Ocean’s Kingdom Debut Tonight – Sneak Peek

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Paul McCartney’s first ballet score “Ocean’s Kingdom“, with choreography by Peter Martins, has it’s gala debut tonight at the Lincoln Center in New York.

In this short film Paul McCartney and Peter Martins discuss the creation of the work. It includes some great rehearsal footage – including a sneak look at some of the costumes for the dancers by Stella McCartney, audio clips from the score, and shots of Paul working with the company:

There’s also this very short preview teaser from the McCartney site:

The vinyl and CD of the score are available for pre-order on Amazon.

See also Ocean’s Kingdom – McCartney Ballet Music

And to finish this post, there has been a different, shorter cut of the preview video uploaded to the Paul McCartney site:

Beatles White Album Cover Designer Dies

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Sad news this past week that Richard Hamilton, the British artist who helped the Beatles design the minimalist cover and inserts (a large photo-collage poster and four individual photographs of the band) for their famous “The Beatles (White Album)” LP has died at the age of 89.

Released in 1968, no Beatles collection would be complete without it. Its simple plain white cover was the very antithesis of the one which immediately preceded it – the comparatively gaudy and colourful “Sgt Pepper”.

I really don’t have to write much here as there is such a lot of good information on the web already about Richard Hamilton and the work he did on “The Beatles (White Album)”.

In fact there’s one extensive website dedicated to just about everything you’d care to want to know about it, including a page on the design, and a page about Hamilton the artist himself.

The Beatles Bible website also has a six-page article on the “White Album”. And the Guardian newspaper ran this obituary to Hamilton.

The Beatles with Records – Part Four

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Earlier posts about the Beatles actually being photographed holding either their own records or those of other artists have generated a lot of interest. People are sending in more photos from their own collections and so its time to do a Part Four.

(You can see the original blog posts here:  Part One; Part Two; and Part Three.)

This first one is not exactly the Beatles themselves holding records, but William sent in this great shot of ladies on the EMI Records factory floor packing stacks and stacks of copies of “Rubber Soul”. Its from 1965:

I reckon that is a beauty. Speaking of “Rubber Soul”, Claude Defer in France sent this great photo of Paul McCartney with a copy of that LP – you can see the rear cover of “Rubber Soul” in this shot:

Claude also sent in this more recent one of Paul, this time with his 1997 LP “Flaming Pie”:

Thanks Claude! (Claude Defer by the way is a prolific Beatles collector and expert and he has released a book in France, with his co-writer Hervé Boudaillez, about the Beatles French Discography, from 1971 following the split of the Fab’s until the last vinyl record manufactured in France. The text of the book is in French, and Volume One (which deals with the 45 rpm releases) has 200 pages, including more than 1,000 pictures (sleeves and discs, with details):

Back to the Beatles with Records – Part Four…and some more Paul McCartney, this time with Mary Hopkin in 1969 with a copy of the LP he produced for her, “Postcard”:

I also found this McCartney one. It’s Paul at the HMV store in London for the 2008 release of “Electric Arguments”, a collaboration with Youth released under the pseudonym The Fireman (more on the Super Deluxe edition of this album soon). Here he’s holding the double vinyl LP pressing:

This next one comes from Canadian Jerry Levitan, author of a great little book called “I Met the Walrus“, which details John and Yoko’s visit to the city of Toronto in 1969 and an extended personal brush with fame he had with the couple. He took this photograph of John Lennon signing and drawing a caricature of himself and Yoko for Jerry on the cover of the “Two Virgins” album:

 

And finally to another one of John, taken on the publicity campaign trail in 1971 for his single “Power to the People”:

To see more Beatles with Records see: Parts 1, 2, 3, 5 , 6, 7 , 8 and 9.

Lennon Revealed – Book

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I was able to drop into a local second-hand book and record fair this week and picked up a couple of things. One of them was this book by Larry Kane about John Lennon:

“Lennon Revealed” came out in 2005.

Larry Kane is an award-winning journalist with a career that spans more than 45 years. From that 45 years in the business he says the thing that stands out most—and the thing people ask him about most often—is his adventure as the only American journalist to travel in the official Beatles entourage during the legendary 1964 and 1965 tours of North America. Kane told that story in his previous book: “Ticket to Ride: Inside the Beatles’ 1964 Tour that Changed the World“.  In “Lennon Revealed” he digs deeper to give his take on story of John Lennon.

The book has a website with a variety of features so you can delve more into what it’s about, including this extract which will give you an idea of the flavour and approach taken in “Lennon Revealed”.  I haven’t had time to read the book yet – but there’s a pretty good review here, and author Larry Kane promotes his book in a couple of online videos here.

