Three Old (But Interesting) Magazines

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Had to take another driving trip to Canberra – Australia’s national capitol – and so I called into the country town of Goulburn, which is along the way. There’s a big old second-hand book and record store there called the Argyle Book Emporium. I wrote about this shop once before when I discovered three copies of “Q” magazine there which were of interest.

When I got to the Argyle Emporium I headed straight to the room the owner uses to store his records, music books, and music magazines. As I said in the previous post, searching here is pretty frustrating as everything is just a free-for-all, with masses of unsorted discs on shelves and in boxes all over the place. There is so much that it is difficult to know where to start, and it’s one of those places where you get the distinct impression that the whole collection has already been picked over very thoroughly by collectors….Not surprisingly after pretty solid search I didn’t find anything of much interest amongst the records, and so I turned my attention to some boxes of magazines in one corner. There I found three items – two “Q” magazines from way back in 1993, and an “Uncut” magazine from a relatively recent 2010.

Both “Q” mags had info of interest to the Beatles collector. The June 1993 edition had and article about Irish photographer Kieron Murphy who in April 1971 was sent to cover John Lennon recording what would become the “Imagine” album:

Ummm…if you can get past the rather striking cover photo of Terence Trent D’Arby (and yes, there is more of the same, only more, inside the magazine) you can see on the left-hand side a reference to a legendary and historic lost photo session for “Imagine”. It took place just outside London at John Lennon’s home, Tittenhurst Park. Of this very special assignment Kieron Murphy says “Meeting him was the high point of my life. I’d never met anyone so famous and I suppose I still haven’t. When I got there it was five o’clock in the afternoon and he was having breakfast…..More people began to arrive, like Klaus Voorman (bass player), and Alan White (drummer), and Nicky Hopkins who was playing the piano; then George Harrison came along, and there they were, all having a cup of tea.”

Kieron Murphy captured some great images for “Sounds”, the magazine he was working for at the time. If anyone has seen the documentary “Gimme Some Truth – The Making of John Lennon’s Imagine Album” (released in 2000) then these black-and-white photographs will look familiar. Like that film, Murphy has captured a unique point in musical history – being played out amongst scenes of very ordinary domesticity. There are only six photographs in the magazine but they are special.

The other “Q” magazine comes from December 1993:

Kate Bush adorns the cover but what caught my eye was the heading:  BEATLES EXCLUSIVE – John, Paul, George, Ringo and Nicola?!

It’s a neat little four-page article and photo essay, a where are they now piece on the whereabouts of the little girl called Nicola who appears in the Beatles 1967 film “Magical Mystery Tour” and who is name-checked and immortalised on the track-listing on both the album and the original EP cover. You can see this in the printed title for the song “I Am the Walrus”, which has the hand-written subtitle  (“No you’re not!” said Little Nicola):

Well, in 1993 “Q” magazine tracked Nicola down and told the story of how she and her mum, Pam, ended up appearing in the MMT film. They found Nicola Hale, then aged 30, living in Forest Park on the outskirts of Chicago. She was working at a drop-in centre for young people with substance abuse problems. The article has some great photographs of Nicola in scenes with Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and this one mucking around with a soccer ball on the bus with Ringo Starr:

That’s her mum Pam on the right, and the carefully preserved dresses they wear in the scene are shown in colour in an insert at top right. All the pictures, newspaper clippings and memorabilia shown in the article come from the collection of Nicola’s father, Dave Hale.

Its a great little article and well worth having. I wonder where Little Nicola Hale is today?  She would be 48 years old. Does anyone have any information? Please let us know.

The final magazine is much more recent – an “Uncut” from the UK, dated August 2010:

Basically this is Part One in a four-part series where the magazine looks at what each Beatle did following the break-up of the band. The first in the series was John Lennon:

“Confidants, band members and therapists reveal all about the cold turkey and primal scream therapy, the relationship meltdowns, the battles between pacifism and revolution – and the extraordinary music of the Plastic Ono Band.”

With great photographs throughout this article ranges over 10 pages. It features the reminiscences of a range of people including Andy Stephens who was a tape operator at EMI’s Abbey Road studios during the rush recording of the song “Instant Karma” in 1970. (We learn in the article that Stephens is now the manager of Susan Boyle!). He relates a revealing story of Lennon enjoying a rare moment of privacy at Abbey Road in 1970:

“It was about two in the morning. He asked me to have a look out the front. There were always fans hanging around….I told him the fans had gone. John got hold of Yoko and they turned left and walked up Abbey Road. They came back 15 minutes later. John had a wonderful grin on his face. I mean, just a wonderful wonderful grin. He said, ‘You’ve no idea what it’s like to go for all that time without getting hassled.’ It was such a buzz for him. He’d gone 15 whole minutes without getting stopped.”

