Beatles News
The musician, who was well-known for performing with The Beatles fell ill with Covid-19 on Saturday after performing a gig, his close friend Arthur Kerevan has confirmed.
But sadly, the father-of-three passed away from the virus on Tuesday.
His family paid a tribute to the musician, who described him as ‘our world’.
‘As a family we are devastated at the sudden loss of our husband, father-in-law, grandad, brother and friend who touched so many lives through music,’ they said in a statement.
‘What makes his loss even more heartbreaking is the fact that it could have been so easily avoided had it not been for coronavirus.’
Source: Abbie Bray/metro.co.uk
Lots of music appears to be emerging from the world’s windows and balconies, in some cases recalling The Beatles’ famous rooftop concert from 1969. Now some enterprising fan out there might be able to replicate the band’s very first concert—from almost a decade earlier—on the actual stage where they played.
On April 10, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the band’s breakup, California-based Julien’s Auctions will offer a slew of Beatles memorabilia (with live online bidding available), from the handwritten lyrics for “Hey Jude” to corduroy trousers worn by John Lennon himself. While it may not look so illustrious, this set of wooden planks pulled straight out of the floor are in fact witnesses to history, and a marquee item that could fetch as much as $20,000.
Source: by Matthew Taub /atlasobscura.com
The Beatles are one of the greatest rock bands ever. The Beach Boys are one of the greatest rock bands ever. It only makes sense that Sir Paul McCartney would want to collaborate with one of the Beach Boys.
When Paul worked with the Beach Boys, things went down an unexpected path. Paul is a reknown multi-instrumentalist. The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson asked him to play an uncommon instrument: celery.
The Beach Boys evolved from a doo-wop/pop band to one of the most experimental acts in the history of mainstream music. Some of their experiments included using non-instruments as instruments. Their album Pet Sounds famously features the sounds of dogs barking at some point.
Source: cheatsheet.com
Tom Jones opened up on his relationship with John Lennon in a past interview with Channel Bee. In a newly uncovered video, the Delilah hitmaker recalled how he and nearly got into a fight with The Beatles star the first time they ever crossed paths. He explained how they had first met when both acts were appearing on Thank Your Lucky Stars back in the mid-1960s.
“I had It’s Not Unusual out, my first hit record, in 1965,” Jones said. “The Beatles were on the show.
“I went to watch them rehearse in the afternoon. I’m sitting there where the audience would be later on with my manager Gordon Mills.
“I’m waiting for The Beatles to come on; I want to watch them rehearse,” he remembered.
Source: Minnie Wright/express.co.uk
One day in mid-October 1963, John Lennon had dropped by at the house in Wimpole Street, London, where Paul was living with the family of his girlfriend, Jane Asher.
The two of them went down to a little room in the basement and sat together on Mrs Asher's piano stool.
Their manager Brian Epstein had told them that their next, most important task was to compose a song to crack the elusive American market.
Up to now, their hit singles in Britain — From Me To You, She Loves You, Please Please Me — had all flopped over there.
After an hour or so of doodling about, Paul went upstairs to the bedroom of Jane's brother, and put his head around the door.
Source: Craig Brown for the Daily Mail
In November 1971, George Harrison stopped by The Dick Cavett Show to act as one of the main guests for an episode of the talk show along with Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar and rock singer Gary Wright. Segments of the episode were recently shared to YouTube by Daphne Productions, Inc., which owns the rights to the classic talk show. The interview features a young Harrison, who’d still been a member of The Beatles just a little over a year earlier.
Related: The Beatles Share Previously Unreleased Early Acoustic Take Of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” [Listen]
One of the segments shared to the show’s YouTube is that of a conversation with the topic of drugs within rock and roll and show business. After Cavett allows Harrison to vent on his frustration with the over-commercialization of American television, George briefly touches on the time he and John Lennon were dosed with LSD by their dentist. He also discusses his take on whether or not rock start should bear responsibility for glamourizing drug use.
