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Jimmie Nicol: The Beatle Who Never Was
01.05.2011
07:34 pm
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John, Paul, George and…Jimmie? It doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, does it? But for ten days in 1964, Jimmie Nicol was one of The Fab Four, drafted in to replace Ringo Starr on The Beatles first world tour.

Starr had collapsed with tonsillitis, and rather than cancel the tour, producer George Martin decided to call in a temporary replacement - Jimmie Nicol, an experienced session musician, who had played with Georgie Fame and jazz musician, Johnny Dankworth, amongst others. Lennon and McCartney were fine with the idea, but Harrison was a bit shirty, and at one point threatened to walk off, telling Martin and Brian Epstein: “If Ringo’s not going, then neither am I - you can find two replacements.” It was soon resolved and within 24-hours of the initial ‘phonecall, Nicol was playing drums with the Fab Three in Copenhagen. He later recalled:

“That night I couldn’t sleep a wink. I was a fucking Beatle!”

The next leg of the tour was Australia and Hong Kong, and Nicol soon found himself at the heart of Beatlemania. Fans screamed his name, his photograph was sent around the globe, and he was interviewed as one of the band by the world’s press. Nicol later reflected:

“The day before I was a Beatle, girls weren’t interested in me at all. The day after, with the suit and the Beatle cut, riding in the back of the limo with John and Paul, they were dying to get a touch of me. It was very strange and quite scary.”

He also gave an inkling into The Beatles’ life on the road was like:

“I thought I could drink and lay women with the best of them until I caught up with these guys.”

Ten days into the tour, Ringo had recovered and quickly reclaimed his place. Nicol was paid off by Epstein at Melbourne airport, given a cheque for $1,000 and a gold Eterna-matic wrist watch inscribed: “From The Beatles and Brian Epstein to Jimmy - with appreciation and gratitude.” It was like a retirement present. Within a year Nicol was bankrupt, owing debts of over $70,000, and all but forgotten. So much for his 15 minutes of fame.

“Standing in for Ringo was the worst thing that ever happened to me. Until then I was quite happy earning thirty or forty pounds a week. After the headlines died, I began dying too.”

Nicol went on to play with Swedish guitar band, The Spotnicks, but by the late sixties he quit pop music and relocated to Mexico. It was later claimed he had died, but as the Daily Mail explained in 2005, this was false:

At 66, his square-jawed looks have given way to grey jowls, the smile oblieterated by missing teeth. Anything that might remain of his Beatle haircut is tied back in a scruffy ponytail. But he still has his principles. Despite the lucrative rewards of today’s Beatlemania industry, he staunchly refuses to cash in….

It has even been reported that he died in 1988. This week, however, after a difficult search, I confirmed reports of his death are greatly exaggerated. One morning he could be foind visiting a building society, eating breakfast in a modest cafe, then returning silently to his London home. At this flat you could see sheet music through one window but no sign of any drums. He didn’t answer the door when I rang. If he got my messages about the new book, he didn’t reply.

When I eventually made contact, the conversation was predictably brief: “I’m not interested in all that now,” he said. “I don’t want to know, man.”

Here is footage of The Beatles’ tour of Australia and Jimmie Nicol’s time as the fifth Beatle - the Beatle who never was..
 

 
Rare clips of The Beatles on tour, plus Jimmie Nicol interview, after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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01.05.2011
07:34 pm
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The Complete Beatles Christmas Records
12.24.2010
08:28 am
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As you sit around rolling the traditional Christmas joint (presents, surely? - Ed.) or preparing the Molotov cocktails (Egg Nog, surely? - Ed.) for the glorious day, (Holidays? - Ed), we thought you might like to hear the complete Beatles Christmas records , which some groovy people have posted on this site here.

Alternatively you can listen to all of these jolly festive discs below.

Have a glorious May Day. (You’re fired! - Ed.)
 

 
Complete Beatles Christmas Records 1963-1969, after the jump…
 
With thanks to Steve Duffy
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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12.24.2010
08:28 am
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Deconstructing ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’: Hear The Beatles in the Studio 1967
12.19.2010
05:57 am
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It’s probably the most famous pop album in the world, and here is its title track, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” broken down into its constituent parts, and all in one clip.
 