Footnote:  Interestingly, in looking up the “Uncut” magazine site I discovered that the Beatles are in fact this month’s cover story as well:

It’s all about the Beatles time in Hamburg. The issue comes with a free CD called “Sounds of the Star Club” with 16 tracks of songs covered by the Beatles, including tracks by Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, Fats Waller, Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Ray Charles and Elvis Presley.

And editor, Allan Jones, says that this is the last printed edition of Uncut in it’s present format: “From next month, the magazine will have a cool new look and there will be changes to what’s in it and how it’s presented….the new-look Uncut goes on sale on February 28.”

The Beatles With Records – Part Seven

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OK.  Some will be saying “Enough already!”

But still they come – photographs of the Beatles holding on to the things they produced so many of – records.

And now here’s another because some really good photographs have continued to trickle in.

I must say I like the ones that are of a Beatle holding a record that they didn’t actually make themselves. This one of Paul McCartney (above) is a great example submitted by Beatlesblog reader Lammert Mulder. In a great piece of detective work by Lammert we find out that Paul is holding a copy of this 1966 album by the Lovin’ Spoonful. What you can see in the picture above is the rear cover:

This is what the front cover looks like:

Staying with Paul, how many copies do you reckon he’s signed of Sgt. Pepper?

Yes, that’s a gate-fold original copy alright. And it’d be worth quite a bit now if it’s still around….

If anyone knows who the young woman is, and how she managed to find Paul McCartney out in the park walking his dog Martha on a summer’s day and just happened to have a copy of the LP with her at the time – let us know.

Here’s another one of Paul from around the same period, again running the gauntlet with fans, this time assisted by stalwart Beatle roadie, Mal Evans (in glasses) – who looks to be shepherding Paul from a fan holding a copy of the ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’/’Penny Lane’ single:

That is definitely the picture sleeve cover of the 1967 Beatles single ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’/’Penny Lane’. We had another photo of the same single being signed by John Lennon in the Beatles with Records Part Six.

Interestingly, the same image was used for the 1981 EP issue containing the songs ‘The Inner Light’/’Baby, You’re A Rich Man’/’She’s A Woman’/’This Boy’:

Paul has endured of course – right up to the DVD age – where he is asked to sign copies of those as well:

The Space Within Us, a McCartney concert DVD, comes from 2006.

George Harrison was also often collared to do an autograph or two – sometimes on Beatle records. This one looks like he’s been nabbed in the driveway, leaving his home Kinfauns in Surrey:

That’s gotta be the rear cover of this 1967 Beatle EP, don’t you think?:

Paul has also been snapped signing a copy of Magical Mystery Tour:

Thanks to Claude Defer for sending that photograph.

Sometimes, despite their familiarity with their own product, the Beatles can be seen studying their record covers quite closely:

That’s George with…..

I also like this one of George, but do you know which LP he is carrying out the door? His clothing suggests its around the time of “Sgt Pepper”:

If you know or can can figure it out please let us know at beatlesblogger@gmail.com

This LP that John is carrying is much more obvious:

And finally we have to have one of Ringo. This is from 1974, sitting with the late, great Harry Nilsson and holding up a copy of the Nilsson single “Daybreak”, taken from the album “Son of Dracula“:

Thanks to everyone who submitted photographs. You can see the other parts in “The Beatles with Records” series here:  Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 , 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17.

Paul and Advertising

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“The Beatles position is that they don’t sing jingles to peddle sneakers, beer, pantyhose or anything else,” said Apple’s attorney in a statement of July 18, 1987.  “Their position is that they wrote and recorded these songs as artists and not as pitchmen for any product.” [From the battle over Nike’s use of the song “Revolution”]

It was surprising to find while having a look around the website for 54th Grammy Awards (to be announced tomorrow February 12 in the US) to see an advertisement for JBL audio gear featuring Paul McCartney.

