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Paul McCartney From Hyde Park To The White House
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Rockshow promotion
Here's the complete Maybe I'm Amazed, published by Paul McCartney yesterday:
Here's Silly Love Songs, published by Specticast april 17.
and here's a trailer, published by Specticast on april 15.
If you can't make it to a theatre near you on the day (well, I'd have to travel through several countries to see it), there's always the Blu-ray and DVD release June 10 (11th in the USA). What you'll miss then, is the new 12-minute interview with Paul, which will only accompany the theatrical version of the film. Although I must confess, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it shows up elsewhere.
Wings Over America MicrositeRockshow Website
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The Beatles Shell Help! LP
I recently aquired this album, a genuine Dutch pressing of the Beatles' Help! LP from 1979, where a Shell logo is shown in the background. This special issue of the Help! album was produced for Shell Oil for the kickoff of their 1979 "Shell Helps" campaign. As part of this promotion, Shell Oil arranged to produce a small number of these special versions of the Beatles’ Help! album to be given out at a company-wide meeting of their Dutch distributors and store managers. Less than 2000 copies were printed - so unless you were a Shell Oil distributor or store manager in 1979, you couldn't get it anywhere.
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| original Dutch pressing on black vinyl |
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| original Swedish pressing on black vinyl |
Never before and never since have the Beatles allowed any of their official albums to have been given such a major cover artwork overhaul for a commercial promotion by another company. One can only wonder how this one managed to get approved.
These days, (as is the case with quite a number of these rare international Beatles album releases, see footnote) you can get bootleg pressings. Some on coloured vinyl, some on picture discs. Buyers beware: all the originals were on black vinyl only, all others are fakes. And what's more: there are fakes on black vinyl circulating as well. As I haven't come across any of these, I can't tell you how to distinguish between a fake and an official pressing - but they say that fakes all have a thinner cardboard cover and that the vinyls have scratched matrix numbers. An original will set you back around $500, the fakes are usually a lot cheaper.
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| fake |
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| fake |
Footnote: Here are some of the albums we know about which exist as newly produced fakes.
- Yesterday And Today (butcher cover) USA
- The Beatles Christmas Album USA
- From Then To You UK
- The Beatles Hottest Hits (Denmark)
- The Beatles Help! (Shell cover) The Netherlands
- The Beatles Help! (export to Switzerland) Germany
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Paul McCartney's incredible soundcheck
Blue Suede Shoes
Got To Get You Into My Life
Sing The Changes
Let 'Em In
Calico Skies
We Can Work It Out
Eight Days A Week
Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!
Lovely Rita
Another Day
Hope Of Deliverance
Listen To What The Man Said
Hi Hi Hi
All Together Now
Your Mother Should Know
Blackbird
Here Today
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Lewisohn bio cover
So, what do you think? Brown paper bag for "Tune In"?
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ITN News clips
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New App with Wings
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Sgt Pepper's caravan reappears!
Back in 1982, the very first time I came over to England, I was peeping over the hedge at Tittenhurst Park in Ascot and I could have sworn I saw it. Turns out I probably did. Bracknell News has the full (although riddled with historical mistakes) story.
Originally called a Burton caravan, it was repainted by Steve Weaver at a garage in Chertsey to the specific designs of John Lennon and transported on July 24, 1967, to Kenwood, Weybridge, Surrey where Lennon was living with first wife Cynthia and son Julian. You can watch a British Pathe newsreel about the transportation of the caravan here. Said to be a birthday present for Julian, it was a belated one, as Julian had turned four in April.
After a spell in Ireland, where Lennon bought an island with second wife Yoko Ono, the caravan was moved to John's new home in Ascot to stand in the garden of Tittenhurst Park. Ringo Starr then acquired the caravan as part of the deal when he bought Tittenhurst Park from Lennon in 1973, after the Lennon's had moved to the USA. Ringo called in Cookham-based, vintage caravan restorer John Pockett to restore it. It took almost a year and by September 1983 was returned, in its full glory, from Pockett's Cookham workshop, to be placed beside Ringo's swimming pool. The caravan seemed to have disappeared without trace after the Ringster sold Tittenhurst Park for £5 million to His Royal Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu Dhabi (The Sheik of Araby for short) back in 1988.
