Beatles News
Oct. 13-14, 17, 20-21, 24, 27-28 – Las Vegas, NV @ Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino
Oct. 30 – El Paso, TX @ Abraham Chavez Theatre
Oct. 31 – Austin TX @ Moody Theater
Nov. 2 – Sugarland, TX @ Smart Sugarland Civic Center
Nov. 4 – Thackerville, OK @ Global Events Center at Winstar
Nov. 7-8 – Ft Lauderdale, FL @ Parker Playhouse
Nov. 11 – Atlanta, GA @ Fox Theater
Nov. 12 – Norfolk, VA @ ODU Pavilion
Nov. 14 – Morristown, NJ @ Mayo Performing Arts Center
Nov. 15 – New York City, NY @ Beacon Theater
Nov. 16 – Newark, NJ @ New Jersey Performing Arts Center
t looks like Ringo Starr may be ushering a new George Harrison composition into the world.
Harrison's widow Olivia tells The Sun in the U.K. that she discovered some lyrics to a song called "Hey, Ringo" -- which includes the line "Hey Ringo, now you I want you to know/That without you my guitar plays too slow" -- in a folder inside the bench of an old piano and has given them to Starr.
"He'd never seen this song before. He was so surprised," Olivia Harrison said. She noted that her husband "would put down a notebook and forget where he left it. A piano bench was the obvious place to stash the night's debris;" She dates the song to about 1970 and plans to "dig a little" to see if Harrison committed it to tape at all.
There's no word yet on what Starr intends to do with the song; He's been working on a new album with help from Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh, Peter Frampton, Van Dyke Parks and others with no title or release date yet announced.
PAUL McCartney is set to rock AAMI Park this summer.
Concert industry sources say The Beatles and Wings icon is close to locking in long-awaited Australian tour dates in November and December with promoter Michael Gudinski.
If the deal is done, McCartney will play at the venue, which has hosted superstars including Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters and Taylor Swift.
Mr Gudinski, and publicists from his companies Frontier Touring and Mushroom Music Group could not be reached for comment today.
McCartney played a week of shows in Tokyo last month, and will return to the US from July to October with his One On One tour.
A 10-year-old girl asks to play bass with Paul McCartney during a concert. Courtesy: YouTube/facu1983p
Girl asks to play bass with Paul McCartney
His proposed visit to Australia comes 15 years after McCartney abruptly cancelled two nights at Docklands Stadium.
McCartney cited the Bali bombing as the reason and the fact he felt Australia was still in need of healing, not hearing “Hey Jude”.
“This is not the appropriate time for a rock show,” McCartney said in a statement.
He gave no date for a rescheduled event, adding: “In time, that show will hopefully come to be — but for now, my sympathies and those of all of us on this tour are with you all in your grief.”
But long-held rumours suggested the 2002 shows were scrapped because McCartney was struggling to fill seats.
Paul McCartney cancelled his Melbourne performances 15 years ago and has never returned. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
However, after rave reviews for his latest outing with a powerhouse band (Paul Wickens, Rusty Anderson, Brian Ray and Abe Laboriel Jr), expectations are high for McCartney’s first Down Under visit since 1993’s New World tour.
Asked why performing is still vital to him, McCartney told Rolling Stone: “This idea of the great little band — it’s quite attractive. A basic unit is at the heart of the music we all love.”
McCartney, 74, hasn’t ruled out touring at 80, either.
“It used to be that doing this at 40 seemed ... unimaginable — and unseemly,” McCartney said.
“Doris Day ... once said to me, “Age is an illusion.” It’s a big number the older you get. But if it doesn’t interfere, I’m not bothered. You can ignore it. That’s what I do.”
The former Beatles member’s live gigs have been met with rave reviews. Picture: AFP Photo / Bertrand Guay
Paul McCartney’s show in Tokyo last month included:
• A Hard Day’s Night
• Can’t Buy Me Love
• Let Me Roll It
• Maybe I’m Amazed
• We Can Work It Out
• Every Night
• Love Me Do
• And I Love Her
• Blackbird
• Lady Madonna
• Four Five Seconds
• Eleanor Rigby
• Band On The Run
• Back In The USSR
• Let It Be
• Live and Let Die
• Hey Jude
• Yesterday
• Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl discussed breaking his leg in a new Absolute Radio interview, which Alternative Nation transcribed.