Clearly, well-prior to its official release just last week, deals were being done around his song “My Valentine”, and it’s already being used to market products. The YouTube copy elsewhere reads in part:

“A life-long user of JBL equipment in the studio, on tour and at home, McCartney’s appearance as a JBL “Hear the truth” artist is a testament to the enduring impact the brand has had on musicians and music fans since the dawn of the rock era.  The video features his new single, “My Valentine,” from the album “Kisses on the Bottom,” which was released on February 7….”

The print ads look like this:

I’m not sure why I was surprised by this. Thinking about it some more McCartney has a history of associating his concerts, his music, and himself with commercial products. In fact he struck another deal prior to the release of Kisses on the Bottom – this time with the jewelers Tiffany and Co. Again one has to imagine this was largely attributable to the romance associated with Valentines Day, jewelry sales, and the song “My Valentine”. Tiffany and Co., on their website http://www.WhatMakesLoveTrue.com (no longer active), offered for a limited time a free download of “Only Our Hearts”, one of the other two original McCartney songs (the other is “My Valentine”) from Kisses on the Bottom.

The Tiffany and Co. site also includes links to the Kisses on the Bottom album video Electronic Press Kit video, with McCartney and producer Tommy LiPuma talking with veteran rock writer Robert Hiburn. This was available on the Tiffany site before it was available anywhere else – even on McCartney’s own website.

Other overt and sometimes criticised commercial associations come to mind. There were two from 2005. The first is the CD Never Stop Doing What You Love:

This was a 15 track “Best Of” limited-edition CD, not for sale but given away to employees of the Boston-based company Fidelity Investments. The company were sponsors of McCartney’s 2005 US tour, and he became their official spokesman. According to Wikipedia, on the day of the CD release company employees were treated to a special recorded message by Paul himself informing them that “Fidelity and I have a lot in common” and urging them to “never stop doing what you love”. There were TV commercials and print ads featuring home-movie footage – the first time McCartney had ever given such personal footage to an ad campaign. He received considerable criticism for his celebrity endorsement of Fidelity Investments, which many considered to be a vulgar attempt to increase his already astounding wealth.

The second example also comes from 2005 and another major concert tour sponsor, the car-maker Lexus. Paul even had his own Lexus/McCartney website, and a limited McCartney signature-edition Lexus RX 400 SUV release, complete with a Hoffner Bass paint job. The idea was for Lexus to promote his latest album too, which was Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.  To be fair the site was also used to promote one of Paul’s main charitable focuses at the time: Adopt-a-Minefield. Also from the association came this limited-edition 2 CD set:

This Lexus Tour Edition pack contained the 13-track Chaos and Creation in the Backyard CD plus an exclusive 10-track Motor of Love compilation CD featuring McCartney “road-themed” songs like “The Back Seat of My Car” (originally from the album Ram, but this version from Wingspan); “Helen Wheels” (from Band on the Run – 25th Anniversary Edition); “Lonely Road” (from Driving Rain) and “Biker Like an Icon” (from Off the Ground). There were two rare live tracks: “Drive My Car” (from the Super Bowl XXXIX half-time show in Jacksonville, Florida on February 6, 2005), and “The Long and Winding Road” (from the Driving U.S. Tour, Annaheim, California, May 5, 2002. I’m pretty sure this is a different version than the one on the Back in the U.S. Live 2002 CD). The set is housed in a cardboard slipcase and was commercially available – but only for a brief time from US Lexus dealerships:

Of course, Paul McCartney lends his name and image to many a good cause too. Take cruelty to animals and PETA for example, an organisation he’s supported for years:

So, where do you sit on the question of commercial product endorsement? Does it worry you or change your view of the artist? Do you have any other advertising examples involving Paul or the other Beatles that you know of?

Use the “Comments” box below or write to: beatlesblogger@gmail.com

By the way, McCartney is nominated for a 2011 Grammy in the category Best Historical Album for last year’s Band on the Run, the deluxe edition from the Paul McCartney Archive Collection.  He will perform at the event.

The Beatles Revealed

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Another nice Beatles book has joined the collection.

