Handwritten 'Hey Jude' lyrics sell for $910,000

LOS ANGELES, United States - A sheet of paper bearing Paul McCartney's handwritten lyrics to "Hey Jude" sold for $910,000 in an online auction held Friday to mark the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' historic split.

The document penned by McCartney and used during the 1968 London recording of the classic song at Trident Studios was sold for more than five times its pre-sale estimate.

California-based Julien's Auctions shifted its sale of some 250 Beatles memorabilia online due to the coronavirus pandemic, with fans around the world bidding for guitars, rare vinyl and autographed items.

Friday marks exactly half a century since an interview given by McCartney sealed the acrimonious end of the "Fab Four," widely considered one of the most influential bands in history.

Asked if he foresaw a time when his prolific songwriting partnership with fellow Beatle John Lennon would restart, his blunt reply -- "no" -- spoke for itself.

McCartney wrote "Hey Jude" after an earlier split -- Lennon's divorce from first wife Cynthia following his affair with Japanese artist Yoko Ono.

The song was composed to comfort Lennon's son Julian during his parents' break-up, and was initially titled "Hey Jules."

The handwritten document sold Friday contains partial lyrics along with annotations including the word "break" used to aid the song's recording.

Other items included a drumhead with the Beatles' logo used during their first US tour gig in 1964, sold for $200,000, and a handwritten shooting script page for the "Hello, Goodbye" music video in 1967, fetching $83,200.

A brass ashtray used by Ringo Starr at the Abbey Road recordings in the 1960s earned $32,500.

Agence France Presse

Love Mud Do: McCartney to headline 50th Glastonbury Festival

LONDON (Reuters) - Former Beatle Paul McCartney will headline Glastonbury Festival, the pinnacle of Britain’s pop music calendar, for its 50th anniversary next year, organisers said on Monday.

The 77-year-old last played the festival’s famous Pyramid Stage in 2004.

“Having Paul McCartney coming back to headline the Pyramid next year is an absolute dream come true. There really was no one that we wanted more for the 50th anniversary,” said Glastonbury co-organiser Emily Eavis.

McCartney, who will play the Saturday night slot on June 27, said he was excited to be part of the anniversary celebrations.

“See ya next summer!” he tweeted.

Famed for its left-wing ethos and often mud-soaked surroundings, Glastonbury Festival started in 1970, the same year the Beatles split up.

Founder Michael Eavis has said one of his biggest regrets was turning down another ex-Beatle, guitarist George Harrison, when he had the chance to book him for Glastonbury a few years before he died in 2001.

Tickets for the 2020 event went on sale in October and were sold out in just over half an hour, according to the festival’s website https://cdn.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk.

Glastonbury Festival was founded by dairy farmer Eavis, 83, and his late wife Jean in 1970, after they were inspired by the Bath Festival of Blues. Marc Bolan played the first event, which had an entry charge of 1 pound with free milk included.

Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Giles Elgood

Coming together

A fan carries a copy of the album "Abbey Road" on Thursday as he crosses the Abbey Road zebra crossing on the 50th anniversary of The Beatles doing it for their album cover in St Johns Wood in London. "Abbey Road," which was voted the best Beatles album by readers of Rolling Stone in 2009, was the only one of the group's original British albums to show neither the band's name nor a title on the cover.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

From 'Rings' to Ringo: Peter Jackson helms Beatles documentary

WELLINGTON -- Acclaimed "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson announced Thursday he is working on a documentary detailing the making of The Beatles' classic album "Let It Be" 50 years ago.

The New Zealander said the film was based on 55 hours of never-before-seen footage and 140 hours of audio from the Fab Four's recording sessions.

Jackson said it provided an unprecedented insight into to band's creative process and their interactions in the studio.

"This movie will be the ultimate fly-on-the-wall experience that Beatles fans have long dreamt about," he said in a statement. "It's like a time machine transports us back to 1969 and we get to sit in the studio watching these four friends make great music together."

"Let It Be" was recorded in January 1969 but not released until May the following year after The Beatles put out "Abbey Road" and subsequently split, making it the final album the band released.

The footage was originally shot for a television special that never materialized. Instead, some of it was used in a Michael Lindsay-Hogg documentary also titled "Let It Be."

