Beatles News
Through moving lyrics entwined with themes of peace, love and spirituality, George Harrison offered fans harmony at a time of intense political unrest—a message that has transcended his lifetime. Harrison and his bandmates transformed the world as we know it, leaving behind an immutable impact on society. The Beatles’ profound influence is now documented within the grooves of vinyls, silver bromide of film, and voices of older generations as they pass down those stories to their children.
While photographed and interviewed relentlessly throughout their career, Harrison was also simultaneously documenting himself and The Beatles in private, capturing moments that make these larger-than-life rock gods feel incredibly human. The images take us inside his mind and behind the scenes of the band; the intimacy between them palpable in a boyish smile, a sideways glance, or the dropping of that happy facade entirely. Harrison’s images bounce back and forth between highlighting the stars as they were perceived to be and the people they actually were. In The Third Eye: Early Photographs by George Harrison, Harrison’s archival photography is published alongside essays from Olivia Harrison, George Saunders and Colm Tóibín. Below, find a glimpse behind the cover and be transported back to the heart of Beatlemania.
Source: interviewmagazine.com/Isabella Socci
As production continues on Sam Mendes's The Beatles - A Four-Film Cinematic Event, Paul Mescal and Joseph Quinn have recreated an iconic Beatles moment in a newly released set photo.
With Mendes' four-film Beatles event slated for release all at once in April 2028, filming has been taking place in Liverpool and London since 2025. The cast includes Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr.
A new image from the upcoming biopic, shot in Liverpool, shows Mescal and Quinn in character as the production recreates the moment Barry Chang collected the band from Gambier Terrace, where John Lennon and Stuart Sutcliffe once lived.
The scene shows the Beatles leaving for Hamburg, where they would develop their live act. Morfydd Clark was also spotted on set playing Cynthia Lennon, John Lennon’s first wife. In the new image, Quinn and Mescal can be seen atop a vehicle, seemingly packing their equipment as they prepare to set off on their journey.
As well as the famous foursome, Harry Lawtey is set to star as Stuart Sutcliffe, the original bass guitarist for The Beatles, who was a member of the band during its formative period in Hamburg, Germany.
Also in the cast are Tracy Beaker Returns and The Dumping Ground star Mia McKenna-Bruce as Ringo Starr's wife Maureen Starkey and Lady Bird's Saoirse Ronan as Linda McCartney.
ShÅgun's Anna Sawai will play Yoko Ono, John Lennon's wife and musical collaborator, while Sex Education and The White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood will portray Pattie Boyd, George Harrison's wife.
"Maureen, Linda, Yoko and Pattie are four fascinating and unique figures in their own right," said Mendes, "and I'm thrilled that we've managed to persuade four of the most talented women working in film today to join this amazing adventure."
Source: digitalspy.com/Harriet Mitchell
High above London’s West End, a 45°F wind whipped across the fragile, pitched roof of 3 Savile Row.
This wasn’t the roaring, electrified mania of Shea Stadium. Rather, it was a cold, uncertain Thursday morning.
Fifteen minutes before showtime, the atmosphere was thick with hesitation. Ringo, complaining of the bitter chill, shivered in his wife’s red raincoat. George, ever the skeptic, muttered, “What’s the point? Why are we doing this?” Paul, acting as the band’s diplomatic engine, pleaded, “C’mon, guys, let’s do it. It’ll be fun. We need to do something.”
John settled it. “Fuck it, let’s do it.”
That line would change music history forever
On a roof reinforced with steel props just to keep them from crashing through the ceiling of the room below, the Beatles stepped into the wind. It was a universe away from the screaming crowds of their youth.
As the first notes of “Get Back” echoed through the chimney stacks, the West End stood still.
While director Michael Lindsay-Hogg envisioned a “social study” of the band’s final interaction with the establishment, the day was defined by bizarre hurdles few fans ever heard about.
Source: culturesonar.com/Thomas Clifford
The Beatles recorded most of the landmark album in four weeks to meet the Christmas market deadline
A new Oct. 2 special edition includes remixed tracks, home demos and previously unreleased session recordings
Giles Martin says the album’s darker lyrics and studio experimentation marked a major creative shift
Though their musical talents have been commented upon with some frequency, one under-appreciated aspect of the Beatles is their ability to hit a deadline.
They famously recorded the bulk of their first album in a single day. (And their second one took even longer.) So when John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr entered EMI Studios in October 1965 with just four weeks to produce a new LP — and single! — in time for the Christmas market, the schedule might almost have seemed leisurely to them.
What emerged from that compressed burst of creativity was Rubber Soul, one of the most dramatic evolutionary leaps of their career. Across 14 tracks, the band stretched beyond the straightforward love songs and rock ‘n’ roll arrangements that had made them a global phenomenon. Instead they embraced introspective lyrics, unfamiliar instruments and a more adventurous approach to the studio itself. The result helped redefine what a pop album could be.
