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!

Friday 28 August 2020

The blog has moved!

Hi all,
due to the fact that Facebook didn't like our url since it starts with wog, we have moved 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!

Monday 6 July 2020

Ringo's big birthday bash

Ringo Starr's 80th birthday goes live on YouTube.
Ringo Starr will be hosting his own big 80th birtday party live on YouTube. It's a charity gig featuring guest stars and will benefit Black Lives Matter Global Network, The David Lynch Foundation, Musicares and Wateraid.

The show will air on AXS TV's YouTube channel on July 7, 2020 at 5 PM PST, and will feature performances from Ringo himself, Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh and Gary Clark jr, Sheryl Crow, Sheila E, Ben Harper and others.

"As everyone knows I love gathering with fans for peace and love on my birthday. But this year, I want everyone to be safe at home - so I called up a few friends and we put this Big Birthday Show together so we could still celebrate my birthday with you all, with some great music for some great charities. I hope you will all join me! Peace and Love, Ringo."

The broadcast will also feature the premiere of a guest star version of Ringo's "Give More Love" that was created to benefit Musicares and features Jeff Bridges, Jackson Browne, T Bone Burnette, Elvis Costello, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Peter Frampton, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Keb Mo and Willie Nelson.

Additionally there will be a playlist of unique tribute performances on Ringo's YouTube channel. This will include musicians who have previously recorded Ringo's songs, performances from past birthday celebrations as well as some new versions which artists will be posting on their socials. Look for musical tributes from Ben Folds, Ben Dickey, Bettye LaVette, Colin Hay, Elvis Costello, Gregg Rolie, Judy Collins, Peter Frampton, Richard Marx, Steve Earle, Steve Lukather and many more.

While Ringo won't be gathering with family, friends and fans at Capitol Records this year for his birthday, he invites everyone everywhere to think, say or post #peaceandlove at Noon their local time on July 7th. Fans are already organizing online events around the world to fulfill Ringo’s birthday wish of a wave of Peace & Love across the planet. Look for details on Ringo’s Facebook page for events starting in New Zealand and ending in Hawaii. Ringo began these in 2008 at the Hard Rock Café Chicago and in 2018 he celebrated the 10th Anniversary at the Hard Rock Café Nice. In the ensuing years it has grown enormously and in 2019 there were over 30 Peace & Love events in countries all around the world including Argentina - Buenos Aires; Chascomus, Armenia - Yerevan Australia -Sydney, Bolivia - La Paz, Brazil - Sao Paulo, Columbia -Bogota, Costa Rica - San Jose, Cuba – Habana, Czech Republic – Prague, El Salvador - San Salvador, Estonia – Tallin, Finland – Helsinki, Germany - Hamburg and Halle, Italy – Venice, Japan - Osaka; Tokyo, Panama - Panama City, Paraguay -Asunción, Peru – Lima, Russia – Moscow, Spain - Barcelona; Madrid, United Kingdom - London; Liverpool, United States - Chicago; Minneapolis, Hawaii, Los Angeles, New York City.


HISTORY OF RINGO’S ANNUAL JULY 7 PEACE & LOVE BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS:

2008 – Chicago, IL Hard Rock Cafe
2009 –Online campaign including in store salutes at Noon at all Hard Rock Cafes worldwide
2010 – New York City, NY: Hard Rock Cafe, Times Square
2011 – Hamburg, Germany: Hard Rock Cafe
2012 – Nashville, TN: Hard Rock Café
2013 – Online celebration including a video message from Ringo
2014 – Los Angeles, CA: Capitol Records Tower
2015 - Los Angeles, CA: Capitol Records Tower
2016 - Los Angeles, CA: Capitol Records Tower
2017 - Los Angeles, CA: Capitol Records Tower
2018 – Nice, France: Hard Rock Café
2019 - Los Angeles, CA: Capitol Records Tower

Previous performers at Ringo’s Birthdays have included:
2012: Toad The Wet Sprocket;
2014: Adam Arcuragi and Spirit Family Reunion;
2016: Vandaveer, Alberta Cross and Dave Stewart with Jon Stevens; Emmanuel Jal and Paul Beaubrun,
2017: Don Was with Jenny Lewis, Michael Breardon and Van Dyke Parks;
2018: Joe Walsh with Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band including Steve Lukather, Colin Hay, Graham Gouldman, Gregg Rolie, Gregg Bissonette and Warren Ham:
2019: Ben Kyle of Romantica with Sarah Watkins, The Jacks and the Lennon Bus High School kids.

Link to live stream.

The day John and Paul met at Abba's

6th of July, 1957: The Quarry Men play at St Peter's church field in Woolton, Liverpool. Colourised by Sardjono.
Today is the 6th of July, the day most Beatles sites around the world are commemorating as "the day John met Paul", back in 1957. And this morning on BBC Radio, Rod Davies of the Quarry Men was interviewed about the day's events. Listen to his phone interview at 1:10:03 into this show, the Zoe Ball Breakfast Show. It will be available for 30 days only.

And yet, the two had actually met before. Mark Lewisohn brought to light in the first volume of his trilogy biography on the Beatles, "Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years" an earlier meeting between Lennon and McCartney, which happened the year before - outside the newsagents during the time Paul was a paperboy. Lewisohn found out that the newsagents were called Abba, but to pinpoint the exact location, Mark Ashworth and Peter Hodgson to the rescue. You can read that story in Ashworth's superb blog There Are Places I Remember - The Beatles Liverpool Locations.

At the Woolton village fete, some audio of the Quarry Men's afternoon concert inside Woolton village hall was recorded by an audience member, Bob Molyneux, on his portable Grundig reel-to-reel tape recorder. In 1994 Molyneux, then a retired policeman, rediscovered the tape, which contained scratchy recordings of the band performing Lonnie Donegan's "Puttin' On The Style" and Elvis Presley's "Baby, Let's Play House". Purchased by EMI, the full tape has never been published, but these samples were released at the time of the auction.


