Beatles News
More than five decades after The Beatles broke up, Paul McCartney is finally sharing how it really felt to walk away from the band that changed music and his life forever.
The Beatles — made up of McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — broke up in 1970 due to a combination of factors, including growing creative differences, the death of their manager Brian Epstein and a major dispute over their new manager, Allen Klein. McCartney publicly announced his departure in April 1970, and Lennon had privately told the others he was leaving in September 1969. The band was officially and legally separated by December 1974.
The famous English rock band began with McCartney and Lennon in 1956, then Harrison joined in 1957 and Stu Sutcliffe and Pete Best later on. In 1960, they adopted their name, The Beatles. A year later, Sutcliffe left the group, and by 1962, the band signed a recording contract and replaced Best with Starr. In their decade of taking over the music industry, they released 12 studio albums and multiple tours. By 1964, they were international stars who reached unprecedented levels of success.
On Nov. 4, McCartney will release his new memoir, Wings: The Story of a Band, which will tell the story of the legendary rock group from their humble beginnings to their final days from his point of view.
On Thursday, Vulture shared a part of the memoir, specifically the section where rumors were swirling around that McCartney had passed away, and the singer's reaction to the fake news.
In 1969, a conspiracy theory went around claiming that "Paul was dead" and he was replaced by a lookalike when the singer reportedly died in a car accident in 1966. The theory gained traction in September of that year when college students published articles with "clues" supposedly found in Beatles records, but the claims were debunked by TheNew York Times.
Source: Liz Lindain/yahoo.com
Even if Paul McCartney had permanently hung up his instruments after the dissolution of the Beatles, he’d still be regarded as one of the best songwriters in rock history. Watch him in the invaluable eight-hour documentary Get Back, and you’ll see a meticulous 26-year-old leader who’s constantly writing, revising, rearranging, and pushing his bandmates (no slouches themselves) to elevate a song from merely perfect to immortal. So what else is there to do after reinventing pop music forever before even turning 30?
Apparently, you run away to a desolate Scottish sheep farm and plot a second chapter for the ages. As McCartney writes below in the foreword to his upcoming book, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, a funny narrative was forming around himself and his new wife, Linda: They’d traded Swinging ’60s London for sleepy ’70s Scotland, yet the rest of the world thought Paul was simply dead. In reality, he was working on his new life. His next decade would bring on an ambitious new band, endless trips around the world, and ten albums that would grow to be, among later generations, as beloved as his previous band’s records. It would also involve headline-grabbing controversies, a stay at the Tokyo Narcotics Detention Center, and, inevitably, another musical breakup. But, of course, McCartney’s story wouldn’t end there. It’s still being written today by the man himself.
“Well, the rain exploded with a mighty crash as we fell into the sun.”
The strangest rumor started floating around just as the Beatles were breaking up — that I was dead.
We had heard the rumor long before, but suddenly, in that autumn of 1969, stirred up by a DJ in America, it took on a force all its own, so that millions of fans around the world believed I was actually gone.
At one point, I turned to my new wife and asked, “Linda, how can I possibly be dead?” She smiled as she held our new baby, Mary, as aware of the power of gossip and the absurdity of these ridiculous newspaper headlines as I was. But she did point out that we had beaten a hasty retreat from London to this remote farm up in Scotland, precisely to get away from the kind of malevolent talk that was bringing the Beatles down.
Source: vulture.com
Though they typically kept it light, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones had a rivalry in their heyday that echoes in their respective fandoms to this day. There wasn’t any major fueding, and they ultimately respected each other. However, there were a few occasions when their beef was taken seriously. There was one night when Paul McCartney purposefully attempted to upstage The Stones at their own party.
The Stones were gearing up to release Beggars Banquet in the late ’60s when they hosted a party at a club owned by their friend, Tony Sanchez. The album played in its entirety for the a-list invitees. It was proving to be a rousing success until McCartney walked in.
McCartney reportedly went up to Sanchez, who was in charge of the music, and nonchalantly handed over one of the greatest songs ever written, “Hey Jude.”
“As Paul walked in, everybody was leaping around to Beggars Banquet, which was far and away the best album of The Stones’ career,” Sanchez once said. “Paul discreetly handed me a record and said, ‘See what you think of it, Tony. It’s our new one.’”
“I stuck the record on the sound system and the slow thundering build-up of ‘Hey Jude’ shook the club,” he continued. “I turned the record over, and we all heard John Lennon’s nasal voice pumping out ‘Revolution.’”
Though they didn’t have the context we do of how successful “Hey Jude” would become, everyone in attendance felt its power in the moment.
