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Still fab after 60 years: how The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night made pop cinema history

<div class="theconversation-article-body"><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alison-blair-223267">Alison Blair</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-otago-1304">University of Otago</a></em></p> <p>I first saw A Hard Day’s Night at a film festival over 20 years ago, at the insistence of my mum. By then, it was already decades old, but I remember being enthralled by its high-spirited energy.</p> <p>A Beatles fan, mum had introduced me to the band’s records in my childhood. At home, we listened to Please Please Me, the band’s 1963 single, and the Rubber Soul album from 1965, which I loved.</p> <p>Television regularly showed old black-and-white scenes of Beatlemania that, to a ten-year-old in the neon-lit 1980s, seemed like ancient history. But then, I’d never seen a full-length Beatles film. I had no idea what I was in for.</p> <p>When the lights went down at Dunedin’s Regent Theatre, the opening chord of the film’s title song announced its intentions: an explosion of youthful vitality, rhythmic visuals, comical high jinks and the electrifying thrill of Beatlemania in 1964.</p> <p>This time, it didn’t seem ancient at all.</p> <p>Since that first viewing, I’ve returned to A Hard Day’s Night again and again. I now show it to my students as a historically significant example of pop music film making – visually inventive cinema, emblematic of a fresh era in youth culture, popular music and fandom.</p> <h2>Beatlemania on celluloid</h2> <p>A musical comedy depicting a chaotic 36 hours in the life of the Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night has now reached its 60th anniversary.</p> <p>Directed by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0504513/">Richard Lester</a>, the film premiered in London on July 6 1964, with its first public screening a day later (incidentally, also Ringo Starr’s birthday), and the <a href="https://www.discogs.com/master/24003-The-Beatles-A-Hard-Days-Night">album of the same name</a> released on July 10.</p> <p>The band’s popularity was by then reaching dizzying heights of hysteria, all reflected in the film. The Beatles are chased by hordes of fans, take a train trip, appear on TV, run from the police in a Keystone Cops-style sequence, and play a televised concert in front of screaming real-life Beatles fans.</p> <p>Side one of the album provides the soundtrack, and the film inspired pop music film and video from then on, from the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060010/">Monkees TV series</a> (1966–68) to the Spice Girls’ <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120185/">Spice World</a> (1997) and music videos as we know them today.</p> <h2>The original music video</h2> <p>Postwar teen culture and consumerism had been on the rise since the 1950s. In 1960s Britain, youth music TV programmes, notably <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0196287/">Ready Steady Go!</a> (1963–66), meant pop music now had a developing visual culture.</p> <p>The youthful zest and vitality of ‘60s London was reflected in the pop-cultural sensibility, modern satirical humour and crisp visual impact of A Hard Day’s Night.</p> <p>Influenced by <a href="https://nofilmschool.com/french-new-wave-cinema">French New Wave</a> film making, and particularly the early 1960s work of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000419/">Jean-Luc Godard</a>, A Hard Day’s Night employs <em><a href="https://indiefilmhustle.com/cinema-verite/">cinéma vérité</a></em>-style hand-held cinematography, brisk jump cuts, unusual framing and dynamic angles, high-spirited action, and a self-referential nonchalance.</p> <p>The film also breaks the “fourth wall”, with characters directly addressing the audience in closeup, and reveals the apparatus of the visual performance of music: cameras and TV monitors are all part of the frame.</p> <p>Cutting the shots to the beat of the music – as in the Can’t Buy Me Love sequence – lends a visual rhythm that would later become the norm in music video editing. Lester developed this technique further in the second Beatles film, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059260/">Help!</a> (1965).</p> <p>The closing sequence of A Hard Day’s Night is possibly the film’s most dynamic: photographic images of the band edited to the beat in the style of stop-motion animation. Sixty years on, it still feels fresh, especially as so much contemporary film making remains hidebound by formulaic Hollywood rules.</p> <figure class="align-center "><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/604790/original/file-20240704-17-ov77mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/604790/original/file-20240704-17-ov77mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=453&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/604790/original/file-20240704-17-ov77mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=453&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/604790/original/file-20240704-17-ov77mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=453&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/604790/original/file-20240704-17-ov77mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=569&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/604790/original/file-20240704-17-ov77mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=569&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/604790/original/file-20240704-17-ov77mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=569&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="A Hard Day's Night movie poster" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new pop aesthetic: original film poster for A Hard Day’s Night.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure> <h2>Slapstick and class awareness</h2> <p>As with much popular culture from the past, the humour in A Hard Day’s Night doesn’t always doesn’t land the way it would have in 1964. And yet, there are moments that seem surprisingly modern in their razor-sharp irony.</p> <p>In particular, the band’s Liverpudlian working-class-lad jibes and chaotic energy contrast brilliantly with the film’s upper-class characters. Actor Victor Spinetti’s comically over-anxious TV director, constantly hand-wringing over the boys’ rebelliousness, underscores the era-defining change the Beatles represented.</p> <p>Corporate pop-culture consumerism is also satirised. John Lennon “snorts” from a Coca-Cola bottle, a moment so knowingly silly it registers as more contemporary than it really is. George Harrison deflects a journalist’s banal questions with scathingly witty answers, and cuts a fashion company down to size by describing their shirt designs as “grotesque”.</p> <p>And there is Paul McCartney’s running joke that his grandfather – played by Wilfred Brambell from groundbreaking sitcom <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057785/">Steptoe and Son</a> (1962–74) – is “very clean”.</p> <p>Even the film’s old-fashioned visual slapstick still holds up in 2024. Showing the film to this year’s students, I didn’t expect quite as much laughter when Ringo’s attempts to be chivalrous result in a fall-down-a-hole mishap.</p> <p>In 2022, the <a href="https://www.criterion.com/">Criterion Collection</a> released a high-resolution restoration of the film, so today A Hard Day’s Night can be seen in all its fresh, black-and-white, youthful vigour.</p> <p>Happy 60th, A Hard Day’s Night. And happy 84th, Ringo. Both still as lively and energetic as ever.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/228598/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alison-blair-223267"><em>Alison Blair</em></a><em>, Teaching Fellow in Music, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-otago-1304">University of Otago</a></em></p> <p><em>Image </em><em>credits: THA/Shutterstock Editorial </em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/still-fab-after-60-years-how-the-beatles-a-hard-days-night-made-pop-cinema-history-228598">original article</a>.</em></p> </div>

Movies

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‘Screaming, chanting, struggling teenagers’: the enduring legacy of the Beatles tour of Australia, 60 years on

