Beatles News
It appears likely that 2026 will be a busy year for Paul McCartney, who may tour again as well as release a new album for the first time in years.
During a Q&A following a screening of the new Prime Video documentary, Man on the Run, in New Orleans, Louisiana, McCartney's longtime manager, Scott Rodger, provided updates on the former Beatles member (via Calico Skies Radio).
According to Rodger, McCartney is planning on touring later in the year. While the full list of countries he will visit was not revealed, Rodger said he would visit Japan. If this is true, this will mark McCartney's first concerts in Japan since the 2018 leg of the Freshen Up Tour.
Additionally, Rodger mentioned that McCartney's next album is complete. What's holding it up from being released is the cover artwork. It sounds like McCartney is taking his time organizing it.
When will Paul McCartney tour in 2026?
If McCartney tours in 2026, it will likely occur late in the year. Over the last two years, McCartney has only performed from September to December. The 2022 leg of the Got Back Tour did start in the spring, but it may be too close to announce spring tour dates.
In 2025, he announced his 2025 slate of shows in July. The tour began on Sept. 29, 2025, with a show in Palm Desert, California. He similarly began teasing his 2024 leg of shows in June 2024.
All of this to say — expect McCartney to begin teasing his next tour over the next couple of months. It's unclear if McCartney intends to continue the Got Back Tour, which began in 2022. With a new album on the way, is it possible he begins a new tour in support of his next album?
It's also unknown when his new album will come out. His last proper studio album, McCartney III, was released on Dec. 18, 2020. It has been a half-decade since his last album, so fans are eagerly awaiting his next one.
Source: Andrew Korpan/clutchpoints.com
Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best as The Beatles' drummer in 1962. Rumors cited jealousy, but Lennon insisted Best was fired for poor drumming. Best's popularity with female fans fueled speculation about his departure.
Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine anyone else playing drums for The Beatles except for Ringo Starr.
While Starr may not have been in the band’s original lineup when the group was first starting off, he nevertheless lived up to his position within the Fab Four, pairing remarkable well to the musical talents of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
Yet to this day, most music fans can’t help but wonder what history might have been like if Starr’s predecessor, Pete Best, had remained in The Beatles as the group achieved increasing popularity the world over.
Among the founding members of The Beatles, Best served as the band’s drummer from 1960 to 1962. Though a decent enough performer, Best’s fellow bandmates apparently viewed Best’s abilities as a drummer with indifference, believing he lacked the proper talent to be a member of The Beatles.
Over the years, many hypothesized that The Beatles’ firing of Best owed largely due to his female fanbase, with some claiming Paul McCartney was “jealous” of Best’s natural good lucks and remarkable connection to their audiences.
“Pete had been an extremely popular Beatle, despite his ex-band mates’ misgivings about his drumming ability and his personality,” Starr recalled in Ringo: With a Little Help (via Far Out Magazine). “The group’s female fans, in particular, dug Pete’s brooding good looks.”
Source: Richard Chachowski/parade.com
Director Sam Mendes is rounding out the call sheet for “The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event,” his upcoming cinematic extravaganza about the wildly popular British band.
“Bhaag Milkha Bhaag” star Farhan Akhtar will portray influential Indian composer Ravi Shankar, “Bohemian Rhapsody” actor Lucy Boynton is joining as British actress and girlfriend of Paul McCartney Jane Asher, “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” breakout Morfydd Clark will play John Lennon’s first wife Cynthia Lennon, and “Industry’s” Harry Lawtey has been cast as the band’s original bass guitarist Stuart Sutcliffe. They’ll star alongside Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harrison Dickinson as John Lennon, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison in “The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event.”
As the title suggests, Mendes is making four separate movies — one from each Beatles member’s point of view — that will intersect to capture the band’s improbable journey from Liverpool to the center of global culture, leading to their 1970 breakup. This marks the first time that Apple Corps Ltd. and The Beatles have granted full life story and music rights for a scripted film. All four installments will debut on the big screen in April 2028.
As previously announced, Saoirse Ronan, Anna Sawai, Aimee Lou Wood and Mia McKenna-Bruce are playing Linda McCartney, Yoko Ono, Pattie Boyd and Maureen Starkey, respectively. Meanwhile, James Norton will play the band’s influential manager Brian Epstein and Harry Lloyd will portray the legendary producer George Martin.
