Beatles News

A Beatles historian has claimed manager Brian Epstein first spotted the Fab Four when they performed in a youth club in Tuebrook. Gerry Murphy, who was a co-founder of the Cavern City Tours, claims to have discovered that the group was first seen by the manager who helped them to international success at St John’s Youth Centre on Snaefell Avenue, Tuebrook. And he said the club, also known as Brockman Hall and now home to disability charity Daisy Inclusive, was the setting for the “best rock and roll ever seen”.  Mr Murphy said he was studying for an MA in the Beatles when he came across the information. He now believes Epstein came to a Beatles concert in July 1961 and spotted the group months before his first reported gig at the Cavern in November that year.

The reissues were originally supposed to come out on September 22 as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection, following similar reissues of 'Band On The Run', 'McCartney', 'McCartney II', 'Ram' and 'Wings Over America'. However, the records will now be released on November 3 "due to production issues". No further information about the delay has been released.  The albums will come out in a two-disc standard edition and three-disc deluxe edition, complete with extra material, a book featuring unpublished photographs and new interviews with McCartney.  

New York, N.Y. - August 27, 2014 - In 1964, four musicians from Liverpool appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Now, fifty years after that iconic performance, John, Paul, George and Ringo, otherwise known as The Beatles, are America's favorite musician or band, moving up from a tie for third place in 2010. Their counterpart in that 2010 tie, Elvis Presley - who appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956 - moves up to the number two spot this year. After dropping a "secret" album earlier this year and performing with her husband to sold-out crowds around the country, Beyoncé debuts on the favorite musician or band list at number three. They debuted their first album 46 years ago and their song "Stairway to Heaven" consistently lands on classic rock top ten lists, and now Led Zepplin debuts in the number four spot. And after conducting his farewell tour, the "King of Country," George Strait, moves up two spots to number five on this year's list. These are some of the results of The Harris Poll® of 2,306 U.S. adults surveyed online between July 16 and 21, 2014.

Paul recently signed a Martin D-28 left-handed guitar, which was put up for auction and raised an astonishing $50,000 within minutes. Bidding began in the morning on eBay with a starting bid of $10,000 and quickly reached the impressive final amount in no time. Proceeds from the auction will go to The Nature Conservancy's African Elephant Initiative. Alongside his signature, Paul also scribed, "This guitar saves elephants" on the Martin guitar. A fitting slogan since the funds will be used to increase security for elephants on the ground in Africa and reduce demand for ivory.

Fearing he may commit more crimes, a three-person Parole Board panel announced Friday it has denied Chapman’s eighth bid for release. He won’t be eligible for parole again for another two years. The 59-year-old is serving a 20-year to life sentence at upstate Wende Correctional Facility after gunning down the former Beatle in 1980 as Lennon returned home from a late night recording session with wife Yoko Ono. ALBANY — John Lennon's killer will have to let it be in prison for at least two more years. Fearing he may commit more crimes, a three-person Parole Board panel announced Friday it has denied Mark David Chapman’s eighth bid for release. According to the decision, “the panel has determined that if released at this time, there is a reasonable probability that you would not live and remain at liberty without again violating the law.”

So its no surprise estranged husband Chris Martin and her fashion designer pal Stella McCartney, joined forces to complete the charity stunt, which involves being drenched in ice cold water. The Coldplay frontman could be seen holding a large black umbrella above his head as he said: "We’ve been nominated to do the ice bucket challenge." Not looking too impressed with the task at hand, Stella jokingly replied: "I’m a fashion designer. I am not going to get wet." In a last minute change of plan Chris, 37, then began to lower his umbrella as he responded: "Okay then, we just won’t do it."  The pair were instantly soaked with freezing cold water, which was poured on them by a mystery culprit on the balcony above. After getting wet for the good cause, Chris ran up to the camera and said:  We’d like to nominate Bono, Sir Paul McCartney… and who was the other one?" Stella then revealed she would like to nominate actress Angelina Jolie

In 1964, the Beatles released the album Something New, which is what they were to North American audiences. Their first Canadian concert took place that year at Vancouver’s Empire Stadium, where tickets topped out at $5.25. The concert was broadcast live on CKNW and, for a performance that lasted 27 minutes, the band was contracted to be paid 60 per cent of the $100,000 box-office take. According to Vancouver Sun music critic William Littler, the money was barely earned by the “Liverpudlian tonsorial horrors” who looked “anthropologically interesting” but were loud, monotonous and unmusical.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Visitors flying into Las Vegas got more than just their luggage when they stopped by baggage claim. Cast members from Cirque du Soleil danced on the carousels, did handstands on the moving sidewalks and rode a vintage Volkswagen Beetle into the terminal Thursday afternoon at McCarran International Airport. The unannounced, three-song shows marked the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' flight from San Francisco to Las Vegas. The band's two-show gig in 1964 was the only time the Fab Four performed in Sin City.

If you’re a fan of the Beatles, you no doubt know that ["She Loves You"] came before ["All You Need Is Love"]. But what about ["Help!"] or ["Yellow Submarine"] or ["I am the Walrus"]? You may not know which came first, but researchers from Lawrence Technological University in Michigan created an algorithm that does. By analyzing the evolving structure of the Beatles’ music, the computer program was able to correctly place the Fab Four’s albums in chronological order. The work is in the journal Pattern Recognition Letters. [Joe George, Lior Shamir: Computer analysis of similarities between albums in popular music] The researchers initially produced the algorithm to catalogue whale songs. [whale sound] And they figured what worked for killer whales should also work for the lads from Liverpool.