sábado, 31 de diciembre de 2011

El nuevo álbum de Paul McCartney

www.zm.nu

Lo que encontrarás en el nuevo álbum de Paul McCartney

Publicado el 29 diciembre, 2011 por Juan Rebenaque   ZONA MUSICAL

El disco se titulará Kisses on the Bottom y ya conocemos los títulos de las canciones que contendrá.

Kisses on the Bottom será el título del décimo quinto álbum en solitario de Paul McCartney y el primero desde Memory Almost Full. (2007). Se pondrá a la venta el 7 de febrero.
Ha sido producido por Tommy LiPuma, que anteriormente trabajó con Miles Davis, Al Jarreau, Anita Baker, Natalie Cole, Claudine Longet, Dave Mason, The Yellowjackets, Michael Franks, Diana Krall, George Benson, Joe Sample o Dr. John. En Kisses on the Bottom también colaboran Diana Krall y su banda y grandes músicos de jazz como John Clayton. Además,Eric Clapton toca la guitarra en el primer single, My Valentine, y Stevie Wonder interviene en Only Our Hearts. Son las dos únicas canciones nuevas que el exbeatle ha compuesto para este disco. El resto son versiones de temas clásicos.
Kisses on the Bottom se grabó en los Capitol Studios de Los Angeles, en Nueva York y en Londres durante 2011 y contendrá estas canciones:
1. I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter (Fred E. Ahlert/Joe Young)
2. Home (When Shadows Fall)
3. It’s Only a Paper Moon (Harold Arlen/E. Y. Harburg/Billy Rose)
4. More I Cannot Wish You
5. The Glory of Love (Billy Hill)
6. We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)
7. Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive (Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer)
8. My Valentine (Paul McCartney)
9. Always (Irving Berlin)
10. My Very Good Friend the Milkman
11. Bye Bye Blackbird (Ray Henderson/Mort Dixon)
12. Get Yourself Another Fool
13. The Inch Worm
14. Only Our Hearts (Paul McCartney)

Paul McCartney Is 2012 MusiCares Person Of The Year

www.grammy.com

Paul McCartney Is 2012 MusiCares Person Of The Year

Legendary 14-time GRAMMY winner to be feted at benefit gala on Feb. 10, 2012

  • Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney, legendary singer/songwriter and 14-time GRAMMY winner (as well as Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement and Trustees Award recipient), will be honored as the 2012 MusiCares Person of the Year at its 22nd annual benefit gala, it was announced today by Neil Portnow, President/CEO of the MusiCares Foundation and The Recording Academy, and Scott Pascucci, Chair of the MusiCares Foundation Board. Proceeds from the dinner and concert — to be held in Los Angeles during GRAMMY Week on Friday, Feb. 10, 2012, two days prior to the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards — will provide essential support for MusiCares, which ensures that music people have a place to turn in times of financial, medical and personal need. For ticket information, contact MusiCares at 310.392.3777.
The legendary performer is being honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year in recognition of his singular creative accomplishments as well as his charitable work, which has included an extraordinary range of philanthropic activities over the years.
"Paul McCartney exemplifies the phrase 'artist/philanthropist,' and his extraordinary career is certainly a testament to the multifaceted power of his creative genius," said Portnow. "The unique talent, dedication and spontaneity he brings to his projects and live performances are unsurpassed, but are equaled by the impressive generosity and commitment he consistently devotes to a range of important charitable causes."
"Paul immediately brings to mind artistic excellence and passion for causes that are dear to him," said Pascucci. "It is very inspiring that one of music's true icons makes philanthropy such a force in his life."
"I've been given a great gift — a life making music — and it's my privilege to try to make the world a better place by giving back," said McCartney. "For more than 20 years, MusiCares has helped so many music people in times of crisis — whether with emergency financial assistance or access to addiction recovery resources — and it is an honor to be recognized as the 2012 MusiCares Person of the Year."
The 2012 MusiCares Person of the Year gala will begin with a reception and silent auction offering an exclusive and unparalleled selection of luxury items, VIP experiences and one-of-a-kind celebrity memorabilia for bidding guests. The reception and silent auction will be followed by a dinner, the award presentation and a star-studded tribute concert. The MusiCares Person of the Year tribute ceremony is one of the most prestigious events held during GRAMMY Week. The celebration culminates with the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards at Staples Center on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012. The telecast will be broadcast live on the CBS Television Network at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Paul McCartney has been directing the tide of musical history since writing his first song at the age of 14. He changed the world of music forever with the Beatles, whose legendary albums include Abbey RoadRevolverHelp!Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and The Beatles ("The White Album"). McCartney has continued to push boundaries over the last 30 years, first as a solo artist, then with Wings (with albums such as Band On The Run and Wings At The Speed Of Sound) and following that as a solo artist again, with recent highlights including 2007's Memory Almost Full. In 2008 he received high critical acclaim as part of the Fireman, a collaborative project with revered producer Youth, and their Electric Arguments album, which topped Billboard's Independent Albums chart. McCartney is also an accomplished award-winning classical composer. His classical album, Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart), was released in September 2006 and won the Album of the Year Award at the 2007 Classic BRIT Awards, while his first ever ballet, Ocean's Kingdom, will be performed for the first time by the New York City Ballet on Sept. 22, with the release of its score following in October.
McCartney's many distinctions include a special award for Outstanding Contribution to Music at the 2008 BRIT Awards, an MTV Icon Award, multiple GRAMMY Awards, the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, GQ's Man of the Year, and an honorary doctorate of music from Yale University, among others. As he received his diploma, Yale President Richard C. Levin told him, "Your songs awakened a generation, giving a fresh sound to rock and roll, and rhythm and blues. We admire your musical genius and your generous support of worthy causes." He is a freeman of the City of Liverpool and lead patron of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. McCartney was appointed fellow of the Royal College of Music in 1995 by the Prince Of Wales, and in 1996 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to music. McCartney is also committed to a number of animal rights and humanitarian charities. He has also participated in several significant benefit concerts, including Live Aid in 1985, the Concert for New York City in 2001 and Live 8 in 2005.

