Beatles News
Is it on your bucket list to meet a Beatle? Where there's a will — and the money to purchase a Ringo Starr painting — there's a way.
The Danielle Peleg Art Gallery in Keego Harbor will be hosting an exhibit and sale of limited-edition, hand-signed art by Ringo Starr from July 26-31.
The event is tied to the legendary Beatles drummer's concert on Aug. 1 with his All-Starr Band at the Colosseum at Caesars in Windsor, Ontario, just across the river from Detroit.
The tour, which marks 30 years of Starr's concerts of famous friends, will feature band members Colin Hay of Men at Work, founding Toto member Steve Lukather, Santana and Journey member Gregg Rolie, and more.
If you buy select artworks from the gallery, Starr will meet and take a photo with you at the Windsor show, according to a Friday press release from Rock Art Show.
The free art show is open to the public.
Source: Julie Hinds, Detroit Free Press
In Slumdog Millionaire and Trainspotting director Danny Boyle’s latest film, Yesterday, viewers are asked what the world would be like if The Beatles didn’t exist through the eyes of somebody who remembered that they did. This marriage between the Fab Four and film is not a new one, but when people think about this marriage, they are more likely think about films such as A Hard Day’s Night, Help, or Yellow Submarine.
However, their footprint on the industry has lived on for nearly 50 years since the band called it quits in 1970. From jukebox musicals, to fictional retellings of the bands’ members, to dramas guided by a character’s love for the band, The Beatles have been the basis of several films spanning nearly every genre, but these are some of the most memorable.
Source: screenrant.com
Paul McCartney kicked off a three-hour, career-spanning set with the iconic opening strain of “A Hard Day’s Night” at San Jose’s SAP Center on Wednesday, July 10 — and from there, the 77-year-old never let up as he barreled through decades of hits from every phase of his career.
McCartney brought the crowd to hushed reverence during a stirring rendition of “Blackbird,” while later on, the mood was decidedly different when the riff-laden excess of “Back in the U.S.S.R.” brought everyone to their feet. It’s no surprise that McCartney’s contributions to pop rock’s greatest songbook continue to enthrall generation after generation. Even when the newest songs to join his set list — a handful of fairly forgettable tracks from McCartney’s 2018 solo release, “Egypt Station” — were, by contrast, tepidly received by the crowd, he wasn’t the least bit fazed.
“When we do a Beatles song,” he playfully moaned, “a galaxy of phones light up. When we do a new song, a black hole suddenly emerges. That’s OK, though. We don’t care.”
Source: Joshua Kosman/datebook.sfchronicle.com
Danny Boyle's new film Yesterday has brought renewed interest in The Beatles' iconic catalog.
As previously reported, multiple classics by the Fab Four infuse July 13-dated tallies after the first full tracking week following the movie's June 28 theatrical release. In the film, the lead character, portrayed by Himesh Patel, finds that he is the only person alive who remembers The Beatles, leading him to begin performing their music and passing it off as his own.
On the strength of the group's five entries on the Hot Rock Songs chart, Paul McCartney and the late John Lennon concurrently debut on the newly launched Rock Songwriters chart, tied at No. 4.
The weekly Rock Songwriters chart is based on total points accrued by a songwriter for each attributed song that appears on the Hot Rock Songs chart (which blends streaming, airplay and download sales data); plus, genre-based songwriter and producer charts follow the same methodology based on corresponding "Hot"-named genre charts. As with Billboard's yearly recaps, multiple writers split points for each song equally (and the dividing of points will lead to occasional ties on rankings).
Source: Xander Zellner/billboard.com
In the fall, Beatles fans will commemorate the 50th anniversary of Abbey Road, released on September 26, 1969. While celebrations will surely take place at London’s famous zebra crosswalk and all over the world, the Sunset Strip has a bit of its own Abbey Road history, which actually was a mystery for over 40 years.
The Beatles’ first Sunset Strip billboard was also the band’s last studio album. By the time Abbey Road was released, John, Paul, George and Ringo were so recognizable that designer John Kosh (now known as Kosh) didn’t even add the band’s name on the legendary album cover.
Assigned by Capitol Records to transform Kosh’s album into a billboard overlooking the Sunset Strip, designer Roland Young also kept the image free of text. In fact, he kept most of the original album design but cropped out the London streetscape and extended the heads into the sky as if the band was crossing Sunset Blvd.
