The Hollywood Vampires – McCartney Guest Appearance

Posted on September 30, 2015 by beatlesblogger

The Hollywood Vampires album, which contains a guest appearance from Paul McCartney, has been officially released:Here’s the press release:

In 1972, on the Sunset Strip at a club called the Rainbow Bar & Grill, the Hollywood Vampires were born in the upstairs bar. It was a gathering place for the rock stars living in or passing through L.A. “To join the club, one simply had to out drink all of the members,” says Alice Cooper, a founding member of the Vampires. “I would walk in on a typical night” Alice says, “and John Lennon, Harry Nilsson, Keith Moon—who would usually be in a costume like a maid or a chauffeur—Bernie Taupin, Jim Morrison and Mickey Dolenz would be there. The next week might be Bernie Taupin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Mickey Dolenz.”

Three years ago, Alice and good friend Johnny Depp got together and decided the spirit of the Hollywood Vampires should live again (minus the drinking). An environment for great artists to hang, laugh and play together. The Hollywood Vampires live again with the release of the Hollywood Vampires new album. Alice and Johnny were joined by Joe Perry, who is an old friend of both of them, and the recording began: a tribute to the original Hollywood Vampires.

For the next two years, Alice, Joe and Johnny, joined by producer Bob Ezrin and an amazing group of modern day vampires, including Perry Farrell, Dave Grohl, Sir Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh, Slash, Robbie Krieger, Zak Starkey, Brian Johnson and Kip Winger, recorded tracks by their dead friends and heroes. Also included are two original songs that tell the story of the Vampires, one of which, “Raise The Dead,” has an intro by Sir Christopher Lee, recorded just prior to his death.

The album package, an antique book, was created by noted men’s fashion designer (and rock fan) John Varvatos in his signature vintage style. Alice and Varvatos, both Detroit natives, have been partners in fashion for several years with Alice lending his classic rock style as a brand ambassador.

A sneak peek at the liner notes, penned by original Hollywood Vampire Bernie Taupin, “I’m not here to defend their vices. Over-indulgence of any sort does not ultimately constitute for a healthy mind and body. And while on the periphery of those involved, wives may have come and gone, career choices may have been deemed dubious, and heartbreak in some cases stalked a dark corridor, but in the lair of the Hollywood Vampires only joy and laughter reigned.”

“I’m not completely sure what constituted bad behavior back then, but in this lair it existed in a bubble, a hermetically sealed dome of fun. It may not have been the round table at the Algonquin, but these were witty, intelligent guys who often got raucous and loud, but rest assured there were no bystanders or animals hurt in the making of the Hollywood Vampires.”

All artist proceeds will be donated to MusiCares.

And here’s the track listing:

1. The Last Vampire (Hollywood Vampires)
2. Raise The Dead (Hollywood Vampires)
3. My Generation (The Who)
4. Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin)
5. I Got A Line (Spirit)
6. Five to One/Break On Through (The Doors)
7. One/Jump Into The Fire (Harry Nilsson)
8. Come And Get It (Badfinger)
9. Jeepster (T.Rex)
10. Cold Turkey (John Lennon)
11. Manic Depression (Jimi Hendrix)
12. Itchycoo Park (Small Faces)
13. School’s Out / Another Brick In The Wall pt.2 (Alice Cooper / Pink Floyd)
14. Dead Drunk Friends (Hollywood Vampires)

As you can see, the band tackle a version of John Lennon’s ‘Cold Turkey’. The main McCartney performance is Badfinger’s ‘Come And Get It‘, which of course he wrote and produced for that Apple band – way back in 1969!

It’s The Beatles, as you’ve never seen them before

Posted on September 16, 2015 by beatlesblogger

This is the answer to the mysterious countdown on thebeatles.com for the last few days:

Yes, it is the video version of the Beatles “1” CD, plus a bit more, newly restored and expanded in multiple configurations for global release on November 6.

