Hadn’t seen this before – Ringo Starr appearing on TV with his one-time producer, Dave Stewart (he produced 2008’s Liverpool 8).
Interesting stuff.
And there’s this great tribute, too:
Ringo Starr on Drumming
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Tag Archives: Beatles Related
“George Fest” – A New Harrison Tribute Collection
I don’t know if your’e into these tribute concert recordings where various musical luminaries are invited to pay their respects by singing favourite songs. I must say they don’t really do a lot for me, but there’s obviously a market out there for them.
The latest is George Fest – The Music of George Harrison, recorded and filmed on September 28th, 2014 at the The Fonda Theater in Los Angeles:
To be released on February 26th, 2016, this live tribute will be available in 5 configurations including 2xCD/DVD, 2xCD/Blu-Ray, 3xLP (180 gram), digital, and a store exclusive bundle:
The artist line-up and songs include:
• OLD BROWN SHOE Conan O’Brien
• I ME MINE Britt Daniel (from Spoon)
• BALLAD OF SIR FRANKIE CRISP (LET IT ROLL) Jonathan Bates w. Dhani Harrison
• SOMETHING Norah Jones
• GOT MY MIND SET ON YOU Brandon Flowers (from The Killers)
• IF NOT FOR YOU Heartless Bastards
• BE HERE NOW Ian Asbury (from The Cult)
• WAH-WAH Nick Valensi (from The Strokes)
• IF I NEEDED SOMEONE Jamestown Revival
• ART OF DYING Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
• SAVOY TRUFFLE Dhani Harrison
• FOR YOU BLUE Chase Cohl w. Brian Bell (from Weezer)
• BEWARE OF DARKNESS Ann Wilson (from Heart)
• LET IT DOWN Dhani Harrison
• GIVE ME LOVE (GIVE ME PEACE ON EARTH) Ben Harper
• HERE COMES THE SUN Perry Farrel (from Jane’s Addiction)
• WHAT IS LIFE “Weird Al” Yankovic
• BEHIND THAT LOCKED DOOR Norah Jones
• MY SWEET LORD Brian Wilson (from The Beach Boys)
• ISN’T IT A PITY The Black Ryder
• ANY ROAD Butch Walker
• I’D HAVE YOU ANYTIME Karen Elson
• TAXMAN Cold War Kids
• IT’S ALL TOO MUCH The Flaming Lips
• HANDLE WITH CARE Brandon Flowers, Britt Daniel, Dhani Harrison, Jonathan Bates, Wayne Coyne, and “Weird Al” Yankovic
• ALL THINGS MUST PASS Ann Wilson, Dhani Harrison, Karen Elson and Norah Jones
“Handle Me With Care” has now been posted on YouTube:
Abbey Road Beatles Pianos Sampled
For any musicians out there looking to recreate the exact piano sounds found on many iconic Beatle recordings, it is now possible.
A company called Cinesamples, working directly with Abbey Road Studios, has been given complete access to two of the vintage upright pianos in Studio 2.
One is called the Challen Studio piano (as played by the Beatles on several albums), and the other the “Mrs Mills” piano (again used extensively by the Beatles). Both pianos have also featured on countless recordings by numerous other famous acts:
The samples were recorded in-house by Abbey Road’s studio engineers, in the same studio the Beatles used as well. You can’t get any better than that! These samples can now be purchased and played by anyone – using software developed by Cinesamples:
There are two pianos but three main sounds which can be reproduced: the Challen, the Challen Tack, and the Mrs Mills. Here Mike Patti from Cinesamples demonstrates the upright Abbey Road Challen pianos:
According to reviews, these two pianos – three if you count the harder-edged and more jangly Challen Tack version – sound flawless. These are really some pretty special instruments, with piano sounds that are just not available anywhere else. Given the impossibility of ever getting near one of these two pianos yourself, if you’re a musician this software provides a remarkable way to get the exact same sounds that the Beatles made onto your own recordings – or in live performances.
Another “Soviet Abbey Road” Cover Photo Contender
Last year Andrey, our reader and an avid Beatle collector in Russia, sent in an amazing historical photo which closely resembled one particular iconic Beatle LP image:
Andrey has just sent another contender for Russian Abbey Road lookalike. It’s a beauty and was taken in Surgut town in 1976. The picture was called “To drilling site with concert”:
They sure do have a lot of muddy roads over there!
Beatles With Records – Part Twenty Eight
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.
Vale Cilla Black
News is just coming in that Cilla Black has died at the age of 72.
Cilla was a great mate of the Beatles and was a central part of their manager Brian Epstein’s bevy of talented Liverpool artists. Because of those close relationships Cilla Black was the recipient of unique songs composed by Lennon and McCartney (for example her debut single ‘Love of the Loved’, as well as ‘It’s For You’ and ‘Step Inside Love’ – which became the theme song for one of her TV shows).
