Beatles News
David Bowie and John Lennon first met in scenes more reminiscent of an awkward children’s playdate than a summit of two of rock’s greatest ever stars, according to a new interview with music producer Tony Visconti.
Speaking on the programme Bowie: Dancing Out in Space, airing on BBC Radio 4 and 6Music on 10 January to mark five years since Bowie’s death, Visconti, who produced 11 of Bowie’s studio albums, tells the story of how the pair met in a New York hotel room, ahead of their collaborations on Bowie’s 1975 song Fame and his cover of the Lennon-penned Beatles song Across the Universe.
“He was terrified of meeting John Lennon,” says Visconti, who was asked by Bowie to accompany him and “buffer the situation”.
About one in the morning I knocked on the door and for about the next two hours, John Lennon and David weren’t speaking to each other. Instead, David was sitting on the floor with an art pad and a charcoal and he was sketching things and he was completely ignoring Lennon. So, after about two hours of that, he [John] finally said to David, ‘Rip that pad in half and give me a few sheets. I want to draw you.’ So David said, ‘Oh, that’s a good idea’, and he finally opened up. So John started making caricatures of David, and David started doing the same of John and they kept swapping them and then they started laughing and that broke the ice.
Source: Ben Beaumont-Thomas/theguardian.com
Paul McCartney joins Nile Rodgers for a fascinating masterclass discussion on songwriting in a new episode of Apple Music 1’s Deep Hidden Meaning Radio with Nile Rodgers.
The 30-minute plus conversation is available now on-demand for Apple Music subscribers. American Songwriter is premiering exclusive excerpts here today. Tune in and listen to the conversation in full for free this Saturday (Jan. 9) at 8am LA / 11am NY / 4pm London at https://music.apple.com/us/curator/1481637462
Situated in his home recording studio where he recorded his latest album McCartney III, the former Beatle takes listeners back into the songwriter’s room with John Lennon as the two wrote “A Day In The Life” before bringing it to the recording studio with George Martin.
Source: americansongwriter.com
“This is very difficult for me,” said Starr in a statement on his website in March, “in 30 years I think I’ve only missed 2 or 3 gigs nevermind a whole tour. But this is how things are for all of us now, I have to stay in just like you have to stay in, and we all know it’s the peace and loving thing we do for each other. So we have moved the Spring tour to 2021. My fans know I love them, and I love to play for them and I can’t wait to see you all as soon as possible. In the meantime stay safe. Peace and Love to you all.”
The tour is set to kick off in Asbury Park, N.J. on June 1 and travel through the United States until June 27, when the tour ends in Clearwater, Fla.. As of now, there is one stop scheduled in Mexico on October 20.
Check out the list below to see if the “Photograph” singer is coming to your area.
Sir Ringo Starr had no plans to slow down before the coronavirus pandemic intervened. His youthful appearance and fizzing energy bely his 80 years – and had it not been for Covid-19, the man born Richard Starkey in a working-class area of Liverpool would have been on the road in 2020.
But it turns out even a former Beatle cannot escape the consequences of a global health crisis. As it stands, Sir Ringo’s All Starr Band is set to return to the stage in June, though he admits the plans are far from set in stone due to the continued disruption caused by the virus.
The pause in performing gave him a chance to look back on three decades with the group, putting together the book Ringo Rocks: 30 Years Of The All Starrs. Reflecting proved to be an emotional experience, Starr explains from his home in Los Angeles.
"The first band was like everything else – it’s brand new. And, ‘Oh, wow, it’s working’. And actually, people are coming to see it. That’s the good news. And I had a lot of great players." Musicians who have been part of the ever-evolving line-up include Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, rocker Peter Frampton, New Orleans musician Dr. John and R&B star Billy Preston, among others.
Source: rte.ie
This week in 1962, The Beatles travelled in a van from Liverpool to a London audition with inauspicious results.
The band, dressed in leather and scruffy to boot - according to the website On This Day - travelled 220 miles for the famous recording audition.
A&R man Dick Rowe was ready and waiting at the Decca studios. His assistant, Mike Smith, had been to see the Beatles perform in Liverpool at what was to become the Cavern Club and had suggested the audition to their manager, Brian Epstein.
The session lasted approximately an hour and the Beatles - John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and the group's first drummer Pete Best - performed 15 songs.
