Beatles News
Paul McCartney was watching TV, saw a trumpeter playing a Bach Brandenburg Concerto on screen, and next minute invited him to play on one of the Beatles’ biggest hits.
Picture this. Paul McCartney, watching TV in a most ordinary scene, and happening across footage of the English orchestral trumpeter David Mason performing a Bach Brandenburg Concerto. So inspired, he becomes, that he knows he just must invite him to play on a new Beatles song he’s percolating on.
That’s how the story of the notoriously high piccolo trumpet solo on ‘Penny Lane’ starts.
Vocalist McCartney was looking for something to embellish the jaunty 1967 English pop song, so when he heard Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in the hands of the virtuosic Mason, he’d found just the colour the Fab Four didn’t even know they needed.
Source: Rosie Pentreath/classicfm.com
Beatles fans are started to speculate what the expanded ‘Let It Be’ box set may look like when it is released in October.The Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’ secret was leaked last week after former Apple Records box Tony Bramwell blabbed on social media about a 5-disc box set coming on 15 October. That was spotted by Beatle vlogger Caitlyn Larkin who put the news out to Beatles fans via her YouTube channel before Bramwell deleted his post.The expanded ‘Let It Be’ is expected to be released ahead of the Peter Jackson ‘Get Back’ movie, Jackson’s remake of the 1970 ‘Let It Be’ film. The original film was made by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. It was released to cinema, later to VHS and had an occasional broadcast on Free To Air television in the 1980s but have never been released on DVD or Blu-Ray.
Source: noise11.com
Rock star excess hit its peak in the 1980s. It went beyond the bad behavior of throwing televisions out of hotel rooms, or the decadent pleasures of mud sharks and Mandys. The Beatles, who were the biggest band to come out of the rock and roll era, set standards for excess, beating Elvis’s Pink Cadillac tour when they thought about buying their own Greek island. Their success was ensured by their producer, George Martin, who allowed the band to exceed the limits of the EMI studios they created music in. Gracie Otto’s documentary Under the Volcano is the story of how Martin’s post-Beatle career enjoyed greater heights by finding an entirely new level of indulgence. For the second time in his career, the “fifth Beatle” exceeded all expectations about how to produce a sound.
Source: Tony Sokol/denofgeek.com
After spending two years in Germany with John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, Pete Best was kicked out of The Beatles 59 years ago today on August 16, 1962. After Pete was removed from the band the remaining members of the Fab Four hired Ringo Starr to fill his spot.
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Ringo at the time was performing with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, but was called up by Paul who had an offer he couldn't refuse.
The drummer settled into the band rather quickly, going on to record some songs with them almost as soon as he joined.
Pete, on the other hand, went back to Liverpool.
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
Ringo Starr will be dropping a new EP, Change the World, on September 24th via UMe. Like his previously released Zoom In EP from March, the four-song set was recorded at his Roccabella West home studio.
Starr collaborated with several artists and songwriters on the set. Lead single “Let’s Change the World” was written by Toto’s Joseph Williams and Steve Lukather, who also play on the track. “Just that Way” was co-written and performed by Ringo and his longtime engineer Bruce Sugar.
Source: Althea Legaspi/Rolling Stone.com
George Harrison’s former No.1 album All Things Must Pass returns to the top 10 on the Billboard 200 chart for the first time since 1971, as the set re-enters at No. 7 (on the Aug. 21-dated list) following its 50th anniversary reissue on Aug. 6.
The album was newly mixed and reissued in a variety of formats for its re-release. All versions of the album, including the original 1970 release, are combined for tracking and charting purposes.
Recently, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of All Things, a project featuring a recreation of its famous cover as a public, living art installation became available for public view in London’s Duke of York Square, King’s Road, Chelsea. It pays tribute to George’s love of nature, of gardening, and to his wry sense of humor.
Designed by renowned floral artist Ruth Davis, of All For Love London, it will be available to visit until August 20. The interactive art features gigantic versions of two gnomes, the largest measuring five meters, which have been created out of flowers and foliage, bark, grasses and moss. They sit atop a large circle of turf in a meaningful and sacred shape, and are surrounded by the seasonal, impermanent beauty that Harrison embraced during his life.
Source: Will Schube/yahoo.com
A classical statue which featured in a groundbreaking performance by The Beatles is going under the hammer.
The 5ft (1.5m) fibreglass Aphrodite was seen by up to 700 million TV viewers worldwide as the group took part in the first live satellite broadcast in 1967.
The Beatles represented the UK as John Lennon wrote All You Need Is Love just days before to reflect the event's Summer of Love and flower power theme.
The Greek goddess of love statue will be auctioned in Liverpool on 28 August.
Source: BBC News
Paul McCartney has shared a video unveiling how the ultra-trippy film clip for his track ‘Find My Way’ came to life.
The colourful, disco-inspired clip in question was released last month. In it, a digitally de-aged McCartney (played by Jordan Johnson) dances down the halls of a hotel before being teleported to a variety of other locations.
The clip was directed by Andrew Donaho (Janelle Monae, The Strokes, Khalid) and co-produced with Hyperreal Digital, which specialises in the creation of hyper-realistic digital avatars. Take a look at it below, then watch how McCartney was made young again in his behind-the-scenes video:
“In the same way the track has these seamless transitions from one section to the next, we wanted to do the same thing visually,” Donaho said in the making-of video. “So we created this oner… It’s not a oner, it’s a handful of takes stitched together, but it has the feeling of a neverending shot.”
Source: Matt Doria/nme.com
Woodstock defined a generation in the summer of 1969 but not long afterwards a Toronto music festival made its own noise with the likes of John Lennon, Little Richard and the Doors.
Filmmakers say work is underway on “Rock & Roll Revival,” a documentary named after the one-day Canadian festival that took place Sept. 13, which they call “the second most important event in rock and roll history.”
While the concert, held at the University of Toronto’s Varsity Stadium, remained in the shadow of the more famous Woodstock weekend, its story is one rife with drama.
Source: thestar.com
Benson’s latest book, titled Paul (out now from Taschen), focuses on his iconic images of Paul McCartney. The Scottish photographer first stepped into Macca’s world in 1964, when he was a photojournalist working on London’s Fleet Street. He was about to depart for Africa on assignment when his editor called with a change of plans: he’d fly to Paris instead to capture the Beatles, and he wasn’t too happy about it.
Source: Angie Martoccio/rollingstone.com
