Beatles News
A collection of sixties memorabilia is being sold off by Welsh singer Mary Hopkin - one of the first artists to be signed to The Beatles’ Apple label.
The Pontardawe -born star, who shot to fame with 1968 UK number one single Those Were The Days, is auctioning off a collection of clothes she wore at the height of her fame, including designer stage dresses when she sang with the stars - and a rare Beatles poster from the cusp of the Fab Four’s superstardom.
The poster is advertising the Beatles’ August 1963 gig at The Pier Pavilion in Llandudno, North Wales, and is expected to auction for £400 to £800.
The same month the band went straight to number one with their second hit, “She Loves You”, marking the eruption of Beatlemania across the world.
The small concert in the north Welsh seaside town was priced at 4/6d, 6/6d and 8/6d, and was part of the Beatles’ tour of smaller venues around the UK. Auctioneer Ben Rogers Jones said: “It was right that the poster should be delivered to our auction rooms in Colwyn Bay, only three miles from the venue where The Beatles played that night.
Source: Wales Online
The timing could not be better for the WAVE 3 News Abbey Road on the River to pay homage to the iconic and acclaimed album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The album was released by The Beatles 50 years ago in 1967, and is set for the much anticipated re-release on May 26, which coincides with the five-day festival, coming up May 25-29, 2017.
Sgt. Pepper, regarded as one of the first concept albums, is known for being one of the most influential and innovative albums of all time. It won four Grammy’s, and included hits like “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” “With a Little Help From My Friends,” and “A Day in the Life.”
The new, remixed special anniversary edition of the Sgt. Pepper album includes previously unreleased takes from their recording sessions.
More than 15 events will celebrate the groundbreaking album throughout the weekend, including 9 concerts, a presentation by internationally recognized Beatles expert Scott Freiman, and a “Pepper at 50” panel discussion with author Bruce Spizer, Beatle best friend and long-time aide Tony Bramwell, and “Beatle Brunch” Radio Host Joe Johnson.
On Saturday, May 27 at 11:45 p.m., a listening party will be held for the release of the new Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Anniversary Edition.
The WAVE 3 News Abbey Road on the River will be held in Jeffersonville, Ind. at the Big Four Station Park on Memorial Day weekend, May 25-29. The 2017 lineup includes Herman’s Hermits starring Peter Noone, Grammy-winner Peter Asher, Rock-n-Roll Hall of Famers The Family Stone, The Grass Roots, Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders, Ambrosia, and former Wings band members Laurence Juber (guitarist) and Steve Holley (drummer). More than 50 bands from around the world will perform on eight indoor and outdoor stages over the course of the five-day event.
Source: The Lane Report
They might've come from Liverpool, but The Beatles certainly left their mark all over London. Here are some of our favourite London locations connected to the band: take a trip around the sights, and indulge in your very own Magical Mystery Tour of the capital.
1. Dodge the cars at Abbey Road Studios and crossing
Start your day at what's probably the most famous London Beatles landmark: Abbey Road.
The Fab Four didn't just record their Abbey Road album here; this was the location the band recorded nearly all their albums and singles from 1962 to 1970 at this famous address.
Take care if you stop for photos on that iconic pelican crossing: cars don't like stopping for the inevitable hoards of tourists all doing exactly the same thing...
2. Sample the delights at the Beatles Coffee Shop
If you've successfully swerved the traffic in the name of Instagram perfection, celebrate with a cup of coffee from The Beatles Coffee Shop at St John's Wood station.
By: Zoe Craig
Source: Londonist
A new letter reveals the reason why the BBC banned The Beatles' psychedelic masterpiece 'A Day In The Life'.
The Fab Four will issue an expanded version of 'Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band' shortly, casting new light on one of the most vital documents of the psychedelic era.
Much mythology has crowded around the album, so it's always nice to uncover a fresh artefact, a new shard of light on such a vaunted release.
