British Beatles Fan Club

The British Beatles Fan Club (BBFC) is run by fans for fans. We currently have over 800 members and bring together Beatles enthusiasts from the UK and across the world. We publish a highly esteemed quarterly magazine and organise Beatles related events in the London and Liverpool areas and across the UK, including monthly get-togethers in London. For those who can't make it to the meetings we have an on-line chat group for keeping up to date with the latest news and in touch with other fans.

The BBFC magazine is a glossy, full colour, 40 page publication which comes out 4 times a year. It is packed with fascinating and thoroughly researched articles on all aspects of the Fab Four past and present. We give you an insight into the Beatles' career and their associates in Liverpool, London and throughout the world.

Our correspondents include Pete Nash - former News Editor of The Beatles Book Monthly, Rod Davis of the original Quarrymen, Bill Harry - former Editor of Merseybeat, Stan Williams - former pupil of Dovedale Primary alongside John Lennon and George Harrison, David Bedford - Our Man in Liddypool, Andy Davis - former Editor of Record Collector magazine, Craig Smith, Lucy Carter and Peter Black.

Among the regular features are:

Upcoming Events - organised by the club and anything else relating to the Beatles, including festivals, Beatles Days, concerts and conventions throughout the world
Beatles 2008 - A day-by-day diary
Media Watch
Reviews of the latest releases
Classified Ads
Twist & Shout by Bill Harry
Letters from members
The Legendary Crap Photos of the Month

Plus:

Comprehensive feature articles on every Beatle subject imaginable!
High quality colour and black & white Beatles photos throughout the magazine!

If you would like to advertise in our magazine, please contact the treasurer for further details, prices and any special offers.

Latest BBFC News

Sunday 28th June 2009

Fans On The Run - a visit to Osterley Park

On Saturday 13th June 2009, Paul McCartney and Beatles fans including members of the British Beatles Fan Club gathered at Osterley House in a bid to re-create the classic sleeve photo for the album Band on the Run.

The house itself was built in 1576 and stands in 746 acres and is now owned by the National Trust, who also own the childhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney in Liverpool.

Saturday 27th June 2009

UK's first Beatles Superstore opens in Liverpool

The Hard Days Night Hotel shop, located on the corner of the four-star Beatles inspired boutique hotel in Liverpool, has been transformed into a unique Beatles Superstore. This will specialise in official Beatles merchandise, licensed by Apple, with many exclusive Beatles products.

The new Superstore will be set on two levels. The ground floor will sell products ranging from official Hard Days Night Hotel caps, pins, magnets, mugs and much more through to officially licensed Apple merchandise, some of which is exclusive to the Superstore. Located on the first floor is The Gallery, an exhibition space dedicated to rock'n'roll photography and art.

Follow us on Facebook

The British Beatles Fan Club now has a Facebook page where you can follow our news and chat with other Beatles fans.

If you're not on Facebook, don't worry—we're not replacing our magazine, our Yahoo! group or any of the other bits of the BBFC that you know and love—but it's a great new way for people to find out about us and to keep in touch. We'd love it if you became our fan!

Follow the British Beatles Fan Club on Facebook!

Wednesday 24th June 2009

The Beatles: Remastered

The original Beatles catalogue has been digitally re-mastered for the first time. It is set for worldwide CD release on Wednesday, September 9, 2009 (9-9-09), the same date as the release of the widely anticipated Rock Band video game.

Each of the CDs is packaged with replicated original UK album art, including expanded booklets containing original and newly written liner notes and rare photos. On the same date, two new Beatles boxed CD collections will also be released.

Monday 22nd June 2009

Fab new Beatles gear for you to buy

We all know about Rock Band coming later in the year, but if you can't wait that long for your Beatles fix, we've been looking around for some of the newest Beatles gear available to keep you going.

Read more about a few of our picks: Beatles guitar straps, Jerry Levitan's How I met the Walrus and a docu-film which traces the life of George Harrison

Saturday 20th June 2009

The Biggest Ever Beatles Prize Set To Be Awarded To One Lucky Music Fan [permalink]

The Imagine Corporation is proud to announce the launch of the world's most exciting music competition. One lucky music fan is set to win Brian Epstein's original Contract that John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr signed before they gained global fame and fortune as the legendary Beatles.

This amazing piece of popular music history has only changed hands a couple of times over the decades and was acquired for The Imagine Corporation at Christie's, the world famous Auction House. The Contract is currently insured for £500,000 but is regarded as an irreplaceable piece of musical heritage.

