Ringo Starr shares behind-the-scenes look at his tour rehearsals
by ABC News
Fri, September 6, 2024
Photo Credit Scott Robert Ritchie
Ringo Starr is getting ready to kick off another tour with his All Starr Band, and he just gave fans a peek behind the scenes at rehearsals for the trek.
In a new video, Ringo shared clips of him and his band at work rehearsing the song “Matchbox.” He also revealed that there’s something very special about the drum kit he’ll be playing on the tour, noting it’s the same model he played when The Beatles were on The Ed Sullivan Show.
“I had the small kit because I wanted to be seen,” he explained. “But then I had the great idea and said why don’t you give me a rostrum, and they built the rostrum and I’m up there having a great time.”
For this leg of the All Starr Band tour, Ringo will be joined by Toto’s Steve Lukather, Men At Work’s Colin Hay, Warren Ham, Hamish Stuart, Gregg Bissonette and Buck Johnson.
The tour kicks off Saturday in San Diego and wraps Sept. 25 in New York City. A complete list of dates can be found at ringostarr.com.
Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band Bring Tour to Dayton
CityBeat sat down with Ringo Starr ahead of his performance in Dayton.
By Brent Stroud
CityBeat
Sep 4, 2024
Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band
Photo: Scott Robert Ritchie
Beatle Ringo Starr will be making a local appearance at Fraze Pavilion on Sept. 15 with a handful of famous friends for the latest version of his hit-heavy supergroup, Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.
Starr is more famous than famous. The Beatles are a cultural landmark and reference point for a seemingly endless list of musicians. The group is as synonymous with pop culture and music history as the air we breathe.
From the band’s early rock and roll blast to the pop superstardom of Beatlemania and on through their experimentation and maturity as songwriters later in the decade, any person who sits down to write a song since is likely pulling from the various innovations and strokes of genius that they delivered to the world.
The All-Starr Band first formed in 1989, and has featured some of Starr’s most famous friends and peers over the years in its different lineups.
“I am the drummer, so I need a band in front of me. In ‘88 I had this thought, in ‘89, I started making it come true,” Starr tells a group of journalists from around the world, that includes CityBeat, in a live feed press conference over Zoom. “I do it so I get to play and I get to play with a lot of good players and I play all their songs and they play mine, but I also then get a spot in the front, which is great too. I still do it because I love it and I still do because I can.”
In addition to Beatles hits like “Yellow Submarine” and “With A Little Help from My Friends,” fans can expect songs like “Boys” by The Shirelles that Starr has done since he was high up on a drum riser, his famous mop top bouncing around while he sang in concert halls at the height of Beatlemania. Additionally, the All-Starr Band members bring their individual hits to the show to create a soundtrack that spans across decades of the FM dial.
The latest version of the group features Steve Lukather, singer and guitarist of Toto, Colin Hay of Men at Work and songwriter Hamish Stuart of ‘70s funk powerhouse group the Average White Band.
All-Starr veteran, Edgar Winter, creator of the otherworldly 1973 instrumental hit “Frankenstein” and good-time ‘70s classic “Free Ride,” returns along with saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ham.
Longtime All-Starr Band drummer, Gregg Bissonette, who has played with Starr since 2008, also returns. Of Bissonette, “I have him because I heard he does seminars on the way I play,” Starr says of Bissonette before mimicking picking up a phone, “‘Hey, Gregg, come on over.’ Musically it just falls into its right space, you know, that’s what’s great.”
Starr, now 84, continues to be a showman, seemingly full of energy on and off stage, as well as in our nearly hour-long meeting. He talks a little about how he keeps in shape. “I put some time in, you know, I work out, I watch what I eat. I’m on the road, I’m making a record, I keep busy.”
“Crooked Boy,” his latest in a string of recent EPs, came out in the spring and Starr has announced that he will be releasing a country record produced by revered roots music producer/musician T Bone Burnett sometime this fall, his first in the genre since the 1970 solo release, Beaucoups of Blues.
Starr says the new record came to be when he ran into Burnett at a poetry reading held by George Harrison’s wife, Olivia Trinidad Harrison, and that the idea was born as a result of the chance meeting.