Source:Rebecca Rubin/variety.com
The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, born Richard Starkey, married hairdresser Maureen Cox at Caxton Hall in London.
Beatles manager Brian Epstein served as Ringo’s best man, with John Lennon and George Harrison both acting as witnesses.
The couple had three children, future drummer Zak Starkey, born in 1965, Jason Starkey, born in 1967, and Lee Starkey, born in 1970.
The couple divorced in 1975. Cox died from leukemia in December of 1994.
Cox will be portrayed by British actress Mia McKenna-Bruce in Sam Mendes’ four Beatles films, The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event, which will hit theaters in April 2028. Starr will be played by Barry Keoghan.
In April 1981, Starr married actress Barbara Bach, who he met on the set of the film Caveman. They are still married to this day.
Source: Jill Lances/1430wcmy.com
From Liverpool to the world, The Beatles sang across nearly every genre and explored countless corners of the globe. The quintessential British quartet — John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr — started out as a working-class band, juggling their music with blue-collar jobs. By the latter half of their careers, however, they had seen much of what the world had to offer, providing more than enough inspiration to write over 200 songs in just eight active years. One of those songs would later find an unexpected home with one of this generation's most influential pillars of pop culture: Marvel Comics. "The White Album" Jumped from British Blues to Country Tales Like "Rocky Raccoon". Surrounded by press, The Beatles wave at fans as they arrive in New York City in 1964.
"Rocky Raccoon" is far more narrative than introspective, telling the story of a young, feisty boy named Rocky Raccoon. Set in the "black mining hills of Dakota," the song follows Rocky after his woman runs off with another man, leaving him humiliated and nursing a black eye. Refusing to let the slight go, Rocky checks into a local saloon, armed with a gun, and storms into the room next to his. When he bursts through the door, he finds his woman and the other man in hiding. The man, known as Dan, becomes Rocky's opponent in a tense showdown. Although Rocky initiates the challenge, Dan draws first, and Rocky meets a tragic end.
"When you're sitting around with an acoustic guitar, often the natural thing to do is to get a bit folky. I was doing a bit of a spoof on records I'd heard, kind of talking blues songs. Bob Dylan was doing that kind of thing...I just started imagining this little story, and for me, it's like going on a train ride or something — a train ride of the mind. And because I was doing it sort of tongue-in-cheek, it was quite pleasant to write and sing."
Source: Dyah Ayu Larasati/collider.com
Let’s begin today with some trivia. Who is the only performer to receive a separate guest credit on the label of a Beatles single?
You, the one yelling “Billy Preston!” loudly at the screen: You are correct. The 1969 “Get Back/Don’t Let Me Down” single is credited to “The Beatles With Billy Preston,” in honor of the virtuosic keyboardist responsible for that indelible Fender Rhodes solo.
Preston has been on my mind since the 2021 release of Peter Jackson’s docuseries “The Beatles: Get Back,” which served, among other things, as a reminder just how crucial the Texas-born keyboard prodigy was to the “Let It Be” sessions. (Given his effortless playing style and the good-natured way he diffused tension on the studio, John Lennon basically asked him to join the band.) But I’ve been listening to Preston, and specifically his Beatles covers, after catching a preview screening of Paris Barclay’s documentary about his charmed but troubled life, “Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It,” which will be playing in New York later this month.
Preston’s covers got me thinking about how many fantastic — and in many cases, radically reworked — covers of Beatles songs have been recorded by Black musicians: Stevie Wonder’s “We Can Work It Out,” Al Green’s “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and Nina Simone’s “Here Comes the Sun,” to just scratch the surface. So in honor of Preston — and of Black History Month — today’s playlist is a baker’s dozen of tracks on which Black artists reinterpret, revise and reimagine the Beatles.
Like just about every other white rock band in history, the Beatles drew upon pre-existing Black musical traditions; they were particularly inspired by the Motown sound and early rock pioneers like Little Richard and Chuck Berry. But as the Beatles built up a formidable songwriting catalog, some of the artists who had inspired their early work, like the Supremes and Ray Charles, started putting their own spin on the Fab Four’s material, too. The result was a rich and reciprocal musical conversation.
