Move over, Ms L!

Hi all, wondering why you are looking at this jumbled up page? This is due to the fact that Facebook didn't like our url since it starts with wog, so we have been forced to move the blog. This was some time ago, and we have placed a script which would automatically send you to our new location. Obviously, this hasn't worked for all of you, since we have just finished moderating some of your comments which appeared on this site recently, and not on our new (and improved!) site. So what we're saying is head on over to our new site, and update your bookmarks!

Monday 31 August 2009

Back from Liverpool


WogBlog is back from the Liverpool Beatleweek 2009, and we're currently scanning documents and assembling photos to bring you a report later this week. Check in later and see what happened at the Casbah Club!

Friday 28 August 2009

Boxed sets sold out at Amazon.com

The Beatles CD Remasters 2009
Beatles Box Sets: Special Availability Message from Amazon.com
We are currently sold out of the mono and stereo box sets. See our FAQ below for more information.
Why are the box sets currently sold out?

Collectible box sets take time to manufacture, and initial quantities must be determined well in advance of the product release date. In this case, demand has far outstripped initial supply. While we predicted that the box sets would be highly popular items, we had to work with the inventory allocated to us by the manufacturer.
We’ve been carefully tracking pre-orders, and we updated the product availability information on our site as soon as our initial allocations were depleted. We did this in order to ensure that we could fill all pre-orders without exceeding our allocation limits.
Will Amazon.com receive more box sets?
We will receive more stereo box sets. Sign up to be notified as soon as they are available. While the mono box sets have a limited print run, we are always working to get more. Sign up to be notified if we are able to secure any additional inventory of the mono box sets.
I’ve pre-ordered a box set. Will I receive it?
Yes, if you have pre-ordered a box set, you will receive it.
What happens next?
We will continue to provide you with up-to-the-minute information about the availability of the Beatles box sets on Amazon.com. As soon as we have more inventory available, we will include information in our Beatles Store and notify all customers who have signed up to receive information about the box sets.

Amazon.com Beatles Store

Thursday 27 August 2009

Remastered tracks - first impressions


Just got back from a presentation of the Beatles remasters at EMI's office here in Oslo, Norway. We were played 30 second samples back-to-back with their 1987 counterparts and I was amazed by the clarity of the remasters. On "Yesterday", you could almost hear Paul's fingers on the guitar strings. Whenever there was an orchestral arrangement, the individual instruments also stood out more than ever. On the early songs, channel separation sounded wider than ever, not as a result of a remix, but because each individual sound (like hand claps) was clearer than before.
After the samples sessions, we were treated to complete songs from the 2 disc 32 songs sampler, (pictured above, and in my previous post).
Then we got to see some of the mini documentaries and they really are mini, or maybe they should be called micro documentaries. Like less than one and a half minute each! But they were still a treat to watch, there seemed to be some new footage with Paul playing Blackbird in the studio in the White Album one, and a cool animated Abbey Road cover in that one. No Carnival of Light in the Pepper one and no new Let It Be footage in that one.
We also go to see the finished Revolver CD package (stereo), and the (empty) boxed sets. I found out why the stereo box is taller. The stereo CD's are thicker, with a double-folded sleeve and booklet, so they are stacked within two compartments in the box. Whereas the mono CDs will just be tiny replicas of the original vinyl LP's and thus are all able to fit inside one compartment, hence the smaller mono box.
UPDATE: We have now been contacted by people who have received review copies of the boxed sets, and they have informed us that the mini documentaries are around five minutes each, unlike the ones we saw, which were around 1:18 each. This means that contrary to what EMI told us, what we were watching were edited versions.

(I got this picture from elsewhere on the internet)
Link to video of the boxed sets

Tuesday 25 August 2009

The Remastered Revolver

Revolver
Revolver 3
A look at the packaging of the remastered version of the stereo Revolver.
And here's what the DVD disc containing the mini-documentaries will look like:
Documentaries DVD disc

Saturday 22 August 2009

Promoting 090909


As we're approaching 090909, the Beatles promotion machine is picking up speed. But when you are The Beatles, you also get a lot of free publicity any upcoming band would have killed for. Just take a glance at the sampling of what our news stands are going to look like (above).
And in the UK, the BBC are planning a week of Beatles TV broadcasting, centered around what looks like a TV programme made up of all the mini documentaries included with the new remasters.
At the recent "Island" festival here in Oslo, Norway, one of the highlights was an advanced demo of the The Beatles:RockBand game, and I understand that the demo tent was jam packed most of the time.
This coming Thursday, I have been invited by EMI of Norway to come and listen to samples from the remasters. Yep, we're definitely getting closer.