<div class="theconversation-article-body"><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michelle-arrow-45">Michelle Arrow</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/macquarie-university-1174">Macquarie University</a></em></p> <p>The Beatles began their first and only tour of Australia 60 years ago this week. It remains a landmark event in our social and cultural history.</p> <p>The Beatles spent almost three weeks in Australia and New Zealand. Touching down in a wet and cold Sydney on Thursday June 11 1964, they played 32 concerts in eight cities: first Adelaide (where drummer Ringo Starr, suffering from tonsillitis and pharyngitis, was replaced by Jimmie Nicol), then Melbourne (with Starr again), Sydney, Wellington, Auckland, Dunedin, Christchurch and two final shows in Brisbane on June 29 and 30.</p> <p>Charming and irreverent as they were, The Beatles themselves were only part of the reason the tour was so memorable.</p> <p>It was the hordes of screaming fans who followed their every move that astonished onlookers.</p> <h2>The rise of Beatlemania</h2> <p>By 1964, Australian teenagers had access to a global youth culture. As the feminist author Anne Summers, then an Adelaide teenager, recalled in her memoir Ducks on the Pond: "It was rare for world-famous pop stars to come to Adelaide and unheard of for a group at the height of their celebrity."</p> <p>That Australian teenagers had the opportunity to see The Beatles in person in 1964 was due to a stroke of luck for tour promoter <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/brodziak-kenneth-leo-kenn-32165">Kenn Brodziak</a>. In late 1963, Brodziak secured the then up-and-coming Beatles for a three-week tour of Australia at a bargain rate.</p> <p>By the time the tour took place, the Beatles were the biggest band in the world.</p> <p>Their popularity had skyrocketed throughout 1964. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jenWdylTtzs">I Want To Hold Your Hand</a> went to number one on the Australian charts in mid-January and the top six singles that year were <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_top_25_singles_for_1964_in_Australia">all by The Beatles</a>.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iUCl9FWLzgM?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>So when the band arrived here, Beatlemania was the predictable result: crowds of surging, screaming young people, who turned out in massive numbers wherever the Beatles appeared.</p> <p>While the earliest rock ‘n’ roll fans (and even performers) in the late 1950s were often labelled <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/633/1/moore_keith.pdf">juvenile delinquents</a>, there were too many teenagers swept up in Beatlemania for them to be dismissed in the same way. The crowds became a spectacle in themselves.</p> <h2>‘A chanting mass of humanity’</h2> <p>Beatlemaniacs were loud and unruly. The Daily Telegraph reported: "50,000 screaming, chanting, struggling teenagers crowded outside Melbourne’s Southern Cross Hotel this afternoon to give the Beatles the wildest reception of their careers."</p> <p>It was a similar story in Adelaide. The Advertiser described: "police, their arms locked together and forming a tight circle around the car carrying the Beatles, had to force a path through the surging, screaming crowd […] Police said they had never seen anything like it."</p> <p>The crowds overwhelmed observers with their sheer size – a “solid, swaying, chanting mass of humanity”, according to The Age – and noise. The Daily Telegraph consulted an acoustics expert to conclude “Beatles fans scream like [a] jet in flight”.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2MOFBmxPUCs?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>Beatlemania was visible (and noisy) evidence of a growing teenage consumer market and the assimilation of rock music, dancing and youth culture into the leisure practices of middle-class youth. It was proof (if anyone still needed it) the youth market was highly developed and extremely lucrative.</p> <p>The speed with which companies found a ready audience for Beatles merchandise (wigs, souvenirs, magazines) demonstrated the relative affluence of the youthful consumer in mid-1960s Australia. This market would continue to grow throughout the decade.</p> <h2>A new idea of youth</h2> <p>Perhaps the most remarkable characteristic of Beatlemania was its femaleness. While not all Beatles fans were girls, it was the crying, screaming girls who attracted the most media comment.</p> <p>The Daily Telegraph described them this way: "It was the girls, the nymphets of 1964 in their uniform of black slacks and duffle coats and purple sweaters – who showed the orgiastic devotion due to the young men from the damp and foggy dead end of England […] the girls wept, screamed, grimaced, fainted, fell over, threw things, stamped, jumped and shouted […] [The Beatles] were the high priests of pop culture, taking due homage from a captive, hypnotised hysterical congregation."</p> <p>The references to “nymphets” with their “orgiastic devotion” tells us many Australians thought these young women were transgressing the norms expected for their era. Young women in the early 1960s were still expected to be demure and responsible. Beatles fans were breaking these rules, and helping to rewrite the meanings of youth and gender in 1960s Australia.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wyrs5uR-nwc?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>Beatlemania was an expression of female desire. The Beatles were powerful objects of fantasy for many fans in a world where sexual mores were slowly changing but where women were still expected to police male desire, stopping young men from “going too far”. A fantasy relationship with a Beatle became a way for young women to dream about their ideal relationship.</p> <p>Screaming, chasing a Beatle down the street: these were acts of rebellion and joy that prefigured the rise of women’s liberation, with its embrace of rebellious femininity.</p> <p>Beatlemania reminds us that, even if women were not always behind the microphone or playing the guitar, they have been important to the history of rock ‘n’ roll music as fans and audience members.</p> <p>Beatlemania marked the ascendancy of a new idea of youth: these young people weren’t mere replicas of their parents, but they were not juvenile delinquents, either. The Beatles tour drew young Australians more closely into a transnational youth culture, fostering the development of a distinctively Australian variant here.</p> <p>Beatlemania also demonstrated the massed power of youth. By the end of the 1960s, many Australian teenagers were gathering on the streets to protest, rather than celebrate, and to make political demands, rather than to scream.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/227680/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/michelle-arrow-45"><em>Michelle Arrow</em></a><em>, Professor of History, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/macquarie-university-1174">Macquarie University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Granger/Shutterstock Editorial</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/screaming-chanting-struggling-teenagers-the-enduring-legacy-of-the-beatles-tour-of-australia-60-years-on-227680">original article</a>.</em></p> </div>

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Sir Paul McCartney spreads joy by signing fan's piano

<p>A lucky Adelaide fan's dream came true after getting his piano signed by the one and only Sir Paul McCartney.</p> <p>The former Beatle took to Instagram to share the moment he signed a piano for music enthusiast, Pete. </p> <p>"Alright, here we are signing Pete's piano," the icon said while dressed casually in an all-black outfit with a grey sharpie in one hand. </p> <p>"Pete's from Adelaide, so am I, here we go," the 81-year-old joked as he signed the piano. </p> <p>"To Pete, cheers, Paul McCartney 2023." </p> <p>The former Beatle then said: "you’ll have to look at that every time you play," before playing the intro of one his former band's smash hits <em>Lady Madonna.</em></p> <p>The video was captioned: "Who knew Pete would hit the right keys with Paul? Taking a moment out of his #PaulMcCartneyGotBack tour Paul signs a dedicated fan's piano in Adelaide 🇦🇺".</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cy_6zyUv_wX/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cy_6zyUv_wX/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Paul McCartney (@paulmccartney)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p>The cover photo of the reel showed Pete holding a sign which said: "Paul please sign my piano" and his dreams finally came true. </p> <p>Fans have expressed their joy for Pete and praised Sir Paul for his kindness. </p> <p>"Pete just had the best day of his life and he knows it ❤️" one wrote. </p> <p>"He's surely gonna treasure that piano for the rest of his life!" another commented.</p> <p>"Sir Paul…. Thank you for being so gracious, and so generous. You were an absolute pleasure to meet!" Pete, the fan whose dreams came true, added. </p> <p><em>Images: Instagram</em></p>

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Rare, unseen Beatles pics released ahead of landmark exhibition

<p dir="ltr">On Thursday, The UK's National Portrait Gallery unveiled five photos from Paul McCartney’s personal archives, teasing a series of unseen photographs of Beatlemania through his own eyes.</p> <p dir="ltr">The exhibition, "Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes Of The Storm”, will run for three months from the 28th of June and is set to showcase what McCartney calls a "humbling yet also astonishing" experience.</p> <p dir="ltr">McCartney approached the gallery in 2020, after stumbling across the images taken on his Pentax camera, which he thought were lost.</p> <p dir="ltr">"Looking at these photos now, decades after they were taken, I find there's a sort of innocence about them," he said..</p> <p dir="ltr">"Everything was new to us at this point. But I like to think I wouldn't take them any differently today.</p> <p dir="ltr">"They now bring back so many stories, a flood of special memories, which is one of the many reasons I love them all, and know that they will always fire my imagination," he added.</p> <p dir="ltr">The images include black-and-white self-portraits shot in a mirror in Paris, John Lennon also in the City of Love, George Harrison in Miami Beach, and Ringo Starr in London.</p> <p dir="ltr">These are five out of the 250 images shot by McCartney between November 1963 and February 1964, and the exhibition will feature in the London gallery's reopening after three years of refurbishments.</p> <p dir="ltr">An accompanying book of photographs and reflections will also be published on June 13.</p> <p dir="ltr">Click <a href="https://uk.news.yahoo.com/unseen-mccartney-photos-beatles-early-230100596.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> to see the five recently released images.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: 1964 Paul McCartney / National Portrait Gallery</em></p>

