Posts Tagged ‘beatles’
The Beatles Tour De Force: Ron Howard Pipes Them Live and Direct To The Masses
MOSTLY, The Beatles are not a live band.
Sure, they cut their teeth around Britain and Germany for years, before blowing everyone’s brains out in Australia, Japan and America, but when people think of the Fabs, it is all about the studio.
We’ve seen endless documentaries with George Martin talking about ‘the boys’ and the madcap studio ideas they had (Lennon wanted to be swung from the ceiling, trying to recreate the sound of a thousand monks of a hillside, slice tapes and throwing them in the air to stick them back together again, and all that great stuff), but on film, their live prowess has been somewhat neglected.
Liverpool Empire 1965
And now, Ron Howard – a long term Beatle nut and Academy Award-winning director, has been tasked to direct and produce an authorised, as-yet-untitled documentary about the touring years of the Fab Four.
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Beatles Dance Dance Nightmares: Raffaella Carrà’s 1978 Hellish Tribute To The Fab Four
Before the medly, here’s a dose of Carrà making Eleanor Rigby into her own. (And – boy- she can have it):. Dance Dance, Eleanor.
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50 Years Ago, The Beatles Landed at JFK: 10 Great American Beatles Rip Offs
The Beatles face the media on arrival at JFK airport in New York City on Feb. 7, 1964. The British rock and roll group was also greeted by a screaming crowd estimated at 5,000. (AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi)
OF course, The Fab Four’s time in America is very well documented. No-one needs to know more about the whole Bigger Than Jesus thing and George Harrison’s ‘spotty youths’ comment when he visited the hippies on the West Coast.
However, less well documented are the mop-top knock-offs that The Beatles created. Garage bands and frat beat groups sprung up all over America after the mop tops played Ed Sullivan.
So, here’s 10 of the best American Beatle Bands or Fab Four rip-off records… and by the way, being a Beatle rip-off band is no bad thing at all! Feel free to chime in with your own!
1. The Byrds
The Byrds hit the jackpot when they took Dylan’s folk music and turned it into a Beatle beat. Perfect for the US market – homegrown lads (not like those British Invasion swine!) making Dylan’s nasal drawl more palatable. ‘Feel A Whole Lot Better’ is the choice here, but in fairness, it could’ve been picked from two dozen songs!
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Posted: 6th, February 2014 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Music | Comment
Copyright Treasure Trove: Fans Of 60s Music – A Goldmine Awaits You
THE news that rare Beatles recordings are being released on iTunes next week, all 59 tracks of it! Recordings from ’63 will be unleashed on the world, but weirdly, without the usual fanfare of usual Beatle releases.
The thing is, this is a release of necessity after changes to copyright laws are forcing them to put music out so they can retain control over it.
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Nazi Uniforms: Sid Vicious, Peter Rabbit, Prince Harry And Other People Who Still Wear Them
PAUL Dutton, 48, was ejected from his local branch of Asda in Cambridge, after a fellow shopper complained about his attire – a classic formal black suit of the type produced by Hugo Boss in the 1940s.
Unfortunately this suit happened to closely resemble the uniform of Hitler’s notorious SS, and even more unfortunately the resemblance was entirely uncoincidental. Mr Dutton’s “hobby” is Adolf Hitler, you see, and his fascination is such that his living room boasts a painting of himself being decorated by the Fuhrer – a man who once earned an honest living decorating people’s homes as a housepainter.
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Posted: 11th, November 2013 | In: Books, Flashback, Key Posts, Music, Reviews | Comment
The 17 British sports legends and pop stars who owned their own shops
WHEN Huddersfield Giants star Danny Brough (seen here with his bestselling blueberry bonbons) revealed his other life as co-owner of the Hull confectionery shop Sweeet Shack (with an extra ‘e’) some people may have raised an eyebrow or two.
Once upon a time, however, there was nothing unusual about celebrities operating a sideline. Former footballers, boxers and cricketers opened newsagents, sports shops and pubs. And they weren’t the only ones. Even the Beatles got in on the act.
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Posted: 1st, October 2013 | In: Celebrities, Flashback, Key Posts, Music, Sports | Comment (1)
Would you like to see John Lennon cloned back to life from a manky tooth?
THANKS to a preserved rotten tooth, a Canadian dentist wants to bring back the late John Lennon back via the scientific miracle of cloning.
Imagine.
Edmonton tooth-botherer, Michael Zuk, claims he has sent the Beatle molar (which he bought at an auction last year for $31,000) to Penn State University, where he says “scientists are considering ways to extract the genetic code from the fragile specimen.”
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Posted: 3rd, September 2013 | In: Celebrities | Comments (2)
Brazil greets Paul McCartney with a plague of grasshoppers in his face
BEING a Beatle isn’t easy. When you’re trying to do a show, you’re met by most gussets and a wall of screams. However, in Brazil, they like to do things a bit more Biblical.
And so, to Sir Paul McCartney who played a show in South America and found himself hit by a plague of grasshoppers.
During his 3 hour gig in Goiania, Macca was bombarded by the insects. Tom Jones gets a hail of knickers, and poor old Paul gets a mouth filled with horrible bugs. But, then, he is Beatle (geddit?!).