I remember hearing about the sale, and that the sheik was only planning to use the house for a week each year, during the Ascot horse thingy. He completely refurbished the house, throwing away all sorts of Beatles memorabilia in the process, including the sound studio which had been installed by Lennon and subsequently used for recording the twin "Plastic Ono Band" albums, "Imagine" and Ono's "Fly". The studio was also used by Ringo after he bought the place in 1973, he let it out to other musicians. Famously, Judas Priest was going to use the studio to record the band's album "British Steel", but ended up recording it in the house itself.
So I feared that the sultan had just discarded the wagon, but Bracknell News paints a different picture: It appears that Ringo took the caravan with him when he moved to a property in Longcross, Surrey. It was left behind there when Starr subsequently moved again. The person who bought the Longcross property from Starr then rented it out, and finally sold up last year. The caravan was then given to Alan Carr, a well-known Ascot resident and charity fundraiser, who plans to use it as a vehicle for his charitable fundraising efforts. Sadly, the roof and most of the sides of the caravan are missing.
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| Alan Carr with what's left of the caravan. © 2013 Bracknell News |
Source: Bracknell News
More photos here.
And...the Kenwood blog beat me to the story, I later discovered. But it's only appropriate.
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Beatles on Blu-ray
June 2012: "Yellow Submarine"
October 2012: "Magical Mystery Tour"
June 2013: "Help!"
Can we believe that October 2013 will see the release of the film we're really waiting for: "Let It Be". This writer thinks so.
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Next Archive Releases
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Ringo's new e-book of photos
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Five Beatles autographs
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| front |
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| rear |
This set features five Beatles signatures. The promotional card they are on is from the Fan Club Night in the Cavern in April 1962. The reverse of the card is signed by John, Paul, George, Pete and, presumably at a slightly later date, Ringo. So if you have 5-6 grand (£'s) to spare...
The 2013 Liverpool Beatles Auction will take place on Saturday 24th August at The Paul McCartney Auditorium in LIPA, Liverpool.
Source: Liverpool Beatles Auction
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Flash Harry on CD
I bought it here in Norway at the time (1980), where the UK pressing was sold in our music stores. Turns out it was only ever pressed in the UK and Japan, but never even released in the USA!
This will finally be rectified this August, when "Flash Harry" gets a limited edition vinyl release in the USA, along with a regular CD version. The CD will also include a few bonus tracks: "Old Dirt Road" (alternative version), "Feet", "Leave The Rest To Molly" and "She Drifted Away". This release ties in nicely with the the remastered boxed set
of Nilsson's RCA albums coming out this summer.Harry Nilsson made his last concert appearance September 1, 1992, when he joined Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band on stage at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada to sing "Without You" with Todd Rundgren handling the high notes. He passed away in January 1994 after a heart failure which followed a 1993 massive heart attack.
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Another new book from Ringo
Meanwhile, here's a vid from last night's opening of the Ringo exhibition at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.
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Paul's soundcheck, Brooklyn
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Beatles album named by fan
In 1963, "With the Beatles" had advance orders of 500,000 and sold another half million by September 1965, making it the second album to sell a million copies in the UK, after the soundtrack to the 1958 film "South Pacific".
It remained at the top of the charts for 21 weeks, displacing "Please Please Me", meaning the group occupied the top spot for 51 consecutive weeks. The follow up to "With The Beatles" was the "A Hard Day's Night" album, with one LP side containing the songs from the film and the other side held other new Lennon and McCartney titles. So it wasn't until December 1964 that "Beatles for Sale", the album Margaret Gordon named, was released for the Christmas market. The album went to No1 and stayed there for 11 of the 46 weeks that it spent in the Top 20.