EMI considered releasing the recording as part of the 1995/96 "Beatles Anthology" series, but even after the tape had been cleaned up in the studio, EMI decided that the sonic quality of the recordings were not up to the standard set for prospective "Anthology" album or TV material. This was confirmed by New York Times journalist Allan Kozinn, who described the sound quality of the restored version of the tapes as appalling. When asked about the recordings, Apple spokesman Derek Taylor said he didn't even know what had become of the tape.

Friday 26 June 2020

The World Tonight

From the video directed by Geoff Wonfor

New online releases from Paul McCartney today, two videos and an EP on streaming media. The song in question is "The World Tonight", from previously released CD singles but remastered for a new archival release of his "Flaming Pie" album, coming out on July 31.


The two videos are one from his then son-in-law, Alistair Donald, and one from Beatles Anthology director Geoff Wonfor. Here's the first one:

The second one, directed by Geoff Wonfor will premiere in a few hours (at the time of writing) and will magically appear below when the time comes.

Thursday 25 June 2020

Grow Old with John, Paul and Ringo


A fan made mix of the instrumentation from Ringo Starr's version of the song, coupled with John Lennon's vocals from his home demos.

Description by the uploader:

It has often been suggested that when the Beatles were preparing the Anthology, Yoko provided more than just "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love" for consideration for reunion songs. Two other titles have been mentioned, an unreleased but bootlegged demo called "Now And Then" and "Grow Old With Me", which had been issued on the posthumous "Milk And Honey" album. Neither were completed.

In October 2019, Ringo released his version of John's demo of "Grow Old With Me", which features on his album "What's My Name". This new version featured Ringo on drums and vocals and Paul on bass and backing vocals, with guitarist Joe Walsh joining them and new string arrangement by Jack Douglas (producer of John's "Double Fantasy" album).

This is an attempt at presenting a version of what a Beatles version of the track could have sounded like. This uses the backing track from Ringo's version and John's vocal and piano from two alternate demos that have not been released officially. As Ringo's version was recorded in the Bb and John's original was in G, it was not possible to incorporate Ringo or Paul's vocals (there was no magic "Strawberry Fields Forever" blend possible, the vocals were just way too slow!).

Single Fantasy


In 1980, when John Lennon talked about his and Yoko's new album "Double Fantasy", he said that all the songs came to him that year. As we now know from the "Lost Lennon Tapes" radio series, and bootlegs from it, as well as by other accounts, they did not. He kept making music, writing lyrics and recording simple demos all through the five years he spent as a "house husband" from when his son was born in 1975 and until he was ready to release his comeback album in 1980.

A few days ago on Twitter, I came across a handwritten note from John. In this note, he outlines plans for a new solo album. It's a track list for side 1 and 2 of an album of only his own songs, no Yoko. I tried to track down where the note came from, and all I could find was a 2009 slideshow from the New York Times, in conjunction with the then upcoming LennoNYC documentary, where the image of the note was attributed to Yoko.

There's only 3 tracks on side 2, which probably means the list was not finished. No sign of the song (Just Like) Starting Over, because that song was one of the last songs to be completed in time for the Double Fantasy sessions. "We didn't hear it until the last day of rehearsal," producer Jack Douglas said in 2005. Still, it's origins can be traced back to a couple of unfinished demo compositions, "Don't Be Crazy" and "My Life".

Here's John's outline of the sequencing of the album:

Side 1:
1. Beautiful Boy
2. Stepping Out
3. Borrowed Time
4. Woman
5. (Afraid I’m) Losing You
6. Grow Old With Me
7. Dear Yoko
8. Watching The Wheels

Side 2:
1. Real Love
2. Nobody Told Me
3. (I Don’t Wanna) Face It

The note also features descriptions of the musical styles he wanted each of the songs tailored to.

John's handwritten outline of his upcoming album

Beautiful Boy: Solo instead of middle 8, a la Monty Alexander "Jamento", i.e. piano mixed steel drum.

Stepping Out: Heavy bass/guitar a la "Let’s Get Serious" (Germaine Jackson).

Borrowed Time: Reggae – bass line + "Herb Alpert" horns solo

Woman: Key change after second middle – early Motown/Beatles

(Afraid I’m) Losing You: a la "How Do You Sleep" (Imagine LP) + "Thrill has gone" – B.B. King 

Grow Old With Me: "Imagine" – Brass instead of strings or both. Bagpipes

Dear Yoko: Buddy Holly + "Oh Yoko" (Imagine LP) – solo = "Listen To Me" – B. Holly

Real Love: "Waiting For You" (Strings etc)

Watching The Wheels: Mind Games (single) and for "Working Class Dylan"

Nobody Told Me: (Everybody’s Talking) Instant Karma

(I Don’t Wanna) Face It; It’s too fast; should be laid back, L.A. style: plus "Havana Moon" sound on chorus (Chuck Berry)

N.B. All notes refer to the SOUND only!

Some of the songs was to end up on the couple's reimagined joint album "Double Fantasy", some on the posthumous "Milk and Honey". A couple of songs were never professionally recorded, "Grow Old With Me" was issued in demo form and George Martin later made an arrangement for it.
"Real Love" came out in demo form on a documentary film soundtrack and another demo formed the basis of later recording by the remaining ex-Beatles and was released as a Beatles single.

Wednesday 24 June 2020

New and improved Indra Club photo

Paul McCartney surprised us yesterday on his social media channels by commemorating deceased band member Stuart Sutcliffe, who would have turned 80, if he hadn’t died in 1962. Paul wrote: "Our original bass player Stuart would have been 80 today! So many great memories of our time together. Happy birthday Stu! Love Paul"

But the best part is, he illustrated it with a high quality version of a photo from the Indra club. It was probably taken on August 17, 1960, when the Beatles had just begun their first stint in Hamburg.

