Beatles News
On November 29, 2002, one year after the passing of music legend George Harrison, a tribute concert was planned in his honor. Watch Concert for George on WITF TV Friday, June 3 at 9pm or Saturday, June 4 at 1pm.
Held at London’s Royal Albert Hall, the evening featured Harrison’s songs and music he loved, performed by an all-star lineup that included Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Jeff Lynne, Monty Python, Tom Petty, Billy Preston, Dhani Harrison, and many more.
Watch Concert for George Friday, June 3 at 9pm or Saturday, June 4 at 1pm on WITF TV. Prefer to stream? Watch WITF TV live from the PBS Video app or online!
Source: witf.org
A collection of previously unseen memorabilia of the Beatles before they became famous has been sold at auction.
It includes photographs taken when the band played in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, in 1963.
A huge fan of the Fab Four, 16-year-old Sandra Woodruff (nee Blaken) tracked the group down, after a tipoff, to room number 49 at the Royal Pier Hotel.
"It's so rare to find things signed by all four of them," said Andrew Stowe from East Bristol Auctions.
"There is no other collection on the planet as unique or as important," he added.
John, Paul, Ringo and George were about to take the international music scene by storm in 1963.
Source: BBC News
On May 26, 1967, The Beatles' eighth album, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, was given a "rush release" in the UK - this meant that it was delivered to record stores around the country almost an entire week before its official release date of June 1.
Since then, the album has become one of their best-known pieces and includes some incredible singles such as Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, With a Little Help from My Friends and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds to name but a few. It also earned four Grammy Awards including Album of the Year and has since sold more than 32 million copies worldwide.
But the record's inception was a tribute to a Canadian police officer who managed to keep the band out of jail.
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
Ringo Starr is drumming up some digital dollars with his NFT collection.
Julien’s Auctions recently announced it is kicking off an exclusive auction offering one-of-a-kind digital works of art with its accompanying signed canvas prints created by the artist, making him the first member of the Fab Four to do so.
The auction, "Ringo Starr NFT Collection – The Creative Mind of a Beatle," will take place Monday, June 13. A portion of the proceeds will benefit The Lotus Foundation, which supports charitable projects "aimed at advancing social welfare in diverse areas," including cancer, homelessness and animals in need, among others.
Source: msn.com
George Harrison surrounded his son Dhani with loads of music when he was growing up. He never pushed his son to follow in his footsteps, but keeping him away from it all was hard. George had a recording studio in the family home, Friar Park, and many rock stars and musicians came and went. Bob Dylan or Jeff Lynne could pop through the door at any one time. Despite not pushing music on his son or showing him what his days as Beatle George were like, Dhani found his own way to music. However, sometimes, George had to school his son on certain artists.When Dhani was growing up, he formed his own music taste without the help of his father or any of his famous friends. It just so happens that he enjoyed the artists that inspired George. According to Rolling Stone, Dhani fell in love with The Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ U.S.A.” after hearing it in the 1985 Michael J. Fox film Teen Wolf.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (released 5/26/67) may not be the Beatles’ best album, but it’s certainly the most famous. The reverberations arising from its release continue even today, over a half-century after the album came out and while (over?) much has been made of every element of the title from its cover to its production to its concept, it is perhaps most noteworthy for representing the logical and perhaps inevitable extension of the four Liverpudlians’ utterly confident creative mindset from the very outset of their career to that point.
Source: Doug Collette/glidemagazine.com
At Wake Forest University’s Truist Field, the May 21 stop on his highly-anticipated 13-city “GOT BACK” Tour, Paul McCartney got back to where he belongs: on-stage to a crowd of nearly 32,000 adoring fans. Charisma reverberated across the audience, for whom McCartney paid tribute and bestowed gratitude through the evening — clocking 36 songs over roughly 2.5 hours of nonstop hits and story time banter.
Mixing material throughout the ages, “Can’t Buy Me Love” kicked things off with a Beatles-Wings sandwich: “Junior’s Farm” and “Letting Go,” followed by “Got to Get You Into My Life;” chased with the McCartney single, “Come On to Me,” before Wings’ “Let Me Roll It” meshed with a “Foxy Lady” jam amongst memories of Jimi Hendrix’s response to Sgt. Pepper.
Source: Katei Cranford/yesweekly.com
The Beatles' popularity did not impress a film director - and it made John Lennon unhappy.
The Beatles released hit songs that everyone loved - and still loves - even though years have already passed. However, while they were making their first-ever big-screen movie, the band suffered a major blow after a film director rejected one of their songs.
In the mid-1960s, the hit band decided to create feature films after releasing albums and having tours around the globe. Their first project was 1964, "A Hard Day's Night."
The film focused on the behind-the-scenes featuring the Fab Four before their TV appearance.
As part of the movie, a film director asked them to write and record the film's music. Lennon, for his part, made The Beatles' song "I'll Cry Instead."
Source: Angeline Sicily/musictimes.com
The pair last met in the place where John would ultimately be killed
The story of The Beatles is equally one of tragedy as it is one of musical brilliance.
The world reeled as John Lennon was gunned down on a New York balcony in 1980 at the age of 40. Tragically, members of the band were not on the best of terms when this took place, leaving heaps of regret in the hearts of Paul, George, and Ringo.
George Harrison died in 2001 after a battle with lung cancer, aged just 58. The lead guitarist of the Fab Four shared some of his thoughts on his former bandmate in the decades after John's untimely death.
Source: Aaron Curran/liverpoolecho.co.uk
The Beatles broke out regionally in 1963 and nationally in 1964, which makes 1962 the last year they weren't widely known. And given that we'll probably never forget them, that makes it a special year indeed. What was going on then?
During the mid-to-late 1950s, the titans of rock 'n' roll dominated the earth; by 1962, many of them had seemingly gone extinct.
Buddy Holly went down, young. Little Richard found Jesus. Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13-year-old cousin and was crucified in the press. Chuck Berry spent three years in jail. Elvis, fresh out of the army, was making films often derided as beneath him. So when the Beatles broke out — regionally in 1963, and nationally the following year — they arrived in a barren, joyless world, right?
Source: grammy.com
