Beatles News
As the nation mourns the loss of Prince Philip, British celebrities have been sharing their tributes to the Duke of Edinburgh on social media. Most recently two knights of the realm in Sir Tom Jones and The Beatles drummer Sir Ringo Starr have shared photos from over 50 years ago with The Queen’s late husband. Sir Tom Jones, who Her Majesty knighted in 2006, posted a picture of himself and Prince Philip laughing at the 1969 Royal Variety Performance.
Famously, Prince Philip had asked Sir Tom Jones after his performance that night: “What do you gargle with, pebbles?”
While the next day delivering another one of his famous gaffes, he added: “It’s difficult to see how it’s possible to become immensely valuable by singing what are the most hideous songs.”
And on another occasion talking about how difficult it is to get rich in Britain, the Duke said: “What about Tom Jones? He’s made a million and he’s a bloody awful singer.”
Nevertheless, Sir Tom obviously took it all in his stride writing on Instagram: “Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh: an incredible individual who always reminded us we are all human. Forever grateful, Sir Tom Jones.”
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
On 13 September 1969, John Lennon – the Beatle most quickly heading for the exit door – played the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival under the name Plastic Ono Band. For the first time he appeared on stage with his wife of six months, Yoko Ono. She and Lennon had been together since 1967, but within and without the Beatles’ industrial-cultural complex the Japanese artist remained, as dutifully inscribed rock lore has it, a divisive figure.
Yet performing that night in Canada, as she took her place alongside her husband, Ono was united as an artist with perhaps the greatest songwriter in the world. Was there, finally, a feeling of acceptance from Lennon’s fans?
“I don’t know about that. I still don’t feel that John’s fans are accepting me,” Ono, who is now 88, replied when I asked her that question 11 years ago. “I don’t know who’s really John’s fans, and who’s really John and Yoko fans. The Beatles fans, some of them really denounced John in a way. So I don’t know who’s who. So whenever I create something – make an album or something – I never think about who’s gonna listen to it. It’s a waste of time. You would never know.”
Source: independent.co.uk
Former Beatle John Lennon was gunned down in front of his New York City home in December of 1980.
Of the three remaining Beatles – Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr – only the band’s drummer, Starr, immediately went to visit Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono.
Ono, however, refused to see Starr’s fiancée Barbara Bach.
Shot several times outside his Dakota building home by a deranged fan in December of 1980, Lennon died almost immediately. The night of his shooting, an ABC producer was injured in a motorcycle accident and like Lennon, was rushed to St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan (now called Mount Sinai West).
He may have been injured almost at the same time as the ambush on Lennon outside of his home at The Dakota building.
Source: cheatsheet.com
After his Happy Days tenure and even longer after his eight-year run on The Andy Griffith Show, actor Ron Howard began his directing career in earnest.
He directed Grand Theft Auto in 1977, after which he moved on to a few well-received television movies (including one starring the legendary Bette Davis). But in 1982, Howard showed he was more than capable of a big commercial hit with the comedic film set in a morgue, Night Shift.
Night Shift starred former Happy Days alum Henry Winkler and introduced rising actor Michael Keaton. The movie also gave a big break to an actor that got noticed in, of all places, a Ringo Starr film.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Julian Lennon was born on April 8, 1963. His father was one of the most famous men in the world but left his mother, Cynthia Lennon when he was just five years old. Paul McCartney wrote the song Dear Jude (originally Dear Jules) to comfort the heartbroken little boy. 12 years later, just when father and son were starting to build a new relationship. John Lennon was murdered outside his New York home. But Julian still remembers the last time they spoke and how "extremely happy" the Beatles star was in his personal and professional lives.
Growing up, Julian saw relatively little of his father. John built a new separate life with Yoko Ono Over and they eventually had a son together, Sean, in 1975.
Over the years, John had been a little unkind speaking about his first family and famously saying Sean had been planned whereas Julian was the result of drinking too much.
But John and Yoko had separated for 18 months in 1973 and the Beatles star's new girlfriend May Pang encouraged him to spend time with Julian. Even so, John was based in America, focusing on his own music and then he reunited with Yoko and started a new family.