The Beatles hamming it up for the unknown photographer at the Indra.
We have featured this photo on this blog on previous occasions, and here’s what it used to look like:

Previous incarnation of this photo.
So thank you very much, Paul! This made our day. Oh and the fact that it was our birthday too, yeah. Here's a black and white versin we created from Paul's yellow-tinted upload:
The palm tree lamp at the left has always just been a grey dot in previous renderings of the photo.

Monday 22 June 2020

Fan made McCartney documentary series

Breathless345, whom you might remember from his documentary series on the Lennon-McCartney relationship, has made another documentary series, this time only about Paul McCartney and his solo career. There are five hourlong episodes in this series.


The first episode (above) is about 1970-75. "I made this as a gift to the public and am earning no money whatsoever from it. No infringement is intended; if you need something removed, please let me know and I’ll happily comply. This series is not endorsed by anyone other than me." says the humble biographer.

Episodes:
Part 1: LIFT OFF
Part 2: CULT HERO
Part 3: THE GREAT ESCAPE
Part 4: THAT RARE EXOTIC THING
Part 5: SIR PAUL
Or as a playlist, episodes 1-5.

Paul McCartney back to scratch


It was back to scratch for Paul McCartney in at least two ways Saturday night. In the ‘Round Midnight Preserves virtual livestream benefit, hosted Saturday by New Orleans’ Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Paul's number (together with Elvis Costello, Jim James, Dave Matthews, Irma Thomas and Nathaniel Ratleliff) was "When The Saints Go Marchin' In".

It was a hark back to the Beatles' very first appearance on a 45 rpm back in October 1961. The single, "My Bonnie (lies over the ocean) c/w "When The Saints Go Marchin' In" was first released in Germany under the name Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers, and then in Great Britain in January 1962. Come 1964, it would be rereleased and credited to The Beatles, with Tony Sheridan on vocals.

French edition of the single, 1964.
Another reason this was back to scratch for Paul, was that he elected to play trumpet on the song! The trumpet was Paul's first instrument, bought him by his dad when he was just a kid. He did learn it a bit, but soon enought convinced his dad to trade it with a guitar - which proved to be a good idea!
Paul is a bit rusty on the old trumpet in this rendition, but the song really picks up a good swing after a while, and Paul also sings a very "Satchmo"-channelled verse.

Sirpaulru has provided us with an upload of the performance on YouTube. Since this is not an official channel, you should catch it while you can.

Friday 19 June 2020

The Beatles in Uncut

Uncut for August: Uncut's first Beatles cover in three years.
Peter Jackson's "Get Back" film was postponed a year and will not come out until August 27, 2021. But U.K. music magazine Uncut was already sent to the printer's when Disney's decision was made.

Fifty years on, where do you start with Let It Be? For The Beatles, the answer is a complicated one. Filmed in early 1969, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s documentary contains some of the very best audio-vérité footage of the band assembling songs, not to mention their last public concert ever, on the rooftop of Apple Corps’ headquarters at 3 Savile Row; but it also foreshadows their breakup nearly 15 months later. Perhaps understandably, it’s not a project for which the band have historically shown much enthusiasm. “It went into the things that happen in any family: little fights, little niggles, little mistrust, little this, little that,” Ringo Starr tells Uncut.

“The movie and the album didn’t come out until May 1970 and they were in the middle of their divorce,” filmmaker Peter Jackson explains. “The band was breaking up and they were suing each other and obviously it was a very stressful, unhappy time.”

Jackson should know. The filmmaker has been entrusted with fashioning a new film, The Beatles: Get Back – an alternate documentary using Lindsay-Hogg’s extensive original footage.

Paul McCartney, Ringo and a cast of supporting players help John Robinson get back to the Fabs’ January rehearsals in Twickenham Film Studios – and look forward to Jackson’s new film.

The fractious recording of the supposedly back-to-basics album was originally captured by filmmaker Michael Lindsay-Hogg for the documentary of the same name, concluding with that triumphant rooftop gig on the roof of No 3, Savile Row on January 30, 1969. Now, acclaimed director Peter Jackson has returned to the footage to construct a new documentary, Get Back, shedding fresh light on the whole affair.

Eighteen months ago, Lindsay-Hogg went for a meeting at Apple and heard a proposal: for an alternate documentary using the original footage, to be made by Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson. Apple hoped he would think it was a good idea. “I couldn’t have been happier,” says Lindsay-Hogg. “He’s a wonderful filmmaker.”

Today, Lindsay-Hogg remembers the conversations he himself had with The Beatles at the time he was editing his own film. What they wanted out (“originally there was more John and Yoko interacting”), what the distributors wanted out (“they wanted more music, less talking – we had to cut out half an hour”) and what The Beatles were, to his relief, ultimately content to leave in (George and Paul in Twickenham, particularly). A guiding principle of the original ‘Get Back’ had been to reject sophistication and over-editing, and it was a relief to him The Beatles made no effort to cover their tracks, however uncomfortable it may occasionally have been for them.

“I’m glad it exists,” Paul McCartney tells Uncut. “I’m glad any film exists of The Beatles, because it’s these wonderful, handsome young boys all being wonderful. Immaculately dressed. All Beatles things are good, period – it’s a body of work. I love seeing the stuff.”

As much as the Let It Be documentary might be problematic for those who prefer The Beatles to remain forever chirpy moptops rather than complicated adults, the film is still a coherent piece: a warm and gradual movement towards harmony from the crotchety abstraction of the initial rehearsals. At around an hour in, The Beatles are by now refined and accomplished, playing McCartney’s “The Two Of Us”, “Let It Be” and “The Long And Winding Road” in a intimately lit studio setting.

