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Beatles News
Paul McCartney picked New Orleans, one of his favorite cities, to open the US leg of his Freshen Up tour.
On Thursday, May 23, seven songs into a 38-song show, McCartney told his adoring audience at the sold-out Smoothie King Center that he couldn’t think of “a better place to start it off than right here.”
Following his 2002 and 2014 concerts at the Smoothie King Center, McCartney launched his third appearance in the former New Orleans Arena with a pair of Beatles’ classics, 1964’s “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Can’t Buy Me Love,” and the 1974 Wings hit, “Junior’s Farm.”
Vintage film footage of McCartney with his fellow Beatles accompanied “Can’t Buy Me Love” on a giant video screen. After the aptly raucous “Can’t Buy Me Love,” the former Beatle paused to gaze at his fans. “This is so cool,” he said.
McCartney, who’ll be 77 on June 18, obviously doesn’t need the money his tours generate. Hugely successful for 56 years, he still loves performing. After Thursday’s two-and-a-half-hour plus concert in New Orleans, he said, “We’ll see you next t details
If I reach the age of 76, I hope I still have the stamina to attend a three-hour rock concert, never mind performing a demanding three-hour show like Paul McCartney did at the Smoothie King Center on Thursday night (May 23). McCartney is a superstar’s superstar. He would be one of the great singer-songwriters of the last half century, even if he had not been half of one of the greatest songwriting duos in the history of popular music.
The former British invader -- who co-composed much of The Beatles songbook with John Lennon -- is reputed to be a billionaire. His artistic legacy is assured. He could easily be sleeping like a log on some picturesque estate somewhere. Instead, he was working like a dog on the Smoothie King stage until 11 p.m., energetically recreating almost 40 classics from “A Hard Day’s Night” to “Maybe I’m Amazed” to “Hey Jude,” plus a few newer tunes just to prove he hasn’t lost his composer chops.
Source: nola.com
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Hundreds of incredible never-before-seen images snapped by fans offer a tantalising glimpse of The Beatles' life away from concerts during their heyday.
Pictures dusted off from lofts and home drawers following a worldwide search show John Lennon standing with an admirer outside his Surrey home after she decided to knock on his door in 1968, and Paul McCartney putting his tie before a 1963 concert.
The Fab Four were also captured cycling on bicycles during filming for their single 'Help!' in 1965, which soared to number one in the US and UK charts, and crowning a carnival queen in Northwich near Liverpool.
They have been published in a book, along with further unseen images, titled The People's Beatles, following a call for pictures of band members by European photo company Photobox.
Source: Luke Andrews For Mailonline/dailymail.co.uk
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“The Freshen Up” tour is McCartney’s first outing following the release of his brand new studio album, “Egypt Station,” released September 7 on Capitol Records and generating rave reviews.
The Paul McCartney live experience is everything any music lover could ever want from a show: Nearly three hours nightly of the greatest moments from the last 50 years of music, dozens of songs from McCartney’s solo, Wings and of course Beatles catalogues that have formed the soundtracks of our lives.
McCartney and his band have played an unparalleled range of venues and locations throughout the Americas, the UK, Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and all points between: outside the Coliseum in Rome, Moscow’s Red Square, Buckingham Palace, The White House, a free show in Mexico for over 400,000 people, the last ever show at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park where The Beatles played their final concert in 1966, a 2016 week in the California desert that included two headline sets at the historic Desert Trip festival and a jam-packed club gig for a few hundred lucky fans at Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, and even one performance broadcast live into Space!
By July 1968, one of the biggest and best bands in the world had more problems than you could count. Recording what eventually became The Beatles’ White Album, tensions between John Lennon and Paul McCartney nearly exploded into violence in the studio.
The following month, feeling unwanted, Ringo walked out on the band and hopped a plane to Italy, unsure if he’d ever return. By January of ’69, it was clear from the Let It Be documentary that George Harrison had his share of problems with band members as well.
George staged his own revolt that month, and by September the group heard John say he was leaving the band permanently. However, that didn’t end things. Let It Be still needed work in the studio. Meanwhile, the band’s contracts bound them together regardless of their wishes.
Source: cheatsheet.com
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After dominating the Billboard charts together for most of the 1960s, the former members of The Beatles would have to see how they fared on their own, starting in 1970.
The early returns suggested they be fine as solo artists. Paul McCartney’s debut might not have been a major artistic success, but it did hit No. 1 in America. Later that year, George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass also grabbed the top spot on the Billboard 200.
