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!

Saturday 29 September 2012

New Abbies!

Followers of this blog may have noticed that I have a great affection for photos from the photo session for the Abbey Road album. And today, Paul McCartney has released a whole bunch of them, some unseen before now, from the lense of Linda McCartney. Head on over to PaulMcCartney.com and check them out for yourselves!

Vinyl remasters, an expensive book


So, the Beatles remastered albums on vinyl finally hit the big news media. I must confess that I think this is a very expensive way to buy a book, which is all I need from this boxed set. So I'm going to pass. I already have all the albums, bought one at a time in the seventies. Got them all in stereo, got them all in mono. Even the rare first mono version of Revolver. I think I must have around six Revolvers and five Sgt. Pepper's. And remasters? Got them on CD. And digital. And the eighties CD's. If they were remixes, I might have bought them. Loved what they did to the songs on Yellow Submarine Songtrack. This release however, leaves me cold.

Ah, but that book.... sigh.
Meanwhile, there'¨s been a big drop in price over at Amazon (UK), where the original price for the boxed set was listed as £445.40, now it's gone down to £299.99.

Thursday 27 September 2012

Beatles vinyl remasters - first photo

PRNewsFoto/EMI /Apple Corps Ltd

About the records
Every Beatles Album to be released on Vinyl, as a boxed set and individually. 12 November 2012 in the UK/Europe and the next day in the USA. Manufactured on 180-gram, audiophile quality vinyl with replicated artwork, the 14 albums return to their original glory with details including the poster in The Beatles (The White Album), the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band’s cut-outs, and special inner bags for some of the titles.

About the book
Each album will be available individually, and accompanied by a stunning, elegantly designed 252-page hardbound book in a lavish boxed edition which is limited to 50,000 copies worldwide.
 The book, exclusive to the boxed edition, is authored by award-winning radio producer Kevin Howlett and features a dedicated chapter for each of the albums, as well as insight into the creation of the remasters and how the vinyl albums were prepared. The 12”x12” book showcases a wealth of photographs spanning The Beatles’ recording career, including many images which were not included in the 2009 CD booklets.

North American debut
The titles include The Beatles' 12 original UK albums, first released between 1963 and 1970, the US-originated Magical Mystery Tour, now part of the group's core catalogue, and Past Masters, Volumes One & Two, featuring non-album A-sides and B-sides, EP tracks and rarities. With this release, The Beatles' first four albums make their North American stereo vinyl debuts.

The Monos
 In 2013, the remastered albums will make their mono vinyl debuts.

History
Since it was recorded, The Beatles' music has been heard on a variety of formats – from chunky reel-to-reel tapes and eight-track cartridges to invisible computer files. But there has never been a more romantic or thrilling medium for music than a long-playing twelve-inch disc. We 'play' records. The process of carefully slipping the disc out of the sleeve, cleaning it and lowering the stylus provides a personal involvement in the reproduction of the music. When The Beatles' albums were first released, the listener enjoyed a tangible relationship with the music in the grooves of a record. There was an emotional connection to the artifact carrying the sound, and this bond was strengthened by the LP sleeve. Rather than a merely functional object to protect the disc, it was elevated to a stylish accessory. Certainly, the cover of a Beatles album conveyed a message about the music it was wrapped around. For example, the dominant orange and brown hues and elongated faces on the front of Rubber Soul seem to embody the sound of the record. With the advent of the cassette tape in the seventies and the compact disc in the 1980s, album artwork was reduced in size and importance, losing much of its charm. That is partly why vinyl LPs have not, as predicted, been discarded. None of that would really matter, were it not for the enduring power of The Beatles' music. In September, 2009, The Beatles' remastered albums on CD graced charts around the world. Seventeen million album sales within seven months was resounding evidence of the timeless relevance of their legacy. Through five decades, the music of The Beatles has captivated generation upon generation. For producer Rick Rubin, surveying The Beatles' recorded achievements is akin to witnessing a miracle. "If we look at it by today's standards, whoever the most popular bands in the world are, they will typically put out an album every four years," Rubin said in a 2009 radio series interview. "So, let's say two albums as an eight year cycle. And think of the growth or change between those two albums. The idea that The Beatles made thirteen albums in seven years and went through that arc of change... it can't be done. Truthfully, I think of it as proof of God, because it's beyond man's ability."
PR Newswire
Price tags
Amazon (USA): $399.99 | Amazon (UK) £445.40 That's a whopping $721.46, nearly twice as much as in the USA (Update: The price at Amazon (UK) dropped to £299.99 the day after). But there are better prices to be found in the UK, What! music has the box for £274.99, which is equal to $445. Here in Norway, the price is NOK 4399, and that's 767 American Dollars. So if any Americans are complaining about the price tag: You are spoiled rotten!