When asked by CityBeat if the new record felt like a return of sorts to his first country album Beacoups of Blues, the ever-playful Starr replied with a deadpan, “Yeah,” followed by a pause and a laugh before saying, “That was another accidental situation. George (Harrison) had called Pete Drake in Nashville to come play on his record (All Things Must Pass), and I played on it, Peter Frampton’s on it, a lot of us are on it, but anyway, it just happened that I sent my car to Heathrow Airport to pick Pete up and he comes and gets into the studio and says, ‘Hey Hoss, I see you like country music because there’s a lot of cassettes in the car.’ In those days, it was cassettes, children. And he said, ‘Oh, you’ve got to come to Nashville.’ I said, ‘Oh, I don’t know about that, you know, a month in Nashville,’ because that’s roughly how long it used to take us to make a record, and he said, ‘What? Nashville Skyline (a Bob Dylan album produced by Drake) was done in two days, and we can do one on you in two days.’ So, I flew to Nashville and he was there and we picked five songs in the morning and we’d record them and finish them at night. And the next day we did five songs; we’d pick five songs out of like 20 that writers … and it was done in two days. It was far out.”
He continues with a memory of the sessions, “I was singing one of the tracks and he said, ‘Hoss, put some emotion in it or I’ll come out there and step on your toes,’” Starr recalls with a laugh. “It was like, ’Ok,’ but I had a great time doing it.
The current tour will be leading up to the release of the new record.
Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band will make a local stop at the Fraze Pavilion mid-way through a limited 12-date run that ends at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall this September.
Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band play the Fraze Pavilion on Sept. 15 at 8 p.m. More info: fraze.com.
This story is featured in CityBeat's Sept. 4 print edition.
The Fellow Brit Band Paul McCartney Said “Means Nothing To Him”
BY MELANIE DAVIS
American Songwriter
UPDATED: SEPTEMBER 4, 2024
Getting to meet and stand in line with your childhood musical idols must be one of the cooler parts of becoming a famous musician, but this perk comes with a price. Sometimes, those idols don’t feel the same about you, as was the case for a famed Britpop band and former Beatle, Paul McCartney.
The Beatles’ influence on rock ‘n’ roll is a globally undeniable phenomenon, but their legacy is perhaps most strongly felt in their native U.K., where bands like Black Sabbath, Queen, and Oasis followed in the Fab Four’s footsteps.
Unfortunately for that last band, though, they found themselves on Paul McCartney’s bad side sometime in the late 1990s.
Paul McCartney has given advice to Oasis: "Get together and make some good music" MIKE COPPOLA/GETTY; EAMONN MCCORMACK/WIREIMAGE/GETTY
Paul McCartney Called This British Band “Derivative”
By the time Oasis became famous, the Beatles were a long-lost relic of decades past. The surviving three members, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison, were all busy pursuing their professional and personal passions. But when the Britpop band from Manchester tried to claim they were “bigger than the Beatles” in a 1996 interview with MTV, the lads from Liverpool took note.
In a documentary detailing Oasis’ divisive rise to stardom, Harrison and McCartney offered their two cents. “The music lacks depth,” the Quiet Beatle argued, “and the singer, Liam [Gallagher], is a pain. The rest of the band don’t need him.” McCartney agreed, adding, “They’re derivative, and they think too much of themselves. They mean nothing to me” (via Express).
The ex-Beatles were certainly no strangers to controversial interviews—their own bandmate, John Lennon, had received tremendous criticism for claiming their band was “bigger than Jesus.” So, one could certainly argue that McCartney should’ve known Gallagher was stirring the pot because he could. However, that hindsight also gave McCartney a unique perspective on Gallagher’s comments that, in a way, turned out to be correct.
The Beatles: Liam Gallagher was criticised by the band (Image: GETTY)
“The biggest mistake they made was when they said, ‘We’re going to be bigger than the Beatles,’” McCartney said in an interview with Q Magazine. “I thought, ‘So many people have said that, and it’s the kiss of death.’ Be bigger than the Beatles, but don’t say it. The minute you say it, everything you do from then on is going to be looked at in the light of that statement” (via NME).
The Former Beatle’s Opinion Has Cooled Off Since Then
In hindsight, Paul McCartney’s comment that Oasis’ claim to be bigger than the Beatles was a “kiss of death” isn’t that far from the truth. Not long after that infamous 1996 MTV interview, Oasis buckled under the weight of their immense fame in true Icarian fashion. But on the bright side, at least McCartney’s opinion of the band shifted a bit over the years.