Art

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Paul McCartney’s new collaboration hits all the right notes

<p>It took a long and winding road to get there, but Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones have finally decided to come together and collaborate for the group’s upcoming album. </p> <p>After a rivalry that has played out over half a century, a Rolling Stones representative confirmed to <em>CNN</em> that the 80-year-old former Beatles member will play the bass “on just one RS track.” </p> <p>Rumours had been circling that Ringo Starr would be recording on the album as well, but the <em>CNN </em>spokesperson denied the reports upon confirming there would be “no Ringo Starr at all.” </p> <p>The news was met with a chorus of delight from fans on social media, though some had been speculating long before the confirmation came through. </p> <p>“Dads everywhere, rejoice!” Tweeted <em>Entertainment Tonight.</em> </p> <p>“Holy cow!” wrote one supporter, “this is a dream collaboration.”</p> <p>“We love this!” another fan declared. </p> <p>No further information is available for the as-of-yet unnamed album, and it will be the group’s first release since their drummer, Charlie Watts, passed away from throat cancer in 2021. </p> <p>While to many it feels like just yesterday, it was in the 1960s that The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were two of the world’s most famous groups, setting the bar high for any and all that dreamed of following in their musical footsteps. </p> <p>Six decades on, The Rolling Stones are still touring here, there, and everywhere, but The Beatles came to an end in 1970. John Lennon then died in 1980, and George Harrison later in 2001. </p> <p>This isn’t the first time the music superstars have let it be to join forces and produce hits for the world to enjoy. Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote The Rolling Stones' ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’, and the Stones’ frontman Mick Jagger dropped by the studio four years later when The Beatles recorded their hit ‘All You Need Is Love’.</p> <p>According to <em>Rolling Stone </em>magazine,  “Jagger was a semi-regular guest of honor at Beatles sessions: He also turned up for the mixing of <em>Revolver</em> and the recording of the orchestral section of ‘A Day in the Life’.” </p> <p>With their collaborations in mind, it can be hard to imagine that the two groups were ever in competition. But any dissonance seems to have been minor, if their banter in recent interviews is anything to go by. </p> <p>In a 2020 interview with Howard Stern, Paul stated his belief that the “Beatles were better.”</p> <p>Mick Jagger responded to the comment in an interview of his own, stating that there was “obviously competition.” </p> <p>And just one year later, while promoting his book <em>The Lyrics</em>, Paul noted that he believes the Stones to be a “blues cover band”, and that the Beatles’ “net was cast a bit wider”. </p> <p>Wide enough, it seems, to take the steps to collaborate and give their fans some long awaited satisfaction.  </p> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

Music

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‘The Beatles: Get Back’ glosses over the band’s acrimonious end

<p>In the new film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9735318/">The Beatles: Get Back</a>,” “Lord of the Rings” director <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001392/">Peter Jackson</a> tries to dispel the myth of the the Beatles’ breakup.</p> <p>In 1970, Michael Lindsay-Hogg released “<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/original-let-it-be-movie-michael-lindsay-hogg-peter-jackson-get-back-1250561/">Let It Be</a>,” a film documenting the band’s recording sessions for their eponymous album. The movie depicted George Harrison arguing with Paul McCartney – and it hit theaters shortly after news of the band’s breakup emerged. Many filmgoers at the time assumed this depicted the days and weeks during which everything fell apart.</p> <p>By the time it hit theaters, nearly 16 months after filming, this rehearsal footage got mistaken for a completely different time frame.</p> <p>In 2016, Jackson gained access to Lindsay-Hogg’s original footage. Over the course of four years, he edited it into an eight-hour, three-part series, thanks to a streaming deal with Disney+.</p> <p>In their press rounds, both Jackson and McCartney have been eager to recast the legacy of this period.</p> <p>“I kept waiting for all the nasty stuff to start happening, waiting for the arguments and the rows and the fights, but I never saw that,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/nov/20/i-just-cant-believe-it-exists-peter-jackson-takes-us-into-the-beatles-vault-locked-up-for-52-years">Jackson told The Guardian</a> and others. “It was the opposite. It was really funny.”</p> <p>“I’ll tell you what is really fabulous about it, it shows the four of us having a ball,” <a href="https://www.nme.com/news/music/paul-mccartney-says-the-beatles-get-back-documentary-changed-his-perception-of-their-split-3095528">McCartney told The Sunday Times</a> after seeing the film. “It was so reaffirming for me.”</p> <p>It seems to be working: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/11/arts/music/beatles-get-back-peter-jackson.html">A recent New York Times headline proclaimed</a>, “Know How the Beatles Ended? Peter Jackson May Change Your Mind.”</p> <p>A lot of these sessions contain the irrepressible gags that made the Beatles famous. (Lennon and McCartney singing “Two of Us” in grandiose Scottish brogue almost steals Part Three.) But in their interviews, Jackson and McCartney accentuate the positive as if to paper over the acrimonious <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/paul-mccartney-says-he-sued-beatles-save-band-s-music-n1235898">history of lawsuits</a>, <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/beatles-catalog-paul-mccartney-brief-history-ownership-7662519/">the loss of the Lennon-McCartney publishing catalog</a> and the lurching solo careers that followed.</p> <h2>A muddled chronology</h2> <p>The timing of the theater release of the “Let It Be” sessions seeded confusion over how the group unraveled.</p> <p>“Let it Be” was shot in January 1969, just weeks after the “<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/review-the-beatles-white-album-186863/">White Album</a>” hit stores.</p> <p>The band then put these tapes aside to work on the larger project they intuited from this material, “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-beatles-revolutionary-use-of-recording-technology-in-abbey-road-124070">Abbey Road</a>,” which they completed seven months later.</p> <p>The split actually came at a September 1969 meeting, when <a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-the-beatles-messy-breakup-50-years-ago-130980">Lennon told the others</a> he wanted a “divorce.” They persuaded him to keep his departure quiet until the band completed some contract negotiations. Then, in March 1970, <a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-the-beatles-messy-breakup-50-years-ago-130980">McCartney publicly proclaimed</a> he was “leaving the Beatles” to release his first solo album.</p> <p>An epic descent into suits, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-courtroom-hit-parade-the-beatles-top-ten-lawsuits-414216.html">countersuits</a> and press squabbles ensued. Harrison even wrote a song called “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzdw2WcSmb0">Sue Me Sue You Blues</a>.”</p> <p>Only in May 1970 did the “Let It Be” album and film come out, with the band’s messy divorce as the backdrop.</p> <p>After the initial theater run, “Let it Be” fell from view. For decades, the only way you could get a glance of it was through a black market copy. The Andy Warhol-esque, <a href="https://www.artforum.com/print/196704/the-value-of-didactic-art-36733">so-real-it’s-boring verité style</a> – the non-narrative approach then in vogue – flummoxed even 1970 audiences.</p> <p>But because the “Let It Be” album and film came out after “Abbey Road” – which was released in September 1969 – it quickly got mistaken for telegraphing their breakup, <a href="https://www.nme.com/news/music/paul-mccartney-says-the-beatles-get-back-documentary-changed-his-perception-of-their-split-3095528">a belief that the Beatles themselves seemed to internalize</a>.</p> <p>The Beatles’ own traumatic memories of this period kept the raw footage from this project in the vaults for over 50 years. In the meantime, bootleggers published nearly all of its audio.</p> <h2>Conflict brewing</h2> <p>Now at significant remove, the remaining Beatles – McCartney and Ringo Starr – <a href="https://variety.com/video/peter-jackson-get-back-beatles-secrets/">seem to have hired Jackson</a> for a rescue operation, disingenuously dubbing the film a “documentary” when they, in fact, served as executive producers alongside their Apple Records directors, Jeff Jones and Ken Kamins.</p> <p>In response to Jackson’s three-part series, which coincided with the release of <a href="https://variety.com/2021/music/reviews/get-back-book-review-beatles-let-it-be-transcripts-1235087090/">a book of transcripts from the “Let it Be” sessions</a> and McCartney’s songwriting memoir, “<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-paul-mccartneys-the-lyrics-can-teach-us-about-harnessing-our-creativity-170987">Lyrics</a>,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/11/arts/music/beatles-get-back-peter-jackson.html">media outlets</a> <a href="https://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/the-beatles-get-back">around the world</a> appear to have embraced this new version of history: that these sessions actually scanned as lighthearted, that – poof! – the scars had vanished.</p> <p>But the strange and beguiling thing about Jackson’s edit rises from how it displays an unstable mixture of groove and conflict.</p> <p><iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Auta2lagtw4?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> <span class="caption">The trailer for ‘The Beatles: Get Back.’</span></p> <p>Despite the walkout from Harrison and continuous disagreements about what the project was – first a TV show, then a feature film and album, which needed a rooftop concert for a “payoff” – the band ultimately rallied to write the now-classic tracks “Something,” “Oh! Darling,” “Octopus’s Garden,” “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window,” and “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” along with Lennon’s “Polythene Pam” and “I Want You.”</p> <p>So Jackson’s “Get Back” clarifies the Beatles’ resolve to resume work and put their extra-musical squabbles aside. The music pulls them inexorably forward, and they trust these early song fragments enough to carry them. They have had bust-ups and walkouts and uncertainties and failures, and always found their way through. For Lindsay-Hogg and 1970 audiences, this all seemed bewildering and tense – the band kept a tight lid on internal rows. To the Beatles themselves, and to anyone who’s ever worked to keep a band together, it felt about par.</p> <p>Telling the average person to watch eight hours of freighted doubt and raw, undeveloped material is a big ask. <a href="https://www.theonion.com/new-beatles-doc-gives-man-greater-appreciation-for-how-1848132216">As The Onion joked</a>, “New Beatles Doc Gives Man Greater Appreciation For How Long 8 Hours Feels.”</p> <p>But there is a moment in Part Two of Jackson’s series – the first day on the set when Harrison doesn’t show up – when the rest of the band sits around talking about the situation. McCartney suddenly goes quiet. The camera lingers on him, and you can see him drift into a thousand-yard stare as he contemplates the looming uncertainties. He doesn’t quite tear up, but he does look as unguarded as he ever does, and markedly tentative.</p> <p>The moment catches hold because it’s so out of character – McCartney rarely displays himself unveiled, without pretense. The shot lingers and takes the measure of the man and the project, how much they have to overcome and how precarious everything suddenly feels.</p> <p>[<em>Over 140,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p> <p>In retrospect, the miracle is not that they finished “Let It Be,” but how these sessions served as the warmup for their final lap, “Abbey Road.” After upending expectations with the contrasting breakthroughs of “Sgt. Pepper” and the “White Album,” figuring out what to do next would have confounded lesser souls.</p> <p>That five-decade gap where fans waited for a refurbished “Let It Be” tells you a lot about how fraught January 1969 seemed to its four principals – and how deep those scars went.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169914/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/tim-riley-440673">Tim Riley</a>, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director for Journalism, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/emerson-college-3140">Emerson College</a></em></span></p> <p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-beatles-get-back-glosses-over-the-bands-acrimonious-end-169914">original article</a>.</p> <p><em>Image: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images</em></p>