 
With thanks to Tim Lucas
 
Bonus documentary The Making of Sgt Pepper, after the jump…
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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12.19.2010
05:57 am
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Did Brian Epstein’s Ghost Predict John Lennon’s Assassination in Rare BBC Documentary?
12.08.2010
03:32 pm
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John Lennon 24 Hours is a “rarely seen” BBC documentary following John and Yoko over five days in early December 1969. It’s an intimate and interesting film with some very fine moments - a few you may have seen before, but even so it’s well worth watching.

There’s a spooky moment for Lennon-philes at around 1 minute 20 seconds in part 3 (below), when Lennon reads out a letter from a concerned fan who wrote:

Dear Mr Lennon, From information I received whilst using ouija board I believe there will be an attempt to assassinate you. The spirit who gave me this information was Brian Epstein.

Enjoy!
 
John Lennon 24 Hours - Part 1
 

 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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12.08.2010
03:32 pm
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Deconstructing ‘Revolution’: Hear The Beatles in the Studio, 1968
12.08.2010
11:24 am
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It’s the Kennedy moment for a generation, who know where they were, and what they were doing when they heard about John Lennon’s murder thirty years ago today.

I was woken from sleep, and half-awake, half asleep, the news was dreamlike, “John Lennon’s dead. He was shot.” It didn’t make sense, and three decades on, still doesn’t.

Lennon’s loss is immeasurable, for we are left with unfulfilled expectations. That said, Lennon’s creative work as a solo artist, but more importantly with The Beatles changed everything. John, Paul, George and Ringo were the most revolutionary and influential quartet since Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

To celebrate their revolutionary drive, here is “Revolution” deconstructed.

Lennon started writing “Revolution” in early 1968, when off on retreat with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Arguably, it was the first real political song The Beatles produced, and was a considered move away from the lovable mop-top image, as Lennon explained:

“I thought it was about time we spoke about it [revolution], the same as I thought it was about time we stopped not answering about the Vietnamese war. I had been thinking about it up in the hills in India.”

1968: the Vietnam War, My Lai Massacre, Grosvenor Square demonstration, student riots in Paris, Rome and Brazil, Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin start a bombing campaign, Russia crushes the Prague Spring revolt in Czechoslovakia, Martin Luther King assassinated, Bobby Kennedy assassinated. It was a hell of a year.

In May The Beatles recorded Take 1 of “Revolution”, a slow almost Blues-like number with Lennon singing his vocal while lying on the floor. During this recording Lennon included the word “in” at the end of the line “You can count me out” as he was undecided about supporting violent revolution. Even so, Lennon was keen to have this version released as the next Beatles’ single. McCartney, however, was against causing any controversy, and argued, along with Harrison, that the track was far too slow to be a hit. It was eventually released, with lots of overdubs, on the White Album

A longer version (Take 20), lasting over 10 minutes was recorded and begins with Lennon shouting “Take your knickers off and let’s go.” Yoko Ono can be heard on this track, saying “Maybe it’s not that,” to which Harrison replies, “It is that.” Parts of this were later incorporated into “Revolution No. 9”.

Lennon was still adamant about releasing a version of “Revolution” and a faster, more up-tempo version was recorded on 9 July. It begins with “a startling machine-gun fuzz guitar riff,” with Lennon’s and Harrison’s guitars prominent throughout. Their distinct fuzzy sound was achieved by plugging the guitars directly into the recording console, and then routing the signal through two microphone preamplifiers, almost causing the channel to overload. Lennon overdubbed the opening scream, and double-tracked some of the words “so roughly that its careless spontaneity becomes a point in itself.” This version of “Revolution” was released as the B-side to “Hey, Jude” in August 1968. Highly controversial at the time, dividing both Left and Right, “Revolution” is now regarded as one of the “greatest, most furious rockers” with “challenging, fiery lyrics” where the listener’s “heart immediately starts pounding before Lennon goes into the first verse.” Rock critic Dave Marsh included “Revolution” in his 1989 book of 1001 greatest singles, describing it as a “gem” with a “ferocious fuzztone rock and roll attack” and a “snarling” Lennon vocal. Who can disagree?
 
