Paul Mccartney's Retching Ritual

Sir Paul McCartney has revealed his pre-concert ritual involves him drinking salt water before going stage. Sir Paul McCartney makes himself sick before playing live. The music legend has a pre-concert ritual of gargling with salt water, but admits it makes him vomit. When asked if he has any rituals, Paul said: "Well yes, kind of. I've got a couple of little things I do in the dressing room, but it's really minimal, you know, it's more superstitious [read more]

McCartney in meat-free Monday drive

Sir Paul McCartney has appealed for "people power" to make the difference in the fight against global warming. In an article he says cutting out meat consumption one day a week can have a major impact on reducing CO2 emissions. Sir Paul, who takes his "Meat-free Monday" campaign to Brussels this week, uses an interview in Parliament Magazine to insist that halving UK household meat consumption would do more to reduce emissions than halving the use of private transport. The estimate, by Compassion in World Farming, is central to a crusade Sir Paul began last June and will continue on Thursday at a European Parliament conference also being attended by UN climate change chief Dr Rajendra Pachauri. [read more]

Thoughts On Providence In The History Of The Beatles

I was playing Beatles Rock Band with my brother the other day, and again I was led to thinking about just how incredible the story of The Beatles is. If anyone has every played the game, or seen Rain (the Beatles cover band), The Beatles Anthology DVD set or even The Ruttles, you know that the story of The Beatles is so beautifully clear, divided up into their Hamburg days, early Beatlemania and the Ed Sullivan show period, their psychedelic period and their bearded Abby Road/Let It Be final chapter, that its nearly Shakesperian or Biblical. In fact, it's too perfect. The characters are too beautifully drawn, the conflicts too fundamentally human, the accomplishments too incredible and in-diminishable. As I've often said, when one poses the challenge of The Beatles vs. Logic, somehow The Beatles win nearly every time. [read more]

Movie director's joy as Yoko Ono backs her John Lennon film

MOVIE director Sam Taylor Wood risked everything on the gamble that her film about the teenage John Lennon would win the approval of Yoko Ono. As she filmed Nowhere Boy, which stars newcomer Aaron Johnson, the director knew her movie had to end with the sound of the murdered Beatle singing his passionate ballad Mother. But Yoko said she would only consider letting the song be used on the big screen for the first time after seeing the film. Artist-turned-filmmaker Sam said: "It was a nerve-wracking experience. I don't know what we would have done if we had [read more]

New Song 'Lucy' Helped Julian Lennon Forgive His Father

Julian Lennon's new song, 'Lucy,' bears a familiar name to Beatle fans. Indeed, the song, co-written with James Scott Cook, was partially inspired by his childhood friend, Lucy Vodden, the same woman his father John Lennon made famous in 'Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.' For Lennon to be able to musically embrace his past is a big step. "I had to be very much at a certain point in my life to be able to accept this and feel it was right to do it now," he tells Spinner. "As many out there know, for a long time I wouldn't say that I shunned dad or the Beatles, but I certainly side-stepped them and wanted to carve my own path, so to speak." [read more]

George Harrison Dreamed Of Wilburys Ship Tour

Late rocker GEORGE HARRISON once dreamed up a high seas adventure for supergroup the TRAVELING WILBURYS - but it was too much of a risk to get TOM PETTY, BOB DYLAN, ROY ORBISON and the former BEATLES star himself on a boat. Harrison shared his sailing tour idea with Petty, explaining the End of the Line hitmakers would dock in coves and perform for anyone who could row out for the show. Petty recalls, "He said, 'We should get a ship, just sail around. We could pull into a cove and play to guys in outrigger canoes. And we'll call it the Sponsor Ship. We'll paint a different corporate logo on it every day. That'll pay for the trip.' He was so funny." But the Free Fallin' singer admits it might have been the only way Harrison would have agreed to tour. He tells Rolling Stone magazine, "His biggest problem was the machinery of managers and booking agents. "He said to me once, 'I can't face waking up in Philadelphia and having to go to the soundcheck.'" SOURCE - Contactmusic News

Jimi Hendrix Has Greatest Riff

Jimi Hendrix's 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return)' has been voted as having the best guitar riff ever in a poll conducted by music website MusicRadar.com. Jimi Hendrix's 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return)' has been voted as having the best guitar riff of all time. The 1970 track beat Guns N' Roses classic 'Sweet Child O'Mine' - which topped the poll five years ago - to the top spot in the poll by website MusicRadar,com, with 'Whole Lotta Love' by Led Zeppelin coming third. Just two songs from the past decade made the list; Muse's 2001 hit 'Plug In Baby' at 11 and The White Stripes' 'Seven Nation Army' [read more]

Beatles items on exhibition in HK

A rare collection of The Beatles memorabilia will be on exhibition in Hong Kong, where the band had performed during their first world tour in 1964. "The Beatles: The Half-Century Legend", which will open to the public on Friday, features some 50 items including limited platinum records, autographed pictures, posters and personal instruments. The collection, drawn from The Beatles Museum in Japan, is worth over 3 million HK dollars. Among the most precious items is a guitar once owned by former member Paul McCartney in the 1970s, which is said to be worth 700,000 HK dollars, according to the curator of The Beatles Museum. Also on display is a decoration mirror hand made by former member John Lennon. The exhibition is going to be held in Tmtp Plaza, Hong Kong, and will run till January of next year. Source: CCTV.

Paul McCartney still feels Fab

Despite the fact it's been almost 40 years since the band split, the 67-year-old music legend loves playing the Fab Four's songs live because it takes him on a trip down memory lane. Paul - who played in The Beatles with Ringo Starr and the late John Lennon and George Harrison - said: "I still think I am in The Beatles - it is something you don't want to lose. If I am doing songs from The Beatles, I remember the session when we recorded it. If I am doing 'Something' obviously I am thinking of George, and the memories of playing the ukulele. In a way you are revisiting them." [read more]

Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston to play Lennon

Former Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston is to play John Lennon in a BBC drama marking 30 years since the singer's murder in 1980. Lennon Naked will tackle the death of Beatles manager Brian Epstein, Lennon's developing relationship with Yoko Ono and his departure from the fab four. The 90-minute drama ends in 1971 - the year Lennon released his album Imagine and he and Ono moved to New York. [read more]

Mccartney Almost Quit Over Stagefright

SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY's crippling stagefright almost cost him his place in THE BEATLES in the mid-1960s. The Hey Jude hitmaker admits he would feel sick because he was wracked with nerves before shows and big events and he contemplated whether the run of fame was worth the nauseating feeling in his stomach after one excruciating experience during NME magazine's awards ceremony in London. He says, "They used to have a thing called the NME Poll Winners Party, where the owner of the NME would get us, the Stones, all the top acts, to come and perform for nothing! This was a couple of years into The Beatles' career. "I remember being on the steps of Wembley Town Hall (in London), literally getting ill with nerves, and thinking, 'I've got to give this business up, this is no good'. It was quite nerve-wracking. "I'm not so bad now. I know I've got a really good band, which helps." Source

Paul McCartney To Play Fireman Live

Former Beatle and Knight of the British Empire Sir Paul McCartney has revealed that a special concert based purely on his Fireman project with producer and erstwhile Killing Joke bassist Youth might be a very real possibility. Speaking exclusively to The Quietus on the eve of the launch of his new live DVD, ‘Good Evening New York’, McCartney said: “We might well have to do a special venue and say, ‘We’re only doing Fireman stuff tonight and nothing else!’ and if people went for that then we’d have something.” [read more]

