Beatles News
Sir Paul McCartney has said he sometimes picks up his grandchildren from school, and that it is a “joy”.
The former Beatles star said that he is “pretty normal” when it comes to his relationship with his eight grandchildren despite his fame, and that they often go on holiday together.
Sir Paul, 77, told Chris Evans on his Virgin Radio Breakfast Show that he is a “terrific” grandparent, adding: “You know, I love them and I love being a granddad.
“And we spend quite a good bit of time together. We don’t live near each other, but we go on holiday together, like Christmas. And in the summer we’ll see each other. And then sometimes me and (my wife) Nancy pick them up from school. So that’s nice.”
He said: “It’s great fun you know, because you don’t know how to do it like parenting. It’s ad lib, it’s the biggest ad lib. So when grand-parenthood comes around, it’s like, ‘OK, what do we do here?’ And so I say that joy is like picking them up at school and they love it.”
He added: “I don’t think it’s just us, I think it’s also the ice cream that’s got something to do with it! So you do all those things, you know, and you can play with them and stuff.
Source: irishnews.com
November 29, 2001 would be remembered forever in the music rock history. On this day 18 years ago, this legend passed away from lung cancer at age of 58.
As a 15-year old boy from Liverpool, Harrison became a member of the Quarrymen (who would later become The Beatles), despite John Lennon thinking that he was too young. Having to compete with the power-writing duo that was Lennon and Paul McCartney, George was able to slip a song or two of his own onto almost every Beatles album during the group’s existence.
Some of the songs included “Taxman” (1966’s Revolver), “Within You Without You” (1967’s Sgt. Papper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band), “Here Comes the Sun” and “Something” (both from 1969’s Abbey Road) and many more.
Even more impressive may have been his solo work, as the period following The Beatles proved Harrison to be a truly great singer-songwriter in his own right, now being out of the shadow of his former band mates. 1968 would see him be the first Beatle to release a solo record, with Wonderwall Music, and the following year with Electronic Sounds, in which Harrison made use of experiments with the Moog synthesizer.
He would release the triple-album All Things Must Pass in 1970 to massive acclaim from both critics and fans alike with the hits “My Sweet Lord” and “What Is Life”.
Having adopted Hindu mythology and Transcendental Meditation years earlier, and a friendship with Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar, Harrison would go on to put together 1971’s Concert for Bangladesh at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, a major benefit concert that raised awareness and funds for the refugee situation of East Pakistan, as a result of the mass genocide committed during the Bangladesh Liberation War. The show would feature a super group consisting of Harrison, ex band mate Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, and many more.
In the late 1980’s, Harrison would co-found The Traveling Wilburys, a behemoth group made up of Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne of ELO, all of which had worked with one another in some capacity on past and future projects.
The group’s first album Traveling Wilburys Vol.1, would go multi-platinum with support from the singles “End of the Line” and “Handle with Care”. Orbison would pass before the group recorded their second and final album, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3.
Harrison would be remembered as one of the truly rock’s greatest artists and ambassadors.
Paul McCartney reacts to George Harrison’s death in 2001
Between 1963 and 1970, The Beatles released 12 studio albums. But have you ever wondered which one was the favourite of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr? Well, at different points in their lives the Fab Four revealed their individual personal picks of the dozen.
Ringo Starr – Abbey Road (1969)
Probably The Beatles album with the most famous cover, Abbey Road celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.
The band’s penultimate record was a favourite for Ringo, who especially liked the much-maligned Abbey Road Medley.
Ringo told Rock Cellar Magazine a couple of years ago: “For me, that would be the second side of Abbey Road.
“That one is my favourite because I just love all those bits and pieces that weren’t full songs that John and Paul had been working on and pulled all together — Mean Mr. Mustard, Polythene Pam, and She Came in Through the Bathroom Window.”
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
Back in 1962, Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best in The Beatles as their drummer. However, he wasn’t allowed to play the drums on Love Me Do or the B-side of PS I Love You.
This may surprise some Beatles fans considering how positive Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison were when they first heard Ringo play the drums.
According to The Spectator, Paul said: “This was, like, a grown-up musician.
“I remember the moment, standing there and looking at John and then looking at George, and the look on our faces was like …what is this?
“And that was the moment, that was the beginning, really, of the Beatles.”
Source: George Simpson/express.co.uk
It will be 18 years at the end of this month since “quiet Beatle” George Harrison passed away of throat cancer in 2001. His music lives on with his timeless melodies on songs such as Something, Here Comes the Sun, and I Got My Mind Set On You.
After George and his first wife, Pattie Boyd, separated in 1974 and then divorced three years later, he met and married Olivia Arias in 1978.
Olivia was a secretary when she met George. Born in Los Angeles, Olivia Trinidad Arias saw the Beatles in concert two times, once at the Hollywood Bowl on August 29, 1965, and then a year later at Dodger Stadium on August 28, 1966.