Wednesday 26 September 2012

Love Me Do Anniversary single


Thirsting for some fresh Beatles vinyl? Take a look at this one, then:
 The Beatles Love Me Do Limited Edition 50th Anniversary 7 Inch

October 4th 1962 saw a review in trade magazine Record Retailer of a debut single from a new band that was coming out the next day. It read: "A new group from the Liverpool area. Their first record but they already have a strong following and this seems to be the strongest outsider of the week." Love Me Do by The Beatles was released on 5th October 1962 and that band of outsiders were off on their journey that would eventually lead them to conquer the world. Within a week the single entered the UK chart at 49 and it was eventually to go as high as 17 while spending 18 weeks on the chart.

To celebrate this important date in the history of British rock, it looks like we're in for a re-release "replica" of the original single in the original colourful house Parlophone sleeve. The audio is taken from the mono remaster of 2009, and it's a limited edition which will not be re-manufactured.
Tracks
- Side 1 Love Me Do (Original Single Version) (2009 - Remaster)
- Side 2 P.S. I Love You (2009 - Remaster)
Release date will of course be October 5th, 2012.
Found over at What Records and elsewhere.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

MMT Arena Documentary

Saturday 6 October
9.45-11.45pm
BBC TWO

Arena presents the greatest Beatles story never told, a blockbuster double bill: a documentary full of fabulous Beatles archive material never shown before anywhere in the world. And the first screening for over 30 years of a lost and forgotten treasure, the only film conceived and directed by The Beatles themselves - Magical Mystery Tour.


Part One - Magical Mystery Tour Revisited

Songs you’ll never forget, the film you’ve never seen, and a story that’s never been heard. In 1967, in the wake of the extraordinary impact of Sgt. Pepper, The Beatles made a film – a dreamlike story of a coach daytrip, a magical mystery tour. It was seen by a third of the nation, at 8.35pm on BBC One on Boxing Day - an expectant public, hoping for some light entertainment for a family audience.

Magical Mystery Tour was greeted with outrage and derision by middle England and the establishment media. “How dare they?”, they cried – “They’re not film directors, who do they think they are?” they howled. Where were the four lovable moptops of Help! and A Hard Day’s Night?

What propelled The Beatles to make this surreal, startling and – at the time – utterly misunderstood film? Contributors include Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Peter Fonda, Martin Scorsese, Terry Gilliam, Paul Merton and Neil Innes.

Directed by Francis Hanly; produced by Jonathan Clyde; the executive producers are Anthony Wall and Jeff Jones

Part Two – The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour

Fully restored to the highest technical standard with a remixed soundtrack, Magical Mystery Tour comes out of the shadows and onto the screen.

By the end of 1967, The Beatles had achieved a creativity unprecedented in popular music.

Their triumphant summer release Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was both avant garde and an instant hit. It went straight to No.1 in June and remained there for the rest of the year. They immersed themselves in the fiercely radical art of the new counterculture, and decided to make a film on their own terms, not as pop stars but as artists. However, was their adoring public ready for the move?

