Macca joke taken seriously over firing fear

Paul McCartney made a joke about banning people from using Facebook while they worked on his new video – but producers took it seriously even though they knew it was light-hearted.

The Sun reports that staff working on the promo at Abbey Road Studios were told they’d be fired if they used social networks, ate meat or took drugs – even though Macca’s original instructions were nothing more than a bit of fun.

The paper quotes an insider saying: “It was meant as a joke – but still, you’d be out on your war if you ignored the memo.

“Anyone found on Twitter or Facebook, or nibbling a ham sandwich would be ejected immediately.”

Macca himself will take to Twitter tomorrow for a live Q&A session with fans, ahead of the release of his album New on October 14.

Meanwhile, work has begun on a movie entitled The Fifth Beatle, which will be the first major production based on the life of manager Brian Epstein.

Oscar-winning producer Bruce Cohen has secured the rights to use original Fab Four material for the soundtrack. Scriptwriter Vivek J Tiwary, who’s been working on the project for years, says: “I’m confident that the next stage in telling Brian Epstein’s story is in extremely capable hands with Bruce. I’m elated to see The Fifth Beatle coming to life as a film under his guidance.”

Filming will start next year.

source: classicrockmagazine.com

Paul McCartney’s ‘Wings Over America’ Reissue to Kick Off With Theatrical ‘Rockshow’ Viewing

Paul McCartney and Wings will reissue ‘Wings Over America‘ on May 28 in a number of different formats with a cornucopia of bonus features. However, the most intriguing prospect may be the May 15 theatrical release of ‘Rockshow,’ a live concert film shot in 1975 and 1976 during the Wings Over the World Tour.


The film will be shown on 500 movie screens worldwide and include an introduction by McCartney. The documentary will also be available on DVD with the deluxe edition box set. In addition, fans will find the 75-minute ‘Wings Over the World’ television special alongside the two-disc remastered album and a bonus audio disc of songs recorded live at San Francisco’s Cow Palace.

Four books come with the deluxe edition box set, including a 110-page commemorative book with interviews by music journalist David Fricke. There’s also a tour itinerary that includes photos, art work, tour posters and set lists. Linda McCartney’s photo book ‘Look’ finds McCartney and his band mates in every day life, and ‘The Ocean View’ contains sketches and drawings of Wings by artist Humphrey Ocean.

This remastered package is dedicated to the band’s late members, Linda McCartney and Jimmy McCulloch. Joe English and Denny Laine rounded out the band.

source: ultimateclassicrock.com

Rare Color Photos of the Beatles Going Up for Auction

A collection of unpublished early color photographs of the Beatles are going up for auction in the U.K., the BBC reports.

The photos were taken in 1964 during the Beatles' first U.S. tour. They include stage shots of George Harrison with his red Rickenbacker guitar, close-up portraits of the group at a press conference at the Las Vegas Sahara Hotel and photos from a private party at the Beverly Hills mansion of Capitol Records president Alan Livingston. Since color film was expensive at the time, most images of the Beatles before 1965 were in black and white.

The photos were snapped by Dr. Robert Beck, a physicist and inventor who left the collection of 65 slides in an archive at his Hollywood home after his death in 2002. They will be sold by Omega Auctions on March 22nd to mark the 50th anniversary of the release of the Beatles' first album, Please Please Me.

source: rollingstone.com

52 Years Ago: Chas Newby Plays with The Beatles in Liverpool

Throughout the Beatles‘ history, many fans and critics have noted the existence of a ‘Fifth Beatle’ — folks like keyboardist Billy Preston (who helped perk up the ‘Let it Be’ sessions) or producer George Martin, who contributed the occasional keyboard overdub, wrote orchestral arrangements and helped the band achieve their most groundbreaking sonic tricks in the recording studio. But not all of these arguable ‘Fifth Beatles’ were destined for rock greatness. Most fans are aware of drummer Pete Best and bassist Stuart Sutcliffe, both of whom helped flesh out the line-up during the band’s formative stage in the early 1960s. But few give historical credit to bassist Chas Newby, who, on Dec. 17, 1960, began his two-week run in the Slightly-Less-Than-Fab Five.


