wogew.blogspot.pe Paul McCartney cassette interview Posted by Roger Stormo Wednesday, September 30, 2015 A printed cardboard held the cassette. SFX Cassette Magazine was a short-lived British music magazine published in the very early 1980s (not to be confused with SFX magazine, a best-selling science fiction magazine published continuously since 1995). The distinguishing feature of SFX was its format: rather than traditional print media, the magazine was distributed in the form of a one-hour cassette. Magazines were sold as cassettes twist-tied to an 8-1/4" x 11-3/4" cardboard backing. The tag line of each issue: "The Only Music Magazine on C-60." The format of each issue was similar to a radio show, featuring news and interviews with pop stars (mostly but not exclusively British) and others involved with the music industry; reviews of record releases given by other musicians and artists; previews of upcoming album releases; unsigned band demo recordings; occasional features on culture, fashion and football (soccer); and three or four commercials per issue. Part 2 of the McCartney interview was published in the next edition of the magazine. The concept was conceived and developed by Hugh Salmon, then a young account executive at Ogilvy & Mather, and edited by the respected NME journalist, Max Bell. Among notable editorial coups, including Paul McCartney talking for the first time about his feelings of the murder of John Lennon, SFX provided the first opportunity for Jools Holland, keyboard player of Squeeze, and the young Paula Yates, a well-known figure on the music scene then going out with Bob Geldof. They both went on to present the TV programme The Tube. The publication was short lived, running from November 1981 through the summer of 1982. There were at least 19 known issues published. Taken as a whole, the SFX cassettes capture a narrow slice of music and pop culture as the punk/new wave movement was becoming more mainstream in content and performance. The McCartney interview, originally spread across two issues in April/May 1982, was one of the first times he had been interviewed at length since Lennon's death. In the interview he candidly discusses his relationships with The Beatles, Yoko and his feelings about and fame in general as well as the new "Tug of War" album, albeit briefly. It's a refreshing, genuinely insightful interview, free from his well-rehearsed 'stock answers' we get these days. Here then, is the interview with McCartney from these cassettes, courtesy of Parlogram. You can find all the editions of SFX cassette magazine here.
www.liverpoolconfidential.co.uk Paul McCartney: I love getting the bus, cos you’re just with people In an exclusive extract from Paul Du Noyer's new book, the ex-Beatle reveals his contempt for fawning restaurants and his lengths to stay ordinary Written by The Confidentials Saturday, 26 September 2015 Beyond The Smile, by Paul Du Noyer. WHEN people are famous enough to be written about in the media, they develop two selves. One is the self they possess, the other is the hologram that they read about. For more than half a century, Paul McCartney has read about himself as if there were a separate, fictional character with the same name. Out in the world at large, it’s different again. He was chatting to my wife one day and described going into TJ Hughes, the Liverpool department store, to buy some decorations for a relative’s wedding car. "How do you manage in a crowded shop like that?" she asked. "You just keep moving," he replied. "Smile, and just keep moving." How, then, does Paul McCartney see Paul McCartney? ‘It’s funny,’ he says. ‘I’ve come out with the safe image. People don’t look beyond the smile. They look at the thumbs-up and they think it’s a safe image. It isn’t. Beyond the thumbs-up, there’s more to it than all that. Which I know about, obviously, because I lived the fucking shit.’ The term ordinary people crops up in a few of your songs… ‘Yeah. What are ordinary people?’ It does beg that question. ‘What is ordinary, you mean? What is normal? Well, you really know. We know. Ordinary people? It’s all those people out there. All those people who just do ordinary things. I sometimes hear myself in interviews, going, “I’m just an ordinary guy, really.” And I think they go away and think, “Did he really say he was an ordinary guy?” Cos there’s a lot of evidence to the contrary. No ordinary guy is as famous as I am. Or has the money I’ve got. So, difficult to claim you’re ordinary. ‘But inside I feel ordinary, and inside is where I come from. It’s what’s speaking. It’s what’s in here, not the exterior. I go back to Liverpool, I really like the earthiness: “A’right Paul? I don’t like that jacket, where d’yer get that? Fuckin’ ’ell!” I just go, “Yeahhh, fuck off.” I’m comfortable there, I’m not as happy when it’s [well-bred voice] “Hello Paul, really super jacket. From Paul Smith’s?” I just don’t seem to get on as well with those people. ‘So that’s this obsession with ordinary. It’s just that I’ve never really found anything much better. I’ve looked, believe me.’ McCartney has never lost this inclination to identify with the mass of humanity. Of his 1990 tour, he said to me: ‘We put Pittsburgh specially on the itinerary, cos it’s a working town, like Glasgow, Liverpool, Newcastle… ‘I like those people. I do, actually. I’m always more comfortable with that crowd, cos I feel like I know ’em. If it’s very rich – New York yuppies – I’m not sure I know ’em or what they’re thinking. So I’m not too comfortable. Though you still just go and play your gig. ‘New York is a rich town. You tend to get people with shirts and ties. Much as I like a nice shirt and tie, I don’t like to see them at concerts – unless it’s the Liverpool football team. They showed up on one of the Wings tours and that was cool, that great suit they used to wear with the red ties. That’s all right, that’s The Boys. I can handle that.’ The rough, democratic spirit of his home town has remained a kind of guiding principle: ‘I was the kid in Liverpool who went on a bus to the next stop, down to Penny Lane and just looked around. “Who lives there?” Then go back up on the bus. I still like that, it’s in my personality, just go somewhere and watch people. Last night I took the tube home, we went to the theatre, couldn’t get a taxi anywhere in the West End. I really get a charge off that. ‘George never used to. His dad was a bus driver. I’d say to him, even when we were famous, I love getting on a bus. He’d say [astonished], Why? The bus? You’ve got a car, man! ‘But I love getting the bus, cos you’re just with people. A little voyeuristic. And now of course, with fame, they’re looking at me a bit. There’s one or two on the tube last night, cracking up laughing. The guy in the baseball cap decides he’s got to cool himself out, pull it together, got off at the same stop: “Al’right mate? Good luck!” And it’s cool. ‘I enjoy going on the tube. I don’t have a problem with that. It’s refreshing and I think it’s good for you. It’s unhealthy to really think you’re the big cheese all the time. Within the Beatles, we each reminded each other that we weren’t, from time to time. I think there is a big risk with stardom. ‘You can get a table in any restaurant. I’d ring up and say, Have you got a table? “Sorry sir, we’re fully booked.” It’s Paul McCartney here. “Oh! Certainly! Mr McCartney, please! Come at 8 o’clock!” You get used to that, and I’ve never been comfortable with it. Oh yeah? You’ll let me in now, will yer? Bastard. I don’t like that.’ And yet this determined everyman can roam the outermost fringes of popular taste. McCartney’s commercial instincts are sound, for he has enough gold discs to line the Great Wall of China. But his music has led that popular taste more often than followed it. He’s proud to have been avant-garde, to experiment in forms – from techno to ballet – unlikely to find much mainstream favour. The touching thing is how he’ll sometimes pause in mid-interview, and shake his head in mute wonder, as if he cannot quite believe the life he’s had. Did these things really happen to him? Or was it someone else? Or was it a dream? The song called That Was Me (from New in 2015) allows a crowd of early memories to waltz across his brain: ‘When I think that all this stuff can make a life, it’s pretty hard to take it in.’ He sounds like he’s trying to convince himself, rather than us. ‘I’ve led a sailor’s life,’ he said to me one day. ‘It really is. Talk about a rich tapestry. So much has happened.’ In 1990 the four Beatles each had an asteroid named after them. The news left Paul incredulous: ‘Imagine being at school, and they tell you one day there’ll be this thing up there in outer space, with your name on it.’ He looked sincerely spooked. One day in his office I saw a famous painting of Liverpool’s waterfront, by the Victorian artist Atkinson Grimshaw. This was startling, as one sees copies of it in a thousand Liverpool homes. Peering more closely, I saw it was not the original, just a humble reproduction. I guess we are either enchanted, or disillusioned, that Paul would hang a cheap print up there. Does he ever get the feeling, I asked, that people are disappointed when they meet him? ‘Yeah.’ There’s a tradition that stars… ‘… Shouldn’t drive ordinary cars to premieres, you should dress up. But, you know, I’m not living my life for other people. This is what it’s all to do with. I’m tempted, cos it’s how we all live: “What shall we wear? What are you wearing? Is it tuxedos? Oh, I’d better dress up.” But the truth of what the Beatles and all that shit was about, what people liked about that, was this refreshing honesty: “I don’t like your tie...”’ *Conversations With McCartney by Paul Du Noyer, Hodder & Stoughton, hardback and ebook £25, out now. Music writer Paul Du Noyer