Roll up, roll up for the Mystery Tour! Made in England by The Beatles
BBC

Monday 24 September 2012

Beatles Vinyls: Official statement expected October 1st

The Beatles/Apple Corps have put a lid on things until they make the official public statement via a press release (and no doubt a full blown campaign on thebeatles.com, advertisements in the printed media and their YouTube channel) on October 1st. So most of the listings we have reported are now removed. For now. But it's stereo. If they sell well, then maybe it's time for the mono's. But it's from the digital masters. So probably no gain in sound over the USB Apple stick. And don't expect the remastered cassettes!

Friday 21 September 2012

Beatles on vinyl goes viral

Looks like the word is out on bigger sites than our, so expect the media at large to catch on this week-end.
Analogplanet reports that the first hold-ups were due to finding a pressing plant that could consistently produce the level of quiet demanded by the producers. Then came issues related to the full-sized book that will be included in the box.
Musicdirect had a photo of the Beatles' vinyl albums along with some info earlier today, but it disappeared all of a sudden. Guess they got a call from Apple corps. Nevertheless, the word is out, and even my local Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet has a story about it. The price for the limited edition boxed set with it's book is rumoured to be around $400, whereas the individual albums supposedly will cost you just $23 a piece. That makes the box and book very expensive... around $100. November 13th is now set as the release day.

Monday 17 September 2012

Beeb Beatles Celebration

The Beatles are being celebrated by BBC Radio. Radio 6 recently reprised the original 1982 show "The Beatles at the Beeb", but that's only the beginning. The real party is in October.

The Beatles’ first top-20 hit, Love Me Do, was released 50 years ago on 5 October 1962, and the BBC is celebrating with a nationwide trawl for listeners’ memories from the time.

All 39 BBC Local Radio stations are holding their own My Beatles Story day (#mybeatlesstory) on 5 October, when every station will broadcast listeners’ memories of the Fab Four.

The BBC has also commissioned a Local Radio survey in which 12,000 people across the UK are being asked to pick their favourite Beatles track. Each station will announce the local results on 5 October.

In their early days, The Beatles toured extensively, visiting towns as far apart as Morecambe and Southend, Croydon and Whitchurch, in addition to the major cities. They were seen by vast crowds as their popularity rocketed, and it is hoped that the My Beatles Story day will jog some great memories from across the nation.

On-air trails are asking audiences not only if they saw any of the early gigs, but also whether they ever saw a fresh-faced young Paul McCartney out and about, or if they might have served John, George or Ringo in a pub or shop, or given them a lift in a taxi. It is hoped everyone’s memories will come flooding back for a golden day of Beatles nostalgia right across the BBC’s Local Radio network.

Stuart Maconie is also presenting an hour-long documentary on BBC Four, which is being made by the BBC in the North West. Love Me Do – 1962 will go out on BBC Four on 4 October, with a shorter version going out on BBC One (North West only) on 1 October.

The programme asks why Liverpool was the birthplace of a musical phenomenon. The city was suffering from severe unemployment, yet it was also the world’s biggest port. Maconie explores how its vibrant pop culture was influenced by the records that arrived from the United States, and chronicles the social history of a proud seaport which helped change pop culture forever.

BBC Radio 2 will also mark the anniversary with a Beatles Season starting on 3 October, which includes a Blaggers Guide To The Beatles with David Quantick and The Casbah Club: Birthplace Of Merseybeat - an exploration of the story of the famous Liverpool club, presented by Pete Best, the original Beatles drummer who was replaced by Ringo Starr.

Other programmes in the season include Year In The Life: Beatles '62 in which Roger McGough tells the story of the pivotal breakthrough year for the newly mop-topped Liverpool beat combo, and Beatleland, in which Craig Charles heads home to find out what they took with them and what legacy they left behind.

BBC

Friday 14 September 2012

The Beatles: Who walked out first?


June 21st, 1966. The Beatles are in the studio recording "Revolver", and John Lennon brings in "She Said, She Said". Paul McCartney gets into a fight with the other three, and leaves the studio. The three records the song with George Harrison on bass guitar.
"John brought it in pretty much finished, I think. I'm not sure but I think it was one of the only Beatle records I never played on. I think we'd had a barney or something and I said, 'Oh, fuck you!' and they said, 'Well, we'll do it.' I think George played bass.", Paul McCartney in the book "Many Years From Now".