George’s solo debut also included the first No. 1 single by a former Beatle (“My Sweet Lord”). When John Lennon released his debut in late ’70, he didn’t have the same type of commercial success. (It still sold well, just not on the same Fab-Four level.)
As of 1974, every former Beatle besides John (Ringo included) had landed a No. 1 single in the U.S. But that changed after Elton John stopped by a recording session for Lennon’s Walls and Bridges, his fifth solo effort.
Source: cheatsheet.com
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The Beatles’ official Instagram page shared a rare photo from the 1960s and added the statement of George Harrison from an earlier interview.
Here is George’s statement:
“At that period, it was a perfect song because it was so simple – the message was so simple and it was a great excuse just to go right in the middle of that whole culture that was happening and give them a theme tune.
The Beatles fans commented on the photo with beautiful messages.
A fan named daisy.jamess commented:
“All these looks are so iconic.”
Another fan named a_rif2 said:
“The Beatles > 90% of today’s artists.”
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The Beatles icon Paul McCartney discussed facing backlash from his colleagues for his decision to appear on a song with Kanye West that excessively used the N-word in a GQ interview. McCartney said he ultimately felt that rappers like West had ‘re-appropriated’ the word. McCartney also worked with Rihanna. “I mean, Rihanna is something else. She’s cool. So it was a great thrill, actually. I loved it. I feel a kind of privilege that they think I’m worthy of their world. I know I’m worthy of my world, but I didn’t know that they think I could fit.”
The song “All Day,” brought new challenges. “The big surprise was the use of the N-word,” McCartney says. (Multiple use, too. Forty-four times, to be precise.) Some people around McCartney saw this as a problem—”They said, ‘You can’t be connected to this'”—and McCartney suggests that he looked into the issue with some care. “There’s basically two schools of thought: One, that the N-word has been re-appropriated by black rappers and they’ve sort of taken the sting out of it. And the other point of view is Oprah’s point of view, which is that any use details
It was supposed to be a vacation. Paul McCartney wanted to take his band someplace sunny and exotic to record a new album. That way, they could work and be tourists at the same time — the same reason every movie filmed in Hawaii has a better cast than it probably should. EMI, McCartney’s label, had a studio in the Nigerian city of Lagos, and that seemed nice enough to McCartney. He figured it would be a breezy, pleasant experience. It was not.
There were complicating factors. During a rehearsal on McCartney’s Scottish farm a week before recording started, McCartney got into an argument with guitarist Henry McCullough, and McCullough quit on the spot. And the night before the band left for Nigeria, drummer Danny Seiwell left the band, as well. At the time, Wings weren’t a hugely successful enterprise. They’d made hits, but critics had generally come to regard McCartney as a lightweight hack, at least compared to his ex-bandmates John Lennon and George Harrison. Now, suddenly, he was a lightweight hack whose band had three members instead of five, and he still had to make this damn album.
Nigeria was not the tropical paradise that McCartney had envisioned. Instead, it was a country re details
The Story of Abbey Road and the End of the Beatles (Cornell University Press, October 2019), acclaimed Beatles historian Kenneth Womack offers the most definitive account yet of the writing, recording, mixing, and reception of Abbey Road.
In February 1969, the Beatles began working on what became their final album together. Abbey Road introduced a number of new techniques and technologies to the Beatles' sound, and included "Come Together," "Something," and "Here Comes the Sun," which all emerged as classics.
Womack's colorful retelling of how this landmark album was written and recorded is a treat for fans of the Beatles. Solid State takes readers back to 1969 and into EMI's Abbey Road Studio, which boasted an advanced solid state transistor mixing desk. Womack focuses on the dynamics between John, Paul, George, Ringo, and producer George Martin and his team of engineers, who set aside (for the most part) the tensions and conflicts that had arisen on previous albums to create a work with an innovative (and, among some fans and critics, controversial) studio-bound sound that prominently included the new Moog synthesizer, among other novelties.
Source: BWW News Desk/broadwayworld.com
For those of us who never got to see The Beatles in concert, The Fab Faux are the next best thing. The band has dedicated themselves to faithfully recreating some of the most extraordinary music ever written. The band’s current US tour continues throughout 2019, and includes an ambitious array of set lists that include songs The Beatles never performed in concert. On Saturday, June 1st the band will perform songs from the Beatles Psychedelia Years: ‘66 - ‘68 and a set of fan favorites at The Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank. Showtime is 8:00pm and the night features The Hogshead Horns & The Creme Tangerine Strings.
