Beatles News

Giles Martin, music director of the Elton John biopic Rocketman, has revealed the movie’s strong association with Abbey Road Studios in London.

Martin’s father, George, helped secure the complex’s part in history as he produced Beatles albums there in the ‘60s. Giles has taken over the mantle, having been involved in the band’s reissue series in recent years.

But he also explained that Abbey Road played a major part in the creation of John’s movie, which ended its theater run earlier this month.

“Our first session we did for Rocketman, our first training with [star] Taron [Egerton] learning to be Elton, was done in this room, actually,” Martin said in a studio video. “It was an 18-month process from start to finish, Rocketman. It was a great project; it’s been really well-received. … Rocketman is quite fantastical and weird. You’re never quite sure if you’ll be laughed out of the building or not, and you just try and do what you think is right. It was a really fun project.”

Source: ultimateclassicrock.com

Read More<<<

The Beatles icon Paul McCartney had Aston Martin years ago, and actor Patrick Stewart revealed he was poorly driving the car when he was a 24-year-old with Paul in the passenger’s seat, and he feared he was going to kill him with his reckless driving. Paul McCartney ripped some of his ‘stupid’ releases earlier this week.

“We drove from Bristol to Bath and back. And all the way Paul kept saying, ‘Come on put your foot down, overtake, overtake.’ And all I could think was, ‘If I killed Paul McCartney …'”

He also said via Evening Standard, “I saw Paul and Ringo about six weeks ago, just by accident, by chance in a restaurant. And it is always whenever I meet Paul as though no time has passed at all. He has an immediacy of behavior, a spontaneous way of behaving which is remarkable.”

Source: Brett Buchanan/alternativenation.net

Read More<<<

If you want to know who wrote a particular Beatles song, a big clue is the lead singer. When you hear John Lennon on the vocal of an original track (e.g., “Strawberry Fields Forever” or “Come Together”) it’s a safe bet he was the composer.

The same goes for songs featuring Paul McCartney (“Martha My Dear“) or George Harrison (“Savoy Truffle“) on lead vocals. But there were exceptions during the Beatles’ epic run. Early on, John passed “Do You Want to Know a Secret” to George for him to sing. (He thought it suited George’s range.)

Later, for Sgt. Pepper’s, John and Paul collaborated on “With a Little Help From My Friends” with the understanding Ringo would sing it. John’s “Good Night” (also for Ringo) on The White Album falls into this category as well.

However, you weren’t going to see John writing a song for Paul to sing (or vice versa). They just didn’t work like that. Looking back, John pointed to one Abbey Road song he thought he could have taken off Paul’s hands — and done a better job on vocals, too.

Source: cheatsheet.com

Read More<<<

Sir Paul McCartney has revealed he is often tempted to “join in” with tourists posing on the zebra crossing made famous by The Beatles’ Abbey Road album.

The 77-year-old was this morning reflecting on the 50-year anniversary of the band’s seventh album on Radio 2, which the musician said he had “beautiful memories” of.

He added: “Nowadays I drive past but you can’t get past — there’s people on it. I’ve often thought of just jumping out and joining in.”

He also admitted he did once stop there after a party.

“I was coming back from a Halloween party and the crossing was empty and I had a werewolf mask on so I just went across and did a pose.”

The BBC has set up a pop-up radio station to mark the anniversary, called Radio 2 Beatles.

Source: Lizzie Edmonds and Tobi Akingbade/standard.co.uk

Read More<<<

While George Harrison had been contributing songs to Beatles albums since 1963, he had long been in the shadow of Lennon and McCartney. By 1969, however, his compositions had reached such a standard that his two songs on Abbey Road (‘Something’ and ‘Here Comes The Sun’) were among the standout songs on that album. As George said in 1969, “I wasn’t Lennon, or I wasn’t McCartney. I was me. And the only reason I started to write songs was because I thought, Well, if they can write them, I can write them.” But, given John and Paul’s prolific output, it wasn’t easy for George to find space for his songs on Beatles records.