A few years after McCartney called Oasis “derivative” and said they “mean nothing to him,” the former Beatle visited Howard Stern’s show and clarified his comments. McCartney insisted he had no qualms with Oasis prior to Liam Gallagher’s comments about being bigger than the Fab Four. “I started off saying, ‘They’re okay, hey, I wish ‘em good luck, they’re young guys, it’s difficult out there.’ But then they started to bad mouth us.”
Years after that, McCartney’s opinions had softened even more. In a 2015 Q&A with Japanese fans, McCartney gave Oasis some fatherly—if not unsolicited—advice: “Just get together and make some good music. But they have got to want to do it. I think a lot of people would like them to do that. They are pretty cool guys.”
“I don’t know if they will ever make up,” he continued. “It would be good because I think everyone likes brothers to like each other and make up. It’s a pity because they are very good together. Like many brothers, they are crazy. But it would be nice if they got together” (via Rolling Stone). In yet another pseudo-clairvoyant instance, it seems like McCartney only had to wait about ten years for his wish of an Oasis reunion to come true.
Did George Harrison have a relationship with Madonna?
By Thomas Edward
SMOOTH RADIO
3 September 2024
Did George Harrison have an affair with Madonna? Picture: Getty
Strangely enough their paths crossed.
It's safe to say that the woman who sang 'Material Girl' and the man who wrote 'Living In The Material World' were worlds apart.
After his time in The Beatles however, George Harrison didn't just stick to his circles, later venturing into the world of cinema.
Harrison was the executive producer of several films, bankrolling the likes of Monty Python's Life Of Brian, and Time Bandits, both of which were major successes.
In 1986, he put his financial backing into one of the most infamous flops of the decade, nearly bankrupting him.
Shanghai Surprise was an unmitigated disaster, reportedly leading George to reignite his creative relationship with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr on the '95 Beatles Anthology to scrape some money back in his pockets.
The adventure comedy starred star-crossed couple, Sean Penn and Madonna, and despite their recent marriage, it didn't stop rumours swirling of a romance between Harrison and the pop star heavyweight.
Sean Penn, Madonna, and George Harrison on set during the filming of Shanghai Surprise. Picture: Alamy
For anyone who knew about George beyond his image as 'The Quiet Beatle', you can understand why the rumours came into being.
George had many affairs throughout his life, and it was known that he had a serious weakness when it came to women.
His wife Olivia - who married in 1978 after the birth of their son Dhani - suggested in Martin Scorsese's 2011 documentary George Harrison: Living In The Material World that she was privy to his behaviour.
"He liked women and women liked him," she says. "If he just said a couple of words to you, it would have a profound effect. It was hard to deal with someone who was so well loved."
McCartney adds in the documentary: "I don’t want to say much because he was a pal, but he liked the things that men like. He was red-blooded."
An expert on The Beatles, Bill Harry, said: "George had hundreds and hundreds of affairs. John Lennon was probably the most highly-sexed Beatle, but I would put George next after him."
Even the band's roadies Peter Brown and Steven Gaines revealed in their tell-all book The Love You Make: "He wanted to seduce every woman he laid eyes on."
The opinions about George's infidelity have kept stacking up, so what actually happened between him and Madonna?
Well during the filming of Shanghai Surprise, George visited the shoot location in Macau, where he and Madonna reportedly got on very well.
The media storm that followed the actors throughout filming irritated Sean Penn however, who took his frustrations out on his wife - admitted to only doing the film as a favour to her - even punching a photographer at one point.
The couple were only recently married, but the cracks were appearing. Madonna reportedly sought a shoulder to cry on from George who she found "very kind and sympathetic".
Madonna even visited Harrison on several occasions in London before and after filming had wrapped.
Her brother Christopher Ciccone told the Daily Mail that Harrison "read the riot act" to Penn over his bad attitude and outbursts during filming, yet treated Madonna with "kid gloves", heightening suspicion of a relationship.
During the press conference for Shanghai Surprise - that was later dubbed 'Flop Suey' - Madonna further expressed her adoration for George, telling the press that he was a "great boss" and that he'd given her "more advice about how to deal with the press than how to make the film."
Madonna called George Harrison a "great boss". (AP Photo/Peter Kemp). Picture: Alamy
Presented as good friends and confidants throughout the press conference, a later interview with George indicated that any relationship they had soured.
After an interviewer asked "you worked with Madonna on Shanghai Surprise," George quickly cut in replying: "Tried to."