Equally renowned as a live performer as he is a songwriter, McCartney has spent much of the last decade performing sold-out concerts to millions of people all over the world, winning rave reviews along the way. Standout moments in 2003 included his performance to more than 500,000 people outside the Colosseum in Rome and his first show in Red Square, Moscow. In 2004 he gave the Glastonbury Festival its most legendary moment to date, and 2005 saw him making history again as he performed live to the International Space Station to wake up NASA astronauts. McCartney performed a string of secret and surprise gigs in intimate venues in London, New York, Los Angeles, and Paris throughout 2007.

In 2008 McCartney performed a series of special event concerts. He started by headlining the Liverpool Sound concert at Anfield Stadium, and then gave the Ukraine its largest-ever outdoor music event in Kiev with more than 400,000 people lining the street to watch his Independence Concert. He found time to join Billy Joel onstage for the Last Play at Shea show in July, marking the last concert at New York's famous Shea Stadium, and then travelled to the city of Quebec for yet another huge headline-making event as he performed to 300,000 people in the city's national park, the Plains of Abraham, to help celebrate Quebec's 400th anniversary. In September McCartney played his Friendship First concert in Tel Aviv, marking his first visit to Israel since the Beatles were banned from performing there at the height of Beatlemania in the '60s.

McCartney kicked off 2009 by teaming with Dave Grohl to perform "I Saw Her Standing There" at the 51st Annual GRAMMY Awards, where he was nominated for two awards, adding to his lifetime total of 71 GRAMMY nominations. McCartney embarked on a five-week tour of the United States, which began with an inaugural run of shows at New York's Citi Field — the site of the former Shea Stadium where the Beatles made history in 1965 when they played a concert that set the precedent for the modern-day stadium rock show. These shows were immortalized on a special CD/DVD package, Good Evening New York City. In October McCartney announced a special eight-date European tour in December, titled Good Evening Europe. The tour began in Hamburg, Germany, a place that McCartney originally visited with the Beatles almost 50 years before, putting it on the map as a musical mecca. The tour came to a memorable finale at the O2 arena in London, his only UK show of 2009.
McCartney's Up And Coming Tour kicked off in March 2010 in Phoenix, featuring 35 shows — including two sold-out dates at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Last year also saw many career firsts for McCartney, including performing at the White House in front of the President as the first-ever British recipient of the prestigious Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Paul was joined by a star-studded cast of musicians who came along to pay tribute, including Elvis Costello, Grohl and Stevie Wonder. President Obama addressed the assembled VIP guests and dignitaries in the East Room, telling them that Paul's "gifts have touched billions of lives" and thanking "the Englishman who shared his dreams with us." He returned to the White House again in December to be awarded at the 33rd Annual Kennedy Center Honors, with the president joking that McCartney was becoming something of a regular there.

McCartney's 2011 live agenda began with his first-ever show in Peru, and two blockbuster shows at Rio de Janeiro's Estádio Olimpico João Havelange, which also resulted in the first-ever concert to be broadcast live on the Internet throughout Latin America — allowing more than 1.5 million online fans tickets to share in the show's magic. McCartney's current On The Run tour kicked off with New York's music event of the summer: two historic sold-out July shows at Yankee Stadium that kept approximately 90,000 fans singing along for nearly three hours each night and generated possibly the most enthusiastic reviews ever penned by the local media.

