Beatles News

On the morning of July 18 when Indio resident Linda Harger logged on to buy tickets for Paul McCartney's Sept. 29 concert at Acrisure Arena, the number of people ahead of her in the queue was crushing.

"I have to be in that building," the superfan recalled thinking. "He's coming to town and there's no way I'm going to miss it."

All the seats she wanted were gone when Harger got to the front of the digital line, so she purchased resale tickets. Skipping the concert was not an option. The event is a meaningful next step in a lifelong relationship with the music of The Beatles — and especially McCartney.

So when did that relationship begin? The 73-year-old got teary when she described watching the Fab Four make their U.S. debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on Feb. 9, 1964.

"I just watched them and life changed," Harger said. "They were just so amazing. So amazing. You know, there's a lot of articles that I see now that said ... one of the things that made The Beatles so popular at that time was it came so close after the (President John F.) Kennedy assassination. And so I think it changed a lot of the attitude. It was something to be happy about. Something that was pleasant and fun."

Harg details

John Lennon and Yoko Ono temporarily separated in 1973. She told him that she had begun to feel suffocated by their constant togetherness, and asked him to move out. At first, Lennon appeared thrilled. He was single for the first time in his adult life.
John Lennon didn’t seem concerned when Yoko Ono asked him to move out

Amid growing tension in their marriage, Ono told Lennon that she wanted a break. She suggested that he move to Los Angeles to give them some much-needed space. Ono asked the couple’s friend, Elliot Mintz, to keep an eye on her estranged husband. At first, however, Lennon seemed perfectly fine to Mintz. 

“For the first few months, John appeared entirely content in Los Angeles — one might even say gleeful,” Mintz wrote in his book We All Shine On: John, Yoko, and Me. “He seemed to consider his expulsion from the Dakota and banishment to the West Coast as something of a bachelor’s holiday.”

Mintz believed that Lennon was excited to experience what it was like to be single for the first time in his adult life.

“Remember, he was twenty-one when he married Cynthia; he was twenty-eight when he married Yoko. Now, at the cus details

Actor Richard E Grant has praised Barry Keoghan, his Saltburn co-star, saying he will be a “fantastic Ringo Starr” in the new Beatles biopics.

Sony Pictures has announced a collection of four films about the band members, with Keoghan cast as drummer Sir Ringo Starr.

Speaking on The One Show, Grant praised the 32-year-old Irish actor who he worked with in the 2023 Emerald Fennell thriller.

Grant said: “He’s an extraordinary actor. He’s unlike anybody else I’ve ever, ever worked with before, so completely untrained, instinctive and brilliant.

Directed by Sir Sam Mendes, each of the movies will showcase one of the members of the Fab Four: John Lennon, Sir Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Sir Ringo.

Keoghan is best known for his roles in The Killing Of A Sacred Deer and The Banshees Of Inisherin, the latter winning his the Bafta for best supporting actor in 2023. 

A scene from Saltburn showing his character – an Oxford University student who gets wrapped up in the charming and aristocratic world of his classmate – dancing naked around a country manor to Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Murder On The Dancefloor went viral.

The details

The Beatles decided to stop touring in 1966, tired after years on the road, playing to huge crowds of screaming fans. Their final tour, which was across the United States and Canada that summer, was marred by controversy around John Lennon's comment that the band was "more popular than Jesus". ‌

John had made the comment in an interview with the Evening Standard in July 1966 and it didn't even cause a stir in the UK. However, when it was reproduced by US magazine Datebook later that month, there was outrage directed toward The Beatles from American Christians. ‌

The band had grown tired of the media attention, heavy security and the demands that Beatlemania brought with it. They knew that the tour's final night - at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, would be their final gig. ‌

About the decision to stop playing live, George Harrison later said: "We'd been through every race riot, and every city we went to there was some kind of a jam going on, and police control, and people threatening to do this and that... and (us) being confined to a little room or a plane or a car.

"We all had each other to dilute the stress, and the sense of humour was very important... But the details

“About three in the morning, there's a knock on the door. And John was there and he had Paul with him." David Bowie on how he almost got former Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney back together in 1974.

While Beatles fans dreamed of the group reuniting in the 1970s, David Bowie once revealed that he nearly managed to get John Lennon and Paul McCartney back together in 1974 to form a supergroup with him.

It was the year Bowie moved to New York City, just three years after Lennon himself had emigrated there. Shortly after Bowie’s arrival, he met Lennon at a party hosted by Elizabeth Taylor. Of all the Beatles, Lennon was his favorite.

“He was one of the major influences on my musical life,” Bowie said in an interview recorded in the 1980s. “I mean, I just thought he was the very best of what could be done with rock and roll, and also ideas.

Although he was nervous when the two met privately, they quickly formed a bond that led to Lennon visiting Bowie one night, with McCartney in tow. 

As Bowie explained to BBC 6 Music with Marc Riley, he was lodging at the time at the Pierre Hotel. “I’d taken over a suite virtually for months and month details

For all of their promise, the Beatles' journey as solo acts was dotted with potholes.

George Harrison came roaring into the '70s, quickly releasing two chart-topping post-breakup albums and three Top singles – topped by the No. 1 smash "My Sweet Lord." Ringo Starr struck platinum with 1973's Ringo and reeled off four straight Top 10 songs, including a pair of No. 1 hits.

