Friday 14 December 2018

Beatles Cover Sunday Times Magazines Available for Purchase

To purchase your Collector’s Editions (for £17.99 + p&p, or £5.99 + p&p each), visit timesmagazines.co.uk/stmag or call 020 7711 7826 (weekdays, 8.30am- 5pm)

Wednesday 12 December 2018

McCartney Mural Near Shoreditch

To celebrate the release of Wings box set and reissues  of Red Rose Speedway and Wild Life Paul McCartney's team have painted a mural of the artwork on a wall on Great Eastern St in East London.


Monday 10 December 2018

Issue 68 Out Now!

The last issue of 2018 is in the post to all our members!

Chock full of fun and informative holiday reading. 

Remember too that membership in the British Beatles Fan club makes a great gift providing a whole year of good reading.

Non members can order a copy from our website here.

Issue 68 (December 2018) includes:
  • The Beatles A Day In The Life
  • Coming Up-Forthcoming Events
  • NEMS Enterprises
  • Media Watch
  • Ringo and His All Starrs in Concert
  • The White Album-50 Years Young
  • When was the last time you played that?
  • Abbey Road Studios Opens it’s doors
  • Paperback Writers
  • The Beatles NOT For Sale
  • Try Some, Buy Some-New Releases
  • Politics of John Lennon - Part 4
  • As I Write This Letter
  • Crap Photo of the Month

Tuesday 4 December 2018

Free! Come play Beatles Themed Pinball in London until Wed Dec 12



Until Wednesday 12th December, London will have access to the only Beatles themed pinball machine outside of the US.

To celebrate the occasion, there is a new pop-up space in Bloomsbury dedicated to the latest must-have for any Beatles fan – a limited edition, fully licensed pinball machine.  The venue is open noon to 8pm daily.

The machines on display at the iconic Brunswick Centre will be free to play by any visitors to the shopping centre – making for a perfect escape from the Christmas shopping.

With the vast majority of the 1,964 machines already snapped up, this is a rare chances to play these machines.

Focusing on the Beatlemania of the Swinging Sixties, the machines feature nine timeless songs from what was arguably their prime. It’s the European debut of these machines since recently launching in the US, with each machine costing thousands of pounds each.

Sunday 25 November 2018

The White Album: A Retrospective




Just over 50 years ago in November 1968 The Beatles released the double album The Beatles (aka The White Album). Here we look at the albums recording, reception and its legacy.

RECORDING
Having returned from India in May 1968 with a hatful of new material, the boys met at George’s home in Esher during the middle of May 1968. There they laid down 23 demos using George’s four track Ampex tape machine.

Many of these songs would end up on The Beatles. Some, however, wouldn’t make the final album but were successful songs for other artists like ‘Sour Milk Sea’ which was recorded by Apple artist Jackie Lomax. Also, there were recordings of ‘Circles’ and ‘Junk’, both of which would appear on solo albums by George and Paul respectively. ‘Circles’ would appear on Gone Troppo in 1982 and ‘Junk’ on the album McCartney in 1970.

On Thursday May 30th, The Beatles entered Abbey Road Studios to start work on the album. The first song recorded was ‘Revolution’.  It was during this first session that the sound effects for ‘Revolution 9’ would start to take shape. The following day saw John and Paul working on overdubs for the song. This session was the first Beatle session to be attended by Yoko Ono. Sessions would run from early afternoon until early the following morning. 

Work on ‘Revolution’ continued until June 4th. The next day work began on Ringo’s first solo composition. At the time it didn’t have a title but would become ‘Don’t Pass Me By’. On June 6th the DJ Kenny Everett dropped into the studio. He managed to obtain an interview for his Radio One show. The interview is fun to listen to. It’s the one with Kenny and John ad-libbing the song ‘Cotton Fields’ and ‘River Deep, Mountain High’. The Beatles recorded jingles for Kenny’s radio show during this session. Later that day John did an interview with Victor Spinetti, who had appeared in all three Beatles films to date, for the BBC2 programme Release. Over the next few days work continued on ‘Revolution 9’, mostly by John working in Studio 3.

By June 27th ‘Revolution’ and ‘Revolution 9’ were virtually finished. Work then began on ‘Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey’, another song written by John. Work also began on ‘Good Night’. Initially written by Lennon for his son Julian, John decided to give the vocal to Ringo. It is at this point that some of Paul’s songs start to appear on the sessions. ‘Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da’ was difficult to record and the sessions lasted from July 3rd to July 15th.

Following the premiere of the film Yellow Submarine The Beatles returned to the studio on July 18th where work began on ‘Cry Baby Cry’ and ‘Helter Skelter’. Recording started to accelerate at this point. ‘Sexy Sadie’ was commenced and by July 25th George, at last, went to work on one of his composition. ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’. Initially recorded on acoustic guitar, the song would become one of the highlights of the album. The acoustic version would later appear on Anthology 3.