McCARTNEY IS MUSICARES' MAN

www.maccareport.com

December 29, 2011 -- Pasadena Star News

McCARTNEY IS MUSICARES' MAN
Paul McCartney will be the Grammy's charitable wing, MusiCares' Person Of The Year and he and his longtime backup band will headline its gala award bash on Feb. 10 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. So far, it's his only set concert date of 2012. 

Harrison Exclusive Tribute

www.britishbeatlesfanclub.co.uk

THURSDAY, 29 DECEMBER 2011

Harrison Exclusive Tribute



The BBFC has produced an exclusive 80-page A4 size full-colour magazine, HARRISON EXCLUSIVE, a tribute magazine with a difference.

Packed with features by top quality writers, including some of those who knew George personally, HARRISON EXCLUSIVE covers George's life and career, from his childhood through to his untimely passing in 2001.
 

Post and packing for this item: UK £2.50, Europe £3.50, ROW £5.00

Special offer for BBFC members in UK and Europe: £4.50 including postage and packing.

To order your copy, visit the 
BBFC Shop


However, there was so many people with fabulous memories of George that we couldn't fit all of them into the magazine.  Here, as a BBFC Website Exclusive, is a wonderful contribution from Spencer Leigh.

TALKING GEORGE HARRISON
By Spencer Leigh
Over the past 30 years I have been fortunate enough to interview music personalities for my BBC Radio Merseyside programme, On The Beat. Invariably, I seek out any Beatle connections and if there aren’t any, I ask for a favourite Beatles track. It sounds as though I do my interviews on autopilot but by asking for a favourite Beatles track, I find I receive all kinds of different answers and they are rarely the same. By way of a tribute to George, here are some comments from my guests about George Harrsion.
Session guitarist and former member of Wings, Laurence Juber told me, “When I worked with George Harrison, he told me that when he was 13, he had some jazz guitar lessons from someone on the boats who was familiar with Django Reinhardt. Those diminished chords that George uses came from Django, so he was a very sophisticated guitar player.”
Chris Curtis, drummer with the Searchers: “George was wonderful on the guitar. His little legs would kick out to the side when he did his own tunes. He’d go all posh and say, ‘I’d like to do a tune now from Carl Perkins, ‘Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby’, and it’s in A.’ Who wanted to know what key it was in? But he always said that.”
Billy Kinsley of the Merseybeats: “The Beatles sang ‘A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues’ in unison and then broke into a little harmony with some backing vocals from George. ‘Some Other Guy’ was also in unison and it became a Liverpool thing to sing in unison. George had a monotone Scouse accent and he sang like that when doing harmonies, which was the perfect way to do it. You wanted that in there because John and Paul were so melodic. That was good luck – they thought, ‘Doesn’t it sound great?’ and did it.”
With The Beatles contained the first George Harrison song, the sulky and self-protective ‘Don’t Bother Me’. Bill Harry, the editor of the Mersey Beat newspaper, says, “When everyone was going on about the Lennon-McCartney partnership, I felt that the others should come to the fore in some creative way. I kept on at George Harrison by saying, ‘Look, the first original number the Beatles ever recorded was one of yours, ‘Cry for a Shadow’ in Hamburg, so why don’t you write some more?’ He would say, ‘I can’t be bothered.’ That led to him writing ‘Don’t Bother Me’ ’cause I was always on his back. When I met him after its release, he said, ‘Thanks very much. I’ve already made £7,000 in royalties.’”
In the US, George Harrison bought a 12-string guitar, which he used in A Hard Day’s NightRoger McGuinn of the Byrds: “George Harrison was playing a Rickenbacker 12 string and he gave me the idea for getting one too. His method of playing lead was to play up and down the G string as he got more punch out of it. I emulated that style and it sounded really good.”
Rory Gallagher: “I liked the Beatles a lot, particularly the way they revived an interest in Carl Perkins and Buddy Holly. Most of the string bending came from Paul, and John was a very powerful rhythm player. George Harrison was an underrated slide player, very accurate and very good in the Carl Perkins vein. He worked within the song and he had unusual phrases and didn’t fit into the Eric Clapton/ Jeff Beck area. He could play great ethnic rock’n’roll and rockabilly guitar.”
Music writer Paul Du Noyer: “George Harrison came out of Liverpool, unlike the other guitar heroes of British rock who were nearly all Home Counties boys like Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. They had been brought up on the blues but Liverpool was steeped in country music and so Chet Atkins was a bigger influence on George. You can hear that single note picking, rather than long, sustained blues notes, in his early work. It gave the Beatles a very different sound and once it was developed you get ‘Ticket To Ride’ and ‘Day Tripper’, which have very intricate guitar playing. George had taken what he had learnt and put it into a new dimension. The southern boys went for the blues and that developed into psychedelia and heavy rock.”
Neville Marten, lead guitarist with Marty Wilde’s Wildcats: “I was turned onto music by George Harrison. John and Paul were casual, easy-going musicians but George was very studious, always taking great care, and I thought, ‘That’s the guy I want to be’. It was said that the Stones could play and the Beatles could write songs but George Harrison played some lovely guitar on their records. The solo in ‘Something’ is a classic, a song within a song. ‘And I Love Her’ on the classical guitar is an absolute example of understanding an instrument as it relates to a song, which is what many guitarists fail to understand today.”
The Hollies recorded George’s song, ‘If I Needed Someone’ for a single: it scraped into the Top 20 but deserved to go higher. Allan Clarke: “The only Beatles number that the Hollies ever did was ‘If I Needed Someone’. It was written by George Harrison and we got slated for it. Even George said it was terrible and we didn’t like that ’cause it dented our egos. It was a lovely song that had the Hollies’ ingredients written all over it but somehow the public didn’t accept it. They accepted the Rolling Stones doing a Beatles song but not us.”
Graham Nash, also from the Hollies: “I was sad that George didn’t like it as we certainly didn’t want to upset him. We were honouring his songwriting and it was a great song and we did a good job of it. We did it a little too fast but the harmonies are pretty good.”
Barbara Dickson: “I recorded ‘If I Needed Someone’ in 2006 and I thought it was a very good song, very up-tempo and so not as fundamentally thoughtful as some of his songs. I sing it in concert in memory of George Harrison as he gets overlooked so much of the time. If he had been in another band, he could have been as big as Lennon or McCartney but he was overshadowed by them. He was such a sensitive soul and I love him for that.”
Ian McNabb, formerly of the Liverpool band, The Icicle Works: “George Harrison was into Chet Atkins and he was getting to be a really good guitarist around 1966. ‘Taxman’ can’t have sat too well with his Indian gurus as you’re not supposed to be bothered with worldly goods if you’re into Gita.”
Beatles historian, Mark Lewisohn: “I like ‘Taxman’ for several reasons. First and foremost, it’s George Harrison’s writing. He had been writing a few songs over the years and although they’re very pleasant, there’s nothing especially great about them. They hadn’t got the depth that Lennon and McCartney’s songs had but that changed with ‘Taxman’, which is a very clever composition and typically George Harrison because the stories of his fascination with money are legion. He always wanted to know what they were owed and what they were earning. The fact that they were paying a great deal in tax rankled George a lot more than it did Paul, John or Ringo, so he wrote this stinging song to show how bitterly he felt about it all and he rounded it off with some of the best playing on any Beatles record.”
Bill Nelson from Be Bop Deluxe: “I loved jazz guitar and I looked down a bit on the earlier Beatles stuff and then, when they did Rubber Soul and Revolver and became more experimental, they got my attention. Now I love the early stuff as well as I can see the value of it. I liked George Harrison as he was a big fan of Chet Atkins and he played a Gretsch Chet Atkins guitar which I lusted after when I only had cheap guitars. The productions were so inspiring. My all-time favourite is ‘Baby, You’re A Rich Man’. I just love the vibe of it.”
Actor Victor Spinetti: “I said to George Harrison, ‘I can’t get it together with Eastern music’, and he said, ‘Vic, don’t listen to it. Let it happen to you. Western music is all maths, but Eastern music is the flow and you can jump in and out whenever you want.’”

