Lost Beatles pics in new book

Lost photos of the Beatles taken by the band's late tour manager have been unearthed for a new book.
Bob Bonis took the candid live and backstage shots in the mid-1960s - but always insisted on keeping them private.
Now, thanks to a deal between publishers at HarperCollins and Bonis' son, the snaps are to hit the pages of Larry Marion's new book, entitled The Lost Beatles Photographs: The Bob Bonis Archive, 1964-1966.
Bonis' son Alex estimates his father took over 3,500 pictures of the Fab Four and The Rolling Stones - another band he worked with.
Bonis died in 1992.

---wenn.com
     torontosun.com

Website Fined for Illegal Distribution of the Beatles' Music

A music website that illegally streamed and sold music by the Beatles has been forced to pay record labels almost $1m [£625,000]. Other artists whose copyright had been violated included Coldplay and Radiohead.

US-based Bluebeat.com denied doing anything wrong on the basis that the tracks has been distributed using owner Hank Risan's "psycho-acoustic simulation" -- a technique based on using tracks that he'd purchased on CD. In other words, he was ripping the songs from a CD or LP and then selling them for just 25 cents [15p] a pop.

The BBC reports that Bluebeat's defence failed to impress district court judge Josephine Staton Tucker who described Risan's methodology as "obscure and undefined pseudo-scientific language that appears to be a long-winded way of describing sampling."

Archie Robinson, the company's attorney, implied that as the settlement was a fraction what EMI Group plc, Capitol Records and Virgin Records America had been trying for, the labels were tacitly agreeing that Bluebeat was in the right.

"I felt that was sort of an acknowledgement on their part that they don't have the damages they claimed," he said. "So long as we pay royalties, we can stream their music all day and all night without a problem."

----Julian Marszalek
      spinner.com

Patti Boyd – aka Layla – Reveals George Harrison Did Forgive her For Eric Clapton Betrayal

The woman who was at the center of one of the most notorious love triangles in rock history has finally revealed that her spurned husband, Beatle George Harrison, did forgive her for leaving him for fellow British superstar Eric Clapton.
Patti Boyd, a former iconic fashion model who is now 67 says she recently rediscovered a note that the Beatles legend sent to her in 1976, years after she left him for guitar legend Clapton because she felt neglected.
She told the British press that the note read ‘E+P God Bless Us All, love from G.’ She added ‘George’s note was like a forgiveness. It meant a lot to me. I didn’t feel great about leaving him and it showed me he was happy.’
Patti married George Harrison when she was just 21, and he wrote the song “Something” for her. But the song that her lover Clapton penned in her honor, the iconic, much copied “Layla” is perhaps better remembered.
Harrison went on to marry Olivia Trinidad Arias whom he spent the rest of his life with until his untimely death from lung cancer in 2001. Patti did marry Clapton but they divorced in 1989.

---Sylvia Holt
    apexnews.com

Ringo Starr's Birthplace to Be Demolished

Unlike John Lennon's childhood home of Mendips -- now owned by the National Trust -- Ringo Starr's birthplace at 9 Madryn Street in Liverpool has been earmarked for demolition.

The property has been facing destruction since 2005 when Liverpool City Council determined that the house has "no historical significance" because the Beatles' former drummer had spent only the first three months of his life there.

Speaking to Clickliverpool.com, Joe Anderson -- the leader of Liverpool City Council -- said, "The community in that area have been waiting for 11 years to have these houses demolished and believe they have waited long enough. I listened to both sides [of the argument for maintenance or destruction], and the majority of people in that area want us to do something about it rather than waiting with a blighted, derelict site."

Philip Coppell, chairman of the Save Madryn Street campaign, hit back, saying, "Number 9 is a priceless tourist resource that the city would be mad to destroy. But the city council -- for his own selfish political reasons -- is not prepared to listen to common sense or the voice of reason."

The childhood homes of Sir Paul McCartney and George Harrison are also owned by the National Trust.

---spinner.com

Liverpool birthplace of Beatle Ringo Starr under new threat

A Liverpool council chief launched a scathing attack on Tory Housing Minister Grant Shapps as a new row erupted over the future of the birthplace of ex-Beatle Ringo Starr.

Joe Anderson, Labour leader of Liverpool City Council, defended a town hall decision to plough-on with plans to demolish hundreds of Victorian terraced houses.

The council has issued new notices for demolition of most of the "Welsh Streets" including 9 Madryn Street where "Richard Starkey" was born in 1940.

The move has angered conservationists who launched a Save Madryn Street (SMS) Campaign last August when it emerged bulldozers were ready to level 440 homes in the Dingle area.

Protests from around the world prompted delays by city planners and campaigners scented victory in December when Housing Minister Grant Shapps wrote to the council officially calling for new a consultation exercise with a view to saving the homes.