www.mirror.co.uk Beatles legend Ringo Starr should be given a knighthood as 'he's waited too long' BY VINCENT MOSS 26 SEP 2015 All the Beatles were appointed mbes in 1965 and Paul McCartney was made a Sir in 1997 – but not drummer Ringo Beatles legend: Could it soon be 'Arise Sir Ringo' Music legend Ringo Starr should be awarded a knighthood, says Labour’s culture spokesman. All the Beatles were appointed MBEs in 1965 and Paul McCartney was made a Sir in 1997 – but not drummer Ringo. Shadow Culture Secretary Michael Dugher said the Beatles’ drummer had waited far too long and should finally get a top honour. Sir Paul McCartney was tapped on the shoulder by the Queen for his honour in 1997. But Ringo, who is the only other surviving Beatle, just has the MBE he received in 1965 to show for his hugely successful career. Mr Dugher said: “ The Beatles changed the course of popular music forever and they continue to bring massive benefits to the UK in terms of trade and tourism. “Ringo’s unique drumming was intrinsic to the music of the Beatles - just listen to A Day in the Life or Strawberry Fields Forever - and his charisma and personal charm was an intrinsic part of their act as entertainers. Michael Dugher: He has called for Ringo Starr to be given a knighthood “Ringo is a legend and has made a massive contribution to our country. It’s been over 50 years since he got his MBE. “At the age of 75, it’s time for Ringo to get a knighthood for services to music. No other country in the world would take so long to properly honour one of its music legends.” Musical legend: Ringo with his Harmony guitar Ringo, who was born Richard Starkey, gained worldwide fame as part of the band, but continued to have huge commercial success following the Beatles’ break-up in 1970. In 2011, Sir Paul was asked why Ringo had not been knighted yet. The Beatles: Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon of The Beatles in 1967 He replied: “Yeah, well don’t look at me.” Asked whether he could make a request on behalf of his former bandmate to the Queen, he said: “The last time I went by she was out. “Otherwise, I would have popped in and said: ‘Look love, Sir Richard Starkey’. Because I do think it’s about time, but she was probably a bit busy with Sir Brucie.”
www.denofgeek.us Animated Musical Meet The Beatles Coming From Paul King Tony Sokol 9/24/2015 Paddington Director wants to make a new Beatles cartoon. It may not be Yellow Submarine, but there is a new Beatles cartoon on the way. Paul King, who directed the British-French live action/computer animated family comedy film Paddington from 2014, is in talks to direct the animated musical Meet The Beatles. While not much is known about the movie other than it will be chasing a song considered the “one that got away,” it will feature songs that span the Beatles career. Meet The Beatles is being produced by David Heyman, who produced the Harry Potter movies. This will bre the third collaboration for King and Heyman after Paddington and its hopefully upcoming sequel. The surprise 2015 hit Paddington was an adaptation of the Michael Bond books series. King directed and starred in his first feature film, Bunny and the Bull, in 2009. King is the director for The Mighty Boosh. He also made the 2011 airport mockumentary Come Fly With Me. He is also scheduled to direct Lionsgate’s adaptation of R.J. Palacio’s novel Wonder. The screenplay for Meet the Beatles was written by Jay Stern, who wrote Mr. Popper’s Penguins. SOURCE: THE TRACKING BOARD (The Beatles as they appeared in the 1964 animated series)
www.liverpoolecho.co.uk Look back to when Ken Dodd - pop star - rivalled The Beatles BY PADDY SHENNAN 25 SEP 2015 Flying high: Ken Dodd at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in 1964 Happiness in the 1960s was... being a top comedian who was also able to give The Beatles a run for their money. All hail Ken Dodd, the Squire of Knotty Ash, who, 50 years ago this month, enjoyed a number one hit single with Tears. Ken Dodd with The Beatles November 1963 It was released at the start of September 1965 and hit the top of the national charts on September 30, staying there for five weeks. That was impressive enough, but even more so is the fact that it was the best-selling single of that year – and, while the Fab Four had four of the top five best-selling singles of the 