“So there we all were, having a wonderful time, and in strolls Paul McCartney—a little smile on his lips, hands behind his back,” ’60s icon Marianne Faithfull added elsewhere. “‘What have you got, Paul?’ we cried out. ‘Oh, nothing, really,’ says he. [He then] put on Hey Jude. It was the first time anyone had heard it and we were all blown away.”
Source: Alex Hopper/americansongwriter.com
Fans will have to wait until April 2028 to see The Beatles’ biopics hit the big screen, starring Paul Mescal, Harris Dickinson, Joseph Quinn, and Barry Keoghan as Paul, John, George, and Ringo (there are four films set to premiere in total). In the meantime, revisit the journey of one of the world’s most iconic rock bands through the newly reissued 25th Anniversary Edition of The Beatles Anthology.
Dropped on Oct. 14, 2025 (it was first debuted more than two decades ago), this 368-page coffee table book, according to the product description, “tells the complete story of The Beatles, from growing up in Liverpool to their rise to global phenomenon and ultimate breakup. Created originally with the complete support of Paul, George, Ringo, and Yoko Ono Lennon, with the words of John painstakingly compiled from sources worldwide, this 25th anniversary reissue offers the only story of The Beatles by The Beatles.”
The anthology features smooth, full-color pages, thousands of photographs, and interesting tidbits about the original boy band. It’s the ideal gift for yourself or any Beatles fan — and is a must-have addition to your music collection. This premium release lets you experience the group’s narrative firsthand, from their early days as unknown musicians to international superstars.
Source: Alexis Mikulski Ruiz/rollingstone.com
It was a pivotal moment in the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special, but needed a frantic email to Sir Paul McCartney to make it happen.
Oscar Hartland, 16, who played Neil the Baby, left the cast "bawling their eyes out" as he performed Blackbird by The Beatles.
It took place during the wedding ceremony of his on-screen dad Smithy, played by James Corden, with Hartland admitting he practiced for hours for the "make or break" moment.
But it almost didn't happen, with Corden requesting permission from McCartney after realising the show's budget did not cover permission to use it.
Corden thought it was "a beautiful song" and had lined it up for Hartland to sing, he said in new book When Gavin Met Stacey And Everything In Between.
"In terms of getting permission to use the song, the BBC have a licensing agreement which is great for UK transmissions of music," he said.
"But I think The Beatles sit outside of that, which we didn't know, and it's so expensive if you want to use one of their songs."
With the sitcom's budget not covering the cost of paying for the track, Corden wrote to McCartney asking permission to use it.
He said: "I wrote just telling him that I felt this was a pivotal moment in the show and that I would never request anything if I thought it was going to be in any way derogatory."
How did Sir Paul McCartney influence the Gavin & Stacey finale?
Corden added that he wasn't sure of the details but believes McCartney waived involvement which meant the programme could afford it.
"He said in his email that he was so touched and honoured, and he would love nothing more than this to happen, and they'd do everything in their power to make sure it could, and then, within 20 hours, it was done, and we had clearance to use the song," Corden said.
Hartland knew Corden had taken a risk on him and wanted it to be the best he could make it, he told Justine Jones on BBC Radio Wales.
"I just put so much into it and just tried to sing it with that raw emotion. That humanity level of emotion where you're like 'this is it'," he said.
Hartland said it was his "biggest task" in the episode, but he was in his element.
Source: Maria Cassidy/bbc.com
Sam Mendes’s quartet of Beatles biopics are the cinematic equivalent of a distant asteroid headed steadily towards Earth. They’re a few years from impact – a 2028 release date is pencilled in – but when they hit, they’ll be big. Legendary playwright Jez Butterworth and Adolescence creator Jack Thorne are among the writers. Mendes, who is directing all four films, each told from the point of view of one of the Fab Four, has full rights to their life stories and the all-important song catalogue. And he has a crack team of young stars playing the leads: Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison.
What about everyone else in the Beatles Cinematic Universe – the friends, lovers and collaborators? The band’s story has loomed over pop culture from the 1960s to the present; read any Beatles biopic, and you’ll see they have Kevin Bacon-like powers of ubiquity.
Some of the supporting roles have been confirmed, or almost confirmed. As per reporting from Variety, Saoirse Ronan is playing Linda McCartney, Macca’s first wife; How to Have Sex’s Mia McKenna-Bruce will be Starr’s first wife, Maureen Starkey; while Shogun star Anna Sawai and The White Lotus’s Aimee Lou Wood are “circling” the respective roles of Yoko Ono and Harrison’s first wife, Pattie Boyd.
Source: Josiah Gogarty/gq-magazine.co.uk
Ringo Starr left the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Rishikesh ashram earlier than his bandmates in 1968 – as might be expected from a ring-wearing dandy who many would assume was the least spiritual of all the Beatles. He had found meals at the ashram difficult, not because he was a Liverpudlian naïf abroad, but because a childhood of serious ill health had left his insides in a delicate state. Plus, his wife Maureen hated the insects. After less than a fortnight, they were out.