Work on the album temporarily went on hold in early August while The Beatles worked on their new single ‘Hey Jude’. They returned to the studio on August 9th to record the George composition ‘Not Guilty’. This excellent song failed to make the album, but thankfully appeared on Anthology 3. George would record a slower version in 1979 for his solo album George Harrison.

Tensions were starting to rise in the group and on August 22nd Ringo suddenly walked out of the sessions and left the UK. He wanted time to think over his future. Of all the fabs it came as a huge surprise that Ringo should be the first to walk out.

Without Ringo work on ‘Back in the USSR’ began. There was also time to tidy up the songs that had already been recorded.

The Beatles then returned to Trident Studios in London, where ‘Hey Jude’ had been recorded. Trident owned an eight-track recording machine, something Abbey Road didn’t have. This gave The Beatles more scope to experiment. Here they worked on mixing and over-dubs, most notably on ‘Dear Prudence’. This song was written about Mia Farrow’s sister Prudence during their stay in India. Prudence hardly came out for the sessions with the Maharishi, which Lennon took on board and wrote the song.

On September 3rd The Beatles returned to Abbey Road. Mal Evans, the Beatles roadie, smothered Ringo’s drum kit with flowers. Ringo was back and ready to record again. George Martin, their producer, however, took a holiday and engineer Ken Scott ran the sessions. Martin would not work with The Beatles again until October. 

Whilst The Beatles were keen to work on the eight-track machine at Trident, they continued to record at Abbey Road. On September 6th George took the unprecedented step to invite Eric Clapton into the studio to play the guitar solo on ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’. George had felt he was not good enough to play the solo and that Clapton could improve the recording. It also eased the rising tensions in the group during these sessions.

By mid-September George started to come to the fore. ‘Piggies’, ‘Savoy Truffle’ and ‘Long, Long, Long’ would all be completed over the next few weeks.  

With recordings virtually finished Ringo took a holiday to Sardinia for two weeks on 14th October. Final mixings were finished, and the album released on November 22nd 1968.

The sleeve was plain white and designed by Richard Hamilton. Each album was individually numbered. The album came with 4 colour photographs and a poster. Some of the individual numbers on the album are particularly valuable. The first 20 were given to The Beatles and their inner circle. We know that Ringo Starr owned issue number one, and John, Paul and George had numbers 2,3and 4- although we don’t know who had which one. Others known to have had one of the first twenty were Neil Aspinall, George Martin and Mal Evans.

RECEPTION
Upon its release, the album received many favourable reviews, most notably from Tony Palmer from The Observer. In the USA reviews were also mostly favourable. The good reviews focused on the excellent songs written by Lennon/McCartney and Harrison. 

There were less favourable reviews as well. Time magazine and the New York Times were particularly critical. Some fans also felt the album was too long and should have been a single album.  The experimentation that was part of Sgt. Pepper was missing. 

Despite these mixed reviews the album was a number one across the world.

LEGACY
The album has been re-issued on numerous occasions, most notably in 1998 on 1t’s 30th anniversary.
Today the album is considered one of The Beatles best. Featuring classics like ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, ‘Back in the USSR’ and ‘Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da’ the album has now become a classic. The album highlights the great song writing talents of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison. McCartney with the wonderful ‘Blackbird’, a song highlighting the state of race relations, particularly in the USA at the time. Lennon with ‘Julia’, a song for his much-missed mother with wonderful lyrics. Harrison contributed ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, one of his best compositions. 

The album has that raw style reminiscent in songs like ‘Glass Onion’, ‘I’m So Tired’ and ‘Dear Prudence’. 

It was the start of heavy rock with tracks like ‘Back in the USSR’, ‘Helter Skelter’ and ‘Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except For Me and My Monkey’ Bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Thin Lizzy all drew influence from the album. Later bands such as Motorhead and Queen would also cite this album as an influence.

The album is not just about rock though. Great acoustics like ‘Julia’, ‘Blackbird and ‘Mother Natures Son’ reveal a softer side that continues to delight fans. The lyrics to these three songs have continued to influence song writers to this day.

The album continues to bring joy to new generations who hear it. With the passing of time, many people see and remember The Beatles as those four lovable mop tops from the early 60s. They seem extremely surprised when they hear The White Album finding it hard to believe it is the same band.
Let’s raise our glasses to The White Album.

Ernie Sutton

Monday 19 November 2018

Review: Advertising Revolution: The Story of a Song


Advertising Revolution: The Story of a Song
Alan Bradshaw and Linda Scott
Repeater Books, London, 2017
ISBN: 9781912248216
(RRP) £8.99

Advertising Revolution will reawaken negative feelings in many Beatles fans who were outraged by Nike’s 1987 trainers advert incorporating the tune of ‘Revolution’, John Lennon’s first politically-charged song. Excessive capitalism and consumerism were the hallmarks of the 1980s with the birth of the ‘I want it and I want it now’ easy credit, it’s all about me, generation. But Nike wasn’t the first company to harness the power of rock music to sell a product. That dubious honour belongs to Levi Strauss & Co and three West Coast American bands, most notably, The Jefferson Airplane, who agreed in 1967 to do music commercials for Levi white jeans. Grace Slick did withdraw the band’s support (too late ‘though) after she was informed by activist Abbie Hoffman that the Levi Strauss workers in Georgia/Tennessee were then currently on strike over pay and working conditions. By the 1980s, it seems that very few people were pointing out that some of their fashionable sportswear might just haven been made in Asian sweatshops.

