Beatles News
Unseen original photos of The Beatles taken by a member of the film crew shooting at two of the Fab Four's movies have been sold after coming to light right here in Coventry.
The snaps feature in an archive compiled by Edward Tucker during his decades working in the movie industry, including Beatles film's A Hard Day's Night and Help! Known as Ted or Teddy, Mr Tucker had a ringside seat to some iconic cinematic moments thanks to his role as grip – a technician responsible for building and maintaining equipment supporting cameras and other production gear on a film set.
His collection ended up at auction it was taken to a ‘Dealer Day’ at the Coventry Building Society Arena last month for a new series of hit ITV antiques programme Dickinson’s Real Deal.
After going under the hammer with Richard Winterton Auctioneers at The Lichfield Auction Centre on Monday (November 3) were purchased for £660. Ted’s archive includes eight never-before-seen behind the scenes Beatles photos, six from A Hard Day’s Night and two from Help!, scripts including one for the 1976 blockbuster The Eagle Has Landed – which writer Tom Mankiewicz reportedly thought to be his best work – and signed photos by stars such as Sir Michael Caine and Kate Bush.
The collection was took to auction by Ted’s daughter and son Leigh-Anne and Owen following their dad’s death eight years ago aged 83.
“Dad lived next door to Twickenham Studios,” said Leigh-Anne, 58, an activities assistant at a care home from Cambridgeshire. “One day he was digging a hole for the council and someone said ‘hey mate, you want to come and do that for us.’
“So he started as a set builder and went on to become a much-loved, accredited grip who travelled the world and was highly valued in the film industry.” Ted met future wife Sheila in the 1960s at the famous Eel Pie Island nightclub. It was a love match which led to two children and incorporated a glamourous social life which included wrap parties and first night screenings.
A keen photographer, Ted kept his camera close to hand and Shelia was an enthusiastic autograph hunter. The collection includes a signed photo to Sheila from Michael Caine alongside a ticket to the gala world premiere of Alfie at the Plaza Theatre in Piccadilly Circus on March 24 1966.
Source: uk.news.yahoo.com/Danny Thompson
Paul McCartney performed a virtual duet with John Lennon in Nashville using restored footage. McCartney played multiple instruments, honored his wife, and reflected on Beatles’ history. He described Lennon’s death as “just too crazy,” but found comfort in their reconciliation.
Paul McCartney gave Nashville a night to remember — and brought a little Beatles magic back to life in the process.
During his Thursday, November 6 show at The Pinnacle, the 83-year-old music icon surprised fans with a virtual duet alongside his late bandmate, John Lennon. Using restored video footage and modern concert technology, McCartney performed The Beatles’ “I’ve Got a Feeling,” harmonizing live with Lennon’s vocals on screen. As the song ended, the legend smiled and told the crowd, “I love that one, because I get to sing with John again,” per The Tennessean.
According to the outlet, McCartney kicked off the night by greeting the sold-out crowd with, “Well, hello Nashville. We’ve got some stuff for you tonight and I think we’re going to have a little fun.” He moved between multiple instruments throughout the night — bass, guitar, piano, and even ukulele — running through timeless hits like “Help,” “Maybe I’m Amazed,” “Band on the Run,” and “Let It Be.”
McCartney also performed “My Valentine” for his wife, Nancy, who was in the audience, and offered an intimate acoustic version of “Blackbird.” Before performing it, he reflected on the song’s roots in the Civil Rights era, recalling that The Beatles once refused to play a segregated show in Jacksonville, Florida. After returning for an encore, McCartney closed with “Golden Slumbers.”
The legendary frontman recently reflected on the day Lennon was killed outside his New York City home in December 1980, in his newly released memoir, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run. McCartney described the moment as “just too crazy,” adding, “It was the same as the Kennedy [assassination]. The same horrific moment, you know. You couldn’t take it in. I still haven’t taken it in. I don’t want to.”
Though the Beatles had officially disbanded a decade before Lennon’s death, McCartney shared that the two had rekindled their friendship by then — something he finds deeply comforting in hindsight. “That is a nice thing, a consoling factor for me… the last phone conversation I ever had with him was really great, and we didn’t have any kind of blowup,” he recalled.
Source: parade.com/Jane LaCroix
By 1968, The Beatles had revolutionized music, but were also already a band in flux. They had already stopped touring for 2 years, after their last gig at Candlestick Park, San Francisco, in August 1966. It was a complete game-changer for the band as they found sanctuary in the studio following the controversial move. The Beatles were simply tired of not being able to hear themselves, so they let their musical imaginations run wild in the safety of a tranquil studio. Their creativity was liberated, and on November 22, 1968, The Beatles released the album that captured them at perhaps their most fearless and fluid. The Beatles, or The White Album, is a self-assured expression of a band that ruled the music industry through its many styles and genres. But nearly sixty years later, could it be considered to be The Beatles’ best work? The Studio Had Become The Beatles’ Stage
When The Beatles decided to stop touring, it became the catalyst for the next stage of their evolution. Part of the reason the band called it quits on concerts is that the arrangements in their music were too intricate and complex to recreate on stage. On their last tour, they had played nothing from their latest release, Revolver, because it just wouldn’t translate on stage. Revolver’s iconic sound relies on reversed guitar tracks, heavy reverb, and complex tape loops to construct a deep sense of dimension. In The Beatles’ touring frustration, they couldn’t hear themselves over screaming crowds, let alone experiment sonically.