Mr Shapps' move came after he received a call from Save Britain's Heritage to impose a stop on demolition by granting a Public Request to Order Disposal (PROD).

But now it has emerged that the Labour-controlled authority plans to defy Mr Shapps and to press ahead with demolition.

The new demolition plans have been condemned by both the SMS Campaign and the Save the Welsh
Streets Campaign.

But when he was quizzed about the proposals Mr Anderson remained defiant.

He said "If Grant Shapps knew what he was talking about then I would listen to him, but Grant Shapps doesn't know what he's talking about.

"He hasn't visited the Welsh Streets, he hasn't seen the Welsh Streets, and if he comes and speaks to me I will take him up to the Welsh Streets and let him have a look.

"We're not demolishing things just because we need to demolish them - we are doing it because it's the right thing to do."

Mr Anderson also dismissed proposals from the housing company Regeneration Express who held talks with council officials over plans for redevelopment of the Welsh Streets.

Mr Anderson said: "To date no-one has come forward with any concrete plans to save them, and to be quite frank I don't think anybody will, because quite simply they cost too much to bring back into use.

"A lot of properties within that area will take about #70,000 to #80,000 to bring back, and you could not sell them for that price, so it does not make economic sense.

"It's just absolute madness to try and save them.

"I asked them to come up with alternatives and they have not, and that's their fault and not mine."

Asked whether he expected Grant Shapps accept the Public Request to Order Disposal (PROD), Mr Anderson was equally disparaging.

Reporter seeks 'Pawn Stars' appraisal for Beatles autograph

I'm about to get my answer, after more than a year of wondering and an hour of waiting in front of the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop on Las Vegas Boulevard, behind tourists salivating for a glimpse of the "Pawn Stars" dudes.
Some garage-sale hunters go decades before finding their personal holy grail. But there mine was in November 2009, just a month after I began the hobby, propped up against a table leg in a Summerlin driveway. The framed copy of the Beatles' "White Album" was signed "Love from John Lennon, NYC 1980."
"Five hundred," said Branden Powers, the man running the sale. "Firm."
I knew it was worth much more. (Later, I discovered how much. Similar pieces have fetched $12,000 to $15,000, or half a year of college for my newborn daughter.)
Just as significantly, this was a consolation prize for a childhood fantasy I was robbed of.
It was Aug. 30, 1980, and my friend Gary Haviv and I walked to the Dakota apartment building after a free Pretenders concert in Manhattan's Central Park. (Directions were scribbled on a napkin by his older brother.)
Lennon returns from the studio about 11 p.m., the doorman said, and usually signs autographs outside -- if we wanted to wait another half-hour.
"Don't tell him I told you," the doorman added.
Gary shook his head. We had an 11 p.m. train to catch, and there was no way his mom would pick us up from our Long Island Railroad station after midnight.
I pleaded. It's John Lennon, after all, and we were already there.
"Look," Gary insisted, "now that we know where this place is, we can always come back."
When Lennon was slain three months later, the details added another dimension to the shock: around 11 p.m., after returning from the recording studio, by a fan who knew to wait. (Did the same doorman tip him off?)
Disappointment dominoes down the "Pawn Stars" line. Reports from exiters say the shop is devoid of all Pawn Stars. This is major. Everyone, it seems, is waiting to watch Richard Harrison, his son Rick and his grandson Corey goof on each other as they appraise oddities. (I have never seen the show, so I wouldn't know a Pawn Star from a porn star. That's why I brought along my wife's best friend, Vicky, a rabid fan visiting from Sacramento, Calif.)
"They're never here unless the cameras are on!" a woman shouts.
"What?" a man asks. "Doesn't this line mean that they're taping?
"Rip off!"
Meantime, my "White Album" is generating stares from as far as seven people in each direction. When a slow-moving line is starved for reality drama, any substitute will do.
"Is that what I think it is?" asks a man with gray temples. "Wow!"
The autograph certainly appears legit. Adorning it are those famous doodles the ex-Beatle used to do of himself and Yoko Ono. And Powers' credibility checks out. An entertainment promoter and former owner of OPM/Poetry nightclub in the Forum Shops at Caesars, he even had the story behind the piece (provenance, they call it in the memorabilia biz) …
Three weeks before Lennon's death, it was signed for a jazz musician who hung around the Dakota. This musician had a son, nicknamed Despo, who played bass in a Los Angeles punk band called Los Gattos. Powers befriended him while he was a Southern California music promoter.
"Despo would sell off his prized possessions to pay rent," Powers said. "Everything he gave me prior, that I sold on eBay, has checked out."
There was only one hitch: It might be fake.
"That's why I'm not asking more," Powers said. "You pay the five hundred and take the chance."
Red flags hoisted. Why would Powers have a garage sale when he could profit so many more times over just by bringing this to an authenticator?
He had no answer. But pressing him further might convince him not to sell.
I glanced at Vin Suprynowicz, who arrived after I did and was nosing through Powers' record collection. I value Vin's opinion not only because he's an R-J opinion columnist, but because he's a memorabilia collector. (Suprynowicz said he would take the chance if he were me, and, possibly, the autograph if I didn't.)
After racing home with my grail, I found a highly recommended Beatles autograph expert online. (Well, not immediately after. Copious amounts of dancing around took precedence.) This expert advertised two levels of authentication. I opted for the less expensive: an unofficial opinion you get after e-mailing him a photo of the item, with $50 through PayPal.
"The news isn't really good," read the return e-mail. By 1980, Lennon almost always doodled himself, Yoko and their 5-year-old son, Sean, as part of his signature.
If I wanted to be sure, however, I could opt for the next authentication level. I pay him $100 more and physically mail the album, then he decides for sure. This is the only way to produce the vaunted COA, or certificate of authenticity.
In other words, I'm expected to trust the U.S. Postal Service not to lose or damage this potential museum piece -- or, if they do, to reimburse me for an amount that I can't prove that it's worth. (And the authenticator has already expressed doubts about authenticity.)
More than a year passed before a friend suggested I try Gold & Silver. This way, Las Vegas' interest in its most famous storefront could be combined with my interest in keeping my newborn daughter fed.
The velvet rope lifts just as Vicky and I decide on $5,000, 10 times my initial investment. That's the lowest offer I should accept if they determine that it's authentic. (This is when we also discover that we wasted more than an hour on line. Anyone with something to sell or pawn can cut to the front. Doh!)
A security guard ushers us to a counter by the entrance. Vicky doesn't recognize the man standing there, or anyone standing behind any counter.
I ask for the man's name. He points to a nametag reading "CHAZ." This is it.
Chaz asks to see my autograph, then my COA.
Huh?
"No signatures without COAs," he explains.
This is not the rule when the History channel is present, Vicky notes. (On at least two episodes, they brought in their own autograph authenticators -- for a quilt and an old New York Yankees baseball.)
"We don't take any signatures without COAs," Chaz repeats himself. "Period."
(Vicky will later discover another way in which Gold & Silver behaves differently in the kind of reality that isn't broadcast. At 9 p.m., she will return to the 24-hour establishment with her boyfriend, only to discover a dark interior and locked doors being banged on by angry passers-by.)
"Sorry," Chaz says for the last time, motioning toward the others waiting to be served.
Actually, that's OK. As I walk away, I realize that I have something potentially more valuable than the answer I originally sought: a childhood dream that's still alive.