Source: Frances Anderton/kcrw.com
While legendary musician and singer Sir Paul McCartney continues to storm the globe on his “Freshen Up” world tour, three re-releases of classic live McCartney albums and one new release that's has never filled speakers before will be out Friday.
These albums cover not just the decades of McCartney's career, but several different phases of his life from the end of his days in the Beatles to the present as a preeminent touring act on his own. This look will run through these releases in order of their original release dates.
First up, from 1976, “Wings over America” documented the 1975-76 tour of McCartney's band, Wings, that was met with massive success. Primarily recorded from the LA Forum show in June of '76, this triple-LP (2 CD) set contains a ton of Beatles hits mixed in with Wings tracks that fans love, alongside solo McCartney material and even a few covers here and there. This remastered set is the same track-listing that's been released previously, with the new pressings available in both black and color vinyl (transparent red, green, and blue, in this case) versions, as well as CD, and will include the original album art and original souvenir poster.
Source: whig.com
On their first couple of albums, the Beatles fleshed out the track listings with covers drawn from their pre-fame club shows, when they were required to play everything from Little Richard to show tunes.
But for their third LP, A Hard Day's Night, which was released on July 10, 1964, the songwriting team of John Lennon and Paul McCartney would be responsible for all 14 of its songs for the first time.
Because George Harrison, who made his entry into the songwriting world on With the Beatles' "Don't Bother Me," would soon become more prolific, A Hard Day's Night is the only Beatles album to consist solely of Lennon-McCartney originals. More importantly, it showcased precisely how quickly they were growing as composers.
They had already shown signs, with the chord progressions heard on With the Beatles (especially on "All My Loving" and the coda to "It Won't Be Long") becoming more sophisticated, but they still relied too often on simple pop and R&B ideas (see "Little Child" and "Not a Second Time").
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
For the first time, Stella McCartney, Paul McCartney's daughter, has released a collection inspired by The Beatles, and by the psychedelic universe created in the "Yellow Submarine". Find out everything below.
Yellow Submarine was one of the most popular animated films of the 1970s. It was a pop culture gem, and released on July 17, 1968 to a community of eager fans. Featuring The Beatles bandmates as the stars, the beloved film was recently re-screened for its 50th anniversary. Today, the film continues to inspire, as Stella McCartney has just released a new collection inspired by the film, and by the band.
“I recently went to a screening with family and friends for the digital relaunch of Yellow Submarine, I hadn’t seen it since I was young, and honestly it blew my mind. It affected me in a way I just wasn’t expecting. Especially this idea of connecting people and bringing people together — politically this message has never been more relevant. So, I came out and I was like ‘I have to do something."
Source: Agathe Duval/vogue.fr
Most of us were content coming back from the long Fourth of July holiday weekend with simple stories of hanging out with friends and family. Minneapolis music vet Ben Kyle of Romantica notoriety, however, came back with this whopper of a tale, which he has recounted to us via e-mail:
“I had played two interpretations of his songs to the crowd gathered on Vine Street outside Capitol Records, and I was standing there on stage next to Jim Keltner who was doing a drum roll and listening to David Lynch introduce the man himself when all of a sudden I felt an arm around my shoulder. I turned around, and it was Ringo hugging me and saying, ‘Thank you brother!’”
Yep, he’s referring to that Ringo, the one from Liverpool just across the Irish Sea from Kyle’s native Belfast. The Romantica frontman was invited to perform at a public bash thrown outside the famed Capitol Records Tower in Los Angeles in honor of the Beatles drummer’s 79th birthday.
Source: Chris Riemenschneider/startribune.com
Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and original drummer Pete Best, signed the document on 24 January 1962, before achieving fame.
It gave Epstein responsibility for finding the band work, and managing their schedule and publicity.
The document was the first of two contracts drawn up between Epstein and The Beatles.
Gabriel Heaton, a specialist at Sotheby's auction house, which was in charge of the auction, said: "Epstein was just blown away by the passion, the energy, the charisma, the raw sexuality on stage."
"The Beatles had the stage energy but he instilled a sense of professionalism in them," Mr Heaton added.
"Epstein stopped them eating on stage, made sure they played the songs properly and coherently, and he got them bowing at the end of a set."
Source: BBC News