“The Beatles Revealed” is a large-format hardback book of 200 pages, printed on quality glossy paper:

Music journalist and author Hugh Fielder would be known to some Beatles collectors because he compiled the rear cover liner notes for the British edition of the Beatles “Rarities” album. This originally came out as a bonus record available only as part of “The Beatles Collection” box set. But in 1979 the record was issued separately as a stand-alone single vinyl LP (with the Fielder liner notes) due to popular demand. You can read that story here. The rear cover of that release looks like this:

“The Beatles Revealed” book is organised chronologically by year and covers all the major events in the Beatles career, beginning with “The Formative Years 1957-1962” and ending with “The Break-up Years 1969-1970”, and an “Epilogue” of 1970 reunion rumours and 1995’s “Anthology” TV/DVD series and CD sets. The book contains some great images:

“The Beatles Revealed” is published by Flame Tree Publishing and came out in 2010.

The photo above is a beauty of George in the very early days (note the script used for “The Beatles” on Ringo’s drum skin). It’s on the rear jacket cover.

McCartney’s Kisses on the Bottom – Who Owns The Songs?

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Just had an email from Bruce Hamlin, an Australian collector who runs The Beatles Records Information Service, with some information about the new Paul McCartney release of Kisses on the Bottom (out on February 7).

Because the album is Paul interpreting some of the great old songs he loves, Bruce muses at the end of his email: “The cynic in me reckons that Paul owns the publishing rights to all these songs too. Just for that extra bit of icing on the cake when the royalties come in….”

McCartney of course owns MPL Communications Limited, one of the biggest song publishing and licensing companies in the world – and in fact does own the rights to literally thousands of songs and covering nearly 100 years of music.

So, how many of the songs he’s covering on Kisses on the Bottom does McCartney already own, and will he subsequently get song royalties from tracks he didn’t write back into his own business? In the album’s track-list below I’ve put in RED whether MPL administers the publishing rights:

1. I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter  –  YES  (written by Joe Young, Fred E. Ahlert, 1935)
2. Home (When Shadows Fall)  –  NO
3. It’s Only A Paper Moon  –  NO
4. More I Cannot Wish You  –  YES  (written by Frank Loesser, 1949)
5. The Glory Of Love  –  NO
6. We Three (My Echo, My Shadow And Me)  –  YES  (written by Dick Robertson, Sammy Mysels, Nelson Cogane, 1939)
7. Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive  –  YES  (written by Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, 1944)
8. My Valentine (it’s a new McCartney composition, 2012)  –  YES 
9. Always  –  NO
10. My Very Good Friend The Milkman  –  NO
11. Bye Bye Blackbird  –  NO
12. Get Yourself Another Fool  –  NO
13. The Inch Worm  –  YES  (written by Frank Loesser, 1951)
14. Only Our Hearts (another new composition)   –  YES  

The Deluxe CD Album will feature 2 bonus tracks:

15. Baby’s Request (a 1979 McCartney tune from Back to the Egg)  –  YES 
16. My One And Only Love  –  YES

Therefore, in answer to Bruce’s question, for the standard CD edition of Kisses Paul McCartney owns half the songs. For the deluxe edition he owns the rights to 9 out of the 16 tracks.

Also, it’s just been pointed out to me by Beatlesblog reader Craig that two of the songs on the album have previously been released in versions on Apple Records. Ringo did ‘Bye, Bye Blackbird’ on Sentimental Journey (his 1970 tribute to old songs he loves), and Mary Hopkin recorded ‘The Inch Worm’ on her first album, Postcard (1968).

Peter Asher, Paul, Mary Hopkin at Trident Studios, London, 1968 (Apple)

Paul produced Mary Hopkin’s Postcard LP, so he must have liked the song ‘The Inch Worm’ for a long time. He chose the album’s songs, the arranger and even the artwork for the album cover. From the liner notes of the digitally re-mastered edition of Postcard from 2010:

Mary remembers that the show tunes and hits from yesteryear that make up half the collection were favourites of Paul’s father, Jim McCartney. They call to mind the valve-warming radio days of the BBC’s old Light Programme, Ringo Starr’s Sentimental Journey album that Apple would soon release, and the comfy familiarity that Paul evoked in Beatles songs such as ‘Honey Pie’, ‘When I’m Sixty Four’ and ‘Your Mother Should Know’.

Sounds just like the 2012 publicity for Kisses on the Bottom, doesn’t it.

‘The Inch Worm’ originally comes from the 1952 Danny Kaye film Hans Christian Anderson. And Paul’s company MPL Communications Limited now owns the publishing rights to the song.

You can access the database for all the songs that ML Communications has the rights to at: www.mplcommunications.com/search.php  For most tracks in the database you can also listen to full audio examples, often by a range of performers.

