www.breitbart.com Watch: Hillary and Bill Clinton Dance with Paul McCartney at Fundraiser by CHARLIE SPIERING 31 Aug 2016 Aging rocker Paul McCartney took the stage at a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton — and even asked her to dance, according to a reporter who was present. “This is the first time I’ve paid to hear myself sing,” McCartney joked wryly during the event that included performances from Jimmy Buffett and Jon Bon Jovi. A video posted on Instagram shows Bill and Hillary Clinton clapping and swaying to McCartney’s performance of “Hey Jude”:
McCartney also performed “Jet,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” and “Lady Madonna,” while Buffett played some of his favorite songs, like “Cheeseburger in Paradise.” Bon Jovi performed “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” and teamed up with Buffett for a rendition of “Brown Eyed Girl.” The group also joined Buffett singing his famous hit “Margaritaville.” According to CNN’s Dan Merica, Clinton raised an estimated $3.7 million at the event.
www.thv11.com Clinton Center announces temporary Beatles exhibit KTHV Digital , KTHV August 29, 2016 CREDIT: Getty Images LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) - On October 8, the Clinton Presidential Center will debut Ladies and Gentlemen… The Beatles!, a temporary exhibit celebrating the fascination America has had with “Beatlemania.” “This exhibit is more than a tribute to John, Paul, George, and Ringo; it’s a testament to the transformative power of music,” said Stephanie S. Streett, executive director of the Clinton Foundation. “We are thrilled to partner with the Grammy Museum and share the story of how four lads from Liverpool landed on American soil and changed the landscape, forever.” This exhibit will explore the impact The Beatles’s arrival had on American pop culture, including fashion, art, advertising, media and music. The exhibit will focus on the height of Beatlemania in the United States (February of 1964 until September of 1966); however, the exhibit will also include the band’s early days in the United Kingdom (1960-1963), as well as their post-touring years (1967-1970.) More than 400 pieces of memorabilia, including records, rare photographs, tour artifacts, videos, and instruments will be on display throughout the Clinton Center. The Beatles! will also include a sign-along booth where guests can record their own version of “Yellow Submarine.” Additionally, Clinton Center guests can recreate the iconic “Abbey Road” album cover as they walk in front of a giant wall graphic of the famous zebra striped street. Both interactive experiences are offered at no additional charge and guests are encouraged to share their Beatle moments via social media. The exhibit closes April 2, 2017.
wogew.blogspot.com New Candlestick Park footage Posted by Roger Stormo Tuesday, August 30, 2016 The Beatles at Candlestick Park, Aug 29, 1966. According to the latest issue of Mojo, there’s unseen 1966 Candlestick Park footage in the new "Eight Days A Week" documentary. "We got it from an old lady who had a box of film under her bed. She said, ‘I sat in the 6th row, and I shot this footage.’ We digitally transferred it, we were the first people to ever watch it!" Yesterday, a bit of that footage was used by The Beatles to commemorate 50 years since that final concert for a paying audience. This short film features both scenes from The Beatles' at the stadium in 1966 and Paul McCartney’s ’Farewell to Candlestick: The Final Concert’ in August 2014. Rolling Stone also chose to remember the concert on their website.
www.rollingstone.com Remembering Beatles' Final Concert Hear recording of group's fateful Candlestick Park show, which concluded doomed 1966 U.S. tour By Jordan Runtagh Aug 29 2016 The Beatles took the stage for the last time ever on August 29th, 1966, marking the end of a disastrous final tour. Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images Touring was killing the Beatles by 1966. Perhaps not literally, but that seemed like less of a guarantee with each passing day. A trip to Asia that July ended with a frightening incident in the Philippines, when an inadvertent snub of the dictatorial first family provoked a nationwide turn against the foursome. Their entire police detail was suddenly withdrawn and the Beatles were left to defend themselves against a hoard of angry nationalists who manhandled them all the way to the airport. Only after being stripped of concert proceeds were they permitted to leave the country. Following the harrowing ordeal, no one was particularly thrilled about having to hit the road again for a U.S. tour the following month. "We're going to have a couple of weeks to recuperate before we go and get beaten up by the Americans," George Harrison cracked with more than a touch of resentment. The off-the-cuff joke turned to a horrifying reality when a supposedly anti-religious statement made my John Lennon ignited a firestorm among Bible-toting zealots south of the Mason-Dixon line. They torched Beatles albums, boycotted songs and unleashed a torrent of death threats. Fresh bullet holes on the fuselage of the band's plane cleared up any doubts: They were in harm's way. But it wasn't just the physical danger. The Beatles were dying as musicians. Playing for a crowd had once been their lifeblood, but fame had robbed them of everything that made it joyful and fulfilling. The sporting arenas were too big and the screams of an adoring audience were too loud for the 100-watt Vox amplifiers to manage. Stadium rock was in its infancy, and even basic equipment like foldback speakers had yet to be invented. Unable to hear themselves, their musicianship began to atrophy. "In 1966 the road was getting pretty boring," Ringo Starr recalled in the Beatles Anthology documentary. "It was coming to the end for me. Nobody was listening at the shows. That was OK at the beginning, but we were playing really bad." Perched in the back on his drum kit, he was reduced to following the three wiggling backsides at the front of the stage just to determine where they were in the song. At least the audience couldn't hear how ragged they had become – not that they would have cared. "The sound at our concerts was always bad. We would be joking with each other on stage just to keep ourselves amused," remembered Harrison in the Anthology. Lennon took particular delight in making vaguely obscene alterations to their song lyrics ("I Wanna Hold Your Gland"), knowing full well that no one had any clue what he was saying. "It was just a sort of a freak show," he later said. "The Beatles were the show, and the music had nothing to do with it." The boredom of playing the same dozen songs each day also began to grate on the group's notoriously short attention span. Making matters worse, most of the tunes were several years old. Much of their recent work was enhanced by backing musicians and innovative studio techniques, making it simply too challenging to perform given the technical limitations of a live setting. In fact, the Beatles would never play a single track off of their latest album, Revolver, released just days before they kicked off their dates. Neither they nor the audience could hear anything, they weren't improving their skills, they weren't promoting their new music, and they weren't enjoying themselves. They certainly didn't need the money, so why were they doing this? The question was on everyone's mind during the 1966 U.S. tour, a cursed excursion beset by a string of unmitigated disasters. The Klu Klux Klan, still outraged