The competition is simple to enter and is open to anyone around the world. The rules are easy to follow and can be found at www.imagine.uk.com/fan. All players have to do is work out what they think the Contract has been valued at by a panel of experts and therefore what it could have sold for if it had been put up for auction in April 2008 at a London Auction House. The competition is like no other and is a dream ticket for any music fan.

Managing Director of The Imagine Corporation Neil Marshall says "I am delighted that we will be able to change one person's life with the winning of the Contract in our inaugural competition. Over the last year we have pulled together an incredible team here at Imagine and everyday I am astonished with the growing list of amazing items being secured for Imagine so that we can give the real opportunity of Obtaining the Unobtainable. Our Imagine website will open up a world of opportunity for our visitors!"

So whether you're the world's biggest Beatles fan, or just want to pay off a mortgage by winning the prize, you can log on to find out how all your dreams could come true by Obtaining the Unobtainable.

For more information and to enter please visit www.imagine.uk.com/fan

Wednesday 17th June 2009

New plans have been unveiled to make the most of The Beatles' connection with the Penny Lane area.

For the past 10 years, there have been discussions about building a new community centre on Grove Mount, based on Penny Lane. The Penny Lane Development Trust (PLDT) was established to oversee this project, and they have been appealing for money since then. The Millennium Green was created to provide a public park, but news of the new centre never surfaced. However, after applying many times for Lottery funding, the PLDT has been awarded £760,000 to make their dream a reality.

Wednesday 10th June 2009

Paul, Ringo, Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison were at the E3 conference in Los Angeles on Monday 1st June for the world premiere of The Beatles: Rock Band.

The game will allow fans to pick up the guitar, bass, mic or drums and experience The Beatles' extraordinary catalogue of music through gameplay that takes players on a journey through the legacy and evolution of the band's legendary career. Available simultaneously worldwide for the Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION3 and Wii on 9th September 2009, it is promising to be one of the most exciting Beatles releases of the decade!

Tuesday 9th June 2009

On 8th August 1969, four men walked across a zebra crossing in St John's Wood. Hardly an earth-shattering event, but since then millions of people have come to the very same crossing to imitate those four men. Of course the four men in question were The Beatles, and the crossing is in Abbey Road. The Fab Four were posing for the photo that was to be used on their last album to recorded.

On 8th August 2009, a special Beatles walking tour will cross the Abbey Road Crossing exactly 40 years to the minute since the Beatles. Fans will be led across by tribute Sgt Pepper's Only Dart Board Band, who will be wearing the same styled clothes as the Beatles on that historic day.

Later the same day, Sgt Pepper's Only Dart Board Band will play a special concert at Peter Parker's Rock and Roll Club. The concert is being promoted by the Beatles Coffee Shop and British Beatles Fan Club. The club is on the site of Regent Sound Recording studio, where the likes of The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and Elton John all recorded.

Find out more about our Abbey Road photo-shoot anniversary event

Tuesday 9th June 2009

On Saturday 13th June, a group of Beatles/Macca fans are planning a visit to Osterley Park, Isleworth, Middlesex, to re-create the Band on the Run album sleeve, which was photographed there on 28th October 1973.

The iconic cover photo depicts Paul, Linda and Denny Laine plus Michael Parkinson, Kenny Lynch, James Coburn, Clement Freud, Christopher Lee and John Conteh, dressed as convicts caught in the spotlight of a prison searchlight.

Find out more about our visit to Osterley Park

Tuesday 9th June 2009

George Harrison's first ever career-spanning solo hits collection, Let It Roll: Songs By George Harrison, is to be released on 16th June 2009 by Capitol/EMI.

The new collection features Harrison's solo hits from 1970's All Things Must Pass through to 2002's Brainwashed, remastered, plus live recordings from 1971's Concert For Bangladesh. The 19 tracks have been digitally remastered by Giles Martin at EMI's Abbey Road Studios, and will be available in CD and digital formats.

Monday 25th May 2009

On April 11th 2009, the British Beatles Fan Club visited Tittenhurst Park in Berkshire, to see what the estate is like today.

Tittenhurst was the home of John and Yoko from late summer 1969 until August 1971 when they moved to America, and subsequently the home of Ringo Starr. John bought the property for £145,000 and spent more than double that amount on renovations to the property.