At first glance it is a little confusing (see the full press release below) – but this is it in a nutshell:

There’s a new 2015 remixed and remastered version of the single-disc audio CD (containing 27 songs)
There’s a pack with either 1 DVD or 1 BluRay (each containing videos of all 27 songs that are on the CD), plus the CD
There’s a Deluxe set with either 2 DVDs or 2 BluRays (one disc has the videos of all 27 songs that are on the CD, the second disc contains 23 bonus videos), a 124 page hard cover book, plus the CD
Or you can buy just the single BluRay or the single DVD (each containing 27 songs)
A 2 LP, 180-gram vinyl package will follow

The single CD:

The single DVD (or BluRay), plus CD:

The Deluxe 2 DVD (or 2 BluRay), plus book and CD:

The single BluRay:

The single DVD:

How they did the video restoration, repairs and remastering:

A “before” and “after” comparison:

And a short example of how “Strawberry Fields Forever” (only available in the Deluxe set) will look:

THE BEATLES’ VIDEOS AND TOP HITS COME TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME

All-New Editions of The Beatles 1 Pair Beautifully Restored Promotional Films and Videos with Brand New Stereo and Surround Audio Mixes

Beatles 1+ Deluxe Edition Celebrates the Sight & Sound of The Beatles in 50 Films & Videos

London – September 15, 2015
After The Beatles stopped touring, and because travelling around the globe to promote new releases was impossible, the band increasingly made what could be described as “mini movies”. These pioneering promotional films and videos helped to define the way we have come to watch music, not least because The Beatles approached filming with the same ease and innovative spirit they brought to the recording studio, exploring new creative possibilities with infectious delight. Showcasing the band’s filmed work to accompany their 27 No.1, U.K. and U.S. singles, The Beatles 1 is newly restored and expanded in multiple configurations for global release on November 6 by Apple Corps Ltd/UMG.

The 27-track CD/DVD and CD/Blu-ray pairs beautifully restored videos for each song, with new stereo and 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS HD surround audio mixes. The brand new Beatles 1+ celebrates their career in over 200 minutes through 50 promotional films and videos. This includes the 27 No.1s, with the restored videos, along with a second disc of 23 videos, including alternate versions, as well as rarely seen and newly restored films and videos; all include new audio mixes in deluxe CD/2-DVD and CD/2-Blu-ray packages. The 27-track audio CD is also being made available with new stereo mixes. A 2 LP, 180-gram vinyl package will follow.

TThe new editions of The Beatles 1 have been made possible following extensive research, and restoration of the original promo films, classic television appearances and other carefully selected videos spanning the band’s history. Apple Corps dug deep into The Beatles’ vaults to select a broad range of films and videos for their rarity, historical significance and quality of performance. An 18-person team of film and video technicians and restoration artists was assembled by Apple Corps to undertake painstaking frame-by-frame cleaning, colour-grading, digital enhancement and new edits that took months of dedicated, ‘round-the-clock work to accomplish.

The result is a visual run down of The Beatles’ number one records, as well as the additional tracks on the bonus disc of Beatles 1+ that show the band in previously unseen standards of clarity and quality; many of the films and videos have never before been commercially released, in whole or in part.

Beatles 1 and Beatles 1+ offers the restored films, including 35mm negatives scanned in 4K and digitally restored with new stereo and 5.1 surround audio remixes, produced from the original analogue tapes by the GRAMMY® winning team of Giles Martin with Sam Okell at Abbey Road Studios. For four of the videos, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have provided exclusive audio commentary and filmed introductions, respectively. The 1+ Deluxe Edition, presented in an expanded 124-page illustrated hardcover book includes ‘an appreciation’ of The Beatles’ ground-breaking films and videos by music journalist and author Mark Ellen and extensive, detailed track/video annotation by music historian and author Richard Havers.

“These videos and films are spectacular reminders of the era we lived in. They also rock!”
Paul McCartney

“II think it’s really interesting to see the videos we made, some of them incredible and some of them really incredible. How else would we have got to sit on a horse?”
Ringo Starr

Between 1962 and 1970, The Beatles released 27 No.1 hit singles in the U.S. and the U.K. In 2000, these timeless songs were collected for The Beatles 1, which topped the charts in 35 countries and became that decade’s bestselling album worldwide. 15 years later, 1 is revisited for this entirely new, visually-inspired presentation.

