Beatles News
In 1997, George Harrison agreed to make a rare TV appearance, dropping by VH1 along with his longtime friend and collaborator, Ravi Shankar, and his wife to help promote Shankar's latest release, Chants of India, which the former Beatle had produced and played on.
Shankar was the only one set to perform music on the show that day. However, thanks to a mixture of kismet and a persistent host, it turned into a mini George Harrison concert, marking the final time the music legend would perform in front of an audience.
At the time, the former Beatle had largely moved away from the limelight. His last full-fledged U.S. tour concluded more than two decades before, in 1974. By this point in his career he was more comfortable behind the scenes, producing music and the occasional film, rather than performing.
However, as a favor to Shankar — whom Harrison and the Beatles had met through George's deep interest in Eastern music and philosophy — he was happy to make an exception. Harrison had been supportive of Shankar for years, helping him reach a new audience with his music and launching the groundbreaking Concert for Bangladesh in 1971 after the sitar master alerted him to that country's humanitarian disaster.
VH1 host John Fugelsang recalled that George committed to a short interview consisting of a soundbite about Shankar’s album, and that, if all went well, Harrison "might stick around a bit longer."
Source: guitarplayer.com/Jonathan Graham
A 120-year-old former snooker hall where the Beatles once performed is set to be knocked down ahead of plans to replace the venue with flats.
The former site of Oldham's Grand Theatre, a entertainment venue which opened on King Street in 1908 and later became a cinema, has been approved for demolition by local authorities.
It comes as Developers Footprint Design have submitted plans to turn the former complex into a tall red-brick block of more than 100 apartments.
After closing as a cinema in 1961 it later, briefly, became a concert hall called The Astoria Ballroom, where The Beatles performed their only Oldham gig in 1963.
The building on King Street has stood empty for several years, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
At one point it was used for cue sports under the name of Riley's Snooker Hall, and was last used as a training ground for the Rainy City Roller Derby team under the name of the Thunderdome.
The site originally started out as the Grand Theatre, a performance space designed by London architects Thomas Taylor and Ernest Simister who also designed Chadderton Town Hall.
In 1937, Gaumont Super Cinemas took over the building, gutted the auditorium and transformed it into stalls and one circle seating totalling 1,842 to open their 1930s cinema.
It became disused and was nearly demolished in 2008-2009 before being taken over by the roller derby group.
Source: bbc.com/Charlotte Hall
Before they hit the recording studio, The Beatles had already made a name for themselves rocking out in clubs across Liverpool and Hamburg. Their first single, the McCartney-Lennon classic Love Me Do, dropped in the UK on October 5, 1962, but only managed a peak at number 17. Nevertheless, Paul McCartney sensed something big, though, reminiscing: "In Hamburg, we clicked. At the Cavern, we clicked.
"But if you want to know when we 'knew' we'd arrived, it was getting in the charts with Love Me Do. That was the one. It gave us somewhere to go." The band tossed around ideas for their second single with tension brewing between the band and their producer, George Martin, about whether to cover Mitch Murray's How Do You Do It? or stick to their self-penned tunes.
McCartney was firm, saying: "It was symptomatic of our group that we turned down How Do You Do It? with Ringo Starr chiming in with equal conviction, commenting: "I remember us all being ready to stand up for the principle of, we have written these songs and we want to do them.'"
Opting for originality, the band went on to record Please Please Me. The track, penned by Lennon at his aunt Mimi's place on Menlove Avenue, was initially set to be the B-side for Love Me Do.
John reminisced, "We almost abandoned it as the b-side of Love Me Do. We changed our minds only because we were so tired the night we did Love Me Do."
Source: themirror.com/Dan Haygarth
Lady Gaga has revealed that the late John Lennon would be her dream collaborator.
To celebrate the release of her new album ‘Mayhem’, the pop icon hosted her own fan-led ‘Mayhem’ press conference. One of the questions asked by a fan was about her dream collaborator, dead or alive.
“I think it would have been John Lennon. I think he had such a beautiful heart and I think that’s one of my favourite things in like the history of music is when you don’t just remember an artist for their music but you remember them for their heart,” she said.
She also showed her peace sign tattoo that she has on her wrist and shared: “This peace sign was right outside 72nd street by the Dakota, where he was sadly taken from the world, but the peace sign was there every day and Yoko would put flowers outside, I got this tattoo because of that. I never forgot what he stood for and it’s what I stand for too.”
Gaga previously compared herself to the ‘Imagine’ hitmaker in an NME cover story back in 2011 by saying that she struggles to ever be completely happy with her songs.
“I am perpetually unhappy with what I create,” she said. “Even though I might tell you that ‘Edge Of Glory’ is a pop masterpiece, when it’s all said and finished there will be things I dread, and every time I listen to it I’ll hear them.”
Source: nme.com/Anagricel Duran
Ringo Starr is turning 85 this summer but he’s got fans in awe of his youthful looks – which is thanks to his strict, ultra healthy lifestyle that he’s followed to the letter for most of his adult life, a source exclusively tells Closer.
“Ringo loves his life, he feels like the luckiest guy in the world and he wakes up every morning grateful for his life,” the insider says. “He swears his positive outlook and daily gratitude practice help keep him young, he always says he still feels 24 years old in his head.”
“Of course, his vegetarian diet and the fact that he’s been sober since 1988 have helped a great deal.”
As the source notes, the octogenarian Beatle wasn’t always the picture of healthy living. Before cleaning up his act and going sober 37 years ago, Ringo claimed he lost entire years of his life to blackouts.
