Beatles News
It was 1967 when Paul McCartney met American photographer Linda Eastman at a concert at The Bag O'Nails bar in Soho, London.
He and Linda had attended the concert with different groups of friends, but when Linda left her table to get a drink, she passed the famous Beatles singer.
"I stood up just as she was passing, blocking her exit. And so I said, 'Oh, sorry. Hi. How are you? How're you doing?'" he says in Barry Miles' biography Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now.
Watch footage of the couple's wedding day and an exclusive with Paul in the video above. The interview was captured just a year before Linda's death.
Source:Kate Rafferty/honey.nine.com.au
By the 1990s, George Harrison was used to authors writing books about him. Some were more truthful than others. However authors chose to portray him in their books, George couldn’t complain about it.
Since The Beatles became famous, the press and other writers have written about George. Fan magazine made false accusations, and the press held uninspiring interviews and stereotyped the band.
In the early 1960s, Larry Kane spoke with George about Beatles fan magazines (per George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters). The radio DJ asked if the rumors bugged him. They did.
“It drives you up a wall sometimes,” George replied. “Since we’ve been over here they’ve been asking us, ‘Is John leaving?’ Well, the new one today is it’s me leaving. You know, that’s just because some idiot in Hollywood has written in the papers that I’m leaving, so now I will have for weeks people coming up time after time and asking, ‘Is it true you are leaving?'”
Source: cheatsheet.com
In August 1962, Ringo made the daring and hugely prescient decision to leave Rory Storm and the Hurricanes to join a new up-and-coming Liverpool band. He officially played with The Beatles for the first time at the Royal Horticultural Society's Annual Dance at Hulme Hall, Port Sunlight. Already friends with the boys from performing at the same gigs in Hamburg and the UK, according to Mike McCartney in his book, Mike McCartney's Early Liverpool, he was the perfect fit.
'Ringo's style of playing complemented John, Paul and George's music... He had a dry sense of humour and was able to fit in easily with the band.' - Mike McCartney
Mike captures Ringo in his photography and through illuminating anecdotes in his limited edition book, Mike McCartney's Early Liverpool and the limited edition print, Cavern Club Rehearsal.
Source: genesis-publications.com
When it comes to shaking up the guitar world, in many ways Led Zeppelin were to the ‘70s what the Beatles were to the ‘60s.
Around a fortnight after Led Zeppelin released their eponymous debut album (opens in new tab) in January 1969, the Beatles performed together for the final time on the rooftop of their Apple Corps headquarters in London.
And as the decade that gave us Flower Power crossfaded into the era of hard rock, the airwaves grew heavier with the sound of electric guitar riffs.
Leading the way for myriad bands the world over, Zeppelin’s far-reaching appeal has inspired generations.
Source: Rod Brakes/guitarplayer.com
Sir Paul McCartney’s picture book, Grandude’s Green Submarine, has inspired a special episode of online children’s yoga series Cosmic Kids Yoga.
The book, which was originally published last year, is the sequel to the music icon’s first picture book Hey Grandude! and follows Grandude and his grandchildren – known as the chillers – as they go on an underwater adventure to find their music-loving grandmother Nandude.
In a special episode of Cosmic Kids Yoga – a YouTube series written and presented by Jaime Amor – the adventures of Grandude and the chillers are blended with yoga to provide children across the world the opportunity to experience yoga and mindfulness through the power of storytelling.
Grandude and the chillers are guided to Nandude by her music, written by Sir Paul and featured in the special episode.
Source: PA News Agency/bridportnews.co.uk
In 1971, legendary sitarist, Ravi Shankar, asked his long-time friend, George Harrison, to help with a humanitarian crisis happening in his native Bangladesh; the result was the Concert for Bangladesh. The former Beatle organized the benefit concert quickly.
George wanted to help Shankar and the Bangladeshi people. Every part of the Concert for Bangladesh had to be perfect, even its date.
In late 1971, Shankar told George about the humanitarian crisis in East Pakistan (formerly East Bengal).
A devastating cyclone had killed 500,000 people. After months of inaction from the West Pakistani government, people wanted a change, and Eastern nationals declared themselves the independent country of Bangladesh. It started a bloody war. The Western Pakistani troops committed genocidal acts on the Bangladeshi people.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Though a majority of The Beatles’ songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, George Harrison accumulated hundreds of songs he had written for the band that never made the cut. Still, the guitarist managed to squeeze one or two songs onto Beatles albums, beginning with his first credited song with the band, “Don’t Bother Me,” off their second album, With the Beatles, and later on with Help! tracks “I Need You” and “You Like Me Too Much.”
As he was introducing more diverse instrumentation—sitar, tambura, 12-string, and slide guitars—into the band’s arrangements, Harrison continued to pilfer more space on the track list on subsequent releases with “Think for Yourself” and “If I Needed Someone” for the group’s sixth album Rubber Soul and the more tender ballad “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” which featured his friend Eric Clapton on the recorded version, along with four contributions off The White Album and his most famous Abbey Road offerings “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun.”
Source: americansongwriter.com
'I don't know if I'm comfortable with that': John Lennon's son Julian is shocked by his father being brought 'back to life' to duet in hi-tech stage performances with ex-Beatles bandmate Sir Paul McCartney
Julian was just 17 when his father John was gunned down in December of 1980.In June he watched father's posthumous duet with former bandmate McCartney.
Sir Paul collaborated with filmmaker Peter Jackson to bring Lennon 'back to life'. Custom AI simulated John Lennon's voice, allowing Sir Paul to duet at Glasto. The stunt proved a hit among Beatles fans, and Julian admitted he 'actually enjoyed it'.
Source: Richard Eden, David Averre/dailymail.co.uk
In 1991, George Harrison, his long-time friend, Eric Clapton, and Clapton’s band embarked on a 12-show tour of Japan. Although, it took some convincing on Clapton’s part to get George to do it. George never liked touring, especially when he was a Beatle and even more after his disastrous 1974 solo tour of America.
The “Taxman” singer reluctantly agreed to the Japanese tour only because he needed to get out of a rut. Plus, touring with Clapton’s band was easier than finding and forming a band. When it finished, George was thankful to Clapton for giving him the push he needed to get back on the road.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Paul McCartney has been the object of many romantic desires since his teen idol days as frontman of The Beatles, but his personal life has had its highs and lows.
After his first wife, Linda, died of breast cancer in 1998, McCartney said he "cried for a year." His subsequent marriage to former model Heather Mills ended in an acrimonious divorce and a $50 million settlement.
But McCartney didn't let the breakup sour him on finding love, and he was soon spotted with Nancy Shevell, a New York-based businesswoman and breast cancer survivor who founded a cancer resource center in the Hamptons.
Source: people.com
