Beatles News
Barry Keoghan is preparing to play Ringo Starr in Sam Mendes’ Beatles biopics, but he’s not quite ready to show off his drumming skills.
In an interview on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Wednesday night, Keoghan shared that he’s finally met the music legend face to face. “I met him at his house and he played the drums for me,” he said, adding: “He asked me to play, but I wasn’t playing the drums for Ringo.”
The “Saltburn” actor reminded Kimmel that Starr was in fact the one to leak his casting to the press back in November. “He let the news out,” Keoghan said. “He was like, ‘Barry is somewhere doing drums. I think he should stop and not do anymore.'”
Keoghan said meeting Starr was “one of those moments when you’re just in awe” and he “just froze.”
“When I was talking to him, I couldn’t look at him. I was nervous,” Keoghan said. “But he’s like, ‘You can look at me.’ And again, you’re playing Ringo Starr. My job is to observe and take in the mannerisms and study.”
Keoghan will be playing Starr across four separate Beatles biopics directed by Mendes, which are set for theatrical release in April 2028. Alongside Keoghan, Paul Mescal is playing Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson will star as John Lennon and Joseph Quinn is portraying George Harrison.
Of embodying Starr, Keoghan said he wants “to humanize and bring feelings to it and not just sort of imitate,” adding that their interaction “was absolutely lovely” and they “just sat in the garden chatting away.”
Source: variety.com/Ellise Shafer
Unless you’re a Beatles aficionado (and/or saw Peter Jackson’s revealing documentary miniseries, The Beatles: Get Back), you would never be able to pick up on the deep tensions between John Lennon and Paul McCartney that were reaching a fever pitch during the Let It Be and Abbey Road sessions, which would make up the two final Beatles albums. On either record, from a surface-level vantage point, the band was as cohesive and creative as ever.
But dig a little deeper, and the fractures breaking the Fab Four apart become more apparent. The band’s reactions and recollections in later interviews shone a light on the dissonance that was slowly increasing in volume as they barrelled toward their final goodbye as one of the world’s most pervasive and influential rock bands.
Two songs on Let It Be, the final album the band released despite starting its sessions prior to Abbey Road, highlight the mounting conflict between the band’s primary songwriters.
John Lennon Had Harsh Words For These Beatles Songs Off Their Final Album
Generally speaking, the songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney is what made the Beatles so prolific and unique. When their relationship began faltering, so did everything else. The final recording sessions were full of fights, clashing egos, and the occasional walkout. Even years after Let It Be came out, the musicians could recall with cutting clarity the parts they did and didn’t like about the recording process (and the songs themselves).
For example, in one of his final interviews before his death, Lennon told David Sheff that he never thought the title track to Let It Be sounded like a true Beatles song. Despite the songwriting credit going to Lennon and McCartney, the former Beatle said the song was the latter’s. “What can you say?” Lennon mused to Sheff. “Nothing to do with the Beatles. It could’ve been Wings. I think it was inspired by “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.” That’s my feeling, although I have nothing to go on.”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Melanie Davis
Had The Beatles been able to successfully fulfill the vision they originally conceived for the album that was released over a half-century ago as Let It Be, we might not have seen that LP as we now know it.
Fresh off the recording and release of The White Album (a/k/a The Beatles) in late 1968, the foursome reconvened early in the new year to work together in a more straightforward fashion than on that double set and Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band of 1967.
Notwithstanding the production of a feature length film (or the idea of a live performance bandied about at various points), the emphasis was on simplicity, the goal to capture the quartet as they played and sang together, without much, if any, subsequent elaboration via overdubbing or effects.
Hindsight of fifty-five years suggests the Beatles would most likely have achieved this goal with the astute guidance of manager Brian Epstein and/or long-time studio producer George Martin. But the former had passed suddenly in August of 1967, leaving the group essentially rudderless, while the latter had been shunted aside during the recording sessions of the previous year, an oversight that unfortunately continued here in favor of then-young engineer Glyn Johns.
Source: glidemagazine.com/By Doug Collette
The Beatles were at the peak of their powers in 1967. The album 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' had been released that May and spent 27 weeks at the top of the British charts, defining the 'summer of love' and changing popular music forever.
During that summer, the band had signed up for a huge television event. Conceived by the BBC, 'Our World' was the first ever live multi-satellite, global television event and it would include the band playing at EMI Studios on Abbey Road in London during its broadcast on June 25. The Beatles would represent Britain and they needed to write a new track for the show. After signing a contract in May, they had a month to prepare, but left it late.
