Beatles News
Paul McCartney reached the realm of billionaire status Monday after Forbes valued his net worth at a colossal US$1.4 billion (NZ$2.5 billion) – making him the world’s third-richest musician.
McCartney’s wealth ranks behind his friend Taylor Swift (US$2 billion or NZ$3.58 billion), with whom he performed The Beatles’ first US number 1 ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ during the pop performer’s star-studded wedding to Travis Kelce at Madison Square Garden in July.
Jay-Z topped Forbes’ revered chart at US$2.8 billion ($NZ5 billion).
Forbes credits McCartney’s ascension to the number three spot to a lifetime of prolific song writing, a series of savvy business moves and an impressive art collection.
But the 84-year-old rocker’s beginnings were humble, growing up in a working class household in Liverpool, northwest England.
Despite The Beatles’ phenomenal success, the Fab Four saw little of the cash their hard work generated at the height of Beatlemania – Forbes reported that their initial record deal provided them with less than a penny per album sold.
“No matter how successful we made the company, we didn’t get a raise,” McCartney wrote in a 2017 Forbes essay.
Seeking a solution, McCartney established a publishing company of his own in 1969 – MPL Communications. This marked the first time the musician managed his intellectual property, providing him with a far greater cut of the royalties.
MPL has been extremely lucrative to McCartney, as he has also used the company to purchase the copyrights to thousands of tracks including the back catalogue of rock’n’roll pioneer Buddy Holly – who McCartney has cited as a major influence on The Beatles.
The publisher also owns the rights to an array of Christmas favourites, including ‘It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas’ and ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’, as well as musicals such as Grease and Annie.
Streaming those Christmas classics, or even performing in a high school production of those musicals, enhances the Brit’s wealth.
McCartney, who is a father of five and grandfather of eight, fought several legal battles to ensure he and his fellow Beatles and their estates were entitled to optimal royalties. The outfit’s Apple Corps holding company now earns more than US$50 million (NZ$89.4 million) annually from streams, vinyl sales and merchandise.
Source: rnz.co.nz
During the mid-to-late 1970s, Manhattan's Dakota apartment complex was a massive hub for famous musicians and creatives. The building was legendary for attracting top-tier artistic talent because of its thick, nearly soundproof walls, high ceilings, and strict privacy.
In 1975, Roberta Flack and John Lennon (along with Yoko Ono) moved across the hall from each other.
Their friendship began before they became neighbors
Flack and Lennon had already crossed paths professionally in 1972, when Flack performed at Lennon and Ono's One to One concerts at Madison Square Garden, which raised money for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
But living so close to one another would help them form a decades-long, close-knit bond. Sean Lennon (John and Yoko Ono's son) even recalled knowing her as "Aunt Roberta." Because the apartments shared walls, Flack could hear Sean practicing music, and she encouraged him as he learned to play. Years later, Flack sang "Imagine".
This bit of context makes her 1992 cover of "Imagine" even more moving. More than a decade after Lennon's tragic death, Flack performed the iconic song at the Earth Voice Concert in Tokyo, an event created to raise awareness about environmental issues.
"I really am doing this because I feel that I can make a difference," said Flack. "And I think unless everybody in the world accepts that singular responsibility to make a difference, then things will not get better; they will get worse." It was a fitting introduction to a song that asks listeners to imagine a more peaceful, unified world.
By then, "Imagine" had become one of the defining songs of Lennon's solo career. For Flack, though, it was connected to a much more personal chapter of her life. Sharing the performance with soul singer Lisa Fischer, Flack honored her late friend through his music.
Source: yahoo.com/Heather Wake
LA’s world-famous Troubadour will be recognized by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a landmark in music history Wednesday, hours before hosting a tribute to incoming inductee Gram Parsons.
To mark the occasion, The California Post looks back at the night Beatle John Lennon got kicked out of the hotspot as told in the book, “The Beatles in Los Angeles.”
Lennon’s inner demons and rage shook the Sunset Strip on the evening of March 12, 1974.
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“He was a bad drunk, if he had two or three or four drinks those inner demons would manifest themselves, a kind of rage would permeate the air,” Lennon’s longtime publicist Elliott Mintz revealed.
“He liked Brandy Alexanders, that was his drink when he drank,” Mintz explained.
Lennon was deep into what’s been called his “Lost Weekend” during which he had left his wife, Yoko Ono, at her suggestion.