Starr was the band’s everyman, a seasoned pro sent aloft into stratospheric fame where his ready grin and quick wit made him an easy favourite Fab. And yet – in one of the revelations of Tom Doyle’s thoroughly researched book – it turns out that his habitual “peace and love” refrain isn’t just some rote catchphrase. It runs deeper. In recent years, since undergoing rehab in 1988, Starr has become a paragon of clean living, regularly snacking on seeds and, allegedly, smelling of kale. Crucially, he has said that he still treasures the personal mantra for meditation that the Maharishi gave him all those years ago.
Doyle’s portrait doesn’t exactly dismantle the public perception of the Beatles’ drummer, now 85, but reappraisals do come in this wide-ranging biography. Starr is, at once, beloved by Beatles fans for his charm, and routinely disdained by others for not being the songwriting equal of his colleagues. It’s true: he probably was a light entertainer trapped inside a late-Sixties revolutionary cultural force. But Starr was as witty as the other three, and more diplomatically inclined. And nicer to Yoko Ono.
As the pile of books and media about the 20th century’s most famous sons only grows – the multi-media Anthology project is being reissued and embellished in the coming month – Mojo writer and Paul McCartney biographer Doyle seeks to tease out the lesser-known stories from Starr’s extraordinary life – and to spotlight the occasions where he was crucial to the band’s dynamic. Doyle’s romp through Starr’s often bizarre post-Beatles career leads you to conclude that the past is another country, and incomprehensible quality control choices are made there.
Source: Kitty Empire/observer.co.uk
How did The Beatles do it? How did they get from the simplicity of “Love Me Do”, their first hit single, to majestic, complex, moving songs like “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Blackbird”, “Within You Without You”, and so many more? Well, they didn’t get there overnight. These four songs represent huge developmental leaps that eventually led to the masterpieces from the second half of their recording career.
On the surface, you might not consider “She Loves You” to be all that complex. But it subtly shows that the Fab Four understood that they couldn’t stand pat if they wanted to stay on top of the heap. Granted, it was another basic love song in content. But Paul McCartney came up with the idea to change the approach ever so slightly. Instead of singing the song from the first-person perspective (as in, “I love you”), the group did it in the third person. That means the narrator technically is just offering advice, which was a somewhat novel twist at the time. In addition, The Beatles snuck in some chord changes that were far from the norm for the typical early 60s pop song.
“I Need You”
Again, here’s an example of a song that might not jump out at you when you think about crucial songs in The Beatles’ history. Why “I Need You”? Well, the song was written by George Harrison. On the first four albums recorded by the Fab Four, Harrison wrote just one song, the acerbic “Don’t Bother Me” off With The Beatles in 1963. On the Help! album, Harrison returned to writing with two songs. One of them, “You Like Me Too Much”, is a pleasant enough trifle. But “I Need You” showed emerging sensitivity in the lyrical department and a sharp melodic sense. You can look at it as a springboard to all the wonderful songs Harrison would write in the years to come.
Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com
Paul McCartney's driver's license from the late 1960s is to go on sale - and is expected to fetch up to £1,200.
The old-style UK Driving Licence features the Beatle's signature as well as two fines for road offences committed in Coventry and Bath.
The license will be auctioned at Ewbank’s Music Memorabilia sale next month, and is expected to fetch between £800 and £1,200.
McCartney's license, in red cloth-covered board and in a red ‘Cartier International Services’ pouch, lists the musician’s name as Mr. James Paul McCartney. His address is listed as '7 Cavendish Avenue St. Johns Wood NW8' and is valid from '24 Sept 1968 until 23 Sept 1971'.
The license has Paul's signature in blue felt pen at the bottom.
Source: Talker News/nbcrightnow.com
In 1973, George Harrison soured the mood at a pre-Christmas get-together at Ringo Starr’s place by fessing up to an affair with the drummer’s wife Maureen. The man Eric Morecambe called Bongo responded with a shrug: “Better you than someone we don’t know.”
This charming biography casts Starr as The Beatles’ anchor emotionally as well as rhythmically, showing how he overlooked bandmates’ foibles to maintain the Fabs’ team spirit beyond their 1970 split. Richy Starkey took up drumming while recovering from a teenage bout of tuberculosis, a no-nonsense persona underselling his unique playing style. MOJO writer Tom Doyle tracks how he became America’s favourite Beatle and then a solo hitmaker before bad film roles, a messy divorce and a worse alcohol problem took their toll. Sober since the 1980s, Starr’s drum-roll-with-the-punches resilience persists; as he told Doyle in a typically gnomic interview: “I make more right moves than left moves.” Resolutely fab.
Source: Jim Wirth/mojo4music.com