over Lennon's "bigger than Jesus" comment, picketed some gigs, while other shows competed with nearby race riots. A firecracker exploded during their Memphis concert, causing the band to momentarily believe that a gunman finally made good on the assassination threats. Biblical rains at an open-air concert in Cincinnati put the band in the unenviable position of either canceling the show and potentially instigating a riot among the 35,000 expectant fans, or performing as scheduled amid the very real risk of electrocution. "It was really scary," Nat Weiss, the band's attorney, told author Philip Norman. "The crowd kept screaming, 'We want the Beatles!' and Paul grew so upset at the prospect of going out there that he was sick. The strain was too great. And he threw up in the dressing room." After roadie Mal Evans received a shock severe enough to throw him across the stage, the show was postponed until the next day. "The only gig we ever missed!" noted a proud Harrison. After playing the makeup show that afternoon, the Beatles flew to St. Louis, where they were confronted with another rainy catastrophe. The makeshift shelter hastily constructed in the open-air Busch Stadium did little to guard against the elements. "They put bits of corrugated iron over the stage, so it felt like the worst little gig we'd ever played at even before we'd started as a band," remembered Paul McCartney. "We were having to worry about the rain getting in the amps and this took us right back to the Cavern days. It was worse than those early days." Barry Tashian of the Remains, a support act on the tour, has a particularly vivid memory of the ramshackle setup. "Our roadie, Ed Freeman, was stationed at the main AC connection to watch the performance and unplug the whole stage if anyone showed signs of an electric shock," he wrote in his memoirs. "There were sparks flying all over the place," Freeman confirms. "I remember that every time Paul bumped into the mic, which was almost every beat, there were sparks." It would get worse. Fans rushed the field during their performance at Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium, leading to an ugly clash with billy-club-wielding police. Twenty-five were arrested and dozens more injured. It took two hours for authorities to restore some semblance of order, during which time the band were imprisoned in their dressing room. "The getaway car we hoped to use was severely damaged and put out of action," wrote Tony Barrow, the Beatles' press officer, in his book John, Paul, George, Ringo & Me. "All four boys were on the point of despair and we were discussing the possibility that our party might have to stay cooped up at the stadium overnight. Ringo broke the ensuing silence by saying in a small voice: 'Can I please go home to my mummy now, please can I?'" Three attempts to ferry the superstars out of the premises using decoy limos and even ambulances failed before they were finally hustled into a tank-like armored car. For McCartney, the most gung-ho live performer, this was the last straw. "I remember us getting in a big empty steel-lined wagon, like a removal van. There was no furniture in there – nothing. We were sliding around trying to hold on to something, and at that moment everyone said, 'Oh, this bloody touring lark – I've had it up to here, man.'" Luckily, they only had one show left. The next day, August 29th, 1966, they were scheduled to play San Francisco's Candlestick Park. McCartney just wanted to get it over with. "It wasn't fun anymore. And that was the main point: We'd always tried to keep some fun in it for ourselves. In anything you do you have to do that, and we'd been pretty good at it. But even now America was beginning to pall because of the conditions of tour, and because we'd done it so many times. So by Candlestick Park it was like, 'Don't tell anyone, but this is probably our last gig.'" The Beatles' chartered jet touched down at San Francisco International Airport at 5:30 the next evening. Rather than the familiar sight of screaming fans, only a police detail and unenthusiastic members of the local press were there to meet them. "The vibe from the boys was one of anticipation of the final show," said Tashian. "They looked visibly relieved to know they'd be on their way home soon." The Beatles arrive at San Francisco International Airport on August 29th, 1966. AP A bus took the party straight to the stadium, home to San Francisco's Giants baseball team. Unfortunately, they found the gates bolted shut. "All of us on the bus were laughing like crazy," remembers Tashian. "The driver headed to the outermost perimeter of the parking lot and began driving faster and faster around the park to escape the fans. Suddenly, in an attempt to get away from a growing convoy of fans following the bus, he exited the parking lot and drove around the neighborhood near the park. We were cruising around residential streets, nearly getting lost." Once safely inside, the Beatles descended into the locker rooms, which had been outfitted with minor luxuries to serve as their private dressing area. "There was a white tablecloth, a little bit of food, some beer and some soft drinks," says newspaper photographer Jim Marshall. Local KYA Radio DJ "Emperor" Gene Nelson, the show's master of ceremonies, describes a convivial scene. "The dressing room was chaos. There were loads of people there. The press tried to get passes for their kids and the singer Joan Baez was in there. Any local celebrity who was in town was in the dressing room. They were having a party in there." Reporters able to sweet talk their way inside were given a brief audience with members of the band. One was heard to quiz Lennon about borrowing ideas from baroque composers. "I don't know what baroque is," he replied. "I wouldn't know a Handel from a Gretel." The festivities began at 8 p.m., with the crowd rising to their feet while a local band played the National Anthem. Many rustled promotional flyers reading "The Monkees Are Here," which NBC-TV distributed by the thousands to trumpet their new show about a mop-topped band premiering September 12th. Unusually, only 25,000 seats were sold in the 42,500-capacity stadium, with tickets retailing for between $4.50 and $6.50. The faithful who arrived early decorated the railings, front walls, and chain-link backstop with homemade posters honoring their heroes. One particularly irreverent Beatlemaniac hung a sign proclaiming "Lennon Saves." There are few roles more thankless than an opening act at a Beatles concert in 1966, but the support bands struggled mightily to be heard against the fierce gusts of wind that blew in from San Francisco Bay, stirring up miniature dust storms across the infield. "It was not the sort of night you'd like to turn out for an outdoor concert," observed Barrow. "Emperor" Nelson concurred. "As any Giants fans will know, Candlestick Park in August, at night, was cold, foggy and windy." The Remains were the first to take the stage. "A wild sea wind was blowing in every direction," wrote Tashian. "The audience was about 200 feet away – much farther than usual. It made us feel extremely isolated from the audience." According to Marshall, the setting was a long way off from today's flashy pyrotechnics and Jumbotron extravaganzas. "The sound was pretty primitive and the lighting was just baseball lights." After the Remains finished their set, they stayed on the field to back Bobby Hebb, who sang his recent hit "Sunny" into the bitter cold and fog. Then came the Cyrkle, a band represented by the Beatles' own manager, Brian Epstein. They