Fans have long believed the album's creation was marred by the rivalries and infighting that eventually tore the band apart but Jackson said that was a myth.

"Sure, there's moments of drama, but none of the discord this project has long been associated with," he said. "Watching John, Paul, George, and Ringo work together, creating now-classic songs from scratch, is not only fascinating -- it's funny, uplifting and surprisingly intimate."

Jackson's Wellington film studio will restore the old footage using techniques perfected on his BAFTA-nominated World War I documentary "They Shall Not Grow Old."

The Beatles film is being made with the cooperation of surviving band members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as the families of George Harrison and John Lennon.

A release date has not been finalized.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

John Lennon's killer recalls inner 'tug of war' before the murder

NEW YORK - Before he pulled the trigger that ended the life of rock icon John Lennon nearly 38 years ago, his killer remembers being in a "tug of war" with himself over what he was about to do, and even praying for a way out of carrying out his plan.

In the end, the compulsion to gain notoriety by killing one of the most famous people in the world proved too powerful, a remorseful Mark David Chapman told parole officials at an Aug. 22 hearing that ended in a decision not to release him.

"I was too far in," Chapman, 63, said in a transcript of the hearing released on Thursday by the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

On the afternoon of Dec. 8, 1980, the former member of the Beatles left his New York apartment building on his way to a recording session when he stopped to autograph an album that Chapman, then a pudgy, bespectacled 25-year-old, was holding. It is a moment captured in a now-eerie photograph.

"I do remember having the thought of, hey, you have got the album now, look at this, he signed it, just go home, but there was no way I was going to go home," Chapman, now leaner and grayer, told the parole board.

But when Lennon returned to his home on Manhattan's Upper West Side later that evening, Chapman was waiting for him, and fired a 5-shot .38 caliber Charter Arms revolver at him, hitting him 4 times in front of his wife Yoko Ono.

The assassination-style murder stunned the music world, a generation that had grown up with "Beatlemania" and the city the British-born musician had adopted as his home.

From his confinement at the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York, just east of Buffalo, Chapman told the 2 parole board members at his hearing his sense of shame grows constantly over the murder, the impact of which he realizes will outlive him.

"A hundred years from now they're going to remember him and they're going to remember him as someone that's been murdered and it's going to be negative," he said.

Chapman was sentenced to 20 years to life after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in 1981. He has been denied parole 10 times since 2000 and will not have another opportunity for release until August 2020.

At the hearing, Chapman said he was a changed man who would welcome being released but said he didn't deserve it.

He denied a suggestion by a parole board member that he had channeled his obsession with fame into a ministry he runs with his wife that supplies Christian pamphlets to churches in Africa.

"I honestly have to disagree with that," he said. "We're sustaining Jesus."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Paul McCartney returns to Beatles' Liverpool club for surprise gig

LIVERPOOL - Paul McCartney surprised and delighted fans on Thursday with a small free gig at The Cavern Club, returning to the cellar venue in Liverpool where The Beatles made their name more than 50 years ago.

In scenes reminiscent of the 1960s, the 76-year-old, was greeted by cheering and some screaming fans as he arrived at the club by car. Many had waited for hours to get a limited number of tickets after the singer and musician had posted a Tweet hours earlier announcing the gig.

McCartney, whose latest album "Egypt Station" comes out in September, played a wide-ranging set list including Beatles hits "Magical Mystery Tour" and "I Saw Her Standing There", which got the loudest cheers from the audience.

"Hello Liverpool. Cavern," he told the cheering crowd as he came on stage.

The Beatles first played at the Cavern - a cramped cellar bar in the northern English port city - in 1961. The band went on to become a global phenomenon before splitting up in 1970.

Surrounded by Beatles pictures and murals, McCartney, who usually plays to vast arenas, sang and chatted to the audience during the two-hour gig at the packed club, which has a capacity for 350 standing people. They sang along with him.

"Imagine this for me...All those years ago we came here and played. We didn't know if we'd ever have any future but we did okay," he said. "Coming back here with all of our guys, all of our crew it's pretty pretty amazing for me."

The original Cavern Club closed in 1973 and was eventually knocked down. But the bricks were saved and used to build the venue that now stands in its place and draws Beatles fans from around the world.