As the film continues, the concluding rooftop concert breaks this domesticated mood for a return to raw and instinctive interaction – much as they hoped would be the effect of the whole project. At the end of their 42-minute set, Lennon jokes to the small roof congregation, “I hope we passed the audition”, which of course is pretty funny. But for the project to succeed at all, it did require The Beatles to unlearn much of their professional judgement and allow it to be overruled by naïveté and enthusiasm of their earliest, auditioning, days.

“They never had an exact plan,” says Peter Jackson. “Which is one of the entertaining things you see in the footage.”

Link: Uncut

Thursday 18 June 2020

First Beatles drum logo?

Rory Storm on the stage of the Top Ten Club with Tony Sheridan’s band.
Here’s a picture we were reminded of today. The Beatles and Rory Storm and the Hurricanes alternated playing sets at the Kaiserkeller in Hamburg in 1960. There has never been published a photo of either band on stage at the joint. But they used to sneak off to the Top Ten Club on the Reeperbahn to jam with «the teacher», Tony Sheridan. Which got them into trouble with Bruno Koshmieder, their employer.

This is a photo of Rory Storm singing with Tony Sheridan’s band at the Top Ten Club. But does that bass drum behind Rory say «Beatles»? Because if it is, this is the only time we have seen a Pete Best bass drum with the name Beatles on it. Well, we have of course seen the famously faked one.

Tony Sheridan with his band at the Top Ten Club.
This and more photos over at the brilliant Savage Young Beatles site.

Paul and George in 1970

Paul and George in the studio, January 1970
For Paul’s birthday today, George Harrison’s Twitter account published a never before seen photo of Paul and George. Judging from their hairstyles, it must have been taken at the January 3-4, 1970 session for the re-recording of George’s «I Me Mine» for the upcoming Let It Be album.

The song was recorded as a trio with Paul, George and Ringo, as John was away in Denmark. Also, he had left the group. This is the first time this, or any other photo from this recording session has been published. That makes this the last photo of members of the Beatles recording a song for a Beatles album. Until «Free as a bird» that is. Unless there are other, unpublished ones from this session?

Wednesday 17 June 2020

Four photographers on The Beatles

Upcoming book featuring the works of four photographers
Photos by photographers  Norman Parkinson, Michael Ward, Terry O'Neill and Derek Bayes will be collected in a new book, due out September 2nd in the USA and September 7th in Great Britain.

The book, "Beatlemania: Four Photographers on the Fab Four" has text by Tony Barrell and is published in hardcover by ACC Art Books, it has 240 pages.

And here's the blurb: The Beatles ascended like no band before, hurtling to the dizzy heights of international stardom in the early 1960s. Their counter-cultural vibes and unmistakable talent are still the subject of much discussion today - as is the rabid devotion of their fans. But how did one pop group become, as Lennon infamously quipped, "more popular than Jesus"? 

The work of four photographers provides an enlightening insight into the band's rise to fame: 


  • Ward captured the Fab Four when Beatlemania was still confined to their own home city - the band braved the icy Liverpool streets for a promotional shoot during the Big Freeze of '62-63. 
  • O'Neill crossed paths with The Beatles amid the buzz of the Swinging Sixties, resonating with the band in 1963 as a photographer of their generation. 
  • Parkinson delivered a deceptively relaxed shoot later that year, when the band were recording their second album; while Bayes captured never-before-published candid shots of The Beatles filming Help! in 1965. 


Accompanying these pictures, Tony Barrell's text delves into the Beatlemania phenomenon - the good, the bad, the ugly and the odd. From the creation of their early hit records to the hails of confectionery that peppered stages after John claimed George had eaten his jelly babies, Beatlemania: Four Photographers on the Fab Four reveals how one band became a lasting sensation.

Here are the Amazon links to pre-order the book:

Let it be for 2021

The original 1970 boxed set of the "Let It Be"-album.
According to sources close to the projects, the yet-not-announced 50th anniversary release of the "Let It Be" album by The Beatles has been postponed to 2021.

This comes as a result of distributor of Peter Jackson's new "Get Back" documentary, Disney having rescheduled the silver screen debut of that film to August 27, 2021. The documentary was originally planned for theatrical release September 4th, 2020. Also, a restored version of Michael Lindsay-Hogg's original documentary "Let It Be" was to follow, but it too, has now been pushed back to 2021.

Giles Martin and his team was going to work on the soundtracks of both films, as well as an anniversary edition of the album this month. Since Abbey Road Studios again is open for business after having been closed for more than ten weeks, that work can go ahead as scheduled. But it will have to spend some time on the shelves before it gets to be released.

Ironically, a delay of over a year and being on the backburner seems to be an eternal fate of the "Get Back" material. Having been filmed and recorded in January 1969, the album as well as the film didn't come to fruition until May 1970, by which time The Beatles had already recorded and released another album, "Abbey Road" - and then disbanded.

UPDATE: We have just received information that a)sound mixing was finished many months ago, which is contrary to the report from Roger Friedman which our comment was based on and b) not all parties have had their say regarding delaying the anniversary album release yet.

Saturday 13 June 2020

The Beatles’ first EMI tape

John, Paul, George and Pete’s recording session at Abbey Road preserved in full?
The late Geoff Emerick worked as sound engineer for The Beatles from 1966. But he was present right from the beginning. And now it turns out that the engineer, who died in 2018, has left behind a tape recording from that first session in 1962.

It was June 6, 1962 that John, Paul, George and Pete for the first time set foot inside the Abbey Road studio complex and embarked on their recording career. For Pete, it would also be the last time, but nobody knew at the time.