In late 1960, The Beatles returned to Liverpool after a legendary stint in decadent West Germany, but they were one man down. Sutcliffe, who was known more for his mod haircut than his bass skills, had chosen to stay in Hamburg to focus on his art career. Then-drummer Pete Best recommended 19-year-old Chas Newby, an on-holiday college student who’d formerly played with Best in The Blackjacks. This quintet (which, of course, also featured the guitar/vocal trio of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison) went on to play four gigs in December of 1960, the first of which happened on the 17th at Liverpool’s Casbah Club. As legend has it, Lennon invited Newby to continue with the band on their second voyage to West Germany; Newby, unimpressed with the measly wages, declined the offer, choosing to pursue his academic career instead.

Unlike his former bandmates, Newby has largely lived life out of the rock spotlight. After studying chemistry at the college level and eventually obtaining a Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering, he settled down into a simple, fulfilling life. He started a family with his late wife, Margaret, and eventually accepted a job as a math teacher at Drotwich High School in Worcestershire.

“Music was never going to be a living for me,” Newby told ‘Sunday Mercury’ this year. “I wanted to do chemistry. John, Paul and George, they just wanted to be musicians.” Though Newby never kept up with his old lads over the years, he fondly recalls his brief stint in The Beatles, particularly his friendship with Harrison. “George was the one I got on the best with,” Newby says. “He knew Pete already. He was always telling funny stories about getting deported from Germany whenever we sat around chatting.”

Newby, who spends his free time golfing and singing in the Alcester Male Voice Choir, has managed to reunite with his old pal Pete Best for the occasional live gig. Overall, though, he’s been perfectly satisfied with his career choices, and he’s never regretted turning down Lennon’s offer, nearly 52 years ago. “People sometimes don’t believe me when I say I’ve no regrets,” Newby says. “But I really haven’t. I have enjoyed my life immensely.” For more on the Beatles recordings, both before and after Newby’s brief stint, check out Beatlesource.com.

source: ultimateclassicrock.com

Beatles fans come together to set anniversary record

LONDON – Fifty years after John Lennon’s harmonica heralded the first entry of the Beatles into the charts, fans came together in the Fab Four’s home town of Liverpool in northern England on Friday to deliver a record-breaking rendition of their debut single.

Aficionados poured in from as far afield as Peru and Tokyo for a weekend of live music and Beatlemania, which kicked off with 1,631 people singing “Love Me Do” outside the city’s central Liver Building.

Local choirs, school groups and lunching office workers joined in, breaking the previous record for singing “in the round” – where two groups sing exactly the same melody, beginning at different times – to break the previous record of 897, according to Guinness World Records.

“The demographics here today are interesting – it goes from people in their 70s to school kids,” said Dave Jones, who runs Liverpool’s famous Cavern Club where the Beatles were the house band between 1961 and 1963 and which is staging a weekend-long extravaganza of their music.

“We’re trying to recreate the atmosphere of those glory days in the 60s,” Jones told Reuters. “It’s generation after generation enjoying the music.”

The 50th birthday of Love Me Do is also the anniversary of a lucky break for the band.

Beatles producer George Martin told the BBC the song was the “best of a bad bunch”. The broadcaster plans to air a documentary this weekend containing claims that the band’s manager bought thousands of copies to help the record get to number 17 in the UK charts.

Auction house Sotheby’s is marking the anniversary by selling the original collage used for the insert of the 1967 Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Sotheby’s expects it to sell for 50,000-80,000 pounds ($81,000-$129,500).

source: interaksyon.com

Beatles’ first single ‘Love Me Do’ turns 50

LONDON – The Beatles’ debut tune that helped launch Britain into the Swinging Sixties and ignite a worldwide obsession for the four-man band from Liverpool celebrates its 50th birthday on Friday.