It’s The Beatles, as you’ve never seen them before.

Beatles With Records – Part Twenty Eight

Posted on August 13, 2015 by beatlesblogger

Quite a few more photos of the Beatles holding or working with records have come in so it is time for a further instalment of our series The Beatles With Records.

The Liverpool Echo news site is reporting that the stereo radiogram shown in this picture of Ringo Starr and wife Maureen is up for auction:Maureen is shown sitting on the custom-built record player and radio which was built for the couple when they lived at 34 Montagu Square, London in 1965. It was a quality piece for the time with a Garrard turntable, a British Leak valve amplifier, and an Armstrong tuner with twin speakers. Also in the photo are at least four Beatle gold records, plus a shelf stacked with LPs of various kinds.

According to the Echo, Ringo gave the radiogram to his Auntie Everley and Uncle Jim at 59 Madrin Street, Liverpool, which was Ringo`s Grandad`s house. It has been in his Aunt’s possession since 1966 and has just surfaced after almost 50 years:The radiogram is just one of the lots in the Liverpool Beatles memorabilia Auction to be held in the Paul McCartney Auditorium there on August 29. We first featured the photo of Ringo and Maureen at home back in The Beatles With Records – Part Two.

Speaking of Liverpool, here is a cool photograph taken outside Brian Epstein’s NEMS Music Store:

Lots of records in the front window – and the arrow points to one record cover that may give a hint as to the date. It is Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’, which came out in January, 1964:

Lots of other LPs and EPS there in the window. Anyone else recognise anything? (The image was kindly sent through by Billy Shears at the SgtPepperChannel on YouTube).

Back in The Beatles With Records Part Twenty Five we showed a photograph of George Harrison with the Radha Krsna Temple and an Apple single they’d released (and he produced) called ‘Govinda’.

Here they are together again – this time in 1970 – and one member is holding another single of their Apple singles, ‘Hare Krishna Mantra’:

(Again, thanks to Billy Shears for sending through those images).

The topic of George Harrison brings us to model Patti Boyd, who later became his wife. Before they were married she featured in a number of photo shoots with Beatle records. Here’s another. This time Patti is holding a UK mono copy of With The Beatles, from 1963:

And we’ve just had the anniversary (on August 11) of John Lennon apologising to the American people for his “the Beatles are bigger than Jesus” comment. It led to some very odd and sad scenes of LPs and singles being publicly destroyed, these ones below live on air on radio….

Jumping ahead in time, here’s Lennon at home with what looks like an acetate or test pressing in front of him (on the bed, lower right). Impossible to tell what it might be though: And John Lennon again, this time in what looks like a U.S. radio station studio with DJ Scott Muni:

This image looks very much like another photo from the same day, taken at the radio station WNEW-FM in New York. John was on the publicity trail for his album Rock’n’Roll. The two men are wearing the same clothing (Lennon a tee-shirt, and Muni a shirt and light coloured knitted sweater). You can see this photo in The Beatles With Records – Part Three:And to finish a video of Paul McCartney, performing live at the famous Amoeba Music record store in Los Angeles on Wednesday, June 27, 2007. Here Paul is literally surrounded by vinyl and CD’s in the hundreds and thousands:

Just two obvious cover shots from the posters on the wall behind him…..You will no doubt spot a lot more:

And here is the full video:

Check out all the posts in this series here.