Source: The Shields Gazette
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Abbey Road Film
Roughly timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' first recording session at Abbey Road Studios, this quirky short film explores a tiny part of London that is, in the words of narrator Roger McGough, suffused with a sort of magic.
Wogblog had a small part in the making of this film, I'm proud to say.
See the film on Vimeo.
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Ringo's press conference
Ringo Starr talks about his career. Classic Drummer Magazine gets the final question. The Classic Drummer Hall of Fame says thanks on behalf of our readers.
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Help! Press release
STOP WORRYING... HELP! IS ON THE WAY ON BLU-RAY!
“Absurd, delightful and exuberantly messy, Help! is a pure pleasure to watch.”
– The New York Times
London – May 15, 2013– The Beatles’ second feature film, 1965’s Help!, is on the way on Blu-ray. On June 24 (June 25 in North America), Help! makes its eagerly awaited Blu-ray debut in a single-disc package pairing the digitally restored film and 5.1 soundtrack with an hour of extra features, including a 30-minute documentary about the making of the film, memories of the cast and crew, an in-depth look at the restoration process, an outtake scene, and original theatrical trailers and radio spots. An introduction by the film’s director, Richard Lester, and an appreciation by Martin Scorsese are included in the Blu-ray’s booklet.
Help!’s Blu-ray edition follows the 2012 release of The Beatles’ digitally restored Yellow Submarine and Magical Mystery Tour feature films on Blu-ray, DVD and iTunes with extensive extras. Help!’s restoration for its 2007 DVD debut wowed viewers, earning five-times platinum sales in the U.S. and praise from a broad range of top media outlets around the world, including USA Today heralding the DVD as “a grand re-release,” The Guardian’s appreciation of the film’s director, Richard Lester, saying“Lester matches The Beatles’ ‘star’ power with smart, colourful visuals and casual surrealism,” The Los Angeles Times’ restoration rave: “With dynamic compression that was standard in the 1960s lifted for the digital age, the full range of the group’s musicality comes through – it’s like several coats of dust have been cleaned off an old master’s painting,” and four-star reviews from Rolling Stone and MOJO with the latter saying, “They really don't make them like this anymore.”
Directed by Richard Lester, who also directed the band’s debut feature film, 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night, Help!follows The Beatles as they become passive recipients of an outside plot that revolves around Ringo's possession of a sacrificial ring, which he cannot remove from his finger. As a result, he and his bandmates John, Paul and George are chased from London to the Austrian Alps and the Bahamas by religious cult members, a mad scientist and the London police.
In addition to starring The Beatles, Help!boasts a witty script, a great cast of British character actors, and classic Beatles songs “Help!,” “You're Going To Lose That Girl,” “You've Got To Hide Your Love Away,” “Ticket To Ride,” “I Need You,” “The Night Before,” and “Another Girl.”
Help!’s Blu-ray package pairs the digitally restored original film with these extra features:
• “The Beatles in Help!” – a 30-minute documentary about the making of the film with Richard Lester, the cast and crew, including exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of The Beatles on-set.