Even though it only peaked at number 17 on the British charts, “Love Me Do” was not only the group’s first record but also their first hit.

“It’s obviously the first single, but more importantly, it established their policy of only releasing songs that were written by the Beatles themselves,” said Hamish MacBain, assistant editor at British music magazine NME.

“The fashion at that time was not for big groups to write their own material, so the Beatles were being quite radical in that sense by issuing a single that they had written themselves,” MacBain told AFP.

“Love Me Do” was recorded in September 1962, though the so-called “fifth Beatle”, producer George Martin, pushed for the release of another song, penned by British singer Adam Faith but performed by the Fab Four.

But the Beatles got their way, and “Love Me Do”, written like so many of their succeeding hits by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, went on sale on October 5, 1962.

The group’s insistence that their singles at least should be all their own work “established a trend that lasted obviously their entire career and became the norm for big groups that became rock bands”, MacBain said.

“You were not considered a serious rock band by the mid-60s unless you were writing your own material.”

The catchy lyrics and recognisable harmonies of “Love Me Do” were recorded at London’s Abbey Road studios, later made famous by the group as the title of one of their LPs.

Although it kick-started their career and became a British hit, “Love Me Do” did not spark Beatlemania, said Simon Zagorski-Thomas, a reader in music at University of West London’s college of music.

“‘Love Me Do’ was an interesting song, but it wasn’t the thing that really launched their career,” he told AFP.

Instead, it was the group’s 1964 appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in the United States that made the Beatles a phenomenon distinct from all previous British bands and launched them globally.

“Love Me Do” is not considered by most observers to be among the Beatles’ masterpieces, MacBain said.

“In terms of songwriting it’s pretty basic, and it’s certainly not as good as the stuff they were coming out with a few months later.”

“P.S. I Love You” was recorded on the B-side of the track, and both songs were featured on the group’s first album “Please Please Me”, named after their second hit single, which was released in March 1963 and included songs they had not written.

BBC Four TV will air a documentary on Sunday about “Love Me Do,” with an eyewitness account claiming that the group’s manager Brian Epstein bought 10,000 copies of the single to boost sales.

While the rumour has never been proved, Epstein’s friend and business associate, Joe Flannery, claims in the documentary that the copies were purchased.

Remastered versions of The Beatles’ studio albums will be released on vinyl on November 13 in North America.

source: interaksyon.com

Ringo Starr Celebrates 72nd Birthday With 'Peace and Love' Moment

Ringo Starr marked his 72nd birthday on July 7 with his fans at Hard Rock Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee. "Good morning they say its my birthday I'm in Nashville ready for the peace and love moment so to everybody out there peace and love," he wrote on Twitter.

At midday, the former member of The Beatles led his devotees to raise two fingers in the air and shout "peace and love." He additionally asked people around the globe to do exactly the same at 12 o'clock in their time zones.


"Wherever you are, on a bus, in the office, in the studio, hanging out ... whatever you're doing, at noon, just go, 'Peace and love.' That's all I ask for my birthday. Peace and love," Starr said. He also tweeted, "Yes yes yes Nashville peace and love we did the moment I hope you did too."


The music veteran was presented a magnolia tree that would be planted somewhere nearby, and got a flower pot-shaped cake with a sunflower growing out of it. The crowd were also treated to frosted cookies and given "peace and love" rubber bracelets.

Starr got the idea to hold the "peace and love" bash in 2008 during an interview, and has held such events each year ever since. At the latest birthday celebration, he was joined by Toto's Steve Lukather, Eagles' Joe Walsh and Vince Gill. The guests sang "happy birthday" and the chorus of "Give Peace a Chance". "Thank you all the people who wished me happy birthday thanks for tweeting peace and love," he posted.