The Beatles official Facebook page shared a remarkable letter from the BBC, detailing its reasons for banning 'A Day In The Life'.
It explains: "We cannot avoid coming to the conclusion that the words "I'd love to turn you on", followed by that mounting montage of sound, could have a rather sinister meaning".
The letter continues: "The recording may have been made in innocence and good faith, but we must take account of the interpretation many young people would inevitably put upon it. "Turned on" is a phrase which can be used in many different circumstances, but it is currently much in-vogue in the jargon of drug addicts".
By: Robin Murray
Source: Clash Music
If the Kennedy Center Honors is the venue’s biggest end-of-the-year party, the annual Spring Gala gives it a run for its money for live music.
Last year, a star-studded lineup of musicians — Leslie Odom Jr., Babyface, Valerie Simpson, Mary Wilson and BJ The Chicago Kid — turned out to salute the iconic music of the late Marvin Gaye.
On Monday night, this year’s ceremony delivered “Come Together: A Celebration of John Lennon,” saluting the genius behind so many Beatles hits, as well as a solo career that was tragically cut short.
“You’re wondering if we’re going to get to your favorite John Lennon song: ‘Norwegian Wood,’ ‘Strawberry Fields Forever,’ ‘Power to the People,’ ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,’ ‘Dear Prudence’? Sorry, we’re not doing any of those. Get over it,” emcee David Duchovny joked. “We would’ve loved to have played them all, but if you wanted to spend that much time sitting in a seat at the Kennedy Center, you’d be over in the Opera House watching ‘Madame Butterfly.’ … Your [butt] thanks us!”
The event kicked off with a tone-setting group performance of “Come Together” by Taj Mahal, Shawn Colvin, Jim James and Duchovny, who stuck around on stage to sing Lennon’s catchy “Instant Karma.”
After that, the unbelievably talented Corinne Bailey Rae came out to belt “Don’t Let Me Down,” followed by Esperanza Spalding wailing Lennon’s aching single “Mother” over an upright bass.
By: Jason Fraley
Source: WTOP
Turner prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller is to stage a haunting tribute to the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, in the run-up to events in Liverpool marking 50 years since the release of the band’s groundbreaking album, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The artist, who created the centenary commemoration of the lost soldiers of the Battle of the Somme last year and a controversial re-enactment of the Battle of Orgreave, has designed a series of posters that will go up around the city later this month. They will bear powerful slogans about Epstein’s devotion to the Beatles, some associating his sacrifices with those of a religious martyr.
“Rock music is a belief system, in a way, and Brian Epstein dedicated everything to the Beatles and to their success. His main concern was their well-being,” said Deller. “In terms of its characters and stories, the way we feel about rock’n’roll music since the Beatles is like religion, or at least an alternative belief system.”
When the city’s mayor, Joe Anderson, announced a carnival of arts that will begin on 25 May, the Merseyside statue of the band members – John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr – provided a handy visual reminder of the Beatles’ musical legacy. Yet, for Deller, the spectral presence of Epstein, who died in 1967 at the age of 32 after Sgt Pepper had been released, is always present alongside the Fab Four.
By: Vanessa Thorpe
Source: The Guardian
It was 36 years ago today (May 7th, 1981) that George Harrison released his tribute to John Lennon, called "All Those Years Ago." The song is notable for being the first record since the Beatles' 1970 breakup to feature all three surviving group members, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr.
According to several sources, the song was originally taped the year before for inclusion on Ringo's 1981 Stop And Smell The Roses album. Harrison had written the song with different lyrics for him to sing, with the song's basic track featuring himself on guitar and Ringo on drums. The song was left off the album, and after Lennon's murder in 1980, Harrison revamped the song into a tribute to his late bandmate.
In early 1981, Harrison, Paul and Linda McCartney, and Wings co-founder Denny Laine recorded the song's distinctive backing vocals at Harrison's home studio Friar Park. The vocal sessions were supervised by legendary Beatles producer George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick, who at the time were recording with McCartney for hisTug Of War album.