Mike Heron from the Incredible String Band: “I loved everything that George Harrison did. It’s very clever to write songs that are commercially acceptable and yet have spiritual messages. I’ve tried to do that but he was a master at it.”
EMI historian, Brian Southall: “‘Only A Northern Song’ was George’s dig at Northern Songs having his publishing. John and Paul as co-owners and directors and shareholders in Northern Songs earned almost as much as George Harrison did from his songs and that caused resentment. George felt he had been conned and it is true that he wasn’t given any independent advice. Seemingly, every lawyer and every accountant who advised the Beatles was retained by NEMS, which was Brian Epstein’s management company.”
Jackie Lomax from the Liverpool band the Undertakers recorded George’s song, ‘Sour MilkSea’: “I was signed to Apple Publishing with a view to writing songs for other artists to record. George Harrison heard my stuff and wanted me to work with him. I had to wait for him to come back from India where they had been with the Maharishi. George had written ‘Sour Milk Sea’ out there about the ages of the world. They believe that every 26,000 years, the world changes. In between there is a just a sour milk sea where nothing happens. It was a heavy driving rock song at a time when everyone was doing ballads and we thought it would be a hit. Apple released four singles on the same day and mine got lost in the crush.”
When Jackie Lomax’s album was issued on CD in 1991, Billy Kinsley from the Merseybeats was on the bonus cuts. “‘Going Back To Liverpool’ was great because George Harrison produced it. George was a wonderful producer as he was very methodical and never looked at his watch: he just wanted everything to be precisely right. Paul could be like that too, but he also went for feel. If it sounded okay, that was fine. ‘Going Back To Liverpool’ is a wonderful track and I remember doing the backing vocals with George, Billy Preston and Tim Rennick. That is when I realised how high George could get with his falsetto. We had a competition to see who could get the highest, but I can’t remember who won.”
Billy Kinsley also saw the animosity between the Beatles: “George Harrison had a big bar of Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut and he gave pieces to me, Pete Clarke and Derek Taylor. Paul McCartney walked in and saw us all eating chocolate and wanted some. George, very deliberately, put the last piece in his mouth. (Laughs) It’s childish, and I’ve done things like that in the Merseybeats, but Paul was really annoyed that George didn’t give him his last piece of Fruit and Nut. (Laughs)”
The film, Wonderwall, was a psychedelic love story starring Jane Birkin. Its director was Joe Massot: “I asked George at the opening of the Beatles’ boutique if he would like to do the music for Wonderwall. I told him that it was a silent film and his music would provide the emotion for the characters. Quincy Jones told me that it was the greatest soundtrack he had heard but the movie was too far out for some audiences. It did well in Londonthough.”
Donovan: “George introduced me to Indian music and he gave me a tambura, and it is still making music. I put it on ‘Hurdy Gurdy Man’ and it is the drone in between the verses. George did write a verse for that song, but because of the guitar solo, we didn’t include it on the record. I include it in my concerts now. Yeah, George.”
Billy Bob Thornton: “I like George Harrison’s songs, and ‘Here Comes The Sun’ is one of my favourite Beatles songs. It’s a fantastic song. George seized his chance on Abbey Road: ‘Quick, while the others aren’t looking!’”
Richie Havens: “I thought ‘Here Comes The Sun’ was the happiest, simplest, clearest wishing well for the world of all the songs that they had ever done. It is a message for all of us. The sun is going to come up tomorrow, no matter what. You’ve got to be prepared, it’s going to be all right. Things are not as hard as you’re making it. That was the message of the time that needed to be heard. I said that to George and he said, ‘It is a song about finding the light, the real light, the sun.’”
Donovan: “All psychedelia points to one thing and one thing only: there is a spiritual path that the world needs and it was the singers and painters and dancers and filmmakers and poets that presented this path to the world. Now the doors of perception are open and George pointed the way by singing, ‘Here comes the sun, And I say, It’s all right.’”
Louise Harrison: “George wasn’t particularly made up that Frank Sinatra had recorded ‘Something’. Once I was staying with him at the Plaza in New York and he spent the night hiding from Frank’s guys who were after him. Sinatra wanted him to write a whole album for him and he felt that these weren’t the sort of people you said no to.”
John York of the Byrds: “The power struggle helped George grow as an artist in a strange sense so that when he put out All Things Must Pass, everyone went ‘Wow’, because he had been held down.”
Alan White, whose drumming was featured on All Things Must Pass: “I don’t agree that George had copied the Chiffons’ ‘He’s So Fine’ for ‘My Sweet Lord’. That song changed so much in the studio and to me, it was and always will be legitimate. George was the sweetest guy in the world. A really, really great guy and he wouldn’t harm anyone or anything. The vibe and the atmosphere when we recorded ‘My Sweet Lord’ were incredible. We played music all day every day for three weeks and it was a great group of people.”
Joe Brown’s late wife, Vicki, was a fine singer in her own right, having an uncredited No.1 with J J Barrie on ‘No Charge’. Vicki Brown: “George lived five minutes away from us and when he was doing the soundtrack for Shanghai Surprise, he asked me to help to demo a song for Madonna. He had worked out some great harmonies and we did the duet. Two weeks later, the producers wanted Whitney Houston to do it instead, but he said, ‘I think you should do it.’ We sang it on the soundtrack but they didn’t release it as a single as the film flopped.”
Klaus Voormann recalled going to see George in 2001: “George Harrison was in Austria and he was in bad shape. It was a lovely day and the sun was shining and we were sitting outside. Olivia explained about his treatment and it took him ages to come down because he was so weak. He couldn’t get up easily and getting shaved and dressed was agony for him. He wore a gardening hat and he took it off and he had no hair, but he was happy. He was laughing. His concern was to make me feel good. It was the opposite of what I expected, that is, for me to try and make him feel good. He said, ‘If I die, that’s okay, and if I live on, that’s okay too. My body in not important, that is just my shell. My spirit will stay with you always.’ It was lovely that he felt like that and he wasn’t scared. He was still fighting for his life but he knew he was going somewhere better. If everybody could feel that way, it would be great.”
‘Goodnight, George’ at the end of Fate’s Right Hand by the singer/ songwriter Rodney Crowell is a reference to George Harrison. “We were rehearsing the song ‘This Too Will Pass’ and I got a phone call from my daughter Hannah who lives in Los Angeles and is an incredible Beatles fan. She was in tears because George had died. I went back and told Pat Buchanan and Michael Rhodes who were on the session with me and as we were recording the play-out at the end, I just said, ‘Goodnight, George’. It was just an emotional thing. We went into the control room and Pat had tears down his face and he said, ‘Do you realise how similar this song is to All Things Must Pass?’ I hadn’t thought about it until that moment, but he’s right. We left ‘Goodnight, George’ on the song and decided to end the record that way.”
Klaus Voormann remembered his final meeting with George Harrison: “That last day I met him, he had had a video of himself when he went to the dentist to have a tooth out and he was singing, ‘How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?’”