Contact reporter Corey Levitan at clevitan@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0456.

---lasvegasreviewjournal.com

Bid to reunite 'rubbish' Beatles gig audience

An effort is being made to reunite 19 people who watched The Beatles play in a town hall before the band had their first hit.

Billy Shanks is helping to lead the search for the audience members of the 1963 gig in Dingwall, Ross-shire.
He said others who went to see The Beatles thought their music was rubbish and left to join an audience of 1,200 watching a local band in Strathpeffer.

A reunion event has been planned for 8 April this year.They say The Beatles later packed it up and went to Strathpeffer to listen to the Melotones”

Billy Shanks Dingwall Business Association

Members of the original audience will also unveil a plaque on the town hall recalling The Beatles gig.

Mr Shanks, of Dingwall Business Association, said eight of the 19 had been traced so far.
He told the BBC Good Morning Scotland programme a performance by local band, the Melotones, in nearby Strathpeffer had been a bigger attraction on the night.

Mr Shanks said: "The Wilson brothers, who were the Melotones, were a big band here at the time.
"People had heard there was this new band visiting, but they thought their music was rubbish and went away up to Strathpeffer to watch the Melotones.

"They say The Beatles later packed it up and went to Strathpeffer to listen to the Melotones."
Mr Shanks went to the town hall himself to look in on The Beatles, but had second thoughts after doorman David Murray told him the music was not good.
In the weeks following the Dingwall gig, The Beatles went onto have their first top 10 hit with Please Please Me.