Movies

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The Beatles: Get Back review – Peter Jackson’s TV series is a thrilling, funny (and long) treat for fans

<p>The Beatles’ Get Back project, undertaken in January 1969, has finally been completed. Again.</p> <p>For most of the last 50 years it has been known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_It_Be_(1970_film)">Let it Be</a>, a film and LP record released in 1970. The project, conceived by Paul McCartney, was originally intended to be a television special documenting the band’s preparation for a live concert (their first in two and a half years). Because of the performance element, the Beatles decided to get back to their roots and only develop material that could be played without adding overdubs.</p> <p>As it happened, the concert didn’t go ahead, the Beatles famously deciding instead to play a short unannounced gig on the roof of their headquarters. The TV special became a feature film, and the audio was handed over to the “wall of sound” producer, Phil Spector (leading to controversial results).</p> <p>Meanwhile, in the early 1980s, the Beatles withdrew the film version (a fly-on-the-wall documentary directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg) from circulation.</p> <p>Lindsay-Hogg’s Let it Be is remembered as a portrait of a band in the process of breaking up. And indeed, George Harrison did briefly quit the band early into the four-week project, though Lindsay-Hogg’s documentary does not cover this episode.</p> <p><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433853/original/file-20211125-17-14zc63j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433853/original/file-20211125-17-14zc63j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="" /></a> <span class="caption">George Harrison in Get Back.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Walt Disney Pictures, Apple Corps, WingNut Films</span></span></p> <p>Let it Be was seen as a downer in part because the Beatles, especially Lennon, were keen to trash it in the light of the band’s breakup (which occurred just weeks before the release of Let it Be, both film and album). As Lennon said in December 1970, the shoot was “hell”, and Spector was “given the shittiest load of badly recorded shit”.</p> <h2>A different tenor</h2> <p>While the newly released The Beatles: Get Back, directed by Peter Jackson, covers Harrison’s departure and return, Jackson’s film is tonally different from Lindsay-Hogg’s. According to Jackson, the dour account of Let it Be is inaccurate, since there is much “joy” and friendship evident in the 60 hours of film and 150 hours of audio tape that has been sitting in a vault for half a century.</p> <p>Much of this audio has long been available as bootlegs, informing written accounts of this period of the Beatles’ history. The audio without the video, however, doesn’t always tell the whole story.</p> <p><iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hmDy9x3AUc0?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p>While Jackson and his team haven’t shied away from the moments of friction, ennui, and aimlessness experienced by the band, the tenor of Get Back is more upbeat than Lindsay-Hogg’s version (though there is perhaps more levity in that film than Jackson or its reputation allows).</p> <p>But Get Back is not just a recut of Let it Be; it is a documentary in its own right, a film about the making of a film. Lindsay-Hogg is now a character in the drama of trying to work out what the project is about, and how it will end.</p> <p>Unlike the cinema verité style of Let it Be, Get Back gives much-needed context in the form of titles naming the protagonists and songs, as well as explaining what is happening. The use of a day-by-day countdown to the live performance gives the otherwise shapeless events a sense of narrative and even tension.</p> <p><iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nSrCk1icisI?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p>Get Back was to be a feature film with a theatrical release, but COVID-19 led to a rescheduling and reconceptualising of the work, so that it became a documentary for Disney+. Recent reports were that the series would be a three-part series with a six-hour running time.</p> <h2>The climactic rooftop concert</h2> <p>As it turns out, that running time is closer to eight hours. (Let it Be is a mere 80 minutes long.) Almost all of these eight hours show the Beatles at work on a sound stage (at Twickenham Film Studios) or in an ad hoc recording studio (put together in the Beatles’ Apple headquarters, when – after Harrison’s walkout – it was decided that Twickenham wasn’t conducive to creativity).</p> <p>The Apple studio is clearly more pleasant, and the tone is further lightened when the Beatles are joined by an outsider, their old friend Billy Preston, on keyboards (a crucial moment for the project).</p> <p><iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/385eTo76OzA?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p>There is nevertheless something of a hermetic feel to most of Get Back, so that when the Beatles and Preston head up to the rooftop to play in public – the cinematic “payoff” that the band and Lindsay-Hogg had been looking for throughout the project – there is a palpable sense of release.</p> <p>And the famous rooftop concert, presented with creative use of split screen, is stunningly good (and is also, for the first time, presented in its 42-minute entirety).</p> <p>After the countless run throughs and takes of the same songs over the preceding weeks (as well as numerous covers and early Beatles tunes), the sense of energy and the quality of playing gives the film the climactic moment that it needs, complete with police officers demanding, albeit politely, that the Beatles stop breaching the peace of London’s West End.</p> <p><iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/I392lK8QUhQ?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <h2>Cigarettes, cups of tea, and white bread</h2> <p>Get Back is very different from Let it Be in part due to Jackson’s editing, especially his use of montage, which produces a dynamic, sometimes frenetic, energy. Beyond these stylistic elements, Get Back is notable as a technical feat.</p> <p>It looks and sounds astonishingly good, not something that was ever said about Let it Be. Jackson and his technical team have employed the kind of film restoration techniques used in his war documentary <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7905466/">They Shall Not Grow Old</a> (2018).</p> <p>The vision in Get Back is beautifully saturated, sharp, and less grainy than Lindsay-Hogg’s film. Harrison and Starr, in their sartorial splendour, often resemble their cartoon equivalents from <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063823/">Yellow Submarine</a> (1968).</p> <p>If there is anything unvarnished about Jackson’s film it is the sight of people apparently living off cigarettes, cups of tea, and white bread. Also notably “historical” is the homosocial nature of the project; almost all of the active participants are men. Even Yoko Ono, who sits beside Lennon throughout, is almost entirely silent (save for her vocal participation in a couple of impromptu jams).</p> <p>While the film has been painstakingly restored, the soundtrack has been almost remade. Much of the audio was recorded on mono quarter-inch tape. Jackson’s technical team used machine learning to effectively “remix” these mono tapes, allowing Jackson to hone in on individual voices masked by other sound sources (voices or musical instruments).</p> <p><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433854/original/file-20211125-19-e4obm5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433854/original/file-20211125-19-e4obm5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="" /></a> <span class="caption">John Lennon in Get Back.