Archived Beatles News

August 17, 2010
The Beatles in Hamburg: 50 years on from the band's first concert

Adrian Bridge goes on the trail of the Beatles, 50 years after the then unknown teenagers headed to the German port.

It is not hard to see how five young lads from Liverpool who had barely been abroad before might have been taken with Hamburg. The German port had a reassuring grittiness to it. It had the raw energy and power that comes with a seafaring tradition. It had creative tension and edge. It had money. It had amphetamines. And it had sex. No wonder they liked it.

To read the Telegraph UK report which includes an excellent video of Hamburg and the various places the Beatles perform at, click here.

August 13, 2010
Macca and the piper from Scotland

Gordon Black was about eight-years-old in Ayrshire, Scotland when he saw his first television clip of The Beatles.

“It’s certainly a thrill of a lifetime,” said the 55-year-old pipe major of the Paris-Port Dover Pipe Band, which performed Mull of Kintyre with Paul McCartney Sunday and Monday at the Air Canada Centre. “He is a first-class gentleman.”

To read the full report from the Toronto Sun as written by Joe Warmington, click here.

Review: McCartney honours body of work in Montreal
Thursday night's sold-out show began with roar of fan devotion

As with so many Paul McCartney concerts witnessed and recorded in recent years, Thursday night's sold-out show at the Bell Centre really began with The Roar.

Loud outbursts for the entrances of performers at the arena are, of course, standard. But the otherworldly, deafening explosion of devotion that consistently greets McCartney when he first takes the stage seems to give a voice to something bigger than fan enthusiasm. As The Roar washed over him before the well-chosen set opener Venus and Mars/ Rockshow, nearly a half-century of collective emotion bound up with the Beatle legacy - singular in popular music - found noisy and joyful release. And it was reprised by the 17,000 in attendance countless times.

At least that’s how a sold-out crowd at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre could’ve seen Paul McCartney’s simply stellar first night of a two-night stand as part of his current Up and Coming 2010 Tour.

Over the course of nearly three hours and three dozen songs in a set brimming with solo hits and Fab Four jewels, McCartney and his seasoned, strong four-piece band could basically do little wrong.

Ringo Starr performed Wednesday at the Jubilee Auditorium in an event for the Owen Hart Foundation. Attendance 1,900.

We all know that Beatles John, Paul and George turned the world upside down with their massively inspirational talents as songwriters.

As for Ringo Starr though while the Fab Four's drummer was a lot more valuable to the musical equation than he sometimes gets credit for his great appeal has always been his down-to-earth charm and natural ability to make us smile.

Tonight PBS broadcast in full the wonderful concert held in the White House on 2 June 2010 to honour Paul McCartney with America’s highest award for popular music - the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Paul sang several songs, and the evening was an opportunity for a succession of performers to deliver their versions of his songs, to his great delight, and clearly also to the delight of Barack and Michelle Obama. Outstanding amongst these were Corinne Bailey Rae accompanied by Herbie Hancock, with "Blackbird," and Emmylou Harris with "For No-one." Paul serenaded the First Lady with "Michelle" and duetted with Stevie Wonder on "Ebony and Ivory." The President spoke of the value on music in calming the soul in tough times. The night was spiced with mutual encouragement, a rare ingredient these days, but this was an evening of love and affection. Audio balance by Geoff Emerick. The concert was bracketed in the broadcast with chat from Paul before the show, and a performance the previous day in the Library of Congress where he told the story of dreaming up "Yesterday," and then sang it with a classical string quartet.

Related links: Paul at the White House June 2, 10; Paul talks about song writing

Replay the Beatles to perform at the Casino du Lac-Leamy in Gatineau, Quebec, September 10

Montreal's Replay the Beatles will be rocking out your favourite Beatle tunes at a dinner and show that starts at 6:00 p.m. on September 10 at Casino du Lac-Leamy in Gatineau, Quebec. Click here for details.