George special tribute in new magazine

www.examiner.com

George Harrison honored with special tribute in new magazine

Steve Marinucci

Beatles Examiner

December 29, 2011

The British Beatles Fan Club is paying tribute to the memory of George Harrison with a new 80-page magazine they've just published. 
The magazine features memories about the Quiet Beatle and contributions by Beatle authors and some who knew Harrison personally. Those featured are David Bedford("Liddypool"), Terry Bloxham, Michele Copp ("[Still Just] Four Liverpool Lads: A Mad Day Adventure Out"), Andy Davis ("The Beatles Files"), Peter Doggett ("You Never Give Me Your Money: The Battle For The Soul Of The Beatles"), Robert Downs, David Koppell, Jake Mills, Pete Nash, Martin O'Gornman, Dennis Taylor, Denise Theophilus and Ian Watts.
The magazine also includes a number of "thank yous," including to Pattie Boyd, who gave an exclusive interview for the issue, the Harrison family, Paul McCartney, Craig Smith and Paul Saltzman, who donated photographs for the issue. 
 
It can be ordered through the Fan Club's shop link. The cost is £4.99 ($7.69) plus postage (UK £2.50, Europe £3.50, rest of the world £5.00 ($7.70).
 
The club website includes an extra tribute not in the magazine by Liverpool author and Beatle expert Spencer Leigh, who includes thoughts on George from former Wings guitarist Laurence Juber, Billy Kinsley of the Merseybeats, Chris Curtis of the Searchers and others.

The cover of the new British Beatles Fan Club George Harrison tribute.
The cover of the new British Beatles Fan Club George Harrison tribute.
Credits: 
British Beatles Fan Club

FAB TWO IN FESTIVE REUNION

www.express.co.uk

FAB TWO IN FESTIVE REUNION

Friday December 30, 2011

By Daily Express Reporter

THERE was a Beatles reunion for the festive season when Sir Paul McCartney got together with Ringo Starr to exchange Yuletide gifts.
The two surviving bandmates met up for a quiet dinner at an exclusive Italian restaurant in London.

Ringo, 71, was the first to arrive at Cecconi’s in Mayfair just before 8pm on Wednesday. Macca, 69, arrived 10 minutes later – clutching a present the size of a thin book wrapped in shiny gold paper. Ringo – seen leaving with the gift later – was accompanied by his wife Barbara Bach, 64.

But Paul’s new bride Nancy Shevell, 51, whom he wed in a London civil ceremony in October, was not with him.

Both Beatles stars still perform regularly and each will be releasing solo albums in the New Year – Starr’s Ringo 2012 and, from McCartney, Kisses On The Bottom.
Story Image

Ringo Starr and his wife Barbara







BBC4 looks at the Beatles and Christmas

www.beatlesnews.com
BBC4 looks at the Beatles and Christmas tomorrow
Posted by Adam Forrest on Thursday, 12/29/11



Liverpool-born 1980s-era comedian Alexei Sayle hosts a 30-minute radio special about the Beatles at Christmas this weekend on BBC Radio 4.


In the half-hour radio show, Sayle takes on a musical journey through some of the Fab Four's special Christmas appearances. He meets with former Beatles publicist Tony Barrow to discover how the band recorded their seasonal fan-club messages and how they took to the stage for seasons of Christmas-themed concerts in 1963 and 1964 from supporting musicians such as Elkie Brooks and Barron Knights' bass guitarist Peter Langford. He also hears from film editor Roy Benson about the making of the group's 1967 Christmas TV special Magical Mystery Tour.

The show airs from 3:30 pm to 4:00 pm on BBC Radio 4 tomorrow, Friday, December 30, with a repeat on BBC Radio 4 Long-Wave, and can also be heard online worldwide until Monday January 2nd.

