It looks like The Beatles Anthology TV series is destined for a Disney+ streaming release as expected:
When it first aired in 1995 Anthology was a six-part series, so it looks to have been expanded somewhat given the advertising banner says it is now a nine-parter. And that it is due to go to air on November 26 with a three-part premier.
It also looks like those images we got for the accompanying audio box sets are coming true. But what will the final artwork look like? There are currently two different gifs doing the rounds showing variations to the outer box images for the CD set:
This was released in 1965, the year The Beatles produced the albums Help! and Rubber Soul. Plus the singles ‘Ticket To Ride’/’Yes It Is’, ‘Yesterday’/’Act Naturally’ and ‘We Can Work It Out’/’Day Tripper’…
Meanwhile, again in 1965, Brad put out this tune, ‘God, Country and My Baby’, which also sank without trace.
Thanks to our mate and regular reader Andrey for sending this one in. Should we do a series on tunes that failed to oust the Fab Four from the charts?
As he promised months ago, Sean Lennon and the Lennon Estate have this week formally announced the release (on 10 October, 2025) of a mega box set focusing on John Lennon playing (mostly) live in New York in the years 1971 and 1972.
The big box set comprises 9 CDs and no less than 3 Blu-Ray audio discs, all packaged in the 10-inch sized slipcase size that’s been the hallmark of all the Lennon super-deluxe re-issues so far. This one will come with a cool lenticular cover of John & Yoko’s faces, presenting a “dynamic 3D effect”.
The box set will come with a 204-page hardback book designed and edited by long-time Lennon Estate historian and archivist, Simon Hilton (he’s done all the box sets so far and is great). It will feature an oral history about all the included music through the words of John & Yoko and those involved, sourced from both archival and new interviews.
The book will be illustrated with previously unseen photos, lyrics, drawings, tape boxes and memorabilia. Additionally, the set includes a newspaper print poster, sticker sheets and a VIP envelope containing replica concert tickets plus backstage and after-show passes that have all been uniquely reproduced with textured, archival materials.
The centerpiece of Power To The People is the ‘One To One Concerts’, which were Lennon’s only full-length concerts after The Beatles, and his final shows with Yoko Ono. They raised more than US$1.5 million (2025 equivalent of $11.5 million) to support children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Both the afternoon and evening performances are being released together for the first time, though they’re not complete (see below).
Alongside those two concerts, Power To The People (Super Deluxe Edition) offers an aural time capsule of John & Yoko’s first NYC era, when they traded Tittenhurst Park, their estate in Ascot, England, for a small apartment located at 105 Bank St. in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, and includes the music they were inspired to make during a time of great civil unrest and the deeply unpopular Vietnam War. As a result the set will contain 92 bonus tracks.
Paramount to their recorded musical endeavors at this time was their 1972 political blockbuster album, Sometime In New York City, recorded by John & Yoko with legendary drummer Jim Keltner and New York band, Elephant’s Memory.
For this special collection, songs from the album have been completely remixed from scratch, stripped of the overly heavy production sound that constrained such inspired and inspiring songs as ‘Attica State’, ‘Angela’, ‘New York City’, and ‘Born In A Prison’.
Noticeably missing though is the controversial song (back then and perhaps now even moreso), ‘Woman Is The N***** Of The World’. Some fans are upset about that but the song is still easily available on streaming services and on CD if you want it. Live versions from the ‘One To One’ concerts can also be had on the Lennon Anthology collection from 1998 (evening performance), and on John Lennon – Live in New York City released in 1986 (afternoon performance). For those hoping the song might be a secret hidden track in this new box, a note has been added to the official website pre-order page: NB – This is the full track listing. There are no hidden tracks on the CDs or Blu-Rays.
For this box set the tracks from Sometime In New York City have been re-ordered, rejuvenated and completely re-imagined as a new set of Ultimate Mixes, and is now simply entitled New York City. It includes extended versions of ‘John Sinclair’ and ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’, so while we lose one song we gain longer versions of others.
In addition to the Deluxe 9 CD/3 Blu-Ray box there will be a four LP version with the afternoon and evening ‘One To One’ concerts:
You might know if you’re a regular reader that we’re quite interested in celebrating artists and creatives who sometimes go unsung, but have helped The Beatles as a band or solo to achieve their artistic vision.
One such talented and long-time collaborator passed away last week.
His name was Sir Brian Clarke, a British painter, architectural artist, designer and printmaker, best known for his large-scale stained glass, tapestry, ceramics and mosaic projects. He was also known for his symbolist paintings and stage designs.
His artistic collaborations have included work with David Bailey, Hugh Hudson, Malcolm McLaren, and also with Lindaand Paul McCartney. In fact, he was a firm friend of theirs and Paul has paid tribute to him this week in his socials:
Brian Clarke’s first public collaboration with McCartney was his striking cover and label art for Paul’s 1982 album, Tug of War.