Now in their 20th year performing together, The Fab Faux’s members are celebrated bassist Will Lee (CBS Orchestra/David Letterman, countless artists,) Jimmy Vivino, Music Director/Guitarist for 'Conan' and long time music partner of Levon Helm, John Sebastian, Laura Nyro, lead-singing drummer/producer Rich Pagano (Rosanne Cash, Roger Waters, etc.), guitarist, Frank Agnello (Marshall Crenshaw, Phoebe Snow, etc.) and multi-instrumentalist, Jack Petruzzelli (Joan Osborne, Patti Smith, etc.).
A recent Fab Faux mini-concert at SiriusXM was filmed via a ten-camera vide details
There's a chance "Yellow Submarine," the Beatles' trippy, psychedelic 1968 feature cartoon, is the most famous show Ron Campbell ever worked on. But the time he spent on it doesn't represent much more than a moment in his years of work.
"It was eight months in a 50-year career," Campbell said in a recent interview ahead of his art show at Holladay's Relics Framemakers & Gallery. " … It took us eight months to do 12 minutes of the film. At the same time, I was doing other things — I was working on the fifth season of 'Scooby-Doo,' and 'George of the Jungle' and others shows, so I was a busy boy that year. … It was a memorable year."
Campbell's resume includes many of the iconic cartoons from the late '60s through the '80s, from "Scooby-Doo" and "The Smurfs" to "The Jetsons" and "The Flintstones," to "Rugrats" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," to name just a few. As head of his own studio, he also created and directed the Peabody Award-winning animated show "The Blue Marble" that ran from 1974 to 1983.
Source: Cristy Meiners/deseretnews.com
Stuart Hampton and partner Joanna Bond - staged a reenactment of John and Yoko's famous 'Bed-In' stunt at the Marine Hotel in Aberystwyth to Commemorate the 50th anniversary of the original Bed In which took place at the Amsterdam Hilton on the 25th of March 1969.
Here's what they said: "The event went really well! there were ques outside the door and people singing in the corridors, in the bedroom and people could hear it from the streets - We are so pleased with the turn out and feel so happy to have re-created the true atmosphere of the peace and love hippie 60's! - The original stunt took place at the Amsterdam Hilton - Who we have been talking to since they liked our posts on Instagram and twitter and have been messaging us saying they are considering booking us as a John and Yoko tribute act for future events! The Beatles museum were also impressed by our efforts and as such we inspired them to create a campaign to encourage others to do a bed in on their facebook and instagram pages using our photo's - Im so happy about that because im a huge Beatles fan and regularly go out performing their songs in Bars. We also did this because we feel that John and Yoko's original spiritual ideas and philosophy for the bed-in details
You can point to any number of things that split up The Beatles by 1970. Obviously, the differences between John Lennon and Paul McCartney had become too numerous to ignore. When John and Paul nearly fought during The White Album (1968) sessions, you knew the troubles were serious.
The same could also be said for another day in ’68 when Ringo walked out on the band and left the country. Or the moment early the following year when George Harrison quit the group and decided to focus on his own music.
In brief, The Beatles were frequently a mess during their final years together. But somehow, the band stuck it out together and cut the tracks for those beloved final records (including Abbey Road and Let It Be).
Going by what John Lennon said after the breakup, the trouble began shortly after the band lost manager Brian Epstein in August 1967. From that point on, he could see the end coming.
Source: cheatsheet.com
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Did you ever get the feeling that the Beatles were having more fun than their fans?
For a while, they certainly did. While paying their dues in Hamburg, Germany, the Beatles enjoyed what one expert called “the wildest time of their lives.”
I’m Chris Erskine (a.k.a., Ringo), filling in for Catharine Hamm on Escapes, as we trip out this week on the Beatles’ drug-fueled formative years.
Travel writer Dean R. Owen reports many OMG moments in his exploration of the noisy, smoke-filled clubs where the band polished its act. Among the highlights: a three-hour walking tour of the joints, including the site of the Star Club where the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix performed in the 1960s.
“The trip provided me a completely different perspective of the Beatles,” says Owen, a fan since the tender age of 8. “Rather than the mop-top, Edwardian-suited Liverpool lads on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show,’ I was able more clearly to envision John, Paul, and George in leather jackets, jeans and cowboy boots emulating Elvis Presley, Little Richard and other American rock ’n’ roll icons.”
Source: Chris Erskine/latimes.com