“This was his chance to be ‘Bachelor John’ since his first marriage,” Mintz said.
John Lennon, May Pang, and Harry Nilsson sitting together at a club with other people, drinks on the table in front of them.
Singer-guitarist John Lennon attends a comedy performance with May Pang and Harry Nilsson at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, California, March 12, 1974. Michael Ochs Archives
John Lennon, May Pang, and Harry Nilsson sitting together at a table with drinks and other people.
Singer-guitarist John Lennon, center right, May Pang and Harry Nilsson, far right, attend a performance at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, Calif., March 12, 1974. Michael Ochs Archives
“As the weeks turned to months, as his drinking increased, as his yearning to get back to Yoko intensified, as he got a little bit out of control . . . he wasn’t all that happy,” Mintz continued.
John and his drinking buddy, singer Harry Nilsson, were among the celeb-studded audience at the Troubadour for a Smothers Brothers show which included everyone from Paul Newman to Peter Lawford to Pam Grier, the sexy rising star of the new movie Foxy Brown.
Source: nypost.com/Jeremy Louwerse
A rare Cavern Club membership card signed 21 times by The Beatles before they were famous has been put up for sale for nearly £25,000.
The 1961 Liverpool club booklet was signed by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and original drummer Pete Best.
The signatures date from when the band were aged between 18 and 20, and before Best was dropped and replaced by Ringo Starr.
The card has been uncovered by rock and pop memorabilia specialists Fab Four Memorabilia, and has been listed for sale with a price tag of £24,950.
The membership card was sent in 1961 or early 1962 to a teenage girl living in Endwell, New York by a pen pal in Liverpool.
Lennon signed his name twice, adding "again" above his second signature,
McCartney also signed twice, writing "once again" beneath his name.
Harrison also added his signature, while Best signed the booklet 16 times, with one inscription marking "the final time".
Alfie Evans, of Fab Four Memorabilia, said: "It's the only one in the world.
"Anything signed by The Beatles multiple times is very unusual."
He added: "The girl explained to Pete that he was her favourite and so he signed it 16 times.
"But at the time, Pete was a lot of people's favourites."
"There was a protest at the Cavern Club when Ringo Starr replaced him with the crowd chanting: 'Bring back Pete'."
Source: yahoo.com/Stewart Whittingham
In January 1970, George Harrison walked through a vast, decaying house on a hill above Henley-on-Thames, in Oxfordshire. Grass was growing through the floorboards. Outside, the gardens had disappeared under brambles and overgrown yew.
Harrison was 27 and still a Beatle, though the band was weeks away from breaking up. He bought the place anyway. It would become his home, his recording studio and his life’s great project for the next three decades.
The eccentric lawyer who built it
Friar Park was the creation of Sir Frank Crisp, a wealthy London lawyer and passionate amateur gardener. In 1889, he bought land on the edge of Henley and built a sprawling Gothic Revival mansion, finished in the mid-1890s, with towers, spires and well over 100 rooms.
The house was striking, but the grounds were the real spectacle. Crisp filled them with surprises: caves, underground passages, a subterranean boating lake, grottoes lit to look magical, and a huge alpine rock garden topped by a model of the Matterhorn, built with thousands of tons of stone.
Crisp also had a sense of humor. He loved garden gnomes and placed many of them around the grounds. Stepping stones were hidden just beneath the surface of one pond, so visitors appeared to walk on water. During his lifetime, the gardens were regularly opened to the public.
Decline and the threat of demolition
After Crisp died in 1919, the estate passed through other owners. In the early 1950s, it was bought by an order of Catholic nuns, the Salesian Sisters of St John Bosco, who used it for teaching.
The nuns could not afford to maintain such an enormous property. A garden that once needed dozens of gardeners slowly fell into ruin. The lakes silted up, the glasshouses lost their glass, and the house itself began to rot.
Source: britishheritage.com
The late Beatles member John Lennon was a father to two kids, Julian and Sean Lennon. He welcomed his younger son, Julian, in 1963 with his first wife, Cynthia Lennon. He then welcomed son Sean in 1975 with second his second wife, Yoko Ono.
While rockstars can certainly become overnight sensations these days, no stardom was quite as memorable as The Beatles craze in the 1960s. Together, the foursome comprised of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr made music, rock, and British history.