were riding high in the charts with "Red Rubber Ball," a tune co-written by Paul Simon. And finally there were the Ronettes, who had been friends with the Beatles since before their first trip to America. Although they hadn't had a Top 20 hit in three years, the two bands enjoyed each other's company and the Beatles brought them along. Lead singer Veronica Bennett was barred from the tour by her increasingly jealous boyfriend (and future Beatles producer) Phil Spector, who was paranoid that she would revive her dormant fling with Lennon. Bennett's cousin Elaine Mayes took her place. The Beatles kept the pre-show reverie going in their dressing room, but Tony Barrow detected something different in the air as they changed into their dark green Edwardian suits and silk floral shirts. He'd spent many years in their inner circle – in fact, it was he who coined the "Fab Four" moniker – but this was something he'd never felt before. "There was a sort of end-of-term spirit thing going on," he said decades later. "And there was also this kind of feeling amongst all of us around the Beatles, that this might just be the last concert that they will ever do." His suspicions were confirmed when McCartney sidled up to him just before show time. "I remember Paul, casually, at the very last minute saying, 'Have you got your cassette recorder with you?' I said, 'Yes, of course.' Paul then said, 'Tape it, will you? Tape the show.'" That had certainly never happened before. At 9:27, after the Ronettes had finished, four tiny figures bounded out of the Giants dugout and across the baseball diamond. They ushered in a wave of screams that an attending Joan Baez later described as "like clouds bursting." The Beatles were surrounded by a 200-member police guard, as well as a Loomis armored car, which was kept running behind the stage in case they had to make a quick get-away. They clutched cameras as well as guitars and drumsticks, snapping pictures of the grandstand for posterity. The elevated stage had been constructed at the edge of the infield over second base. As an added security measure, a chain-link fence surrounded the perimeter of the stage. Fittingly, the Beatles would quite literally play their 11-song, 33-minute set in a cage. As they plugged in their guitars and did a quick tune-up, Barrow got in position by the stage and held his tape recorder aloft. "Although I didn't fancy my chances of making a brilliant recording of the concert, one thing in my favor was the great distance between the stage and the stands at this particular venue," he explained. "Because of this, I guessed I might be able to capture sound from the stage without picking up too much of the nonstop screams and shouts of the fans coming from the stands." A quick shouted hello and the band were off into an abbreviated version of Chuck Berry's "Rock 'n' Roll Music," a mainstay of their set since their days (or rather, nights) as a club band playing the red-light Reeperbahn district of Hamburg, Germany, at the beginning of their career. Though lacking the energy they had then – they couldn't possibly be that hungry again – the Beatles attacked the old favorite with a bite that had largely been absent on the tour. Just this last time, they resolved to make an effort. Without stopping they launched into their funky B side, "She's a Woman," allowing McCartney to go into his finest soul-shouter routine before pausing to deliver one of his charmingly halting stage greetings. "Hello, good evening. We'd like to carry on with a song, not surprisingly, by, er, written by George. And this song was on our Rubber Soul LP. And the song is called 'If I Needed, er, Someone!'" Beyond contending with the wind, the band fought to be heard above their familiar nemesis: screams. It was like standing on a crowded runway with jets taking off on all sides. Along with guns, security guards had been issued cotton balls to stick in their ears in an attempt to ward off headaches. One concert attendee, Ellie Segal, watched a pair of clearly annoyed adults ask a shrieking teen if she'd like to be quiet and actually listen to the music. "She looked at them disdainfully and said, 'If I wanted to hear them I would buy their album.'" Another fan recalled seeing reporters ask a young girl why she was sobbing. "Because I love Paul and I can't tell him." The mania swelled as the show progressed. Five boys rushed the stage in the middle of "Baby's in Black," and more fans followed during "Nowhere Man." Still more invaded the stadium by climbing the enormously high centerfield fence. Clearly annoyed, the band eyed the armored truck. Just in case. For one introduction, McCartney took a playful, and un-PC, jab at Brian Epstein. "We'd like to do the next number now, which is a special request from all the backroom boys on this tour ... 'I Wanna Be Your Man!'" ("Backroom boy" was slang for "gay man," which Epstein was.) The band was likely unaware that their manager was still in Los Angeles at that very moment dealing with a major personal crisis: An ex-lover had stolen his briefcase filled with legally questionable pills, explicit homosexual love letters, steamy Polaroid photos of his young male friends and more than $20,000 in cash skimmed from concert proceeds to be handed out as a bonus to the band. If news of any one of these items leaked to the press, it would be more than enough to torpedo his reputation. So, to his lasting regret, the man who discovered the Beatles in a dank Liverpool cellar five years earlier missed what he knew would be their final show. The Beatles knew it too, and they decided to memorialize the occasion with a kind of graduation photo. "We placed our cameras on the amplifiers and put them on a timer," says Harrison. "We stopped between tunes, Ringo got down off the drums, and we stood facing the amplifiers with our back to the audience and took photographs. We knew: 'This is it – we're not going to do this again. This is the last concert.' It was a unanimous decision." As the final notes from "Paperback Writer" drifted past the crowd and into the bay, McCartney blurted out his final stage announcement with the mechanical mumble of a man who just turned in his notice. He doesn't even bother with the title. "We'd like to ask you to join in and, er, clap, sing, talk, do anything. Anyway, the song is ... good night." No one was listening, so they played the last number for themselves. It was a song that had made the journey with them from teenage social clubs to stadiums: Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally." It was their showpiece, remaining in their set list almost constantly throughout their career. It had been their opening song when they played the Litherland Town Hall in December 1960, later enshrined as ground zero for Beatlemania. Nearly six years later, it would bookend their touring life. John Lennon and Paul McCartney share a mic at Candlestick Park. Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images They held nothing back. They had no reason to. McCartney begins the song with an otherworldly shriek in an upper register usually reserved for later verses. This night he started in high gear, and there was nowhere to go but up. In his voice you could hear traces of a teenage boy bewitched by the sound of flamboyant pianist from Macon, Georgia. You could hear traces of the long nights in Hamburg. You could hear the weariness of years on the road. It was probably a performance for the ages. But we'll never be sure, because Barrow's tape cut out. Cassettes contained 30 minutes per side in 1966, and he was unable to flip it over to catch the end. Though devastating for Beatle fans not to have the final live song preserved in entirety, it's oddly poetic – like a cinematic cutaway that spares us the hero's final fall. It's best to remember them still playing. The song eventually ended and they were free. It was over. But the end of their touring career didn't offer the unbridled ecstasy they had anticipated. In fact, it was undeniably sad. Playing music for people was something the Beatles loved. It was what had brought them together all those years ago. Long before they became studio pioneers, performance was the band's ultimate joy. And now it was gone, taken from them by their fame. Lennon, the most vocal about quitting all this touring nonsense, paused on the stage for a moment, taking it all in. Those who were there that night insist they heard him play the delicate guitar riff from "In My Life," the introspective ballad about all he'd experienced and loved in his incredibly young life. The moment passed, and he ducked into the armored car bound for the airport, where the band was to fly back to Los Angeles. They had been in San Francisco for a grand total of five hours that day. "Right – that's it, I'm not a Beatle anymore!" George Harrison was heard to gleefully exclaim as he sank into his airplane seat and tossed back a well-deserved drink. "I didn't really project into the future," he recalled of his mindset three decades later. "I was just thinking, 'This is going to be such a relief – not to have to go through this madness anymore.'" McCartney was a little sunnier in his outlook. While speaking to Teen Set reporter Judy Sims, he outlined what he saw as the band's future. "We're not very good performers, actually. We're better in a recording studio where we can control things and work on it until it's right. With performing there's so much that can go wrong, and you can't go back over it and do it right." Their next release, 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, took five months to record. It was the longest they had ever spent on a project – but they got it right. As the Beatles' plane soared into the night sky, McCartney popped his head over the back of Tony Barrow's seat. "Did you get anything on tape?" he asked. Barrow handed him the cassette. "I got the lot, except that the tape ran out in the middle of 'Long Tall Sally.'" The Cute One was unconcerned. "Paul was clearly chuffed to have such a unique souvenir of what would prove to be an historic evening," said Barrow. "Back in London I kept the concert cassette under lock and key in a drawer of my office desk, making a single copy for my personal collection and passing the original to Paul for him to keep. Years later my Candlestick Park recording re-appeared in public as a bootleg album. If you hear a bootleg version of the final concert that finishes during 'Long Tall Sally' it must have come either from Paul's copy or mine, but we never did identify the music thief!" Barrow died in May 2016, just a few months before the 50th anniversary of the Candlestick Park concert. Thanks to his efforts, everyone can enjoy this historic show. It's guaranteed to raise a smile, and well worth the price of admission.
tpr.org All Songs +1: The Beatles Are Live And Sounding Better Than Ever By BOB BOILEN AUG 25, 2016 Officer Robert Yocum informs Beatle fans Chelie Mylott and Melody Yapscott, right, that they'll have to move from their spot in front of the Hollywood Bowl. The women had no tickets but hoped to get them from scalpers or sneak in. This photo was published in the Aug. 24, 1964 Los Angeles Times. JOHN MALMIN / LA TIMES VIA GETTY IMAGES Here's something I find remarkable: There are only three professionally made recordings of The Beatles playing live in concert. Sure, there are bootleg recordings that don't sound very good. And there's a single-microphone recording from the band's days performing in Hamburg in the early '60s, but that's it. All three professional recordings were done at The Hollywood Bowl. One is a performance from August 1964 and the other two from August of '65. And "professional" in the mid-'60s means they were recorded on three-track analog tape. That's the best they could do. Even the label, Capitol Records, concluded the recordings didn't sound good enough to release. They eventually did, but not until 1977, and even then the album they put out, The Beatles Live At The Hollywood Bowl, sounded just okay. All that's changed thanks to the remarkable work of Giles Martin, son of the legendary Beatles producer, George Martin. Using new technology, Giles Martin has brought new clarity to the recordings, more presence and reduced the overall roar of the crowd, a sound that was so loud it drowned out much of the band's performance. Give a listen to Martin's reworked version of "A Hard Day's Night." A Hard Days Night from Cesar Orihuela on Vimeo. This version of "A Hard Day's Night," and other songs from those Hollywood Bowl performances can be heard on a new release of The Beatles: Live At The Hollywood Bowl due out Sept. 9. There's also a new film directed by Ron Howard all about The Beatles live performances called The Beatles: Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years. On this +1 edition of All Songs Considered I talk with Giles Martin from his studios at Abbey Road about how he was able to make these old recordings sound so much better. You can hear our full conversation with the link above, or read edited excerpts below. Originally published on August 25, 2016 9:34 am Giles Martin on the limits of making live recordings in the 1960s "It's hard to think, now, about the technology they had then and how unprepared the world was for the onslaught of rock and roll. Really The Beatles were the first stadium band. When they went to Shea Stadium and played Shea Stadium and Vox [musical equipment] built special amplifiers, which were 100-watt amplifiers 'cause they thought that'd be able to cut it in Shea Stadium. [The Beatles] performed club gigs and then they took those club gigs and went and played stadiums. And no one thought about the sound. No one thought about the band being able to hear themselves. It's completely unrelated to a band going on tour now. I mean, The Beatles only had two or three roadies for the whole of that career. You think about road crews that follow Coldplay around now, it's vast. You have lighting guys, sound guys, video projection guys. And yet The Beatles were playing to 55-thousand people. It's so alien to the world, now. And it was deeply frustrating for them then, actually, because they couldn't even hear themselves." On how The Beatles were actually one of the all-time great live bands "The Beatles were such a huge live band. Someone asked me the other day if I thought they were a good live band and I said, 'Well listen to their records.' Because their first three or four albums were of them playing live anyway. I remember remixing 'Come Together,' which is much later on Abbey Road, and I remember playing it for Paul [McCartney] and he said to me, 'God, I remember how good we were on this day.' And they were playing live. 'Come Together' is a live recording. They could really cut it live. It was just muscle memory. It's the same as anything else. We all do different things and everyone's good at something. They were just very good at playing their instruments and they just had muscle memory so they could sing and play without being able to hear themselves. And that's what The Hollywood Bowl was." On how Giles Martin was able to make the old recordings sound better "There's a guy who works in IT here who's developing de-mix technology, you know, being able to take one track and separate it into its constituent parts. I'd been playing around with him with this for a while and I said, 'Why don't we try it on screams from the Hollywood Bowl.' And we tried it and what we ended up with is it split the one track into two tracks and you get the screams on one half and then you have this weird, almost like the band playing but it sounds a little strange. But this meant we could go into, for instance, the drum track and bring out the best of the drums, as opposed to what my father had. If he did [anything] to the drums he'd be doing it to the screams as well. So we could basically clean up the recordings. And it's always my ambition to make people feel as though they're there watching the band. Now what you have with Hollywood Bowl is you're much closer to the band." Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. George & Giles Martin