Recording engineer Geoff Emerick recalled in the book 'The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions': "I don’t know if they had prepared any ideas but they left it very late to write the song. John said, ‘Oh God, is it that close? I suppose we’d better write something.’"
The song they wrote was 'All You Need Is Love'. Mainly John Lennon's work, it had a simple message. About that, manager Brian Epstein said: "It was an inspired song and they really wanted to give the world a message. "The nice thing about it is that it cannot be misinterpreted. It is a clear message saying that love is everything."
For their TV appearance, The Beatles would play over a backing track. That was recorded earlier in June and the band decided the night before the show that they would release 'All You Need Is Love' as their next single.
About putting it together, John said: "We just put a track down. Because I knew the chords I played it on whatever it was, harpsichord.
"George played a violin because we felt like doing it like that and Paul played a double bass. And they can’t play them, so we got some nice little noises coming out.
Source: liverpoolecho.co.uk/Dan Haygarth
Yoko Ono has long been associated with The Beatles through her marriage to and creative collaboration with John Lennon. Even decades later, there are still people who believe she was solely responsible for breaking up the Fab Four. This theory completely ignores the group’s own interpersonal problems at the very least, but at its worst, it paints Ono in a negative light that she didn’t deserve.
Lennon once called Ono “the world’s most famous unknown artist.” He added that “everyone knows her name but no one knows what she actually does,” according to a post from online gallery Arthive. This remains true to this day, despite Ono’s far-reaching and prolific influence.
Overall, she’s more known for being married to a Beatle than for her own artistic endeavors. These, as a whole, are varied and many. It could be argued that, for the uninitiated, her legacy has been boiled down to being John Lennon’s wife. However, Yoko Ono is far more influential in the music and art worlds than just that. Yoko Ono Did Not Exist in a John Lennon Vacuum
Yoko Ono has always been avant-garde. Her entire art and music career has been about pushing boundaries of what’s ugly, unlistenable, and interpretive. She did this long before she met John Lennon, and she continued to do it after he died.
In the early 1960s, Ono worked her way into the international avant-garde art scene. She lived between New York, Tokyo, and London at the time, helping to initiate the Fluxus and Conceptual Art movements abroad.
Source: Lauren Boisvert/American Songwriter
It has taken fans over six decades to actually realize how The Beatles ended up being called what they are today and it turns out the name has a dual meaning too
The Beatles were initally called The Beetles and The Silver Beatles. Founded in 1960, everyone now knows The Beatles as The Beatles, but they initially had several other names until John Lennon had his say.
The story behind The Beatles' naming has gone down many routes before, and this is believed to be because of the band’s famously mischievous nature. Throughout their time together, they offered a mix of stories about the origin of the name, including accounts of dreams involving flaming pies, floating buns, and mysterious men visiting them on flying carpets.
These bold explanations are likely because they found the real, much more straightforward origin of the name was not as 'out-there' enough for their standards.
Looking back to where it all began in 1960, the band, then just a trio consisting of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, was still undecided on a band name, though they had recently performed as Johnny and the Moondogs.
Lennon’s friend from art school, Stuart Sutcliffe, joined the band after his pals convinced him to invest £65 ($86) he earned from selling a painting into a bass guitar. At the time, the band also did not have a permanent drummer; instead, they rotated through a stream of drummers, with Tommy Moore appearing most frequently.
Lennon and Sutcliffe eventually came up with the name The Beatles during one of their late-night sessions. They brought it to the rest of the band on an April evening in 1960 while walking along Gambier Terrace by Liverpool Cathedral.
Initially, McCartney wasn't won over by the name as he thought it sounded a bit creepy, but he changed his mind after learning about its clever double meaning.
Source: themirror.com/Ellie Hook
Many artists have covered the 1969 Beatles classic “Come Together” over the years, for better or worse.
John Lennon originally wrote “Come Together” as a song for Timothy Leary’s 1969 campaign for governor of California against incumbent Ronald Reagan. Leary didn’t end up using the song or winning his bid for office. When the Beatles began recording their album “Abbey Road,” Lennon started singing “Come Together” in the studio and fleshed out the rest of the lyrics.