As the finishing touches were being made to “The White Album” in October 1968, George was on his way to Los Angeles to continue work producing Jackie Lomax’s album Is This What You Want? These sessions would see George heading up a crew that featured the cream of America’s session musicians, and he appears to have relished the chance to take the lead in front of such a fine crop of talent. After the sessions were complete, George headed to Woodstock, in upstate New York, where he spent Thanksgiving with Bob Dylan and hung out with The Band, before returning to England in time to take up his duties as a Beatle once more.

Source: Paul McGuinness/udiscovermusic.com

Read More<<<

Alighting at St John’s Wood tube station in London’s NW8 one unusually warm September day, I head for The Beatles’ spiritual home.

A remix of the Beatles' legendary album, "Abbey Road," is out Friday morning, marking 50 years since its original release. It includes studio sessions the public has never heard. 

The opening track, "Come Together," sets the tone for what would become the Beatles' swan song. The last time they would come together to record an album. 

But rather than the last gasps of a dying band, John, Paul, George and Ringo worked even harder knowing it was their last chance, says record producer Giles Martin.  

"I played 'Come Together,' the song 'Come Together' to both Ringo and Paul here at Abbey Road and the one thing they said was, 'We were really good this day,'" Martin said. "Abbey Road is the sound of a band at the top of their game playing together." 

Now Martin has remastered that "Abbey Road" sound for a new release to mark its 50th anniversary. It is a sound that runs through Martin's veins. His father, George Martin, was the record producer who helped launch the Fab Four to the global stage.

Source: CBS News

Read More<<<

When Paul McCartney phoned George Martin in early 1969 asking him to produce the album that would become Abbey Road, the producer was hesitant.

The man, who many called the fifth Beatle, was sick of the infighting and spitefulness he had witnessed earlier in the year as the band recorded the tracks for Let it Be.

"It was such an unhappy record, even though there were some great songs on it ... I really believed that was the end of the Beatles," Martin would remark.  With McCartney hanging on the line, Martin told him: "Only if you let me produce it the way we used to do it".

McCartney agreed. Martin asked if John Lennon would agree to the arrangement. "Honestly, yes," was McCartney's reply.

Years later, Martin would reflect on the situation frankly. "It was a very happy record. I guess it was happy because everybody thought it was going to be the last," he said.

Source: Mark Bannerman/abc.net.au

Read More<<<

Here comes the scion. Giles Martin, the son of original Beatles producer George Martin, has again worked his audiophiliac and curatorial magic on “Abbey Road: Anniversary Edition,” his third 50th anniversary Beatles project in a row, following “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Band” two years ago and the White Album in 2018.

If anything, “Abbey Road” is more popularly beloved in its original form than the two previous projects he tackled, so he clearly didn’t take it lightly, although he and co-remixer Sam Okell tried to leave a light tread in putting a fresh audio spin on an album whose sonics haven’t been the source of too many complaints since 1969. The vault material on the bonus discs is also a bit less exhaustive, or arguably exhausting, this time around. No one’s going to call it a minimalist set when the deluxe edition also includes the first official Dolby Atmos remix of a Beatles album, of course. But it’s a very approachable box for what may stand as the Beatles’ most approachable album, not just for elders but the young people Martin continually hopes will discover the Fabs anew.

Source: Chris Willman/variety.com

Read More<<<

Sir Paul McCartney is famed for his incredible musical career - namely in the Beatles and Wings. Many would assume that someone like Sir Paul would never be able to go anywhere without being recognised. But it turns out one film led him to sneak out of his home to watch it on the big screen.

Paul McCartney, in an appearance on US TV show The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, opened up on his thoughts on Yesterday, the latest film from director Danny Boyle and writer Richard Curtis.

The film centres around music from the Beatles, and even features one of the Beatles singers (though sadly, not in the form of a cameo.)

Sir Paul even admitted that, while he did not attend an official screening of it, he was able to sneak into a cinema to catch a screening.

Source: Jenny Desborough/express.co.uk

Read More<<<