For a great film of Mary Hopkin performing different language versions of ‘Those Were the Days’ see the Wogblog page. Great shots of the Apple offices in 1968, too.

A New Beatles Documentary in the works?

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Will 2012 be the year that renowned Indian-born filmmaker Mira Nair’s documentary film about the Beatles time at Rishikesh finally gets a release?

It’s certainly a great idea for a documentary, and if anyone could pull it off it is Nair.

Known primarily for her popular and successful feature films (Salaam Bombay!, Mississippi Masala, Vanity Fair, The Namesake), she has for the past thirty years also been forging a parallel career making short films, both fiction (Migration, How Can It Be?, The Day the Mercedes Became a Hat) and documentaries (So Far from India, India Cabaret, The Laughing Club of India).

Nair has been talking about making a documentary on the connection between the Beatles and her country India since about 2006. But so far it’s failed to see the light of day. Here’s a response to a question she got about it back in 2009:

Have you ever wanted to make a documentary feature?  Yes, a feature documentary on the Beatles in India. The Beatles wrote twenty-three songs when they went to the Maharishi’s ashram in 1968. And I think the impact of India on the Beatles and vice versa would make for a very cool film. I went to the ashram myself and photographed it—it’s all abandoned. I made a very evocative photo portrait of what is there now. So I mixed that with archival footage and made a twenty-minute piece, to let the producers preview it. The producers couldn’t get the rights to the songs, but we have to keep trying. One day I really hope to do it.  (from The Criterion Collection)

Things have been a bit quiet since, but could the recent focus on George Harrison and his spiritual journey be a new catalyst? The Martin Scorsese documentary “Living In The Material World” certainly has the influence of India on George as a central theme….

I got an email from fellow blogger Beatlindia quoting another 2009 article which appeared in the Sunday Pioneer newspaper in New Delhi. That article has since been republished elsewhere on the web, prompting speculation that Mira Nair’s film may be closer than we think:

Renowned film director Mira Nair is making a film on The Beatles and their inspirational stay at Rishikesh to learn transcendental meditation. The 90-minute “docu-feature” will capture the band’s experiences at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram, which led many celebrities and youngsters to travel to the East in search of peace.

Rishikesh lies in the Doon Valley in the foothills of the Himalayas, some 200 kilometres from the Indian capital of New Delhi. It’s just near the city of Dehradun, which is the subject of a song written by George Harrison and recorded by the Beatles – but never released. Sharad Kukreti, a Doon Valley-based IT professional, produced a short video film using the song as the soundtrack to various sights and scenes of the city:

The article continues:

For the Beatles, their stay in India was said to be their most creative period. When they were in Rishikesh (for several weeks in February, March and April of 1968), they wrote many songs, most of which were included in their White Album, one of their best known. “Dehra Dun” missed getting included in the album. This song is seen now as a rare gem of the Beatles. With their iconic long hair and necklaces of marigolds, The Beatles came to the ashram when they were at the height of their fame. They were looking for an escape from the pressures that came along with the fame. “It was through one of my neighbours that I could get this rare song,” says Kukreti. The video made by Kukreti matches the words of the songs and captures the beauty and tranquility of the valley. However, it is this beauty and calm that the city is fast losing and one wonders whether the Beatles could have been inspired to write a song had they visited it in this day and age. “The song captures the past simplicity of the valley and is very special for Doon’ites, especially those who have seen the days when the Beatles came here,” Kukreti says. He has placed the clip on the net and has received a lot of appreciation for it. “The nostalgia in this song and the fact that it was sung by Harrison makes it unique and I feel it should be highlighted more,” he says.

I hope Mira Nair keeps plugging away at her film project.

We have a Winner….

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In my previous post we had a small competition running to win a Bruce Spizer additional booklet for “The Beatles on Capitol Records Vol.1” CD set.

The easy question was:  “Meet The Beatles!”, one of the US Capitol records included in the box set, features the same striking black and white cover photo as the British LP “With The Beatles”.  Who took that photograph?

Of course the answer was Robert Freeman.

Curtis from Indiana in the USA was the first to contact us with the correct entry. Well done Curtis, and your booklet will be in the post very soon. It looks like this:

Incidently, that Robert Freeman photograph used for both “With the Beatles” and “Meet The Beatles!” has a connection to this post about a new book out recently called “Yeah Yeah Yeah – The Beatles and Bournemouth”.  The Freeman shot was actually taken on 22 August, 1963 in the Palace Court Hotel in Bournemouth, England.