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Walt Disney Pictures, Apple Corps, WingNut Films</span></span></p> <p>This is an extraordinary technological breakthrough, allowing key conversations to be heard properly for the first time, and for the remixing of the play throughs and rehearsals of songs, which weren’t being recorded as “takes” on the eight-track system.</p> <p>Get Back is a treat for any Beatles fan. It’s a reminder, too, if one is needed, that some classic songs were recorded for the project. (Given that McCartney supplied at least three of these classics – Let it Be, The Long and Winding Road, and Get Back – it’s unsurprising that he has long been unsatisfied with the way they were originally showcased.)</p> <p>But Jackson’s film isn’t all sweetness and light. Lennon, for instance, is dismissive of Harrison’s I, Me, Mine, and he makes a throwaway joke about Bob Wooler, a Liverpool disc jockey whom Lennon assaulted in 1963. Also notable is the relative absence of George Martin, who largely hands production duties to his sound engineer, Glyn Johns, surely a sign that Martin found something amiss with the project.</p> <p>And indeed numerous sequences show a band lacking focus and discipline. Get Back, then, is unquestionably a mixed bag: thrilling, compelling, and funny, but also sometimes just a little boring.</p> <p>In this, Jackson has been true to the original project. His extraordinary TV series is essential viewing for anyone interested in popular music.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172404/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/david-mccooey-308502">David McCooey</a>, Professor of Writing and Literature, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/deakin-university-757">Deakin University</a></em></span></p> <p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-beatles-get-back-review-peter-jacksons-tv-series-is-a-thrilling-funny-and-long-treat-for-fans-172404">original article</a>.</p> <p><em>Image: Apple Corps Ltd</em></p>

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Lost song featuring The Beatles unearthed

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A previously unheard song featuring George Harrison and Ringo Starr has been discovered in a Birmingham loft during lockdown. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The song, titled </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Radhe Shaam</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, was written and produced by broadcaster Suresh Joshi in 1968 and features George on guitar and Ringo on drums at the height of their fame. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The track was unearthed in Suresh’s home by a friend who was checking up on him during lockdown, and was played for 100 people at the Liverpool Beatles Museum. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mr Joshi was a good friend of George Harrison’s and was the one who introduced him to Ravi Shankar: one of India’s most celebrated musicians. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">He was a big influence on the Beatle and famously taught him to play the sitar. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The broadcaster was working on music for a documentary film in London at the time the song was recorded, when George Harrison and Ringo Starr turned up and offered to play. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The pair were taking a break from recording <em>Hey Jude</em> at the same Trident Studios in London’s Soho at the time.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The track also featured </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">renowned Indian classical musician Aashish Khan, but Suresh Joshi said he never got round to releasing it to the public. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Time had gone on, [then] The Beatles were breaking up and had various problems so no-one wanted to [release it]," he said to the </span><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-59233136"><span style="font-weight: 400;">BBC</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">However he said the coronavirus lockdown was a "blessing in disguise as we had nothing to do".</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Despite the track being locked away, Mr Joshi said the song is still relevant to today’s audiences. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"The song itself revolves around the concept that we are all one, and that the world is our oyster," he said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"[That is] something that we have all realised during this pandemic."</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image credits: Getty Images</span></em></p>

Music

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George Harrison’s childhood home goes under the hammer

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The home where Beatles guitarist George Harrison spent many of his formative years is due to go under the hammer.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The three-bedroom home in Liverpool has an </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://bid.omegaauctions.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-240---george-harrison-childhood-home---25-upton-green-speke/?lot=16731&amp;so=2&amp;st=&amp;sto=0&amp;au=47&amp;ef=&amp;et=&amp;ic=False&amp;sd=0&amp;pp=48&amp;pn=1&amp;g=1" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">estimated price</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> between £160,000 and £200,000 ($AUD 291-364,000), with auctioneer Paul Fairweather describing it as “a steal”.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Harrison moved into the house with his family in 1949, when he was six-years-old, and lived there until 1962.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">He rehearsed with John Lennon and Paul McCartney in the house while the trio were called The Quarrymen - the band that eventually became The Beatles.</span></p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">On November 30th we'll offer Geoge Harrison's childhood home at auction.<br /><br />View and bid here &gt; <a href="https://t.co/tgykaIDTpK">https://t.co/tgykaIDTpK</a> <a href="https://t.co/70YFLNr45f">pic.twitter.com/70YFLNr45f</a></p> — Omega Auctions (@OmegaAuctions) <a href="https://twitter.com/OmegaAuctions/status/1456574637664608261?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2021</a></blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The house has undergone renovations since Harrison lived there, but some original features still remain, including the bath, sink, some original doors, outbuildings, and a large dresser that would have been there during Harrison’s time.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“George will have learned to play the guitar in this house and the photos of the group gathering there in the early 1960s are amazing to see,” Mr Fairweather </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-59197931" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">He is also expecting interest in the property to grow following the release of Peter Jackson’s documentary </span><em><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/entertainment/movies/unseen-beatles-footage-to-feature-in-new-docu-series" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Beatles: Get Back</span></a></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Potential owners of the home can also apply for a blue heritage plaque to be displayed at the property.</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Images: Omega Auctions</span></em></p>

Real Estate

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Unseen Beatles footage to feature in new docu-series

