Beatles News
A HOTEL that John Lennon and Yoko Ono once stayed in has been frozen in time for more than a decade.
The accommodation still has electricity and the TVs and lifts still work, providing a glimpse at how it used to look before it was closed down. Some of the rooms have been taken over by mould and grime.
The Corbett Arms hotel in Tywyn, Wales is a Georgian, Grade II listed building that has been left as it was in 2011, when its doors were closed to the public.
Tiktoker and urban explorer Adam Mark (@adam_mark_explores) entered the property and filmed himself having a look around, revealing what it looks like inside.
In a video shared on Tiktok, he showed how some of the rooms look the same as they did when the hotel would have been up and running, with beds still made.
The electricity in the property still works, with televisions still able to be turned on.
Source: thesun.co.uk/Ryan Gray
BMG has announced a deal to bring the solo recorded works of George Harrison to Dark Horse Records/BMG.
While Dark Horse Records/BMG already administers the music publishing of George Harrison, it will now also serve as his label home.
BMG notes that his music publishing catalog and recordings will now, for the first time ever, be under one roof, at BMG.
Variety reports that Harrison’s family retains the rights to the artist’s catalog.
Previously in 2022, BMG announced it had entered into a global publishing agreement with the George Harrison Estate to administer the Harrisongs catalog comprising more than 200 songs written with the Beatles, the Traveling Wilburys and Harrison’s solo career.
Source: Murray Stassen/musicbusinessworldwide.com
The Rolling Stones and The Beatles‘ two surviving members — Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr — have reportedly joined forces on a new album, according to multiple sources via Variety. McCartney has already recorded bass parts for the project, which is spearheaded by Andrew Watt, the 2021 Grammy winner for producer of the year, per reports.
The legendary performers attended recording sessions in Los Angeles in “recent weeks,” and the album is now entering its mixing phases. It is unknown whether McCartney and Starr’s parts will be included on the same track, or if their contributions will arrive separately.
In 2021, Rolling Stones lead vocalist Mick Jagger stated that the band had “a lot of tracks done” for the project. Last month, guitarist Keith Richards excited fans with an Instagram post confirming that “there’s some new music on its way.”
Source: Dylan Kelly/hypebeast.com
Most Beatles fans who play guitar obsess over the electric guitars and guitar amps that the band members played through various stages of their career.
However, with the exception of the Gibson J-160E acoustic-electrics that were seen throughout the entirety of the band’s existence, the acoustic guitars that they played don’t get as much attention, even though they played equally important roles in the acoustic songs they recorded, as well as those where acoustic and electric instruments were blended together.
George Harrison and John Lennon purchased a pair of brand-new Gibson J-160E guitars in 1962, and Lennon replaced his with a new 1964 model after his was stolen.
Although a J-160E doesn’t have the most stellar acoustic tone (the Beatles used theirs amplified as often as they recorded it acoustically), it managed to provide a good driving rhythm texture behind the band’s electric tones.
Source: Chris Gill/guitarworld.com
It wasn’t quite rags to riches, but the story of Welsh singer Mary Hopkin’s dizzy rise during 1968 takes some beating. In May of that year, just as she was turning 18, she appeared on the British TV talent show Opportunity Knocks. Improbably, it would lead her into the inner circle of The Beatles and to an international No.1.
Hopkin won that contest, and had the good fortune that the famous model Twiggy was watching the show. When she, in turn, was talking to Paul McCartney about potential artists for The Beatles’ new Apple label, Twiggy mentioned Mary. Soon afterwards, the singer received a message to call Peter Brown at Apple.
“So I rang up,” Hopkin remembered later, “and was put through to this guy with a Liverpool accent, who invited me to come up to London and sign a contract. Being a cautious young Welsh girl, I thought, ‘That's a bit sudden!’ and became a bit evasive, so this guy said, ‘Well, go and ask your mum then!’ I dragged my mother to the telephone and she proceeded to practically drop the thing because he said, ‘Oh, this is Paul McCartney, by the way’!”
Source: Paul Sexton/sports.yahoo.com
George Harrison wrote The Beatles’ “Within You Without You.” The Beatles’ producer, George Martin, was not a fan of the songs.
Martin said “Within You Without You” was inspired by an “obsession.”