1960s, our Ken’s Tears was the other one. Tears (written by Frank Capano and Billy Uhr and first recorded by Rudy Vallee in 1929) was the third best-selling single of the decade – She Loves You (1963) claimed the top spot, I Want To Hold Your Hand (1963) number two, Can’t Buy Me Love (1964) number four and I Feel Fine (1964) five. But Tears, though Doddy’s only chart-topper, was only part of the story. In total, he enjoyed 20 top 40 hits, spanning the years 1960 to 1981. As Ken, himself, told me: “For a comedian, it was pretty good. And I was very, very blessed because I was able to choose the songs I recorded.” His debut single, Love is Like a Violin, reached number eight in 1960, and many more hits followed. The River (Le Colline Sono In Fioro) got to number three in 1965, and Promises number six in 1966. Despite its relatively lowly chart position – it reached number 31 in 1964 – it was Happiness which became his trademark song. Other Doddy ditties to reach the top 40 included Pianissimo (number 21 in 1962), Eight By Ten (number 22 in 1964), More Than Love (number 14 in 1966) and Let Me Cry On Your Shoulder (number 11 in 1967). Ken continued to win chart placings in the 1970s – including with Broken Hearted (number 15 in 1970), When Love Comes Round Again (L’Arca Di Noe) – number 19 in 1971 – and (Think of Me) Wherever You You (number 21 in 1975). This was the multi-talented entertainer’s last top 30 hit, with his last top 50 chart placing being 1981’s Hold My Hand, which reached number 44. Ken Dodd with Sandie Shaw on the ABC Television Show Doddy's Music Box in 1967 He may be 88 in November (or he may not be – when I asked him how old he was last year he told me he thought he was 35), but, as all ECHO readers know, Doddy’s still entertaining live audiences across the country. Merseysiders can see him in the coming months at St Helens Theatre Royal (Saturday October 17), Southport Theatre (Saturday November 21) and New Brighton Floral Pavilion (Sunday November 29), while he will play his customary two end of year shows at Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall on Monday December 28 and Tuesday December 29. The Beatles with Ken Dodd - November 1963 - Granada TV, Manchester
Hard Days Night Hotel - Exterior www.purplerevolver.com Liverpool's Hard Days Night Hotel unites Beatle's sister with city choirs to spread love for new owners by Khyle Deen. Published Fri 25 Sep 2015 Hard Days Night Hotel teamed up with John Lennon’s sister Julia Baird and a duo of Liverpool choirs in a bid to show the love for the hotel’s new owners, Millennium Hotels and Resorts. John Lennon's sister JULIA BAIRD Julia, together with The Choir With No Name and twenty members of The Liverpool Signing Choir, descended on the grand entrance of the iconic North John Street building to perform a special rendition of the Beatles classic ‘All You Need is Love'. As the heartfelt occasion aimed to ‘rejoice Liverpool’s community spirit’, the choirs were also accompanied by a number of the hotel’s team members and Millennium Hotels and Resorts’ CEO Aloysius Lee, who helped to ‘spread the love’, as 75 red roses were handed out to the public. General Manager of Hard Days Night Hotel Mike Dewey said: “The hotel team and I thought that both of these altruistic singing groups would offer the warmest of welcomes. Together with what was a show stopping performance by The Choir with No Name, we were delighted to be joined by inspirational people, who add a refreshing twist to musical sign language. “Following their moving rendition, the choirs were then treated to a celebratory lunch here at our in-house restaurant, Blakes. The day was a fun and inimitable way of welcoming our new partners and increased global visitors to our wonderful city in classic Beatles style.” Established in January 2014, The Choir with No Name runs choirs for those experiencing homelessness and disadvantaged people, with the aim of building confidence, morale and support amongst its members. The Liverpool based choir, conducted by Meike Holzmann, meets once a week to rehearse all genres of music and is based on the feel-good factor that singing creates. Conducted by Catherine Hegarty, The Liverpool Signing Choir was founded on the basis of encouraging social inclusion for deaf people through the performance of musical sign language. Notable acts include a rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine at the closing ceremony for the London 2012 Olympic Games, as well as a surprise performance in honour of Julia at Liverpool Town Hall in 2011. Mike added: “Not only is the song a favourite amongst many members of both the choir and our hotel staff, its original message also sits well with what we were trying to project on the day – this being the coming together of partnerships from across the world and showcasing what Liverpool has to offer." “It was wonderful to be joined by Julia, Millennium Hotels and Resorts’ CEO Aloysius Lee and the two inspirational choirs – the day certainly made a lasting impression.” For more information about Hard Days Night Hotel visit www.harddaysnighthotel.com or call 0151 236 1964. Hard Days Night Hotel