August 27th, 1968. Tensions had been building within The Beatles for some time during the recording of the White Album. On this day matters came to a head, and Ringo Starr left the group. Starr flew to the Mediterranean where he spent two weeks on Peter Sellers' yacht. During the break he wrote Octopus's Garden. Meanwhile, The other three Beatles share the drums on Back In The USSR and Paul plays the drums on Dear Prudence while continuing to record the White album.
"I left because I felt two things: I felt I wasn't playing great, and I also felt that the other three were really happy and I was an outsider. I got a telegram saying, 'You're the best rock'n'roll drummer in the world. Come on home, we love you.' And so I came back. We all needed that little shake-up. When I got back to the studio I found George had had it decked out with flowers - there were flowers everywhere. I felt good about myself again, we'd got through that little crisis and it was great." Ringo Starr The Beatles' Anthology.

January 10th, 1969. George Harrison walked out on this day, unable to tolerate any longer the tensions within the group. The Beatles were at Twickenham Film Studios, where their rehearsals were being captured on camera.
"I got up and I thought, 'I'm not doing this any more. I'm out of here.' So I got my guitar and went home and that afternoon wrote Wah-Wah." George Harrison, The Beatles' Anthology.

September 20th, 1969. John Lennon had decided to leave the Beatles the week before, when he was due to play with the Plastic Ono Band in Toronto. Today he announces his decision to the other three.
 "So I said, 'The group's over, I'm leaving.' Allen [Klein] was there, and he was saying, 'Don't tell.' He didn't want me to tell Paul even. But I couldn't help it, I couldn't stop it, it came out. And Paul and Allen said they were glad that I wasn't going to announce it, like I was going to make an event out of it. I don't know whether Paul said, 'Don't tell anybody,' but he was damn pleased that I wasn't. He said, 'Oh well, that means nothing really happened if you're not going to say anything.' So that's what happened." John Lennon, in the Rolling Stone interview and book "Lennon Remembers".

Of course, the first one to leave The Beatles was Stuart Sutcliffe.

MMT first impressions etc

"I've just been down to the BFI to see Magical Mystery Tour. It looks and sounds amazing. Well done the restoration boffins and Abbey Road.", Giles Martin tweeted earlier today.
TheBeatles.com reports that a strictly limited number of screenings will take place from 18th September in the US, UK, Japan, Australia, Canada, Italy, and Mexico only.
BBC

Wednesday 12 September 2012

MMT Deluxe box on sale in the UK

It took them some time, but Amazon in the UK is now advertising the Magical Mystery Tour [Deluxe Box] for just £29.99!
Click on the link before they up the price! NB! This item may only be available for UK customers or EU. When I try to check out, I get this message: "We're sorry. This item can't be shipped to your selected destination. You may either change the shipping address or delete the item from your order by changing its quantity to 0 and clicking the update button below. "
And I've never had any problems with Amazon UK before, so there must be special conditions which apply only to this product.
BBC

Sunday 9 September 2012

Traveling Wilburys multi-angles

The Traveling Wilburys had a hit single "Inside Out" in 1991, it was no. 16 in Billboard's singles charts. Here's a look at three different music video sources simultaneously.
Top Left: Original Promo from 1991
Top Right: Making Of...
Bottom: Official Release with boxed set.

Notice the official promo (bottom) uses almost all new footage, does not use the original opening and closing curtain and crops a bunch of the image.


The "Inside Out" single was released in January 1991 and contained three tracks:
1. INSIDE OUT (Album Version) (3:35)
2. NEW BLUE MOON (Instrumental version) (3:19)
3. COLD DRY PLACE (Album Version) (3:33)

McCartney and Africa Express


It was probably a slow day by 70 year old Paul McCartney's standards. First he went to Paris to be decorated by the president.