Sticking Out Of My Back Pocket: ‘The Song We Were Singing'
This instalment of ‘Sticking Out Of My Back Pocket’ takes a closer look at ‘The Song We Were Singing’, the first track on Paul’s solo album Flaming Pie. Written in Jamaica in early January 1995, ‘The Song We Were Singing’ was the first number begun by Paul in his initial album sessions with Jeff Lynne. At the time, Paul had been working closely with Jeff on The Beatles Anthology: “I came off the back of The Beatles Anthology with an urge to do some new music. The Anthology was very good for me because it reminded me of The Beatles’ standards and the standards that we reached with the songs.” Paul explains how listening to the Anthology was a ‘refresher course’ for him, setting the framework for Flaming Pie. “Watching the Anthology also reminded me of the time that we didn’t take to make an album and of the fun we had when we did one. The Beatles were not a serious group.
“So I wanted to try get back into some of that; to have some fun and not sweat it. That’s been the spirit of making this album [Flaming Pie]. You’ve got to have a laugh, because it’s just an album. So I called up a bunch of friends and family and we just got on and did it.
“And we had fun making it. Hopefully you’ll hear that in the songs.” Paul, Southern France, 1991 - Used in album artwork for Flaming Pie The lyrics in the opening verse set the scene for the song… ‘For a while, we could sit, smoke a pipe And discuss all the vast intricacies of life We could jaw through the night Talk about a range of subjects, anything you like Oh yeah’ Paul explains: “I was remembering the Sixties; sitting around late at night, dossing, smoking pipes, drinking wine…jawing, talking about the cosmic solution. It was what we were all doing… all that, ‘What about…wow!’ It’s that time in your life when you got a chance for all that.”
Did You Know? One of the instruments Paul plays on the track is the stand-up bass (double bass) originally owned by Bill Black and used on Elvis Presley’s earliest and greatest hits – including ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, the recording that seized the soul of a schoolboy Paul McCartney in 1956! ---
Pure McCartney is out now. Pick up your copy in your local record store or online from the links below:
www.bbc.com Paul McCartney demo given to Cilla Black sells for £18K BBC News Aug 27 2016 Paul McCartney sings It's for You in a 1964 demo for Cilla Black A long-lost demo disc recorded by Paul McCartney that was given to Cilla Black has sold for £18,000 at auction, the Beatles expert who found it has said. Black, who died in 2015, had a UK top 10 hit in 1964 with It's for You, written by McCartney and John Lennon. McCartney recorded his own version earlier that year, which was delivered to Black while she was performing at the London Palladium. It was believed to have been lost or destroyed until her nephew found it. The disc fetched £18,000 at the Beatles Memorabilia Auction at Unity Theatre in Liverpool but with commission the unknown buyer will pay £21,060. Simon White said he believed his paternal aunt - whose birth name was Priscilla White - gave the disc to his late father in the mid-60s. "My father was an avid record collector who took great care of his record collection, and he personally created the cardboard sleeve in which the acetate demo has been stored in his collection for more than 50 years." Mr White assumed the copy was of his aunt's version and took it with other items to be valued at The Beatles Shop in Mathew Street, Liverpool. 'Shaking with excitement' Stephen Bailey, who has managed the store for 31 years, said they played what they thought were 21 demo discs by Black. "We got to the last one and, as soon as I heard it, I thought: 'Oh God, that's not Cilla Black, it's Paul McCartney'." "I was shaking with excitement and speechless." The seven-inch acetate was found by Cilla Black's nephew STEPHEN BAILEY He added: "Apart from a few crackles, which you get with acetates, the quality is fine. It's a wonderful recording. "I can't think of finding anything better unless I discover there is a sixth Beatle." Sir Paul was allowed to make a copy of his recording to add to his personal archive, Mr White said. Cilla Black and Paul McCartney. Picture taken on the set of "The Music of Lennon and McCartney", November 5th 1965 at Granada Studios. Cilla Black appeared on the television celebration of The Beatles music. Picture taken 5th November 1965 www.liverpoolecho.co.uk
www.independent.co.uk Paul McCartney recounts the moment The Beatles quit touring Ringo Starr believes the quartet didn't fully intend on quitting live performances Jacob Stolworthy Thursday 25 August 2016 To promote new documentary Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr reunited to reflect on their time as part of The Beatles. Ron Howard's new film hones in on the height of Beatlemania which began in 1963 and culminated with a live show at San Francisco's Candlestick Park in 1966. The quartet famously performed live only once more in 1969 on the roof of Apple's headquarters on Savile Row. In a brand new interview, Starr told Mojo that the band never truly intended on quitting live shows stating: "The Beatles were never gone. And they could have come back." NME also reports how McCartney went on to recall the moment the band decided to call time on touring. "By then we were totally fed up and getting actually put in the back of a stainless steel box [which] is like some weird sci-fi thing from 2001 or something. It was a very weird place. What it reminded me of was… you know these rough rides that police do where they put you in the back of a van but you’re not strapped down? And they were accused of killing that guy. Well, that’s what it was like," he said. "We’re suddenly sliding around in the back of the van and it was like, 'Oh, fuck this!' And finally the guys, John [Lennon] and George [Harrison], had been a little 'Oh murmur-murmur' about touring and, finally, all of us, were like 'Fuck this!' So that was the moment." The duo also revealed how the fans screaming got so loud they struggled to hear each other play. “At first, the screaming was exciting," McCartney commented. "It’s like doing autographs, having your photo taken, doing all that. “Then, after a while, it got more and more boring.” Starr added: “We used a house PA, with those huge amps and I had to watch the back of the boys because I couldn’t hear nothing so if they went [wiggles shoulders] I’d know 'Oh, we’re there! That’s where we are now.' Also, and this is really my opinion, we really weren’t playing great.”