The Beatles' very last photo shoot took place here on 22nd August 1969, with one of the many images from that session appearing on the cover of the Hey Jude album (released in 1970 in the US and 1979 in the UK).

Friday 15th May 2009

A new, 40th Anniversary edition of Hunter Davies's utterly classic (and only authorised) biography of the Fab Four—The Beatles: The Authorised Biography—has been released. Published by Ebury Press on Thursday 7th May 2009.

There's only one book that ever truly got inside the Beatles and this is it. The landmark, worldwide bestseller that has grown with the Beatles ever since. This new edition marks 40 years of the original book and is updated with new material and pictures.

During 1967 and 1968 Hunter Davies spent eighteen months with the Beatles at the peak of their powers as they defined a generation and rewrote popular music. There when it mattered, he collected a wealth of intimate and revealing material that still makes this the classic Beatles book—the one all other biographers look to.

Friday 15th May 2009

The next London Beatles Day of the year takes place on Sunday 5th July 2009 at the usual venue—the Park Inn (formerly known as the Bonnington Hotel), on Southampton Row, WC1. You will find thousands of Beatles items for sale at prices to suit every pocket!

The London Beatles Day was founded in 1990 by Steve Holmes, Rob Batchelor, Keith Badman and Jason Hobbs who between them have attended many conventions and fairs all over Europe and beyond!

The London Beatles Day has been attracting Beatles fans from all over the globe ever since, originally 2 shows a year were staged but due to increased demand this was increased to the current 4 shows per year. This enables fab 4 fans to come along and buy and trade their Fabs items on a regular basis keeping their collections updated, and of course to come along to meet all the other fans & collectors in the comfort of the recently refurbished Park Inn.

Visit our events page to find out about more Beatles events in London, Liverpool and around the UK

Tuesday 28th April 2009

The British Beatles Fan Club were saddened to read of the recent discovery of the body of Eva Rhodes (nee Majlata), in Hungary.

Eva starred in John and Yoko's film Rape and became a close friend of the pair.

Eva Rhodes's family had moved from Hungary to England when she was a child. She became a successful model as well as starring in Rape. She returned to Hungary 12 years ago to set up the Puss in Boots Animal Trust and was a major campaigner for animal welfare. Hungary is a leading producer of fur for the textile profession.

Read more about Eva Rhodes

Tuesday 28th April 2009

On 29th March 1969, press photographer Nico Koster was called by the picture editor of leading Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. The message: "Rush to the local Hilton hotel and get the best pictures of Beatle John Lennon and his fiancée Yoko Ono in bed. They're throwing a press conference and you should be there already."

Nico took a series of photographs but the negatives got lost. Only 40 years later they were found when Nicole, the photographer's daughter, found an envelope with her baby pictures. In the same envelope were also the lost John Lennon-Yoko Ono negatives.

Tuesday 28th April 2009

Issue 32 of the British Beatles Fan Club magazine is now on sale. If you're a BBFC member you should have received your copy in the mail already—and if you're not, you can order it now from our shop (or why not join the BBFC?)

This issue covers the news that on 4th Aprill Paul and Ringo reunited on stage—with a little help from their friends! The concert, ad Radio City Music Hall in New York City, was for a charity benefit for the David Lynch Foundation, which aims to teach at-risk youth about meditation.

Also in this issue we speak to Leslie Cavendish—the Beatles' hairdresser between 1967–1975, and bring you the first in an occasional series of moptop memories by music biz mogul David Stark of SongLink International, LIPA Companion and drummer with the mighty Dave Stark Five.

Read issue 32 contents or visit our shop to buy your copy now

Saturday 25th April 2009

If you will be watching tomorrow's Flora London Marathon, keep an eye out for Lloyd Scott, who having completed the Marathon in previous years wearing a deep-sea diving suit, dressed in a suit of armour and dragging a 130kg boulder, thought this time round he'd need a little help from his friends...

...so for the 2009 Marathon he'll be joined by three other runners as they attempt to complete the course with a Yellow Submarine!

Lloyd will be joined by GMTV presenter Priya Kaur-Jones and Beatles fans Len Boyd and Nigel Jackson from Dunbar Bank, all dressed in the classic Sgt Pepper's uniforms!

The team is undertaking this massive challenge to raise money for The Children's Trust, which provides care, education and therapy to children with multiple disabilities, and runs the UK's largest rehabilitation centre for children with acquired brain injuries. The Trust is 25 years old in 2009 and with your help they'll be able to reach even more children across the country, so please sponsor the team!