Info thanks to the UK Radio Times.

domingo, 25 de diciembre de 2011

New look Beatles Yellow Submarine items coming in 2012

www.examiner.com

 New look Beatles Yellow Submarine items coming in 2012

Steve Marinucci

Beatles Examiner
December 23, 2011
Beatles fans who are Yellow Submarine collectors will have plenty to celebrate in the New Year. Here are some exclusive pictures of some new Yellow Submarine model figures of each Beatle that we're told will hit stores in the U.S. early in 2012. 
You can almost call the new models a remastered version of the originals as they sport a much more modern look. 
Sources tell us these will be on the shelves in mid to late January and will have a suggested retail price of $19.98. The items are already in production and only need to be assembled.
 
Items to come later in the year include a model submarine and "a lot more cool stuff." 
 
A planned 3D remake of the '60s movie was scuttled in March. There have been rumors that the DVD is coming back into print, but there is no word of a reissue as of yet. 
A look at the new Ringo Starr Yellow Submarine model.
A look at the new Ringo Starr Yellow Submarine model.
Credits: 
Apple Corps Ltd.

Yellow Submarine 2012
Yellow Submarine 2012
Yellow Submarine 2012
Yellow Submarine 2012

The greatest musician on the planet

www.dailymail.co.uk

The greatest musician on the planet: An awestruck JAN MOIR joins 69-year-old Paul McCartney as he completes an exhausting world tour