The Beatles Cartoon (www.taringa.net) www.rollingstone.com Revisiting Beatles' Wonderfully Wacky Cartoon Series, 50 Years Later On the whimsical charm, and hidden weirdness, of the proto–'Yellow Submarine' By Colin Fleming September 25, 2015 The Beatles' eponymous cartoon series, which premiered in 1965, paved the way for band's more-famous animated feature, 'Yellow Submarine.' YouTube Even Beatles completists sometimes have a blind spot when it comes to the band's eponymous cartoon, which ran on ABC for four years — starting exactly 50 years ago, on September 25th, 1965. If you like your Beatles animated, chances are your thing is for the 1968 film Yellow Submarine, the rare cinematic venture that works just as well for the kiddies as the adults. But one has to wonder if Yellow Submarine would have existed without The Beatles and that underrated Saturday-morning run, when viewers plunked down in front of TV sets, sleep was brushed from eyes, cereal was consumed, and away everyone went. Not quite to Pepperland, but to some funky, witty little universe nonetheless. The Beatles (TV series) (www.en.wikipedia.org) Al Brodax produced both Yellow Submarine and The Beatles, and the series functioned almost as a workshop for the later, much-loved feature. The Beatles themselves, who had no hand in the ABC production, thought it was daft. At least, while they were in the Beatles. Which isn't hard to understand. The voices are hilariously off, with George alternating between a faintly Irish or Scottish accent, Ringo gibbering on in Scouse, Lennon sounding like an American gym teacher at times and Paul having a mock erudite tone befitting a Wodehouse character. None of which really matters, because The Beatles is about nailing what we might think of as a spirit endemic to the Beatles themselves, of being transported to a realm that they solely seemed to populate, but where you were welcome, and obliged to get in on the fun. And what fun we have in these cartoons, which is why the Beatles — post-Beatles, that is — all became fond of them, as if they too were in on the whole being-transported bit. "I still get a blast out of watching the Beatles cartoons on TV," John Lennon said in 1972. While in 1999, George Harrison commented, "They were so bad or silly that they were good, if you know what I mean." George, Paul and John from Episode 38: "Tomorrow Never Knows/I've Just Seen a Face" YouTube The set-up is simple: a theme song sounding like the "Pop Goes the Beatles" number from some of their 1963 BBC broadcasts plays us in. The four Beatles then get up to hijinks which frequently involve vampires, museums where the displays come to life, the jungle, or cow towns of the American West, and then we have a sing-along complete with lyrics on the screen, and finally another wacky adventure. This is the Beatles as preteens probably liked to imagine them: living in a single big room, sharing beds, rolling along in their car while strumming their guitars, and taking in movies together. That sounds a touch claptrappy, more so when you factor in the anthropomorphic animals that the band either have to fend off, dissuade from romance — ha — or aid, but these were productions long on wit and a true dexterity. The sing-alongs were designed, clearly, as filler, but there's the Beckettesque touch of having Ringo act as the substitute prop man who comes out onstage, where one of the other three is imploring you to really let those lungs blast out the next chorus — bleary-eyed parents must have loved that — and offers up some token of set dressing. The animated sequences during the sing-alongs feature perspectives you just didn't see in cartoons at the time. The entire screen might be the board of a fence, with a hole in it, such that 95 percent of the planar field is utterly still, as our attention is focused on one point. There are juxtapositions of static images, and the viewer has to puzzle out some of the meanings of these fascinating mini-videos, like a Joseph Cornell box has been made to dance along to a mid-period Beatles number. The main adventure segments have what you might think of as an extreme horizontalness. Beatles race left and right; ditto fluttering fish, various means of conveyance, birds, colors, all flowing back and forth, and running little patterns of