The cake had been served, the candles had been blown out, and Ringo Starr had all but told the sold-out crowd at NYC’s Radio City Music Hall to go home, but the most exciting part of his 70th birthday show last night was still to come. That was the exact moment, right around 10 p.m., that none other than Paul McCartney bounded on stage in his skinny tie and fitted suit. The art-deco hall filled with 1964-style squeals as Sir Paul tore through the Beatles’ “Birthday” with the wild-eyed drive of someone decades younger.

Apple Records catalogue remastered and reissued on CD and digital download - Classics Set For Release on
October 26th

Launched by The Beatles in 1968, as the new outlet for their own recordings as well as the music of an eclectic roster of artists - James Taylor, Badfinger, Billy Preston, Mary Hopkin, Doris Troy, and Jackie Lomax among them - who were all personally brought to the label by The Beatles (individually and/or collectively), Apple Records made popular music history from the very moment it opened its doors.

Four decades later, Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music raise the curtain on remastered CD and digital download releases of 15 key albums from the Apple Records catalog. All 15 titles will be released on October 26th. Most of the physical CDs will include bonus material. Together, the 15 albums represent the first ever Apple Records releases to be available via digital download.

In the revolutionary spirit of 1968, The Beatles’ explosive musical output (characterised by their double-LP White Album) was only exceeded by their fascination with what they saw and heard going on around them. Five years into The Beatles’ reign, Apple Records afforded them the unique opportunity to sign new (and established) artists who appealed to each of them. In turn, the introduction of an artist on The Beatles’ record label was an imprimatur taken very seriously by fans across the universe.

Apple Records’ utopian artist-orientated mission immediately set it apart, as the first operation of its kind in the major-label sphere. Diversity was celebrated, and artists were encouraged to record and release their music in a friendly creative environment. Apple developed a distinctive graphic aesthetic, from its legendary ‘apple-core’ logo to its advertising and merchandising, in the process setting a subtle new benchmark for the industry to follow.

From 1968 to 1973, Apple Records bedazzled the world with a rainbow spectrum of releases - and fans were unusually well-informed about individual involvements of The Beatles with nearly every project. 1968’s self-titled debut album by Boston-based singer-songwriter James Taylor, for example, features Paul McCartney and George Harrison on “Carolina In My Mind”. Paul was instrumental in bringing the Welsh chanteuse Mary Hopkin to Apple, and produced her debut single, “Those Were The Days”. Badfinger, also from Wales, was still known as The Iveys when they recorded “Come And Get It”, written and produced by Paul (for The Magic Christian movie soundtrack).

The Beatles had been fans of Billy Preston ever since seeing him in Little Richard’s band in Hamburg in 1962. George went on to produce and play on Preston’s Apple debut, That’s the Way God Planned It. Harrison was one of the producers and played (along with Ringo Starr) on Doris Troy’s self-titled Apple album. George also produced and played (with Paul and Ringo) on Jackie Lomax’s debut album, Is This What You Want? featuring the Harrison composition, “Sour Milk Sea”.

John was much taken with the music of The Modern Jazz Quartet, who released the only two jazz albums in the Apple catalogue. Ringo was intrigued by the music of contemporary British classical composer John Tavener, and his Apple album, The Whale has become one of the most sought-after Apple collectibles of all time.

Each of the 15 albums in this bumper batch of Apple Records releases has been digitally remastered at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios in London by the same dedicated team of engineers behind The Beatles’ recent remastered catalogue releases of 2009.

The Liverpool Fourth

Paul McCartney performed in Red Square on May 24, 2003. It was the most important event in the entire history of pop music in Russia. Seven hours before the concert, Sir Paul entered the very heart of the former Evil Empire and gave a personal performance of “Let It Be” for its present ruler.

Krokodil on the "Beetles"

Russia is not much different from all other countries of the world in its enduring love for the music of the Beatles as a group and for its individual members. Moreover, the history of this love is only a little younger than the history of the Beatles themselves. Here is a quote from Krokodil magazine of 1964: “Authorities in Glasgow have banned performances by the quartet after 3500 frenzied young people, following the artists’ example, started smashing chairs and breaking down the walls in the hall. There is so much noise during concerts that the artists cannot hear their own singing. But this makes them happy. On the other hand, if they are able to hear each other’s shouts, they consider the concert a failure.” Obviously, they would not have given millions of Soviet readers such detailed accounts of the antics of the Liverpool four and their Western fans if the songs of this quartet had not found such a warm response in the hearts of these same readers, despite the fact that they generally had to listen to Beatles songs in tenth-hand copies on tape recorders or through the crackle of jamming devices on shortwave radio.