Source: Stefan Kyriazis/express.co.uk
All of The Beatles were fans of Dylan, even before they met in 1964. But of all of them, it was George who became a close, lifelong friend. Any interview with George in his last decade almost always includes quotations from songs by “the man,” as George referred to him. He’d then recite a line or two of these sacred verses, like a believer reciting a Gospel passage.
After Dylan’s motorcycle accident in 1968, Bob moved with his family to Woodstock. It’s there he wrote a lot of new songs and recorded demos of them – which became The Basement Tapes – with the Band in their house Big Pink. It was one of the most peaceful and productive periods of his life, off the road, reflective, recovering his full artistic powers and writing a whole new kind of song.
This is when Dylan and George wrote “I’d Have You Anytime.” It was November 20, 1968, four years beyond their initial meeting.
Source: americansongwriter.com
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The Beatles were a major force in popular culture, however, Ringo Starr still felt “weighed down” by the Fab Four many years after their breakup. He revealed why the experience of being a former Beatle could be “heavy.” Here’s a look at what he had to say — and whether being a Beatles weighed him down commercially.
In 1992, Ringo gave an interview to Rolling Stone’s David Wild. During the interview, Wild mentioned a song John Lennon wrote for Ringo called “I’m the Greatest.” He cited the song’s line “I was in the greatest show on earth” as an example of Ringo’s “ambivalence” about his time in The Beatles.
“Of course that was John Lennon’s line,” Ringo said. “But sure, there have been times when I felt weighed down by it I’m still weighed down by it I mean, I’m sitting here, and I’m all excited about the new product, and you’re still going to be asking me about those days. Everybody wants to talk about those days, and sometimes it gets heavy for me. Right now that waitress is not looking at me as Richard Starkey. It’s Mr. Starr to her. It’s the Beatle, not even the former Beatle. When I am the oldest man on the planet, and I’m wheeled onto This Is Your Life, it will be as Beatle Ringo Starr. This will never end. But that’s cool, I suppose.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
John Lennon’s 1970 album “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band” was his first song-based album following the dissolution of the Beatles—he’d previously released three avant-garde albums with Yoko Ono —and 50 years on it remains his most highly regarded solo work. Freed from the commercial demands of recording with the most successful band in the world, Lennon drew inspiration from within: He and Ms. Ono had recently undergone a new kind of therapy introduced by psychologist Arthur Janov, based on his book “The Primal Scream.” The therapeutic process involved re-experiencing childhood trauma and Lennon had plenty to work through—he barely knew his father and was removed from his mother’s care at age 5; she died when he was still a teenager. Co-producer Phil Spector helped realize the heady mix of fear, anguish and catharsis found on songs like “Mother,” “Working Class Hero” and “God.” “Raw” is typically the first adjective deployed to describe “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band” and it’s not just referring to the lyrical content: The LP’s dark and atmospheric presence gives it a special mood.
Source: Mark Richardson/wsj.com
Every day throughout 1964, a postman called Eric Clague would deliver another bulging sack of fan letters to 20 Forthlin Road, Liverpool, where Paul McCartney had been brought up, and where his father still lived.
That year, The Beatles were the four most famous young men in the world. In the first week of April, all top five singles in the American charts were by The Beatles.
Who was Eric Clague? Six years before, he had been a junior constable in the Liverpool police force.
On July 15, 1958, while off-duty, he had been driving a standard Vanguard sedan along Menlove Avenue when a 44-year-old woman stepped into his path. He braked, but too late: his car hit the woman, hurling her into the air.
An ambulance arrived, but there was nothing to be done. Julia Lennon was dead.
At that time, Eric Clague was a learner driver who was not supposed to be driving alone. His case was brought to court. Though an onlooker claimed Clague had been speeding, he denied it. The jury chose to believe him, and returned a verdict of misadventure.
Source: Craig Brown/dailymail.co.uk
If there are two things you would never instinctively put together, it’s The Beatles and Lewisham.
But once upon a time, the international pop stars played two gigs in the South London borough.
The first concert in March 1963 was before Beatlemania had really begun, while the latter in December 1963 was everything you would expect from the 60s icons.
There were screaming girls, uncontrollable crowds, and the streets were overflowing with people eager to catch a glimpse of the group.
They played their first gig at Lewisham’s Odeon Cinema on March 29 and performed a number of hits including Love Me Do and Please, Please Me.
Source: Ruby Gregory/mylondon.news