McCartney gave a concert at the venue in 1999 when he played a range of his songs and covers.

He earlier said on Twitter he would perform at 2 p.m. (1300 GMT), with tickets being handed out for free from 10 a.m. "on a first come, first served basis".

"It's a dream isn't it. My dream is to go back in time to the 60s and see them at the Cavern," fan Lottie Ryan, 27, said as she waiting to get into the venue. "This is the closest I'm ever going to get. I'm so excited."

On Wednesday, McCartney attended a Q&A session at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, where he was asked which musicians he had worked with he admired the most. His answer began with fellow Beatles John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

"Having worked with John so one on one, I got to see his brilliance before the world did," he said. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Contract that launched The Beatles up for sale

LONDON, United Kingdom - The contract that launched the career of The Beatles will be sold in London later this month and is expected to fetch up to £500,000 (681,000 euros, $760,000), Sotheby's auction house said on Saturday.

The document was signed by John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr with their manager Brian Epstein on October 1, 1962 -- four days before the release of their first single "Love Me Do".

Harrison and McCartney were under 21 at the time so their fathers acted as co-signatories and there was a clause in the contract stating that band members could be expelled "should two or more of them desire".

The document also outlined the different commission rates that Epstein would receive for earnings of up to £400, up to £800 and more than £800 a week.

"Without this contract, and the relationship it represents, it seems inconceivable that the Beatles could have achieved all that they did," said Gabriel Heaton, Sotheby's specialist in books and manuscripts.

Epstein, who died from an accidental overdose in 1967, was dubbed the "Fifth Beatle" by McCartney.

The Beatles came out of Liverpool in northwest England to become one of the best-selling and most influential rock bands in history.

Founding member Paul McCartney and drummer Ringo Starr are still alive, while John Lennon was shot dead in 1980 and George Harrison died of cancer in 2001.

The contract will go on sale on September 29.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Cynthia, first wife of John Lennon, dies: son

NEW YORK - Cynthia Lennon, the British first wife of The Beatles' songwriter John Lennon, has died aged 75, the couple's son Julian said Wednesday.

A message on the musician's website said Lennon "passed away today at her home in Mallorca, Spain following a short but brave battle with cancer."

"Her son Julian Lennon was at her bedside throughout. The family are thankful for your prayers," it added.

Julian Lennon wrote and sang a song of tribute to his mother that was posted on the site with a montage of family snapshots and footage.

"You gave your life for me, you gave your life for love," the song begins, then ends with the words "I know you're safe above."

Cynthia met John Lennon at an art class in the British city of Liverpool when she was 18 and the couple married in 1962.

"You couldn't resist being around him," Cynthia Lennon said in a 2005 interview with US television.

"You couldn't resist watching what he was up to. I mean, he was a total rebel."

In her 2006 memoir of the relationship, "John", Cynthia said the pair had had an intense but turbulent relationship.

"He was a very jealous young man at the time, and he had a lot of pain inside," she said, explaining that he had once hit her.

They stayed together until 1968, as The Beatles grew to be the world's biggest group.

'A lovely lady'

John left her after beginning an affair with Japanese artist Yoko Ono in 1968 and the couple was divorced.

The song, "Hey Jude", was later written by John's fellow Beatle Paul McCartney to comfort Julian Lennon during his parents break-up, and was initially titled "Hey Jules."

"The news of Cynthia's passing is very sad," McCartney said Wednesday.

"She was a lovely lady who I've known since our early days together in Liverpool.

"She was a good mother to Julian and will be missed by us all but I will always have great memories of our times together."

British journalist Hunter Davies, who wrote the only official biography of The Beatles, remembered Cynthia Lennon as a contrasting character to her husband.

"She was totally different from John in that she was quiet and reserved and calm," Davies said.

"John treated her appallingly. He slept with Yoko in their marital home and as we discovered later, he also physically attacked her, but she was loyal to him," he added.

John Lennon was later murdered by a troubled fan in New York in 1980.

At the time John was reconciling with Julian, the son he had had with Cynthia.

"Near the end, before his tragic death, of course, they were getting close on the phone; they were connecting," she said.

"It was just coming back and it was wonderful. Then, of course, his life was cut very short."

After her death was announced, The Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr tweeted a tribute: "Peace and love to Julian Lennon. God bless Cynthia."