"You want the truth? It was a pain in the ass," Harrison continued. "Because we were doing a comedy movie, she hasn't got a sense of humour."
"And her husband Sean - who's a really nice and intelligent fella, and I had a laugh with him at times – but, you know, he sort of gets all uptight and, you know, caused all the trouble."
"It was like The Producers [1967 movie], you know, where he says: 'I've picked the wrong cast, the wrong actors, the wrong director, where did I go right?'" he joked.
So whilst they might have been fairly close at one point, it seems like the rumours of George Harrison having an affair with Madonna are just rumours after all.
'I Didn't Even Look Up for the First Six Months': Paul McCartney Touring Guitarist & Bassist Opens Up on Playing Bass Next to Beatles Legend
"Learning to play bass and having the guts to stand next to Paul while doing so was a challenge and honor."
The_Phoenician [UG Writer]
Ultimate Guitar
September 1 2024
Brian Ray recalled the moment he was chosen to play bass and guitar with Paul McCartney's touring band, saying that having the "guts" to play the four-string next to The Beatles bassist was "a challenge and honor."
Over the past couple of decades, Brian Ray has held one of the most enviable positions in the guitar-playing world—touring with Paul McCartney as guitarist, bassist, and backing vocalist. Ray was recommended to his current boss by drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., as McCartney had been looking for a player who could switch between bass and guitar.
And while the California-born musician has already had ample experience working with the genre's greats prior to joining the legendary Beatle's touring retinue (which included collabs with Etta James, Keith Richards, Santana, Joe Cocker, Bonnie Raitt, John Lee Hooker, and Bo Diddley), he admits to Guitar Player in a recent interview that he was still nervous during his first months on the job:
"Learning to play bass and having the guts to stand next to Paul while doing so was a challenge and honor. I didn't even look up for the first six months for fear of losing my place, because he's Paul freakin' McCartney."
Mr. Ray notes that spending over 20 years next to one of the greatest musicians alive is bound to be a great learning experience, adding:
"There is no way a musician can spend as much time around Paul as I have and not get some of that on you."
(Image credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Desert Trip)
Even so, he credits Etta James as his foremost musical mentor, since the legendary singer-songwriter took Ray under her wing when he was just a fledgling musician:
"When I first got with Etta James, I had just turned 18 and was a little blond greenhorn from Glendale, California. Yet she took me in and kept me by her side for 15 years. We went from playing a cinderblock chitlin circuit blues gig in Colorado Springs to suddenly opening arenas and stadiums for the Rolling Stones."
"She offered me the experience of a lifetime. without which I may not have been the right guy for Paul McCartney those many years later."
Etta James & Brian Ray, Montreux 1975 (Dany GIGNOUX)
Back in July, Ray noted how his boss keeps performing for the sheer love of the game, as he "certainly doesn't need" the financial benefits:
"He's passionate about it. And he loves to sing a song. He loves to entertain. He's just got that gene in him. He was born to do it. I think to myself, 'Why? Why do it?' He has to love it, because it's a schlep for anybody. I don't care if you're Paul or whoever you are, it is still a schlep. You gotta still get up and go and make that plane and make that bus. It's still a schlep. You've gotta really want it."
Brian Ray released his latest solo album, "If The Earth Was Round", earlier this month.
There are not one but two John Lennon and Yoko Ono films set for release shortly.
The first, and the most interesting, is One to One: John & Yoko which has just premiered at the Venice International Film Festival and is getting very good reviews. It is a documentary set in New York in 1972 exploring not only John and Yoko’s new-found love of that city, but also their musical, personal, artistic, social, and political lives – all with a backdrop of that turbulent year in American history. At the film’s core is the One to One charity concert for special needs children, Lennon’s only full-length concert between the final Beatle concert in 1966 and his death. The footage and music from that Madison Square Garden show has been restored with Sean Ono Lennon and his team producing a superb sound remix. This is one to look out for when and if it makes it to Blu-Ray. We can only wish for some sort of soundtrack audio release of the concert as well. For a great article on the film check out The Hollywood Reporter.
The second film, also set in 1972, is another John and Yoko feature-length documentary called Daytime Revolution. This details five crazy days the pair co-hosted the iconic Mike Douglas Show, at the time the most popular show on US daytime TV reaching an audience of 40 million viewers a week. As producers and hosts, Lennon and Ono where allowed to pick their guests including Black Panther Chairman Bobby Seale, social activist Jerry Rubin, and political activist and consumer advocate Ralph Nader. They conducted candid Q&A sessions with their studio audience, had conversations about police violence and women’s liberation, mounted conceptual art events, and made one-of-a-kind musical performances, including playing live with Chuck Berry and a poignant rendition of Lennon’s ‘Imagine’.