Source: Fiona MacPherson-Amador/collider.com
Creative collaboration isn’t easy, especially on a professional level. There’s a lot more to it than compatibility or friendship. There are deadlines and conflicting opinions. It’s rarely as simple as a mutual agreement to make a great album. One of the most iconic collaborations in music history is that of George Martin and the Beatles. While the band members credited Martin with complementing their wild ideas with his vast knowledge of music theory, their relationship wasn’t smooth sailing all the time.
There was one song in particular that hurt Martin in the process. Though it was ultimately due to a time constraint, this snub from the Beatles broke Martin’s heart.
The Beatles have been more than complimentary of Martin over the years. They have repeatedly acknowledged his influence on their careers and have mourned him in the years since his passing.
“He had a very great musical knowledge and background,” John Lennon once said of Martin. “He taught us a lot, and I’m sure we taught him a lot through our sort of primitive musical ability.” “She’s Leaving Home”
Despite their love for Martin, their relationship wasn’t flawless. During the making of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Beatles were becoming far more self-sufficient and thus made some decisions that didn’t keep Martin at the helm. One song on the album, “She’s Leaving Home”, was a particularly sore spot for Martin.
“At that time, I was still having to record all my other artists,” Martin once said. “One day, Paul rang me to say: ‘I’ve got a song I want you to work with me on. Can you come round tomorrow afternoon? I want to get it done quickly. We’ll book an orchestra, and you can score it.’ ‘I can’t tomorrow, Paul. I’m recording Cilla at two-thirty.’ […] ‘All right, then,’ he said, and that ended the conversation.”
Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com
Yoko Ono will stage her first solo museum exhibition in Southern California at the Broad museum this spring. The legendary 92-year-old artist, activist and wife of John Lennon is set to open her show, “Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind,” on May 23. The interactive exhibition, organized in collaboration with Tate Modern in London, will run through Oct. 11, 2026, the Broad announced Thursday.
One of the first things guests will see when they approach the museum during Ono’s show will be an outdoor installation created using the Broad’s olive trees from its outdoor plaza. These will be transformed into “wish trees” for the city — a nod to an installation that Ono first created in 1996 at Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Santa Monica. Viewers will be invited to write wishes on tags and attach them to the branches.
“Yoko’s work has never been bound by place or time, but this really feels like the right moment for a show like this in Los Angeles,” Ono’s studio director, Connor Monahan, wrote in an email. “Her work transforms audiences from observers into participants, helping to shape the works and the exhibition itself. That sense of agency and connection feels especially powerful right now, and I think Los Angeles, with its spirit of experimentation and openness, will really embrace that.”
Ono has been a riveting, beloved and sometimes controversial force in the worlds of music, art and pop culture since the early 1960s when she became associated with New York’s John Cage-inspired Fluxus movement — formed by a community of experimental artists who based their work in performance practice and avant-garde principles.
Source: Jessica Gelt/latimes.com
A compilation album of unreleased materials by The Beatles faced strong objections from the surviving band members.
Paul McCartney suggested the project should not be released while George Harrison and John Lennon‘s estate called on the compilation to be scrapped entirely. Sessions, the proposed 1985 compilation album, was ultimately cancelled after the Fab Four intervened, though all was not lost and the project would be revived a decade later. Sessions served as the foundation for the Anthology project from The Beatles, a career-spanning look back at the band’s achievements and work together. Sessions had been the original plan for the group, though it was ultimately scrapped. The album would have featured thirteen at-the-time unreleased songs by The Beatles, including Leave My Kitten Alone and an alternative version of Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. But life goes on, and the band would object to releasing the work entirely.
Compilations had been released in the past, including The Beatles Ballads and Love Songs, as well as a live album of their performance at the Hollywood Bowl. But it seemed a step too far to have the group’s archival tapes and unreleased materials picked through. Fans seem glad the Sessions project was scrapped, especially since it led to a much more rewarding piece of work.
A post to the r/Beatles subreddit saw fans share their thoughts on the cancelled album. One person wrote: “It later turned into the Anthology project, with most of the stuff set for release on that album ending up on the Anthology 1-3 albums.”
Source: Ewan Gleadow/cultfollowing.co.uk
John Lennon and Paul McCartney built their songwriting partnership on a mutual understanding that whoever wrote the song would have the final say-so in how that track turns out, but that doesn’t mean they always agreed with one another. One such example came from their penultimate album, Abbey Road. Years after its release, Lennon would lament over the fact that McCartney insisted on singing the lead vocal.
Speaking to David Geff during one of his final interviews before his death in 1980, Lennon discussed “Oh! Darling” and what he liked (and didn’t like) about the blues rocker. He described the song as “a great one of Paul’s that he didn’t sing too well. I always thought that I could’ve done it better. It was more my style than his. He wrote it, so what the hell, he’s going to sing it. If he’d had any sense, he should have let me sing it.”