Now the landmark record can be heard in unprecedented detail on a new Rubber Soul special edition, out Friday, Oct. 2. The latest in a series of expansive Beatles remix collections overseen by Giles Martin — son of legendary Beatles producer George Martin — the set features a new stereo mix created with engineer Sam Okell from the original four-track tapes, alongside previously unreleased home demos and session outtakes. Various editions also include the contemporary double A-side single “Day Tripper” and “We Can Work It Out,” while the Super Deluxe version adds the original mono mix and the substantially different American Capitol version of the album.
Source: people.com/Jordan Runtagh
During its 11-season run, Happy Days featured a large list of guest stars, but one of the biggest star sightings took place behind the scenes. Fifty-two years ago, John Lennon showed up on the Happy Days set—totally unplanned. The Beatles legend’s son, Julian, was a huge fan of the ABC sitcom, so the two snuck over during a tour of the Paramount lot.
In an interview on the Still Here Hollywood podcast posted on Oct. 5, Happy Days star Anson Williams shared details on the singer’s visit to Happy Days. “It was the first year of Happy Days, 1974,” Williams told host Steve Kmetko. “And it was a very cold morning. We’re on the set, you know, bored out of our mind, like kitchen scenes or something at the time. It was before we went live audience, so it was like a movie. And it’s just it was a guest star and the four of us and Jerry, our director.”
Williams added that he went over to get a cup of coffee and saw Lennon standing to the side.
“And there’s this guy with kind of cool glasses and a young kid,” he recalled “Walk back, go to go up to Donny [Most]. ‘Hey, Donny. This guy looks just like John Lennon with a kid.’ And Donny’s going [sarcastically] ‘Oh, yeah. John Lennon is here to hang out with us.’ It was John Lennon there to hang out with us. And it was Julian’s favorite show and he saw the show. He loved the show.”
Williams revealed that Lennon “stuck around for hours” “And pretty soon it was like it was he was like, ‘Hey John,” he said. “I mean it was at first you’re like gaga, and then he becomes a friend. So shy, so nice, and he’s doing all these original doodles for the crew.’ They now could buy houses with them, right?”
“What happened was they were on a VIP tour, and they escaped, and no one knew where they were …’Oh, Happy Days is there,’ and they snuck on,” Williams explained. “So the PR department found out about it, and they brought a guy who shot a picture. There’s a picture. That’s all we got. We have a picture. But we didn’t get a signature or anything … but it’s fabulous. It was fabulous to have that opportunity with a legend like that.”
Williams isn’t the only Happy Days star to talk about that fateful day. In 2018, Henry Winkler (Fonzie on the show) appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and recalled the day that “John Lennon just came to visit and brought with him Julian.”
“He was so—he was so shy, and I didn’t know how to get into a conversation with John Lennon,” Winkler shared. “Then I just started talking about his Imagine solo album. There’s a cut on it called ‘Mother,’ which is like a primal scream. I started talking to him about that, and he opened like a flower. It was amazing.”
Source: parade.com/Victoria Miller
Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr share a musical connection like none other. The two surviving Beatles have worked together for more than six decades across albums, breakups, animated appearances and various musical projects since the Beatles broke up.
Plus, you can usually count on Starr, 86, to show up and drum every so often with McCartney. But until this year, the two legendary British knights have never recorded a duet together.
'Home to Us' was inspired by Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney's working-class youths in Liverpool.
That changed this year with “Home to Us,” a McCartney/Starr duet on McCartney’s new album The Boys of Dungeon Lane, which dropped in May. The album leans heavily on looking back to McCartney’s early days, and the nostalgic song’s lyrics were inspired by their experiences growing up as working-class musicians in Liverpool.
On Jimmy Kimmel Live! on October 2, the 86-year-old McCartney explained the circuitous route that led to the new single, which never actually involved the two of them in the studio at the same time.
Ringo Starr laid down drumming tracks for producer Andrew Watt in hopes they'd be used in Paul McCartney's album.
“It came about because I’d been working with the producer of this, Andrew Watt,” McCartney told Jimmy Kimmel. “Ringo heard I’d worked with him, and after I’d left, Ringo went over to see him and did a bit of drumming with him. I talked to Ringo, and he said ‘Yeah, I’m hoping you’ll make a track out of it.’”
McCartney said the unusual proposal caught him off guard. “I said, I’m not sure that’s how it works! So anyway, Andrew didn’t make a track out of it, and Ringo was well p------."
Source: okmagazine.com/Paul F. P. Pogue
It took George Harrison a few years into the Beatles’ recording career before he started to show a comfort level as a songwriter. Once he reached that point, his unique perspective on the world brought something indispensable to the group’s music.
It’s hard to imagine any of these four songs coming from any other member of the group besides George. His candor and point of view truly set these lyrics apart.
“Don’t Bother Me”
Partly because they got off to a much earlier start as writers, John Lennon and Paul McCartney did most of the composing on early Beatles records. In fact, from 1962 through 1964, Harrison managed just a single writing credit for the group. That came with “Don’t Bother Me”, released in 1963 on the group’s sophomore LP, With The Beatles. Harrison, under the weather one night in a hotel room, forced himself to write a song just to prove he could do it. “Don’t Bother Me” immediately established his fondness for somewhat unorthodox chord patterns. And its standoffish message represented a stark contrast from the typical Lennon/McCartney affability.