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A new documentary will contain previously unseen footage of The Beatles towards the end of their time as a band which will present a different take on the creation of their final studio album </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Let It Be</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Originally intended as a film, </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Beatles: Get Back</span></em> <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/peter-jacksons-documentary-the-beatles-get-back-unveils-brand-new-footage-in-extended-trailer/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">has become</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> a three-part documentary that follows the group as they worked, recorded, and prepared for their final rooftop performance.</span></p> <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CU-G43YFxhD/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CU-G43YFxhD/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by Disney+ (@disneyplus)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the latest extended trailer, the British stars can be seen workshopping songs and messing around in the studio, as well as discussing the group’s imminent break-up.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The trailer also reveals footage surrounding the departure of George Harrison and the planning they undertook for their final Savile Row concert.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">See it here:</span></p> <p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tb83rbm0IVI" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Get Back</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, directed by Peter Jackson, sees the archived footage undergo the same restoration treatment used in his WWI project </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">They Shall Not Grow Old</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, giving it a vibrant hue.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The documentary is due to premiere on Disney Plus across three consecutive nights, starting on November 25.</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: The Beatles / YouTube</span></em></p>

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Paul McCartney takes a dig at the Rolling Stones in candid new interview

<p dir="ltr">Legendary musician Sir Paul McCartney has reignited the rivalry between The Beatles and The Rolling Stones with a brutal burn in a recent interview.</p> <p dir="ltr">In an interview with<span> </span><em>The New Yorker</em><span> </span>this week, Sir McCartney said of the Stones, “I’m not sure I should say it, but they’re a blues cover band, that’s sort of what the Stones are.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Of his own band, he said, ”I think our net was cast a bit wider than theirs.”</p> <p dir="ltr">This isn’t the first time McCartney, 79, has described the Stones this way; in an interview with Howard Stern last year, he said that he thought the Beatles were the better band, adding that the Stones, “are rooted in the blues. When they are writing stuff, it has to do with the blues.</p> <p dir="ltr">”We had a little more influences... There’s a lot of differences and I love the Stones, but I’m with you. The Beatles were better.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Responding to his comments, Stones frontman Mick Jagger, 78, said in an interview with Zane Lowe, that there was “obviously no competition” between the two groups, and called McCartney a “sweetheart”.</p> <p dir="ltr">Jagger went on to describe what he saw as the fundamental difference between the two bands, saying, “The big difference, though, is, and sort of slightly seriously, is that the Rolling Stones is a big concert band in other decades and other areas when the Beatles never even did an arena tour, or Madison Square Garden with a decent sound system.</p> <p dir="ltr">“They broke up before that business started, the touring business for real.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The Beatles performed together from 1960 to 1970, while The Rolling Stones have been together for almost six decades since forming in 1962.</p> <p dir="ltr">Both being iconic 1960s rock bands, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones have always been compared, despite having vastly different sounds and career trajectories. Writing for<span> </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/100-greatest-artists-147446/" target="_blank"><em>Rolling Stone</em></a><em>,<span> </span></em>musician, Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band guitarist and<span> </span><em>Sopranos<span> </span></em>actor Steve Van Zandt said of the two bands, “In '64, the Beatles were perfect: the hair, the harmonies, the suits. They bowed together. Their music was extraordinarily sophisticated. The whole thing was exciting and alien but very distant in its perfection.</p> <p dir="ltr">“The Stones were alien and exciting, too. But with the Stones, the message was, "Maybe you can do this." The hair was sloppier. The harmonies were a bit off. And I don't remember them smiling at all. They had the R&amp;B traditionalist's attitude: "We are not in show business. We are not pop music."</p> <p dir="ltr">Fellow musician Elvis Costello described The Stones as “R&amp;B evangelists”, and said that compared to them, The Beatles sounded like “nothing else”, and made writing your own material “expected, rather than exceptional”.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Mike Marsland/WireImage/Getty Images, Jeff Curry/Getty Images</em></p>

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Paul McCartney shares rare photo for John Lennon’s 81st birthday

<p dir="ltr">Paul McCartney posted a rarely seen photo featuring himself and John Lennon for what would have been Lennon’s 81st birthday over the weekend.</p> <p dir="ltr">The black and white photo is of the iconic songwriting duo holding their guitars under their chins, as if they were violins, and is accompanied by the caption, “Happy Birthday thoughts for John - Paul”.</p> <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CUzVPQ8M7vN/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CUzVPQ8M7vN/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by Paul McCartney (@paulmccartney)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Lennon shared his birthday with his son, Sean, and Yoko Ono posted a message for the pair on her own Instagram over the weekend, writing, “Happy Birthday John! Happy Birthday Sean! I love you! yoko”. Sean turned 46 over the weekend.</p> <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CUzvmglgPuM/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CUzvmglgPuM/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by Yoko Ono (@yokoono)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Drummer Ringo Starr shared lyrics from Lennon's most famous solo single, 'Imagine', last week, as well as a photo of the cover of The Beatles' final album,<span> </span><em>Let It Be,<span> </span></em>accompanied by the caption, 'Why hunger'.</p> <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CUoOapUJwMV/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CUoOapUJwMV/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by Ringo Starr (@ringostarrmusic)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p> </p> <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CUqCLXBpEFe/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CUqCLXBpEFe/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by Ringo Starr (@ringostarrmusic)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Lennon was shot and murdered by Mark David Chapman on December 8, 1980, at the age of 40, in the archway of the Dakota in New York City. Yoko Ono took to Twitter on the 40th anniversary of his death last year to remember him, writing, "The death of a loved one is a hollowing experience. After 40 years, Sean, Julian and I still miss him."</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">The death of a loved one is a hollowing experience.<br />After 40 years, Sean, Julian and I still miss him.<br />'Imagine all the people living life in peace.'<br />Yoko Ono Lennon<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/enoughisenough?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#enoughisenough</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/peace?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#peace</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/guncontrolnow?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#guncontrolnow</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gunviolence?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#gunviolence</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/nra?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#nra</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/guns?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#guns</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gunsafety?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#gunsafety</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/firearms?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#firearms</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/endgunviolence?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#endgunviolence</a> <a href="https://t.co/TsHWuCdu2Y">pic.twitter.com/TsHWuCdu2Y</a></p> — Yoko Ono ☁️ (@yokoono) <a href="https://twitter.com/yokoono/status/1336308015465689088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2020</a></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">In a candid <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/oct/10/it-was-john-who-wanted-a-divorce-mccartney-sets-the-record-straight-on-beatles-split" target="_blank">interview set to air later this month</a>, Paul McCartney finally sets the record straight on The Beatles’ break up, clarifying that it was Lennon who “wanted a divorce”, not him. “I didn’t instigate the split. That was our Johnny.”</p> <p dir="ltr">McCartney describes it as the most difficult period of his life, and says he would have happily continued making music with The Beatles if not for John’s desire to “break loose”. He agreed with the assertion that the band’s musical journey could have been much longer, saying, “It could have been. The point of it really was that John was making a new life with Yoko. John had always wanted to sort of break loose from society because, you know, he was brought up by his Aunt Mimi, who was quite repressive, so he was always looking to break loose.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: William Vanderson/Fox Photos/Getty Images</em></p>

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Lost John Lennon interview recording up for auction