In 1973, she started working at A&M Records, which by the following year won the rights to distribute George Harrison’s Dark Horse solo records globally.
In the midst of the negotiation process, George and Olivia chatted by phone frequently. Eventually, the former Beatle wanted to know more about his phone friend and asked his friends to get more information about her for him.
Source: cheatsheet.com
George Harrison, Paul McCartney and John Lennon tried out mop-top haircuts while in Hamburg. It would become the Beatles' signature look. Original drummer Pete Best, left, stuck with his Liverpool ducktail cut. (The Plain Dealer)
You can make the Beatles fan in your life very happy this holiday season -- if you’re feeling particularly generous. And if your Beatlemaniac potential giftee doesn’t put Ringo first among the Fab Four.
Heritage Auctions is offering up a postcard signed by the Beatles when the Liverpudlians were resident rockers in the German city of Hamburg, a couple of years before they hit it big.
They were already big enough in Hamburg, however, that they had their own band-specific postcard offering the group’s “best wishes” on April 5, 1962. Heritage Auctions’ “buy now” price for the collectible: $12,500. The auction is open until Dec. 2.
Source: oregonlive.com
The official Twitter account for the Beatles tweeted out the following Ringo Starr quote. The quote actually comes from an old media interview that he gave. The quote expands on the reasoning for why The Beatles broke up and gives us a small glimpse into the making of that decision. Paul McCartney wife reveals ‘miserable’ Ringo Starr photo.
The quote stated:”(None) of the decisions were made quickly. We’d all expressed them & moaned about them, laughed about them & cried about them. Then it had got to a head where it was ‘yes’ or ‘no’ time – and we seemed to do that with the touring, with the recording & with the breaking-up.”
In other news regarding The Beatles, fans took to social media to reflect on Ringo Starr’s most recent studio release – ‘What’s My Name.’ One reviewer wrote: “This latest offering by Ringo literally flew under my radar if it were not for a tip-off from an old pal that Ringo was covering Lennon’s unreleased “Grow Old With Me” in collaborative fashion with McCartney’s inclusion.
Source: Mike Mazzarone/alternativenation.net
By the late 1960s, George Harrison had come to a realization: He could match the songwriting efforts of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Beatles fans probably started to see that around the days of Revolver (1966). By the time Abbey Road (1969) went out, there was no denying it.
“I could see everybody’s a Lennon/McCartney if that’s what you wanna be,” George said in early 1970. “But the point is nobody’s special. If Lennon/McCartney are special, then Harrison and Starkey are special, too. What I’m saying is that I can be Lennon/McCartney too.”
With “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun,” George no longer needed to prove his case. And indeed he’d learned some tricks from John and Paul. One such trick was starting with someone else’s line to get a song’s lyrics going.
Just as John had done with an Elvis Presley line on “Run For Your Life,” so George did with a James Taylor line at the start of “Something.” And he also ran with one of John’s lyrics to start “Here Comes the Sun.”
Source: cheatsheet.com
“Let It Be Christmas” returns to Naperville’s Community Christian Church with nine performances in December. The rock opera tells the story of Jesus’ birth through the music of The Beatles. (Jennifer Pedley)
For 12 years, a Naperville church has presented the story of Christmas set to the songs of The Beatles. The result is “Let It Be Christmas (The Gospel According to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, George and Ringo).”
“Let It Be Christmas” returns with nine performances at Community Christian Church in Naperville, presented by Epic Theatre Company. Shows are at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 6-7, Dec. 13-14 and Dec. 20 and 3 p.m. Dec. 7, Dec. 14 and Dec. 21; and 11 a.m. Dec. 21.
The cast consists of 80 local children and adults. Epic is associated with the church.
“It’s grown quite a bit. It’s been quite the evolution,” said Elic Bramlett, director of “Let It Be Christmas.”
How did they come up with the idea?
“Well, like all good ideas, we stole it from someone,” he laughed. “It helps that it is a good friend that we stole it from.”
Source: Annie Alleman/chicagotribune.com
When we look back at The Beatles’ career, it’s only natural that we trace their progress through the groundbreaking albums they made between 1963 and 1969. But that only tells part of the story. The Beatles may have helped shift the focus from singles to long-playing albums, but at the start of their career they were, first and foremost, a band that made phenomenal singles, many of which didn’t actually appear on their albums. With pop music still primarily a singles market in the mid-60s, The Beatles’ singles, then, offer something of a parallel discography: a different lens through which to trace their artistic trajectory.
1962: ‘Love Me Do’
The group had actually recorded a single even before signing with Parlophone. Credited as The Beat Brothers, John, Paul, George and Pete Best backed the English singer Tony Sheridan on a rocked-up version of ‘My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean’, which was released on Polydor in West Germany. It was a customer’s request for that recording that led to Liverpool record-shop owner Brian Epstein tracking down and eventually managing The Beatles.
Source: udiscovermusic.com