To some degree, I’d be inclined to agree with Lennon. Of the two musicians, he was certainly the grittier of the two. “Oh! Darling” sounds more akin to Lennon’s composition, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”, than, say, McCartney’s “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”, elsewhere on the album. Hearing how Lennon interpreted those blues lines would have undoubtedly been an interesting example of how the men differed in their vocal approach. But alas, the songwriter got the final say. And in this case, that was McCartney.
Source: Melanie Davis/americansongwriter.com
Paul McCartney reflects on Lennon’s 1980 death in his new book. McCartney recalls their last conversation as positive and without conflict.
He describes working in shock after learning about Lennon’s murder.
Beatles icon Paul McCartney is reflecting on the 1980 death of lifelong friend and former bandmate John Lennon in his new book Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run.
“It was just too crazy,” McCartney, 83, recalled. “We just said what everyone said; it was all blurred. It was the same as the Kennedy [assassination]. The same horrific moment, you know. You couldn’t take it in. I still haven’t taken it in. I don’t want to.”
Although the Beatles split in 1970, a decade before Lennon was shot and killed outside his New York City home, McCartney revealed he and Lennon were on good terms at the time. “That is a nice thing, a consoling factor for me, because I do feel it was sad that we never actually sat down and straightened our differences out,” he continued. “But fortunately for me, the last phone conversation I ever had with him was really great, and we didn’t have any kind of blowup.”
According to McCartney, he received a call from his manager “early in the morning” informing him of Lennon’s December 8, 1980, murder.
Lennon was shot in the back while entering his New York City home with wife Yoko Ono, after a day in the studio. He was pronounced dead at the hospital. Lennon was just 40 years old. “Nobody could stay home with that news,” he added, explaining that he and former Beatles Ringo Starr and George Harrison headed to the studio after learning the news. “We all had to go to work and be with people we knew. Couldn’t bear it. We just had to keep going. So, I went in and did a day’s work in a kind of shock.”
Source: Kayla Aldecoa/parade.com
As many people ask Sir Paul McCartney about his second band Wings as they do The Beatles, the veteran musician has said.
"Suddenly Wings has found its moment," said 83-year-old McCartney. "There's a generational shift at play and it's like being transported back on a magic carpet." Speaking ahead of the launch of the book Wings: The Story Of A Band On The Run, which McCartney has written alongside American historian Edward "Ted" Widmer, he said he found many people tell him Band On The Run is their favourite album.
Wings had 12 UK top 10 singles, including the Christmas number one Mull Of Kintyre, as well as eight UK top 10 albums, including two number ones. The band is best known for songs such as Jet, Silly Love Songs and Live And Let Die, the theme to the 1973 James Bond film.
McCartney said he "didn't really know how to be in a band" after The Beatles split up in 1970. "It was a complete blank canvas," he said.
"We would go on the road with no plans, no hotels booked, no gigs lined up and we thought the only place we might find a captive audience was at a university - a completely off-the-wall idea but I'm glad we did it."
'The big time'
McCartney started Wings in 1971 with his late wife Linda McCartney and former Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine. "The times with Wings were exciting because we built up to it and eventually we hit the big time," he said. "There was a particular kind of excitement in achieving that goal."
The singer and bassist explained: "I don't spend a lot of time looking back in general. "I like to live in the moment. Like everything else, it's a timing thing. "In recent years, I noticed I'd be asked just as many questions about Wings in interviews as I would about The Beatles.
"People would tell me that the first thing they heard of mine was Band On The Run or Jet, or that their favourite album was a Wings one.
"The reception for these songs in our live shows often takes me by surprise too."
Source: Paul Burnell/bbc.com
These are some of the behind-the-scenes Beatles photos from A Hard Day's Night and Help! Unseen photos of The Beatles, taken by a crew member shooting their films, have been sold at auction.
The archive was listed as three lots by auctioneers Richard Winerton in Lichfield, Staffordshire, on Monday and went under the hammer for a total of £1,720. The Beatles photos had a guide price of £500 to £700 and sold for £660, film scripts and movie photos estimated at £750 went for £600, while pop music and 1980s autographs expected to fetch £250 to £350 went for £460.
The collection came to light during a day of filming in Coventry for ITV antiques programme Dickinson's Real Deal.
The collection belonged to Edward Tucker, from Cambridgeshire, who worked for decades in the movie industry, before he died eight years ago aged 83. Items also included behind-the-scenes images from Help! and A Hard Day's Night, and were brought to auction by Mr Tucker's family.
Photos from the set of A Hard Day's Night feature Ringo Starr filming in April 1964 in Edgehill Road, West Ealing.
Director Richard Lester was in one shot taken while "working out the comedic scene where the hapless drummer is arrested after a woman falls down a hole in the road he covered with his coat," according to the auctioneers.
Other photos showed Sir Paul McCartney and George Harrison. The auctioneers said Mr Tucker was a grip - a technician responsible for building and maintaining equipment supporting cameras and other production gear.
Source: Richard Price/bbc.com