The two do get a little serious late on in the segment where the topic of heroin use and the problem with substance addiction amongst entertainers.
Source: Tom Shackleford/liveforlivemusic.com
Welcome to the "Sheltering in Place with Classic Albums" series. Each week, I'll present a new album for your consideration—a means for passing these uncertain times in musical bliss. For some readers, hearing about the latest selection might offer a chance reacquaintance with an old friend. For others, the series might provide an unexpected avenue for making a new one.
For the inaugural selection in our series, we begin with "Rubber Soul," arguably the Beatles' maiden voyage into classic album-hood. No less than the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson described "Rubber Soul" as the greatest LP of all time. When he first heard it, Wilson recalled, "I couldn't deal with it. It blew my mind."
Released in December 1965, the Beatles' sixth studio album took its name from Paul McCartney's concept of "plastic soul." In his coinage, plastic soul referred to the band's penchant for transforming musical forms — often American rhythm and blues — into their own image, retaining their fundamental qualities in the process of making them their own. Perhaps even more dramatically, the record featured several tunes that upended prevailing 1960s thinking about gender norms at the time, making the album revolutionary in more ways than one.
Source: Kenneth Womack/salon.com
On November 23rd 1971, George Harrison made a welcome stop by the legendary studios of the Dick Cavett Show. It may have begun as an open and frank conversation but it soon got very serious as the Quiet Beatle began to open his mouth.
Harrison was a year or so away from the break-up of The Beatles and the furore surrounding the Fab Four had not yet subsided. It must have baffled the newly emerging songwriting powerhouse, Harrison has shown himself to be.
The singer and guitarist had stepped out of the shadow of the group which had changed music so irrevocably. His debut solo record All Things Must Pass is arguably one of the best solo Beatles albums and his recent benefit the Concert For Bangladesh had seen him use his fame for good. But he still couldn’t avoid questions about The Beatles.
The episode has been restored and uploaded in segments which you can find below as well as the full clip, we’d suggest the latter. The full clip may lose a little in picture quality but it does allow Harrison’s sometimes gruff, sometimes sharp, answers to land fully. Harrison may have shared the stage with his friend Ravi Shankar and the rock singer Gary Wright, but on that night it was all about George Harrison, the Beatle.
Source: Jack Whatley/faroutmagazine.co.uk
Welcome to the "Sheltering in Place with Classic Albums" series. Each week, I'll present a new album for your consideration—a means for passing these uncertain times in musical bliss. For some readers, hearing about the latest selection might offer a chance reacquaintance with an old friend. For others, the series might provide an unexpected avenue for making a new one.
For the inaugural selection in our series, we begin with "Rubber Soul," arguably the Beatles' maiden voyage into classic album-hood. No less than the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson described "Rubber Soul" as the greatest LP of all time. When he first heard it, Wilson recalled, "I couldn't deal with it. It blew my mind."
Released in December 1965, the Beatles' sixth studio album took its name from Paul McCartney's concept of "plastic soul." In his coinage, plastic soul referred to the band's penchant for transforming musical forms — often American rhythm and blues — into their own image, retaining their fundamental qualities in the process of making them their own. Perhaps even more dramatically, the record featured several tunes that upended prevailing 1960s thinking about gender norms at the time, making the album revolutionary in more ways than one.
Source: Kenneth Womack/salon.com
Hard to believe, but next month sees the 50th anniversary of the day The Beatles broke up.
The four of them had been together for under eight years, Ringo having joined John, Paul and George in the summer of 1962.
Yet as President Obama noted when presenting Sir Paul McCartney with an award at the White House, in that short time they had 'changed the way that we listened to music, thought about music, and performed music, forever'.
Even Her Majesty the Queen — hardly your typical fan — said in a speech on the occasion of her golden wedding anniversary: 'What a remarkable 50 years they have been for the world... Think what we would have missed if we had never heard The Beatles.'
Source: dailymail.co.uk