He then hopped on a train to London's King's Cross. He met up with other train passengers. Members of the cross-UK-musical-train ride "Africa Express" were performing, and Paul showed up for the rehearsals. He posted a few photos to his twitter account.

On stage he teamed up with, among others Damon Albarn from Blur, drummer Tony Allen, Gruff Rhys of the Super Furry Animals, ngoni player Bassekou Kouyate, former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, the singers Rokia Traore, Terri Walker, Fatoumata Diawara, Martina Topley-Bird, Shinghai Shoniwa and several more. They played two Wings songs from 1979, Coming Up and Goodnight Tonight.

Saturday 8 September 2012

New Beatles at the Beeb shows


Coming up on BBC Radio 6: The Beatles at the Beeb, the story of the many live session recordings The Beatles made for the BBC. A one hour radio show. First broadcast: Saturday the 15th September 2012 at 4 in the morning. The next episode is also one hour long and will be broadcast at the same ungodly hour the very next day, Sunday the 16th.
BBC Radio 6- The Beatles on the Beeb

Despite apology, McCartney's tour continues


Paul McCartney's "On The Run" tour continues, with (so far) four dates in North America having been announced for November. Outrageous! Paul McCartney was due to play two nights in Horsens, Denmark in late June, but the concerts were cancelled after people from all over Europe (it was his only European concert this summer) had bought tickets, arranged transportation and accomodation. The reason given for cancellation was that McCartney was developing a fresh new show, and needed time to rehearse this. So he gave Horsens a raincheck. And here's that fresh new show: It's just the same old "On The Run" tour again. At least he should have had the decency to call it something else!
Remember the tour before this? It was called the "Up And Coming" tour. It started in Phoenix on the 28th of March 2010 and ended in Las Vegas on June 10th, 2011. July 15th, a little more than a month later, the "On The Run" tour started in New York City.
Let's hope the raincheck he has given Horsens is more valid than the one he gave the people of Melbourne who had tickets for his cancelled November 23d 2002 gig. He hasn't been back yet....

Friday 7 September 2012

Another John & Paul reunion photo

Thanks to the great Meet The Beatles for real blog! Like the other three Lennon/McCartney reunion photos, this too seems to be from that very same day in 1974.

The McCartneys visited Lennon when he was living in Los Angeles with May Pang.

George Harrison in new novel

There's a new novel, Compline by Gladys Pagendam, currently only available for Kindle, with a George Harrison connection. Here's the blurb:
When a hip seventeen year old leaves the stomping Merseybeat scene, at the height of Beatlemania, to enter a convent, little does she know that her life as a nun would include a very unique relationship with George Harrison, the famous Beatle, with whom she would share some offbeat, compromising, and sometimes hilarious experiences.
Compline is a retrospective story told from the viewpoint of Nan, a grandmother, who once was this nun. The title is taken from the Book of Hours, which sets down the daily prayer rituals of a nun’s life. Compline is sung before retiring to bed, when the Grand Silence is imposed, symbolising those precious moments before the silence of death.
Nan is dying and her three grown-up granddaughters want to know about her life. However, truth is elusive, and Nan's stories are far-fetched, especially those about her life as a nun, and her extraordinary relationship with George Harrison. Her children barely tolerate her stories, but when her granddaughters find evidence that some of her stories could be true, they begin to investigate further.
Within the context of family life, involving fraught mother/daughter relationships, love affairs, crime, and ambitious attempts to solve global problems, the grandmother's inner world is explored, as is the ephemeral nature of memory, the meaning of truth, and the complexity of identity. In wrestling with these issues, the granddaughters become the guardians of her story.
Compline is about confused mother/daughter relationships. It is about inter-generational empowerment and disempowerment. It is about hurts and resentments being reframed. It is about life happening.
Compline will make you laugh out loud. It will make you cry. But most of all, it will entertain you.
Amazon.com link
The author tells us there's also plans for hard copies of the book.

