WALRUSGUMBOOT BEATLE NEWS

The Berlin Wall: My car had a visa but I didn't

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:21:00 +0000

Listening to NPR this morning I learned that today is the anniversary of the fall of The Wall that separated East and West Berlin. In September of 1989 I journeyed to Hamburg, West Germany, to see a friend and visit The Wall that President Ronald Reagan demanded: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Tonight I plan to watch a PBS premiere entitled : “How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin” that tells the story of “How the Fab Four’s influence in the USSR may have helped bring down the Soviet system.” So today it seems uncertain as to who had more influence on the elimination of one of greatest impediments to human rights the world has ever witnessed. Was it Ronald Reagan or the Beatles? [read more]

Giving George Harrison's Thirty Three and 1/3 Another Spin

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:20:00 +0000

When people hear the name “George Harrison,” two thoughts come to mind: his work with The Beatles, and his masterpiece All Things Must Pass. Obviously the latter album stands the test of time, boasting a staggering number of quality singles: “My Sweet Lord,” “Isn’t It a Pity,” “Wah Wah,” and “What Is Life,” just to name a few. However, Harrison released several other solo albums; while some were uneven, most contained at least a few gems. One such album that has received surprisingly little attention is 1976’s Thirty-Three and 1/3, a stellar effort that features beautiful ballads, his trademark humor, and just a touch of soul. [read more]

The Ballad of Yoko Ono

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:11:00 +0000

There’s a fact about Yoko Ono that has been obscured over the past few decades due largely to her life and work with her late husband. Early in her career, Ono became an acclaimed and influential artist in her own right through her development of fascinating conceptual and performance pieces. Having established herself in New York City in the early 1960s, Ono undertook a boundless presentation of ideas. “Painting To Be Stepped On,” where participants joined in completing the artwork with their footprints, challenged the notion that artwork had to be placed on a wall for observation. [read more]

Veterans share service memories on John Lennon Educational Tour Bus

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:09:00 +0000

One year of warfare in Iraq made Cesar Pastora an angry, troubled man. A veteran of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division, Pastora fed on the exhilaration of his duties: jumping from airplanes, which he did 42 times, and participating in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He vividly remembers Iraqis toppling a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad that year, and how he came home to Miami in 2005 filled with anxiety and anger, which he quelled with cocaine, Xanax and booze. [read more]

The fifth Beatle

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:04:00 +0000

Pete Best, drummer with The Beatles for two years, returns to the country of his birth this week. He looks back on an almost famous life. The cellar of a large Victorian house in Liverpool, with silver stars drawn on the ceiling, the name of a certain John Lennon carved into the wall and the memory of a dusty province of the Raj, is where the biggest pop act in history began. The Casbah Coffee Club, Mo’s café. Recently in Delhi, on a stage set up to recreate that basement café, Pete Best will take his place behind his drumset and let the riffs roll: the man who almost made it, in the city of his mother’s birth. [read more]

Meet John Paul Warne

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:47:00 +0000

Hello everyone, I'm John Paul Warne . . . born in 1959 when The Beatles were still known as The Quarrymen! I was born in Manila, Philippines of a Filipino father (whose parents were part-American) and a Filipina mother (who was the daughter of a Spaniard), thus making me Filipino, Spanish, and American. Already you can see that I'm unique! Growing up in the exclusive village (San Lorenzo Village), which closely resembled an American town, I made friends with many expatriates from the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, and Europe residing in this village. I also was fortunate to have many Filipino friends who could afford to travel at a time when many could not afford to do so. Therefore, I was quite aware of the world outside the Philippines. [read more]

Beatles Documentary Offers Intimate Look at Recording Sessions

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:41:00 +0000

Get excited, Beatles fans -- a new special about the Fab Four, 'The Beatles on Record,' is set to premiere on the History Channel later this month. Debuting on Wednesday, Nov. 25 at 10PM, the Thanksgiving Eve broadcast promises a rare and intimate glimpse of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Narrated entirely by the band members and their longtime producer, Sir George Martin, the project boasts over 60 songs, rare footage and images from the Beatles' archives and never-before-heard outtakes of the band in conversation during its original recording sessions. 'The Beatles on Record' also promises a close look at the creative process behind each of its Abbey Road-recorded masterpieces. [read nore]