McCartney 'revisits' Beatles and Linda in song

Paul McCartney said today his concerts are a way of making contact with other Beatles members and his late wife Linda. The singer was at a bar in London to launch his new CD and DVD set, titled 'Good Evening New York City', recorded during his three-night stint in New York’s Citi Field, formerly the site of the Shea Stadium which was the location for a famed appearance by the Beatles in the mid-1960s. Sir Paul was asked if his concerts were in some way a tribute to his deceased Beatles bandmates John Lennon and George Harrison and his late wife Linda. He replied: “Yeah, it is you know. If I’m doing songs by the Beatles I obviously remember the sessions we recorded, there’s always an element of that. [read more]

Harrison Too Humble To Front The Heartbreakers

Late BEATLES star GEORGE HARRISON almost landed TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS as his backing band but was too reluctant to play the frontman for a world tour. After performing with Bob Dylan on the Temples in Flames tour in the late 1980s, Petty offered his band's services to Harrison - but the Brit was too humble to lead one of the world's greatest rock groups, and Petty will always regret not pushing his old friend harder. He says, "He loved the Heartbreakers, especially (guitarist) Mike Campbell. He told me once that Ry Cooder and Mike were the best slide players... I told Mike that. I don't know if he believed me." Petty tells Rolling Stone magazine Harrison knew a tour with the Heartbreakers would be a big draw: "He knew that. But I said, 'You have to play lead guitar. People would be very disappointed if you didn't.' "It just never happened. Thinking back on it, it should have. But I don't think any of us really tried to make it happen... It wasn't meant to be. It didn't go that way." Petty and Harrison did become bandmates, however, in supergroup the Traveling Wilburys, opposite Dylan, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison. Source - Contactmusic News

Stars turn out for premiere of John Lennon film Nowhere Boy in Liverpool

STARS of a new movie about John Lennon’s early life turned out for the film’s charity premiere at the Odeon in Liverpool One. Nowhere Boy, which closed the London Film Festival last month, covers the Beatle’s teenage years in Liverpool during the 1950s. One of the original members of Lennon’s first group The Quarrymen, Pete Shotton, said the movie “captured the era”. The film will go on general release on Boxing Day, but its northern premiere brought the cast and crew back to the city last night. Proceeds will go to the city’s Alder Hey Imagine appeal. Liverpool actor David Morrissey, who plays Lennon’s stepfather Bobby Dykins, was welcomed by flashing cameras when he made an appearance on the red carpet. [read more]

CTV Acquires North American Broadcast Premiere of Beatles Special

CTV has acquired the North American broadcast premiere of The Beatles on Record, a new, in-depth and revealing special. Giving viewers an intimate glimpse of the creative process behind their musical masterpiecess, The Beatles On Record is narrated entirely by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Sir George Martin, and features never-before-heard outtakes of studio chat from the band’s first recording sessions at the infamous Abbey Road studios. broadcastermagazine.com - Broadcaster Magazine - 11/25/2009

Julian Lennon Teams With Birch and Meagher To Launch “theREVOLUTION”

You say you want theRevolution? Well, you know, we all want to change the music world… Tapping the reach of the Internet and a power-shifting business model, musician Julian Lennon and digital pioneers Michael Birch and Todd Meagher today officially announced the launch of theRevolution LLC, a full-service, artist-focused, music services company. In the vanguard of theRevolution is the single “Lucy,” co-written by Lennon and James Scott Cook, to be released on a four-track EP on December 15. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to two charities focused on lupus, an autoimmune disease afflicting Cook’s Grandmother Lucy, as well as Lennon’s late childhood friend Lucy Vodden, a watercolor painting of whom led John Lennon to write “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” [read more]

Rock of ages

WHEN people remember the stars of the British rock scene in the 1960s and ‘70s, Eric Clapton and George Harrison are two names almost certain to rate a mention. But what about Pattie Boyd? Never heard of her? Boyd was married to Harrison for seven years from 1970, and two years later tied the knot with Clapton, a friend of her former husband. But Boyd wasn’t just a random rock groupie. She was a successful fashion model who found herself in an enviable position. As a budding photographer, she was able to take intimate pictures of some of the world’s greatest musicians, building up an archive that, until recently, was left to gather dust. “I didn’t want to open boxes of accumulated photos that I had taken over the years; I believed they would remind me of times of both sadness and happiness that I wasn’t ready to look at,” she said. [read more]

New Music Company Releasing Julian Lennon's Lucy

Tapping the reach of the Internet and a power-shifting business model, musician Julian Lennon and digital pioneers Michael Birch and Todd Meagher today officially announced the launch of theRevolution LLC, a full-service, artist-focused, music services company. On December 15, the company will mark its first release with the four-song EP Lucy, featuring the same-named title track written by James Scott Cook and Julian Lennon. Produced by Todd Meagher, the lead single "Lucy" is Lennon's first single in close to a decade. [read more]

20 Beatles Buried Treasures

Let’s face it: there’s no such thing as a “buried treasure” in the Beatles catalogue. How could there be? This is the most picked-over band in the history of music. Every single thing they ever released is readily available in the form of an official CD—and, yes, I know there are reams of bootleg materials out there, but for a band that was so focused and deliberate in the studio, such experiments, outtakes, and gestures hardly seem to count. Unlike with, say, Elvis Costello or the Who, or the Rolling Stones—each of whom have both a canon of songs which (ahem) your mother should know and a raft of top-flight material that, while officially released, is often overlooked by casual listeners—the Beatles’ work is pretty much all über-famous. And, while you might be able to make a case for a very limited number of tracks—“You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)” springs to mind—that people at large might not know very well, in the case of the Beatles this is usually because (and again, I’m looking at you “You Know My Name”) they are gawdawful. [read more]

Sgt. Pepper Sets the Stage: The Album as a Work of Art

The most popular group in the history of popular music made many masterpieces. George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr created artistic works of untold musical, technological and cultural significance during their eight short years together as The Beatles. Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, numerous others. But one album in particular caused more commotion than any one of their other long-players. It was an album that introduced relatively new ideas to the group’s immense audience in the form of an overall “concept,” intended to give the songs a unified, cohesive feel. This album was Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, thirty-nine minutes and thirteen songs performed and packaged in the most outlandish and unthinkable way at the time. When the album was released on 1 June, 1967, in the midst of the “Summer of Love,” the world stood up and took notice, for better or worse (MacDonald, 1994). [read more]

Paul McCartney Doesn't Understand the Internet

What's Paul McCartney's doomsday scenario? Someone, somewhere, somehow manages to leak the Beatles' music onto the internet, where it will be stolen by everyone, all the time. This must be prevented! Notice a problem there? Yeah, it gets worse. A few days ago, we found out that Apple Corps and EMI would finally release the Beatles' catalog in a digital format. It's not that we couldn't have just purchased CDs and ripped them—that's what everyone's been doing for years now—it's just that it felt like progress. In reality, it was just the near-random actions of someone who has no idea what's going on, at all. From the Guardian via Ars, Paul McCartney's view on selling the Beatles' music online: [read more]