Beatles tribute bands battle over name

A Tennessee-based Beatles tribute band today filed a federal lawsuit against a Carnegie venue and at least six area musicians, claiming that they improperly appropriated the name "GetBack" to promote their own version of the Fab Four.
Jack Petrilla, of Nashville, said in the civil complaint filed in the Western District of U.S. District Court that he bought the service mark GetBack from its holder in 2000. It is drawn from the song "Get Back," which appeared on the Beatles' last album, Let It Be.
Mr. Petrilla then used the term to publicize his Beatles cover band, also known as the Petrilla Band, internationally and nationally, including an appearance at last year's Pittsburgh Three Rivers Regatta, according to the complaint.
In 2008, Mr. Petrilla became aware of a local sextet called "Get Back: A Beatles Tribute Band" with Cefalo's Restaurant in Carnegie as its home base, the complaint said. The band's versions of John Lennon and Paul McCartney are Tom Flaherty of Valencia and Lou Valli of Mt. Lebanon.
Mr. Petrilla then wrote to Cefalo's and the members telling them to stop using the name.
Nonetheless, Mr. Petrilla spotted an advertisement for a Nov. 27 show that still used the name "Get Back," and a Web site for the band, which is still online. He sued Cefalo's, its owners, and the band members for trademark infringement and other civil violations. Downtown attorney Henry M. Sneath authored the complaint.
Leonard Cefalo, the restaurant owner, said he did not believe he was at fault for any trademark violation.
"If you're a band member, and you want to book a band here at Cefalo's, and you tell me your name is ABC Band, I'm going to put out that ABC Band is going to play here," he said. "Do you think I should have to research any band to see if they have a title to their name?"
The case has not yet been assigned to a judge.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11074/1132150-100.stm#ixzz1H3LIGoVT

Disney Kills 'Yellow Submarine' Remake

The Walt Disney Co. has pulled the plug on director Robert Zameckis' plans to produce a remake of the Beatles' Yellow Submarine. The movie was to include 16 Beatles songs and the same motion-capture technology Zemeckis has used in Beowulf, A Christmas Carol and Mars Needs Moms, but when the latter picture only gross $6.9 million in its first week with a budget of $150 million, Disney backed out of its Yellow Submarine commitment due to budget concerns.
Zemeckis is now free to shop the Yellow Submarine remake to other studios, but it may be too expensive to produce. Part of the problem, at least in terms of finding financial support, is that Zemeckis' motion-capture animated style has failed to catch on with audiences. Whereas digital animation from Pixar and DreamWorks have gone over very well at the box office, Zemeckis' movies have been criticized for looking too creepy.

--- Matthew Perpetua
      Rollinstone.com

Thousands of Beatles fans will flock to Louisville for 'Abbey Road on the River'

North America's largest and longest running Beatles tribute festival, Abbey Road on the River (AROTR), has announced the locations and dates for the 2011 shows - and Louisville is on the list. 
The festival will once again bring five days of peace, love and rock-n-roll to Louisville, Kentucky over Memorial Day Weekend from May 26 to May 30 and to Washington D.C. over Labor Day Weekend from September 2 to 5. This year marks the 10th anniversary of AROTR, which brings together more than 75 bands and thousands of fans from around the world to celebrate the music of the greatest rock band of all time – The Beatles.
"The Dallas Morning News described AROTR as a ‘small but mighty' music festival, and we thought that struck the perfect chord, says event producer Gary Jacob. "Once fans experience the magical vibe of the festival, they are hooked and it becomes the weekend they mark their year by."
Payton Kemp, a 19-year-old from Nashville, TN, said "I have met my best friends - my second family as I call them - through AROTR, and I am so lucky to have these wonderful people scattered all over the world. When you are young and love the music that I do, it is so difficult to connect to anyone your own age - except at AROTR."
Both 2011 festivals will feature a full reenactment concert of the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack album LOVE, which was produced as a re-mix of over 130 Beatles songs for the Cirque Du Soleil show of the same name.
Abbey Road on the River originated in Cleveland, Ohio in 2002 and moved to Louisville 2005, where the Belvedere Festival Park and Galt House Hotel & Suites welcome a crowd of 25,000 people each year. The festival has an economic impact on the city of approximately $1.5 Million annually.
For the second year in a row, the festival will give Beatles fans a reason to "come together" in our nation's capitol at the stunning Gaylord National Resort, which will host five indoor and outdoor stages on the banks of the Potomac River during this Fab Four weekend. The Gaylord National Resort is the crown jewel of National Harbor, Maryland, which is a new development that boasts a variety of shops, restaurants, entertainment opportunities, and waterfront attractions, and it's located just a short ride from The White House, Mount Vernon, and other popular area attractions. Families can take advantage of another money saving incentive by purchasing their festival tickets prior to arrival at the festival box office, because advanced tickets include free admission for one 21 and under guest with each regular ticketholder.
The Beatles tribute bands, from Mop Tops to Sgt. Peppers, will play both shows and represent more than eight countries including Germany, Italy, England, Scotland, Sweden, Norway, Canada, and the USA. They will perform the entire discography of The Beatles from 1963's "Please Please Me" through John, Paul, George and Ringo's final album together, 1970's Abbey Road. Both festivals will feature special concerts dedicated to their solo careers, seminars, and a Beatles merchandise marketplace as well.
Visit Abbey Road on the River to purchase tickets, make reservations, and get more information.

----wave3.com