In Studio 2, which would later become a permanent hangout, they first played through a number of songs, before attempting a recording of four songs in this order: "Besame Mucho", "Love Me Do", "PS I Love You" and " Ask Me Why ». They were in the studio from 7pm to 10pm, according to the EMI protocol.
Depicted among the court documents was this, the tape box.

Now it turns out that Geoff Emerick has kept a tape recording from that day, a recording that he had been asked to bin. On Anthology vol. 1, the version of "Love Me Do" from this recording was preserved, thanks to a demo George Martin's wife found in a closet. Bootleggers had already released "Besame Mucho" earlier and already back in the eighties I was told that the full tape was in the hands of a private collector. If Geoff had the tape, why didn’t he submit it for the Anthology series?

Now ownership of Emerick's tape will be tried in court. On Tuesday, the case starts between Emerick's family and Universal Music about who actually owns the tape, which has been estimated to have a value of approximately £ 5 million.

Source: The Sun (who thought this was a film) via the Daily Mail


In this interview from 2016 with Emerick, there is a little bit of banter between the interviewer, Emerick and Dave Harries about this, when the interviewer asks Emerick: "Have you got any tape which no one has ever heard? This is between you and me." Emerick points out that the camera is on, but after muttering a bit, he clearly says "Yes!". The conversation is between 7.10 to 8.00 in the clip.

Friday 12 June 2020

Peter Jackson’s Get Back film pushed to August 2021


Friday, Disney published some changes to their future film programme. Due to the covid-19 situation, it seems that Peter Jackson’s documentary about the Get Back sessions will not see the light of day this September after all. Test viewings have taken place already, but Disney now says it won’t hit the big screen until 27 August 2021.

We are uncertain how this will affect the as yet unannounced 50th anniversary edition of the «Let It Be» album and the restored original film by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. 

Source: The Wrap

Penny Lane controversy

A Penny Lane street sun. Photo: Jackie Spencer
Contrary to public opinion, the street "Penny Lane" in Liverpool was likely NOT named after James Penny, the anti-abolitionist and slave merchant who was said to have defended slave trade to the British Parliament. However, this has not deterred vandals who have failed to read up on the subject from defacing the famous street sign.


Our neighbourhood blog, Beatles Liverpool Locations will set you straight on the subject matter.

Young Boy EP released

The former CD maxi single - now as a streaming EP
Today, Paul McCartney has released a virtual EP from his upcoming Archives editions of "Flaming Pie", his 1997 post-"Beatles Anthology" album. You can find it on various streaming services, like Spotify. It contains the title track as fully produced, as a home demo, the single's B-side "Looking For You" and part 1 of the "Oobujoobu"* extracts McCartney spread over a handful of maxi CD singles back then.

A video for the main title, "Young Boy", directed by Beatles Anthology's Geoff Wonfor is due to premiere later today, at the same time as Paul's website, www.paulmccartney.com reveals the full details of the upcoming release (July 31) and the formats it will be available in.


Also, a second video for the song, directed by Alistair Donald will be published:


Yesterday, images of a double LP, a 3 LP set and a 2 CD version appeared online:
2 CD

2 LP

2LP + 1 LP
This comes in addition to a previously leaked image of the 5CD/2DVD DeLuxe edition from the online store of HMV, and a track list for the DeLuxe edition which appeared prematurely on the Norwegian and Swedish CDon webshops. We have reported on both of those incidents in previous postings.

Here's the Collector's edition, limited to 3000 copies and only available from Universal Music:



*"Oobujoobu" was a radio series which McCartney hosted in 1995 and aired on the American radio network Westwood One, and one episode of the radio show was released as a "Best Buy" only freebie with "Flaming Pie" in May 1997. All in all, McCartney gave us six extracts from other episodes of the series spread across six CD singles, these are all now collected on disc 4 of the upcoming DeLuxe edition of "Flaming Pie", due out July 31.

Monday 8 June 2020

Flaming Pie track list

Flaming Pie - the cooking edition! :-D
This looks like the full tracklist for Paul McCartney - Flaming Pie archive deluxe edition. Courtesy of the online music store Cdon.no and since removed from there.

Disc 1
The Song We Were Singing 
The World Tonight
If You Wanna
Somedays
Young Boy
Calico Skies
Flaming Pie
Heaven On A Sunday
Used To Be Bad
Souvenir
Little Willow
Really Love You
Beautiful Night
Great Day

Disc 2 (CD 2 - Demos & Home Recordings)
The Song We Were Singing [Home Recording] 
The World Tonight [Home Recording]
If You Wanna [Home Recording]
Somedays [Home Recording]
Young Boy [Home Recording]
Calico Skies [Home Recording]
Flaming Pie [Home Recording]
Souvenir [Home Recording]
Little Willow [Home Recording]
Beautiful Night [1995 Demo]
Great Day [Home Recording]

Disc 3 (CD 3 - Studio Tracks)
Great Day [Acoustic] 
Calico Skies [Acoustic]
C'mon Down C'mon Baby
If You Wanna [Demo]
Beautiful Night [Run Through]
The Song We Were Singing [Rough Mix]
The World Tonight [Rough Mix]
Little Willow [Rough Mix]
Whole Life [Rough Mix]
Heaven On A Sunday [Rude Cassette]

Disc 4 (CD 4 - B-sides)
The Ballad Of The Skeletons 
Looking For You
Broomstick
Love Come Tumbling Down
Same Love
Oobu Joobu Part 1
Oobu Joobu Part 2
Oobu Joobu Part 3
Oobu Joobu Part 4
Oobu Joobu Part 5
Oobu Joobu Part 6

Disc 5
Flaming Pie At The Mill (Spoken Word)

Disc 6 (DVD 1)
In The World Tonight (Documentary) 

Disc 7 (DVD 2)
Beautiful Night 
Making Of Beautiful Night
Little Willow
The World Tonight [Dir Alistair Donald]
The World Tonight [Dir Geoff Wonfor]
Young Boy [Dir Alistair Donald]
Young Boy [Dir Geoff Wonfor]
Flaming Pie Epk 1
Flaming Pie Epk 2
In The World Tonight Epk
Flaming Pie Album Artwork Meeting
Tfi Friday Performances
David Frost Interview

Saturday 6 June 2020

Flaming Pie pack shot published

HMV store has revealed a pack shot of the upcoming deluxe edition of Paul McCartney’s next archival release, «Flaming Pie», which is due out July 24.
It’s a 5CD + 2 DVD boxed set, with the usual printed matters. The track list has yet to be released.
Also listed is a 2CD, a 2LP and a 3LP ltd ed boxed set.