Listen Up: Rock and Roll Artifacts Under Surveillance

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex keeps decades of music alive through rare videos of rock's greatest musicians playing on wall-sized screens, along with a display of prized artifacts including guitars, clothing and original sheet music from legends like John Lennon and Mick Jagger. Guarding the extensive collection, which is located in New York City's SoHo area, is a priority. Guards with Motorola radios and chic black suits man their posts, while shatter-resistant transparent casings surround many items (though not the 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible owned by Bruce Springsteen . [read more]

MACCA'S FINAL CHOICE

X Factor chiefs have lined up Sir Paul McCartney to be the special guest star on the show's live final next month. The former Beatle is in talks to take to the stage on December 13 for his first appearance on the hugely popular ITV series. If Macca signs, the theme for the grand final would be Beatles week, which has been postponed from tonight's show. An X Factor insider revealed: "The big plan by Simon Cowell is to get Sir Paul for the final, which would be just fantastic. "Everybody knows the Beatles wrote some of the best songs in history so it would be a sensational end for the series." [read more]

Beatles documentary on History channel

Beatles fans will be giving thanks next week for some holiday TV specials featuring the Fab Four. The documentary "The Beatles on Record," debuts at 10 p.m. Wednesday on the History channel, focusing on the group's recorded works. Director Bob Smeaton, who also helmed the celebrated "Beatles Anthology" series, weaves together commentary by the four band members and producer George Martin as the program's sole narration, while the 60-plus song clips include previously unreleased studio material. An hour-long portion of the new Paul McCartney DVD, "Good Evening in New York City," follows at 10 p.m. Thanksgiving on ABC.[read more]

Walk in the footsteps of The Beatles

The first guided tour app of Beatles locations is released on the App store for the Apple iPhone® this month. Fully digital and downloadable, it celebrates the 40th anniversary this November of the band’s Abbey Road LP topping both UK and US album charts. Beatles Walk London includes 16 key Fab Four locations from Abbey Road’s zebra crossing to the Savile Row rooftop.

Incorporating maps, written content and pictures, the app has been created by designers Clay Interactive with writers David Roberts and Martin Downham and is available for download.

The app can operate independently as an informative look at London’s Beatle locations or enjoyed as a walking tour guide with easy to follow instructions street by street.

The app is the first of a series of literary and pop walks to be launched soon. Visit http://www.itunes.com/app/beatleswalklondon

.

Goo goo g'joob: The Beatles still rule

I n the past few months, it's been like that whole deja vu thing all over again. Or, at the very least, a second wave of Beatlemania. On Sept. 9, the complete Beatles catalogue — every album, every single — was rereleased, brilliantly remastered and digitally scrubbed pristine. It was timed to coincide with the release of a new video computer game, "Rockband — The Beatles," which introduced The Fabs to a whole new generation in the brand new millennium. Beatle freaks will appreciate the irony: Sept. 9, 2009, was the ninth day in the ninth month in the ninth year of the 21st Century. (No. 9 ... No. 9 ... No. 9 ... Get it?). Smart, those Apple executives. As a first generation Beatles fan, I'd already single-handedly made the Beatles millionaires by buying every album and every single record 40 years ago, then, in turn, every subsequent 8-track, cassette and CD release. [read more]

Disney Casting Call for John/Paul/George/Ringo at BEATexpo Nov. 28-29

"BEATexpo 2009," coming to the Downtown Stamford Holiday Inn in Stamford, CT on November 28-29, currently boasts a wonderful guest-list, some fine tribute bands, a memorabilia marketplace + other worthy convention attractions. Now the event has one other amazing element to it: a motion picture casting call! But not just any casting call, this is the national audition for the upcoming Fab Four film being produced by Disney. They are not looking for singers, as the film is using 16 original Beatles tracks, but they are seeking four actors to play the leads who resemble or can imitate, or have the mannerisms and idiosyncrasies of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr. Aspiring actors and hopefuls are invited to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play a Beatle in what will undoubtedly be the biggest animated film of the year (it was previously reported that this was the 3-D remake of "Yellow Submarine"). The official casting call takes place at the hotel's "Shippan Point Room" on Saturday, Nov. 28 from 10am-6pm and Sunday, Nov. 29 from 12 noon-8pm as part of the convention. Below are the casting details...

FOR AUDITION, PLEASE CHOOSE THE ROLE THAT YOU BEST EMBODY:

[JOHN] 20-45, British Accent (Liverpool).LEAD ROLE

[PAUL] 20-45, British Accent (Liverpool).LEAD ROLE

[RINGO] 20-45, British Accent (Liverpool).LEAD ROLE

[GEORGE] 20-45, British Accent (Liverpool).LEAD ROLE


BE A BEATLE IN A MOVIE!

AUDITION INFO:

Location: BEATexpo 2009/Holiday Inn Stamford

At 700 E. Main St., Stamford, CT *Shippan Point Room*

Dates: Saturday 11/28 10am-6pm, Sunday, 11/29 12 noon-8pm

*please come dressed appropriately for the late 60's era

*actors should come in character with the accent & mannerisms

This film will be done in the Motion Capture technique that has been used in features such as BEOWULF, THE POLAR EXPRESS, A CHRISTMAS CAROL and MONSTER HOUSE. The human characters will resemble the Fab Four and not the particular actor playing the role. For all of the characters, we will capture not only the actor's voice but also physical performance in incredible detail. The captured performance then drives the computer-generated character in the final screen image. The actor's actual performance is very non-technical and liberating and is rehearsed and performed in a studio like a play.

Those auditioning will be portraying characters between ages 20-45. Actors should come dressed appropriately for the late 60's era and come in character with required accents and mannerisms. For research material and audition scenes, visit the blog: http://fabfourcasting.blogspot.com.

Nutty Politician attacks Macca

Paul McCartney has been caught-up in an unseemly row with a politician over "farting cows". Paul Nuttall has accused the former Beatle of "propagandising" in his long-running passion for environmental issues. The Liverpudlian UKIP MEP has criticised his actions, which include trying to cut the greenhouse gasses that come from cattle. "He is just propagandising", insisted Nuttall on the suggestion that the public cut-out meat once a week. Maybe it is healthier but that should be their choice and not because a pop star thinks farting cows and pigs herald the end of mankind", he insisted. A spokesman for Macca declined to comment on the matter.

Remaining Beatles Reunite on Ringo Starr Album

The two remaining living Beatles reunited to work on Ringo Starr’s new album, Y Not, reports Consequence of Sound. The album is due Jan. 12 of next year. “Paul was doing the Grammys, so he came over to the house and was playing bass on ‘Peace Dream.’ So I played him this other track and Paul said, ‘Give me the headphones. Give me a pair of cans.’ And he went to the mike and he just invented that part where he follows on my vocal. That was all Paul McCartney, and there could be nothing better,” Starr told Rolling Stone. Paul McCartney joined Starr for several tracks on the upcoming album, including the first single “Walk With Me,” where the pair trade singing duties. McCartney also played bass on the track “Peace Dream,” reports Billboard. Other artists making an appearance on Y Not include Joe Walsh from the Eagles, Joss Stone, Ben Harper, Van Dyke Parks, and Richard Marx. SOURCE

A chat with Mike Love of The Beach Boys.