The party was held ahead of Starr's performance with his 13th All Starr Band at the Ryman Auditorium on Saturday night. At the gig, he got another cake in a shape of drum instrument with "peace" sign on it. "Okay this is it to the birthday boy last picture of me and the cake at the Ryman," he shared.

source: aceshowbiz.com

Ringo Starr's Birthplace Saved from Demolition

Ringo Starr's birthplace in Liverpool has been saved from the threat of demolition, the Telegraph reports. The house, a run-down three-bedroom Victorian terrace, was one of 400 buildings marked for demolition in the Dingle area of Liverpool, but Beatles fans and city residents have successfully lobbied to save the house, along with 15 others in the area. The Liverpool City Council has agreed to give locals the opportunity to fix up the properties.

The Liverpool City Council initially resisted efforts to preserve the house because Starr only lived at the location with his family for three months as an infant. The National Trust of England decreed that the house did not merit saving because of his brief stay there at a very early age, and that they simply did not have the means to acquire more than a dozen houses where the Beatles lived as children.

source: rollingstone.com

Music news - The magazines that shaped the music industry

Music news as we know it today developed out of the early magazines that caught onto the growth of the popular music industry early on in the 20th Century. Melody Maker was one of the first, introducing itself in 1926 (around the same time that the first electric guitars and amplifiers began to emerge) and targeting musicians. However, as music became more and more popular the music magazines of the day began to target the general public and the introduction of new, rival magazines hit the shelves.

The 1950s is when the real battle started with Melody Maker going head to head with the new kids in town, the NME, an amalgamation of previous titles Musical Express and Accordion Weekly by new owner and music promoter Maurice Kinn. Previously more interested in jazz, Melody Maker was a late convert to the advent of rock and roll, but as the sixties swung in favour of bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the ground was set for big readership figures for both publications.

The 1960s also saw the coming of more politicised voices to the publication of music news with the launch of the Berkley Barb in 1965 and Rolling Stone in 1967. Criticism of the Vietnamese war, the publication of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the counterculture revolution of the 1960s sat next to The Beatles, Jimmy Hendrix and Jim Morrison cover stories.

This political edge to music publication didn’t reach the British music news until the late 1970s with the dawning of the age of punk. However, the early 70s saw the introduction of a new rival, Sounds, which quickly became one of the three music weekly magazines to generate good levels of readership. It’s edge came from its ability to see the credibility of new musical movements like Punk early on.

The 1980s would see a mixed bag of journalism in the music industry, with the hip-hop wars affecting the NME and a more populist standpoint reigning at Melody Maker until its intellectual renaissance in 1986. However, it would be the 90s that would see the story of modern British music journalism come to a head. The rise of Britpop and the introduction & success of monthly magazines Q (1986) and Mojo (1993) left Melody Maker without a clear audience or direction, and so in 2000 is ceased publication, merging with its long time rival NME, while Sounds bit the dust nearly a decade earlier in 1991.

The 2000s were left to NME and despite its ropey start to the decade, it would eventually find its footing again with bands like White Stripes, The Strokes and The Libertines. However, with readership dropping fast to just over a tenth of its hey-day 300,000 circulation, publications like NME have pumped significant investment into their online music news to compensate.

With the arrival of a new decade, it’s hard to say that any of the remaining music magazines are doing anything particularly trailblazing, but then neither is the music industry as a whole. With the nation locked into the X-Factor culture, genuinely credible new music often finds it difficult to break out of the underground world that it too often resides. The death of Top of the Pops in 2006 meant that the only music to be played on terrestrial television in the UK during prime time viewing was based around one talent contest or another. With circulation figures so low, maybe it’s time for the icons of music news to take back what they have spent decades helping to create.

Tuppence Magazine delivers music news, film, books, computer games, food & drink, politics, theatre, comedy, art and fashion news & reviews from its entertainment news UK website - dedicated to writing about the best entertainment news online.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleBiz.com

What Is Rockabilly Music?

What is rockabilly music? I've had to think long and hard to answer that question! Technically, rockabilly is a particularly wild and unrestrained form of music that grew out of the roots of country music and blues music in the early 1950s. It raged strong into the early 60s when it was overshadowed by forms that grew out of it, particularly acts that were part of the British invasion. But the form never really died and it was further defined by a resurgence in the 1980s when elements of punk and jazz were infused into the basic form. It continues to evolve today more than 50 years after it first appeared on the pop scene.