Source: Lindsay Zoladz/nytimes.com
Even before the age of social media and the bottomless scroll, musicians were fighting against the general public’s relatively short attention span. (First impressions and all that.) More often than not, a listener would know whether they liked a song within the first few seconds, which made those first few seconds all the more important. And on February 11, 1963, The Beatles recorded a song introduction that would become synonymous with the group, all while calling back to a musical idol.
The Beatles recorded “I Saw Her Standing There” as part of an impressive recording session that saw the Fab Four record Please Please Me in one day. Although undoubtedly a big undertaking for the band and engineers alike, that big day in EMI Studios wasn’t entirely different from what The Beatles were already used to after cutting their teeth at nightclubs that expected them to play for hours on end. And it was just this kind of live feel that producer George Martin was after.
For this reason, Martin advised the band to count in their own numbers like they would if they were on stage. The end result is one of the most iconic intros in The Beatles discography and a subtle homage to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll himself.
Source: Melanie Davis/americansongwriter.com
Oh, to be a fly on the wall in EMI Studios on February 10, 1967. If not for the superb vantage point, for the elbow room—it was a crowded affair in the recording room that day, with The Beatles, their star-studded group of pals, studio engineers, George Martin, and 41 professional symphonic musicians all in attendance. Everyone was there to put in some serious work, but one wouldn’t know it by looking at them. February 10 marked the fourth recording session for “A Day In The Life”, the expansive, controversial, and multi-faceted closing track to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Members of the Royal Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestras were there to record the cacophony that separates John Lennon’s somber first verses (“I read the news today, oh boy…”) with Paul McCartney’s bouncy interlude (“Woke up, jumped out of bed, ran a comb across my head.”)
The musical task at hand was a challenging one. Most conservatory musicians prefer structure, and The Beatles were after the opposite. But with the help of George Martin’s arranging skills and a vast assortment of gag accessories like clown noises, clip-on nipples, and gorilla paws, everyone at EMI came together to make it happen.
It Wasn’t Just a Recording Session, It Was an Affair
Perhaps the most notable part of the “A Day In The Life” recording sessions is what everyone was wearing. Once The Beatles knew they would be employing a 40+ orchestra, they decided to turn the recording session into an event. In Here, There, and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles, studio engineer Geoff Emerick recalled Paul McCartney having the initial idea. John Lennon fleshed it out further, saying, “We’ll invite all our friends, and everyone will have to come in fancy dress costume.” When George Martin mentioned that asking the orchestra to dress up might increase their hourly cost, Lennon said, “Sod the cost. We’re making enough bloody money for EMI that they can spring for it…and for the party favors, too.”
Source: Melanie Davis/americansongwriter.com
It is no secret that Paul McCartney and John Lennon had a competitive relationship. However, when we hear about this relationship, it’s typically through eyes that have not shared the same lived experience. In other words, it’s not being told through a professional musician’s perspective. That being so, facts are misinterpreted, moments are embellished, and ultimately, the foundational truth is partially lost. One musician with a similar disposition who once set the record straight on the matter was Paul Simon.
When it comes to the greatest songwriters of all time, Paul Simon is certainly one of them, and do you think he got there without a competitive drive? No, as competition is arguably embedded in every endeavor, obtaining a great ambitious mission. Now, that competition doesn’t necessarily need to be against another person, as that competition can also be simply against yourself.
Regarding this drive, Simon states in the book Paul Simon: The Life by Robert Hilburn, “I wanted my own parade. That’s a competitive drive I had, for whatever reason, whether it was in my nature or it came from my family or from my neighborhood — probably a father thing.” The Relatable Lens Looked Through by Paul Simon.
Source: Peter Burditt/americansongwriter.com
On February 9, 1961, The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, bassist Stuart Sutcliffe, and drummer Pete Best—made their debut at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, 65 years ago. This lunchtime performance marked the beginning of their 291-show residency at the venue, which was crucial for developing their stage presence before Ringo Starr joined in 1962.
Key details of this historical milestone:
The Lineup: The band featured the "Fab Five" lineup of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Sutcliffe, and Best.
The Gig: They played a lunchtime gig, reportedly earning £5, at the Mathew Street venue.
Significance: This performance helped establish them in the local scene, leading to their discovery by manager Brian Epstein.
Legacy: While Sutcliffe left soon after to pursue art and Best was replaced by Ringo Starr in August 1962, this 1961 date is considered a foundational moment in their rise to fame.
Source: Google