Wednesday 5 September 2012

Another clue for y'all

People have been questioning our claim that EMI/Apple is about to unleash the Beatles remasters on vinyl this year. Well here's another clue for you all, the best selling vinyl LP in the USA, "Abbey Road" went out of print a month or so ago. Now why would they let their best-selling title go out of print if it's not just to be replaced by a better sounding version? As we reported back in January, The Beatles' "Abbey Road" album was the best selling vinyl album of 2011 in the USA (not just by The Beatles, but by anyone), just like it was in 2010 and 2009. It has been kept in print ever since it was released back in 1969, the most recent edition having been made in 1995.

I'm still not sure if I'm going to spend money getting the new incarnation of the vinyl albums. After all, I have several editions of all the vinyl albums already, and I have both the stereo and mono remastered CD's. They will probably have to put something more into the package to hook me again.

Drummer on new Rory Storm CD not Ringo


Rory Storm & the Hurricanes Live From the Jive on Rockstar Records
To be released September 17th in the UK.
Track Listings
1. Introduction
2. Brand New Cadillac
3. (You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care
4. Make Me Know You're Mine
5. Bye Bye Love
6. Jet Black
7. Down The Line
8. C'mon Everybody
9. Don't Bug Me Baby
10. Rip It Up
11. Somethin' Else
12. Train To Nowhere
13. Since You Broke My Heart
14. Honey Don't
15. All American Boy
16. Willie & The Hand Jive
17. Closing Announcement
18. Milk Cow Blues (home recording)
19. What 'd I Say (home recording)
20. Cathy's Clown (home recording)
21. Now Is The Hour (home recording)

Tracks 1-17 were recorded at the concert on March 5th, 1960 at the Jive Hive.

These recordings by Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, Ringo Starr's first band and one of the most popular groups of the early Merseybeat era, have been unearthed after more than 50 years. The band were at the forefront of the Liverpool scene but never made it big. The tapes were recorded in March 1960, two years before Starr was poached by Brian Epstein to join The Beatles and before any of the groups from Liverpool had been to Hamburg.
Found in Storm's sister's cellar, the tapes will form the group's first and only album release later this month. Starr joined the group at the age of 18 in 1959, but the band got left behind during the Merseybeat boom in the wake of The Beatles' success. They only released a couple of singles, including one produced by Brian Epstein in 1964, but they failed to chart. Frontman Storm, born Alan Caldwell, was known for his gold lame costumes and on-stage charisma. He died in 1972 aged just 34.

"Rory was a performer," his sister Iris Caldwell said. "He wasn't, like The Beatles, a brilliant songwriter. They called him The Golden Boy and Mr Showbusiness.

The tapes include tracks recorded at the Jive Hive club in Crosby, north of Liverpool, and at Storm's house, known as Stormsville.
"I suppose these tapes have been in an old sealed box ever since," Caldwell said.

Even though Ringo Starr was the regular drummer in the Hurricanes, and is featured prominently on the CD cover, he was probably not present at this concert.
This is an extract from the diaries of Hurricane Johny Guitar:
March 2. Jive Hive. Don played as Ritchie had 'flu. 
March 4. Southport. We paid £22.10 for tape recorder. 
March 5. Two half-hours were taped by radio engineers at Jive Hive.


At Beatleweek in Liverpool, Iris Caldwelldid admitted there was "some doubt" as to wether it was Ringo on drums, apparently it is known he was suffering with the flu the day before the recording was made and didnt play with the group that night. She kept saying, in mock loud whisper "It is Ringo, trust me"

She was being interviewed by Mark Lewisohn who remained very gracious towards her, but when he himself was interviewed about an hour later, he did say that it was definitely not Ringo for the reasons stated above about his illness and the obvious fact that it also sounds nothing like him to back the story up.

Ringo has always been known as a great timekeeper, whereas the drummer here (identified as Don in the above diary excerpt) is all over the place.