“Yeah, it sucked. We had 53 more shows, which I sat down in this crazy throne for. But by the time we were done with that tour, I just thought, ‘You know, we need to take a break. I need to learn how to walk again, 6 or 8 months of physical rehab.”
“Basically, I broke it in Sweden. I fell off the stage, the band kept playing. I took a huge hit of whiskey, and then I said, ‘I want to finish the show. So I went up, and I finished the show. I went to this hospital, they took X-rays, they said, ‘You have to have surgery.’ They said, ‘You don’t have to have it today, but you got to do it in the next 3 days.’
So we thought, okay, well let’s fly down to London. But I don’t know any doctors in London, but I have a couple friends there, so I actually texted McCartney and I said, ‘Hey man, do you know any good doctors?’ He hooked me up with this doctor, he looked at my leg and said, ‘I could fix it like that.’ Paul McCartney is not only the most brilliant rock and roll musician of all time, if you have his number, call him and ask him for a good doctor, because he knows a few.”
Like a lot of music executives, Herb Alpert -- whose cover of the Beatles' Michelle" from his upcoming album Music Vol. 1 is premiering exclusively below -- has some regrets when it comes to the Fab Four.
"When people ask me, 'Do you regret anything,' I was thinking, man, in 1962, after A&M (Records) started, the Beatles were hunting for a record company," Alpert tells Billboard. "They were on VeeJay for a while and I guess nobody really was coming to the party. I was thinking, 'Man, if I had flown over to London just to see if we could do something...' but the timing was off. I didn't get them at that moment. I retrospect you think, 'Man, they were available...'"
Nevertheless Alpert -- whose 1966 concert with the Tijuana Brass in London was promoted by Beatles manager Brian Epstein -- remains a professed Beatles fan who's more than happy to have a jazzy take of "Michelle" on Music Vol. 1, which comes out July 28 (pre-order here). The rendition was spurred by a groove presented by album producer Jochem van der Saag (Destiny's Child, Andrea Bocelli). "We were just kicking around some rhythm ideas, and all of a sudden he came up with this groove that just really touched me, and I started playing 'Michelle' over the groove and that started the process," Alpert recalls. "I like to see if I can do a song that's familiar with people and do it in a way that hasn't been done quite that way before. I guess that's one of my thrills."
Music Vol. 1 includes a variety of other covers, including standards such as "Unforgettable," "Cheek To Cheek" and "C'est Si Bon," a new version of the Tijuana Brass' "Flamingo" and a rendition of Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours." The set includes one original, "Sugarfoot."
"Jochem has this other-world type of concept for music and sounds," Alpert says of his collaborator. "He'd come up with some rhythm ideas and I'd go through my book of songs and maybe play seven or eight different songs on a particular groove until I hit one that would work, and then we'd explore it and it worked out." Alpert says he expects to release at least two more volumes of Music albums, using some songs he and van der Saag worked on but didn't include on this album. "I'm getting up there, man. I've got to get these volumes out while I can," Alpert says with a laugh.
Music Vol. 1 comes on the 55th anniversary year of Alpert's first artist release, The Lonely Bull, and despite getting up there it's also his sixth album of the decade -- more prolific than many artists a fraction of his age.
"Y'know, I'm passionate about the whole thing," Alpert says. "I love the process; I mean, this is what I do. I wake up in the morning excited about either recording or sculpting or painting. My excitement has accelerated over the years. I'm getting more out of the trumpet with less effort. I'm just having a good time doing it, so I'm a lucky guy in that respect."
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Sixty-four choirs will pay tribute to The Beatles across Merseyside tomorrow morning (Thursday 8 June) as they sing at the same time.
Performances of the band’s track ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ will take place at locations including Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, supermarkets, schools and on the streets as the Sgt Pepper at 50 celebrations continue.