It looks like Daytime Revolution is set for a theatrical release only at this stage, so look for it in a cinema near you. It’ll no doubt end up on one of the streaming services, but as to a physical Blu-Ray, well that remains to be seen.
And of course September 26 sees the worldwide limited cinema release of One Hand Clapping, the film by David Litchfield documenting Paul McCartney and Wings live at Abbey Road Studios in August, 1974.
One Hand Clapping (and it’s accompanying soundtrack album) captures a moment when Wings had found and defined their sound. The documentary gives an insight into the inner workings of the band as they work and play together in the studio. The film, originally shot on 1970s videotape (code for “It looks pretty awful!”), has been scanned and restored at 4K. The between song dialogue has been de-mixed using Wingnut’s MAL software and the film features a new Dolby Atmos audio mix by Steve Orchard and Giles Martin. Find out if One Hand Clapping is showing near you and order tickets online.
Meanwhile, we’re still awaiting news of any film/music releases in celebration of The Beatles conquering America 60 years ago this year.
Rumor has it (from Ringo at least….) that there is some sort of Beatle film product on the way, possibly based around a re-issue of the Mayles brothers’ excellent backstage documentary The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit. Don’t know if this will be a stand-alone physical release on Blu-Ray, or if it will simply pop up as a streaming-only offer on Disney+ at some stage. Watch this space.
On the book front the next eagerly anticipated release is Mind Games, the companion piece to the audio of Mind Games The Ultimate Mixes. It’s due in shops from September 24. Like the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band The Ultimate Collection and Imagine The Ultimate Collection remixes which also had separately-sold thick books to accompany them, this book will be far more detailed than the 136 page book included in the 6CD/2 Blu-Ray deluxe box set. That book’s purpose is to unpack the music on those CDs and Blu-Rays. The separate Mind Games book goes much wider, examining not only the creation of the album in greater detail, the times in which was recorded, and what John and Yoko where up to.
Then, in December, comes the much-anticipated The McCartney Legacy, Volume 2 1974-80. This is the follow-up to 2022’s The McCartney Legacy, Volume 1 1964-73, described as the most complete work on the life and work of Paul McCartney ever published.
If authors Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair bring the same level of exhaustive research to Volume 2 that made the first installment such a critical success, then this book will be a must-have. It is released on December 10 and is available for pre-order in the U.S. and in the U.K. .
For those of you with deep pockets who want to celebrate the Beatles continued domination of popular music in America in 1964, then Genesis Publications has a high-class book of photographs from the time for you.
Mania Days is described as “…the ultimate photographic record of the Beatles’ tour of the USA, as captured through the lens of the band’s photographer Curt Gunther, with introductory quotes from the Beatles’ press officer, Derek Taylor. Mania Days is a must-have book for Beatles aficionados and anyone interested in the transformative power of music and popular culture. The final 100 copies are now available in a new and updated binding and slipcase, specially designed to commemorate 60 years of The Beatles in the USA and 50 years of Genesis Publications in 2024.”
It has to be said that Mania Days contains some brilliant images capturing Beatlemania in all its crazy glory. Curt Gunther has a good eye and his black and white images are often striking. The only drawback is the £265 price tag. That is $514 Australian or $347 US. Granted, Genesis Beatle books have a tendency to hold or even increase their value, but it’s still a lot for a book! They must be selling them though as there are only 30 copies left, and the even more expensive “Deluxe” edition is listed as sold out on the site.
The third woman in John Lennon’s life has a different story regarding their ‘lost weekend’
May Pang was the Beatle’s partner for 18 months while he was estranged from Yoko Ono (who nonetheless oversaw many aspects of their relationship.) Now, she’s sticking up for their personally and artistically fertile time together, and refuting unsavory rumors
RICARDO DE QUEROL
EL PAIS English
Madrid - AUG 30, 2024
May Pang and John Lennon in a club, during the early 1970s.