Em Casalena, a music writer for American Songwriter, admitted that those lyrics are pretty nonsensical, and Beatles fans have been trying to parse through them for years to find meaning. Still, Casalena said, the song became a hit and inspired countless musicians to cover it.
Joe Cocker, the late rock and blues singer, was recently posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in part for his covers of Beatles hits. Paul McCartney even wrote a letter of support about Cocker to push for his induction.
Source: wbaa.org/Ashley Locke, Peter O'Dowd
Is it getting "Hot In Heree" or is a "Cruel Summer" approaching?
With the sunshine season just around the corner, there's no better time to blast a bright, feel-good track to match the mood.
Now's the perfect time to kick back and listen to sunshine tracks on repeat with one legendary hit, hailed as the ultimate summer song, at the top of your playlist.
Whether you enjoy "Walking On Sunshine" or basking in a "Summer Breeze" that makes you feel fine, there's one song that's so synonymous with summer that you can't help but crack the windows and turn the volume up every time it's played.
Not only is this timeless tune the best summer song ever written, but it single-handedly cures long, cold, lonely winters and returns the smiles to the faces!
According to a list compiled by TimeOut, the best summer song of all time is The Beatles classic, "Here Comes The Sun."
Other songs that made the list include "Espresso" by Sabrina Carpenter, "Lovely Day" by Bill Withers, "Everybody Loves The Sunshine" by Roy Ayers, and "Summertime Sadness" by Lana Del Rey to round out the top five.
Here's what TimeOut had to say about the best summer song of all time:
"We know, this isn’t exactly the tune that makes you want to hit the day fests and sink vodka tonics. But it is sort of the ultimate summer banger to ever exist if you think about it. When our cold, dark hearts get that first hit of sunshine, when we throw open the windows to see summer in bloom, that’s what this song feels like. Happy. Enchanting. Full of hope before the cold winter falls on us once again. Summer's here, folks!"
Source: Logan DeLoye/IHEART
EXCLUSIVE: The director of Borrowed Time: Lennon's Last Decade refused to feature one key thing in the film.
John Lennon's final ten years are forensically examined in director Alan G. Parker's new documetary Borrowed Time: Lennon's Last Decade. With contributions from musicians, journalists, and close friends of John the film promises to set the record straight on the truth behind many famous Lennon moments, including when Yoko Ono first came on the scene. However, one thing that doesn't get a mention is the name of the man who murdered the former Beatle on December 8, 1980. Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk in advance of the movie's release on May 2, Alan explained his reasoning.
“There's two things we had right from the get go. Number one was…if anybody mentions his name, they're not going in the movie. His name is not mentioned in the movie, because my belief is that part of the reason that killing took place was for a bit of the fame to rub off on the man himself," he said.
"He won't be getting any of it (fame) from me, because I won't put his name anywhere. The plan was, if any interviewees mentioned him we'd suddenly say 'sorry, camera off, there's your money, goodbye!'"
John's death shook the world and is a huge part of his legend but Alan also felt there had been enough focus on it in the decades since.
Source: Fran Winston/express.co.uk
Many Americans learned that John Lennon had been gunned down when sportscaster Howard Cosell broke the news during a Monday Night Football broadcast on Dec. 8, 1980. But painter Robert Morgan knew much sooner. He heard the shots outside his apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side just before 11 p.m. that night. After running to his window, he peered down and saw his famous neighbor splayed on the sidewalk.
Sensing that he was witnessing history, Morgan instinctively reached for his camera. As his finger hovered over the shutter, he stopped.
Morgan tells his story in the new documentary Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade, which premieres in U.K. cinemas and on the Icon Film Channel on May 2. Directed by Alan G. Parker — who previously covered the Beatles in the 2017 documentary It Was Fifty Years Ago Today... Sgt. Pepper and Beyond — the film captures the flurry of activity in Lennon’s final months as he emerged from his self-imposed exile from the music industry and returned to the recording studio.
Borrowed Time, named for one of the last songs the rock legend would ever record, details sessions for Lennon’s comeback album, Double Fantasy, as well as plans for a proposed world tour — his first since his days in the Beatles. Parker interviews set designers and lighting technicians who describe the innovative stage production that Lennon had in mind, one that was intended to (in Lennon’s words) “give Mick [Jagger] and Elton [John] f---ing ulcers!” The elaborate plans are a poignant glimpse of a future that would never be.
Source: people.com/Jordan Runtagh