“You Like Me Too Much”
After “Don’t Bother Me”, Harrison retreated from his songwriting efforts for another year or so. When he returned to it on the Help! album in 1965, he came up with two originals. The lovely “I Need You” deserves credit as being the better song of the two. But its message is a tad on the conventional side. In terms of this list, the better choice is “You Like Me Too Much”. For all their massive success, The Beatles projected an air of humility. In their songs, McCartney and Lennon often presented themselves as the lovable underdogs. But Harrison tells it like it is in this song. He explains to the girl he’s addressing that he doesn’t believe she’d actually leave him. As a famous rock star, Harrison likely knew that feeling well.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia
Sixty-four years ago today, the Beatles released the record that started everything—and it hardly looked like the beginning of a global phenomenon. "Love Me Do," released in the U.K. on Oct. 5, 1962, was the band's first single, but it peaked at just No. 17, according to Official Charts. That modest debut looks almost impossible in hindsight. The Beatles' official history of the song confirms that it eventually got a very different reception in America: "Love Me Do" reached No. 1 in the U.S. in 1964.
For the band, simply hearing their own record in public felt enormous. "First hearing 'Love Me Do' on the radio sent me shivery all over," George Harrison recalled, according to The Beatles Story. "It was the best buzz of all time."
Paul McCartney remembered its chart appearance as a dividing line. "If you want to know when we 'knew' we'd arrived, it was getting in the charts with 'Love Me Do'," he said. "That was the one. It gave us somewhere to go."
The breakthrough was particularly meaningful because the Beatles were still proving that audiences would accept their original material. "Love Me Do" was an early Lennon-McCartney composition, and the band had previously leaned heavily on covers.
Related: 58 Years Ago Today: One of the 'Greatest Songs of All Time' Was Released. The Beatles Recorded It With Three Drummers.
The strangest part of the story may be behind the drum kit. The Beatles recorded "Love Me Do" three times in 1962—with Pete Best, Ringo Starr and session musician Andy White each playing drums on a different recording, according to the Beatles' official Anthology history.
The original U.K. single featured Starr on drums. When the group returned to EMI Studios a week later, producer George Martin had brought in White, leaving the newly recruited Starr playing tambourine. The White recording later appeared on Please Please Me.
Source: yahoo.com/Lauren Harrison
Phil Collins has let go of his decades-old grudge against Paul McCartney.
During an interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored on Friday, the famed musician detailed an encounter (one he’s told before) he had with the Beatle back in 2002 during the Queen’s Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace. During rehearsals the day before the show, Collins recalled, “I had a first edition Hunter Davis book [on The Beatles], which was a very, quite rare, first edition. I’d been given it by Jill, Lily’s mum.” He added, “And I took it to the rehearsal so Paul could sign it.”
While sitting on the side of the stage, Collins said that he asked McCartney to sign the book and he obliged. However, Collins added, that’s when McCartney remarked to his then-wife Heather Mills, “He’s a big Beatles fan, is our little Phil?'”
Collins said, “I thought, ‘You arsehole’. I couldn’t help it. That’s just what I thought. I probably made more of it than he meant, I did make more of it. But when I was writing the book, and I wanted to write how I felt about certain things.”
When promoting his memoir in 2016, Collins revealed his story to The Sunday Times. After McCartney emailed Collins to sort things out, the Genesis musician didn’t reply.
Source: rollingstone.com/Charisma Madarang
Paul McCartney will release a Special Edition of The Boys of Dungeon Lane in October 2026, expanding the album with four additional recordings. The new edition includes a “flip mix” of “Home To Us,” his duet with Ringo Starr, plus three previously unreleased songs: “City Fox,” “One Night Stand” and “Chelsea Boots.” The original album arrived in May and was McCartney’s first new solo album in more than five years.
The revised version of “Home To Us” swaps McCartney and Starr’s original parts in the song, giving the track a new vocal arrangement while retaining the pairing of the two former Beatles. The three additional songs were created during the same album sessions. The Special Edition will also be issued physically with cover artwork adapted from a silkscreened collage by Kate Gibb, using more than 100 images from McCartney’s personal collection. Formats include a limited-edition 2LP orange-and-blue marble vinyl with a zoetrope etching, with physical editions available for pre-order.
The Boys of Dungeon Lane became McCartney’s 24th UK No. 1 album across his solo career, Wings and The Beatles, and debuted in the Top 5 in more than a dozen countries. In July, the record was shortlisted among the 12 Albums of the Year for the 2026 Mercury Prize, marking McCartney’s first nomination for the award.
The album looks back on McCartney’s early life in post-war Liverpool, including memories of his parents and his friendships with George Harrison and John Lennon before The Beatles became famous. Alongside the autobiographical material, it also includes newly written love songs. Its title comes from a lyric in “Days We Left Behind,” a stripped-back song that references Forthlin Road, Speke and nearby Dungeon Lane. Discussing the song, McCartney said: “This is very much a memory song for me.”
Source: udiscovermusic.com