ART ZELIN (GETTY IMAGES)
John Lennon’s first divorce, from his first wife Cynthia Powell, was set off when she came back from a trip to Greece and found him having breakfast with Yoko Ono, both in their pajamas. The two roundly ignored Powell. When Lennon broke up with Ono for the first time, he had been having sexual relations with other women under the same roof; on one occasion, Ono walked in and the pair didn’t even pause their coupling. So began the “lost weekend,” as Lennon’s 18-month period between 1973 and 1975 is known, when he left The Dakota, their building in New York City, to live with May Pang, who had been his personal and production assistant. During that time, both were under the long-distance surveillance of Ono. The Japanese artist herself had requested that Pang go with him and behave as his partner for all intents and purposes, because Ono did not view Lennon as being capable of taking care of himself. The official version holds that in October 1973, when Lennon moved to Los Angeles with Pang, he hit rock bottom. That the period was marked by drug and alcohol abuse, by his eagerness to destroy hotel rooms and apartments at the end of his clique’s benders, and by his rude and arrogant behavior at public events (he was even kicked out of the Troubador nightclub by security.)
Pang has another version of this period, as related in the 2022 documentary The Lost Weekend: A Love Story, which is available on Prime. It wasn’t the first time she’s shared her side (the film itself includes interviews she gave in the 1980s, and she wrote two memoirs), but the documentary does mark the first time that the year-and-a-half period has been examined in this level of detail. Pang grew up in Spanish Harlem in a Chinese family; at 22, she established a relationship with Lennon and Ono, who were living in New York after the Beatles’ breakup. At first, she collaborated on the production of the experimental films they shot, then Ono offered her a stable position as John’s assistant. Pang didn’t take Ono’s subsequent request upon the couple’s separation seriously at first, but she soon learned that Ono was being deadly serious. The lost weekend with Pang was agreed upon by both members of the famous couple and John wasted no time in kissing Pang, even before they set off (Ono, for her part, had an affair with musician David Spinozza.)
The documentary does tell of some of Lennon’s excesses in California, but it puts them in perspective. It wants viewers to know that he and Pang were truly in love, that they had a stable partnership with their own social life and shining moments. She admits that there were a couple of violent incidents with him (Lennon later owned up to having mistreated his partners in the past and said that he regretted the behavior.) By the spring of 1974, Pang had managed to settle his mind somewhat, and the two moved back to New York, not to The Dakota, but to another apartment for the two of them. Ono had sent Pang off with a man captive to his impulses and addictions and Pang brought him back sober and responsible. Not just that — with Pang by his side, Lennon repaired his relationship with his son Julian, after three years of ignoring the boy. He also reunited with Paul McCartney for a jam session with Stevie Wonder, Harry Nilsson and other artists. That recording is called A Toot and a Snore in ‘74 and is not included in any official discography, though its bootleg version traveled the world. Aside from having a good time, McCartney also managed to relay a message to Lennon: Ono was open to considering his return.
Julian (in a live interview) and McCartney (off-camera) both confirm in the documentary that their relationships with Lennon were reestablished during that strange lapse of time. Lennon even seemed open to a Beatles reunion (though he wasn’t very consistent when it came to this prospect and on other occasions refused to contemplate such a return.) He also collaborated with Elton John, with whom Lennon released his only number one hit outside the Beatles — Imagine failed to reach the top of the charts — Whatever Gets You Thru the Night. John had Lennon join him onstage at Madison Square Garden to perform three songs in what turned out to be the Liverpudlian’s final large-scale concert. The period was also a fertile moment for Lennon’s solo career. He put out Walls and Bridges and wound up releasing a cover album, Rock ‘n’ Roll, a challenging project in the hands of the genius, if psychopathic, producer Phil Spector.
Though Pang measures her words, Ono emerges as the villain of the piece. A person so manipulative she even wanted to choose her ex’s lover, one who, during that separation, contacted Pang on a daily basis. A revealing moment comes when, after a spat, Pang left just as Lennon was due to receive a visit from Powell and Julian in New York. But Ono called Pang to order her to go back, saying Lennon couldn’t be left alone for the reunion with his ex-wife and their son, that he wasn’t ready for such an interaction. Pang obeyed. In the documentary, she speaks of how Ono had previously forced her to intercept calls from Julian to his progenitor, that she had ordered her to do all she could to block their father-son relationship. The assistant not only facilitated that subsequent reunion, she also forged a lasting friendship with Cynthia. The portrait of Lennon that emerges is of a bitter man passing through a delayed adolescence, overwhelmed by his own persona, with a tendency to go wild and an enormous emotional dependence on those around him.