With hundreds of people also expected to gather near the statue of the ‘Fab Four’ on Liverpool’s iconic waterfront when the region bursts into song at 10.30am prompt, those unable to attend are also being encouraged to get involved via social media.
The track will be broadcast live on BBC Radio Merseyside, which has organised the event alongside the team behind the citywide Sgt Pepper festivities, and the station is inviting members of the public to post videos of themselves singing along on its Facebook page.
On the same day, a series of poems from writers across the world including Roger McGough, Tracy K. Smith and Yasuhiro Yatsumoto to name a few will be loaded onto the www.sgtpepperat50.com website responding to the track.
The celebration is one of a series of world premiere commissions being held across Liverpool which are inspired by each of the 13 songs from ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ as the album reaches its milestone 50th anniversary.
So far other events have included a pyrotechnic ‘Lucy in the Sky’ themed spectacular by Groupe F at Camp Hill in Woolton, and ‘Mr Kite’s Musicircus’ at Aintree Racecourse.
Pop music isn’t always an effective way of delivering a socially conscious message, and duets aren’t always as intriguing as they might appear on paper. But when Paul McCartney hooked up with Stevie Wonder to make a plea for racial harmony in 1982, the result was one of the biggest hits in either artist’s distinguished career.
The song in question, “Ebony and Ivory,” was demoed in late 1980 and developed during the sessions for McCartney’s third solo album, 1982’s Tug of War. With lyrics using the piano as a metaphor for ideal race relations, the song seemed like a natural for the duet treatment — and McCartney immediately knew who he wanted for a partner. “I wanted to sing it with a black guy,” he later recalled. “And my first thought was Stevie.”
Phoned by McCartney, Wonder quickly agreed. “I listened to the song, and I liked it very much,” said Wonder. “I felt it was positive for everybody. I won’t say it demanded of people to reflect upon it, but it politely asks the people to reflect upon life in using the terms of music … this melting pot of many different people.”
The duo convened at AIR Studios in Montserrat under the guidance of producer George Martin, who helmed the Tug of War sessions, and cut a pair of duets for the record — “What’s That You’re Doing?” and “Ebony and Ivory,” which would make its way to radio in late March as the album’s lead single. (Though McCartney and Wonder recorded in person, their schedules kept them from filming the “Ebony and Ivory” video together — they had to be spliced into the frame via editing magic.)
Somewhat incredibly in retrospect, McCartney was actually worried that the song wouldn’t be relevant. From his vantage point while writing it, many of the racial problems that had been the focus of national dialogue during the ’50s and ’60s seemed to be solved, and he feared decrying racism could be seen as old-fashioned and out of touch.
“When I wrote the song, I thought ‘Maybe we don’t need to keep talking about black and white. Maybe the problem is solved,'” he admitted. “Maybe I missed the boat — maybe it should have been written in the ’60s, this song. But after I’d written and recorded it, you look around and there’s still tension.”
That tension was dealt with in typically melodic fashion through McCartney’s sunny arrangement, which soared to the top of the pop charts on both sides of the Atlantic and lingered at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for an incredible seven weeks — even ultimately attracting the attention of Saturday Night Live, where the tune’s somewhat on-the-nose lyrics were lampooned in a segment starring Eddie Murphy as Wonder and Joe Piscopo as Frank Sinatra.
The pair sing about Sean’s famous parents John Lennon and Yoko Ono on Tomorrow Never Came.
Sean Lennon nearly cried with joy after Lana Del Rey declared their collaboration was “perfect”.
The Born to Die singer, 31, teamed up with John Lennon and Yoko Ono’ son Sean on track Tomorrow Never Came, from her new album Lust for Life.
Lyrics from the song reference Sean’s famous mum and dad, including the line “I wish we could go back to your country house/And put on the radio and listen to our favourite song by Lennon and Yoko”.