By JAN MOIR
24th December 2011

Before the concert begins, he stands in the shadows just to the left of the stage. In his lifetime, he has played more than three thousand shows just like this. Some bigger, some smaller, but all of them to a devoted following whose fidelity has never waned. 
For over half a century, he has walked out, again and again, into the heat of the spotlights and the unceasing roar of the crowd. For decades, each public appearance has been greeted with fans shouting: ‘Paul, Paul, Paul!’ It haunts his every entrance and exit. He must hear it in his sleep. 
In an era of overnight sensations, of pygmy careers, of the instant but cheap gratifications of here-today-gone-tomorrow stars, his fame resonates with a unique density. Paul McCartney is, without question, the most popular musician on the planet. 
Songwriter extraordinaire: Sir Paul McCartney returned to his hometown Liverpool at the close of his exhaustive world tour
Songwriter extraordinaire: Sir Paul McCartney returned to his hometown Liverpool at the close of his exhaustive world tour
He has written more hit songs than anyone else. His endless list of classic and enduring tunes unfurls like one long sonic boom of greatness, from She Loves You to Yesterday and beyond.  
Whenever he travels abroad, people come up to him to tell him that they first learned to speak English through listening to Beatles songs. That in itself would be an incredible legacy, but that is only the start of it.  
Of course, all of this has made him fantastically rich. He could retire comfortably without ever picking up a plectrum or tapping a toe again. Yet there he is, at the age of 69, still waiting in the wings for his cue, eager as a cub. 
And then, suddenly, he is on stage, moving swiftly towards the microphone, absorbing the roars of his 11,000-strong home-town crowd in Liverpool. 
You can see that it means just as much to him as it does to them. 
In his smart suit with its Nehru collar, a pink shirt and a pair of Beatles boots, Macca still cuts a remarkably lithe figure. 
Still at it: The Beatles legend is 69 but still as eager to perform as ever
Still at it: The Beatles legend is 69 but still as eager to perform as ever
All those lentils, all those decades of tofu and meat-free sausages, all that yoga in the Seventies — all of  it has served him well. Really, he looks amazing.  
His backlit, hazelnut bouffant glows like an eclipse. He stamps out the rhythm with his Cuban heels, his trusty Höfner bass guitar is strapped on, ready for action. 
With a new gold wedding ring glinting on his left hand, he cranks out the chords for Hello, Goodbye — and the last concert of Paul McCartney’s six-month On The Run world tour is under way.   
Whatever way you look at it, this has been an incredible year for Sir Paul McCartney. It has been a long and winding road to happiness, but 2011 finds him, as he might say, in a very good place. 
All his children and his eight grandchildren are happy and well, his tour encompassed sold-out concerts from South America to Russia — and he even managed to get married as well.
His wedding this summer to American trucking heiress Nancy Shevell marked a turning point in Macca’s turbulent affairs of the heart. What a time he has had! 
Home to roost: The singer was warmly received in Liverpool
Home to roost: The singer was warmly received in Liverpool
That difficult second marriage to Heather Mills may have resulted in a much-loved eight-year-old daughter, Bea, but the torrid divorce in the London courts in 2008 gave a glimpse into a difficult and tempestuous relationship. 
There must have been moments when being married to Heather was like being shackled to a lunatic in one of the darker corners of Bedlam. It is amazing that he has emerged, relatively unscathed, ready to love again.
Yet here he is, all smiles as he straps on a different guitar to play Paperback Writer — the very guitar he wrote it on back in 1966.  
His new wife is watching in the wings. Later, he will take her on a tour of  the Liverpool he grew up in, the humble terraced houses and grotty rehearsal rooms where it all began. He goes back to his roots every time he comes home to Liverpool — it’s almost as if he can’t believe it himself.
With one of the greatest back catalogues at his fingertips, the hits keep coming on stage. Junior’s Farm, All My Lovin’, Jet, Baby You Can Drive My Car. He plays Something on the ukulele in memory of George Harrison, and he pays generous tribute to John Lennon. 
Humble beginnings: Sir Paul took his wife on a tour of the Liverpool he grew up in, the humble terraced houses and grotty rehearsal rooms where it all began