Thursday 20 August 2009

McCartney the comic reader


(BBC News)A previously unseen photograph of Sir Paul McCartney, before he found fame and fortune with The Beatles, is set for auction.
A schoolboy Paul, aged ten, is seen engrossed in a comic surrounded by classmates from Joseph Williams School, Liverpool, in the picture, taken in 1952.
A woman recently took it into The Beatles Shop - a few metres away from the original Cavern Club in Liverpool.
It will be among 315 items of Beatles memorabilia auctioned on 29. August in Liverpool at the annual Beatles Week.

This was, of course, 23 years before Paul recorded his tribute to the two Marvel comic book characters "Magneto and Titanium Man".
If you look closely at the Help! film where Paul's organ rises from the basement of The Beatles' apartment, you'll notice that Paul isn't playing to written music scores, but to comic books. More specifically, to DC Comics Superman comic books.
Auction blog

Wednesday 19 August 2009

BBC Beatles Bonanza


The good old Beeb has plans to give us a week of Beatles programming on TV, including a new special, The Beatles On Record, starting September 5.
The programme will air previously unheard outtakes from The Beatles' final recording sessions in Abbey Road, it was announced Monday. The outtakes come from studio chats during the famous Abbey Road recording sessions, so it's conversations and not unpolished songs or unfinished masterpieces, we gather.
The programme will include studio chat from the band as they pieced together the album, which contained their final sessions as a band. It also features what the BBC says is "rare footage", as well as excerpts from 60 songs.
The Beatles On Record has been directed by Bob Smeaton, who worked on the Beatles Anthology project which traced the story of the band and was screened on TV in 1995 to tie in with a series of albums of the same name.
The programme is narrated entirely by John, Paul, George, Ringo and their producer George Martin, just like the Anthology TV series was.
It will be screened next month during a week-long season as the world prepares for the release of the band's remastered back catalogue and the much-anticipated Beatles Rock Band computer game.
The programme similarly traces the band's story from the days of Please Please Me to their break-up after the recording of Abbey Road. Although Let It Be was the last Beatles album to be released, it's recording predated that of Abbey Road.
The programmes will be screened across BBC2 and BBC4 and will include the TV premiere of the The Beatles: The First US Visit, in which cinematographers Albert and David Maysles charted the band's arrival in America in 1964.
An edition of Storville will examine How The Beatles Rocked The Kremlin, revealing how the music of the band may have contributed to the collapse of the USSR, as a generation of Soviets were influenced by their music.
Other programmes in the short season will include Sings Beatles, a compilation of archive footage of bands such as Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Carpenters covering the music of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr, plus a repeat of the Timewatch: Beatlemania and a screening of the Help! movie.
George Entwistle, controller of BBC Knowledge commissioning, said: "This is a chance for viewers to enjoy some rare footage and fascinating insights into the career of the greatest pop group of all time. Through BBC Two and BBC Four's close working relationship we will be inviting our audience to join us on a rich and colourful journey across two TV channels, through new and archive content, shown in just one week in September."

