. Today we put those songs where they belong at #1. Including The Drifters Under the Boardwalk, a song that was recorded just a day after an iconic band’s lead singer passed away. Their singer was gone, but they still had a session planned, so an outsider walked in and sang a perfect vocal that gave them their most famous hit. Plus the Innocent Classic by the Zombies, She’s Not There, that got banned nationwide 37 years after it peaked on the charts for offensive lyrics, but everyone’s still trying to figure out what was offensive about it, including the band who’s here to comment. Plus the creepy song Last Kiss that was inspired by a fatal car crash, but it got even creepier after the song became a hit, and life imitated art when the band got into a fan carwreck that would destroy their group. Plus, I tracked down the mysterious girl behind the classic Beach Boys car song Fun Fun Fun, who got in trouble for driving her dad’s T-Bird. And lastly the biggest band in the world The Beatles took over the charts for one fateful week they made up 7 of the top 10 spots on the countdown but their best song, that was ruled by their singer’s sick as a dog vocal missed #1…Let’s do it.
Source: 1057thepoint.com/
Thirty years after Sir Paul McCartney helped open the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) in a former Liverpool school, the institution has reached a milestone that blends history with a new beginning. At its 2026 graduation ceremony, LIPA conferred its first LIPA degrees and celebrated more than 400 graduating students from 28 countries. The event, held on 21 July at the Liverpool Experience Campus, also honoured leading figures from film, theatre, music and arts management, with McCartney present as the institute’s Founding Patron. Read more details about it, as per LIPA's website, here:
Source:
TOI World Desk / TIMESOFINDIA.COM
Both men agreed that John wrote just one line of “I Saw Her Standing There”, changing Paul’s “she’d never been a beauty queen” to “you know what I mean”, but contentious disputes over some of The Beatles’ biggest hits have been highlighted in several post-split interviews. These include “Help!” (John claimed full authorship, Paul countered it was “70-30”), “Ticket To Ride” (John said Paul only contributed “the way Ringo played the drums,” Paul said “give him 60 per cent of it”), “In My Life” (John said Paul composed the middle-eight, Paul said he did the entire melody), “Eleanor Rigby” (John claimed 70 per cent of the lyrics, Paul said it was more like “half a line.”)
Paul takes over (1967)
Brian Epstein’s unexpected death saw Paul attempt to wrest control of the group’s managerial affairs, starting by conceiving and directing the Magical Mystery Tour film. At the time, John remained passive and happy to play along, but later, when it had been savaged by critics, he expressed mixed feelings, describing the project as “chaotic and unfocussed.” In his 1983 book The Love You Make, group confidante Peter Brown claimed John wanted to “junk it, rather than be embarrassed by it.” If the film gave the impression of Paul installing himself as the unofficial leader of the band, their next album did little to contradict it.
The White Album fractures (1968)
“You could cut the atmosphere with a knife,” studio engineer Ken Scott said of the sessions for the sprawling double album, from the moment when John brought in a bed for Yoko Ono on the very first day. It sparked a breakdown in communication between the two chief writers, now working almost entirely separately, but with Paul increasingly driving the direction of the record, or at least trying to. Biographer Philip Norman wrote that John thought Paul’s songs were “cloyingly sweet and bland,” while Paul thought John’s were “harsh, unmelodious and deliberately provocative.” Lennon later suggested “the breakup of The Beatles can be heard on that album.”
“How Do You Sleep?” begins… (1969)
As viewers saw in the film Let It Be and the subsequent Get Back three-parter, the studio continued to be a war zone. At one point Paul rails against John for not learning the lyrics to “Two Of Us” (ironically one of their most positive and uplifting shared lead vocal), as he struggles to get the rest of the group to match his intense work ethic. In a quieter moment he tells cameras he’s taken on the “captain of the ship” mantle reluctantly. “I’m scared of me being the boss, and I have been for, like, a couple of years. And I never get any support or anything. So, I just say, ‘Hell, well, fuck it.’ We can’t carry on like this indefinitely. We seem to, but we can’t.”
Source: uncut.co.uk/Terry Staunton
“The Third Eye: Early Photographs,” a new book featuring hundreds of personal photographs taken by George Harrison during his years with the Beatles, has arrived just in time for holiday gifting season.
Released Oct. 6 by Random House, the 352-page hardcover offers a rare look at Beatlemania from inside the band, featuring more than 250 photographs and 8mm film stills captured by Harrison between 1963 and 1970. Many of the images have never been published before, making it a can’t-go-wrong gift for even the most avid Fab Four collectors in your life this holiday season.
Rather than revisiting the band’s history through the familiar lens of press photographers, “The Third Eye” documents John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Harrison through the eyes of one of their own. Armed with his Pentax camera, Harrison photographed his bandmates during their whirlwind rise to international fame — including their first trip to the U.S and motorcades through Australia to shopping excursions in Paris and travels through India and Tahiti.
The result is a refreshingly candid collection of photos of one of the most extensively photographed bands in history, with intimate portraits and behind-the-scenes snapshots of each member.
The book was compiled and curated by Harrison’s widow, Olivia Harrison, who also contributes a forward. Irish novelist Colm Tólbin provides an introduction, while acclaimed author George Saunders contributes an afterword. The photographs are accompanied by commentary from Harrison himself, including previously unpublished remarks about the images.