Humble beginnings: Sir Paul took his wife on a tour of the Liverpool he grew up in, the humble terraced houses and grotty rehearsal rooms where it all began
Fleetingly, Macca finds himself coming slightly unstuck with the niceties of reacquainting himself with a Liverpool audience.  
He is taken aback when a whimsical anecdote involving the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge — greeted with applause and cheering in London — is received by a loud chorus of boos. 
The same thing happens when he mentions his old friend Cilla Black. ‘Whaaat?’ he cries, amazed. 
‘What? If that gets back to her . . . oh!  I won’t tell her if you don’t. What a night, Liverpool. The royals and Cilla getting booed.’
In the comfort zone of his rich, hippy lifestyle and plush homes around the globe, McCartney is not to know that Cilla’s great sin in the city is to have once voiced admiration of Margaret Thatcher and to appear to have more than a smidgeon of sympathy with Conservative politics. That’s enough to ensure she is despised in her home town.  
McCartney is much more prudent. He always has been. 
He supports Liverpool and Everton football teams and he is both founder and generous benefactor of the Liverpool Institute For The Performing Arts. He may still be in demand all over the globe — but he makes sure he comes back every year to present the end-of-term prizes. 
Endurance: McCartney plays non-stop for nearly three hours, with only one brief ¿costume change¿ ¿ when he takes his jacket off and rolls up his sleeves
Endurance: McCartney plays non-stop for nearly three hours, with only one brief ¿costume change¿ ¿ when he takes his jacket off and rolls up his sleeves
Meanwhile, on stage at the Liverpool Echo Arena, he moves on to safer ground. ‘Let’s hear it for 
John,’ he shouts. ‘Let’s hear it for George.’
The pace is frantic. The hits just keep on coming. 
He plays Let It Be and Maybe I’m Amazed at the piano. The opening notes of Eleanor Rigby are as poignant as ever, sounding as if it was written yesterday. Penny Lane has a wistful resonance all of its own. 
I can almost forgive him for playing  Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, and note that when he plays the occasional new song, there is a rush for the bar. Live And Let Die is accompanied by denture-rattling pyrotechnics. Get Back still hammers along with the usual driving confidence.  
The powerhouse band rock on. ‘We don’t even stop for a glass of water,’ the drummer will say later. 
By the end of the evening, McCartney will have played non-stop for nearly three hours, with only one brief ‘costume change’ — when he takes his jacket off and rolls up his sleeves. 
Liverpool means a lot to McCartney. All the earlier songs — some would say his greatest — are rooted here. Penny Lane, Eleanor Rigby; their presence is everywhere in this amazing town. 
Liverpool's sons: Paul McCartney with John Lennon in Manhattan, New York, 1964
Liverpool's sons: Paul McCartney with John Lennon in Manhattan, New York, 1964
In the city centre, you drive past the register office where John married his first wife Cynthia — a handsome stone building with a yellow door which is now a refuge for asylum seekers. 
Brian Epstein’s one-time home is around the corner, opposite a cosmetic surgery clinic that specialises in breast implants and nose jobs. 
George Harrison grew up in a tiny cul de sac of back-to-back houses. There is local uproar because developers want to tear down Ringo Starr’s former home. A few miles south of the Echo Arena, McCartney’s childhood home is now a tourist attraction run by The National Trust. 
From there, he would get the No 86 bus into town to play lunchtime sessions at the Cavern Club in Mathew Street.  
McCartney has recently revealed that they didn’t expect The Beatles to last ten years. They thought the success might last for a couple of years at most. ‘Yet, ten, 20, now it is coming up for 50 years,’ he said recently.
The multi-millionaire has surely earned a Christmas rest. But he has also just announced another new solo album, due for release next February. It features his old pal Eric Clapton on guitar and jazz singer Diana Krall.
He has also just released a single, a beautiful love song called My Valentine, written for his new wife. 
What is the enduring appeal of McCartney and The Beatles? The simple but brilliant songs that speak of love and hark back to a simpler time, and McCartney‘s knack of being able to express complex emotions simply. 
For the thousands who have trudged here tonight, shaking the winter rain from their coats as they pack the arena, that’s the secret of the magic.