In 1968, Beatle Paul McCartney and Beach Boy Mike Love were at the breakfast table in India. McCartney had come to Love with a very rough form of “Back in the U.S.S.R.,” which he began writing on the trip. Over pancakes and fruit, McCartney started singing the chorus. “Paul sang me the verse. I told him he should talk about the Russian girls in Moscow,” Love explains. “He took my idea and incorporated it into the song.” Show(Surf) Up!: A chat with Mike Love of The Beach Boys.

Are The Beatles overrated?

WHEN it comes to music, MY Sun users know a thing or two. Be it pop or punk, rap or reggae, there is nothing 'Helter Skelter' about their opinions on their favourite artists.
The latest debate heating up the music lovers on our Entertainment forum concerns one of the best-known bands of all-time - The Beatles - with users from 'Across The Universe' (well, across the globe) sharing their stance with the musical masses. Our 'Magical Mystery Tour' of opinions starts with Rustie, who is very much a fan of the boys from the Mersey: [read more]

O’Dell recalls friendships, travels with the Beatles

While a Touchstone press release blurb referred to Chris O’Dell’s book, “Miss O’Dell: My Hard Days and Long Nights with The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and the Women They Loved”, as “the ultimate fly-on-the-wall rock memoir,” O’Dell hopes that readers take it as more than just a history of rock and roll. “I hope that people will feel they are there with me on the journey and really connect to it,” she said in an interview. “Most of the book is about relationships, addiction, forgiveness . . . it’s about the human experience.” O’Dell’s co-author Katherine Ketcham also had some ideas. “I think Chris’s story also shows how drugs can obstruct these relationships,” said Ketcham. “It’s also about her experience during an incredible era and . . . how many challenges and joys a young person can face.” [read more]

Beatles download websites shut down

Two websites that sold songs by The Beatles for 25 cents apiece should remain shut down indefinitely, a US federal judge has ruled. US District Judge John F Walter issued a preliminary injunction against BlueBeat.com and Basebeat.com at the request of music company EMI Group. The injunction prohibits the sites and their owner, Hank Risan, from streaming or selling songs by the Beatles and other popular artists, including Lily Allen and Coldplay.
[read more]

This class ensures that rock and roll will never die

As years pass and old generations fade, American culture often fails to remember the old style in favor of the new. In music, names like Miley Cyrus replace Jimi Hendrix and major cultural symbols like Bob Dylan fall into obscurity in favor of the latest mainstream craze. For many, the Beatles are nothing more than the "Across the Universe" band, or the latest feature in the "Rock Band" video game. Sandra Liddy's Rock History class is determined to shed light on the culture of a past age, with the roots and unique stories of rock and roll. [read more]

David Lynch to make film about Beatles guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

David Lynch is to make a film about The Beatles' meditation guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The filmmaker, who recently collaborated with Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse on their 'Dark Night Of The Soul' project, says he is travelling to India this December to start filming. The Maharishi first became known in the western world in the late '60s, after musicians including The Beatles attended his meditation classes in Rishikesh, India. The band later referenced the visit in several songs, including 'Sexy Sadie' and an early version of John Lennon's 'Jealous Guy' (then called 'Child Of Nature').[read more]

2ND ANNUAL BEATLES COMPLETE ON UKULELE FESTIVAL MOVES TO BROOKLYN BOWL

The 2nd Annual Beatles Complete on Ukulele Festival has a whole new look. Formerly a two-day event scheduled at Williamsburg’s N8, the show will now be a legendary one-day Beatles marathon on Sunday December 6 from 11AM to midnight at Williamsburg’s hippest new hangout, Brooklyn Bowl (61 Wythe Avenue between N. 11th & 12th streets).

“I’m ecstatic over the festival moving to Brooklyn Bowl”, says organizer/music producer Roger Greenawalt. “It’s the perfect venue for people to get comfy and cozy for a full day of great Beatles music. Not to mention, the food is fantastic which will be much appreciated after a long day of ‘ukeing’.”

Although a three-hour reduction from the original 16-hour allotment, the entire 185 song Beatles catalogue will still be covered in its entirety. Confirmed acts thus far include Adam Green, The Pierces, Vanessa Carlton, Ryan Miller (Guster), the Naked Brothers, and over 60 other guest singers.

Brooklyn Bowl is not the only exciting addition to the festival. Free admission will be granted to all who arrive at 11AM with ukulele in hand, ready to participate in the Mass Ukulele Beatle Rally. This volunteer ukulele group will rehearse 2 songs with Greenawalt and open the show at noon with their world debut. “I want this to be a communal celebratory event that voids the barrier between performer and audience. This is a fantastic way to set that precedent for the rest of the evening.”

This year's financial beneficiary remains Yoko Ono made evident by the 16 Yoko impersonators set to take the stage throughout the event.

In addition to the Beatles Complete Festival, Greenawalt and co-organizer David Barratt are nine-months into an ongoing 185-week project (one for every Beatle's song), where a different artist will cover a new song each week. In addition, essays accompany each new release, covering the song's history and other relevant Beatles facts. The project kicked off on January 20, 2009 and is set to conclude on July 31, 2012.

Visit http://rogeranddave.blogspot.com for full schedule.

Osbourne Delighted By Mccartney Snub

OZZY OSBOURNE was stunned when SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY refused to collaborate with him - because the former BEATLE insisted he didn't want to spoil the rocker's record. The Black Sabbath frontman used a chance meeting with the veteran star to ask whether he would like to make some music together. And Osbourne was shocked when MCCartney declined, because the Yesterday hitmaker didn't feel he could improve Osbourne's song. Osbourne tells British magazine Heat, "Meeting Paul MCCartney was f**king phenomenal. I was in the studio at the same time as him, and tried to get him to play bass on one of my songs. But he said he couldn't improve on the bass-line that was there. I said, 'Are you kidding? You could p**s on the record and I'd make it my life." [source]

Boyd Regrets Leaving Harrison

GEORGE HARRISON's ex-wife PATTI BOYD will always regret leaving her husband for rocker ERIC CLAPTON - insisting it has taken "a lot of psychotherapy" for her to bury the past. Boyd married the late Beatle in 1966 when she was just 21 but they split eight years later and the model went on to marry Harrison's close friend and collaborator, Clapton. The 65 year old admits she has always wished she'd tried harder to make her marriage to Harrison work, as they were just too young to have walked down the aisle. She says, "Eric kept coming over and declaring his love and passion for me. Because I was being ignored by my husband and being young, I found it irresistible. Maybe if we weren't so young, maybe we could have made it work." And Boyd reveals she has undergone years of counselling to help lay her demons to rest: "With a lot of help from a psychotherapist I am thankful to be free." Harrison died in 2001. Source - Contactmusic News

Audience Goes Wild for James McCartney

Rocker James McCartney played his U.S. debut last night at Fairfield's new Sondheim Center. The two shows were part of the David Lynch Foundation's fourth annual "Change Begins Within" weekend at Maharishi University. McCartney, son of Beatle Paul, opened a three-ring musical circus that included Iowan Laura Dawn and folk legend Donovan. "It's very different having a famous father," film director Lynch quipped when introducing McCartney. "My father was Elvis Presley." The audience, heavily weighted with aging '60s boomers, went wild when the 32-year-old singer/guitarist walked on stage with Light, his band. [read more]

