Beatles News
Sir Paul McCartney impacts the Hot Tours list dated April 6, 2019 with $17.8 million from four South American shows, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. He returned to Buenos Aires at Campo Argentino de Polo on March 23 ($5.4 million), before heading to Sao Paolo’s Allianz Parque on March 26-27 ($8.7 million) and Estadio Major Antonio Couto Pererira in Curitiba, Brazil on March 30 ($3.7 million).
With these recent grosses, McCartney’s solo career touring total in Latin America — as reported to Billboard Boxscore — grows to $101 million. Of that total, he has earned $21.5 million in Argentina (four shows) and $47.8 million in Brazil (10 shows). His recent shows at Allianz Parque are his first double-header in Brazil and as such, become his highest-grossing engagement in the country. These dates top this week’s Boxscore chart, only the second time he has done so in LatAm, following two shows at Mexico City’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Nov. 25 and 27, 1993 ($6.5 million).
Source: Eric Frankenberg/billboard.com
The following gallery of Ringo Starr's 10 Most Historic Moments recognizes a career that took a while to gain the respect it always deserved.
Starr seldom sang with the Beatles – just 11 songs total – and, with only two songwriting credits, he didn't pen much either. But that's hardly the sum of his value within the band's larger musical framework.
Instead, it's the way Starr drove others' musical conceptions, completing the Beatles' songs in a way as unusual (he's a left-handed drummer who plays a right-handed kit) as it was underrated. Just listen to Starr's smart eruptions on "She Loves You," "Ticket to Ride" and "Rain," the innovative fills that punctuate "A Day in the Life," the off-beat aggression of "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Helter Skelter," the lithe jazz asides on "I Want You (She's So Heavy)."
The other Beatles knew it, even if too few outside of their circle did at the time. Even Paul McCartney has noted that Ringo's arrival "was the beginning, really, of the Beatles."
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
Paul McCartney died in a road accident and was replaced by an orphan lookalike, according to a wild conspiracy theory.
Believers reckon the Beatles frontman suffered a painful death when his car skidded off an icy road and hit a pole in the early hours of November 9, 1966.
And as the story goes, his bandmates John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were so worried that his death would derail their success that they covered it up and hired orphaned lookalike Billy Shears to replace him.
Billy gets a mention at the end of the title track of their June 1967 album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, where the lyrics say, “The singer’s going to sing a song / And he wants you all to sing along / So let me introduce to you / The one and only Billy Shears .”
Source: The Mirror
John Lennon, singing-songwriting sensation and iconic co-founder of the Beatles, is undoubtedly one of the greatest musicians of all time.
Alongside Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, Lennon successfully built the most commercially successful band in the history of popular music and inspired countless future musicians.
After calling time on the Beatles, Lennon began to record as a solo artist and later recorded numerous tracks with his wife Yoko Ono. What followed a string of hugely successful solo tracks was Lennon’s decision to seemingly disengaging himself from the music industry in 1975 to raise his infant son Sean.
After a little time away, the Beatle re-emerged in 1980 alongside his wife Ono with their 1980 album Double Fantasy and, with it, he was thrust back into the spotlight.
Source: faroutmagazine.co.uk
After blasting into solo-Beatledom in fine style with 1970’s mega-selling "All Things Must Pass," George Harrison had also begun a long, slow spiral into a protracted period of ill health and personal despair. For the Quiet Beatle, life reached its nadir in 1974 with the breakup of his marriage to Pattie Boyd. While his "Thirty Three & 1/3" LP notched a top-30 hit in the form of “This Song” in January 1977, Harrison had found himself in dire straits.
The ex-Beatle’s slide had begun, ironically enough, with the release of his global chart-topping single “My Sweet Lord.” Since 1971, he had been mired in a lengthy legal battle with Bright Tunes Music, which maintained that Harrison had committed copyright infringement, given the uncanny similarities between “My Sweet Lord” and the Chiffons’ 1963 hit “He’s So Fine.” Written during the legal jockeying over the fate of “My Sweet Lord,” “This Song” found Harrison singing “This tune has nothing Bright about it” in obvious reference to the plaintiff.