The Beatles‘ producer, George Martin, was not a fan of every Beatles song. For example, he criticized The Beatles’ “Within You Without You.” Subsequently, the song’s writer, George Harrison, revealed his opinion of the tune.
The book The Beatles: Paperback Writer includes an interview with Martin from 1979. In it, he discussed the songs from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
“George’s contribution, ‘Within You Without You,’ was, with all deference to George, a rather dreary song, heavily influenced by his obsession with Indian music at that time,” he said. “I worked very closely with him on the scoring of it, using a string orchestra, and he brought in some friends from the Indian Music Association to play special instruments.”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
The Beatles didn’t stray away from controversial topics — even if that resulted in a death threat from a Ku Klux Klan member. Here’s what John Lennon said about people disliking the Beatles’ music and their message. How John Lennon added activism to the Beatles’ records (even if some listeners didn’t like it)
Some of the Beatles’ biggest hits were loaded with activism — from messages of peace (with “All You Need is Love”) to criticism of the United Kingdom. The satirical song, “Get Back,” detailed the UK’s attitude toward immigrants.
There were also songs like “Revolution” and “Taxman,” which received praise, and sometimes backlash, from listeners. In 1966, Lennon responded to those who severely opposed this rock band.
John Lennon commented on people ‘not liking’ the Beatles’ records
Not everyone agreed with the Beatles’ idealogy, with some band members commenting on their polarizing positions on current events. That includes Lennon being misquoted about the state of Christianity.
In 1966, that resulted in protests, record burning events hosted by Christian radio stations, and anonymous death threats. There was even a televised threat against the rock band from a Ku Klux Klan member.
Source: Julia Dzurillay/cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney thinks it’s interesting singing The Beatles‘ “I Saw Her Standing There” because it has a “naïveté” that you “can’t invent.” The singer-songwriter recognizes that he was a completely different person when he wrote the song.
In The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul wrote that he’d include The Beates’ “I Saw Her Standing There” in the group of songs he considers his best work. He remembers playing the song for John Lennon for the first time. They smoked tea in Paul’s father’s pipe.
Despite his love for the tune, Paul explained that it had tough beginnings. There was an issue with one of the lyrics. Paul wrote, “I said, ‘She was just seventeen. She’d never been a beauty queen.’ And John said, ‘I’m not sure about that.’ So our main task was to get rid of the beauty queen. We struggled with it, but then it came.”
In The Lyrics, Paul wrote that singing “I Saw Her Standing There” now-and this happens to him with all The Beatles songs he sings, particularly from the early days-he realizes he’s “reviewing the work of an eighteen-to-twenty-year-old boy.”
Source: Hannah Wigandt/cheatsheet.com
The Beatles split up in 1970, but the members eventually rebuilt their bridges and became friends once again. Paul McCartney and John Lennon were the oldest friends in the band, having grown up together in Liverpool in the 1950s. So then, when Lennon was murdered in 1980, McCartney was utterly crushed. The former Fab Four star remembered his best pal fondly two years after Lennon's death in 1982 when he appeared on Desert Island Discs.
The BBC show invited artists to pick their favourite songs and records to take on a desert island with them. When McCartney attended, he included such massive hits as Chuck Berry's Sweet Little Sixteen, Gene Vincent's Be-Bop-A-Lula and Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel.
However, the Hey Jude singer finished off his collection with a song from his friend, Lennon. Fighting back tears, he told host Roy Plomley: "Okay, well, this one... I haven't chosen any Beatles records. But if we had had more than eight, I probably would have. I haven't chosen any of my records."
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
The Beatles ate in restaurants and John Lennon visited Disney World with his son. With such recognizable faces, Lennon commented on the group using disguises to go in public — which didn’t always work.
Even if they were typically touring, recording, and writing music, these artists found time to eat out at restaurants worldwide. Sometimes, listeners would approach and ask for an autograph.
“Usually it’s only Americans that’ll bother you,” George Harrison said (via Beatles Interviews). “If we go into a restaurant in London, there’s always going to be a couple of them eating there; you just tell the waiter to hold them off if they try to come over. If they come over anyway, you just sign.”
In the same interview, Starr added he wouldn’t frequent his typical restaurants if he wasn’t rich and famous, mentioning that “snobs” visited the same places as the Beatles. Beso in London, boasts the Beatles often dined there. (A picture of the Fab Four is visible on the wall.)
Source: Julia Dzurillay/cheatsheet.com
