Beatles News

As hairdresser to the Beatles in the 1960s, Leslie Cavendish was exposed to sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. However, working for Vidal Sassoon, the most famous hairdresser of the time, he was under strict instructions that the female clientele – including Jane Asher, Mary Quant and singer Shirley Bassey – were off limits. And drugs didn’t float his boat. But rock n’ roll and the Beatles were a dream come true.

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In his recently-published book, The Cutting Edge: The Story of the Beatles’ Hairdresser Who Defined An Era, Cavendish (who is pictured below, strumming the Gretsch guitar John Lennon used during the recording of Paperback Writer), lifts the lid not just on Beatlemania, but also on popular culture in an era when the BBC only played “safe and proper” music by artists speaking “the Queen’s equerry”.

Source: By Alex Galbinski/jewishnews.timesofisrael.com

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They have been madly in love for more than a decade. And keeping the romance alive, 75-year-old Paul McCartney enjoyed an intimate lunch with Nancy Shevel, 58, on Tuesday in Beverly Hills.

The casually-clad rocker shielded his eyes with a pair of sunglasses as he made a low-key exit from the eatery ahead of his wife.Read more:The casually-clad rocker shielded his eyes with a pair of sunglasses as he made a low-key exit from the eatery ahead of his wife. Meanwhile, Nancy cut a casual figure in a dark hoodie and cut-off trousers which she teamed with trainers for their afternoon date. The wife of the musician displayed her natural age-defying beauty when she scraped her brunette tresses into a bun and shielded her eyes with sunglasses.

Source: Daily Mail

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As we've pointed out (over and over and over again), George Harrison and Eric Clapton continued to work together long after those mythic days of "Sour Milk Sea," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Badge." This is especially true of the early Seventies and the late Eighties, when Clapton appeared on Harrison's Cloud Nine (1987) and Harrison appeared on Clapton's Journeyman (1989). When the pair toured Japan together in 1991, Harrison's set was packed with a crowd-pleasing assortment of Beatles tunes (it was the first time Harrison had performed Beatles songs in Japan since 1966). Among the highlights each night was "Taxman," which originally appeared on the Beatles' Revolver (1966), and which the Beatles never performed live. Above, you can watch Harrison and Clapton tackle the classic Harrison-penned tune.  If you like what you hear, track down the double album recorded during this tour, 1992's Live in Japan. It features live versions of other Beatles tunes, including "Piggies," "I Want to Tell You," "Old Brown Shoe," "If I Needed Someone," "Something" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

Source: Guitar World

BROOKLYN, New York --

If you only listened to them, you might think you were listening to the Beatles themselves. But they are two twin brothers from Brooklyn, and their performances are sweet music to the ears of straphangers. Amiri and Rahiem Taylor are identical twins, born and raised in Bed-Stuy. The brothers are also featured in a viral video, that at last check had 18 million views. As children, their home was always filled with music, both jazz and classical.

But when their grandmother gave them a Christmas gift when they were about 15 years old, their musical world expanded. The teens became obsessed with the Beatles rock band video game and fell in love with the group's universal sound. Amiri and Rahiem also write and produce their own music and are half of the group Blac Rabbit, a psychedelic rock band. About three years ago, the brothers wanted to go visit their mom in Puerto Rico but didn't have enough money.

Source: Kemberly Richardson/abc13.com

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I have to quibble with the “modern Schuberts” moniker. As gifted of tunesmiths as Paul, John & co. were, they don’t compare to Schubert or any other classical master. There is an immense gulf in the level of craftsmanship between, say Schubert’s 9th Symphony and Sgt. Pepper (especially as the craft in that album largely came from George Martin). The Beatles main schtick was introducing more diatonic, folk-influenced melodies and harmonies to the largely blues / rockabilly based popular music of the late 50’s & 60’s. But the comparison with classical music is off base. The Beatles are no more the modern Schuberts as Cole Porter is the modern Bach or Burt Bacharach is the modern Beethoven. They are all very talented musicians, but I would look to composers such as Part, Schnittke, Penderecki, post-war Stravinsky or Wuorinen (all either Catholic or Orthodox and significant composers of sacred music by the way) as my candidates for the “modern Schubert”.