Clarke designed the cover, producing an abstract painting in oil on canvas that incorporated a painted portrait into the cover from a photograph by Linda McCartney of Paul in the recording studio. The geometric elements of the painting, which he calls ‘reticules’, were used in promotional material for the release, incorporated throughout the vinyl and CD booklets by Hipgnosis, and also appeared on the vinyl labels:
Clarke also designed and fabricated a series of Tug of War stained glass panels in different colours and treatments:
Each artwork is made of mouth-blown glass and these stained glass panels make a cameo appearance in the music video for the single from the album, ‘Take It Away’. You can see them briefly from about 3’10 in, during the scene set in the bar:
Interestingly, the style Clarke used for Tug of War is also evident in his paintings from the time as well, for example this one from 1982 – a series called The Rome Paintings:
His concept again paired Clarke’s paintings and compositions (this time of of cut flowers) with Linda McCartney’s photography, producing a collaborative series of canvases and pictures. The photographs were shown at Linda’sFlowers in the Dirt exhibition at the Mayor Gallery, London, in 1989.
“I got the idea for the Flowers in the Dirt cover when I was staying at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok. I did a sketch and a faxed it back to Paul. He said he was interested and wanted to see it developed. By then I was in New Delhi and I did the painting there. I flew back with it one Thursday night and Linda and I went into the studio the following day, laid the flowers on the canvas – which was still wet – and worked on it until we got it right.”
His art also adorned the press materials released to promote the album:
These were huge works that hung behind the band on stage:
Clarke’s stage designs were also incorporated into The Paul McCartney World Tour posters and souvenir concert tour programs:
His other record cover art from this time includes the design for the cover of the single ‘Figure of Eight’, taken from the Flowers in the Dirt LP:
Brian Clarke also created stage designs for The New World Tour in 1993. His painted stage sets and projections included collaged biographical pictures by Linda McCartney, a photographic history of stained glass, and appeared on promotional materials designed for the tour. Those hand-painted sets, on canvas and on acoustically transparent scrims, became the world’s largest-ever stage sets, and are Clarke’s largest ever paintings:
“The main sets were painted, and the projections included a collage I made of photographs of my favourite works in stained glass from the 11th century to the present day, used by Paul as the backdrop to ‘Let It Be’. Somehow the imagery and the rolling depth of colour across the enormous stage morphed perfectly with the religious mood that is always provoked when one listens to that remarkable song.”
Then in 1997, not long before Linda’s death, she and Clarke held a joint exhibition called Collaborations. It showed works by both artists and collaborative pieces in which Linda’s photos were silk screened onto mouth-blown glass using a process of their own devising.
“Linda McCartney, working with her friend, the artist Brian Clarke, is helping to spearhead a revival of an art form that has been dormant for more than 100 years – stained-glass photography. They have been secretly working for three years on reviving the technique, which was last in vogue in the 1880s, and which Clarke has experimented with once before. They have now produced a number of stained glass photographs, including a set of portraits of Sir Paul McCartney as well as other celebrities, friends, flowers and urban landscapes.” (The Independent, February 1998)
As a mark of the long friendship and artistic association he had with the McCartney family Brian was amongst a select few to deliver a message during Linda’s memorial service on June 8, 1998.
Then, in 1999, Paul McCartney released Working Classical, an album of his orchestral and chamber music. On it was a composition called ‘A Leaf’. In the CD booklet the notes about each work is accompanied by a creative image. For ‘A Leaf’ it was a photo of one of Linda and Brian’s stained glass works……
Jump forward another six years to the 2005 McCartney album, Chaos and Creation In The Backyard. The front cover image is a photo taken by Paul’s brother Mike McCartney. But inside the CD booklet, and in the vinyl edition, there are featured numerous line drawings by Brian Clarke:
The Special Edition CD came with a bonus DVD with a few extras, including an 11’30 animated film called Line Art featuring Brian’s drawings accompanied by instrumental tracks of the songs ‘Riding to Vanity Fair’, ‘At the Mercy’ and ‘Anyway’. The single that was taken from the album ‘Fine Line’ also featured Clarke’s work on the front cover:
Vale Brian Clarke, 2 July,1953 – 1 July, 2025.
His work in stained glass, painting and sculpture has been shown widely internationally, and can also be found in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Tate Gallery in London.
He was awarded a Knighthood in January 2024, becoming the first stained glass artist to be honoured for a medium that has significantly shaped the course of British art.
The Beatles have announced this week that the new CEO of their company, Apple Corps Ltd., will be Tom Greene. He replaces Jeff Jones, who ran the company for almost 18 years and decided to step away from the job last year.
In a group statement, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Olivia Harrison and Sean Ono Lennon joined together to say: “We are thrilled to welcome Tom Greene as CEO. We have a lot of exciting plans and Tom’s experience and vision make him the perfect person to join us in making it all happen.”