Paul McCartney's "Good Evening New York City": Exclusive Video Of "I'm Down" From New DVD

In July of this year, performing for over 100,000 people at New York's Citi Field, Paul McCartney played the inaugural concert in the new stadium, covering many of his biggest hits as well as famous Beatles classics. It was a return to the scene where the Fab Four's 1965 appearance at Shea pioneered the concept of stadium rock concerts, and McCartney's electric performance of the Help b-side "I'm Down," one of the three-day event's major highlights, is featured on his new CD/DVD, Good Evening New York City. Here is an exclusive clip of that performance from the DVD: [read more/watch video]

Paul McCartney Awarded Third Gershwin Prize

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today named music legend Paul McCartney as the recipient of the third Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. An all-star tribute concert is planned for spring 2010. “As a great admirer of the Gershwins’ songs, I am highly honored to be given the Gershwin Prize by such a great institution as the Library of Congress,” McCartney said. The prize commemorates George and Ira Gershwin, the legendary American songwriting team whose extensive manuscript collections reside in the Library of Congress. The prize is awarded to musicians whose lifetime contributions in the field of popular song exemplify the standard of excellence associated with the Gershwins. The Gershwin Prize is also meant to draw attention to the musical collections in the Library of Congress, especially the vast popular-music collection, and to encourage students, teachers, scholars and researchers to use this free public resource in their scholarly investigations. [read more]

Christopher Eccleston ‘plays John Lennon in TV drama’

Television actor Christopher Eccleston will soon be seen playing John Lennon in new BBC drama ‘John Lennon - Naked’. In fact, the first day of the shoot saw the filming of the event back in October 18, 1968, when the Beatles member and his girlfriend Yoko Ono were arrested following a drugs raid at a flat in London. During the incident, cops had found 200 grams of marijuana and half a gram of morphine inside the basement apartment in London’s Montagu Square that belonged to Beatles drummer Ringo Starr. Yoko, who was pregnant, had a miscarriage after the arrest, and the ‘Imagine’ hitmaker pleaded guilty and paid 150 pounds over fears that she would be deported. The Daily Star reported, Dr Who actor was not recognizable in Lennon’s trademark long straggly hair. The 90-minute drama will be aired on BBC4 next year. (ANI)

Dhani Harrison

Dhani Harrison may be best known as George Harrison's only son. But the singer/guitarist was a consultant for more than two years for the "Beatles: Rock Band" video game, and he fronts his own group, thenewno2, which performed Saturday with Wolfmother in Minneapolis. Harrison has been enamored of late with "Knowle West Boy," an album by another Brit, Tricky. "That's one I haven't stopped playing. It was produced by Bernard Butler, who's the guy from Suede. Kind of a weird pairing. He also did some really commercial records, like the Duffy record, which was a big success. Then he did Tricky, which is kind of bizarre. It's absolutely deep, excellently produced, lots of rich sounds. It jams. It's been played a lot on our bus since we've been on tour." [read more]

Oh, No! Porsche Design revives Yoko's iconic sunglasses

Stuttgart/Munich. Porsche Design stands for functional, timeless and purist design. Since the brand's foundation in 1972 it has created countless products that have gone on to become classics. One particular milestone is the sports sunglasses from Porsche Design, available again from now as the P'8479. State of the art modern materials have been used for the new edition, with Beta-Titanium, a favourite material for space travel technology, ensuring lightweight flexibility. The sporty, 80s style shield sunglasses were made famous by Yoko Ono. The artist wore them for the first time at a press conference in 1979. After that, Ono was seen in the Porsche Design glasses so often that the P'8479 is now primarily known as the Yoko Ono sunglasses. Among other appearances, the singer was pictured wearing them on the cover of "Rolling Stone" magazine as well as on the record sleeves of "Yes, I'm a witch" (2007) and "It's alright" (1982). In addition, Yoko Ono wore the sunglasses on a photo shoot for the fashion magazine, "New York". [read more]

Like the Beatle himself, ‘Paul McCartney: A Life’ is hard not to like

People have been writing about Paul McCartney for close to half a century. Through The Beatles, their breakup, Wings, his solo career and his current ride as a rock icon, he’s the act you’ve known for all these years. And in a new McCartney biography, you won’t find a lot of tabloid revelations, but you will find a throughline to his life and work, and a bit of a salvaging of his artistic reputation. “Paul McCartney: A Life,” by Peter Ames Carlin (Touchstone Books, 340 pages, $26), traces the 67-year-old man and the nearly-as-old legend, from a working-class kid in Liverpool who lost his mother at age 14 and found signs of life in the rock ’n’ roll he heard on the radio. The son of an amateur musician, McCartney soon tried to replicate those sounds, and fell in with other young rock fans, one of whom introduced him to John Lennon. [read more The Providence Journal]

High Art

“Up until LSD, I never realized that there was anything beyond this normal working state of consciousness,” George Harrison famously said in 1987. “But all the pressure was such that, as Bob Dylan said, ‘There must be some way out of here.’ I think for me it was definitely LSD. The first time I took it, I just blew everything away. I had such an incredible feeling of well being, that there was a God and I could see Him in every blade of glass. It was like gaining hundreds of years experience within 12 hours. It changed me and there was no way back to what I was before. It wasn’t all good, though, because it left quite a lot of questions as well.” [read more]

The Beatles Rock Band & The Rise Of Computer Game Music

October 20th 2009 was the 40th anniversary of the release of The Beatles' Abbey Road LP. Though it was originally their penultimate release, before the following year's Let It Be, it was actually the last thing the band recorded before going their separate ways. It's thus interesting to reflect that this final work by the most successful pop group in history was commemorated by being re-released as downloadable content for a video game alongside the conventional audio release. And even more interesting to note that combined first week sales of the entire remastered Beatles catalogue on CD, vinyl and download were just over a million, while first week sales of The Beatles: Rock Band - which features a mere 45 songs - were close behind at around 700,000. [read more]

The Prisoner: An All-Star Appreciation

It even made a deep impression on the most influential band of all time. “Before Magical Mystery Tour, the Beatles were going to do another full movie like Help, and it was all going to be based on The Prisoner,” Dhani Harrison, son of Beatles guitarist George Harrison, told Wired.com in October, before his own Prisoner-inspired band thenewno2 kicked off its inaugural North American tour. “They were going to be in a movie written and directed by Patrick McGoohan in the same vein as The Prisoner, because they thought it was one of the best series ever. They were so into his psychedelic weirdness.” [read more/video]

Bond Girls Invade Abbey Road

The pair was among a horde of cult British actors, including Martin Shaw, Brian Cox and Geoffrey Palmer, who performed poetry readings for the project. Their efforts will be released as Words For You, a CD in aid of a children's charity - and Lumley insists the stars were honoured to record their parts at the legendary London studio The Beatles made their home. She says, "It's very moving. The great excitement was this is in Abbey Road. It's the studio where The Beatles recorded. I walked down the stairs saying, 'Where am I? This is paradise.'" SOURCE - Contactmusic News

Flashback Album of the Week 'Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1'

