Beatles News
Beatles stars Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have paid tribute to the late Tom Petty.
Rock icon Petty suffered a cardiac arrest at his home in California on Sunday (October 1) and died in hospital yesterday (October 2) at the age of 66.
The Tom Petty NME obituary: 1950 – 2017
As tributes to pour in from Petty’s musical contemporaries, McCartney and Starr have both sent messages of condolence via Twitter.
“Sending love to Tom Petty and his family at this difficult time,” McCartney wrote, before adding: “so sad to hear of his passing. What a lovely, intelligent and talented man he was.”
Starr, meanwhile, wrote: “God bless Tom Petty, peace and love to his family”. He added: “I’m sure going to miss you Tom”. See those tweets below.
Source: Luke Morgan Britton
Alan Parsons has been the major influence behind some of the most successful albums in history
He is the go-to producer for established artists who crave his authentic, warm and detailed sound on their recordings.
This is no surprise given that he learned his trade under the tutelage of the late, great Sir George Martin.
He is famous for his deft influence on the sound of Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon and The Beatles' Abbey Road and Let It Be albums.
Parsons and his songwriting partner Eric Woolfson achieved major success in the own right with The Alan Parsons Project, selling more than 60 million albums.
Source: Express.com
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony often brings together once-in-a-lifetime combinations of musicians — and the 2004 iteration was no different. Late rockers Tom Petty and Prince joined forces with Steve Winwood, Jeff Lynne, and more to perform George Harrison’s beloved Beatles anthem “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”
Petty, who died Monday at 66, had a close relationship with Harrison. The two collaborated, along with Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Bob Dylan, in the popular act the Traveling Wilburys, in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
Source: Eric Renner Brown
A sitar owned and played by George Harrison has been sold for $62,500 (£46,581) in the United States.
The instrument, purchased from a shop on London's Oxford Street in 1965, was used by Harrison during the recording of the Beatles song Norwegian Wood.
The Indian string instrument, crafted by a well-known music shop in Kolkata, was later gifted to a friend of Harrison's first wife, Patti Boyd.
The name of the successful bidder has not been disclosed by the auctioneers.
Bidding for the sitar began on 28 September at $50,000 (£37,327).
Harrison had discovered the sitar in 1965, on the set of the Beatles' second film, Help.
Source:BBC
Longtime Beatles' producer George Martin's scores for several of the group's films will be among the tracks on George Martin: The Film Scores and Original Orchestra Compositions, a posthumous compilation due out November 10.
The set, recorded by the Berlin Music Ensemble conducted by Craig Leon, who also produced the album, will include Martin's instrumental pieces from the Beatles' Yellow Submarine, as well as scores for "Live and Let Die," "Pulp" and more along with some unreleased works.
A five-and-a-half minute trailer for the album has been posted online showing Leon and the orchestra working on the material.
Leon says that the album grew out of another "unnamed" project he was working on that gave him access to the manuscripts of Martin's scores.
Source: Erica Banas
Ringo Starr, famous for being a quarter of the Beatles and one of two still living, released his 19th studio album on Sept. 15 after a two year hiatus. For being such a legendary musician, Starr honestly let me down with this new album, “Give More Love."
I had hope for a promising, fruitful album upon listening to the first track, “We’re on the Road Again,” with its triumphant guitars and catchy sound. The lyrics are symbolic of his return to music and touring with this latest release. Former Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney and Eagles’ guitarist Joe Walsh collaborated on this song, which provides all the explanation for why it is arguably one of the album’s best. Yet, the song set up a false pretense that the rest of the album would be as good as the opener.
Source:Ysabella Ramirez
PBS today announced the U.S. broadcast premiere of Academy Award®-winner Ron Howard's authorized and highly acclaimed Emmy® Award and GRAMMY Award®-winning documentary film about The Beatles' phenomenal early career. THE BEATLES: EIGHT DAYS A WEEK - THE TOURING YEARS premieres Saturday, November 25, 8:00-10:30 pm ET (check local listings ) on PBS. The film will be followed by an encore broadcast of SGT. PEPPER'S MUSICAL REVOLUTION, 10:30-Midnight ET on PBS, which continues the story beyond The Beatles' touring years, during the months the band spent creating Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, a groundbreaking masterwork that became popular music's most universally acclaimed album.
Source: Broadway World
Leslie Cavendish was the Beatles' hairdresser for nine years at the height of their fame
Fifty years on he can still vividly remember the moment his life changed for ever.
It was an ordinary Saturday in October 1966 and Leslie had just finished styling actress Jane Asher’s hair at the Vidal Sassoon salon in London where he worked.
As he removed the gown from her shoulders she asked whether Leslie was free later that day to do a house visit “as my boyfriend needs a haircut”.
Her boyfriend was of course McCartney.
Source: Sadie Nicholas
“The masses will catch up with us in 2020.” – John Lennon
A little over 50 years ago, on Nov. 9, 1966 (9/11 in British usage), Paul McCartney was decapitated in a car crash, and was soon replaced, unbeknownst to the public, by a lookalike with equal or better musical abilities, the impostor “Faul” we have lived with till today.
It was a rainy night and after a late session at their Abbey Road studios, ending in an argument amongst the Beatles, Paul got into his Aston Martin and picked up a streetwalker named Rita (of “Lovely Rita” fame) along the way; Rita got excited when she realized who she was with, making Paul lose control.
MI5 , the British intelligence agency, believed that hundreds would commit suicide if the shocking news were revealed, and besides the Beatles were a national treasure bringing in untold revenues. So a man named Billy Shears (or William Campbell), a Scottish lad, was made to fill in, after the requisite plastic surgeries.
This new Beatle, known to the cognoscenti as “Faul,” turned out to be an even better musician than the original Paul. But the Beatles, struck by bad conscience, kept strewing their albums, both aurally and visually, with a multitude of clues about what had happened; discerning Beatles fans would therefore know the truth. The man we know today as Sir Paul McCartney is actually Faul, who has done an outstanding job of impersonation for twice the length of the original Paul’s lifespan.
Source: Anis Shivani
A rare, unreleased demo of The Beatles' "What Goes On"—recorded in 1963 and featuring John Lennon on vocals—has surfaced on on eBay through Parlogram.
Though the song would not be released by The Fab Four until 1965's Rubber Soul, the song actually predates The Beatles. Lennon originally wrote the song all the way back in the late Fifties, for his pre-Beatles group the Quarrymen.
Lennon kept the song around, and—according to Parlogram—even considered recording it with the group as a follow-up to their breakthrough hit, "Please, Please Me," before dropping it in favor of the single's eventual follow-up, "From Me to You."
The song continued to kick around though, and the band eventually recorded it for Rubber Soul with rewritten verses, a solo from George Harrison, and Starr on lead vocals.
The demo—which is currently up for auction—features Lennon on lead vocals and acoustic guitar, with Paul McCartney providing harmonies. You can hear a snippet of it—recorded directly from the acetate—below.
Source: Jackson Maxwell