Yoko Ono said she was "saddened" by Cynthia Lennon's death.

"She was a great person and a wonderful mother to Julian," Ono wrote on her Facebook page.

"She had such a strong zest for life and I felt proud how we two women stood firm in the Beatles family."

After her split from John Lennon, Cynthia remarried three times, tying the knot for the fourth and final time in 2002 with nightclub owner Noel Charles who died in 2013.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Eraserheads reunite in London

LONDON - The Eraserheads toured London on a vintage bus with their families and friends before their concert on Friday night.

They dropped by Abbey Road, a place associated with their idols, The Beatles.

The Eraserheads didn't miss the opportunity to have a photo of them crossing the road, similar to an iconic Beatles album cover.

Before this, Ely Buendia, Raimund Marasigan, Marcus Adoro, and Buddy Zabala spent time with their fans, many of whom are overseas Filipino workers.

"When you say Philippine music, hindi pwedeng lumampas ang statement without mentioning the Eraserheads," said a fan.




The Eraserheads, whose popularity peaked in the 90's, disbanded in 2002 but had reunion concerts recently like the ones in Singapore and Dubai last year.

The band assured their fans in London of a great performance.

"We had one very long rehearsal and we prepared a lot of new stuff that we missed playing live," said Buendia.

"What keeps everybody together and what keeps us playing is the music. It's the same music that you all know. It's probably the same music that you will hear tomorrow night," added Zabala.

The concert will be held on Friday night at the Eventim Apollo Theatre, one of London's major entertainment venues that can accommodate up to 5,000 people.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Malaya Watson wows with jazzy take on Beatles song

MANILA – Filipino-American singer Malaya Watson wowed the “American Idol” judges anew as she performed a jazzy rendition of The Beatles’ “Long and Winding Road” on Wednesday night (Thursday morning in Manila).

Showing beautiful voice control, judges Jennifer Lopez, Harry Connick Jr. and Keith Urban agreed Watson is the most consistent among the nine remaining finalists of the talent show.

“Oh Malaya, gosh that was beautiful baby. Wow. You really chose a performance that showed us your voice and I could feel your voice,” said Urban.

“When you hit the first notes to the end of the phrase, when you hit the ‘lead me to your door,’ your vibratos are beautiful. That’s where your personality comes through. We feel it, that’s you and we get a sense of your spirit.”




Lopez, on the other hand, said Watson’s voice stands out among everybody else’s, adding that the 16-year-old singer reminds her of a young Michael Jackson.

“I think of you during the opening number with the head banging and the whole thing, I love that stuff. To me, you stole that number. And when you come out here with that type of control, because we know you can be some kind of off the rails in the best way, your voice really stands out above everybody’s else’s to me. It sounds like the sweetness of the young Michael Jackson, I hear hints of it. It’s so beautiful, you’re so blessed. You’re 16 and you blow me away,” she said.

Connick, meantime, advised Watson to forget stardom and work on her craft.

“I give you the award for the most consistently improving. I think you really listen to what we say. It was strong. One thing, this is non-performance related, I heard you say in the pre-performance package before how you’re on the road to stardom, we were always taught to work on our craft. Forget stardom Malaya. Put it out of your mind. Work on harmonies,” he said.

“Hang around with the piano, bass and guitar players and your tuba instructor and learn every note of every chord because with a voice, ears and attitude like you have, you really can become something great,” he continued.

On Thursday (Friday morning in Manila), the contestant with the lowest votes will be booted off the competition.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Ringo Starr puts his life on display in Grammy Museum exhibit

Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr put snapshots of his musical and creative life on display in a new exhibit, "Ringo: Peace & Love," which opened on Tuesday at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.

Starr, 72, was on hand at the exhibit, which offers an in-depth look at his career as he rose to fame with The Beatles.

Highlights include Starr's Ludwig drum kit, used during The Beatles' appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show," and the outfit he wore during the era of the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album, between 1966 and 1967.

Starr took Reuters on a tour of the exhibit, which will be open until March 2014, pointing out memorabilia from the height of "Beatlemania," beginning with the band's August 1965 performance at New York's Shea Stadium, which was attended by 55,600 people.