It all started by accident; the Traveling Wilburys were never supposed to happen, but sometimes the best things in life come from the strangest of places. It was mid-1988, George Harrison had just released his "Cloud Nine" album, and he needed to record a B-Side to his single "This Is Love." Harrison and co-writer Jeff Lynne of ELO went to Bob Dylan's home studio to record the track. It just so happened that Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and Dylan were all hanging out in the studio that day, so Harrison decided they should all record a song together. That's just the way George was: he was a very hospitable person, and it led to the recording of the jovial "Handle With Care." The song was so good that they decided it needed a full-length album. Thus was the beginning of the super-group Traveling Wilburys. [read more]

8 Artists Who Were Inspired by Roy Orbison

Following his U.K. tour with the Beatles in 1963, Roy maintained a close relationship with the band, especially John Lennon and George Harrison (with whom he was a member of The Traveling Wilburys). During that first tour together, the famous story goes that Orbison was the headliner but by the time the tour was nearly over Beatlemania was so rampant that the two had to switch spots. Still, the crowd greeted opener Orbison so enthusiastically that the Beatles, worrying that they wouldn’t get to perform their set, yelled out jokingly from backstage: “Yankee, go home.” [read more]

Nothing is Real: The Beatles ‘Yellow Submarine’

Yellow Submarine, the movie, is a great, great film for children and adults, and, in its own way, is as good a Beatles movie as A Hard Day’s Night. Released in November of 1968, the same month that The White Album came out, Yellow Submarine was produced with little involvement by the Beatles themselves. It was, in fact, at least at first, little more than an attempt to cash in on the Beatles’ success by others. Not a great recipe for success. But, simply by virtue of their, admittedly inspired, extrapolation of words and images from the Beatles songbook, its producers managed to create a terrific film. [read more]

Paul McCartney's musical son

Sir Paul McCartney has inspired his son to make music. The Beatles legend is a massive influence on James, 32, who has formed The Light with pals Bryan Johnson on drums and bassist Charlie Turner, who grew up in Allerton, the same area of Liverpool where Paul spent his childhood and inspired many of the group's later hits. James - who plays a cherry-red Fender Stratocaster guitar given to him by the international star - said: "I have been playing music since I was nine and writing along the way. [read more]

The Berlin Wall: My car had a visa but I didn't

Listening to NPR this morning I learned that today is the anniversary of the fall of The Wall that separated East and West Berlin. In September of 1989 I journeyed to Hamburg, West Germany, to see a friend and visit The Wall that President Ronald Reagan demanded: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Tonight I plan to watch a PBS premiere entitled : “How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin” that tells the story of “How the Fab Four’s influence in the USSR may have helped bring down the Soviet system.” So today it seems uncertain as to who had more influence on the elimination of one of greatest impediments to human rights the world has ever witnessed. Was it Ronald Reagan or the Beatles? [read more]

Giving George Harrison's Thirty Three and 1/3 Another Spin

When people hear the name “George Harrison,” two thoughts come to mind: his work with The Beatles, and his masterpiece All Things Must Pass. Obviously the latter album stands the test of time, boasting a staggering number of quality singles: “My Sweet Lord,” “Isn’t It a Pity,” “Wah Wah,” and “What Is Life,” just to name a few. However, Harrison released several other solo albums; while some were uneven, most contained at least a few gems. One such album that has received surprisingly little attention is 1976’s Thirty-Three and 1/3, a stellar effort that features beautiful ballads, his trademark humor, and just a touch of soul. [read more]

The Ballad of Yoko Ono

There’s a fact about Yoko Ono that has been obscured over the past few decades due largely to her life and work with her late husband. Early in her career, Ono became an acclaimed and influential artist in her own right through her development of fascinating conceptual and performance pieces. Having established herself in New York City in the early 1960s, Ono undertook a boundless presentation of ideas. “Painting To Be Stepped On,” where participants joined in completing the artwork with their footprints, challenged the notion that artwork had to be placed on a wall for observation. [read more]

Veterans share service memories on John Lennon Educational Tour Bus

One year of warfare in Iraq made Cesar Pastora an angry, troubled man. A veteran of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division, Pastora fed on the exhilaration of his duties: jumping from airplanes, which he did 42 times, and participating in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He vividly remembers Iraqis toppling a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad that year, and how he came home to Miami in 2005 filled with anxiety and anger, which he quelled with cocaine, Xanax and booze. [read more]

The fifth Beatle

Pete Best, drummer with The Beatles for two years, returns to the country of his birth this week. He looks back on an almost famous life. The cellar of a large Victorian house in Liverpool, with silver stars drawn on the ceiling, the name of a certain John Lennon carved into the wall and the memory of a dusty province of the Raj, is where the biggest pop act in history began. The Casbah Coffee Club, Mo’s café. Recently in Delhi, on a stage set up to recreate that basement café, Pete Best will take his place behind his drumset and let the riffs roll: the man who almost made it, in the city of his mother’s birth. [read more]

Meet John Paul Warne

Hello everyone, I'm John Paul Warne . . . born in 1959 when The Beatles were still known as The Quarrymen! I was born in Manila, Philippines of a Filipino father (whose parents were part-American) and a Filipina mother (who was the daughter of a Spaniard), thus making me Filipino, Spanish, and American. Already you can see that I'm unique! Growing up in the exclusive village (San Lorenzo Village), which closely resembled an American town, I made friends with many expatriates from the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, and Europe residing in this village. I also was fortunate to have many Filipino friends who could afford to travel at a time when many could not afford to do so. Therefore, I was quite aware of the world outside the Philippines. [read more]

Beatles Documentary Offers Intimate Look at Recording Sessions

Get excited, Beatles fans -- a new special about the Fab Four, 'The Beatles on Record,' is set to premiere on the History Channel later this month. Debuting on Wednesday, Nov. 25 at 10PM, the Thanksgiving Eve broadcast promises a rare and intimate glimpse of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Narrated entirely by the band members and their longtime producer, Sir George Martin, the project boasts over 60 songs, rare footage and images from the Beatles' archives and never-before-heard outtakes of the band in conversation during its original recording sessions. 'The Beatles on Record' also promises a close look at the creative process behind each of its Abbey Road-recorded masterpieces. [read nore]

Kraftwerk: In praise of the electronic Beatles

Anticipation for the forthcoming Kraftwerk box set, The Catalogue, is understandably high. C'mon, it's Kraftwerk! In electronic music, they hold the same status and influence as the Beatles, creating a new vocabulary for artists to experiment with. Kraftwerk famously came out of the German experimental music scene, which the music press later dubbed "krautrock", at a time when artists were creating work devoid of ties to Teutonic tradition. Inspired by the factories in their hometown of Düsseldorf, Kraftwerk were pragmatic about creating music. They wanted to be known not as musicians, but as workers willing to take music into the future. [read more]

Strawberry Fields, Central Park, New York

He was one of four British teens who forever changed the face of rock & roll. An advocate for peace, politically outspoken and senselessly murdered — but his words continue to inspire. For these reasons, among others, in 1981 New York City Council allocated 2.5 acres in Central Park for Strawberry Fields, a tribute to John Lennon’s music and vision. Yoko Ono’s donation made it possible to redesign the landscaping and continue its maintenance. On the day that would have been Lennon’s 45th birthday, October 9, 1985, the city’s mayor dedicated Strawberry Fields at the opening ceremony. Since then, it has attracted thousands of visitors from all over the world, and 121 countries have sanctioned it a Garden of Peace. [read more]