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 1970, four Danish teenagers interviewed music legend John Lennon for their school paper. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Now, half a century later, a recording of their 33-minute interview, which also includes an unpublished Beatles song, will be auctioned off in Denmark. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The cassette tape is expected to sell for up to $42,000, as the unique item is in high demand from music memorabilia collectors. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When the 16-year-old teens interviewed Lennon in northern Denmark on January 5th 1970, they said they weren’t starstruck. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono had </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">"a message of peace, and that was what was important to us," recalled Karsten Hoejen, who made the recording on a tape recorder borrowed from the local hi-fi shop.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The tape recording largely features Lennon and Ono speaking about their time in Denmark and world peace, as the interview took place at the height of the Vietnam War and the Cold War. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Their peace message was what we came for," Mr Hoejen told The Associated Press.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"There was a very relaxed atmosphere, a cozy atmosphere. Lennon and Ono had their feet on the (coffee) table."</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The teenagers originally wanted to interview Lennon for their school newspaper, but turned up late for the official press conference. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We knocked on the door" and moments later they sat next to Lennon and Ono.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mr Hoejen held the microphone, and his friend Jesper Jungersen photographed.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At some point, "someone ... I cannot recall who ... asked Lennon if could play the guitar for us." </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">He played and sang with Ono "Give Peace a Chance" and then "Radio Peace".</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to Mr Hoejen, it was made for a radio station in The Netherlands but was never aired.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The items up for sale at the auction include the tape, 23 still photos and a copy of the school newspaper, and are expected to be worth at least $42,000.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7844673/john-tape.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/dbd1d9654d564ff99c19ede5173ed501" /></span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image credit: Getty Images</span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"What also makes (the tape) interesting is that it is a time pocket. It was recorded on an old-fashioned tape recorder," Alexa Bruun Rasmussen of Denmark's main auction house Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneer said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"When listening to the tape, you realise that they talk straight from their hearts. This is not a staged press conference."</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The four boys behind the interview eventually found out that they "were sitting on a treasure. So the cassette was put in a bank vault," Mr Hoejen said, and they wondered what to do with it.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"A collector or a museum would likely get more of it than us having it in a bank vault," he said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"So we decided to sell it."</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image credits: Getty Images</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></p>

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John Lennon's secret message for Ringo Starr

<p>Many years after John Lennon recorded demos of songs that were never released, a fellow Beatles bandmate found a hidden message. </p> <p>Lennon had written the song <em>Grow Old With Me</em> during writing sessions for his Grammy Award-winning record <em>Double Fantasy</em>, which was his last release before he was shot in 1980.</p> <p>After years went by, Lennon's fellow bandmate Ringo Starr was introduced to the song by Jack Douglas, who was the producer behind <em>Double Fantasy</em>. </p> <p><span>Speaking to the BBC, Ringo said, </span><em>“</em>I’d never heard about this track and I bumped into the producer, Jack Douglas. He said ‘Did you ever hear the John cassette?'"</p> <p><em>"</em>(I said) ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about<em>,'”</em><span> Ringo continued. </span><em>“</em>He said ‘I’ll get you a copy.'”</p> <p>When Ringo received a copy of the demo recording, he discovered a secret message left for him by his late friend and bandmate. </p> <p><em>“</em>It was hard to listen to in the beginning because John talks about me, mentions me<em>,”</em> Ringo revealed.</p> <p><em>“‘</em>It says on the beginning ‘This will be great for you, Ringo.<em>'” </em></p> <p><em>“</em>The idea that John was talking about me in that time before he died, well, I’m an emotional person<em>,”</em> described Starr.</p> <p>The emotional message prompted Ringo to re-record the track, enlisting the help of Paul McCartney to play bass. </p> <p>The new rendition was produced by Jack Douglas, and also featured the iconic string section from The Beatles' classic tune <em>Here Comes The Sun</em>, which was written by George Harrison. </p> <p><em>“</em>So in a way, it’s the four of us,<em>”</em> Ringo described.</p> <p>“John would have loved it.”</p> <p><em>Image credit: Getty Images</em></p>

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Shocked woman spots iconic music legend in her holiday snap

<p>After returning home from her holiday, one woman has discovered an "incredible" guest star featured in one of her photos.</p> <p>TikTok user Mae Archie shared an image from a photo she took in New York after visiting an exhibition about The Beatles.</p> <p>The photo shows Archie casually crossing the street on a zebra crossing - similar to the one on The Beatles "Abbey Road" album cover - while a passerby walks towards the opposite direction.</p> <p>Archie realised later that the man walking alongside her wasn't a stranger after all, instead it was The Beatles band member Sir Paul McCartney.</p> <p>Archie's video, documenting the trip has be watched over 50,000 times.</p> <p>In her video caption she wrote: "Taking pictures in NYC and realising when I got home, THE Paul McCartney photobombed me."</p> <p>Archie explained in the comments of her post: "Story time: So I just left the MET to see the 'Play it Loud' exhibit and was legit looking at the Beatles set and everything because I love music.</p> <p>"And I wanted to take a cute photo so I took it on the cross walk but I was facing my mum so I never actually saw Paul until I turned around."</p> <p>Archie says she "made eye contact" with McCartney and "stood there for a few seconds" during the star-struck moment.</p> <p>"He could tell I was trying to figure out why he looked so familiar," she adds.</p> <p>As soon as she realised, the musician simply winked at Archie and walked away.</p> <p>"He knew I knew," she said.</p> <p><img style="width: 454.3446244477173px; height: 500px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7839656/screen-shot-2021-01-27-at-31958-pm.png" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/aa7ae3dfe398414cbbbdae8881fd64da" /></p> <p>Perhaps McCartney was saying "goodbye" when Archie was saying "hello".</p> <p>Archie ended her story, saying the "moral of the story" was that she "was dumbstruck and Sir Paul spawns at sidewalks."</p> <p>Viewers were gob-smacked by the celebrity encounter, with many marveling at the poetic justice of the moment.</p> <p>"Out of all the spots to photobomb, just like the Abbey Road cover," wrote one user.</p> <p>Another said: "It would be the most incredible story. I would tell it to everyone I know."</p> <p>While a third exclaimed: "The Paul McCartney and you just walked right by him?"</p>

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Paul McCartney opens up on why he sued The Beatles

<p>Paul McCartney has decided to clear up some "misconceptions" about The Beatles' infamous break-up in 1970 and shared why he decided to sue the band.</p> <p>“I suppose that when The Beatles broke up, perhaps there was a misconception that we all sort of hated each other,” McCartney, 78, told <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/paul-mccartney-interview" target="_blank" class="_e75a791d-denali-editor-page-rtflink"><em>British GQ</em></a> in a new interview.</p> <p>“What I realise now is that, because it was a family, because it was a gang, families argue. And families have disputes.</p> <p>“And some people want to do this and some people want to do that.”</p> <p>At the time, the other three members wanted to make Allan Klein their manager, which McCartney disapproved of, calling Klein a "f***ing idiot".</p> <p>“The only way for me to save The Beatles and Apple – and to release <em>Get Back</em> by Peter Jackson and which allowed us to release <em>Anthology </em>and all these great remasters of all the great Beatles records – was to sue the band,” he explained.</p> <p>“If I hadn’t done that, it would have all belonged to Allen Klein. The only way I was given to get us out of that was to do what I did.</p> <p>“I said, ‘Well, I’ll sue Allen Klein,’ and I was told I couldn’t because he wasn’t party to it. ‘You’ve got to sue The Beatles’.”</p> <p>McCartney said it was horrible having to make the decision, but it needed to be done.</p> <p>“There was no way I was going to work that hard for all my life and see it all vanish in a puff of smoke. I also knew that, if I managed to save it, I would be saving it for them (the rest of The Beatles) too.”</p> <p>Despite Lennon, Harrison and Starr eventually turning on Klein, McCartney said that there was a time that he was the reason for the band's demise and that he almost blamed himself as well.</p> <p>“I knew that that was stupid and when we eventually got back together I knew it was silly, but I think it spawned a lot of people who thought that of me,” he continued.</p> <p>After the band split, McCartney decided to turn to alcohol.</p> <p>“I just took to booze. There wasn’t much time to have mental health issues, it was just, f**k it, it’s boozing or sleeping,” he said, adding that he was inspired by his first wife Linda to get himself out of his depression by telling himself, “OK, this is really bad and I’ve got to do something about it.”</p> <p>He added, “I think that’s how I got out of it, by persuading myself that it wasn’t a good idea to give in to my depression and my doubts.”</p>