wogew.blogspot.com The Beatles in Hong Kong: The unreleased concert tape Posted by Roger Stormo Thursday, August 25, 2016 Hong Kong press conference A review of an unreleased audio concert recording of The Beatles, this was sent us by the person who owns the tape, and the review is by a friend of him, who is also a Beatles fan. Back in 2013, I was approached by someone who has in his possession a tape recorded at The Beatles Hong Kong concert in 1964. He wanted advice about the copyright of the recording. I told him about what was then known as "The Beatles Live Project". Still, three years later, he still owns the recording and has asked a friend, a Beatles fan, to review the tape. Here's that review. On 9th June 1964, The Beatles played two concerts in Kowloon, Hong Kong as part of their far eastern and Australian tour legs. Notably, Ringo Starr did not accompany the tour, having been hospitalised back in the UK. A session drummer by the name of Jimmy Nicol stood in for Ringo and had a brief moment of fame as a temporary member of the Fab Four. Apparently, the evening and matinee performances were not sold out, as the local promoter had pitched the ticket prices too high at the equivalent of a weekly wage. In the audience that night was a radio journalist who had decided to attend the concert out of curiosity, as he had previously briefly taught Ringo at primary school. With him he had his UHER tape recorder, and as The Beatles hit the stage he pressed the record button and captured the entire show for posterity on a BASF reel to reel tape. I have had the privilege to hear the recording on three occasions on a transferred to cassette copy. The original tape is safely and appropriately stored, it is going to be professionally treated to preserve its integrity. Its authenticity has been verified by EMI and independent auction houses. I am a lifelong Beatles fanatic. They mean everything to me. Growing up in difficult family circumstances, they almost became surrogate parents to me, keeping me on the straight and narrow, with my passion driving me to learn and study music. Now at the age of 53, I have had a lifetime of sharing their music in the various bands I sing and play with. You can therefore imagine my delight in having an opportunity to hear this once in a lifetime gig, with the most unusual of circumstances attached to it and etched in Beatles history and folklore. So I’m not going to keep it to myself. Here’s a little run through of how the gig sounds, its highlights and feel, and its sheer uniqueness. First thing to address is whether the sound quality is any good. Those of us who remember the Hamburg Lingasong release of the 70s, still remember the disappointment at how poor the sound quality was. Worth having as a completist, but never succeeding in getting more than one play. This is a whole new ballpark to that. It’s mono of course and comes from a mere tape recording machine of the early 60s. It is however crystal clear and could probably be sound enhanced further on modern equipment. I listened to it on cassette format through a small machine purchased for about £20. It was a thrilling listen and much to be enjoyed in terms of little moments which I will describe to you. This has to be the only available recording of this snapshot moment in Beatles history and it is wonderful. The sound starts a little muffled and then drastically improves half way through the first number. There is really clear and interesting audience reaction, the effect you get from actually being in the audience among it. I couldn’t fully make out what the announcer is saying but he does say ‘The biggest ever to hit Hong Kong and The World’. There is audience crescendo and…bang…..they launch into I saw her standing there. Now I don’t know if it’s a cultural thing, or the fact that it wasn’t sold out, but there is none of the Beatlemania white noise of the screaming, and the audience can clearly be heard reacting to the dynamic of the music, and you get the feeling that the Fabs are a touch surprised to be hearing themselves playing. The Cavern fire, guts and power is abundantly evident. Jimmy’s drumming is notably different to Ringo. Steady beat and throughout not as cymbal heavy as the Starkey. The sound quality boosts half way through the tune and the second verse is nice and clear with Lennon’s low harmony shining through. Finishing the song there is a lovely audience crescendo, sending the hairs on the back of the neck upwards as you imagine what it must have been like to have been there. On stage in Hong Kong Without dropping a beat, we are seamlessly attacked with the opening riff of I want to hold your hand. George’s playing sounds pronounced and unusual, and is just a joy all the way through, with lovely janglyness. As they sing the ‘touch you’ line in the middle eight, there is a swoony scream in unison from the audience. It’s a powerful performance so much so that when they hit the ‘I can’t hide’ line, there is some distortion which has a certain charm. Paul’s harmony at the end is just divine. Mass adulation as the song ends, and we are in to the first speaking link from Paul……….’Hello. How are you? We’d like to carry on with a song we recorded not long ago………All my loving!’ Bosh…out rings Lennon’s Rickenbacker with what could be one of the hardest rhythm guitar parts ever created. His speedy triplets ring out loud and pronounced. George’s solo loud and crisp and the harmonies just beautiful. Into the 2 nd verse you hear Lennon shout ‘Sing along’. Jimmy is not as good a sticksman as Ringo but he’s doing the job for them. Johnny takes the next introduction link. ‘Thank you. Next song we’d like to do is on our last record……. (Interrupted by the audience)...WHAT? …then She Loves You at a pace to rival The Clash. Jimmy’s drumming is so significantly different to Ringo here. It’s a curiosity. Great harmonies as always and George’s twangy fills ring out. As you can imagine, tumultuous applause at the end for one of the pop songs that defined the 60s. Paul up to the mic introducing a song from ‘The Music Man’ as they glide into a beautiful rendition of Till there was you. I can only presume that George is playing the solo parts on his Gretsch rather than a Spanish guitar because there doesn’t appear to be time to change guitars around. His playing and phrasing is notably different to the recorded version we know and love, and there is very unusual phrase at the end which is worth the price of admission on its own. Bang! Hits you like a freight train, straight