Source: salon.com
New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art is filled with masterpieces by giants like Picasso and Rembrandt. Next week, Don Felder's Gibson double-necked guitar will join them. It's the instrument Felder has used for 40 years to play "Hotel California," the masterpiece he co-wrote for The Eagles.
And it will be shown along with Keith Moon's custom drum set, Jerry Lee Lewis' baby grand piano, and John Lennon's 12-string Rickenbacker, at the Met's new exhibition, "Play It Loud." It's the first time an art museum has honored the instruments of rock 'n' roll
Jayson Kerr Dobney, curator of the Met's musical instrument department, showed correspondent Anthony Mason the guitar that Chuck Berry used to record "Johnny B. Goode," which he called "first great rock anthem about a guitar player."
"He's still got the traveling tags on the case," said Mason.
"It's like as pure as you can get."
Source: cbsnews.com
A piece of Beatles history is up for grabs, but it's so old -- or vintage -- it goes by a different name.
If ya don't know ... John Lennon's first band wasn't The Beatles, it was The Quarry Men. He formed the group in 1956, later added Paul McCartney and George Harrison ... then made their famous name change in 1960.
Before that, though, the lads from Liverpool printed out business cards for The Quarry Men and an original -- one of just a few known to exist -- is up for sale. That's the good news. The bad news is ... baby, you'll need to be a rich man (or woman) to afford it.
The roughly 3.5 x 2-inch piece of paper and rock 'n' roll history is going for $32,500.
As for the card's origin story ... a collector bought it from a woman living in a Liverpool suburb 30 years ago. She sold off a bunch of membership cards and tickets she'd collected from her days hitting the clubs there in the late '50s and '60s.
Source: tmz.com
McCartney also admitted that he sympathized with all the people who are having trouble with Jackson’s music after claims of child sexual abuse were leveled at the late superstar
Sir Paul McCartney was reportedly shocked on seeing his close pal Michael Jackson's dark side in the controversial HBO documentary, 'Leaving Neverland', but he says that he will still remember their good times. The Beatles legend, who worked with the late King of Pop in the 1980s, said he never knew about the singer's secret private life.
"I think it’s sad," McCartney said while in conversation with Radio Futuro in Chile, where he has been performing. "Obviously Michael was a great singer, a great artiste, and a great dancer. For years we’ve loved that. Nobody knew about the other side that’s shown in that movie."
Source: Vidisha Joshi/meaww.com
Ringo Starr is offering his fans the chance to come celebrate his birthday party with him on July 7 in Los Angeles.
Starr is continuing his tradition of using his birthday to benefit one of his favorite charities, The David Lynch Foundation.
With this, the 11th annual Peace & Love Birthday Celebration, Ringo is asking fans to donate to the David Lynch Foundation via Omaze.com/Ringo. A donation of $10 or more will enter fans to win a trip to the party!
"Every year at noon, as you know, on my birthday, I invite everyone on the planet to say or think, 'Peace and Love,'" Ringo said in a video message announcing the party. "This year, I want you to be there with me on stage when we do our countdown to peace and love."
The winner will be flown to L.A., put up in a 4-star hotel, given a photo op and the opportunity to sing "Happy Birthday" to Ringo on stage with his friends and family.
Source: Andrew Magnotta
The Beatles family suffers from a tragic loss of Joe Flannery, who served the band as a booking manager from 1962 – 1963. Flannery has died in his property in Aigburth, Liverpool.
Joe Flannery (87), who was often regarded as the “Secret Beatle”, and also the person who helped to kickstart The Beatles.
Here is what his nephew Norman Meek said about his lost:
“He had been unwell for the past month but he was still making plans for the future. Fans from all over the world would call at his home and he was always happy to speak with them.
He had a song, ‘Much Missed Man’, and I’m sure the city would agree with that sentiment.”
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