Beatles Stuff We Found on a Visit to France – Part One

Posted on July 18, 2015 by beatlesblogger

Just back from a holiday in Europe where we picked up some Beatle treasure along the way. This is the next instalment about what we found…

Once we’d left Amsterdam it was off to France, specifically the beautiful Loire Valley and the city of Tours, about 240kms from Paris. It wasn’t until we were in a newsagent store there that we saw this, up on a shelf behind the counter:

It’s part of a series produced by Universal Music in conjunction with the French newspaper Le Monde and their weekly art, TV and culture magazine Télérama. Starting back in January, each week they’ve slowly been releasing a collection of 25 Beatle albums and DVDs. As you can see these are individual CDs (or DVDs), each in a cardboard gatefold CD/DVD cover. This is attached for display purposes to a larger black cardboard square (11 inches by 11 inches). Each backing square has unique artwork and everything is sealed in a clear cellophane outer.

The weekly sequence for each release is detailed on the rear of the black cardboard square. It began with Sgt Pepper, and ends with The Beatles Anthology 5 DVD :

These CD and DVDs are only available from newsstands and places where Le Monde and Télérama are sold [see Wog Blog’s article about these releases here]. Similar re-issues have also been done in Italy and Spain, however these are not exactly the same CDs and DVDs as those for France.

Until we saw the Beatles Anthology 2 DVD in its special cardboard sleeve we’d completely forgotten about this series. It reminded us that, while all of the main albums had come out in cardboard gatefold sleeves before, there were some very unique packaging elements associated with nine of the 25 French releases: these are the five Anthology DVDs, plus four of the other CDs (Love [single CD]; Anthology 1; Anthology 2 and Anthology 3 [all double CDs]). Each of these have never previously been released in this form with a cardboard gate-fold slipcase. And so these were the ones we wanted to add to our collection. They’re unavailable everywhere else, and purchasing them from French newsagents is the only way to get them.

The hunt therefore began…..

This wasn’t quite as easy as it might seem. Once each weekly issue is sold out the newsagents no longer stock them – and some of the items we were looking for dated back over seven weeks. While we were in Tours the then-current issue was The Beatles Anthology 2 DVD, so that was easy to pick up. As was The Beatles Anthology 1 DVD, which most newsagents seemed to still have supplies of:

We then needed to travel by train from Tours to the city of Amiens in the north, and while transferring through the huge Gare du Nord railway station in Paris to get there we found copies of The Beatles Anthology 2 Double CD and the Anthology 3 Double CD sets:

Arriving in Amiens we couldn’t find any other back-dated releases. But while there the latest release (The Beatles Anthology 3 DVD) actually came out – so we quickly grabbed a copy of that:

This left just the double CD Anthology 1 and the Love CD to track down. Our time back in Paris before heading out of the country and home was our last chance….and these final two proved very difficult to find. Lots of asking around turned nothing up at all, though the owners who operate the many little newsagency kiosks on the streets of Paris were really very helpful to us. These kiosks look like this and are dotted around all over the place:

Many of the proprietors really wanted to assist. When they didn’t have what we were after some gave us phone numbers to call (for Le Monde and Télérama), and one guy went above and beyond, using his mobile phone to call around to his mates in other kiosks to see if they had either the Anthology 1 CD or Love. He managed to track down a copy of Anthology 1 for us, and he said possibly the Love CD too. Could we come back the next day to pick these up? Of course we could! There’s nothing like having local knowledge on your side. When we got back next day it turned out he secured just this one for us, which was great:

And while he hadn’t been able to locate a copy of Love for us this helpful kiosk owner had managed to scrounge a copy of Sgt Pepper, the very first CD released in the series.

Because it was the first Pepper was displayed slightly differently. It came out attached to a much wider cardboard backing sheet which is 10 inches by 15.5 inches. So, because he’d been so very helpful (and because of the different appearance of this one), we decided to buy Pepper from him as well:

This meant though that the Beatles Love CD was still proving very elusive…

Love was actually the oldest one we were after. It’d been released to newsagents back in April and as it was now almost July it seemed absolutely no-one had it.

Where we were staying was quite near the very large Gare Montparnasse railway station. Inside (and around it on the street) were multiple kiosks and small shops selling newspapers. So one afternoon, the day before our final departure for Australia, we hit this area pretty hard. For some time we went from place to place with no luck, getting very footsore and tired.