Kraftwerk: In praise of the electronic Beatles

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:06:00 +0000

Anticipation for the forthcoming Kraftwerk box set, The Catalogue, is understandably high. C'mon, it's Kraftwerk! In electronic music, they hold the same status and influence as the Beatles, creating a new vocabulary for artists to experiment with. Kraftwerk famously came out of the German experimental music scene, which the music press later dubbed "krautrock", at a time when artists were creating work devoid of ties to Teutonic tradition. Inspired by the factories in their hometown of Düsseldorf, Kraftwerk were pragmatic about creating music. They wanted to be known not as musicians, but as workers willing to take music into the future. [read more]

Strawberry Fields, Central Park, New York

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:23:00 +0000

He was one of four British teens who forever changed the face of rock & roll. An advocate for peace, politically outspoken and senselessly murdered — but his words continue to inspire. For these reasons, among others, in 1981 New York City Council allocated 2.5 acres in Central Park for Strawberry Fields, a tribute to John Lennon’s music and vision. Yoko Ono’s donation made it possible to redesign the landscaping and continue its maintenance. On the day that would have been Lennon’s 45th birthday, October 9, 1985, the city’s mayor dedicated Strawberry Fields at the opening ceremony. Since then, it has attracted thousands of visitors from all over the world, and 121 countries have sanctioned it a Garden of Peace. [read more]

Beatles catalog is temporarily banned from music website BlueBeat

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:29:00 +0000

A federal court in Los Angeles this week issued a temporary restraining order against a music website that recently had been offering the entire Beatles catalog for downloading at 25 cents per song. The Santa Cruz-based BlueBeat earlier in the week was hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit by EMI's Capitol Records, the group's U.S. label. The order set back a novel legal argument by BlueBeat that songs produced through digital regeneration are akin to songs performed by cover bands and therefore do not run afoul of copyright law. BlueBeat had argued in court filings that its downloads were legal because the company had created entirely new versions by computer through a process called "psychoacoustic simulations" that makes the re-created songs sound just like the original recordings. [read more]

Dhani Harrison: Rock Band 3 will Teach You to Play Music

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:21:00 +0000

Now Harrison is working on the inevitable Rock Band sequel. "I'm working on 'Rock Band 3' and making the controllers more real so people can actually learn how to play music while playing the game," he said. "Give me a couple years, it's going to happen." Rock Band 3 as both a party game and an educational tool? Sounds a little too convenient... Like Baconnaise. For the uninitiated, that's bacon flavored mayonnaise, and yes, it really exists. So would you want your videogames to teach you things, or should developers keep their learnin' out of your home? [read more]

Yoko Ono, forever a force for peace

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:12:00 +0000

Even before she married John Lennon, even before she embarked on a career as an avant-garde and conceptual artist, Yoko Ono was under scrutiny, first by her teachers and peers, later by people of a different region as her family fled the fire-bombings of Tokyo. When asked if it was discouraging to have her character questioned and her work strongly criticized after she became the wife of the beloved Beatle, Ono didn't even pause before responding. "I was not particularly affected by what people were saying about my work. It was kind of a normal procedure for my work in a way. I mean, I had been criticized all the time up until then." [read more]

Beatles German Tour

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:05:00 +0000

This is the first book dealing with the sole German tour! The Beatles took quite some time after they had said goodbye to Hamburg on January 1st,1963 after their last Star-Club engagement. It wasn‘t until June 23, 1966 that they returned to Germany for five days and six concerts in Munich, Essen and Hamburg. This book deals with this German tour in a chronological order. It explains the difficulties everybody had to pull the tour through as well as the actual preparations by the promoter and the police. Every little thing that happened in those hot five days is described in great detail in a minute-by-minute-coverage. [read more/pre-order signed book]

