Beatles News

A signed copy of With the Beatles has seen some of the highest bids in RR Auction's online sale, which closed on September 26. The album, signed by all four members of the band and in superb condition, sold for $40,726. A rare UK stereo first pressing, first cover edition complete with the original record, it is described by the auction house as "virtually nonexistent", such is its rarity.

The album was signed on December 7, 1963, a very busy day for the band, who had taped a special edition of the BBC's Juke Box Jury show that morning, before giving a special northern area fan club concert at the Liverpool Empire.Following this, they went to the Odeon Cinema to give two more live performances, performing a 10-song set as part of the UK winter tour. The fan met the band backstage at the Liverpool Empire.

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Source: Paul Fraser Collectibles

The home where John Lennon began his life after his birth in 1940 at 9 Newcastle Road in Liverpool is up for auction and Donna Jackson of the British Beatles Fan Club said in an interview Sept. 28 that the home in many ways hasn't changed from when John Lennon and his mother Julia lived there.

“The house needs some work before it's fully habitable but it's got really great potential,” she said by email. “There are lots of original features that would have been there when John lived there, and they're really lovely. The ceiling roses are gorgeous, and the original pantry is still in the kitchen. It's not at all hard to imagine John living there, and crawling on the floors and holding on the bannister struts (the originals are still in the house) as he clambered up and down the stairs. There's also a really nice 'feel' to the house. I absolutely loved it!”

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As part of our exclusive coverage of Mark Lewisohn's new Beatles biography, the author shares an extract exposing the uncomfortable truth about John Lennon's relationship with the irreverent, uninhibited woman he called Mummy.

There are no photos of John Lennon’s parents together, none from their wedding day or any of the occasional encounters during their fragile seven-year wartime marriage, when Alf was on shore leave – a merchant seaman making hazardous Atlantic crossings – and Julia was home from usherette shifts at the Trocadero cinema in Liverpool. They’d wed for a lark and their union was eccentric. “The only good thing that came out of it was John,” Julia’s older sister Mimi would declare. This was said with feeling, because Mimi stepped into the breach when both parents were found wanting. From summer 1946, when John was five, she became his guardian and main parental figure, with permanent custody. She raised him details

He is famous for his singing and song-writing skills. But Sir Paul McCartney appears to have caught the acting bug.  The 71-year-old took part in the Simply Shakespeare event in Los Angeles on Wednesday alongside Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson and William Shatner.

The former Beatle voiced the play The Two Gentlemen Of Verona during the event, which was held at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica. Paul looked in fine form, showing off his trim body in a fitted black suit paired with dark boots as he took to the stage. The legendary artist posed for a picture with Tom and Rita, who opted for a more dressed-down look for the occasion.  Ticket prices to the event cost $1,500, with proceeds benefiting the center's veteran and inner-city youth employment programs. Paul made headlines on Monday when he brought thousands of fans to Hollywood Boulevard where he serenaded them with a free concert as part of the Jimmy  Kimmel Live show. Describing it as a 'balmy' evening, Sir Paul was on fine form as played hits including Magical Mystery T details

A reel-to-reel radio relic that preserves a long-lost Canadian interview with John Lennon, discovered recently in a former New York broadcaster's attic and set to be auctioned Thursday in the U.S., vividly recalls the musician's December 1969 peace mission in Canada that culminated with a private meeting between the pop superstar and then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau.

The 90-minute recording with Village Voice music columnist and radio host Howard Smith captures the Beatles legend candidly describing the production of the group's last album together, Let it Be, as "hell" and "torture," presaging the biggest band breakup in rock 'n' roll history. And echoing other public comments made at the time, Lennon explains how Canada - initially a second-choice destination for the singer's 1969 antiwar campaign after a previous marijuana conviction prevented his entry into the U.S. - turned out to have ideal "vibrations" for his peace initiatives,

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Paul McCartney has discussed the meaning behind some of his most famous songs including 'Yesterday' in a candid interview. The music legend told Mojo that the inspiration behind the melancholy 'Yesterday' came from the legend's mum - even if he didn't realise it at the time.

“With 'Yesterday', singing it now, I think without realising it I was singing about my mum,” McCartney admits to the magazine. “Because I think now, ‘Why she had to go, I don’t know, she wouldn’t say, I said something wrong…’ I think the psychiatrist would have a field day with that one…”

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THE GREATEST RIVALRY IN THE HISTORY OF ROCK AND ROLL takes a scholarly and engaging turn in John McMillian’s parallel biography: Beatles vs. Stones. Most readers will already know that the Beatles were cuddly pop stars, while the Stones played their foils as edgy, dangerous rockers.

Many will have heard that the Beatles were in fact from far grittier, blue-collar backgrounds in the North, while the Stones enjoyed comfortable upbringings in London suburbs. But Beatles vs. Stones tells a more nuanced story; it exposes the rivalry between the two bands as part myth, part publicity stunt, part invention of the press, and mostly an extension of their managers’ personalities. In the case of the Beatles, the diligent but insecure Brian Epstein truly did crave approval from all demographics (and from the Fab Four above all). His counterpart in the Stones, the brash (and ridiculously inexperienced) Andrew Oldham, concocted a rebel image through antics that were less cunning than they were quixotic.

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MONACO (AFP) - Beatles drummer Ringo Starr has joined one of the art world's most exclusive clubs after being appointed a Commander of France's Order of Arts and Letters.

In Monaco where an exhibition featuring two of his paintings is taking place, the man who is considered one of the world's best drummers was handed the award Tuesday by France's ambassador Hugues Moret. He joins a club that already features Chinese film director Wong Kar Wai, Scottish actor Sean Connery, singer David Bowie and the late Irish poet Seamus Heaney.