Meanwhile, former bandmate Paul McCartney was already experiencing the kind of ups (1971's Ram) and downs (Wild Life, also from 1971) that would define his career away from the Beatles. Similarly, John Lennon followed up his biggest-selling solo LP (1971's Imagine) with one of his most poorly received albums.

McCartney would ultimately outsell them all, while Starr suffered the most dramatic solo career setbacks. Lennon's and then Harrison's careers were cut short when they died too early.

At one point, Starr was actually without a label after being dropped by RCA following a string of duds in the late '70s. But he ended up becoming the most productive of all of his former bandmates, regularly issuing albums and EPs after the turn of the century.

When they were together, the Beatles seemed to metronomically release details

Paul McCartney says he remembers the exact moment The Beatles had “changed the world.”

In his Q&A session, You Gave Me the Answer, the Wings frontman would confirm he can still remember the feeling in the air when the Fab Four became the biggest band on the planet. McCartney shared the “first big success” of The Beatles and what it meant for its members. While he would note a specific stop-off on a tour of the United States, suggesting there was a change in the air, it was not until the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band that The Beatles could consider themselves a “worldwide” movement. McCartney claimed it was this album with the band that made him think he, along with John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, were truly changing the world.

He said: “I suppose it was our first big success in America. I started to realise that the attention was not just local, and it was around the time of Sgt Pepper when we started seeing our clothes and the music we were making getting copied on an international level.

“Although this had happened before at home, with people getting the Beatle haircut and all dressing in a similar fashion, it w details

George Martin is best remembered as the producer who gave The Beatles a chance and contributed to their explosive rise to fame for many years. Many would refer to Martin as the “fifth Beatle.” However, his career spans far beyond the Fab Four alone. In fact, Martin enjoyed a long and storied career well after The Beatles called it quits in 1970.

 Let’s take a look at a few deep cuts by other artists that Martin helped produce. A few of these were surprises to me, personally.
“Sister Golden Hair” by America

This standout single from Hearts was a No. 1 hit for America, and I can see why. George Martin’s production, coupled with Gerry Buckley’s songwriting, resulted in a country rock classic that is still favored by fans of America to this day. Oddly enough, “Sister Golden Hair” was quite a personal song, which wasn’t very common for the band.

“The Reason” by Celine Dion

I actually didn’t know that George Martin produced this Celine Dion classic until the time came to write this list. I’m not surprised, though. He was far from done with producing amazing music in the 1990s, and that much is evidenced details

There are few moments in music history that rocked the world harder than the breakup of the Beatles. John Lennon announced he was leaving the group on this day 56 years go, but fans didn’t find out about his shocking decision until the next year…why?

According to The Beatles Bible, while Lennon actually decided he wanted to end his time with the Beatles a week earlier, business manager Allen Klein (who’d been trying to negotiate a new contract for the band with EMI/Capitol) persuaded him to keep the information to himself.

However, by Sept. 20, 1969, Lennon couldn’t hold back anymore. When the group came together at Apple’s headquarters in London’s Savile Row to sign the aforementioned contract, he took the opportunity to let his bandmates know it was over.

“When I got back [from Toronto] there were a few meetings and Allen said, ‘Cool it,’ ’cause there was a lot to do [with The Beatles] business-wise, and it wouldn’t have been suitable at the time,” Lennon recalled in the book Lennon Remembers by Jann Wenner.

“Then we were discussing something in the office with Paul [McCartney] and Paul was saying to do something, an details

The process of inheriting family heirlooms doesn’t work in quite the same way when someone in that family is one of the biggest celebrities in the world, which is how Paul McCartney’s “Hey Jude” recording notes took a long, expensive journey through several hands before the document found its way to its rightful owner. In this case, the “owner” was the man—at that time, the young boy—for whom McCartney originally wrote this classic Beatles track.

Several decades after McCartney first wrote the musical pep talk to his bandmate’s young son, “Hey Jude”’s namesake finally got to say he owned the physical evidence of McCartney’s heartwarming message of strength and love.
From Song Devotee To Auction Bidder

Because of their status as one of the biggest bands in the world, virtually everything The Beatles ever put their hands on developed great, instantaneous value. Whether a scrap piece of tape from a session, hand-drawn doodles during a bit of band downtime, or the notepads where the musicians scribbled down their lyrics or recording notes, these momentos have passed among the artists’ family members, music historians, museum cur details

The breakup of The Beatles didn't just mark the end of an era in music; it also signified the start of an unspoken competition between the former band members. They all rushed to put out solo albums the second the breakup was announced, and Paul McCartney and John Lennon, in particular, were eager to prove they were the true talent out of the Fab Four. The former songwriting duo didn't hold back from airing their grievances on their solo albums. But while they were busy firing shots at each other, it was the quiet Beatle who surprised the world with his original songwriting and knack for catchy yet moving songs. George Harrison became the first Beatle to have a chart-topping solo album, and with a triple album, he established himself as a force to be reckoned with. While each of their solo work reflects them as individuals, there's no denying that these three albums get even better when you listen to one after the other.

Imagine (1971)
Artist: John Lennon

Most people think of the slow ballad when they hear the name Imagine, but the album by the same name is anything but peaceful. In fact, while its most popular song is a call for peace on Earth during a troubled time, a lot of the songs in it reflect confli details