Beatles catalog is temporarily banned from music website BlueBeat

A federal court in Los Angeles this week issued a temporary restraining order against a music website that recently had been offering the entire Beatles catalog for downloading at 25 cents per song. The Santa Cruz-based BlueBeat earlier in the week was hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit by EMI's Capitol Records, the group's U.S. label. The order set back a novel legal argument by BlueBeat that songs produced through digital regeneration are akin to songs performed by cover bands and therefore do not run afoul of copyright law. BlueBeat had argued in court filings that its downloads were legal because the company had created entirely new versions by computer through a process called "psychoacoustic simulations" that makes the re-created songs sound just like the original recordings. [read more]

Dhani Harrison: Rock Band 3 will Teach You to Play Music

Now Harrison is working on the inevitable Rock Band sequel. "I'm working on 'Rock Band 3' and making the controllers more real so people can actually learn how to play music while playing the game," he said. "Give me a couple years, it's going to happen." Rock Band 3 as both a party game and an educational tool? Sounds a little too convenient... Like Baconnaise. For the uninitiated, that's bacon flavored mayonnaise, and yes, it really exists. So would you want your videogames to teach you things, or should developers keep their learnin' out of your home? [read more]

Yoko Ono, forever a force for peace

Even before she married John Lennon, even before she embarked on a career as an avant-garde and conceptual artist, Yoko Ono was under scrutiny, first by her teachers and peers, later by people of a different region as her family fled the fire-bombings of Tokyo. When asked if it was discouraging to have her character questioned and her work strongly criticized after she became the wife of the beloved Beatle, Ono didn't even pause before responding. "I was not particularly affected by what people were saying about my work. It was kind of a normal procedure for my work in a way. I mean, I had been criticized all the time up until then." [read more]

Beatles German Tour

This is the first book dealing with the sole German tour! The Beatles took quite some time after they had said goodbye to Hamburg on January 1st,1963 after their last Star-Club engagement. It wasn‘t until June 23, 1966 that they returned to Germany for five days and six concerts in Munich, Essen and Hamburg. This book deals with this German tour in a chronological order. It explains the difficulties everybody had to pull the tour through as well as the actual preparations by the promoter and the police. Every little thing that happened in those hot five days is described in great detail in a minute-by-minute-coverage. [read more/pre-order signed book]

Eric Clapton Interview - Quotes on Addiction, Tears in Heaven, and Layla

One of the most beneficial things I’ve ever learned is how to keep my mouth shut. Up until I became a father, it was all about self-obsession. But then I learned exactly what it’s all about: the delight of being a servant. Olivier wrote that the greatest thing you could aspire to in life was to be a good servant. From the beginning, I knew intuitively that if nothing else, music was safe, and that nobody could tell me anything about it. Music didn’t need a middleman, whereas all the other things in school needed some kind of explanation. I don’t put something on tape until I’ve played around with it for a couple of weeks. I heard someone else say this -- it may have been Quincy Jones. That he gets an idea, but he doesn’t really act on it unless it keeps coming back and starts to annoy him. [read more - Esquire]

Emi Wins Injunction Over Beatles Tracks

Songs by THE BEATLES have been pulled from the internet after record label bosses at EMI won a temporary injunction against a U.S. website for allegedly selling the tracks without permission. A copyright violation lawsuit was filed at a Los Angeles court on Tuesday (03Nov09) to prevent the sale of "unauthorised content" after Bluebeat.com allegedly began offering Beatles' tracks for download at discounted prices. The Fab Four's music is not licenced for internet downloads, and last year (08) Sir Paul MCCartney announced he would like to see the band's songs available on Apple's iTunes store, but admitted negotiations had "stalled". Executives at EMI, the company that owns the Beatles' recordings, need to agree a deal with the surviving bandmates and Apple Corps before the catalogue can be made available online.
Now Bluebeat.com has been banned from streaming or selling tracks by the band, as well as other EMI artists. [read more]

Beatles fans blast outrageous fiction Nowhere Boy

A film detailing the early life of John Lennon has been condemned as "outrageous fiction" by Beatles experts. Nowhere Boy, directed by artist Sam Taylor-Wood, and premiered at the London Film Festival, depicts Lennon's famous Auntie Mimi as a domineering harridan. The screenplay by Matt Greenhalgh - who wrote the script for the 2007 Joy Division film 'Control' - is accused of distorting Lennon's childhood and adolescence. [read more]

Emi Sues Over Beatles Downloads

Record label bosses at EMI have filed suit against a U.S. website after a string of BEATLES tracks appeared online. The Fab Four's music is currently not licenced for internet downloads. Last year (08) Sir Paul MCCartney announced he would like to see the band's songs available on Apple's iTunes store, but admitted negotiations had "stalled". Executives at EMI, the company that owns the Beatles' recordings, need to agree a deal with the surviving bandmates' Apple Corps company before the catalogue can be made available online. But bosses filed legal papers to prevent the sale of "unauthorised content" after American website Bluebeat.com allegedly began offering Beatles' tracks - including recent digitally remastered versions - for download at discounted prices. The copyright violation lawsuit was filed at a Los Angeles court on Tuesday (03Nov09). SOURCE - Contactmusic News

Bootleg Beatles interview

He’s met Paul McCartney a couple of times and spent a happy two hours at a party with George Harrison once, but still his voice falters when I ask if he ever saw the Beatles in action during his childhood in Liverpool. “I could have seen them but I didn’t. I was living with my parents. I wouldn’t have gone on my own but I could have seen them at the Liverpool Empire. But my parents . . . I was up in boarding school when they were playing one time. So I didn’t actually see them live. I would absolutely love to have seen them.” His girlfriend, however did see The Beatles. “She saw them in Denmark. She’s Danish and she saw them when she was very, very young, 12 I think. But she said it was all screaming. She wanted everybody to shut up, she couldn’t hear the songs.” [read more]

US site selling Beatles' back catalogue despite EMI investigation

BlueBeat, an American website, continued selling MP3 files of every single Beatles track for 25 cents (15p), even though the group's record label, EMI, has launched an urgent investigation into the unauthorised sale. The site has also continued to stream each of the group's albums, including the recently released remastered versions, in their entirety, free of charge. [read more]

Former The Beatles drummer in India

Pete Best, the original drummer of The Beatles before they became famous, is in India. On Tuesday evening, Best was spotted in the Capital performing some hit nostalgic numbers for his fans. Ringo Starr had replaced Pete in 1962, just after two years of association with the band. "I basically played numbers from the 60s and 70s because I knew that's what my audience will look for and I hope they were not disappointed," Pete was quoted by a website, as saying. [read more]

Solving mystery of the John Lennon bench

OUR columnist Pete Chambers, who writes Backbeat each week, answers a query raised by reader Veronica Hammond about the disappearance of a garden seat John and Yoko placed at Coventry Cathedral in 1968. “John and Yoko felt they had something of a verbal mauling from then Cathedral Canon (Cannon Verney), who considered their planting of two acorns and placing a cylindrical bench in the Cathedral grounds was neither art or indeed appropriate. The couple returned to London, with a very angry Lennon in tow. Within a week the acorns had been stolen, and the bench was later removed by Les Anthony (Lennon’s chauffer) and taken back to Kenwood in Weybridge, Surrey, Lennon’s home at the time. [read more]