Thank you to all those who submitted entries.

Competition – Win a Beatles “Capitol Albums – Vol. 1” Extra Booklet

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If you own the 2004 CD box-set release of “The Capitol Albums – Vol. 1” you might not be aware that respected Beatle historian and author Bruce Spizer has written and self-published an additional little booklet designed to accompany that set. “The Capitol Albums – Vol. 1” set containing the first four Beatles releases on that label looks like this:

The front cover of Bruce’s companion 12-page booklet for this set looks like this:

This booklet is in addition to the official booklet that comes in the four CD box set (which also contains a wealth of rare photos and has notes by well-known Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn). You can find out more about Bruce’s booklet here.  It is CD-sized and designed to simply slip into the box set alongside the CDs.

Bruce Spizer ended up writing the liner notes for the official booklet that comes with “The Capitol Albums – Vol. 2”, and he’s the author of a suite of impressive (and very large and heavy!) books on the history and discography of all the Beatles record releases.

His latest work is “The Beatles For Sale on Parlophone Records” annotating in minute detail all the band’s British record releases. That book joins his previous works detailing in a similar comprehensive manner all the US releases on Capitol, Apple, VJ, Swan, and other labels. They’re all well worth seeking out but are becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to find due to them being self-published and therefore only released in limited numbers. Bruce’s website is at beatle.net

Anyway…..this is long way of getting around to saying I have a spare copy of the little companion 12-page booklet he wrote for the Beatles “The Capitol Years – Vol. 1” and I’d like to give it away to a lucky reader.

It is not an expensive item but one you might like to add to your collection if you own a copy of “The Capitol Albums – Vol. 1”.

Just so you know: what happened was I ordered this booklet through Bruce’s site just before Christmas  but due to a mix-up I received two copies, not one.  So, I’d very much like to give one away to someone who’d like it.

All you need to do to win is answer this easy question:  “Meet The Beatles!”, one of the US Capitol records included in the box set, features the same striking black and white cover photo as the British LP “With The Beatles”.  Who took that photograph?

The first correct answer sent to me at beatlesblogger@gmail.com, complete with your name and postal address, will win. I will post the booklet to you. It’s as easy as that.

Good luck.

Bruce has written an interesting article on “The Capitol Albums – Vo.l 1” here.

Two New Videos – One From Paul, One From George

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Got home to find a press release from the George Harrison official site today announcing a new iPad app to be launched on February 23. It’ll bring a wide selection pictures, sounds and information about guitars from the George Harrison collection. Here’s the release:

Bandwdth Publishing, in conjunction with the George Harrison Estate, announces the release of a special iPad app celebrating the guitarist and his historical guitar collection. The Guitar Collection: George Harrison iPad app will be released through iTunes on February 23, two days before George’s birthdate.

The release continues:

The app brings George Harrison’s private guitar collection to life through photographs, detailed descriptions, audio, and video footage. For the first time, with the help of unique 360° imaging by photographer Steven Sebring, fans can see the scratches, dings, and worn threads on the guitars as if they were themselves holding the instruments.

Fans will be able to examine Harrison’s private guitar collection, through personal audio recordings from Harrison himself as he introduces many of the guitars and plays sections of songs.

The history of each guitar is laid out in great detail; including the origin of the guitar, when and how it became part of Harrison’s collection, modifications he made to it and why each was so important in creating his distinctive sound. Songs from his catalogue are organized by the guitars used on each track, which allows the user to appreciate the personalities of each instrument.

The video section of the app contains footage of Ben Harper, Josh Homme, Mike Campbell, and Dhani Harrison each playing and showcasing the guitars and exploring their feel and tone. In addition, Conan O’Brien and Dhani discuss what make these guitars so exceptional. Also in this section, guitar great Gary Moore shares his views on what made George Harrison such a distinctive and influential guitar player.

The app will sell for US$9.99 at the Apple App Store.

Also…….