Due to being published a bit prematurely, the relevant pages at HMV have now been removed.

Thursday 4 June 2020

Interesting new YouTube channel

The quintet with their lilac jackets at the Indra Club.

Former drummer in the Beatles between August 1960 and August 1962, Pete Best is promoting his brother Roag Best's Beatles museum in Liverpool's Mathew Street, the "Liverpool Beatles Museum". The museum has undergone a couple of name changes, but has now settled on this. Roag Best's father was of course the Beatles' driver Neil Aspinall, who later managed their Apple Corps Ltd company.

The museum has now started a YouTube channel, where Roag is entertaining us with some highlights from his collection. Part of the collection is on display at the museum, but he has amassed quite a lot more, so he keeps the museum fresh by removing some of the historical items and replacing them with others. These days of course, the museum is closed due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus in Great Britain, so Roag is entertaining us through this YouTube channel.

In one of the videos, we are treated to one of the jackets the Beatles were wearing on stage after having ditched the lilac jackets they wore at their Hamburg debut at the Indra Club, in August, 1960.


This is the kind of stage jacket the Beatles bought and wore after their lilac jackets got ruined by the sweaty conditions they were playing in, and before the black leather clothes we know from when Astrid Kirchherr photographed them when they were playing the Kaiserkeller. Sadly, they were never photographed wearing these clothes.

In the YouTube film, the photo at the top of this blog post is also on display, and we hope it looks better than the one we have puzzled together.

Tuesday 26 May 2020

Rare TV performance by Mike McGear


A rare mimed musical performanve recently appeared on YouTube, of Mike McGear with the song "Leave It" from 1974. This was released as a single in conjunction with the album "McGear", where Mike was backed by his brother's group, Wings.

This performance took place on the Spanish TV channel RTVE in their program series "Señoras Y Señores" which was broadcast on February 15, 1975. RTVE uploads a new episode of this programme every Sunday on their web portal, which is the source our uploader has downloaded this clip from. The song is a Paul & Linda McCartney composition.

Mike also performed "Simply Love You" on the same show. You can watch the entire episode here. It includes The Rubettes among others, the others being mainly Spanish artists.

Friday 22 May 2020

Paul remembers Astrid

Paul by Astrid, 1960 Hamburg. Stuart in the background.
Yesterday, Paul McCartney finally released a statement on the passing of Astrid Kirchherr. Statements from Ringo, Pete Best and the estates of George and John were posted May 15-16. Paul's statement came nearly a week later and was posted on the various social media platforms where he is present. It reads like this:

Very sad news this week about Astrid Kirchherr.

Astrid was a dear friend from my Hamburg days with The Beatles. Another friend, Klaus Voormann, told me she had passed away and this brought back memories of our days in the clubs in Hamburg. Astrid looked unique. She had a short blond haircut and wore a slim black, leather outfit which made her look like a funky pixie. She would come to the club with Klaus and another friend, Jürgen Vollmer, and the three of them made quite an impression on us four lads from Liverpool. Their wit and conversation was really stimulating and we fell in love with Astrid’s style.

Astrid took beautiful photographs of us. She used black and white film and achieved a stunning mood in her pictures that we all loved. She had a great sense of humour and later went on to marry Stuart our bass player. I have so many fond memories of our time together in the club or her home or a trip to the nearby seaside resort, Lübeck.

So sad for all of us who were her friends to lose such a lovely lady from our lives. I will miss her but will always remember her and her cheeky grin with great fondness. God bless you Astrid, see ya love! - Paul
Paul and Astrid in Tenerife, 1963.
There are several mistakes in the statement which has been spurring comments from Beatles aficionados: Astrid and Stuart never married, though they were engaged. They didn’t get around too it, as Stuart fell ill and died. Astrid later married twice, but never had children and she was living alone in Hamburg at the time she died. It has been revealed that she suffered from a form of cancer and that she died on May 12, surrounded by her friends.

Also: «four lads from Liverpool»? They were five.

At the end of the statement (God bless you Astrid, see ya love!), Paul seems to confirm that he is no longer an agnostic (which the Beatles said they all were in a 1965 Playboy interview) and that he believes in an afterlife.

All of this begs the question: Was this really written or dictated by Paul? And is he okay?

This photo was taken backstage at Paul's Hamburg concert in 2009, where he played Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da live for the first time. Obscured by Klaus Voormann, Paul and Astrid are exchanging hugs.
Here are the tweets from the other ones:



Wednesday 20 May 2020

Angel in Disguise - auction result

Angel in disguise -  a McCartney-Starkey original.

The cassette tape of the Ringo/Paul collaboration "Angel in Disguise" only fetched a mere £8,000 at the Omega Auction yesterday. Estimated value was £10,000 - £20,000 by the auctioneers. However, it seems the sentiments expressed by our esteemed readers has rung true also among the bidders. We are hoping that the winning bid came from bootleggers, so that we can expect to hear Paul's full demo as well as Ringo's finished production of the song some time in the future. Because whenever official Beatles representatives or their companies are the winners, the tapes are locked up forever, deemed not commercial enough and fans will never get to hear the songs. Meanwhile, here's an interpretation of the song made by studying the sheet music.