But while their songs like “Here Comes the Sun” and “Let It Be” will live on, the members’ legacy also lives on through their kids. That’s especially the case for John, who was tragically shot and killed on December 8, 1980. He was only 40 years old at the time.
John was a father to two children, Julian Lennon, who was born in 1963 to John and his first wife Cynthia Lennon, and Sean Lennon, born in 1975 to him and his second wife, Yoko Ono. While having very different relationships with their father, both children have carried on with the family name and followed in their dad’s famous musical footsteps.
When asked about being the “custodian” of his dad’s legacy in a December 2025 interview with CBS News, for instance, Sean embraced the title, while acknowledging how universal his dad’s music was. “Yeah, technically [I am], but obviously the world is also the custodian of his legacy, I would say,” he said. “I’m just doing my best to help make sure that the younger generation doesn’t forget about The Beatles and John and Yoko. That’s how I look at it.”
Of course, carrying on the family name also brought along some pressure. “It had always been, ‘John Lennon’s son, John Lennon’s son,’ and I’m going, ‘For f’s sake.’ I said, what I need to do for me, first and foremost, is to build up a body of work, a foundation that I can stand on, that nobody can take away from me,” Julian told The Guardian in January 2025. “And I continue to do so. It’s not to show off, it’s just to prove to myself that I can actually do this stuff.”
Source: instyle.com/Giovana Gelhoren
Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are set for a rare onstage reunion in 2027 for Joe Walsh‘s VetsAid music festival. The two Beatles will join Eagles’ guitarist Joe Walsh for a special performance at his VetsAid music festival at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena on Jan. 29.
McCartney and Starr last performed together during Macca’s final Got Back concert in December 2024 in London. Starr appeared for that show’s finale and provided drums for “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Helter Skelter.”
“Give it up. I’m off now, but I’ve had a great night,” Starr said at the time. “It’s fantastic, playing with me old mate, but there comes a time when we’ve got to go home. All that remains to be said, I’ll see you next time.” That next time appears to be here.
“Having spent the past two years at the Sphere and working with the hardworking people of Las Vegas, I want to show them my gratitude and respect,” Walsh said in a statement. “This city has taken such good care of me and my family that it would be my privilege to give back to the large veteran community here and to their families.”
Walsh also hinted at more special appearances. “Join me on stage with my musical heroes Paul and Ringo (and more surprise guests),” he said. “Support our veterans and support each other.” The rest of the current lineup boasts performances from the Killers, the War on Drugs, St. Vincent, and Lucius.
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Tickets for VetsAid 2027 go on sale this Friday, Nov. 13 at 10:00 a.m. PT via AXS. Sans taxes and fees, tickets will cost $200, but veterans have access to exclusive tickets and pricing. All net proceeds from the festival will go toward veteran-related charities coordinated with the Combined Arms Institute. More information is available at the VetsAid official website.
Starr released his 22nd solo album, Long Long Road, this spring. Around the same time, McCartney released his 20th solo album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, which included the Starr-studded song “Home to Us.”
Source: rollingstone.com/Jaeden Pinder
When we imagine The Beatles in 1964, we typically think of four suit-clad lads from Liverpool named John, Paul, George and Ringo. And while this would normally be correct under normal circumstances, that’s not the lineup the United States Beatle-lovers were dancing along to in the spring of that year. This particular lineup consisted of John, Paul, and George, of course, but it also featured Andy White.
White was a prolific session drummer whom many will recognize, even if not by name. That’s because White performed on some of the most iconic pop cuts of the early 1960s, including The Beatles’ early 60s hit song, “Love Me Do”. White was also the drummer on this single’s B-side, “P.S. I Love You”. At the time of the recording session at EMI, Ringo Starr’s position in the group was less permanent.
A version of “Love Me Do” existed with Pete Best, the band’s original drummer, behind the kit. Starr also recorded a version. Neither of these takes was deemed suitable by producer George Martin, thus, White was called in to get the job done.
Andy White Played Drums on Several Iconic Pop Hits
Andy White was only “in” The Beatles for a short amount of time, and he received no royalties for the track. His payment began and ended in the recording studio that day. Nevertheless, he plays a critical percussive role in Beatles history. Indeed, it was White’s performance that ended up on most releases of “Love Me Do” and “P.S. I Love You”, though subsequent compilation releases have also included Pete Best’s and Ringo Starr’s versions.
