Move over, Ms L!

Hi all, wondering why you are looking at this jumbled up page? This is due to the fact that Facebook didn't like our url since it starts with wog, so we have been forced to move the blog. This was some time ago, and we have placed a script which would automatically send you to our new location. Obviously, this hasn't worked for all of you, since we have just finished moderating some of your comments which appeared on this site recently, and not on our new (and improved!) site. So what we're saying is head on over to our new site, and update your bookmarks!

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Wings Over America deluxe in June?

Bill King of Beatlefan just revealed that Hear Music is planning a "june-ish" release of the remastered "Wings Over America", and that it will include the "RockShow" concert film on DVD, as well as what's described as "far more bells and whistles" than any of the other Macca archive releases to date. King promises more details in Beatlefan/EXTRA! #317...

If true, the inclusion of the "RockShow" movie on DVD in the deluxe edition is contrary to earlier reports which indicated that fans would have to buy "RockShow" separately. We can only speculate about the other "bells and whistles" included, but what we'd really like to see is the "Wings Over The World" TV movie about the tour, and the 1975 Wings concert from Melbourne that was filmed to compensate for the tour not being able to travel to Japan. Paul's drug problems again, I'm afraid. There used to be a book from the American leg of the Wings tour as well, a photo book in black and white by Hipgnosis, called "Hands Across The Water". But I'm sure they'll make another book for this release.


Of course, they'll just have to reproduce the posters that used to be included with the triple vinyl album in some form or other.  

Tuesday 22 January 2013

Rubber Soul uncropped


Photo: Robert Freeman
Uncropped, untilted and  undistorted, this photo started circulating on Facebook last night.

Thursday 17 January 2013

Videos from The Beatles


There's been some activity on the official YouTube account of the Beatles recently. 18-20 hours ago no fewer than 31 short clips were uploaded, most of them from the promo films (=music videos). The clips were around 40 seconds long, and are probably there to be used on TheBeatles.com site. Two longer clips from the Shea Stadium film were among the new uploads, clocking in at 2:17 and 1:53. Is there hope for a long overdue release of this film for the home cinema market?

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Heart of The Country revisited

Paul McCartney tweeted a new YouTube video link the other day. It turned out that the video was uploaded by a new user, "Linda McCartney". The video in question is a 44 seconds excerpt of a cartoon, illustrating the song "Heart of The Country" on the Ram album. The soundtrack is Paul singing the song again in a new arrangement. So....a belated effort to promote the Ram remaster? Or the start of something new? Perhaps another of McCartney's forrays into animation?

Friday 11 January 2013

European copyrights


There's apparently a hole in the copyright protection in Europe. It used to be 50 years, but will be extended to 70 years. But the extension will not be validated until November. Meanwhile, recordings from 1962 are out of copyright protection.
And first to seemingly capitalise on that fact is a company called Digital Remasterings, which has included ‘Love Me Do’ on a compilation of very early Beatles recordings, mainly live recordings from their time working at Hamburg’s Star Club. Meanwhile a company called Pristine Classical, which specialises in releasing remastered versions of out-of-copyright classical recordings, has issued its own remaster of ‘Love Me Do’, seemingly in protest at the copyright extension.
So...Digital Remasterings seems to think that the Star Club tape is now legal to release. But there's a snag: Copyrights start the year of release, not the year of recording, and the 1962 Star Club recordings weren't released until 1977.
Source