Friday 15 May 2020

Rest in peace, Astrid Kirchherr


Astrid Kirchherr passed on Tuesday the 12th of May, 2020 in Hamburg, Germany, at 81. She had quite an influence on The Beatles in the early days. Rest in peace.

Thursday 14 May 2020

Sample of Angel in Disguise


Omega Auctions have released this video, about half way through they are giving us a little sample of Paul's demo of the song "Angel in disguise". The tape also contains Ringo's full blown studio recording of the song.

Sunday 3 May 2020

Angel in disguise

Paul McCartney wrote the song and Ringo added a verse.
An unheard track by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr is heading for auction. Angel In Disguise was recorded as a demo for Ringo’s 1992 solo album «Time Takes Time» but it did not make the cut.

Former Radio Luxembourg DJ Tony Prince is selling the cassette, which is expected to fetch up to £20,000. He was asked to find artists to record alternative versions of «Angel In Disguise» in the 1990s, after Ringo rejected the track. Before rejecting the song, Ringo composed an extra verse, effectively making it a McCartney-Starkey composition.
The actual cassette

The cassette features two versions of the song, Paul’s sparse demo and Ringo’s professional treatment. It also has a bonus in the form of a demo for «Everybody Wins» aka «Everyone Wins».

From Wikipedia:
Angel in Disguise is a song co-written by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr that has never been released. The song was intended for Ringo's 1992 Time Takes Time album;however, it did not make it onto the album, and therefore remains an intriguing, publicly unheard song.

Had it been released in 1992 it would have been the first McCartney-Starkey composition on record, although there were Beatles songs that were credited to Lennon–McCartney–Starkey and Lennon–McCartney–Harrison–Starkey. McCartney sent Starr an unfinished demo of the song, to which Starr added an extra verse.

Backing tracks for the song were recorded on 9 September 1991 at Conway Studios, in Los Angeles, produced by Peter Asher.
From Rolling Stone, 1992: "Working with (Peter) Asher, Starr recorded a cover of The Posies' "Golden Blunders" and a version of a previously unfinished Paul McCartney composition, "Angel In Disguise", to which Starr added a new verse."
It appears that the song written by Rick Suchow ("What Goes Around") was the last song picked for the album, and as a result the McCartney–Starkey song was shelved, and not subsequently released. From the Ringo Starr interview in Beatlefan, 1992: "You see, they expected that because it's McCartney and Starr, anyone in their right mind would put that on. It just didn't fit the space we needed on the album... this is my best shot, in my opinion, of my album."

The lot description: The cassette contains a lo-fi version of the track, with Paul McCartney performing the lyrics over piano and drum machine and then a 'full' or studio version with vocals sung by Ringo Starr, a full backing track, backing singers, increased instrumentation inc harmonica, guitar and more, lastly to include a demo version of 'Everyone Wins' again sung by Ringo Star. Included with the tape are original mailing envelope with MPL logo, a typed note on MPL stationary requesting that Tony Prince make a "pop/rap" version of the demo cassette and to suggest some 'names' who may be interested in taking the song on, also printed lyrics and notation for the track, with 'McCartney' credited as songwriter. This item is sold as an artefact only, no copyright (s) included.

The cassette tape will be auctioned off by Omega Auctions later in May with 25% of the proceeds donated to the NHS Charities Together Covid-19 Urgent Appeal.

Direct link to the lot: Angel in disguise

Thursday 23 April 2020

The two Georges

Unknown, Paul, George Martin and George Harrison.
For St. George’s Day, Paul McCartney posted this previously unpublished Polaroid photo from his 1981 session with George Harrison at the latter’s studio, FPSHOT.
Paul was recording his new album, Tug of War at the time, so George Martin is present as producer to oversee George H adding a guitar solo to the track «Wanderlust». But before doing that, George wanted to record Paul’s contribution to the John Lennon tribute, «All those years ago».
After having finished that, George never did get around to record his guitar contribution to Paul’s track. The faceless person to the left may or may not be Geoff Emerick.

This is the third photo we have from this session, all presumably taken by Linda McCartney.

Denny Laine in fromt of the trio.
This was published last year in Linds's polaroids book.
Paul, Linda and Denny added backing vocals to "All those years ago", but George Harrison mixed them so low in the finished track that their contribution may be regarded mainly as symbolical.

Tuesday 21 April 2020

John and Paul - Together at home

The global phenomenon "Our World - Together at home", where artists phoned in video performances has been and gone. The only ex-Beatle contribution came from Paul McCartney, who performed a sincere and daring version of "Lady Madonna" (see video). There were no contributions from the kids either, like Sean, Julian, Dhani, Zak or James. But then, a lot of other artists also had no-shows during the marathon event.

Thankfully, John Lennon was represented during the proceedings. From China, Eason Chan performed Lennon's "Love" from the Plastic Ono Band album.


About that album: Superdeluxeedition is certain that a fiftieth anniversary edition boxed set is in the works, which we have also suspected for a while. However, the album may be delayed as Paul McCartney recently disclosed in his interview with Howard Stern, releases are "up in the air".

Paul celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his own solo debut by yet again re-do the still photo music video for "Maybe I'm Amazed". Mike Carrera tells us that the video has been restored or re-made four times, the worst in terms of cropping the picture was of course the 2007 version made for the DVD release "McCartney Years", where making all videos "wide screen" by zooming in on the videos severely cropped most of what was on it. This time, the video has been upgraded to 4K, but still suffers from a few cropping issues. Carrera published a comparison on Facebook, but didn't bother about the 2007 version:


The title, "McCartney" has been replaced by a similar but slightly thicker font.
original font vs the new version
Anyway, the new version of the video is quite good, and not as yellow as the previous versions.