Legal

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John Lennon murder: Killer’s strange act after shooting Beatles star

<p><span>Sunday marks the 39<sup>th</sup> anniversary of John Lennon’s death. </span></p> <p><span>The late Beatles legend was shot outside his Manhattan apartment in 1980 and died at the age of 40. His killer, Mark David Chapman was a 25-year-old former security guard with no prior criminal convictions.</span></p> <p><span>After planning the murder for months, Chapman came to the Dakota apartment building where Lennon and wife Yoko Ono lived on December 8, 1980 and waited. Chapman met the couple at 5pm as they were leaving for a studio session, and Lennon signed Chapman’s <em>Double Fantasy </em>album.</span></p> <p><span>Chapman then waited for Lennon to return from the studio. Lennon and Ono returned at 10.50pm, and as they passed by to enter the building, Chapman fired five shots at the Beatles singer, four of which hit him in the back and shoulder. Lennon was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital but later pronounced dead on arrival.</span></p> <p><span>When police came to arrest Chapman, he was still at the scene reading a copy of JD Salinger’s 1951 novel <em>The Catcher in the Rye</em>. “This is my statement”, Chapman’s handwriting in the book read.</span></p> <p><span>The novel tells the story of 16-year-old Holden Caulfield, who rallied against the “phoniness” of the adult world.</span></p> <p><span>“I’m sure the big part of me is Holden Caulfield, who is the main person in the book. The small part of me must be the Devil,” Chapman told the police.</span></p> <p><span>Two months later, Chapman sent a statement to the <em>New York Times</em>. He wrote in all caps: “It is my sincere belief that presenting this written statement will not only stimulate the reading of JD Salinger’s <em>The Catcher in the Rye</em> but will also help many to understand what has happened.</span></p> <p><span>“All of my efforts will now be devoted toward this goal, for this extraordinary book holds many answers. My true hope is that in wanting to find these answers you will read <em>The Catcher in the Rye</em>. Thank you.”</span></p> <p><span>The novel was also carried by killer Robert John Bardo on the night he murdered actress Rebecca Schaeffer.</span></p> <p><span>Apart from the book, Chapman’s crime was also said to be motivated by his displeasure with Lennon’s blasphemous public statements.</span></p> <p><span>Chapman said listening to <em>Imagine </em>weeks before the murder <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070927000251/http:/www.secweb.org/index.aspx?action=viewAsset&amp;id=73">enraged him</a>. “I would listen to this music and I would get angry at him, for saying that he didn’t believe in God,” he said. </span></p> <p><span>“I just wanted to scream out loud, 'Who does he think he is, saying these things about God and heaven and the Beatles?' Saying that he doesn’t believe in Jesus and things like that. At that point, my mind was going through a total blackness of anger and rage… So I brought the Lennon book home, into this <em>Catcher in the Rye</em> milieu where my mind set is Holden Caulfield and antiphony-ness. While contemplating this new Lennon, I really delved into the ink of Holden Caulfield.”</span></p>

Music

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Former Beatle Paul McCartney is writing a musical

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Former Beatles and music legend Paul McCartney has secretly worked on a musical behind the scenes.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It was revealed that he has already written a song score for a stage musical adaption of the 1946 Frank Capra film </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s a Wonderful Life</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">McCartney has been working hard with writer Lee Hall, who's responsible for Billy Elliot on stage and the Rocketman screenplay as well as working with British producer Bill Kenwright. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Writing a musical is not something that had ever really appealed to me," said McCartney in a statement. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"But Bill and I met up with Lee Hall and had a chat and I found myself thinking this could be interesting and fun. ... </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">It's A Wonderful Life</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is a universal story we can all relate to."</span></p> <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz6HFR7nL74/" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz6HFR7nL74/" target="_blank">The joy of playing with my Peace and Love brother! ✌️☮️ #FreshenUpTour @ringostarrmusic</a></p> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/paulmccartney/" target="_blank"> Paul McCartney</a> (@paulmccartney) on Jul 14, 2019 at 11:55am PDT</p> </div> </blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It appears that he’s pretty far along with the musical.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"On a recent trip to London, I got to listen to McCartney's stunning demo tracks," writes Johnny Oleksinski, according to </span><a href="https://variety.com/2019/music/news/paul-mccartney-its-a-wonderful-life-musical-1203271389/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Variety</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"The songwriter segues easily into the musical theatre style, while still giving his diehard fans that soulful McCartney sound. Every time a Beatle sings, an angel gets his wings. ... On the CD, the singer performs every role from George Bailey to Mr. Potter and even tries his hand at acting. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The more than 10 finished songs sound like a bona fide lost Beatles album, with one spectacular number's rousing ending bringing to mind the 'Na Na Na Na Na's of 'Hey Jude.'"</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Kenwright obtained the rights to the film from Paramount back in 2016 and reached out to McCartney who took an interest. However, McCartney didn’t send in any material until last year.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Out of the blue I got an email from Paul asking my thoughts on his first stab at an opening song,” said Kenwright in a statement. “He wasn’t sure — but wanted to know what Lee and I thought of it? I played the demo. Lee and I were unanimous. Our hero was a musical theater writer!”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The musical is aiming to launch a production in late 2020 in the UK, with a later move to Broadway.</span></p>

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How the film “Yesterday” was able to use so much of The Beatles music

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The film </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Yesterday</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> goes into the story about how a struggling songwriter is losing his passion for music and he gets hit by a bus. Upon awakening, he realises that he is the only one in the world who knows who The Beatles are and uses their discography to rise to fame.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">However, many people were surprised that the film managed to get some of the most recognisable songs from the band into the film. Surely, that would’ve cost a fortune.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Danny Boyle, the film’s director, had a plan.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The production company behind the film had a deal with Apple and Sony which allowed screenwriter Richard Curtis and Boyle to choose up to 18 songs and even switch their picks when they were shooting and editing the film.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After all, there’s no point having a joke hinge off a niche Beatles song. The audience won’t get it.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Curtis explained this to </span><a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-yesterday-beatles-songs-20190707-gehxkurakngldohru2waj3o4hu-story.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">NY Daily News</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">:</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“For the jokes to work it has to be songs people recognize… if Jack sat down at the piano in that Ed Sheeran scene and plays “</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Not a Second Time</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">,” most people won’t know it’s the Beatles.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The scene in question is where the main character of the film is working with Ed Sheeran and singing “</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hey Jude</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">”. Sheeran has a brainwave and suggests changing it to “Hey Dude”.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Boyle told </span><a href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8512779/danny-boyle-yesterday-the-beatles-interview"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Billboard</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> what happened when they obtained the rights.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Apple and Sony are very picky about not only who uses the band’s music but how it is used. Working Title did that first because there’s no point in spending money on a film like </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Yesterday</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> unless you can guarantee you’ve got the music. It made for a top-heavy budget -- the costs for the songs were very expensive, a substantial part of the film’s budget. But they made a clever deal, allowing us the freedom to change songs up to the last minute.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Billboard estimated that it cost $10 million for the songs to be featured in </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Yesterday</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">. However, Boyle also did his due diligence and reached out to Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the widows of George Harrison and John Lennon about his intentions for the film.</span></p>

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