Eric Clapton Interview - Quotes on Addiction, Tears in Heaven, and Layla

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:48:00 +0000

One of the most beneficial things I’ve ever learned is how to keep my mouth shut. Up until I became a father, it was all about self-obsession. But then I learned exactly what it’s all about: the delight of being a servant. Olivier wrote that the greatest thing you could aspire to in life was to be a good servant. From the beginning, I knew intuitively that if nothing else, music was safe, and that nobody could tell me anything about it. Music didn’t need a middleman, whereas all the other things in school needed some kind of explanation. I don’t put something on tape until I’ve played around with it for a couple of weeks. I heard someone else say this -- it may have been Quincy Jones. That he gets an idea, but he doesn’t really act on it unless it keeps coming back and starts to annoy him. [read more - Esquire]

Emi Wins Injunction Over Beatles Tracks

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:48:00 +0000

Songs by THE BEATLES have been pulled from the internet after record label bosses at EMI won a temporary injunction against a U.S. website for allegedly selling the tracks without permission. A copyright violation lawsuit was filed at a Los Angeles court on Tuesday (03Nov09) to prevent the sale of "unauthorised content" after Bluebeat.com allegedly began offering Beatles' tracks for download at discounted prices. The Fab Four's music is not licenced for internet downloads, and last year (08) Sir Paul MCCartney announced he would like to see the band's songs available on Apple's iTunes store, but admitted negotiations had "stalled". Executives at EMI, the company that owns the Beatles' recordings, need to agree a deal with the surviving bandmates and Apple Corps before the catalogue can be made available online.
Now Bluebeat.com has been banned from streaming or selling tracks by the band, as well as other EMI artists. [read more]

Beatles fans blast outrageous fiction Nowhere Boy

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:46:00 +0000

A film detailing the early life of John Lennon has been condemned as "outrageous fiction" by Beatles experts. Nowhere Boy, directed by artist Sam Taylor-Wood, and premiered at the London Film Festival, depicts Lennon's famous Auntie Mimi as a domineering harridan. The screenplay by Matt Greenhalgh - who wrote the script for the 2007 Joy Division film 'Control' - is accused of distorting Lennon's childhood and adolescence. [read more]

Emi Sues Over Beatles Downloads

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:44:00 +0000

Record label bosses at EMI have filed suit against a U.S. website after a string of BEATLES tracks appeared online. The Fab Four's music is currently not licenced for internet downloads. Last year (08) Sir Paul MCCartney announced he would like to see the band's songs available on Apple's iTunes store, but admitted negotiations had "stalled". Executives at EMI, the company that owns the Beatles' recordings, need to agree a deal with the surviving bandmates' Apple Corps company before the catalogue can be made available online. But bosses filed legal papers to prevent the sale of "unauthorised content" after American website Bluebeat.com allegedly began offering Beatles' tracks - including recent digitally remastered versions - for download at discounted prices. The copyright violation lawsuit was filed at a Los Angeles court on Tuesday (03Nov09). SOURCE - Contactmusic News

Bootleg Beatles interview

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:43:00 +0000

He’s met Paul McCartney a couple of times and spent a happy two hours at a party with George Harrison once, but still his voice falters when I ask if he ever saw the Beatles in action during his childhood in Liverpool. “I could have seen them but I didn’t. I was living with my parents. I wouldn’t have gone on my own but I could have seen them at the Liverpool Empire. But my parents . . . I was up in boarding school when they were playing one time. So I didn’t actually see them live. I would absolutely love to have seen them.” His girlfriend, however did see The Beatles. “She saw them in Denmark. She’s Danish and she saw them when she was very, very young, 12 I think. But she said it was all screaming. She wanted everybody to shut up, she couldn’t hear the songs.” [read more]

US site selling Beatles' back catalogue despite EMI investigation

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:23:00 +0000

BlueBeat, an American website, continued selling MP3 files of every single Beatles track for 25 cents (15p), even though the group's record label, EMI, has launched an urgent investigation into the unauthorised sale. The site has also continued to stream each of the group's albums, including the recently released remastered versions, in their entirety, free of charge. [read more]