Variety reports that while Greene (pictured above) has no music business experience, he comes to the role with a strong entertainment background having been Chief Operating Officer of BLAST “a competitive entertainment company working with the biggest video game developers and publishers in the world on the production, commercialization and audience growth of their e-sports programs”.
Prior to that Greene was at Wizarding World Digital and Pottermore, the official hubs and parent companies of the Harry Potter franchise – with “over 50 million members, supported by immersive digital experiences, daily content publishing and an innovative e-commerce offering.” Greene was Group Commercial Director for Pottermore from 2015 through 2018, then moved to Wizarding World Digital, where he acted as COO, then General Manager.
In taking on his new role, Greene will still maintain his position on the board of directors for both BLAST and Pottermore.
Greene, who won’t start until September, said “It is a huge honor to lead Apple Corps into this new phase of its history. Like so many people around the world, I grew up in a household obsessed with the Beatles and their music. At a time when the world might need more of the Beatles’ spirit, there are so many new and innovative ways to bring their unique magic to all generations of fans. I cannot wait to get started.”
It’s going to be very interesting to see where the company goes in the future. With his e-commerce background will this mean that physical product from The Beatles is set to take a back seat? Hope not.
This coming Wednesday is officially Global Beatles Day. How will you be celebrating?
25 June is increasingly being recognised as a day set aside to celebrate The Beatles and their music and cultural legacy around the world.
Why is GBD June 25?
Well, it was on this day in 1967 that the Beatles first premiered their song ‘All You Need Is Love’. And they did it live before an audience estimated to be between 400-700 million people. Those millions had tuned in their TV sets to the ground-breaking Our World broadcast – the first of its kind to link up national broadcasters from fourteen countries across the globe in one celebratory program using what was then-new satellite technology. The resulting two-hour show was seen across 24 countries. And when it came to the United Kingdom’s turn The Beatles allowed the TV cameras into the Abbey Road Studios and let the world witness them putting the finishing touches to a previously un-heard song, ‘All You Need Is Love’. It went something like this:
So, on Global Beatles Day why not dig out a few Beatle records or CDs and immerse yourself in the music one more time, and think about the phenomenon that somehow rolls on and on, from generation to generation.
Yes it’s back, but unless you were very quick you might have missed out because The Beatles In Mono 14 LP box set (out of print since 2014) is already showing as SOLD OUT on both the UK and US official stores. However, there is some confusion as to whether this is just the exclusive pre-order allocation made to subscribers to the The Beatles mailing list. There may be more copies available from Friday, 30 May.
Regarded as something a grail item for collectors now, the original box set is super expensive on the second-hand market. This new release will replicate that original exactly with 180-gram LPs in a boxed edition, along with a very nice hardbound book.
To quote the website: “In an audiophile-minded undertaking, The Beatles’ acclaimed mono albums were mastered in 2014 for vinyl from quarter-inch master tapes at Abbey Road Studios by engineer Sean Magee and mastering supervisor Steve Berkowitz.
While The Beatles In Mono CD boxed set released in 2009 was created from digital remasters, for this vinyl project, Magee and Berkowitz cut the records without using any digital technology. Instead, they employed the same procedures used in the 1960s, guided by the original albums and by detailed transfer notes made by the original cutting engineers.
Working in the same room at Abbey Road where most of The Beatles’ albums were initially cut, the pair [used] a rigorously tested Studer A80 machine to play back the precious tapes, the new vinyl was cut on a 1980s-era VMS80 lathe. Manufactured for the world at Optimal Media in Germany, The Beatles’ albums are presented in their original glory, both sonically and in their packaging. The boxed collection’s exclusive 12-inch by 12-inch hardbound book features new essays and a detailed history of the mastering process by award-winning radio producer and author Kevin Howlett. The book is illustrated with many rare studio photos of The Beatles, fascinating archive documents, and articles and advertisements sourced from 1960s publications.”
Check out this (very long) YouTube for more details about the release, and info on if there’ll be more copies for sale soon:
The entertainment bible Variety is reporting that at last there is definite movement on Paul McCartney’s on-again, off-again animated children’s feature film, High In The Clouds.
The magazine says that “Celine Dion, Himesh Patel and Hannah Waddingham will lead the voice cast of High in the Clouds….which [production company] Gaumont (“Ballerina”) is producing and repping internationally.”
“Inspired by the children’s adventure book by Paul McCartney, Geoff Dunbar and Philip Ardagh, High in the Clouds will also bring together Idris Elba, Lionel Richie, Ringo Starr, Jimmy Fallon, Clémence Poésy, Pom Klementieff and Alain Chabat.”