John Lennon - Vocals
 

 
More tracks plus bonus clips of The Beatles after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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12.08.2010
11:24 am
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Deconstructing ‘Helter Skelter’: Hear the individual tracks of the Beatles in the studio, 1968
11.30.2010
03:16 pm
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Since the post about the individual tracks that comprise the Rolling Stones’ classic “Gimme Shelter” went over so well, here’s another in a similar vein, a track by track breakdown of “Helter Skelter” by the Beatles. 

This is probably as close as it is possible to be in the recording studio with the Beatles during the White Album sessions in 1968. Record producer Chris Thomas, then a “tea boy”/intern at EMI later said of this session:  “While Paul was doing his vocal, George Harrison had set fire to an ashtray and was running around the studio with it above his head, doing an “Arthur Brown.”

If you’re really bored you can open them all up in different windows and try to sync ‘em up…

First McCartney’s frenzied vocal. Superb! How do you improve on something like this? You don’t because It’s fucking perfection. “It’s coming down fast….!”
 

 
After the jump, hear the guitar, bass and drum tracks!

READ ON
Posted by Richard Metzger
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11.30.2010
03:16 pm
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Incredible 1964 Beatles concert video, free on iTunes
11.20.2010
11:05 pm
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With all the Apple fanboy media attention paid this past week to the fact that the Beatles catalog was finally showing up on iTunes—like this is some kind of big deal to the man on the street—one nifty lil’ bit of news that most certainly was worth perking up for, got left out of a lot of the coverage: Until the end of the year, you can watch, for free on iTunes, the most amazing complete Beatles show you’ve ever seen. A show that was literally their first American concert, shot just two days after their Ed Sullivan TV debut, at the Washington Coliseum on February 11, 1964.

It’s amazing to see this. As the story is told, when they began to play, they had no idea what to expect. Recent concerts in Paris were played to unenthusiastic audiences. The between song banter assumes that the audience is not familiar with certain numbers, although this is seen to be demonstrably untrue, as the band, of course realize. And they are lovin’ it. The energy is palpable, and the entire set is one big 35-minute long adrenaline shot, as exciting to watch today as was then, but the added meta-historical layer of seeing the Beatles do an entire concert the very week they went from being up and comers to the most important musicians of the later half of the 20th century and beyond, is kinda cool, too.

The performance here is way better than the one captured in color at Shea Stadiumd a year later. That film was more about the insanity of Beatlemania than the music, anyway. Here, musically, they are tight as hell. This has been bootlegged forever, but never seen in good quality like this. Trust me, if you’re a Beatles fan, this will blow your mind… out in a car.

When you go to iTunes, you’ll be confronted with a box of Beatles related information. Click on “Play the Concert.” Do it. Do it now.

Posted by Richard Metzger
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11.20.2010
11:05 pm
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Liverpool’s Beatles actually from Manchester according to Fox News
11.17.2010
03:32 am
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‘Manchester’s famous mopheads.’

Okay, you assholes, keep your filthy hands off my rock and roll!

Posted by Marc Campbell
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11.17.2010
03:32 am
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Beatles ‘Strawberry Fields’ cartoon gets a stereo remix
11.10.2010
04:30 pm
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Alan on Youtube has taken the ‘Strawberry Fields’ episode of the Beatles cartoon television series and added a stereo mix of the song to the video. Quite nice.
 

From 1967, with the song dubbed in a new stereo remix I made to expand the orchestral section! (...unlike the newly remastered “Magical Mystery Tour” CD!) This episode was inspired by the fact that the “Strawberry Field” of the song had been based on a real-life Salvation Army orphanage in Liverpool. When the Beatles stop by a dilapidated orphanage, the hostile attitude of the children (who are drawn in muted colors like the downtrodden Pepperlanders in “Yellow Submarine”) is explained by the Beatles’ driver, James, as being being due to their “sociological environment”. So the Beatles set about to create an Elysian playground with song! John’s “Musketeer Gripweed”, of his film “How I Won the War”, has a cameo!

