The latest entry in Paul McCartney‘s ongoing archival series, an incomprehensibly expansive 11-disc box set called Wings 1971-1973, contains a wealth of material that will surely give fans a wonderful Christmastime. A previously unreleased 20-track live album of Wings’ first tour — their 1972 Wings Over Europe trek — is included with a replicated tour program, a 96-page book of Linda McCartney’s photos, and an introduction from Macca himself. The band’s oft-overlooked 1971 debut Wild Life gets its due with more than 25 bonus tracks and a DVD featuring acoustic home videos, rehearsals and behind-the-scenes footage. (One particular standout is the intimate home demo of “Dear Friend,” a musical peace offering to John Lennon penned during the height of their post-Beatles spat.) Their 1973 follow-up, Red Rose Speedway is included in its original double-disc incarnation — plus all of the B-sides, alternate mixes and unreleased tracks you could wish for — and the seldom-seen 1973 television special James Paul McCartney is given its first official release at long last.

Source: Jordan Runtagh/people.com

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"I thought 'I can't imagine this scruffy lot getting very far.' How wrong could I be?"

David Wiseman, bass guitarist with The Deltas, didn't think that much of the Liverpool foursome on the bill with them at the Music Hall in Shrewsbury on December 14, 1962.

That Liverpool group were The Beatles, performing at the county town for the first time.

They had had a minor hit a few weeks beforehand with Love Me Do and, although nobody knew it that Shrewsbury night, were about to explode on the music scene as a global phenomenon.

David, 76, lives these days in West Sussex, but at the time was living in Oakfield Road in Copthorne and worked at Shrewsbury's big Maddox department store, doing window dressing and helping in the shop.

The Deltas were a Shrewsbury band with a strong local following and were one of the supporting acts for The Beatles, who topped the bill.

Source: Toby Neal/shropshirestar.com

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Being an audiophile is one of my life's great joys. But I never thought my love for music would lead me to an evening of maudlin rumination on the passage of time.

Yet here we are. I blame John Lennon.

I've been a music junkie my entire life. It may have started before my life even technically began; my mom's convinced she fostered my audiophilia by putting headphones on her womb while I was a captive audience.

I don't know if it was the prenatal catalyst for a lifetime of music geekery, but I guarantee fetal Shane was grateful for the wall of amniotic fluid separating me from the greatest hits of Barbra Streisand.

As a music nerd, I'm obligated to stay on top of the newest trends in audio tech.

Vinyl albums begat 8-tracks which begat cassettes which begat CDs and now we're back around to snobby purists swearing that vinyl's always been the best. Transistor radios gave way to Walkmen, Discmen, iPods, and now our crazy world where I just walk around my living room and say, "Alexa, play [any song that's ever been recorded in the history of time ever]" and it magically DOES.

Source: SHANE BROWN/qconline.com

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The Fab Four's early years: New book shows a young John, Paul, George and Ringo singing, playing guitar and the harmonica, taking a tea break, and joking around at Abbey Road Studios in 1963

He was already a famous fashion photographer. They were on the cusp of causing international frenzied fandom.

On September 12, 1963, Norman Parkinson photographed the Fab Four as they recorded songs at Abbey Road Studios. The photos show a young John, Paul, George and Ringo singing, playing guitar and the harmonica, taking a tea break, and joking around. Initially published that year, his photos are now part of new book, ‘The Beatles: London, 1963.’

The band’s debut single ‘Love Me Do,’ was released in the United Kingdom in October 1962 and hit number 17 on the charts. It started to turn the ‘virtual unknowns outside their native Liverpool’ - John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr - into pop stars, Pat Gilbert, a journalist and author, explained in the book.

Their debut album, ‘Please Please Me,’ was released in March 1963 and while The Beatles were on tour that year, there were inklings of the ‘hysterical screaming’ that would characterize the forthcoming Beatlemania, Gilbert wrote.

Source: Daily Mail

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You’d think, by now, that Paul McCartney might have had his fill of it all. But there he was in June, turning Carpool Karaoke into a tiny gig in a Liverpool pub that has racked up 35 million views and probably generated more joy than any other musical moment this year.

There he was in September, releasing a sparky solo album, which went to No 3. There he was in November, reissuing The Beatles’ White Album in a subtle remix that reached No 4. And here he is now, starting his eighth tour in a decade.

The man is 76.

He does offer two concessions to the encroaching years. One is a little joke – when Live And Let Die ends with a bang, he sticks his fingers in his ears, like a grandad in a sitcom. The other is a decision, finally letting his hair go grey. That queasy shade of chestnut is now history.

Source: dailymail.co.uk

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This day each year marks the unfortunate anniversary of the tragic death of John Lennon who was murdered in 1980 at the age of 40. The Beatles legend wrote many of the Fab Four’s most beloved songs and composed several more standouts during his subsequent solo career. Lennon’s legacy is not a question of whether he was an elite songwriter, among the best to ever live, it’s a question of what could have been had he not been senselessly taken from the world, his family and his friends.

Last month marked 50 years since The Beatles self-titled album known as The White Album was released. The double LP features many classics in the band’s songbook attributed to the Lennon/McCartney songwriting partnership Lennon forged with Paul McCartney. Among the album tracks Lennon was primarily responsible for writing include “Dear Prudence,” “Glass Onion,” “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill,” “Happiness Is a Warm Gun,” “I’m So Tired,” “Julia,” “Yer Blues,” “Sexy Sadie,” “Cry Baby Cry” and “Good Night.”

Source: Andy Kahn/jambase.com

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