In addition to his brief tenure with the Fab Four, White also performed on tracks by Herman’s Hermits, Lulu, and Tom Jones. He later moved to the States and became a drum instructor and a judge for the Eastern United States Pipe Band Association. Interestingly (perhaps mostly to younger millennials), White’s wife, Thea White, voiced Muriel in the Cartoon Network show, Courage The Cowardly Dog.
White died on November 9, 2015, from a stroke. He was living in Caldwell, New Jersey, and was 85.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis
In the mid-1980s, Michael Jackson and I were hanging out, and he asked me for career advice. I said, “Okay, three things: First of all, get yourself a really good manager. You’re really hot now, there’s going to be a lot of money coming in, and you really need someone to help you manage it. Second, think about getting into videos.” (Shortly after that, he did “Thriller,” so I thought that was cool, he took my advice.) Then I said, “And finally, be careful about your songs—own your work—and get into song publishing.” And he said, “Oh, I’m going to get yours!” I kind of laughed; I didn’t think he was serious. But he was.
It all goes back to the very beginning of the Beatles, when we signed the music publishing contract. We didn’t care what it was: We were just like any other writers; we wanted to get published. It turned out to be basically a slave contract; no matter how successful we made the company, we didn’t get a raise. After John died, I talked to Sir Lew Grade, who owned Northern Songs, the company that held our publishing rights. I said, “Lew, if you’re ever going to sell Northern Songs, you’ve got to come to me first.” He said, “I’m never going to sell.” And I said, “Fair enough. But if you do, come to me first.” He later came to me and said, “Yeah, I am selling it—for $20 million.” I said, “Okay, I think that’s a fair valuation.”
But I didn’t want to be the guy who bought John out. So I went to John’s people, and I said, “We’ve got this opportunity to buy Northern Songs, finally. It’s $20 million. And so that’s $10 million from me, $10 million from you. And we should do this, what do you think?” The response: “Oh, no, we can get it for $4 million.” I said, “I’m not sure about that.” It ended up falling through, and Michael later ended up buying it off this Australian guy Robert Holmes à Court for $47.5 million. I wasn’t willing to pay that much for my own songs. It’s difficult, when you’ve written them for nothing, to pay $50 million to get them back.
It’s so important to have good people around you. That’s why I’m anywhere near this list. My lawyers, John and Lee Eastman, are really smart, both great guys, and I listen to them. In recent years, they’ve helped me recover my copyrights. (There’s a U.S. law that allows me to get them back.) If I’m wheeling and dealing, life becomes very difficult for me. I’ve got to reserve a portion of my brain for writing songs.
Source: forbes.com/Forbes Wealth Team
Anna Sawai is "so terrified" of one thing regarding the upcoming, highly-anticipated biopic about The Beatles.
The Shogun actress will portray Yoko Ono opposite Harris Dickinson as John Lennon in director Sir Sam Mendes' upcoming four-film biopic series.
She feels honoured to be cast as the visual artist but she's wary of accidentally letting slip any secrets about the project.
Anna told Sunday Times Style magazine, “I’m so terrified to spill anything that’s not out there yet. The Beatles have been a part of my life for the longest time — it’s kind of mind-blowing I’m in a film about them.”
Referencing a Japanese term, manzoku, which means fulfilment, she added, “Playing [Yoko] will be very, very manzoku — satisfying — if I can do it right.”
Over the years, Yoko has been vilified for her alleged role in splitting up The Beatles, and Anna admitted speaking to the artist's son, Sean Lennon, for insight, as well as doing her own research, has made the project a "little bit more personal" for her after growing to understand the racism and misogyny that followed her.
She said, “I already had an idea of it [but now] it felt a little bit more personal.”
"It feels so wrong [that she was treated that way], and I feel like the storytelling will be a version that people haven’t seen. People are open to diversity now and are a little bit more welcoming, so I think it’ll be perceived in a different way,” Anna explained.
The 34-year-old actress also previously hailed Yoko as hugely inspirational to her, telling PEOPLE magazine, "It's just exciting because [Ono’s] story is so inspirational to me, and people really don't know the true person that she was.”
"She's an incredible artist. And also, she just was an independent woman and people didn't like that. They wanted John [Lennon] for themselves, and she was an easy target. And I think it's very meaningful for me to be able to tell her story,” she added.
Commenting on what she loved most about Yoko, Anna said, "Just how bold she is. Oh my God, I love her. She's so cool."
Source: thenews.com.pk/Sadaf Naushad