“George once said to me, ‘We were the only ones who never saw The Beatles,'” Olivia Harrison, who met the Beatle in person in 1976, writes. “This book contains some of what they, and he, saw from the center of the cyclone they unexpectedly created. George’s images take me behind not only his Pentax viewfinder but into his mind’s eye, His Third Eye, and beyond. I am there by his side as he focused the camera and chose when to let in the light.”
“I can linger beside him as he stopped time with each squeeze of the shutter,” she continued. “It fills me with joy.”
Source: variety.com/Anna Tingley
Mal Evans worked alongside the biggest pop group in the world, but his greatest thrill came when he accompanied the Beatles to meet his musical hero, Elvis Presley.
As the Beatles’ road manager, Evans had a front-row seat as the Liverpool quartet became global superstars. He began working with them as a roadie and bodyguard in August 1963, eventually becoming a trusted insider who accompanied the band on tour and in the studio. He even helped Paul McCartney develop the idea of an alter ego for the group while the two were on holiday in 1966 — a concept that would help give rise to the Beatles’ landmark album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Evans had planned to write a book about his adventures with the group and received permission from all four Beatles to do so. Sadly, he never completed it. He died in 1976, aged 40, after police shot him during a confrontation at his home. Distraught over his impending divorce, Evans had waved an airgun at officers. His death is widely understood as a possible case of suicide by cop.
Beatle Paul McCartney with Beatles road manager Mal Evans, shown on his arrival in India February 20, 1968, to join the other Beatles at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's transcendental meditation center.
Evans and Paul McCartney arrive in India, February 20, 1968, where they joined the other Beatles at the meditation center of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. (Image credit: Getty Images)
Now, however, his stories of life with the Beatles are finally being published. Evans’s family made his recordings available to Kenneth Womack, one of the world's foremost Beatles scholars and the author of numerous books about the band. Those include his 2023 biography of Evans, for which he gained access to recordings Evans made on a portable cassette recorder in 1975 while working on his memoir.
“It’s the book Mal was going to publish, taking us into the heart of Beatlemania, reminding us how electrifying it was,” Womack told The Guardian. “He pulls no punches. He shows us the Beatles. It’s very powerful. It’s a treasure trove of new material.”
Among the stories is an account of the Beatles’ August 27, 1965, meeting with Presley at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, during the group’s U.S. tour that year.
Source: guitarplayer.com/Christopher Scapelliti
Though the songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney will go down in history as one of the greatest musical collaborations, there’s a grey area for some songs.
Songs that are registered as a Lennon-McCartney credit aren’t all that they seem, with some songs written more heavily by one songwriter than the other. Though most of The Beatles‘ songs would feature the credit, songs like Strawberry Fields Forever and Yesterday were written primarily by Lennon and McCartney separately. But there are other songs in the band’s discography that were given the joint songwriting tag despite there being little to no overlap in the writing process. Speaking of this overlap with Playboy Magazine shortly before his death, Lennon shared another song that had been swept up in the collaborative tag.
Playboy Magazine asked: “When you talk about working together on a single lyric like We Can Work It Out, it suggests that you and Paul worked a lot more closely than you’ve admitted in the past. Haven’t you said that you wrote most of your songs separately, despite putting both of your names on them?”
Lennon replied: “Yeah, I was lying. It was when I felt resentful, so I felt that we did everything apart. But, actually, a lot of the songs we did eyeball to eyeball.” Despite writing those songs “eyeball to eyeball,” the credit has long been a sore spot for McCartney, who actually tried to have the Lennon-McCartney credit flipped.
The move was not received well by Yoko Ono and Ringo Starr, who both suggested that the change wouldn’t matter. Veteran drummer Starr called McCartney’s actions “petty and silly,” and while the Wings frontman has cooled off on the credit controversy, people are still outraged.
Source: cultfollowing.co.uk/Ewan Gleadow
George Harrison’s songs were typically spiritual, folk-leaning, and harmony-driven. But that’s not the whole story of the former Beatle’s solo career. His sound is as varied as his other Beatles bandmates’. He tried on experimental synth sounds and funky anthems. Harrison left no bounds on the work he delivered during his life, and these three songs below show that perfectly.
“It’s What You Value”
“It’s What You Value” is a little funkier than Harrison’s typical fare. It’s a bright, upbeat anthem that adds something unexpected to the mix. It’s not worlds away from his top hits, but it’s different enough to shock some surface-level fans.
“But I’ve found it’s all up to what you value / Down to where you are / It all swings on the pain you’ve gone through / Getting where you are,” Harrison sings over a surprisingly commercial instrumental. This song feels a little too straight for Harrison’s conventions, yet he proved he could lean that way and get away with it.
“Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea”
This classic jazz cover was released on Harrison’s posthumous album, Brainwashed. Harrison left his classic rock tones behind for soft ukulele playing. It’s a brighter, simpler approach than most of his discography.
“I want to cross you off my list / But when you come knocking at my door / Fate seems to give my heart a twist / And I come running back for more…I should hate you / But I guess I love you / You’ve got me in between the devil and the deep blue sea,” the lyrics read. Harrison made this standard his own. Many artists have covered this track over the years, but none have done it the way the former Beatle did.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Alex Hopper