Of course, there was no need for McCartney to do a 50th anniversary boxed set of this album, as it was well covered in 2011 in his ongoing "archives" series, and got an audiophile vinyl release in 2017. Still, a half-speed-mastered version of the LP is expected for the rescheduled Record Store Day.

But back to the "Plastic Ono band" anniversary, Johnny Depp and Jeff Beck did actually release their version of the song "Isolation". Of course, this is a very appropriate title these days, as most of us are living in countries under lock-down. But this was not the case when the team performed the song together in concerts in September last year.

Announcing the collaboration with this song, Beck said: "Given all the hard days and true ‘isolation’ that people are going through in these challenging times, we decided now might be the right time to let you all hear it. You’ll be hearing more from Johnny and me in a little while, but until then we hope you find some comfort and solidarity in our take on this Lennon classic."

Saturday 18 April 2020

People and Places recordings leaked on YouTube

Adrian Killen
by Adrian Killen

I have decided to come on to this website to correct some mistruths that exist about the audio recordings made from the Granada People and Places T.V. programme in 1962.

I am the 16 year old Adrian Killen (now74) who made those audio recordings in 1962. On the day of the first recording I was actually at the Cavern lunchtime session when Bob Wooler announced that the boys were heading straight to Granada studios after the lunchtime session.

I was actually on daytime release from work as an apprentice printer and was attending the printing college in Hope Street next to the Liverpool institute college (now Lipa) and that is the reason why I was at the lunchtime session.

The first appearance
We finished college at 4.00pm and I immediately went home and "acquired " a 3 inch reel of audio tape from my brother's collection as he had a Phillips reel to reel tape recorder linked directly to the loudspeaker socket of the T.V.
And so, the first two recordings were made- a live performance of «Some other Guy» and «Love me Do» followed by some not too complimentary comments from my Mum and Dad who thought their haircuts were horrendous.


From memory they appeared in their black roll neck sweaters and at the end of the performance of «Some other Guy» put their hands up in front of their faces and slightly above their heads making weird waving and finger gesticulations and shouting gobble-de-gook and words to the effect "I ,or we, love you".

The second appearance
As I was an avid reader of the Mersey Beat newspaper I was aware of their second appearance which was videotaped and shown while they were over in Hamburg. Although I recorded «Love Me Do» as well as «A Taste of Honey», I immediately scrubbed the recording of «Love Me Do».
It might seem sacrilege now, but at the time none of us in Liverpool could imagine just what a phenomenon that they would become. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Unfortunately it appears that Granada scrubbed the tape and only the transcripts remain, but there are photographs of that second performance taken by Mike McCartney from the T.V.

The third appearance
The third appearance was yet again "live" but unfortunately I didn't record «Love Me Do» at all as I already had the first live recording and also by this time the record on 45 r.p.m.

The aftermath
I sat on these recordings for over 30 years until I decided to contact E.M.I.and I was invited down to Abbey Road studios where I met Mike Heatley and Mark Lewisohn. The reaction after playing the recordings was not really what I was expecting, and although an offer was made to purchase, I took the decision to decline the offer.

And so I sat on them for a further few years. It was only when Liverpool Football club opened their Museum that things started to progress, As a life long season ticket holder and collector of L.F.C.memoribila, I introduced myself to the new curator who himself was also an ardent Beatle fan. As time progressed I played these recordings to him and as he had an association with Mike McCartney, I allowed Mike to listen to parts of the recordings on cassette tape
These in turn were relayed to Paul and the request was that we should enter negotiations with Apple with a view to sell these recordings.

I never (as it is presently documented) auctioned these tapes. The curator of LFC and myself were invited to Apple's headquarters in London and sat around the large boardroom table where many a Beatle negotiation had taken place and a deal was made with Neil Aspinall and myself for the purchase of the four tracks plus expenses. These negotiations took place between late 1999 and early 2000.

I still have a copy of the cheque signed by Neil Aspinall for a 5 figure sum. I also signed a non disclosure agreement and have remained silent ever since, although Apple were aware that I had a digital copy of the tracks for my own pleasure.

YouTube
I was quite shocked in December when parts of these recordings appeared on YouTube, along with information about myself and I immediately contacted Mark Lewisohn to make him aware that after signing a non disclosure agreement with Apple that I had no part to play in the uncovering of these recordings, and also the information about my having «auctioned off» these recordings in the past and the sum that I was supposed to have acquired.

 I hope that this correct information will now be passed on to the numerous websites that exist about the Beatles as I hate incorrect information, especially concerning myself .

Why have Apple never released these recordings? I don't really know, but what I would like to know is WHO is behind releasing these recordings on YouTube and the incorrect information that accompanies them.

Thursday 16 April 2020

McCartney from Isolation

The Glastonbury Festival 2020 is not happening.
April 14, Paul McCartney was interviewed over the phone by U.S. radio personality Howard Stern. McCartney and his wife is separated by the Atlantic ocean, Nancy is with her family in New York, while Paul is in England with his daughter Mary and her family.

Rolling Stone brought some highlights from the conversation, which you may access here. The full conversation is also available to listen to on YouTube, it's nearly 50 minutes.

Saturday April 18 sees Paul McCartney performing online in a global event, curated by Lady Gaga on behalf of the organisation Global Citizenship and in collaboration with the World's Health Organisation, WHO. The concert will be televised in some countries, as well as streamed on a lot of digital platforms.


Paul still has not cancelled the full European tour, and tickets are for sale online.  The tour is scheduled for May and June, but we have a feeling all dates will eventuelly get cancelled. Ringo Starr postponed his summer tour of North America 2020 to next summer, with nearly all concerts rescheduled to the same date of the month as originally planned for, only a year later.