The boys were nervous, according to Ray Setterfield writing in On This Day. The session was not as good as it might have been. Smith, however, told the Liverpudlian lads that he "saw no problems" and they would hear what Decca would decide "in a few weeks."
Source: rte.ie
Last month, Sir Paul McCartney released his new album McCartney III, in which he once again sings and plays all the instruments by himself. During the promotion of the new solo record, the 78-year-old took part in a Reddit AMA and fans were asking The Beatles legend who he wished he could collaborate with. A fan wrote: “Hey Sir Paul! If you could collab[orate] with any musician in the future, who would it be?”
Sir Paul replied: “I've always had a sneaky feeling to collaborate with Bob Dylan, but it's never happened. It's intriguing, but…”
The 78-year-old has always been a big fan of his almost 80-year-old contemporary and has been saying for over a decade he’s like to work with him.
Another fan asked: “Paul, if you could choose one artist from any point in history to make an album with, who would it be?”
He replied: “There's an awful lot of them. John Lennon, he's pretty good.”
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
Gerry Marsden died on Sunday, January 3 at the age of 78-years-old after being diagnosed with a blood infection in his heart. The Liverpool FC anthem singer was also the leader of Merseybeat band Gerry and the Pacemakers who were managed by Brian Epstein and recorded by George Martin just like The Beatles. Now Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Ringo Starr have paid tribute to Marsden on Instagram, who Macca says was the Fab Four’s first big rival in the early days.
Sir Paul posted a picture from 1963’s Roy Orbison/Beatles UK tour, which also included Gerry and the Pacemakers.
The two bands and American singer are pictured in what looks like a dressing room.
The 78-year-old Beatle wrote: “Gerry was a mate from our early days in Liverpool. He and his group were our biggest rivals on the local scene.
“His unforgettable performances of You’ll Never Walk Alone and Ferry Cross the Mersey remain in many people’s hearts as reminders of a joyful time in British music. My sympathies go to his wife Pauline and family. See ya, Gerry. I’ll always remember you with a smile. - Paul.”
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
Gerry Marsden, lead singer of the 1960s British group Gerry and the Pacemakers that had such hits as “Ferry Cross the Mersey” and the song that became the anthem of Liverpool Football Club, “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” has died. He was 78.
His family said that Marsden died Sunday “after a short illness in no way connected with COVID-19” and that his wife, daughters and grandchildren are “devastated.”
His friend Pete Price said on Instagram after speaking to Marsden’s family that the singer died after a short illness related to a heart infection.
“I’m sending all the love in the world to (his wife) Pauline and his family,” he said. “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
Marsden was the lead singer of the band that found fame in the Merseybeat scene in the 1960s. Though another Liverpool band — The Beatles — reached superstardom, Gerry and the Pacemakers will always have a place in the city’s consciousness because of “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
Source: AP News
An Antiques Roadshow guest was completely stunned to learn the value of a helmet once worn by late Beatles legend John Lennon.
The BBC One series returned to screens on Sunday night with new coronavirus safety protocols in place.
One guest brought in a police helmet which belonged to her father but was worn by Lennon when he and his Beatles bandmates, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, visited the Birmingham Hippodrome in 1963 for a performance.
The woman’s father, Ivor Gordon Russell, was one of the officers escorting the Beatles in.
She explained: ‘They had to get them through the screaming girls and they didn’t know quite how they were going to do it. The sergeant had the wonderful idea of, why don’t you put helmets on them and make them look like policemen and we’ll get them through the girls.
Source: Alicia Adejobi/metro.co.uk
“And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make,” right?
Or so goes the Beatles’ song The End, the final time the Fab Four recorded a tune together, in this case for 1969’s Abbey Road (which was recorded after but released before 1970’s Let It Be.)
Well, “the end” of the Liverpool-formed group began 50 years ago on Dec. 31, 1970 when Paul McCartney filed a lawsuit against his bandmates John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr for dissolution of the group’s contractual partnership.
“Paul just got fed up with it all and he was the one to initiate it,” said Toronto-based author Piers Hemmingsen, 65, who penned 2016’sThe Beatles in Canada: The Origins of Beatlemania. “The shot was fired Dec. 31, 1970.”
And that “shot” marked an iconic moment in rock’n roll history.
“Why didn’t we let go in 1970?” said Hemmingsen. “It carries on.”
Hemmingsen says the split can be traced back to when Lennon performed with the Plastic Ono Band at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival in September 1969.
Source: Jane Stevenson