There’ll also be six original songs by McCartney in the film, which – back in 2023 – was budgeted at €28 million (US$31.7 million). It’ll be directed by Toby Genkel (The Amazing Maurice), and will have a screenplay by Jon Croker (Paddington 2), with Patrick Hanenberger (The Croods, Lego Movie 2) as production designer. Paul McCartney will also voice one of the main characters.
And here’s the exciting bit. Oscar winner Michael Giacchino (Ratatouille, Up, Inside Out, Coco) will score the feature with the original soundtrack set to be released by Universal Music Group. So, we’ll be getting at least six new Paul McCartney songs.
The cast and the characters they voice are:
Himesh Patel (Yesterday) as the main character, Wirral Céline Dion (Academy Award winner for Best Song) as Sugartail Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso) as Gretsch Paul McCartney as McKenzie Idris Elba (Luther) as Barrel Lionel Richie as Gladstone Ringo Starr as Roy Jimmy Fallon (The Tonight Show) as Froggo Clémence Poésy (Harry Potter) as Doris Pom Klementieff (Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning) as Mina Alain Chabat (Night at the Museum) as Bigsby
Two things to note:
You’ll notice on the official poster (above) it says “Coming 2027“, so we’ve still got a while to wait.
Secondly, if you’re wondering about someone who is missing in all this latest reporting on the film, you’re not wrong. When we said this has been an on-again, off-again project across a number of years we weren’t kidding.
Way back in 2015 there were prolific reports on social media showing Paul working with none other than Lady Gaga on one of the key songs for the film. This photo from Instagram dates back to February that year. So, High In The Clouds the movie has been on the boil at least 10 years now. In fact first reports of an animated film based on the book date back to 2013.
This doesn’t mean that Gaga’s contribution has been ditched. She’s just not in a speaking role. Maybe her song will be in the opening and closing credits? Here’s a happy-snap from the same 2015 recording session with Gaga, with Paul and all the musicians in the studio. You can also see Paul’s regular drummer Abe Laborial Jr. at his left shoulder.:
As is the way with these things ideas, concepts and themes morph. The synopsis of the book now looks distinctly different to that of the film.
Plot of the book (as per the 2005 book cover): “Forced to leave his woodland home, destroyed by the expansion plans of the evil Gretsch, Wirral the squirrel vows to find the fabled land of Animalia, where all the animals are said to live in freedom and without fear. Wirral’s personal quest turns into a full-blown plan to save enslaved animals everywhere.”
Plot of the film (as per the 202 Variety article): “Follows the journey of a headstrong teenage squirrel, Wirral, who lives in Gretschville, a city where music has been banned by a diva-owl, Gretsch, who wants to be the only singer in town. Determined to overthrow Gretsch and bring music back to his town, Wirral joins forces with an underground band of legendary musicians who hide high in the clouds, in a secret place called Harmonia.”
Quite different, don’t you think?
Still, this promises to be a fun watch with a special soundtrack album as an added bonus.
We know that George Harrison was a very keen gardener. There was a beautiful article at the end of 2023 in Country Life magazine on some of the work he did to bring the gardens of his country estate, Friar Park, back to life and the fantastic legacy he left there as those gardens continue to thrive today. With the help of his wife Olivia Harrison, George revitalized the neglected property, which consisted of the mansion, lodges, and 32 acres of grounds.
Now comes a stunning tribute to George the gardener in the form of a major exhibition – and it is in Florida of all places.
The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida have on display now a unique and impressive exhibition exploring the connection between George Harrison and his much-loved hobby.
George Harrison: A Gardener’s Life is on view through to June 29, 2025, and it’s already broken all attendance records for any previous special exhibition at the Gardens.
Selby Gardens has re-imagined some of the Friar Park gardens through horticultural vignettes across its 15-acre Downtown Sarasota campus, including original garden designs by the man who originally built Friar Park, SIr Frank Crisp, and more recent gardens planted by George and Olivia. Highlights include a topiary and sundial garden; an alpine rock garden complete with a scale model of the Matterhorn; a knot garden in the shape of a kolam (a geometrical Indian line drawing); a knot garden design that plays on the treble clef; and a hedge maze.
The Tropical Conservatory features stunning displays of plants. One incorporates Barry Feinstein’s iconic photo of Harrison from the album cover for All Things Must Pass; a sculptural garden combines water, weeping plants, and electric guitars – a nod to his Beatle hit While My Guitar Gently Weeps;and a palm garden references the cover design of his solo album Living in the Material World. A selection of George’s music plays throughout the Conservatory.
The Museum of Botany and the Arts at the Gardens features a dynamic collection of photographs and videos of George and his crews working on the estate grounds, plus maps and photographic references to Crisp’s original designs, and personal memorabilia.
The exhibition has also attracted the attention and support of The Beatles official Facebook page, and the George Harrisonwebsite.
To see a spectacular short “walk through” video of the exhibition, just click on the image below:
Beatles Blog 