Beatles News
George Harrison and Beatles fans looking for a new turntable to spin their favorite vinyl on just might need to make some more room on their console table. Right on time to commemorate the legendary musician’s birthday, music lovers can pick up this George Harrison Special Edition turntable made by audio brand Pro-Ject and available now for under $500.While it first debuted back in 2017 when the audio company teamed up with Universal Music Group, only 2,500 of these special edition record players saw a release around the world — and, at least for the time being, fans looking to round out their vinyl setup at home can still find them in stock online.
Source: John Lonsdale
Paul McCartney is finally ready to write his memoirs, and will use music — and a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet — to help guide him.
“The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present” will be released Nov. 2, according to a joint announcement Wednesday from the British publisher Allen Lane and from Liveright in the United States.
McCartney, 78, will trace his life through 154 songs, from his teens and early partnership with fellow Beatle John Lennon to his solo work over the past half century. Irish poet Paul Muldoon is editing and will contribute an introduction.
“More often than I can count, I’ve been asked if I would write an autobiography, but the time has never been right,” McCartney said in a statement.
“The one thing I’ve always managed to do, whether at home or on the road, is to write new songs. I know that some people, when they get to a certain age, like to go to a diary to recall day-to-day events from the past, but I have no such notebooks. What I do have are my songs, hundreds of them, which I’ve learned serve much the same purpose. And these songs span my entire life.”
Source:chicago.suntimes.com
When it came to his style, the Beatles' George Harrison was no stranger to trying something new. With a penchant for pinstripe suits, form-fitting denim dungarees and flamboyant ruffle necks, you name it, Harrison gave it whirl.
That being said, one thing that stuck for the late musician was his footwear. When not in black leather Chelsea boots, Harrison was the purveyor of Converse Jack Purcell sneakers, among other Converse designs.
Whether it was their famed 1969 performance on the rooftop of their Apple Corps headquarters or when photographed with his wife, Pattie Boyd, on their way to Nice in the same year, Harrison favoured the shoe's mighty silhouette.
Canadian-born Olympian Jack Purcell was World Badminton Champion in the 1930s and he partnered with the BF Goodrich Company of Canada to create on-court kicks that would help him maintain his positioning. The trainers, which were characterised by the signature “smile” on the vulcanised toe piece, came to fruition in 1935 and featured a moulded non-skid outsole, an extra-thick spongey sole and PF wedge in the heel that works to take strain away from leg muscles.
Source: Zak Maoui/gq-magazine.co.uk
A matter of hours before one of the most feverishly anticipated rock concerts in recent memory is due to start, all the musicians taking part are sharing a room for the first time. The room happens to be Madison Square Garden, which tomorrow afternoon and evening will be filled, twice, with 20,000 people. Eric Clapton has just arrived from London looking like a wraith; somebody has been dispatched to find him some uncut heroin. Bob Dylan, meanwhile, is so terrified he’s ready to run.
As the instigator and organiser, George Harrison is in charge of crisis management. “The night before the show was a bit tricky,” the former Beatle later recalled. “We went down where they were setting it up. Eric was in a bad way... and [Dylan] stood on the stage and it suddenly was a whole frightening scenario. Bob turned to me and said, ‘Hey man, I don’t think I can make this. I’ve got a lot of things to do in New Jersey.’ I was so stressed, I said, ‘Look, don’t tell me about that. I’ve always been in a band, I’ve never stood out front, so I don’t want to know about that.’ I always just tried to be straight with him, and he responded. But right up until he came on stage I didn’t know if he was going to come.”
Source: Graeme Thomson/gq-magazine.co.uk
The winner of a global music contest launched in memory of John Lennon will be announced by the mayors of Liverpool and New York later this year.
The Liverpool International Song For Kindness (LSK) contest aims to find an anthem to follow the example of the Lennon masterpiece Imagine, and also support the mental health of musicians and songwriters amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Beatles member Lennon was shot dead outside his New York apartment in 1980 and would have celebrated his 80th birthday this year.
The competition is part of the KIND20 initiative from global charity tuff.earth, which promotes kindness through projects in communities and schools across the world.
The winner, to be revealed on October 9 by the mayors of Liverpool and New York, will have their track produced, mixed, and mastered at Liverpool's Motor Museum Studio, say the organisers.
Liverpool City Council and The Cavern Club are also helping to run the contest, with support from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (Lipa) and Strawberry Field.