into Roll over Beethoven. Hardly a breath in-between and no time for a guitar change. Great Cavern style attack and real stomping and handclapping from the audience who are really going with the flow. It really takes off in the ‘reel and rocking’ bit. Some unusual little improv in the solo and finishes up on some ringing seventh chords. Paul back to the mic ‘Next record is our latest record in England. Do us a favour. Join in and clap (the audience does) and stamp your feet. You can hear Lennon alongside joining in the sentiments. Can’t buy me love takes off like a rocket with the audience faithfully living up to Paul and John’s request and sound like they are having a party. Just wonderful. Guitar solo cuts through like a knife. Audience frenzy at the end. John to the mic this time and introduces This Boy as the B side of I want to hold your hand. His rhythm guitar sounds fantastic as does Macca’s harmonies. John’s vocal makes you want to cry, yay yay yay when he sings that bit at the end of the bridge. Powerful vocals all round and produce some of that charming distortion when they really go full tilt. Macca introduces Twist and Shout and they power drive in. Lennon’s growl and the call response vocals just so uplifting, and the audience are going crazy – stomping, clapping and screaming. Instrumental bridge superb and a tight crisp finish. We then get one of the most interesting aspects of the recording. Paul goes to the mic to announce the last song and there is a resounding boo. John says ‘Best to Ringo. He couldn’t make it today but give a round of applause to Jimmy Nicol…… (The audience does) Just found out there are people from Liverpool in the audience.’ They then launch into a fantastic spirited version of Long Tall Sally with a lovely little reprise of the Twist and Shout riff. Then it’s all over. The audience scream for more and the announcer states ‘On behalf of The Beatles. Thanks for coming down. Hope you enjoyed the show. Then it goes quiet. Well a moment in time that I have been honoured to have participated in. Would love to hear this recording again and again anytime. You really do feel in among the audience and I was entirely thrilled to hear the little unusual things going on, the little differences in George’s playing, the inspired vocals of John and Paul, the stage banter and the congruent audience reaction flowing along with the music rather than screaming them off the stage. One of the things I found most fascinating is the absence of Ringo. Jimmy Nicol did a great job for them but Ringo often much maligned, it shows what a truly great drummer Mr Starkey was and is. I wonder if he has heard this? I hope that one day you’ll have the opportunity too. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- According to an article in South China Morning News from 2013, quoting Hong Kong institution DJ Ray “Uncle Ray” Cordeiro, the screaming during the concert most likely came from military servicemen. In fact, the concert was a flop, because tickets went unsold. "It was quite a flop because the teenagers couldn’t afford to buy the tickets … and the parents didn’t know who The Beatles were. So the theatre was empty," Cordeiro says. According to Cordeiro, the promoter was forced to offer the unsold tickets to the army, free of charge, and the auditorium was filled with soldiers in uniforms. www.scmp.com When The Beatles came to Hong Kong Half a century ago, The Beatles brought Hong Kong closer to the world of global music, but the gig’s importance has been exaggerated over the years Charley Lanyon Thursday, 29 August, 2013 The Beatles, with replacement drummer Jimmy Nicol (front), wave to fans on arriving at Kai Tak on June 8, 1964. Fifty years ago next year, The Beatles came to Hong Kong. June 9, 1964, has been called the most important day in Hong Kong’s pop history. In the collective memory of the city, The Beatles’ appearance at the Princess Theatre in Kowloon – today the site of the Mira Hotel – marked the beginning of an era: the era of Hong Kong English-language rock 'n' roll, and ultimately of the Cantonese-language pop that it gave birth to. However, when speaking to the people who were there – audience members and the movers and shakers of Hong Kong’s 1960s pop scene – a more complicated picture emerges. Have we been giving the Fab Four too much credit? First of all, Fab Three would be more accurate: The Beatles who appeared in Hong Kong were short one Ringo Starr, who was recovering from tonsillitis in a London hospital; he was temporarily replaced by drummer Jimmy Nicol. Also, the commonly heard story that the Princess Theatre was packed with thousands of screaming, music-starved Hong Kong youngsters doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. The screams were real, but according to Hong Kong institution DJ Ray “Uncle Ray” Cordeiro, they most likely came from military servicemen. In fact, the concert was the only time in Beatles history where the promoter lost money. Tickets went unsold. DJ "Uncle Ray" Cordeiro with a signed picture of the band. Photo: Jonathan Wong “It was quite a flop because the teenagers couldn’t afford to buy the tickets … and the parents didn’t know who The Beatles were. So the theatre was empty,” Cordeiro says. According to Cordeiro, the promoter was forced to offer the unsold tickets to the army, free of charge, and the auditorium was filled with soldiers in uniforms. Other audience members remember things a bit differently. Anders Nelsson, then a teenager and lead singer of the band The Kontinentals, and Philip Chan Yan-kin of the Astro-Notes, clearly remember throngs of screaming female fans. Nelsson recalls barely being able to make out the music, “the girls were screaming so loud and the PA system was so bad that it was basically an experience rather than a concert”. Their female fans greet The Beatles at the airport in 1964. Regardless of the band’s reception, all three witnesses believe the idea that The Beatles’ appearance in Hong Kong launched the local pop scene is flawed. Cordeiro thinks someone else entirely was responsible for Hong Kong’s pop boom: himself. “I’m proud to say I’m the one who initiated the pop scene in Hong Kong in the ‘60s … I was king of the pop scene in Hong Kong,” he says. He might be right. Through his radio show on what was then RHK, Cordeiro was introducing Hong Kong listeners to Western, mostly British, pop and rock ‘n’ roll music long before The Beatles arrived. The musicians who would come to define the ‘60s musical landscape here, such