Find out more and sponsor Lloyd and his team now!

Sunday 12th April 2009

The British Music Experience (BME) is a completely immersive, interactive exhibition, combining cutting edge audio-visual technology some of the most coveted music memorabilia of all time and the world's only exhibition where you can tag your favourite parts and recordings to keep.

BME combines cutting edge audio-visual technology with some of the most coveted music memorabilia of all time from over 100 British artists; from The Beatles to Sex Pistols, Dusty Springfield to Bat for Lashes, David Bowie to Led Zeppelin.

The British Music Experience sits in The O2's exhibition space, known as The O2 bubble because of its shape, and covers a massive 6,500 square metres.

The British Music Experience is delighted to offer all British Beatles Fan Club Members 20% off your Adult ticket to the exhibition. This offer is valid until 31st May 2009. From John's glasses and Paul's Bass to Ringo's A Hard Day's Night jacket as well as loads of rare Beatles memorabilia from Yesterday and amazing archive pictures and film footage. Use your Smarticket to tag your favourite parts of the exhibition and bring it back home with you.

Get 20% off your Ticket to Ride to the British Music Experience

Wednesday 25th March 2009

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's famous Amsterdam bed-in, Liverpool's Hard Day's Night Hotel has recreated the event in the Lennon Suite using two lookalikes.

Following their marriage on 20th March 1969, John and Yoko used the hype of publicity to promote world peace. They invited the world's press into their honeymoon suite at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel where they staged a week-long bed-in protesting against war.

Tuesday 24th March 2009

[Yoko Ono - Photographer: Tom Haller - Copyright Yoko Ono]

Yoko's latest exhibition, Yoko Ono—Between the Sky and My Head, was held at The Baltic, Gateshead, between December 15th 2008—March 15th 2009.

The exhibition, one of the largest exhibitions of Yoko Ono's work to date, covered more than 1400m² of gallery space containing sculpture, paintings, drawing, photography, films and sound installations, as well as participation works. Among the 50 works featured in the exhibition was Play it by Trust, a conceptual chess set, made from white Italian Carrara marble. A version of the work was first exhibited in London at Ono's legendary exhibition at the Indica Gallery in 1966.

Read Terry Bloxham & Ernie Sutton's review of Between The Sky And My Head

Monday 23rd March 2009

Running until 30th June 2009, a new Beatles exhibition has recently opened, marking the launch of a permanent new Getty Images photographic space at the Movieum of London, County Hall.

The Getty Images Gallery has announced that it will be opening a permanent new photographic exhibition space at the Movieum of London in County Hall. The exclusive Beatles exhibition will feature rare and unseen images of the Fab Four, from famous photographers including Robert Whitaker, who accompanied John, Paul, George and Ringo on their 1966 Far Eastern Tour.

As well as the photo exhibition, there will also be a selection of Beatles memorabilia displayed on show, including one of John Lennon's very own Rickenbacker guitars courtesy of Pete Waterman OBE and participation from legendary actor, Victor Spinetti, who starred in most of the Beatles Movies.

Visit our events listings for more info on the Getty Images Gallery and other Beatles events

Thursday 19th March 2009

Following the sucess of last year's Liverpool Beatles Day, the date for this year's event has been announced as Friday 10th July 2009. It is expected to be 24 hours when people will show their love for the Fab Four and raise money for local and national charities through the newly formed Beatles Day Foundation.

As well as raising money, the main focus of Beatles Day is FUN. The Beatles Day Foundation propose to turn Liverpool into a sort of Beatles Themed 'Disneyland' during the day, with the spectacular climax being The Beatles Day Concert at the Summer Pops, Liverpool Echo Arena, hosted by Ricky Tomlinson in the evening.

BBFC news archives 2009 | 2008 | 2007 |

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'I have really enjoyed reading your fan club magazines and I am proud to wear the fan club pin' - Terje Solbakken, Norway.

Join the BBFC or renew your membership here!

'I spent a wonderful year reading your magazine, which I find very interesting and I hope you'll carry on the good job.' - Dimitris Tacticos, Greece.

'Thanks for the badge and membership card. I wear the badge on my school uniform blazer, which is breaking the school dress code slightly as badges aren't allowed. I don't think the teachers mind much though as it's a band they like as well!' - Roisin Mulligan, age 15.