“She has exceptional taste,” Sean commented to Flaunt magazine of his collaborator’s approach to making music. “I told her that working on her song was a valuable lesson since I often modulate and take unintuitive chordal and melodic twists and turns, and she reminded me that you can be perhaps even more compelling if the melodies and chords feel natural and intuitive, not contrived or disorienting as in my music.
“Anyway I’ll never forget when she called me after I sent her what I did and her first words were ‘It’s perfect!’ I almost cried with joy because I honestly don’t think anyone has ever said that to me about anything I’ve ever done. It was a very good feeling.”
Lana was also full of praise for 41-year-old Sean, admitting that as soon as she wrote the song she knew she had to share it with him.
She did worry that the musician and actor may feel weird singing about his famous folks, but it all worked out in the end.
“I think the fact that I sing, ‘Isn’t life crazy now that I’m singing with Sean.’ It points to the fact that we’re both aware,” she shared. “I didn’t want it to come out exploitative in any fashion. Not that it would. Still, I wanted to be as careful as possible. I wanted it to come across layered with this sort of meta narrative mixed in. In a way it’s a song about a song.”
The Beatles are back at Number 1 in the albums chart with ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’.
The band’s iconic eighth album was re-released on CD and vinyl last Friday (May 26), to commemorate the record’s 50th birthday. As a result, it has claimed the top spot in the Official Albums Chart again, half a decade on from its original release.
In a statement, Paul McCartney says, “Wow! Who would have thought that good old Sgt.Pepper would be back at number one 50 years on? It’s great news and all of us are well chuffed. Pepper rules!”
The record also takes the top spot in the Official Vinyl Album Chart, with 5,300 units sold of that re-release, which features remastered and remixed material, and unreleased session tapes. ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ claimed 37,000 sales this week across all formats.
‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ has now spent a cumulative 28 weeks at Number 1 on the Official Chart – it is the best-selling studio album ever in the UK, and the third biggest selling of all-time, having sold 5.2 million UK copies over the last fifty years.
A new ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ documentary – It Was Fifty Years Ago Today! Sgt Pepper & Beyond – was also released on May 26. The documentary follows The Beatles between August 1966 and 1967, as they created ’Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ at Abbey Road. It includes rare archived footage of their heyday, including footage that hasn’t been seen since the 60’s.
For decades they were just a set of gates at the entrance to a children's orphanage in Liverpool, until the Beatles recorded their smash hit Strawberry Fields Forever, transforming the bright red gates into a site fans from across the world could visit.
Fifty years on from the UK release of the song, the original iconic red gates returned to Liverpool Thursday to go on public display at The Beatles Story museum.
After the gates became famous, the originals were taken into "protective custody" at a secret location. Since 2011, fans have snapped keepsake photographs of replica gates close to the childhood home of Beatle John Lennon.
The display of the original gates forms part of fundraising plans by the Salvation Army charity to redevelop the iconic Strawberry Field site, which finally closed in 2005 as a children's home.
The Salvation Army has unveiled a new plan for the site, which will include a training and work placement hub for young people with learning disabilities and a new exhibition on John Lennon's early life around Strawberry Field.
A spokesman for the Salvation Army said: "Strawberry Field holds a special place in the history of The Beatles, with John Lennon's experiences in and around the children's home providing inspiration for the unforgettable song. He grew up with his Aunt Mimi just a stone's throw away from the site, and was said to find peace and refuge in the grounds."
Martin King of The Beatles Story said: "The gates are a real piece of Beatles' history, and it's a privilege to display such a special exhibit at The Beatles Story...We hope that by displaying the gates here it will help raise awareness for the project."
Major Drew McCombe of the Salvation Army said: "Strawberry Field has a very special history, both for its connection to John Lennon and the song Strawberry Fields Forever, and for its history as a place for solace for Liverpool's most vulnerable people."
The replica gates were built by Jim Bennett, 60, who spent five years creating them. Bennett used to drive past the gates every day and decided to create the gates as a passion project and to help conserve the originals.
The iconic red gates stood at the entrance of Strawberry Field for more than 100 years. Unlike the replica gates, which are welded to make them stronger, the originals are held together with rivets, but some sections were missing.