We’d pretty much given up all hope when we tried the very last kiosk we could find….and there we found it, hanging on a hook in the kiosk. It was a little beaten up (you can still see the hook hole) – but it was a copy of the single CD Love album in its unique French cardboard gatefold slipcase:

All these French reissues are in fact unique. They have different catalogue numbers and copyright details on the rear covers, and on their printed labels. For example, here’s the Anthology 1 CD. You can see reference to the Beatles Calderstone Productions Ltd., and even the fact that they are to be sold exclusively at newsagent kiosks:

Here’s a close-up of the small print (click on image for a larger version):

Of course, now we are back home that still leaves us with the quandary of how to source copies of The Beatles Anthology DVDs 4 and 5. These were released after we’d left the country…..so if anyone has any ideas on how we can get those two please drop us a line and let us know!

Lennon and Ono in Amsterdam – Cor Jaring Photos

Posted on July 5, 2015 by beatlesblogger

Drove from Paris to the Amsterdam Hilton,

Talkin’ in our beds for a week.

The news people said “Say, what you doing’ in bed?”

I said “We’re only tryin’ to get us some peace!”

So wrote John Lennon in “The Ballad of John and Yoko”, released by the Beatles back in 1969. He was talking in the song about one of his famous “bed-in” peace events, staged with Yoko Ono during their honeymoon while on a visit to the city of Amsterdam.

One of the people there to visually record what happened was Dutch photographer Cor Jaring and the Amsterdam City Archives currently has an exhibition of his photographs on display. They feature some of the shots he took of John and Yoko that day – but you’ll need to be quick if you want to see it. It closes on July 12.

Hi, and welcome back to Beatles Blogger. We’ve been on holiday for a month – so it’s been a bit quite around here for a while. We’ve actually been traveling in Europe and now that we’re back over the coming days will reveal more about what we found there to add to the ever-growing Beatle collection. We managed to pick up a few very nice things….

We didn’t however get to visit the Jaring exhibition as we only picked up this advertising flyer on the very last day we were there and ran out of time:

If you happen to be anywhere near Amsterdam it looks like it’d be interesting though.

New John Lennon LP Box Set Pressed By Optimal Media

Posted on May 24, 2015 by beatlesblogger

The new John Lennon 8 LP box set (due in stores early next month) will all be pressed at a state-of-the-art German factory in the town of Robel in Germany.

Optimal Media are a large and experienced outfit which has impressive high-volume CD replication and vinyl pressing facilities as well as the ability to print and assemble the high quality LP covers, inner sleeves and custom boxes in which they are presented for back-catalogue (and new) collections of music.

Optimal is the same place that the Beatles Remastered Stereo box set was manufactured back in 2012. Their site (and the finished product) demonstrates that they do impressive work at a high quality.

They pressed the 40th anniversary vinyl box set edition of John Lennon’s “Imagine” LP – a limited edition two-disc set released for Record Store Day in 2011.

Our copy of the Beatles in Mono vinyl box set also originated at the same Optimal factory. All the printing and pressing of the box set was done there and like the Stereo Box, this was a large and complex project to pull off. It has to be said the quality and attention to detail is absolutely first-rate. The cardboard used for the covers is thick, and the 180g vinyl feels chunky and solid in your hands.

For a further discussion on the origin of recent Beatle vinyl releases see: Where “Made in the EU” Vinyl Might Be Pressed

New John Lennon Vinyl Box Set Coming

Posted on April 25, 2015 by beatlesblogger

Whenever new Beatle or Beatle-related vinyl is mentioned we get interested.

Yes, like most collectors we have these albums already (in some cases many times over….) but the completist in us has to have the latest. And the latest announcement is that a new box set of eight John Lennon LPs is due for release on June 8. For all the details go to johnlennonmusic.com – but in a nutshell these will be faithful reproductions on 180-gram vinyl of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band; Imagine; Some Time in New York City; Mind Games; Walls and Bridges; Rock ‘n’ Roll; Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey:

All artwork, including inner bags, posters, postcards and original labels will be reproduced:

Looks like the LPs come in a white box with the same design cues as the John Lennon Signature Box from back in October, 2011:

That set contains the same titles – only on CD – plus it has two bonus discs of non-album tracks, studio outtakes and home recordings:

Of course there’s been a previous incarnation of a John Lennon , 8 LP vinyl box set.