Denny Laine who had known the Beatles intimately since touring with them in the mid-'60s while still in the Moody Blues, says that there was no difference between watching Harrison and McCartney recording in the '80s and during their '60s heyday: "They were just the same as they always were. The same as the public sees them. Y'know, they just had a sort of natural way of doing things. They weren't any different in front of me and Linda than they would have been when they were in a Beatles session. They're just Paul and George as you know them."
Source: Kshe95
We were genuinely excited as we made our way into Tokyo Dome, a 55,000-seat baseball stadium, to see Paul McCartney’s “One on One” tour. That feeling waned a bit as a helpful Japanese ticket attendant led us to our seats… up higher and higher… past the Sherpas and centerfield bleachers… to a pair of seats resting three rows from the top. Oh, well. At least we were facing center stage. And we were there to see Paul McCartney
. An actual Beatle! A bucket list perennial, now safely checked off. Buying tickets from Viagogo — a reliable online vendor — doesn’t guarantee you the best choice of seats, and we just snagged the first ones we found and could afford (somewhere in the neighborhood of $140). We could only drool and imagine how much the front-section seats fetched.
A shuffle of remixed Beatles/Wings/Macca songs played over the loudspeakers before the show started, and it was an opportunity to watch the baseball stadium fill up, leaving only a handful of empty seats. There for a three-night stand, McCartney, at age 74, shows no signs of letting up. When he bounded onstage, amid the opening guitar chime of A Hard Day’s Night, there was that thrill that usually only occurs when the Star Wars music and opening credits appear on a movie screen. The Beatles “Force” remains strong in fans, four and a half decades since band members parted ways. Beatle fans never really die, even if they do apparently age.
By: Scott Garceau
Source: Philstar
Tom Murray is not surprised to see his photographs turning up on the internet but they are not usually connected with major drugs dealers.
Bury St Edmunds town councillor Tom was a photographer with the Sunday Times Magazine in the 1960s, photographing many stars and top people, including The Beatles.
It seems a collectors set of his 1968 Mad Day Out colour prints of the fab four had appealed to an Irish drug dealer, who had been arrested with 60kg of cocaine so the pictures were auctioned last week in Belfast with other illgotten gains including luxury cars, Rolex watches, horses and Gucci shoes.
Tom said: “I don’t know whether to be flattered or what! He obviously had good taste. He had a complete artist’s proof set, number 11 of 19.”
Tom says individual prints like this have gone for £3,000 to £8,000 but the auction raised about £10,000 for the set of 23. “If someone was clever they should have bought the whole set – you’d never get a set for that now.”
Source: Bury Free Press
1989 was the year classic rock surged back into the international mainstream.
It was a year that saw Lou Reed release his best album of the ’80s with New York, the Grateful Dead craft their final studio recording with Jerry Garcia with the better-than-you-remember Built to Last, Tom Petty go solo with Full Moon Fever, Billy Joel dropping his final classic LP with Storm Front, Neil Young returning to Reprise with Freedom, Rush bringing back the guitars on their Atlantic Records debut Presto and the Rolling Stones reclaiming their stake as the World’s Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Band with the exceptionally underrated Steel Wheels and its subsequent world tour. And, of course, Cycles by the Doobie Brothers.
However, perhaps the greatest record to emerge from the world of AOR in 1989 was Paul McCartney’s Flowers in the Dirt, the latest Macca LP to receive the deluxe-edition treatment as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection.
An album that impressively reclaims the artistic credibility that was nearly derailed by his creative output in the mid-’80s, McCartney’s eighth studio album is an absolute pleasure to rediscover today.
During the summer it was released, rumor had it that McCartney had recorded music for the album with Elvis Costello that would not only appear on Flowers but the new wave icon’s own new record Spike, his debut endeavor on Warner Bros. Records, which, 28 years later, remains the Costello’s most versatile album.
By: Ron Hart
Source: Observer