Sunday 16 August 2009

The Beatles:RockBand full track list


Since we are currently on another of those summer holidays, we have not been updating the blog for a few days, but we thought we just had to pass on the recently published full game track list.
Singles:
I Want To Hold Your Hand
I Feel Fine
Day Tripper
Paperback Writer
Revolution
Don't Let Me Down

Please Please Me (1963)
I Saw Her Standing There
Boys
Do You Want To Know A Secret
Twist and Shout

With the Beatles (1963)
I Wanna Be Your Man

A Hard Day's Night (1964)
A Hard Day's Night
Can't Buy Me Love

Beatles For Sale (1964)
Eight Days a Week

Help! (1965)
Ticket To Ride

Rubber Soul (1965)
Drive My Car
I'm Looking Through You
If I Needed Someone

Revolver (1966)
Taxman
Yellow Submarine
And Your Bird Can Sing

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little Help From My Friends
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Getting Better
Good Morning Good Morning

Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
I Am The Walrus
Hello Goodbye

The White Album (1968)
Dear Prudence
Back In the U.S.S.R.
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Birthday
Helter Skelter

Yellow Submarine (1969)
Hey Bulldog

Abbey Road (1969)
Come Together
Something
Octopus's Garden
I Want You (She\'s So Heavy)
Here Comes the Sun

Let It Be (1970)
Dig a Pony
I Me Mine
I Got a Feeling
Get Back

Love (2006)
Within You Without You/ Tomorrow Never Knows

It also appears that at least some of the famous christmas singles will be included as special prizes/rewards in the game.

Friday 7 August 2009

The Beatles: Live in Cheltenham Nov 1, 1963


First up: An interview for Italian TV taped at the ABC the night before. The sound has been re-dubbed in to eliminate the Italian voiceover usually found on this clip. Second: The concert clips with re-dubbed sound from the correct source.

Thursday 6 August 2009

Paul McCartney at Fenway Park



Paul McCartney rocked Boston last night and again tonight. Here are the the set lists from the soundcheck and concert. Comments by Bob Gannon as posted on Steve's Beatles site at the Examiner (see link on the right). The soundcheck was attended by some 30 fans who paid for the VIP package, including the soundcheck and dinner.

The Soundcheck:
1. Fenway park (jam)
2. Matchbox
3. Honey Hush
4. Honey Don't
5. Coming up
6. Jazz jam
7. All My Loving
8. Sing the changes
9. C Moon
10. Celebration
11. It's been too long? (Completely new song, at the end of the song, Abe said "they should hear the recorded version" and Paul responded "I'm not going to play the recorded version for them".)
12. Lady Madonna
13. Midnight Special
14. San Francisco Bay
15. Dance Tonight (mandolin)
16. Unknown (Russian song on ukulele)
17. Something (During the acoustic guitar switch, he had a problem with a loose jack on the guitar and it disrupted his playing. He then asked the sound booth if they thought it was a loose jack as well and before they could answer said "I think so too".)
18. The Legend of Loose Jack (about a 4 1/2 minute pirate song complete with hardy hars. He kept the nautical theme through out and it was a very fun song.)
19. Yesterday

The Concert:
1. Drive My Car
2. Jet
3. Only Mama Knows
4. Flaming Pie
5. Got To Get You Into My Life
6. Let Me Roll It/Foxy Lady
7. Highway
8. Long And Winding Road
9. My Love
10. Blackbird
11. Here Today
12. Dance Tonight
13. Calico Skies
14. Michelle
15. Mrs. Vanderbilt
16. Eleanor Rigby
17. Sing The Changes
18. Band On The Run
19. Back In The USSR
20. I'm Down
21. Something
22. I've Got A Feeling (With Extended Jam)
23. Paperback Writer
24. A Day In The Life
25. Let It Be
26. Live And Let Die
27. Hey Jude
---

Encore #1
28. Day Tripper
29. Lady Madonna
30. I Saw Her Standing There
---

Encore #2

31. Yesterday
32. Helter Skelter
33. Get Back
34. Sgt Pepper reprise into The End

So, in conclusion: The concert set list was unchanged since Citi Field, but the inclusion of a brand new song at the soundcheck was interesting. And hopefully, someone will have taped the soundcheck. Paul was highly energized and highly interactive with the crowd, according to Bob.
Concert photos

Sunday 2 August 2009

Four full The Beatles:Rockband songs

The Beatles:Rockband has been showering us with full films of some songs from the upcoming game.
Revolution:


Here Comes The Sun:


Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/With A Little Help From My Friends:


Birthday:

UPDATE: All songs were later deleted from YouTube, following copyright infringement claims from Viacom. These clips have been located elsewhere, and you may encounter sponsor ads. Watch them before they get pulled!