 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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11.10.2010
04:30 pm
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What if The Beatles had never discovered drugs or broken up?
10.01.2010
12:27 pm
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A pretty wonderful skit from UK comedians Harry and Paul.
 

 
Thx Brian Kehew !

 

Posted by Brad Laner
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10.01.2010
12:27 pm
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Beyond Abbey Road
09.25.2010
09:18 am
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Abbey Road is pop culture’s most iconic location.  It served as the title and backdrop to The Beatles’ eleventh studio album, and is the site of the world’s best known recording studios.

Scots photographer Iain Macmillan was given ten minutes with George, Paul, Ringo and John, to capture one of the most famous and most imitated album covers ever.  Now, a live webcam, allows Beatle fans and road lovers everywhere the chance to watch that legendary zebra-crossing 24/7.
 
More on Beyond Abbey Road after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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09.25.2010
09:18 am
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The worst cover of a Beatles song ever?
09.05.2010
03:04 am
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Anthony Newley’s misbegotten take on The Beatles’ “Within You Without You” is so stunningly bad it has a certain hideous allure. It’s from the 1977 TV special The Beatles Forever, which featured Newley, Tony Randall, Ray Charles, Bernadette Peters, Paul Williams, among others, eviscerating Beatles classics. It doesn’t get much worse than this…and that’s why I dig it.

The Youtube description of the video is almost as amusing as the clip itself:

Movietone News footage of Sunbury 1974 (the end of the 60s) with Mr Newley’s epoch defining reading of George Harrison’s exotic toe-tapper from the Beatles Pop Art album Sgt Peppers. Newley is magnificent as always.

Tony Randall introduces the song.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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09.05.2010
03:04 am
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The Beatles ‘A Day In The Life’ (2009 Stereo Remaster)
08.25.2010
08:05 pm
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Truly one of the most ravishing and mindblowing songs ever recorded: epic, beautiful, cinematic. Hearing it for the first time in 1967 was one of the lifechanging events in my life as a young rock and roller. ‘A Day In The Life’ altered my sense of what a rock song could be, it expanded the scope and vision of rock and roll in the way that Walt Whitman enlarged poetry, it opened the field for future artists to experiment on a new scale of creative imagination that was fresh to the form. The extraordinary Pet Sounds had preceded it by a year. But, as groundbreaking as Brian Wilson’s masterpiece was, The Beatles took things to the next level (argue amongst yourselves).

Released both in stereo and mono as a track on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, here’s the 2009 stereo remaster of ‘A Day In The Life.’

The video is cool too.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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08.25.2010
08:05 pm
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Peter Sellers and John Lennon riffing on Acapulco Gold: who’s got the dope?
08.14.2010
08:38 pm
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A Beatles and Peter Sellers double bill.

During a 1968 promo shoot for Apple Records, Peter Sellers visited The Beatles in the studio and some impromptu drug talk ensued. Lennon reminds Sellers of the time “when I gave you that grass in Piccadilly.” Sellers response: “it really stoned me out of my mind.”

Listen for Yoko’s remark about “shooting as exercise,” a none too subtle reference to her and John’s heroin use.

The second video is Sellers performing ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ in the style of Laurence Olivier’s Richard the Third on the Granada TV special The Music of Lennon & McCartney. Sellers goofy take on The Beatles’ tune was actually released as a single and made the pop charts.

 
Sellers performs ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Marc Campbell
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08.14.2010
08:38 pm
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The Beatles meet the King of Fuh
08.05.2010
02:03 pm
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Amongst the many gems and oddities being unearthed as part of The Beatles’ Apple Records catalogue and soon to be lovingly re-issued is a funny little single from 1969, never properly released, by an artist named Brute Force (nee Stephen Friedland). King of Fuh (listen below) is a silly, stoney, naughty hippy tale incorporating as many uses of the phrase fuh king as possible. Get it ? Lennon and Harrison (who arranged it) evidently found it hilarious and although they knew EMI would never distribute it pressed up 2000 copies anyway, presumably to give to friends. Who fuh-king knew?
 

 
Thanks Kevin Laffey and Rick Potts!

 

Posted by Brad Laner
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08.05.2010
02:03 pm
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