BBC News story

Tuesday 4 September 2012

Lennon book and London literary event

John Lennon wrote letters and postcards all of his life, and now a selection of these letters is being published for the first time. They were sent to his friends, family, strangers, newspapers, organisations, lawyers and the laundry – they were funny, informative, campaigning, wise, mad, poetic, anguished and sometimes heartbreaking. Hunter Davies, the authorised biographer of the Beatles is editor of the collection. The letters (along with occasional doodles) are collected in chronological order to create something akin to a narrative that builds up, reflecting John's life. The book will be published on John Lennon's birthday, October 9th, 2012. ISBN13: 9780297866343

In an event at London's British Library on October 11th, Hunter Davies talks about the John Lennon he knew and the unique insight that the letters give into Lennon's mind.
The book is also available in a Kindle edition.
Tickets to the event in London: £5.00 - £7.50.

Monday 3 September 2012

Beatles Blog Carnival

There's a new kid in town...oops, sorry - wrong band! Anyway, a blog presenting Beatles websites has just started up, and we have been honoured by having been mentioned in the first edition. There'll be an updated post the first Monday of each month. You'll find it at beatlesblogcarnival.com (and also among the links to other blogs).

The Beatles in Rome (video)

From The Beatles Bible: Live: Teatro Adriano, Rome, Italy 4.30pm, Sunday 27 June 1965. The Beatles performed two shows on this day at the Teatro Adriano in Piazza Cavour in Rome, and two more on the following day. It was the group's only visit to the Italian capital.
The concerts took place on each of the days at 4.30pm and 9.30pm. Originally just this day's performances had been booked, but the next day's were added later on. Despite this, none of The Beatles' four Rome shows was more than half full.
Throughout their European Tour in June and July 1965 The Beatles' set comprised 12 songs: 

Twist And Shout, She's A Woman, I'm A Loser, Can't Buy Me Love, Baby's In Black, I Wanna Be Your Man, A Hard Day's Night, Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby, Rock And Roll Music, I Feel Fine, Ticket To Ride and Long Tall Sally.
 

Parts of both this day's performances, recorded by members of the audience, have been circulated on bootlegs, although the quality is less than perfect.

Italian EMI celebrated by releasing a Beatles album, "The Beatles in Italy". In its original pressing, the cover is gatefold, with a front cover depicting the Beatles on stage in Washington DC, February 11th 1964. The album is not a "live" album, instead it is a collection of various non-LP tracks.



Side One:
Long Tall Sally
She's A Woman
Matchbox
From Me To You
I Want To Hold Your Hand
Ticket To Ride

Side Two
This Boy
Slow Down
I Call Your Name
Thank You Girl
Yes It Is
I Feel Fine

This album was only available in mono until the 1968 reissues. The cover for The Beatles In Italy changed, only the first issues have the unique gatefold picture sleeve. Many people, including The Beatles themselves, thought that this album was a live recording from Italy, due to it's title and the concert photo on the album cover. Due to it's reputation, the album has also been counterfeited.

A later pressing featured this 'champagne' cover

Yesterday, a video was made available from the Beatles concert from the 27th of June, 1965 - evening show. In colour and formerly silent, the video has been enhanced by synchronising it with correct or fitting audio excerpts. It's been done before, but not as well as this.
 

There's also more Italian Beatles footage available on YouTube.

Sunday 2 September 2012

Bruce "The Boss" Springsteen and Paul McCartney

Here at last is a professionally recorded video from Paul McCartney's guest appearance at Bruce Springsteen's concert at the Hard Rock Calling do in London in July.
"The Boss" told the crowd he had waited 50 years for his moment to sing a duet with a Beatles legend. But the 62 year-old rock star barely got through two songs at Hard Rock Calling with Sir Paul McCartney before he was silenced by a council-imposed curfew during "Twist and Shout".
Sir Paul had taken to the stage in London’s Hyde Park as part of the encore following Springsteen’s three hour concert on Saturday night. As 80,000 rapturous fans yelled their delight under the pouring rain, the microphones were switched off after the “health and safety” curfew was breached by eight minutes, leaving the singers to leave the stage in silence. Here's "I Saw Her Standing There".



You can watch "Twist and Shout", courtesy of a fan made film here.