Searching on the web I found the cover photograph for the audio book of this same title and it has a different image. Clearly taken during the same photo session as that of the book I include it below because its such a good one of a happy John Lennon:

Included with the book (and with the audio book edition) is a bonus DVD. It features Larry Kane being interviewed by Andre Gardner (host of the radio show “Breakfast with the Beatles”); the full footage of John and Paul’s last filmed interview together conducted by Larry Kane (part of which was seen in the “Beatles Anthology” and the “Imagine: John Lennon” film); and a clip of the legendary 1975 “Lennon weather report” from “Action News” in Philadelphia:

George Harrison Photo for Scorsese Film and Book

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The photograph of George Harrison chosen for the publicity posters (and for the front cover of the accompanying book) of “Living In The Material World“, the forthcoming Scorsese-directed film, CD and DVD is impressive:

It is simple and arresting. Quite peaceful really, and it got us wondering about where it was taken, and why. After a bit of online research we think we can confirm that it was taken during the filming for the Beatles movie “Help!”, released in 1965.

In the film there’s a very brief scene – shot at New Providence in the Bahamas – where the Beatles, after being chased by the bad guys, end up in the swimming pool of a resort hotel with all the guests looking on as they emerge wet, bedraggled and fully-clothed from the pool.

Here’s the page in the “Help!” script with the scene:

So, I think the Scorsese poster and book cover photo was from filming on this day, February 23, 1965 at the Nassau Beach Hotel. Here’s some photographic proof:

Interestingly, in 2007 Martin Scorsese wrote a short appreciation of the film “Help!” for the book that comes with both the standard and the deluxe DVD box set re-issue of the film. Perhaps that’s where he came across the striking image of George for his latest project?

The Beatles “1” – Remastered 2011

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It was released today (Friday, September 2) in Australia:

This is the re-issue, in newly remastered form, of “The Beatles 1” compilation which first came out in the year 2000. As the sticker on the front cover says: “27 Classic Number 1 Singles – Remastered”. Here’s the rear cover:

These are the remasters done at the same time as the big release of all the albums back in 2009. It comes in a cardboard gatefold sleeve that’s in the same format as all the 2009 re-issues.

Below is the front cover of the booklet, which despite some speculation that it would be different, has exactly the same 30 pages and layout as the 2000 issue:

Each page is dedicated to a particular song and gives the recording place and date, chart information and full colour photographs of various record sleeves of that single from around the world.  Even the CD printing is the same as the 2000 issue:

(click on images to see a large version)

A bit disappointing really….

It comes out on September 13 in the US, on September 5 in the UK, and is also expected on iTunes as a digital download on September 6th.

See also:  The Beatles Number 1 Vinyl  and  The Beatles Number 1 – Taiwan Variation  and  Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

The Beatles official site has this promotional video for “1” now on the front page:

The Beatles Ballads Cover – by ‘Patrick’

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We recently moved offices at work and I needed something to brighten up my new space. So I got onto Ebay and found this Beatles poster, which I’ve had framed. Here’s the Ebay image (its not my office!):

I got it because it’s the painting used on the front cover of “The Beatles Ballads” which, when it was released back in 1980, spent some seven weeks in the number one spot on the Australian charts:

The cover art is by an artist simply known as ‘Patrick’ (you can see his signature at the bottom left in the image above).

‘Patrick’ is actually Scottish artist and playwright John Byrne. His art was popular with the Beatles and in 1968 they commissioned him to create a possible cover for what would become “The Beatles” (also known as “The White Album”). Byrne’s style and concept appears to support the original working title of that album which was “A Doll’s House”. Turns out it wasn’t used then, but the work re-surfaced as the cover for the compilation album “The Beatles Ballads” twelve years later.

John Byrne (b.1940) has had an interesting and varied life. He grew up on a notoriously tough housing estate in Paisley, not far from Glasgow in Scotland. He escaped work in a carpet factory to study at the Glasgow School of Art, and carved out a successful dual career as both an artist and a writer.

John ‘Patrick’ Byrne’s biography reflects his diverse talents. He’s designed theatre sets and record covers. His play “The Slab Boys” (1978) won him the Evening Standard’s most promising playwright award. The very successful, six-time BAFTA award-winning television series “Tutti Frutti” appeared in 1987. These writing achievements developed alongside his prolific artistic career, which took off in 1967 when Byrne assumed the identity of ‘Patrick’ for a solo show at the Portal Gallery in London. A prolific painter, illustrator and print-maker, Byrne today boasts a range of works held in many prestigious public collections.

His record cover credits include works for Donovan, Gerry Rafferty and Billy Connolly:

Two weeks ago, at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Beatles fans got to catch up with Byrne who was there to publicise his new illustrated childrens book called “Donald and Benoit: A Story of a Cat and a Boy“. He signed this copy of “The Beatles Ballads” as John ‘Patrick’ Byrne:

* Photo credit: John Byrne portrait by Trevor Yerbury

Beatles Engineer Geoff Emerick Interview

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ABC Radio in Australia has done a lengthy interview with the man often referred to as “the sixth Beatle” –  studio engineer extraordinaire Geoff Emerick. As a 21 year-old he was George Martin’s right-hand man in the control room on albums such as “Revolver”, “Sgt Pepper”, “The Beatles (White Album)” and “Abbey Road”.