Rockabilly music has undoubtedly influenced virtually every form of rock and roll that has come after it. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and countless other bands and artists site rockabilly music and rockabilly musicians as the most influential force in their development as musicians. Once you become familiar with the sound of rockabilly, you will hear it in many popular songs that you've known and loved for years never realizing from where the roots sprung.

By and large, the original rockabilly musicians remain mostly unknown to most lovers of modern pop music and of those that they do know, they don't really understand their rockabilly roots. For example, Elvis Presley is, as everyone knows, the King of rock and roll. But most people don't really understand where Elvis started: with rockabilly music. In fact, he's considered one of--if not the--inventor of the genre.

Similarly, virtually everyone knows the song "Blue Suede Shoes" and they may know it as an Elvis song. However, the song was written by a rockabilly legend named Carl Perkins who had an even bigger hit with it than Elvis did. Carl never had another big hit and is sometimes shrugged off as a "one-hit wonder" because of the fact. However, what most people miss when they dismiss him like this is the incredible influence Perkins has had on modern rock and roll music. The Beatles' George Harrison idolized Perkins and studied his music intensely. And he was by far not the only one who cites Perkins as a major influence. Perkins' guitar playing has served as the basis of education for countless young guitarists throughout the years.

So, does any of that actually answer the original question? What is rockabilly anyway? Rockabilly is raw excitement. It's unrestrained music created by brash, young musicians who were inventing the rules as they were going along. It's no-holds-barred fun. It makes you dance. It makes you smile. And it makes you want to hear more. To millions of fans throughout the world, it's the perfect form of rock and roll music!

Buster Fayte is an author and rockabilly musician. He has written several books including the Complete Home Music Recording Start Kit. He also maintains the Rockabilly Romp blog at http://rockabillyromp.info where he writes about the passion he shares with millions of musicians and fans for rockabilly and oldies music. He writes original songs, sings, and plays both guitar and bass.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Buster_Fayte

Beatles Tribute Bands - How They Are Keeping History Alive

The Beatles spirit, the most beloved rock band of all time, have given rise, to a myriad of tribute bands devoted to them internationally. Hailing from Liverpool, England in the 1960's, these legendary icons made up of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, took the world by storm. With their unique sound and their mop-top hairdos, they were an act unlike any that anyone had ever seen before. Their impact on popular culture was unparalleled and they still have an indelible mark on the culture of today.

While the original band is no longer around, you can still get your Beatles fix by attending one of the many concerts performed by the multitude tribute bands they have spawned. There is even a music festival, called Abbey Road on the River, designed to feature these bands in all their duplicity of their idols. Some of these groups strive to replicate every last detail of the group, from their speech, to their clothes, to their hair, to their mannerisms while others remain in character throughout entire shows and are truly awesome to experience. As imitation is the sincerest form of strategy, some bands reenact the Beatles shtick to the last detail. Too factual here, need more poetry

Although these tribute bands differ in many ways, the share the common denominator of being appreciated and enjoyed by any baby boomer loving the classic rock of the Beatles. Ironically enough, these spin-off bands began forming even while the original band was still in existence. More than simply a cover group, these bands were, and still are, deeply devoted and dedicated to the music of their heroes.

Although the group disbanded in 1970, their legacy still lives on today. No matter what your age, everyone is familiar with the groundbreaking sound that these singers//musicians introduced. Fortunately, they have had such an impact that, even though they are no longer around, we can still hear their music today. In movies, television, and on the radio, we can still hear bits of classics like, "A Hard Day's Night" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand". Their spirit and sounds are also kept alive through the awesome tribute bands paying homage to them, making the Beatles still one of the most popular acts in the world today.

http://www.abbeyroadontheriver.com/ Abbey Road on the River (AROTR) is a regional musicfestival featuring tribute acts that honors the music of The Beatles.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cat_Gilardenghi