• “A Missing Scene” – a film outtake, featuring Wendy Richard
• “The Restoration of Help!” – an in-depth look at the restoration process
• “Memories of Help!” – the cast and crew reminisce
• 1965 Theatrical Trailers – two original U.S. trailers and one original Spanish trailer
• 1965 U.S. Radio Spots (hidden in disc menus)
CAST
The Beatles:
The Beatles:
John………..………………………………………………………...John Lennon
Paul………………………………………………………………Paul McCartney
George……….…………………………………………………George Harrison
Ringo……….…………………………………………………………...Ringo Starr
Paul………………………………………………………………Paul McCartney
George……….…………………………………………………George Harrison
Ringo……….…………………………………………………………...Ringo Starr
Clang………………………………………………………………….Leo McKern
Ahme…………………………………………………………………Eleanor Bron
Foot…………….........................................................................Victor Spinetti
Algernon…………........................................................................Roy Kinnear
Superintendent........................................................................Patrick Cargill
Bhuta………………......................................................................John Bluthal
Jeweller……………………………………………………………...Peter Copley
Doorman…………………………………………………………………Alfie Bass
Abdul…………………………………………………………..…Warren Mitchell
Lawnmower………………………………………………………...Bruce Lacey
Ahme…………………………………………………………………Eleanor Bron
Foot…………….........................................................................Victor Spinetti
Algernon…………........................................................................Roy Kinnear
Superintendent........................................................................Patrick Cargill
Bhuta………………......................................................................John Bluthal
Jeweller……………………………………………………………...Peter Copley
Doorman…………………………………………………………………Alfie Bass
Abdul…………………………………………………………..…Warren Mitchell
Lawnmower………………………………………………………...Bruce Lacey
Cross channel swimmer……………………………………………...Mal Evans
Women in street……………………Dandy Nichols and Gretchen Franklin
Women in street……………………Dandy Nichols and Gretchen Franklin
PRODUCTION
Director ……………………………………………………………Richard Lester
Producer ………………………………………………………...Walter Shenson
Screenplay…………………………………..Marc Behm and Charles Wood
Story by………………………………………………………………..Marc Behm
Director of Photography…………………………………………David Watkin
Production Manager……………………………………………….John Pellatt
Art Director………………………………………………………Raymond Simm
Colour Consultant and Titles………………………………...Robert Freeman
Costume Designer…………………………………………………….Julie Harris
Musical Director………………………………………………………Ken Thorne
Songs composed by…………………..John Lennon and Paul McCartney
Director ……………………………………………………………Richard Lester
Producer ………………………………………………………...Walter Shenson
Screenplay…………………………………..Marc Behm and Charles Wood
Story by………………………………………………………………..Marc Behm
Director of Photography…………………………………………David Watkin
Production Manager……………………………………………….John Pellatt
Art Director………………………………………………………Raymond Simm
Colour Consultant and Titles………………………………...Robert Freeman
Costume Designer…………………………………………………….Julie Harris
Musical Director………………………………………………………Ken Thorne
Songs composed by…………………..John Lennon and Paul McCartney
and by George Harrison
Songs performed by………………………………………………...The Beatles
Songs produced by……………………………………………..George Martin
Songs performed by………………………………………………...The Beatles
Songs produced by……………………………………………..George Martin
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New BBC book from Howlett
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| 1st edition, 1982 |
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| 2nd Revised edition edition, 1996 |
Published by BBC Books, here's the desciption of this new release:
The Beatles exploded into British popular culture in the 1960s and changed the face of music for ever. Central to this success were the BBC radio and television programmes that brought them from the clubs of Hamburg and Liverpool into the living rooms of an adoring public. The Beatles performed on countless BBC programmes, performing both their hit songs and rare cover versions of the music that inspired them.
In this landmark book, BBC producer and Beatles expert Kevin Howlett delves deep into the BBC archives to reveal hundreds of rare photographs and long-forgotten interviews that document the early rise, steady evolution and eventual split of the group. Uncovering additional archive documents such as early audition reports, audience feedback forms and internal memos from startled BBC executives, the files give a fascinating insight into the biggest band of all time.
Beautifully packaged and extensively researched, The Beatles: The BBC Archives is a definitive guide to a unique relationship between two cultural icons.
Reportedly, the main body of the book contains the surviving transcripts of the Beatles' appearances on BBC Radio and Television from 1962 to 1970. Each interview transcript will be set in its historical context, with accompanying commentary by Kevin Howlett. Howlett's commentary will be supplemented by rare photos of the Fab Four at the BBC's studios, both onstage and off. The book will also feature memorabilia-album art; concert posters, flyers, and tickets, all from the BBC.
The book is due out in October, and will happily coexist with the planned repackaging of the 1994 Beatles album, "The Beatles Live At The BBC", also due out in the autumn. Talking of which, I hope they plan on upgrading the album with better recordings of the same material that has been uncovered since the initial release of the album back in the pre-anthology era (just).
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