as Teddy Robin of Teddy Robin and the Playboys, Joe Junior of Joe Junior and the Side Effects, Chan and Nelsson all agree they were listening to and playing English-language pop music before The Beatles touched down at Kai Tak airport. And as soon as the young bands recorded a new single, Cordeiro was there to put it on the air. Nelsson, whose band is commonly credited with producing the first English-language pop records in Hong Kong, admits The Beatles concert “sparked off a boom in more bands” but he says, “it wasn’t that there were no bands before The Beatles came”. Also, there was a matter of taste. Robin says his band The Playboys were called “The Beatles of Hong Kong” and boasts that “The Playboys played more than 30 Beatles songs, probably over 40”. But if Robin is the self-described “wild man” of 1960s Hong Kong pop, then Joe Junior was what Chan describes as “the well-behaved school boy”. Joe was more representative of the Hong Kong listening public. He loved The Beatles and sings their songs to this day, but his preferences, and those of a large portion of Hong Kong’s music lovers, were slanted towards straightforward love songs and tamer performers such as Pat Boone. The 1964 concert represented perfect timing: The Beatles were at their poppiest and most accessible, just as Hong Kong was most open to new sounds. But for many Hongkongers the love affair was short-lived. As The Beatles became more psychedelic, experimental and non-conformist, both the listening public and the young musicians had trouble keeping up. Chan remembers trying to play The Beatles’ later hits. “There came a time we couldn’t follow the development of The Beatles as they got more sophisticated. I think we got as far as Eight Days a Week and I’ll Follow the Sun, but as they got into the psychedelic stuff, and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, we just had to give up.” And also – to put it bluntly – without the right drugs, Hong Kong struggled to relate to what groups such as The Beatles were saying. “I don’t think young people here could identify that much with psychedelic music. We would drink ourselves blind but that’s all,” Chan says. Nelsson agrees: “Hong Kong never really got into that whole drug scene. Flower power was a fashion statement.” The Kontinentals in their heyday with band leader Anders Nelsson (far left). A Music Maker popchart from December 1, 1965, shows Hong Kong's own The Kontinentals second only to The Beatles. Meanwhile musicians in Hong Kong were busy blazing their own trail. By the late 1960s, Hong Kong’s English-language musicians were facing competition from an unexpected source: Mandarin singers from Taiwan. Nelsson remembers one specific instance in 1970 when he knew the days of English-language pop were numbered: “I was playing in a club with a band and we started off playing English and then the boss started telling us to back singers they brought in to sing in Mandarin.” The Mando-pop craze gave way in the early 1970s and for a brief period, English-language music was ascendant again, but by this time many of the classic groups had broken up and it wasn’t long before everything changed again – this time for good. Sam Hui Koon-kit, who had gained fame with his ‘60s English-language band The Lotus, started producing music in Cantonese for his brother Michael Hui Koon-man’s films. The films and their soundtracks were surprise hits. Hui, who became known as the God of Song, had given birth to Canto-pop and there would never be a real market for home-grown English-language music in Hong Kong again. Another leading local act of the time were Teddy Robin and the Playboys. So if the idea that The Beatles’ concert ultimately gave rise to Canto-pop at the very least lacks nuance, what was the real impact of the show in Hong Kong? The consensus seems to be that, like so many things, it all comes down to sex. Sex and hair. Chan remembers fondly: “From the first chord we couldn’t hear a thing because of the girls; they were screaming like in a horror flick. We’d seen that in the news reels, but to be there and see these short little Chinese girls and Western girls – That made me want to be a pop singer.” Before The Beatles concert, most teenagers in bands in Hong Kong focused on their music. But the Fab Four showed Nelsson and his peers that the power of rock ‘n’ roll came from more than perfectly executed scales: “[We realised] that if you grew your hair longer and you shook your head and went ‘woo’, the girls would scream,” he says. This was a revelation to Nelsson. “Before, we just played and we were fairly serious about our playing. We hadn’t realised that you could make girls faint.” Like teenage boys in bands all over Hong Kong, he wanted to have that effect on girls, and now thanks to The Beatles they all knew how. “All of us started growing our hair and trying to do things to make the girls squeal.” The concert also had a more practical impact on the music business in Hong Kong. Nelsson says that after The Beatles show, demand for new rock ‘n’ roll records exploded. Not only was that good news for local bands, but it also got the notice of record companies and distributers overseas. “More records were brought in and they were brought in faster, finally flown in rather than brought in by boat. There was a phenomenon happening,” Nelsson says. And it didn’t stop at records. The concert effectively opened the gates for a string of popular Western acts to perform live in Hong Kong. “The Beatles concert brought Hong Kong closer to the world of international pop music,” says Chan. “Hong Kong’s young people got exposed to all these concerts. The Carpenters came, Herman’s Hermits, Peter, Paul and Mary, everyone who was popular came – except for The Rolling Stones, who came much later.” As the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ appearance in the city looms, thoughts drift back to the golden age of Hong Kong pop. But, like all golden ages, those who were there know the reality was less golden than the fantasy. When Robin thinks back, he says what he remembers most is that “it was tough to be a musician in the ‘60s. We were all students, you know? My parents didn’t like it. Only the people from our generation enjoyed it. There was no money even though we were so popular.” Even so, one thing they can all look back fondly on is the music that made it all possible, of which The Beatles were only one small – albeit important – part. This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: And the beat moved on