702 ABC Sydney Evening Show presenter Robbie Buck spoke to Geoff for over twenty minutes about his career recording the greatest band in the world. Visit the 702 ABC Sydney site to read about the interview. You can play it from that site – or you can listen here:

Geoff Emerick will be in Australia this week to attend “Integrate 2011“, a sound, music and light industry convention where he’ll give a special presentation that is being billed as a “world first”.  Geoff will be interviewed live on stage with another legend from the industry, Australian Richard Lush, who also worked extensively with the Beatles in the 1960’s. And they’ll play examples of how they came up with some of the unique and ground-breaking sounds we hear on the Beatles recordings.

The Beatles with Records – Part Three

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The Beatles With Records posts (Part One and Part Two) have prompted quite a few people to send in additional photographs, and also to do some pretty amazing detective work on some of the records that the Beatles are holding in photos. More on that below, but first some additional photos. These first four come from Robert. He says: “In the first one Paul seems to be holding an acetate, from the “Sgt Pepper” sessions most likely”. Hmmm. Its pretty hard to tell. What do you think?:

There are a couple of John signing copies of “Sgt Pepper” for some lucky fans. The top one is clearly on the steps outside the Abbey Road Studios. :

This next one of John has him holding what looks very much like an album under his arm – but what is it? If anyone knows please contact me at beatlesblogger@gmail.com :

And finally from the “Sgt Pepper” era here’s another photograph from the official launch of  for the press at Brian Epstein’s house in London:

Next come a couple more of Paul. The first one is him signing what must have been his latest release at the time, “Wings At The Speed of Sound” from 1976. In the second photograph he’s emerging from a car clutching a copy of the same album, only this time we can see the rear cover image:

These next photographs come from a reader named Istobal. First is the Beatles in a nice publicity shot holding copies of “Please Please Me”, “A Hard Day’s Night”, “Beatles For Sale” (in the British gatefold sleeve) and “Help!”:

The second shot Istobal sent is Ringo holding a copy of his 1972 single, “Back off Boogaloo“. This looks like it could have been taken in the Apple offices. Ringo is with Mark Bolan from the band T-Rex:

“Back Off Boogaloo” was also famous for its unique blue Apple label:

Also in a photograph with a solo, post-Beatles project is John Lennon. Its a  photograph taken during a visit to radio station WNEW-FM in New York. The fellow in the lower right holding up the rear cover of Lennon’s “Rock’n’Roll” album is Scott Muni, a well known New York radio host:

John made guest appearances on Muni’s WNEW-FM afternoon show several times in the 1970s. They became quite good friends, and after Lennon’s murder Muni vowed to always open his show with either a Lennon or Beatles record, a pledge that he kept for the rest of his career.

Signing albums features fairly prominently – and this next photograph is no exception. Its quite an early one with John signing four or five copies of 1964’s US album “Meet the Beatles!”:

Now for some very smart detective work from readers of the two previous posts. In The Beatles With Records – Part Two  I featured this great photo of Ringo:

The three records I could identify in this photograph were “Little Stevie Wonder – The 12 Year Old Genius”, The Shirelles “Foolish Little Girl”, and possibly a 45 single of The Shirelles “Baby It’s You”. Then I get a comment on the blog from a reader named Lammert with more information saying the record immediately behind the Stevie Wonder LP is The Orlons “Not Me, Not Me, Not Me”:

Check it out. I reckon he’s right! And I reckon he’s also right about the LP just under The Shirelles one. Lammert says it is The Marvelettes – “Live on Stage”, and again, I believe he’s hit the nail on the head:

Pretty good detective work. But it doesn’t stop there. This picture appeared in the post The Beatles With Records – Part One:

I identified the LP’s “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”, and underneath that Ben E. King’s “Don’t Play that Song!”. But Lammert has gone one better. Right at the very bottom of the stack on Paul’s lap is this LP:

You can only see the start of the lettering at the very top left-hand corner and part of his yellow shirt in the middle of the cover, but I agree with Lammert that it is Chuck Jackson’s “I Don’t Want to Cry!”.

Don’t forget – if you have any further photographs of the Beatles with records you can send them to:  beatlesblogger@gmail.com

You can see the other parts in “The Beatles with Records” series here:  Parts 1, 2, 4, 5 , 6, 7 , 8, 9 , 10 , 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17.

Trailer for Scorsese’s George Harrison Documentary Released

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I received two emails about this last night. One from georgeharrison.com, and one from thebeatles.com. They both looked like this:

If you’d like to see the trailer – which makes the forthcoming Scorcese film look like a real “must see” – it’s here:

For more info see George Harrison Film Premiere, DVD, Book and CD Announced