So how did this happen when we know that the former Beatles were opposed to their music being used this way? Simply, Yoko said yes. Paul, still simmering over Yoko not coming in with him to buy the Beatles back catalogue (bought by Michael Jackson instead), said it was up to her because it was a John song. That left George and Ringo fuming and Apple filing a lawsuit against Nike, Capital and EMI. It was all not very ‘sporting’!

Both authors of this book are academics in the spheres of economics and advertising. Their book is an excellent study of the use of something conceptual (a song) to sell a visual status symbol (the Nike trainer). Admittedly, it was an ingenious campaign which was, ironically, sparked by a minor employee’s bright idea, and who just happened to be a Beatles fan. The authors’ stated purpose is to show that advertising is not a simple process of selling a product. Instead, they argue that it is a creative collaborative process of an aesthetic nature performed by a group of diverse participants who create what can only be termed a work of art. I have read their arguments and conclude that I don’t agree with them. However, it was a very well-presented, interesting and informative journey to get to that conclusion. The book goes into much detail about the creation of ‘Revolution’ and the milieu in which it was written. I really should check on their birthdates because I don’t think they quite understand 1960s and early 70s American counterculture and radical activism but they are very familiar with the 1980s! The story of Nike and that shoe is also covered in depth and very well. The book is a fascinating read and a great insight into the world of advertising. I do recommend you read it. Both in this book and in this review very little is said about the actual advert itself. You should go on to YouTube and have a look and see if I am right in asking – “What was that all about?”

All in all, what heartens me about this book is that it unintentionally reminds us that there is just something rather nasty about using a song-concept like ‘Revolution’ by a cherished music group to sell falsely-trendy, artificially-overpriced, labour-exploitative gym shoes!

Terry Bloxham

Sunday 11 November 2018

BBFC Gift Memberships will bring joy all year long!

Looking for the perfect gift for the Beatles fan in your life?

It can be a struggle to find something they don't already have and doesn't cost a fortune.

A gift membership to the British Beatles Fan club is the solution.

What's Included

Membership includes a year's subscription to our outstanding magazine (4 issues).  The magazine includes articles and essays on Beatles related topics, reviews of new releases and books, and more.

The membership package includes a Membership Card giving that entitles members to discounts on tickets to various events and other special offer and a British Beatles Fan Club badge.

Members are also kept informed of special events and can enter our members-only competitions and special offers.


Prices
The table below details the cost for a gift membership for 1 year.  You can pay in any of the currencies listed.  Prices are higher outside the UK due to postage costs.

For recipients whose mailing address is in:
  • The UK: £15 or €20 or US $25
  • Europe: £25 or €35 or US $40
  • Rest of the world: £30 or €45 or US $50 
The membership package will include the latest issue at the time of subscription and that will be counted as the first of the 4 issues included in the membership.


Ordering Information
Visit our membership page and scroll down to the payment section. In the delivery address section of the PayPal transaction provide the recipient's address and in the notes section add a note saying "Gift Subscription for" and provide the recipient's name.

Get your Corgi Magical Mystery Tour Bus and Corgi Yellow Submarine

Corgi Magical Mystery Tour Bus and Corgi Yellow Submarine

Corgi Magical Mystery Tour Bus CC42418

In stock*
  • Non-members Price £25.00 + postage
  • Members Price £22.50 + postage
Prices exclude postage (see rates below)

Corgi Yellow Submarine CC05401

Preorder - available Jan 2019
  • RSP £25.00 + postage
  • Pre Order Price £22.50 + postage
  • BBFC Member Pre Order Price £20.25 + postage
 Prices exclude postage (see rates below)

*Important note: If ordering both models, they will be shipped together in January when the Yellow Submarine becomes available

Magical Mystery Tour Bus is 1:76 scale and measures 145mm in length.

Yellow submarine measures 134mm in length.

Expected release date for Yellow Submarine is January 2019 but this is subject to change without notice.

BBFC members when ordering please include your membership number in the order notes.

Prices exclude P&P at the following rates:

UK: £3.20 for one model, £4.25 for both models
Europe: £6.85 for one model, £12.40 for both models
World Zone 1: £9.20 for one model, £16.10 for both models
World Zone 2: £9.90 for one model, £16.75 for both models
If you would like a quotation please contact treasurer@britishbeatlesfanclub.co.uk stating your country of residence.
Payment to be made by Pay Pal to our account bbfcpublishing@gmail.com or please send a cheque payable to BBFC Publishing to BBFC, PO Box 1766, Croydon, CR9 1EN