Pang says that in February 1975, she and Lennon were looking at buying a house, starting a home, when Ono decided the lost weekend was over. “Yoko is letting me come home,” Lennon told Pang. “She’s letting you?” she responded. The rest is history: Lennon went back to The Dakota and became, in his own words, a house husband. They had his second son, Sean, and Lennon dedicated himself to being a dad. He put his musical career on hold until 1980, when the couple released Double Fantasy, three weeks before he was assassinated in the entryway of his building on December 8 by Marc Chapman. Less widely known is that Pang holds that she and Lennon had furtive encounters until his death, that their intimacy continued to the very end.
In The Lost Weekend, it becomes clear that Pang doesn’t want to go down in rock ‘n’ roll history as the other woman, and much less a mistress for hire. Rather, she holds, she was the third steady partner that Lennon ever had, a relationship that was prematurely cut short, and that she was one of his closest artistic collaborators during one of his creative high points. To her chagrin, the official version of their lives is still being dictated by Ono.
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“Fin de semana perdido”. Cómo fueron los 18 meses de John Lennon con May Pang: ¿su tercera mujer o la “amante por encargo” de Yoko Ono?
May Pang fue la pareja del ‘beatle’ durante los 18 meses en que estuvo lejos de Yoko Ono (aunque bajo su supervisión); en un documental, ella reivindica ese periodo, fecundo en lo personal y lo artístico, y rebate la leyenda negra
Por Ricardo De Querol (El País)
La Nación
1 de septiembre de 2024
Cuando John Lennon rompió con su primera esposa, Cynthia Powell, fue porque ella volvió de un viaje a Grecia y se encontró a Yoko Ono desayunando con él, ambos en pijama, ignorándola. Cuando Lennon se separó por primera vez de Yoko Ono, fue por tener relaciones sexuales bajo el mismo techo con otras mujeres: en una ocasión, Ono irrumpió en la habitación pero ellos no pararon. Empezó el fin de semana perdido, como se llamó al periodo de 18 meses, entre 1973 y 1975, en el que Lennon se marchó del edificio Dakota en Nueva York y convivió con May Pang, quien había sido su asistente personal y en tareas de producción, una etapa en la que ambos estuvieron bajo la vigilancia remota de Yoko.
La propia artista japonesa le había pedido a May que se fuera con él, y que se comportara como su pareja a todos los efectos, porque no lo veía capaz de cuidar de sí mismo. La versión oficial, o la leyenda negra, dice que en octubre de 1973, cuando se instaló en Los Ángeles con May, John tocó fondo. Que ese periodo estuvo marcado por el abuso del alcohol y las drogas, por su afán de destruir estancias de hoteles y pisos como final de una juerga con su camarilla, por un comportamiento grosero y prepotente en actos públicos (fue expulsado por la seguridad del club The Trobadour).
Una escena familiar: Julian Lennon, John Lennon (con una remera de Mickey Mouse) y May Pang en Disneyworld Florida, el 27 de diciembre de 1974 (Photo by John Rodgers/Redferns)
John Rodgers - Redferns
May tiene otra versión de ese tiempo, que cuenta en el documental El otro amor de John Lennon (The Lost Weekend: A Love Story), de 2022. No es la primera vez que relata su historia (este mismo largometraje incluye entrevistas que dio en los años ochenta, y escribió dos libros de memorias), pero sí que una película reconstruye ese año y medio con este detalle.
Ella había crecido en el Harlem hispano de una familia china; con 22 años establece relación con Lennon y Ono, instalados en Nueva York tras la ruptura de The Beatles. Primero fue colaboradora en la producción de las películas experimentales que rodaban; Yoko le ofreció luego un empleo estable como asistente de John. No daba crédito a lo que le pedía en el momento de la separación, pero iba en serio: el fin de semana perdido con May era algo consensuado por el matrimonio, así que John no tardó en besarla antes de emprender el viaje (y Yoko, por su parte, tuvo su affaire con el músico David Spinozza).
El documental sí cuenta algunos de esos excesos que vivió John en California, pero los acota y relativiza. Lo que quiere hacer saber May es que estuvieron de verdad enamorados, que eran una pareja estable que hacía vida social y tuvo momentos luminosos. Ella admite un par de incidentes violentos con él (John reconoció después que había maltratado a sus parejas en el pasado y se mostró arrepentido por ello). May logró que sentara la cabeza ya en la primavera de 1974, antes de instalarse de vuelta en Nueva York, no en el Dakota, sino en otro apartamento para ellos dos.