misdirection like a football offense. Seems a small point, perhaps, but consider Yellow Submarine and its extreme horizontal qualities, that constant across-the-screen flow, only here we're talking about some brightly plumed birds, rather than the menacing Glove and his cohorts. Ringo from Episode 33: "Nowhere Man/Paperback Writer" YouTube And while the voices don't synch up with those of the Beatles themselves, that's probably for the best. If you're going to fashion a new world, all for a Saturday morning's entertainment, you can chuck out the versimilitude of the old. The key factor is that there was something about the Beatles that was wonderfully, bewitchingly alchemical, so that works not by them but about them could similarly display their particular penchant for wonder and play. Besides, Paul Frees — the Man of a Thousand Voices, who did a ton of Rankin-Bass holiday specials — and the equally talented Lance Percival, are the fellows handling the vocal chores, and they're clearly having a gas. The 39 original episodes ran from 1965 to 1967, with repeats filling the remaining seasons through 1969. They've never had an official release, although cleaned up and restored they'd look awesome on Blu-ray. The Beatles of the cartoon never shed their height-of-Beatlemania look, and it is somewhat disorienting watching moptop John strum his cartoon Rickenbacker and sing "Strawberry Fields Forever," bouncing on his legs like it was "Twist and Shout" time. So: If you're not quite up for taking on the whole of the run of The Beatles, here are the five episodes to catch. Episode 1: "A Hard Day's Night/I Want to Hold Your Hand" The trainspotters are going to get pumped with this one: after we get through cavorting around Transylvania (watch enough of these, and you'd think the cartoon Beatles were extreme Vlad the Impaler buffs), we join the lads at sea, where they stow away in a submersible and end up dancing around an underwater grove with an octopus. Fancy that. Submarines and octopi. Hmmm. Maybe the Fab Four did dig an episode or two back then. The episode also features an early touch that promised that this wouldn't be all about hooking the preteens on their cuddly heroes: a shimmering orange panel that could have come from a Rothko exhibit. Episode 14: "Don't Bother Me/No Reply" Send-up time: both the James Bond films and the Beatles' own Bond-pastiche, Help!, get the yucks treatment in this one, with a caper to steal the Beatles' latest numbers, which are contained in a notebook labeled "New Beatles Songs." Lennon is a prat throughout, but the McCartney character is sort of like the cartoon's version of the grandfather in A Hard Day's Night: the born mixer who delights in getting up to some shenanigans. The more you watch, the more you notice details that give you a bigger kick than last time. The look on McCartney's face, for instance, when he decides it's time to be an ass. Episode 33: "Nowhere Man/Paperback Writer" The titular songs for each episode tie in (sometimes very loosely) with each mini-story, so here we have some Platonic hermit in a cave who wants nothing to do with the Beatles when they come wandering in — it's like cartoon existentialism — and then a sequence with the Beatles writing short stories about how they each met one another as different people in life. An imaginative enough conceit that it might have been lifted from something like the Revolver album itself. Heady, and fun. Episode 34: "Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever" One could make the case that the promo films made for "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" are the finest visual works pertaining to the Beatles, but this is pretty nifty too: animated shorts for each song. The Beatles thwart a robbery in "Penny Lane," which is a cool riff on how that song harkens back to childhood. Who hasn't daydreamed, as a kid, of such a feat of heroism? The second story finds the band at an orphanage, tasked with cheering up the kids there. A charming riff on Lennon's most personal song. Episode 38: "Tomorrow Never Knows/I've Just Seen a Face" The penultimate episode, and this is just so freakin' odd: The Beatles tumble into a well and have this Lovecraftian experience with a subterranean sect, but that's the normal part. What isn't is seeing "Ticket to Ride"–era cartoon Beatles performing "Tomorrow Never Knows," with its death chants, LSD exultations and synapse-exploding intensity. Cut, then, to the sing-along, which begins with "She Said She Said." What the hell would you have thought if you were a parent who ventured into the den to see little Sally howling about how she knew what it was like to be dead? Sing, kiddies! The Beatles Cartoon (www.wallsus.com)