Source: Dave Armstrong/patheos.com

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The Sun Kings’ motto is “A Beatles Tribute as Nature Intended.” Eschewing costumes, wigs, mustaches or faked accents, the San Francisco Bay Area-based band focus on capturing the essence of the Beatles and faithfully recreating their music on stage.

On March 10, 2018 at the Downtown Theatre in Fairfield, they will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the release of “The Beatles,” the so-called White Album, by performing it live in its entirety, in record order. The Sun Kings are Drew Harrison as John Lennon (vocals, rhythm guitar, percussion), Scott Southard as Paul McCartney (vocals, bass guitar, piano), Bruce Coe as George Harrison (lead guitar, keyboards, vocals) and Steve Scarpelli (drums, percussion, vocals).

While the real Beatles had a number of people sometimes referred to as the unofficial “5th Beatle” ranging from their producer Sir George Martin to musician Billy Preston, The Sun Kings have an actual full-time 5th Beatle, Michael Barrett as the orchestrator (keyboards, harmonica, percussion, vocals).

Source: Tony Wade/dailyrepublic.com

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The award-winning ‘The Beatles Story' in Liverpool has unveiled a new special exhibition celebrating 50 years since The Beatles travelled to Rishikesh, India.

The exhibition explores the particulars of John Lennon and George Harrison's trip to Rishikesh. Photo courtesy: The Beatles Story Liverpool

The exhibition explores this key and a relatively secretive episode of the Beatles’ story with memorabilia, imagery and exclusive personal accounts from the people who were there with the band in 1968.

Quite a bit of the Beatles tryst with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, their vow to give up drugs in favour of Transcendental Meditation, heartbreaks, breakups and bursts of creativity that marked the band's quest for quietude and spirituality in Rishikesh in 1968 has remained shrouded in secrecy.

Source: Pradeep Rana/connectedtoindia.com

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And if anyone would know, it would be Paul McCartney, whose words those are.

George Harrison once said that the MBE he and his fellow Fab Four bandmates were awarded in 1965 stood for Mr Brian Epstein.

Epstein was the musical entrepreneur who discovered The Beatles during a lunchtime performance in The Cavern Club in November, 1961.

He said: “I was immediately struck by their music, their beat and their sense of humour on stage. And even afterwards, when I met them, I was struck again by their personal charm and it was there that, really, it all started.”

They signed a management contract in February, 1962 — a document sold at auction in 2008 for £240,000.

But it took months of hawking the band around disinterested record labels before George Martin finally agreed to sign them to Parlophone — largely because of Brian’s conviction they would become internationally famous.

Epstein had briefly attended RADA — where his classmates included Albert Finney and Peter O’Toole — and this influenced his decision to smarten up the group, swapping their jeans and leather jackets for suits and introducing the famous synchronised bow at the e details

A Stowmarket auctioneer has announced it will be putting a very valuable piece of Beatles memorabilia up for sale next month.

Bishop & Miller, one of the region’s leading independent auction and valuation firms, will welcome bids for a band card autographed by the legendary foursome, worth an estimated £1,000-£1,500.

The sale will be the key highlight of Bishop & Miller’s first Toy and Memorabilia auction on March 10, which will also feature a number of other collectable items up for grabs.

The 55-year-old band card belongs to Mike Nicholson, a retired carpenter/joiner from King’s Lynn, who bagged the autographs at a Great Yarmouth gig way back in 1963.

Mr Nicholson, then a musician himself, luckily knew the stage manager at the concert who was able to meet the band backstage.

Source: Amy Gibbons/eadt.co.uk

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