Source: echolive.ie
McCartney explains the books premise. “More often than I can count, I’ve been asked if I would write an autobiography, but the time has never been right. The one thing I’ve always managed to do, whether at home or on the road, is to write new songs. I know that some people, when they get to a certain age, like to go to a diary to recall day-to-day events from the past, but I have no such notebooks. What I do have are my songs, hundreds of them, which I’ve learned serve much the same purpose. And these songs span my entire life.’From the announcement: In this extraordinary book, with unparalleled candor, Paul McCartney recounts his life and art through the prism of 154 songs from all stages of his career – from his earliest boyhood compositions through the legendary decade of The Beatles, to Wings and his solo albums to the present. Arranged alphabetically to provide a kaleidoscopic rather than chronological account, it establishes definitive texts of the songs’ lyrics for the first time and describes the circumstances in which they were written, the people and places that inspired them, and what he thinks of them now.
Source: Best Classic Bands Staff
Last week, we shared Rick Livingstone’s memories of his time singing lead in the 1990 supergroup the Best alongside John Entwistle, Joe Walsh, Keith Emerson, and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter. Their set mixed songs by the Who, the Eagles, Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers, and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, though the group dissolved after just four gigs in Japan and one in Hawaii. But thanks to a professionally filmed show at the Yokohama Arena and the magic of YouTube, they’ve had a long afterlife.
Reunions by the Eagles, ELP, and the Who ultimately doomed the Best, but it wasn’t the last time that Entwistle went out with a supergroup. He joined up with Ringo Starr’s All Starr Band in the summer of 1995 for a memorable run alongside Randy Bachman, Mark Farner, Billy Preston, and Felix Cavaliere. The Who kept him pretty busy between 1996 and 2000, but they took a year off in 2001 and he filled out the time by joining forces with Todd Rundgren, Alan Parsons, Ambrosia’s David Pack, and Heart’s Ann Wilson for a Beatles tribute show they called A Walk Down Abbey Road.
Source: Andy Greene/rollingstone.com
Fans of The Beatles will be able to study for a Masters degree in the Fab Four as the University of Liverpool opens applications for a new programme.
The MA, The Beatles: Music Industry and Heritage, is aimed at students from around the world with an interest in the music and creative industries, as well as those employed in museums and galleries, the arts, and tourism and leisure sectors.
Dr Holly Tessler, programme leader and Beatles expert, said: “I’m absolutely delighted that we are able to bring formal study of The Beatles to the University of Liverpool’s Department of Music and Institute of Popular Music – the world’s first specialist centre for the study of popular music.
This MA is as much about the wider study of Liverpool’s - and Britain’s - heritage, tourism and culture sectors as it is about the role The Beatles played in them
“What makes this MA unique is its focus on The Beatles in a future-facing way, considering the legacy’s influence on the music and creative industries, in popular culture and within heritage culture and tourism in the 21st century.
Source: Eleanor Barlow/standard.co.uk
Answering a fan's question on his official website, musician Paul McCartney affirms once again that he has "always been an optimistic person" despite whatever crisis is going on.
"I've always been an optimistic person, because I don’t like the alternative!," says the legendary ex-Beatle. "I find that even when you go through crisis after crisis, you still come out the other end, and no matter how bad you’re feeling it can often work out OK.
"Something I’ve learned is that life’s good, really, but we often screw it up. So I try to tell myself and other people that if we can just work on not screwing it up, it’s going to be better for us and everyone else.
"I always try and see the good side - the silver lining - and if you're lucky, it arrives."
Source: rte.ie
In 1966 The Beatles were at the height of their fame. The band had released more than 15 number-one selling albums and were world-famous. Throughout the 1960s the Fab Four had been touring consistently for most of the decade. After finishing a string of gigs in Asia earlier that year, the band set out on a North American tour through the summer of ’66. The Asian leg of the tour was particularly heated for the band, following a comment John Lennon made about the band being “bigger than Jesus”. George Harrison quipped on The Beatles Anthology: “We’re going to have a couple of weeks to recuperate before we go and get beaten up by the Americans.”
The American tour went on as planned, but by August the band were getting sick of being on a tourbus for most of the hours of the day.
Also speaking in The Anthology, Starr said: “In 1966 the road was getting pretty boring.
Source: Callum Crumlish/express.co.uk