“It got progressively worse and the blackouts got worse and I didn’t know where I’d been, what I’d done,” he said of his addiction, adding, “I knew I had the problem for years. But it plays tricks with your head. Very cunning and baffling is alcohol.”
Source: yahoo.com/Nicholas Erickson
The so-called final song from The Beatles, Now and Then, makes modern music sound like “pure trash” according to fans of the band.
The Grammy-winning song left fans teary-eyed when it first released, but Now and Then, released in 2023, appears to have affected other genres of music for some fans. Rock and roll, according to one fan, looks like “pure trash” compared to the final song from The Beatles. Now and Then had initially been set for release around the time of the Anthology package, but George Harrison vetoed the song. Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney returned to it over two decades later, after getting John Lennon‘s vocal tape up to a point where they felt the quality was acceptable. Its release is still lauded by fans, who took to r/Beatles on Reddit to share their thoughts on the song.
One wrote: “To me, it makes me feel nostalgic and sad. Especially looking at them now, two of them are resting, and two of them are still living. Back then, they were young, energetic, and still together. John’s death was a massive loss for Rock’ n Roll.
They were the ones who made Rock n Roll popular worldwide. When I watch the official video, it’s honestly heartbreaking. Seeing John and George with Paul and Ringo was so good. Looking at today’s Rock n Roll, it’s pure trash.”
Source: cultfollowing.co.uk/Ewan Gleadow
The most-streamed Beatles song has over a billion streams
The Beatles are undoubtedly one of the most influential and successful bands in music history, dominating the 1960s and shaping the future of rock and pop music.
With over 600 million albums sold worldwide, they revolutionized the industry through their innovative songwriting, studio experimentation, and unmatched cultural impact. However, much of their success was built in an era before digital streaming. The Beatles were kings of vinyl records, cassette tapes, CDs, and radio airplay, long before Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube became the dominant ways of consuming music.
Despite this, The Beatles continue to thrive in the modern streaming age, with their songs racking up hundreds of millions - and in some cases, billions - of streams. Based on official Spotify streaming figures, here are The Beatles’ top 10 most streamed songs, ranked from 10 to 1.
10. ‘Help!’
With over 300 million streams on Spotify, ‘Help!’ was released in 1965 as the title track for both the Beatles' fifth studio album and second feature film, reflecting John Lennon’s growing stress under the pressures of fame. Lennon later admitted that ‘Help!’ was a genuine cry for assistance during a turbulent time in his life. Its upbeat tempo contrasts with the vulnerability in the lyrics, marking a pivotal moment in the band’s evolution.
Source: express.co.uk/Maria Leticia Gomes
An artist isn’t always the best indicator of which songs will be well-received. They have their own opinions about how a recording session goes that aren’t always indicative of success. That was the case with one Beatles song and John Lennon. Despite fans chalking “Across the Universe” up to being a masterpiece, Lennon thought it was badly recorded.
Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup
They slither wildly as they slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my opened mind
Possessing and caressing me
Jai guru deva, om
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
Nothing’s gonna change my world
“Across the Universe” was penned by Lennon and credited to the Lennon-McCartney partnership. Many fans consider this track one of the Beatles’ best compositions. It’s very Lennon, with its off-kilter lyrics and warbly instrumentation. Despite his high hopes for this track, Lennon felt it fell short. Though it’s not an opinion shared by many, Lennon made his feeling well known.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Alex Hopper
What do you do if you are John Lennon at the height of Beatlemania and you want to get away from it all? You go home.
But peace didn’t last long. The country house gave Lennon refuge, but it also brought boredom. So he did nothing. Until he wrote “Nowhere Man.”
Lennon had escaped to his home in Weybridge, England, in an attempt to hide away from the mass hysteria surrounding The Beatles. But the silence became too much to tolerate. After a while at home, he felt isolated.
He’s a real nowhere man
Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody
He told author David Sheff, “I’d spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good and I finally gave up and lay down. Then ‘Nowhere Man’ came, words and music, the whole damn thing, as I lay down.”
Sheff’s interviews with Lennon (and Yoko Ono) are compiled in his book All We Are Saying (2000). The interviews were first published in Playboy in November 1980. Lennon was murdered a month later.
Doesn’t have a point of view
Knows not where he’s going to
Isn’t he a bit like you and me?
Lazy Days
In 1966, Lennon told the Evening Standard he was “physically lazy.” He said, “I don’t mind writing or reading or watching or speaking, but sex is the only physical thing I can be bothered with anymore.”
However, writing “Nowhere Man” is doing something. The idea of sitting around with nothing to do created a temporary writer’s block. But once Lennon stopped thinking about anything, the song came to him. He quit trying to write. Gave up to sleep.
Source: americansongwriter.com/americansongwriter.com
You may think Ringo Starr is more Abbey Road than Music Row, but the iconic Beatles drummer says he's always had a soft spot for country music.
Starr will celebrate his longtime love for the genre alongside country greats like Emmylou Harris and Sheryl Crow at the world-famous Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in a new 2-hour concert special called "Ringo & Friends at the Ryman," airing Monday, March 10 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
"When I was a teenager with Hank Williams and people like that the name of the game was to get here," he told CBS News senior culture correspondent Anthony Mason in an interview for "CBS Mornings" while walking backstage at the Ryman, once home of the Grand Ole Opry. "Peace, love and country music"
Mason met up with Starr at the start of his 2-day country "tour" at the Ryman following the release of his new country music album, "Look Up," produced and co-written by T Bone Burnett.
Source: cbsnews.com/Anthony Mason, Jennifer Earl