Former The Beatles drummer in India

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:21:00 +0000

Pete Best, the original drummer of The Beatles before they became famous, is in India. On Tuesday evening, Best was spotted in the Capital performing some hit nostalgic numbers for his fans. Ringo Starr had replaced Pete in 1962, just after two years of association with the band. "I basically played numbers from the 60s and 70s because I knew that's what my audience will look for and I hope they were not disappointed," Pete was quoted by a website, as saying. [read more]

Solving mystery of the John Lennon bench

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:20:00 +0000

OUR columnist Pete Chambers, who writes Backbeat each week, answers a query raised by reader Veronica Hammond about the disappearance of a garden seat John and Yoko placed at Coventry Cathedral in 1968. “John and Yoko felt they had something of a verbal mauling from then Cathedral Canon (Cannon Verney), who considered their planting of two acorns and placing a cylindrical bench in the Cathedral grounds was neither art or indeed appropriate. The couple returned to London, with a very angry Lennon in tow. Within a week the acorns had been stolen, and the bench was later removed by Les Anthony (Lennon’s chauffer) and taken back to Kenwood in Weybridge, Surrey, Lennon’s home at the time. [read more]

The Beatles offer catalog on USB drive without DRM

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:18:00 +0000

The Beatles on Wednesday surprised the music industry by offering their collection outside of a disc for the first time. The Limited Edition USB Stick carries the entire LP collection of the British band in a stereo mix along with the mini-documentaries, album art and liner notes from the remastered CDs. Significantly, all of the songs come both in unprotected 320Kbps MP3 as well as in a similarly unguarded, lossless FLAC and should work on most any computer or portable player. The 16GB, Apple Records-themed drive is for now only being sold in a 30,000-copy run and will ship December 8th for $280. Pre-orders start today. [read more]

Mccartney's Son To Make U.S. Musical Debut

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:14:00 +0000

SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY's son JAMES is set to make his U.S. music debut later this month (Nov09) - at a benefit gala hosted by filmmaker DAVID LYNCH. British musician James MCCartney - the son of the Beatles legend and his late first wife, Linda - accompanied his father on his American tour in 2005. And now the 32 year old is set to step into the spotlight himself with a solo set at Lynch's fourth annual Change Begins Within charity event, held at Iowa's Maharishi University. Proceeds from the 14 November benefit will go toward teaching at-risk kids to meditate, reports the New York Post.SOURCE

Vote For An Artist : How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:11:00 +0000

Two months after the assassination of President Kennedy--a sad, scary time for 13 year-olds like me -- The Beatles came to America, bringing fun, cheekiness, intelligence, and belief in the power of music to transform the then dreary landscape. When George Harrison wrote "Here Comes the Sun" years later, he might well have been writing about the four boys who lit and warmed the winter of 1964. No one inspired the baby boomers more than The Beatles. They gave us hope. [vote now/win the Beatles boxset]

Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon and Julian Lennon Unite

noreply@blogger.com (admin@beatlesnumber9.com) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:38:00 +0000

To celebrate the unifying spirit and 40th anniversary of the Plastic Ono Band's universal anthem, "Give Peace a Chance," Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon and Julian Lennon have partnered with EMI Music and Sony/ATV Music Publishing to donate net proceeds from the sale of a commemorative 40th Anniversary digital single to the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (PBF). Beginning today, iTunes will exclusively offer the single's special anniversary edition for download purchase, with net proceeds benefiting the PBF through December 31.

Says Yoko Ono, "I am thrilled that so many in the music business are readily supporting 'Give Peace a Chance' on its 40th anniversary. It is indeed a time when we are all getting more aware of the necessity of doing something to achieve world peace, no matter how small. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I feel deeply that we are all one, regardless of where we stand."

"I am delighted to see that a song so closely identified with the pursuit of peace, will shine a light on the United Nations' peacebuilding efforts and financially support PBF projects," the Chairperson of the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), Ambassador Heraldo Munoz of Chile said.
[read more]