The Beatles offer catalog on USB drive without DRM

The Beatles on Wednesday surprised the music industry by offering their collection outside of a disc for the first time. The Limited Edition USB Stick carries the entire LP collection of the British band in a stereo mix along with the mini-documentaries, album art and liner notes from the remastered CDs. Significantly, all of the songs come both in unprotected 320Kbps MP3 as well as in a similarly unguarded, lossless FLAC and should work on most any computer or portable player. The 16GB, Apple Records-themed drive is for now only being sold in a 30,000-copy run and will ship December 8th for $280. Pre-orders start today. [read more]

Mccartney's Son To Make U.S. Musical Debut

SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY's son JAMES is set to make his U.S. music debut later this month (Nov09) - at a benefit gala hosted by filmmaker DAVID LYNCH. British musician James MCCartney - the son of the Beatles legend and his late first wife, Linda - accompanied his father on his American tour in 2005. And now the 32 year old is set to step into the spotlight himself with a solo set at Lynch's fourth annual Change Begins Within charity event, held at Iowa's Maharishi University. Proceeds from the 14 November benefit will go toward teaching at-risk kids to meditate, reports the New York Post.SOURCE

Vote For An Artist : How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin

Two months after the assassination of President Kennedy--a sad, scary time for 13 year-olds like me -- The Beatles came to America, bringing fun, cheekiness, intelligence, and belief in the power of music to transform the then dreary landscape. When George Harrison wrote "Here Comes the Sun" years later, he might well have been writing about the four boys who lit and warmed the winter of 1964. No one inspired the baby boomers more than The Beatles. They gave us hope. [vote now/win the Beatles boxset]

Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon and Julian Lennon Unite

To celebrate the unifying spirit and 40th anniversary of the Plastic Ono Band's universal anthem, "Give Peace a Chance," Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon and Julian Lennon have partnered with EMI Music and Sony/ATV Music Publishing to donate net proceeds from the sale of a commemorative 40th Anniversary digital single to the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (PBF). Beginning today, iTunes will exclusively offer the single's special anniversary edition for download purchase, with net proceeds benefiting the PBF through December 31.

Says Yoko Ono, "I am thrilled that so many in the music business are readily supporting 'Give Peace a Chance' on its 40th anniversary. It is indeed a time when we are all getting more aware of the necessity of doing something to achieve world peace, no matter how small. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I feel deeply that we are all one, regardless of where we stand."

"I am delighted to see that a song so closely identified with the pursuit of peace, will shine a light on the United Nations' peacebuilding efforts and financially support PBF projects," the Chairperson of the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), Ambassador Heraldo Munoz of Chile said.
[read more]

Unreleased George Harrison lyrics about John Lennon turned into new song – video

Previously-unseen lyrics written by The Beatles' late guitarist George Harrison have been turned into a song by Wirral songwriter Dean Johnson. Watch a video of Johnson performing 'Silence (Is Its Own Reply)' live on BBC Radio Merseyside by scrolling down and clicking below. Harrison is said to have penned the lyrics to the song in the latter part of the 1960s before handing them to The Beatles' biographer Hunter Davies. After Davies referenced the lyrics – which he had forgotten about until recently – on a BBC Radio Merseyside interview, host Spencer Leigh decided to contact Johnson to get him to write the music for the track. [read more/watch video]

Dhani Harrison: The son of Beatle George

There was a bit of disconnect between the sleepy debut album by Dhani Harrison’s band Thenewno2, “You are Here” (Vagrant), and the galvanizing performance the band put on last summer at Lollapalooza in Grant Park. The album was slow-moving and introspective, tinged by psychedelic textures and electro rhythms, while Harrison’s vocals suggested the unhurried cadences of his late father, the Beatles’ George Harrison. At Grant Park, however, the sound morphed into a forceful, Technicolor swirl that rocked beneath the noon-day sun. “The first record is like [Thom Yorke’s] ‘The Eraser’ – it’s a laptop record with two people who played everything – and the live show is more like Radiohead. It’s a different feel, a different intent,” Dhani Harrison says. “When we translated that sound into more of a band thing on the road, it became bigger and more powerful. There are moments up there when I feel like Rage Against the Machine, and other moments when you feel you’re in a trip-hop band.” [read more]

Fashion Designer Stella McCartney Launches GAP Kidswear Collection

Stella McCartney, prominent Beatles scion and celebrated fashion designer, is fashion’s go-to girl for edgy, luxurious clothes that evoke a distinctive rock-star attitude. And now, she’s bringing her too-cool-for-school aesthetic to a brand-new demographic: the too-cool-for-elementary-school set. Today, McCartney will launch her first full children’s wear collection, a 70 piece line in collaboration with GapKids and babyGap, featuring everything from organic denim to grey cashmere hoodies to rain boots and self-customizable high-top sneakers. No stranger to creating lower-priced capsule collections, having designed for LeSportsac, Adidas, and H&M in the past, McCartney’s inspiration for the collaboration was her experience as a mother of three [read more]

Unfinished George Harrison track completed

An unfinished song by electric guitar player George Harrison has been completed by a contemporary songwriter. Beatles biographer Hunter Davies unknowingly had several lines of an incomplete Harrison song in his possession for over 40 years before he stumbled across the paper at his home. Spencer Leigh of BBC Radio Merseyside later suggested that Wirral-based singer-songwriter Dean Johnson would be the right person to finish the track and put the proposition to him. [read more]

Assistant opens up on 'sleeping with Mick Jagger'

A former personal assistant to the English rock band Rolling Stones has revealed that sleeping with frontman Mick Jagger was no less than part of her job profile during the rocker's wild years. Groupie Chris O'Dell embarked on an affair with Jagger during the rock legends' 1972 summer tour and insists having sex with the singer should have been a job description considering its frequency, reports femalefirst.co.uk. O'Dell details her relationships with several rock stars in new book Miss O'Dell: My Hard Days and Long Nights with The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and the Women They Loved. [read more]

Young's Apology To Mccartney

WILL YOUNG is so embarrassed about his version of the BEATLES' track THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD, he apologised to SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY when the pair met earlier this year (09). Young came face to face with the veteran musician in July (09), when he was made a companion of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts - the stage school which MCCartney helped establish in 1996. But the Leave Right Now hitmaker was left red-faced when they discussed his 2002 duet with fellow Pop Idol contestant Gareth Gates, as he thinks the rendition of the song was dreadful. Young says, "I met him (MCCartney) recently and he was lovely. And all I could think about was me singing his song The Long and Winding Road. I was like, 'I'm so sorry. I f**king murdered that song.'" [read more]

John Lennon's days in the life

It is 18 October 1957 and the Quarrymen are experiencing their first modest taste of fame. This new musical partnership, between 17-year-old John Lennon and 15-year-old Paul McCartney, might be on to something. Over 50 years later, in April 2009, in a time-capsule Irish pub in the north-west London suburb of Sudbury Hill – standing in for the late 50s Liverpool social club – Sam Taylor-Wood is controlling the action on day 41 of the 45-day shoot for Nowhere Boy, the artist turned director's depiction of the early life of John Winston Lennon. The screenplay is by Matt Greenhalgh, writer of Control, the acclaimed biopic of Joy Division's Ian Curtis, and is adapted from the first half of the memoir Imagine This – Growing Up With My Brother John Lennon by Julia Baird. [read more]