And of course she was signed to the Parlophone label. Her many hits were produced by the great George Martin.
Cilla Black leaves behind a fifty-year career in the entertainment business. Following her singing successes of the 1960s Cilla entered the world of British television and became a household name and much-loved icon.
Last year there was a terrific 3-part television docu-drama simply called Cilla (starring Sheridan Smith) covering her life in Liverpool, early career, and rise to fame. Well worth seeing.
Pete Best Live on a US TV Game Show in 1964
We were contacted recently by the Bloggerhythms site about one of their recent posts.
It’s all about former Beatle drummer Pete Best appearing on a then-popular US game show called I’ve Got A Secret. Panelists have to guess the back-story to a particular guest.
Fascinating to see this over fifty years since it was filmed and so relatively close to his departure from the Beatles. And of course so close to their meteoric rise….
At least he can manage a small smile.
Beatles Stuff We Found on a Visit to France – Part Two
Just back from a holiday in Europe where we picked up some Beatle and Beatle-related treasure along the way. This is the next instalment about what we found in France…
Last time we were in Paris (in 2012) we visited a great second-hand vinyl store in the Sorbonne area called Crocodisc (they’re at 42 Rue des Ecoles, Paris 5e) where we picked up some nice Beatle vinyl.
What we found this time though was a collectable Paul McCartney and Wings CD.
It’s the limited edition Advance Release of Venus and Mars. This came out in 2014 to promote the then latest instalment in the Paul McCartney Archive Collection series:
You can’t tell from the front cover that it is in any way different to the two CD Standard Edition of Venus and Mars (for which we have the Best Buy version, and which came with a limited edition vinyl single – and a different catalogue number).
However when you flip over the cover of the Advance Release there’s reference to a third disc in this set called “Bonus Film”:
Also, on the CD cover spine there are the words “Advance Release”:
The Advance Release also has a different catalogue number: HRM-35652ADV.
When you open out the triple gatefold cover this is what you see. On the first fold out on the left are the album credits, and on the right an advertisement for the three different, official versions (Deluxe CD, Standard CD and vinyl):
Then when you flip that open this is the inside of the set, fully open:
It contains three discs. Two CD’s and one DVD, each carrying the words “For promotional use only. Not for sale”:
The two CDs are exactly the same in content as the Standard Edition, while the DVD contains four short films: Recording My Carnival; Bon Voyageur; Wings at Elstree; and the Venus and Mars TV Ad. These are the same as those featured on the DVD which comes in the Deluxe version of Venus and Mars.
By way of providing a side-by-side comparison here’s the packaging for the Standard Edition CD:
Below is the Standard version’s first fold out of the gatefold cover. An 18 page booklet containing photos and album credits is attached to the left:
The inside fully open:
And the Standard Edition CD’s:
So, another nice find in Paris, France.
See also: Beatles Stuff We Found on a Visit to France – Part One, and Some Local Beatle Pressings From a Visit to Holland
The Rutles – LP
As their website says:
The Rutles are a legend. A living legend. A legend that will live long after other living legends have died. This is the semi-legendary story of the Prefab Four who made the sixties what they are today!
For such a huge cultural phenomenon the Beatles have attracted surprisingly few parodies and send-ups over the years. That is until The Rutles came along…..
We’ve just scored a nice vinyl copy of their 1978 LP The Rutles:
Created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes for British television, The Rutles first appeared in 1975 as a sketch on the BBC TV comedy series called Rutland Weekend Television. The sketch presented a mini-documentary about the 1960s band “The Rutles”, and featured Innes singing “I Must Be In Love”, a pastiche of a 1964 Lennon-McCartney tune.
The Rutles gained more fame after their 1978 mockumentary television film, All You Need Is Cash (in which George Harrison actually appears). The Rutles LP is the soundtrack album from that film and it contains 14 of the film’s 20 songs.
The Rutles comes with a gatefold cover and pasted inside is a lavish 16-page, full colour book containing text and images detailing the history and (imaginary) releases of the band. Here’s a selection:
And there’s an inner sleeve containing more band parodies, too:
What we have here is the US pressing. Released on the Warner Brothers label in 1978.
If you’d like a taste of what The Rutles are about:
Behind the Scenes of FourFiveSeconds – Rihanna, Kanye & McCartney
Singer Rihanna has made a short behind the scenes video of the filming of her ‘FourFiveSeconds’ music clip, featuring Kanye West and Paul McCartney.
‘FourFiveSeconds’ is the first single from Rihanna’s still to be named upcoming album.
Read more at Rolling Stone.
UPDATE: And here is the full video – just uploaded to YouTube:
Beatles Blog 