"After Shea, and Shea was the biggest audience, that was the first time anyone played a stadium and that we were like, 'wow,' Starr said. "People were talking about people screaming, but that is how it was. We got up, people screamed, we ended and they went home."

The Beatles, was formed by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Starr in Liverpool in the 1960s.

McCartney and Starr are the only surviving members, after Lennon was shot dead in New York in 1980 and Harrison died from lung cancer in 2001.

Nearly 50 years after The Beatles first arrived in the United States, Starr said he keeps busy and is working on adapting the Beatles' song "Octopus's Garden" into a children's picture book.

He is also releasing an e-book titled "Photograph" exclusively on Apple's iBookstore on Wednesday, which will lift the lid on a collection of previously unseen photographs of the Fab Four from his personal collection.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

The Beatles’ ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ resurfaces 45 years later: Once hated, now appreciated

Any work of art that everyone thinks stinks must have something going for it. Case in point: The Beatles' much-maligned, rarely seen TV movie “Magical Mystery Tour.”

It bombed on impact in December 1967, when it debuted on the BBC, killing any chance for an airing on American TV. While the 53-minute flick has had periodic limited release in the U.S. (including a VHS version in the late ’80s), many fans have never had the chance to see it.

Tuesday, 45 (!) years later, EMI is releasing the offending work on DVD and for the first time on Blu-Ray, with each version enhanced by scenes axed from the original flick, plus a scene-by-scene commentary by Sir Paul himself.

So howlingly bad was the reaction to “MMT” that, back in the day, the cute Beatle took the rare step of apologizing for it. “We goofed,” he told a reporter. “It was a challenge and it didn’t come off.”

In his new commentary, Paul says he now quite likes it and, I must say, so do I. It’s witty, freeing, and features six classic Beatles songs written back in ’67 just for the film — from the title track, with its killer backbeat, to the melancholy “Fool on the Hill.”






Even so, you can understand why the show got a “what-the?” reaction the first time around. The band had been riding high with “Sgt. Pepper,” released just six months before, and they’d set critics’ expectations into orbit with their two previous film works: “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help!” from ’64 and ’65, respectively. But those movies had been directed by the comedically sure Richard Lester. More, they had actual scripts. For “Magical Mystery Tour” the group decided to direct it themselves and, instead of a plot or written dialogue, McCartney presented to the players a circle with a dot on top. From there, they had to wing it.

As you’d expect, there’s no real plot, just a series of fantasies from various characters, as they roll down the English countryside in the colorful bus. Yet the stoner-like sprawl perfectly captures the sensibility of the then-burgeoning ’60s psychedelia. There’s a great, absurdist wit to the featured actors — especially Beatles regular Vincent Spinetti as a blitheringly insane military man. Of course, the Fab Four themselves have dead-on comic rhythm, making even their most throw-away lines hilarious.



McCartney’s new commentary pops with fun facts and sly asides. And there’s a priceless, once-suppressed scene of the classic band Traffic performing their single “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush.”

In his monologue, McCartney says the reason the film “makes no sense” is because nothing about the group made a lick of it at the time. But the way the Beatles translated that madness into zany gestures and smart song has a charm that couldn’t be more clear.

source: nydailynews.com

Beatles hits become mobile phone ringtones

SAN FRANCISCO -- Hits from The Beatles have finally joined the chorus of ringtones available for mobile phones.

Catchy 30-second snippets from more than two dozen of the famed 1960s British rock band's top tunes are available exclusive at Apple's online iTunes shop, a message Wednesday at official website thebeatles.com.

"Fans around the world can, for the first time, purchase ringtones for the Beatles' 27 UK and US #1 hits, exclusively on iTunes," the message announced.

"You can even assign your favorite tracks to your favorite people," it continued.

The ringtones were priced at $1.29 each and could be downloaded for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices. The list of Beatles songs included "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Let It Be."

The Beatles arrived on iTunes in November of 2010 after what late Apple's Steve Jobs described at the time as "a long and winding road."

A decade had been spent getting the music of "Fab Four" -- Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr -- released in digital form for Apple's wildly popular mobile devices.

The vast catalog of Beatles hits had been held back for years from Internet download sites amid legal squabbles, although their songs have long circulated as unlicensed downloads available from unlicensed peer-to-peer networks.

article source: interaksyon.com