I’m very sorry to hear of the passing of Roy Young. Roy was one of English Rock and Roll’s great piano players. He met the Beatles at the Star Club in Hamburg in 1962, and often played onstage with them. Young said he was approached by Brian Epstein to join the Beatles permanently, but couldn’t, as he had a contract with the Star Club.
Roy Young later played keyboards on David Bowie’s albums ‘Young Americans’ and ‘Low’
The estate of George Harrison has launched a new record label, HariSongs, that will focus on Indian classical and world music. The label was launched in partnership with Craft Recordings and will cull releases from the Harrison family archives, including the former Beatle’s collaborations with some of the most famous Indian musicians.
The label’s first two projects will be reissues of two recently out-of-print records: Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan’s In Concert 1972 and Shankar’s collaboration with Harrison, Chants of India. Both albums are available to stream and download today, April 27th.
From May 1st – the Beatles ‘In My Life’ walk starts at 11am, every Tuesday and Saturday, from outside the main archway entrance of Marylebone Station.
There are places I’ll remember’ – The Beatles ‘In My Life’ tour of London.
A walking tour of some of the major Beatles sites in the Marylebone area of London; including where the opening scenes of a Hard Day’s Night were filmed; the apartment where Ringo Starr, Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon and Yoko Ono all lived; the house where Paul McCartney dreamed ‘Yesterday’; and a tube ride to St John’s Wood to see Abbey Road Studios and cross the famous Abbey Road Crossing.
You can book for the tour at https://www.funzing.com/sd/EatGVX
or just turn up and pay on the day.
More details of this, and my other tours, at http://www.beatlesinlondon.com
ASTONISHED onlookers watched as Oscar-winning film-maker Danny Boyle started shooting his new Beatles musical blockbuster on the Sunshine Coast – with a little help from his friends.
Lucky locals got the chance to appear as extras as the Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire director started filming All You Need Is Love in Clacton on Wednesday, before moving up the coast to Frinton.
It was 36 years ago today – the release of Paul McCartney’s ‘Tug of War’ Album. I bought it on the day at Virgin in Oxford Street. On coming out I saw a blue Mercedes car passing me – and realised it was Paul’s car! He was on the way to nearby AIR Studios. Luckily there was a lot of traffic that day and I ran like hell and managed to get to AIR before Paul. On seeing me he said ‘Training for the Olympics are we!’ We had a short chat and he signed my album.
Great memories.
1960 – John and Paul play as the Nerk Twins at the Fox and Hounds pub, Caversham, Berkshire.
1964 – the Beatles celebrate the completion of filming for A Hard Day’s Night in Winchester Hall at the Turks Head pub, Twickenham.
1965 – the Beatles film a sequence for Help! at the City Barge pub at Strand on the Green, Chiswick
In April 1968, Derek Taylor and Paul McCartney were in New York discussing how a new McCartney song, Thingumybob, would be best served played by a brass band. “The best band in the land,” said Paul. So it was that both were in Saltaire, Yorkshire, at 10am the following Sunday – “a fine northern time of day for a brass band” – recording the song with the Black Dyke Mills Band. On the way back to London that night, the pair stopped at a pub in the village of Harrold, Bedfordshire, where McCartney sat at the pub piano to play a new song he’d written called Hey Jude. “There was never a long wait,” says Taylor, “between the musical will and the recorded deed.”
First published in 1972, now with an excellent introductory essay by Jon Savage, Derek Taylor’s As Time Goes By was the first, and remains the sharpest, memoir written by one of the Beatles’ inner circle. Taylor had been press officer for the Beatles for less than a year in 1964, but that was when the role had mattered most, at the height of Beatlemania.
April 20th 1964 – Filming: Paul McCartney’s unused scene in A Hard Day’s Night
Paul McCartney filmed a solo sequence for The Beatles’ debut feature film A Hard Day’s Night on this day. However, it was omitted from the final cut.
The premise was that McCartney was looking for Ringo Starr, who had gone missing temporarily. McCartney discovered a rehearsal room where he had a conversation with an actress, played by 18-year-old Isla Blair. It was filmed at the Jack Billings TV School of Dancing at 18 Goldhawk Road in London, above what was then The Bush pub, on Shepherds Bush Green.
The scene, however, remained unused. There have been many reasons put forward to why this was, mainly centering on it not fitting in with the rest of the film. However, I heard something different. In 2001, I was asked along to Twickenham Film Studios by Director, Martin Lewis, to help with the bonus DVD of a Hard Day’s Night. One day the crew got together, and the next day the cast, to reminisce about their time on the film.
During the filming, I was told by 2 different people that worked on the film that the real reason this scene was cut was that Isla Blair was wearing a very low cut dress, and Paul kept on looking where he shouldn’t be! Well, he’s always been a breast man!
Thursday, April 19, 2018 — On July 7, 2008, RINGO STARR joined fans, friends and family on the streets in front of Hard Rock Cafe Chicago to celebrate his birthday with a simple call to action: Inviting everyone everywhere to say, post #peaceandlove or even think “Peace & Love” at noon, their local time. Ten years later, Ringo’s dream of generating a wave of Peace & Love that spans the planet on July 7 starting at noon in New Zealand and ending at noon in Hawaii continues to unfold. Last year saw fans in over 23 countries join the movement – from New Zealand to Antarctica, Latin America to Asia, Hawaii and more.
Today the recently knighted Sir Ringo Starr announced that this year he will return to Hard Rock Cafe, celebrating his birthday and joining fans in Nice France, where Ringo will be while on tour with his All Starr Band (tour dates below). In keeping with the international support the event has seen, Hard Rock Cafe will play a video message from Ringo in restaurants around the world just before Noon, inviting patrons and fans to join Ringo and generate “Peace & Love” (details for which will be listed on Ringo’s Facebook page under “Events” – and listed below – for fans around the world who want to gather).
April 18th 1963. Yet another busy day for the Beatles. During the day, they do a photo session with Fiona Adams. One of the pics is selected as the cover of the Twist and Shout EP.
In the evening, they make their first appearance at the Royal Albert Hall, where they are part of the ‘Swinging Sound 63’ show, broadcast by BBC Radio.
Amongst the audience is Jane Asher, who is doing a photo shoot for ‘Radio Times’ magazine. She is asked to react to the many acts onstage. In the magazine, she is seen screaming at the Beatles. She meets them backstage, and gets on very well with Paul McCartney, and they start dating.
Also in the audience are the Rolling Stones. The Beatles had met the Stones a few days before at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, and asked the Stones along as their guests. After the show, Brian Jones helped the Bealtes’ roadies load the van with the Beatles instruments etc. Brian has long hair, and is mistaken for a Beatle by fans. He has to be dragged away from the screaming girls. However, as he is being led away, he has a big smile on his face, and is heard to mutter, ‘I want more of this!’
Hear more about the Beatles at the Royal Albert Hall on our 60s Bus tours www.60sbus.london