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David Beckham, Jimmy Savile, Ronnie Irani, Maggie Thatcher and Jeffrey Archer: the five biggest charity boasters
THEY do a lot of work for charity, and they DO like to mention it!
When it comes to self-promotion you have to hand it to him. Transfer deadline day arrives and instead of talking about a 22-year-old Brazilian or Portuguese hotshot on his way to Chelsea or Manchester to City, the media is frothing with excitement over a 37-year-old former international whose main purpose these days is to sell merchandise with his name on.
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Posted: 7th, February 2013 | In: Celebrities, Flashback, Key Posts, Politicians, Sports | Comment
How the Hit Parade moved from phonograph needles, platters and sleaze to MP3s
SIXTY years ago, the first British singles chart – or “Hit Parade” as it was called – was published. It appeared in the New Musical Express, and it was a top twelve that contained fifteen platters, on account of the joint number sevens, joint number eights and joint number elevens. Al Martino was number one with Here In My Heart. Only one of the discs was available in the new-fangled 45-revolutions-per-minute 7-inch vinyl format; the rest came as easily-breakable shellac 78s, for which the term “smash hit” was all too apt.
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Posted: 25th, November 2012 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Music | Comment
The Beatles children to form a truly awful band? The Drab Four are here
EVERYTHING ever is always spoiled by the introduction of children. Muppets – great. Muppet Babies – awful. Scooby Doo – excellent caper with slight counterculture vibes. The introduction of Scrappy Doo? Worse than a dose of anthrax. Even Popeye had a son at one point and everyone in the world wanted to end his life.
And so, let us introduce to you, the act you’ve known for all these years, The Beatles Babies!
That’s right, we could well be faced with the Drab Four if Paul McCartney’s son, James, gets his way. It has been reported that James Macca is “up for it” and that John Lennon’s son, Sean, and George Harrison’s son, Dhani, have also shown support for the idea, which would see various Beatle-sperm getting together and performing songs which will invariably defecate all over the memory of the world’s most famous group.
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Posted: 3rd, April 2012 | In: Key Posts, Music | Comments (11)
John Lennon ‘To Do’ List Up For Auction (Beatles For Sale)
BEATLES junk always sells, regardless of how dull or menial it is. Remember John Lennon’s tooth getting purchased by some bozo? George Harrison’s Vox amp will soon be on the auction block in London soon. It’s not all handwritten Strawberry Fields (Forever) lyrics and Lennon’s Imagine piano.
And the latest thing up for sale is a to-do list complied by Lennon and will be on-sale at GottaHaveRockandRoll.com.
So what amazing things will we find on this list? ‘Promote World Peace With The Wife‘ maybe? ‘Punch that swine Macca‘ perhaps? One thing that isn’t on there is ‘Don’t Get Shot By Crazed Fan Outside House‘.
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Posted: 2nd, December 2011 | In: Celebrities | Comment
Paul McCartney: All He Needs Is Wedding Cake
WAVE a peace sign! Why? Because it shows you just how many Beatles are left on this dreadful planet of ours! And, once again, Paul McCartney is showing the world his love of wedding cake by getting married again.
Sir Macca and fiancée Nancy Shevell have formally given notice with London’s Marylebone Register Office of their intention to marry one off all over each other. Paul will be hoping that this one won’t be anything like that last one who went mental on GMTV.
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Posted: 16th, September 2011 | In: Celebrities | Comment (1)
St George’s day classic English pop YouTube playlist
It is St George’s day tomorrow – the day when England fails to celebrate its patron saint. And with good reason too, for the fella never set foot in England (he was Turkish), is also the patron saint of half the blinkin planet and is famous for slaying something that never existed anyhow.
However working on the premise that every nation needs an excuse for a piss up tomorrow night we will we be celebrating St George’s Day with three quirky English pop bands, a DJ spinning the Smiths, Beatles and Pet Shop Boys and The Guardian’s Englishness correspondent Iain Aitch. If you are in London come and join us – details here.
If not crack open a Carling and fire up our St George’s day playlist. From Max Bygraves through to The Sex Pistols via Kate Bush and Vaughan Williams – they are all here.
Posted: 22nd, April 2010 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)
Ringo Starr WILL Sign Your Breasts And Napkins
RINGO Starr warns Omar Bakri to back off. A pause. And now Ringo will sign your autographs:
Omar Bakri Beats The Drum For Paul McCartney In Israel
Ringo Starr Warns Omar Bakri To Stop Or Else
Beatles Legend Ringo Starr Is Decapitated
Ringo Starr Falls Prey To Liverpool’s Culture Vultures
Posted: 14th, October 2008 | In: Reviews | Comments (9)
McCartney Plays Israel And The Super Furry Animals Die
PAUL McCartney is to play Israel, and the suicide bomber will try to hit a moving target as Macca’s head wobbles this way and that.
“We have worked it out,” says the Indy’s front page
All you need is 5,000 bodyguards – £1.5million security blitz to protect Macca from security threats,” says the Mirror, in words that Yasser Arafat look-alike Ringo Starr would put to music.
But what if… what if Macca is killed?
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Posted: 25th, September 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Celebrities, Tabloids | Comments (4)