So it continued for the entire ten years of the Beatles’s existence. An official performance in Russia was out of the question. Another quote from Krokodil, “the “beetles” masterfully arouse the deepest and most primitive passions in their audiences,” was an official dismissal of the Beatles’ artistry. The story of a VIP concert at Sheremetevo Airport during a stopover on the way to Japan, alas, remained only a sweet legend. Nikolai Rastorguev, soloist of the group Lyube, is a long-time Beatlemaniac and six years ago even issued an album about this legend called “Four Nights in Moscow” with his own versions of original Beatles songs, which are quite good and are performed with great feeling.

The Beatles and the Olympics, McCartney and the Putsch, Starr and the Default

The Beatles split up, the official position softened, and Melodiya even released some recordings of Beatles songs, as well as the political statement “Give Ireland Back to the Irish” by Paul McCartney’s group Wings. The song was almost simultaneously banned on the BBC and issued on a flexible record as a supplement to the magazine Outlook (Krugozor). However, concerts were still out of the question. Wings performed in Zagreb, Yugoslavia in 1976, and for many years the city was the closest Paul McCartney ever got to the Soviet capital. Four years later, Soviet Beatles fans had an illusory hope of meeting the Beatles as part of the cultural program of the 1980 Olympics. Sir Paul recently confirmed the truth of the story that negotiations were held with the Soviet leadership, but they ended in failure.

They wanted to invite McCartney to Moscow in 1991 for a gala concert of big Western stars after the failed putsch in honor of the triumph of democracy. However, these plans were just too romantic and the concert was never organized, even though the musicians themselves had agreed in principle. The country had to wait another seven years before one of the ex-Beatles set foot on Russian soil for the first time. In August 1998, at the height of the crisis, Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band performed in Russia Hall. It was a historic event, but at that time, it was not the most popular music, and Ringo Starr’s solo career was the least successful of all the former Beatles.

Six Years of Preparation

If you believe Nadezhda Soloveva, the head of SAV Entertainment, who had a key role in organizing Paul McCartney’s concert, they advanced this day as much as they could over a period of six years, but there was nothing much to talk about for most of this time: the musician himself was experiencing the longest interruption in concert activity of his career. Things started to take shape only in 2002, when McCartney set out on a tour of the US. It quickly became clear that people around the world had been waiting even longer for concerts by the former Beatle than it had appeared at first. As a result, the concert tour was extended and scaled up, and the concert program was even renamed from “Driving World” to “Back to the World.” McCartney’s agents announced that there would be concerts in Europe as well, which opened a “window” to Moscow.

The event’s historical importance is obvious to everyone. At a press conference called in March 2003 to make an official announcement of the concert in Red Square, the organizers said that they had initially considered even more exotic locales for the concert, for example, the Medeo rink in Kazakhstan or a huge factory building in Chelyabinsk designed for 50 000 workers, but in the end there was no better place for performing “Back in the USSR” than Red Square.

The LDPR vs. Putin

At the same press conference, journalists were informed that the president of Russia had given his consent in principle for holding the concert near the Kremlin walls. Any problems that arose afterwards no longer seemed very serious, for example, the public indignation of Duma deputy Aleksei Mitrofanov of the LDPR. He reminded everyone that Red Square was “a symbol of Russian unity, of the heroism of the Russian people, of the glorious feats in war and labor of many of our compatriots, as well as being the site of many historic and epochal events.” He reproached Paul McCartney for immorality, shown by his use of drugs. He spoke of the Great Sports Arena at Luzhniki in Moscow, where there were no graves of prominent public and political figures. However, after Vladimir Putin had given the OK, this was viewed as an attempt at self-advertisement, and a rather unsuccessful one at that.