Amazon has uploaded a video of Paul McCartney’s photo shoot for the cover images of his new CD and LP “Kisses On The Bottom”. It uses the song “My Valentine” as background. I’m not sure how long it has been up – but I only just saw it today so thought I’d pass it on. Paul was photographed by his daughter Mary McCartney for the album sleeve and she makes a very brief appearance:

Amazon – Kisses on the Bottom video

Yeah Yeah Yeah – The Beatles and Bournemouth

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There’s a new book which came out just before Christmas with what you might think is a slightly unlikely title: “Yeah Yeah Yeah – The Beatles and Bournemouth”:

On first seeing the title you wonder if there could be so many links with this southern UK city to warrant a whole book on the subject? After all, the Beatles hailed from the far more well-known and much larger northern English city of Liverpool….

Bournemouth is a large seaside resort town – well south of London:

Well, the book’s author – journalist and Beatle fan Nick Churchill – has been in touch and I can now vouch for the fact that there are a great number of very interesting links and stories connecting the world’s most famous band to Bournemouth. His book on the subject contains a wealth of fascinating material and a great number of previously unseen photographs. Nick uncovers often surprising connections….for example the house John purchased for his aunt Mimi at Sandbanks in the Bournemouth area in 1965. In mid-1965 Mimi had sold Mendips, her Liverpool home, and so John bought her a waterside bungalow where she lived until her death in 1991. On various visits he was spotted in the area by locals in either a Mini Cooper or in his famous psychedelic Rolls Royce.

The book has a foreword written by Howie Casey, of Howie & the Seniors. Howie, originally from Liverpool and a long-time friend of Paul McCartney, played with Wings in the 1970′s and since coming off the band’s 1980 tour has lived in Bournemouth. He shares his memories of seeing the Beatles from their very earliest days in Liverpool and in Hamburg.

“Yeah Yeah Yeah – The Beatles and Bournemouth” features over 200 rare and previously unpublished photos as well as lots of memorabilia, show posters and tickets from the time. Local photographer Harry Taylor was there to record the groups visits at every step – and until now his images have remained largely unseen. Here’s one of them, taken on the balcony of the Palace Court Hotel in Bournemouth on the 19th or 20th of August, 1963:

If you’re wondering what the boys are chomping on its probably a hard, sticky English toffee known as rock which is still very popular at British seaside towns. Maybe it was some “Bournemouth Rock”?

It was while staying at the Palace Court Hotel that August in 1963 that one of the band’s most iconic photo shoots took place, the half-shadow shot by Robert Freeman that appeared on the sleeve of their second album, “With The Beatles”.  George Harrison wrote “Don’t Bother Me” at the same hotel during that week. It was his first song for the Beatles, penned while he was holed up in his room suffering a heavy cold at the time.

There’s a wonderful photo of John with baby Julian and Aunt Mimi by the ferry near Mimi’s house (which was just around the corner on Panorama Road at Sandbanks) in 1967 – as well as photos from inside Mimi’s house including John’s gold discs – and lots of first-hand accounts from those who met and worked with the Beatles.

Aunt Mimi's Gold Records - click to enlarge. (photo: David Stark)

Seems like John gave his Aunt Mimi the gold records the band received for three US releases. I can just make out (l to r): “The Beatles Story” (Capitol); “The Beatles Second Album” (Capitol); and what looks like the United Artists pressing of “A Hard Days Night”:

There are many, many great stories in this book proving that Bournemouth really did play a big part in the lives of the Beatles. It was there, at the very beginning of their success, that they played 18 gigs during a six-day season between the 19-25th August, 1963. They then returned in November, 1963 to the much bigger Winter Gardens venue; and then twice more at the Gaumont Theatre on 2 August and 30 October 1964. The band played more shows at the Gaumont than at any other UK theatre outside London. During their first stay in Bournemouth the Beatles’ third single “She Loves You” was released. That was on the 23rd of August 1963 and it stayed in the charts for 31 weeks, returning to number one the week they arrived back in town to play the Winter Gardens in November.

They were exciting times and Nick Churchill has captured it all in “Yeah Yeah Yeah – The Beatles and Bournemouth”.  Through the stories and the often evocative images he gives us a feel for the times – the mood of the early to mid 1960s. Nick also highlights the importance of regional touring in those days and the role that smaller towns and cities played in feeding talent through to London, and on to the world stage. Underlying all this is a sense of it being a more innocent time, too.

The Beatles Rarity page has also written about the book here, and Happy Nat conducted an interview with Nick which you can access at this page.

You can visit the “Yeah Yeah Yeah – The Beatles and Bournemouth” site for more, you can order the book here (where I notice it is on sale at a special price at the moment!), and you can find out more about Nick and read more of his work at nickchurchill.org.uk