Fab Gear – The Beatles and Fashion

Posted on March 17, 2015 by beatlesblogger

Earlier this week we scored a pristine copy of this Beatle book from one of our favourite discount bookstores – Basement Books in central Sydney. In fact it was still sealed in heat-shrink and so it is absolutely a mint copy.

The title of this large, coffee-table style book says exactly what its content is all about: Fab Gear – The Beatles and Fashion, and author Paolo Hewitt (his blog is here) focusses on that topic exclusively.

This book contains a wealth of photographs, like the one above, which are included because they show the variety of fashion over the years, the fine cut, or the design details of what the group were wearing at particular times. Look at those jackets John and Paul are wearing. This photo was taken at the London Palladium in February, 1965. John’s is a particularly stylish, four-button cut, while with Paul it’s the detail of the doubled-up buttons and cuffs, and the buttoned down shirt with no tie which are interesting.

As you browse through Fab Gear Hewitt gives information about where the Beatles purchased their clothing (or where they had it made), and who they knew and followed in the industry. It becomes clear that the Beatles indeed were style gurus very interested in clothing, fashion, and the design of what they wore – both as a group and as individuals. In the photos below Ringo is dressed very much in a Mod style, with his three button suit and button-down polka-dot shirt. John sports a look that Van Morrison would appropriate years later. The pair’s stylish but casual look is in contrast to the smaller, earlier picture where the band is dressed far more formally:From the earliest stages of being a band the Beatles had a keen sense of themselves as being more than just musicians. They were a force for change and what they wore was another way of pushing the boundaries. Hewitt’s book is divided up into five main themes to examine this thesis: the early years and influences from the late1950s in Liverpool and Hamburg; the early 1960s in London and Brian Epstein’s influence on their look and style; the mid-to-late1960s and Swinging London; the Beatles and their affect on hairstyles; and a chapter dedicated to the Beatles’ venture into creating and selling their own fashion designs at the Apple clothing boutique:

In fact this book has one of the best chapters we’ve seen on the ill-fated Apple shop set up to sell Apple clothing and which the Beatles opened on December 7, 1967 at 94 Baker Street in London. It closed its doors just seven months later. Not only do we get the back-story to it’s inception and speedy downfall, we get images of hand-drawn designs, fabric samples and prices:

This clip, from the movie Hot Millions, provides one of the few filmed glimpses inside the Apple shop:

There was also a separate Apple Tailoring shop (at 161 King’s Road) which included an Apple Hair salon in the basement! It is at Apple Tailoring we discover an Australian connection in the form one John Crittle. Crittle was a fashion innovator whose designs the Beatles had been taken with since the Sgt Pepper days. When they wanted to start their own tailoring company they turned to him. He’s pictured below – and if you don’t think you know his work, think again. Crittle designed the suits worn by three of the band (John, Ringo and Paul) as they walked across that famous pedestrian crossing outside the EMI studios on Abbey Road:We are very much enjoying dipping into Fab Gear. There are so many interesting stories and you’ll never look at a Beatle album cover, publicity shot, promotional film, or magazine/newspaper image the same way again. For a quick spin through the history and influence the band had on fashion (and that fashion had on them) it’s an indispensable book. We guarantee you’ll learn something you didn’t know about the Beatles:

Beatles Blog

Adventures in collecting Beatles music

Category Archives: Apple

It’s The Beatles, as you’ve never seen them before

Beatles Stuff We Found on a Visit to France – Part One

Lennon and Ono in Amsterdam – Cor Jaring Photos

New John Lennon LP Box Set Pressed By Optimal Media

New John Lennon Vinyl Box Set Coming

Fab Gear – The Beatles and Fashion

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