Así que si Yoko la había mandado con un hombre presa de sus impulsos y adicciones, May se lo devolvería sobrio y responsable. No solo eso: al lado de May, John recupera la relación con su hijo Julian, después de tres años sin interesarse por él. Contacta con algunos de sus colegas: Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Ringo. Y se vuelve a encontrar con Paul McCartney para una sesión improvisada con Stevie Wonder y Harry Nilsson, entre otros. La grabación se llama A Toot and a Snore in ‘74 y no forma parte de ninguna discografía oficial, pero la versión pirata dio la vuelta al mundo. Además de pasárselo bien, Paul le hizo llegar a John un mensaje de Yoko: estaba dispuesta a considerar su regreso.
Tanto Julian (en directo) como Paul (en diferido, se le ve joven) hablan en el documental para corroborar que su relación con John se restableció durante ese extraño lapso. Lennon incluso se mostraba entonces abierto a un regreso de The Beatles (no era muy consistente en sus posiciones: en otras ocasiones lo descartaba por completo). Además colaboró con Elton John, con quien firmó una canción que fue su único número uno sin The Beatles: Whatever Gets You Thru the Night (no, el single de Imagine no lo logró en 1971). Elton lo hizo salir al escenario, para interpretar tres canciones juntos, en el Madison Square Garden: fue el último concierto masivo del de Liverpool. Para la carrera de Lennon en solitario fue también una época fecunda: publicó el álbum Walls and Bridges y dejó terminado otro de versiones, Rock and Roll, que costó sacar porque estaba a cargo del proyecto el productor Phil Spector, tan genial como psicópata.
UNITED STATES - NOVEMBER 28: MADISON SQUARE GARDEN Photo of Elton JOHN and John LENNON, with Elton John performing live onstage - Lennon's last live appearance (Photo by Steve Morley/Redferns)
Sin que May Pang se muestre demasiado hostil, porque mide sus palabras, Yoko Ono queda como la villana del relato. Una persona tan manipuladora que hasta quiso elegir a la amante de su (¿ex?) marido, y que durante la separación contactaba con ella a diario. Un momento muy revelador es que, después de una riña, May se largó justo cuando John iba a recibir en Nueva York la visita de Cynthia y Julian. Pero Yoko llamó a May para ordenarle que volviera junto a él: no podía dejarlo solo al reencontrarse con su exmujer y su hijo, no estaba preparado. Y ella obedeció.
John Lennon y May Pang en el Beacon Theatre de Nueva York, el 17 de noviembre de 1974
Tom Wargacki - WireImage
En el mismo documental se cuenta que durante los años previos Yoko obligaba a May a interceptar las llamadas que hacía Julian a su padre, que hizo lo posible por bloquear esa relación paternofilial. La asistente no solo engrasó aquel reencuentro posterior, sino que hizo amistad duradera con Cynthia. Pero el retrato de John Lennon que sale de aquí es muy amargo, el de un adolescente perpetuo, poco autónomo, abrumado por su personaje, con tendencia a desmadrarse y una enorme dependencia emocional.
Cuenta May que John y ella estaban viendo casas para formar un hogar cuando, en febrero de 1975, Yoko Ono decidió dar por terminado el fin de semana perdido. “Yoko me permite volver a casa”, le dijo John a May. “¿Que te lo permite?”, respondió May. El resto es sabido: John volvió al Dakota y se convirtió, según sus propias palabras, en amo de casa. Tuvo a su segundo hijo, Sean, y se dedicó a su crianza. Aparcó su carrera hasta 1980, cuando la pareja publicó Double Fantasy, tres semanas antes de que él fuera asesinado en el portal de su casa, el 8 de diciembre, por Marc Chapman. No es tan sabido que May asegura que John y ella mantuvieron encuentros furtivos hasta su muerte, que nunca dejaron de relacionarse ni de intimar.
May Pang no quiere quedar en la historia del rock como la otra, mucho menos como una amante por encargo, sino como la tercera pareja estable que tuvo John en su vida, truncada prematuramente, y como una de sus más estrechas colaboradoras en uno de sus mejores momentos creativos. El relato oficial, a su pesar, lo sigue gestionando Yoko Ono.
