“Beatles - Beatles Nightclub Hit By Blaze” plus 2 |
- Beatles - Beatles Nightclub Hit By Blaze
- Beatles-inspired bands from world over feeling fab in US
- Beatles US TV debut on DVD
| Beatles - Beatles Nightclub Hit By Blaze Posted: 07 Sep 2010 04:21 AM PDT  Caption: Starr's home facing demolition {Beatles (Picture)} fans are fuming over plans to demolish the house in Liverpool, England where {RINGO STARR} was born. The drummer was welcomed into the world on 7 July 1940 in a house on Madryn Street in the band's famous hometown. The property first came under threat in 2005, when Starr himself spoke out against.... Beatles Nightclub Hit By BlazeA British nightclub where THE BEATLES played one of their first gigs with the full Fab Four line-up has partially collapsed after it was hit by a blaze. Drummer Ringo Starr sat in on one of his early sets with the band at the Kingsway club in Southport, England in 1962 when he covered for a sick Pete Best. The nightclub has since gone down in Beatles legend - but it was ravaged by flames on Monday night (06Sep10) as around 50 firefighters battled to stop the blaze. Onlooker Andrew Brown tells the BBC, "The fire really took hold of the top floor and the third floor wall collapsed on to the road outside, (drawing) a lot of gasps from the crowd. It was very dramatic. The fire was really ripping through the building." The property has been derelict since 2006 when it was closed down and earmarked for demolition. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Beatles-inspired bands from world over feeling fab in US Posted: 07 Sep 2010 06:45 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AFP) – The resemblance was striking: four young men in suits and skinny black ties, all sporting an early-Beatles bowl haircut, with the same guitars, and of course, the songs that still make crowds go wild. Except for one difference: instead of John, Paul, George and Ringo, this Fab Four featured Diego, Juan Carlos, Francisco and Heriberto. And it wasn't Liverpool's Cavern Club. This was a festival for Beatles-inspired music lovers on the banks of the Potomac River outside Washington. And these crowd-pleasers were not British but Puerto Rican. "The Jukebox," a cover band steeped in the magic of the Beatles, was among some 50 groups who took turns making fans scream and shout at the Abbey Road on the River festival this Labor Day holiday weekend. The event, billed as the "the world's largest Beatles-inspired music festival," drew groups from around the globe like Germany's "Lucy in the Sky" and "The Norwegian Beatles," who boast being "probably the northernmost Beatles tribute band in the world." Half a century after they first stepped up to the mic, the Beatles continue to inspire new generations of followers. But apart from the music that brings them together, tribute bands use a broad variety of formats. There is everything from Jimmy Pou, a one-man orchestra specializing in George Harrison's repertoire, to the "Newbees," a big band with violinists, cellists and a solo singer. Not all of them dress like the cuddly mop tops or limit themselves to music from their favorite Liverpool band. Up close, the four Puerto Rican "Beatles," who are nearing their forties, may lack the youth of their heroes at the height of Beatlemania, even though they were not even born when the legendary band finally split. But they still manage to wow their audiences with their perfect English, playing hit after hit before a greying crowd that delights in the nostalgia. "We try to look like them, but we don't pretend to be them," said Francisco Cairol, Jukebox's solo guitarist who plays the role of George Harrison on stage. The group hopes to simply share a good time with their audience. "People are happy and dancing, that's the greatest feeling ever," he told AFP. The 38-year-old said he and his colleagues make a living by imitating their idols, playing in several countries, including at the legendary Cavern Club and even opening a Paul McCartney concert in Puerto Rico in April. Nine years ago, the four Puerto Rican musicians set aside their repertoire of Latino hits to head into a whole new direction. Jukebox has now played some 60 Beatles songs. The group changes costumes based on the Beatles period chosen for any given concert. "We let our beard grow a bit when we play later songs," explained the would-be Harrison. At the festival in National Harbor, Maryland, fans found everything to quench their nostalgia, with stands selling stage costumes -- including the grey suits from "A Hard Day's Night" for 370 dollars -- or a replica of the bass drum used for "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," for 275 dollars. David, a T-shirt vendor, was not worried his business would dry up any time soon, even in these hard economic times. "The music will last forever and the products will last forever," he said. Abbey Road on the River has attracted some 30,000 spectators each year since 2002. The tribute festival was first held in Cleveland, Ohio and moved to Louisville, Kentucky in 2005. This year marked its Washington debut. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Posted: 07 Sep 2010 07:09 AM PDT 2010-09-07 16:08 New York - A new DVD about the Beatles' initial appearances on US television's The Ed Sullivan Show is like cracking open a time capsule to American life in 1964. The DVD presents the programs exactly as they appeared that night - complete with hapless magicians and comedians, commercials that would shame the advertising mavens of today's hit TV show Mad Men and illustrations of how the pace of television has changed. A generation of musicians can trace their career choices to that night. One was Dennis DeYoung, former Styx lead singer, who told the Montreal Gazette that he watched it while at a high school dance. "I looked at that and I went, `Oh, my God! What is that? And how do I apply for that job?"' he recalled. "That was it. There was never any doubt in my mind what I wanted in my life." Sullivan, a competitive former newspaper columnist, clearly knew the high stakes involved that night and gave the Beatles two showcases on the first show. While the Beatles' appearance stands in memory like a thunderclap, their power seemed muted the first time they hit the stage. Their first two songs, All My Loving and 'Til There Was You, were both Paul McCartney showcases and the band didn't really hit its stride until the powerful She Loves You. Even then, the cameras seemed to shortchange John Lennon in favor of McCartney. Their performances on the following week's show from Miami are much better. They had repeats: She Loves You was played both weeks. Cutaways to the audience show young girls who can barely stay in their seats from the excitement of it all. Older people look bored, annoyed and clueless to the generational change staring back at them. The Beatles' cheekiness, enthusiasm and talent was bracing. "It's like they were in colour and everybody else was in black and white," said Andrew Solt, CEO of SOFA Entertainment. Watching the magician with the hard luck of following the Beatles to the stage that first night is painful. Fred Kaps' show biz career never really recovered from that moment, Solt said. Other performances The sense that television moves much more quickly today is one of the most interesting finds in the DVD time capsule. Mitzi Gaynor, who was once the princess of musical comedy, gave a sweaty performance from Miami. Comic Frank Gorshin's routine with movie star impersonations was interminable. The comic team of McCall & Brill, with a punch line about an "ugly girl," would not have made it past today's taste police. One other performance in that first week came from the cast of the Broadway show Oliver, including a young Davy Jones, whose life was changed in the wake of the Beatles' performance. A few years later, he was cast as one of the Monkees, a prefab rock band that was a Beatles knockoff. Sullivan "didn't spend too much money on talent that week because he knew he had the audience," Solt said. Producers plainly believed people had an attention span then, certainly much more so than now. Remote controls were not available then, and viewers had only a few channels to pick from. The same is true of the ads. Can you imagine a commercial break with only one commercial? The ads on the show are stunningly unimaginative. What were the Madison Avenue pitch men of the day thinking? Cold water detergent was called "revolutionary." The DVD also contains Sullivan shows from February 23 1964 and September 12 1965 when the Beatles also performed. The band did 20 songs in all on the show, including three versions of I Want to Hold Your Hand. The DVD also has a short interview Sullivan did with the Beatles in London in May 1964 that hasn't been seen since the day it aired. - AP This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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