From St. Petersburg to Moscow

All in all, the only thing that could have upset Paul McCartney’s plans was force-majeur, as stipulated in the contract, but fortunately this did not happen. Two days before the concert in Moscow, Sir Paul and his wife Heather Mills landed in St. Petersburg. This was where he first set foot on our land, and from it he stepped onto the carpet of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, the first stop of his stay in Russia. There he addressed his first official word to Russians from a prepared note: “Privet!” (Hi!). With McCartney at that moment were people representing the two poles of Russian reality: future governor of St. Petersburg, Valentina Matvienko, and Kolya Vasin, Russia’s chief Beatles fan and originator of the idea of setting up a John Lennon temple of love, peace, and music in the city on the Neva. The ex-Beatle did not attach any special importance to these two figures, and in the evening of the same day he flew to Moscow, where he immediately started preparations for the concert.

Sir Paul had made no plans for a high-society program, at least not one that had become common public property. He had intended to spend the day of the concert either on stage or in the dressing room arranged in Indian style. This is how it would have been if it had not been for an invitation that even someone like Paul McCartney could not refuse: President Putin invited him for a visit in his Kremlin apartment. The meeting took place seven hours before the start of the concert, with conversation about the Beatles’ music, the Tchaikovsky competition, and the struggle against antipersonnel mines (the musician and his wife are active in fighting against this evil). Sir Paul even sang “Let It Be” for President Putin, to his own accompaniment on his host’s piano; and Vladimir Putin gave Paul McCartney a personal tour of the Kremlin.

Later in the program of that historic day for all of Russia, there was a sound check and a press conference right in Red Square. The journalists were rewarded with an unforgettable impression as they were admitted to the deserted square, where Paul McCartney was continuing to check the sound system by singing “Lady Madonna” and “Carry That Weight.” No particular impressions came out of the short meeting between the ex-Beatle and the press, except for the realization that you were standing face to face with a living legend. It seemed that although Sir Paul himself was aware of the historical significance of the moment, he somehow did not feel it.

In fact, this applied to all the other participants in the event, including the audience. Throngs of people streamed into Red Square, apparently coming just for a concert and not for a long-awaited event. The atmosphere of light-hearted merriment lasted until early dusk, when the words “"You say yes, I say no, you say stop and I said go-go-go” resounded in the square. The historical significance of the moment suddenly electrified the air and lasted throughout the concert, becoming almost palpable at times, for example, when the roar of a landing airplane came through the loudspeakers and the first chords of “Back in the USSR” sounded, accompanied by video clips of moments in Russian history, including a placard with the slogan “Smash the Fascist’s Mug”. During the second, and final encore, when McCartney began singing “Yesterday”, everyone who was sitting stood up. They also stood when a short figure emerged from the gate of the Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower and walked over to the boxes. Everyone stood, because it was President Putin, who had told Sir Paul beforehand that matters of state would prevent him from attending the concert. When McCartney saw that the audience was standing and had turned away from him, he said casually as if nothing had happened, “We have some new arrivals here. Hi, guys!”

The concert ended, and the crowd dispersed. The next day, Paul McCartney and his wife strolled alone through Red Square and then left Russia. There were two concerts left in the “Back to the World” tour. The last one was its emotional peak: McCartney played in his native Liverpool after a very long break, and the authorities gladly agreed to fulfill every wish of their great countryman. There McCartney sang as if to friends, occasionally saying things like “John and I first started to perform right there across the street,” and was as enraptured as his audience. At the same time, when the film Paul McCartney at Red Square was shown on ITV, one of the five main British TV channels, it became a phenomenal hit. It was such a hit that it was even shown again at Christmas at the request of a large number of British viewers.

by Yury Yarotsky

All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 12, 2004

You can assemble a crack band of fine singers and players from the 1970s and '80s. You can coax impassioned performances from them knowing they have a much larger stage than usual.

Those were the hallmarks of the show Friday at the State Theatre in Easton by Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and the 11th incarnation of His All-Starr Band.

How good was the show? For 23 songs in just under two hours, there were nine standing ovations by the sell-out crowd.