If you attend, tell them the BBFC sent you!
Tuesday, 30 April 2019
Monday, 29 April 2019
IMAGINE - The John Lennon Songbook - May 4-19
BBFC Members use discount code BBFC2019 for £5 discount off each ticket
Sunday, 28 April 2019
Join in the fun - THE BEATLES IN TWICKENHAM
The Beatles filmed many times at Twickenham Studios and in the surrounding streets particularly for the films A Hard Day’s Night and Help! They also spent most of January 1969 filming for the film Let it Be at Twickenham film studios.
Tickets are on sale for the events below, and more events are expected to be added this year.
May 3rd 8pm: Beatles Tribute - Come Together (with live band)
May 7th 8pm: A Hard Day’s Night – Film showing
May 17th: Mark Lewisohn in conversation with Dr Richard Mills
June 14th: Carnaby Army (Live Band) Beatles vs Stones
More details can be found on the website www.exchangetwickenham.co.uk
Saturday, 20 April 2019
Updates about the Glauchau Beatles Fan Convention
The convention date is fast approaching and we've just received these updates.
The Convention in Memory Of Johnny Hutchinson
The Convention in Memory Of Johnny Hutchinson
- 13 o'clock - doors open
- 14:00 opening with a minute's silence for Johnny Hutchinson, David Bedford will talk about him and then The Strawberries play the song "Some other guy".
- 14:30 group photo, on time! Every guest and participant can participate. 4 pm you can buy your ordered photo!
- Afterwards discussion with David Bedford, led by Boris Roßner, then draw the ticket number and afterwards signing and personal talk time.
- 16:15 -17:00 - The Strawberries play Beatles songs
- 17 clock- end of the event
- At the same time you can watch the special exhibition for the 80th birthday of Jimmy Nicol.
Friday, 19 April 2019
Hungarian Beatles Museum to Celebrate 4th Birthday with The Quarrymen
On May 12, 2019 there will be plenty of excitement in Eger, Hungary!To celebrate the Egri Road Beatle Museum's 4th birthday, there will be an international conference with Ukrainian and Polish guests for the whole weekend. Also attending the event are The Quarrymen all the way from Liverpool who will perform and tell stories on Sunday May 12.
Read more about what is planned here and if you attend, tell them at the museum that you heard about it from the BBFC!
Get tickets here
Last chance to see this wonderful show - Two-4-One Offer!
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Friday, 5 April 2019
The Analogues are coming to the Palladium May 4
THE ANALOGUES
PERFORM THE LEGENDARY ALBUM BY
THE BEATLES
THE WHITE ALBUM
SATURDAY 4 MAY 2019
LONDON PALLADIUM
‘I’ve witnessed something I never really thought I’d
be able to witness again’–
Geoff Emerick, chief engineer for The Beatles
On May 4th
at London’s Palladium, The Analogues
will bring to life one of music’s most cherished and expansive LPs, The White Album – playing the 30-track record
in its entirety, from the very first to very last note.
It takes a special
kind of obsessive to perfectly recreate on stage an album never made to be
performed live. But The Analogues
are no ordinary Beatles fans. They are the type to instigate a viral campaign to
help locate the exact bell sound from “Everybody's
Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Money", listening to every
submission on the phone (they
eventually found it in a Maritime store) – or spend months trying to track down
a real harpsichord, even if it only appears on one Beatles track (“Piggies”).
The Beatles
stopped performing in 1966, fed up of the constant hysteria at their shows that
began to inhibit rather than propel the band forward. This decision meant
albums such as 1968’s The White Album
were driven by studio experimentation and, while they changed music, fans were
never able to experience the records live. Indeed, many thought it could not be
done.
Fifty years on, The Analogues have gone to
extraordinary lengths to bring the album to life. Following on from
performances of Magical Mystery Tour
and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,
the Dutch five-piece now aims to tackle arguably their most ambitious project
to date. Their starting point remains the same: musical authenticity –
the band search the planet to locate every period-correct instrument to create
a near note-perfect homage – every guitar, piano, synth, and in this case, Mellotron
organ. “We had a difficult time finding a
good Mellotron as not many were made”, explains drummer
Fred Gehring. “We
ended up owning serial number 10. We understand Sir Paul owns number 9.”
To many, The White Album is The Beatles’ magnum
opus. It’s a quirky masterpiece that in all its diversity, when performed live,
requires the utmost from both musicians and production. It’s a project that
requires a near obsessive level of attention to detail, one that has taken The
Analogues an eternity of preparation, research and practice.
“As
someone once said "if you want to see a Beatle go to McCartney - if you
want to hear The Beatles go to The Analogues",
says Fred. Not something we would dare to
suggest ourselves but deep down that is our mission. Ignore the visual impact
of wigs and costumes and focus completely on the sound."
For more
information / tickets, head to: http://www.theanalogues.net/
Biography
The Analogues are a five-piece
group of Dutch musicians who have been lauded over the past few years for their
integral live adaptations of Beatles albums. They all share a deep-rooted passion for The
Beatles, and especially the iconic post-1966 'studio albums'.
Does the world need
another Beatles tribute band? Probably not if it’s all about wigs, suits, ‘yeah
yeah yeahs’ and the earlier part of the Fab Four’s repertoire. The Analogues,
on the other hand, focus on The Beatles’ later work. We’re talking about the
songs forged in the studio when the band’s creativity blossomed into outright
genius. The Beatles themselves never toured with this material - however The
Analogues do.
So far, the band have
travelled across the globe performing Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical
Mystery Tour, The White Album and soon, Abbey
Road - each album in its entirety, from start to finish. They bring this
magical music to life accompanied by an eight-piece string and horn section,
all performing with original period instruments, with a passion for perfection
and an unrelenting eye for even the smallest detail. More information on their
impressive ‘travelling museum’ can be found here - http://www.theanalogues.net/instruments.
What started off as a
small-scale affair is now anything but…
The Analogues are:
Bart van Poppel -
Musical director. Walrus. Sloppy execution can induce grumpiness. Wears sandals
to the office. Bass, keys, vocals.
Jac Bico - Silent
Force. Makes anything weep gently, as long as it has strings. Prefers playing
over talking. Guitars, bass, sitar, percussion, recorder, keys, vocals.
Fred Gehring -
Seriously annoyed by dwindling awareness of the Beatles songbook; chairman of
the (future) Beatles Preservation Society. Drums, vocals.
Diederik Nomden -
Born many years after The White Album was released. Likes to trump Bart as main
nitpicker on barely audible subtleties. Keys, guitar, vocals.
Felix Maginn -
Finally, a native speaker of English. Replaces the irreplaceable. Part-time
crooner. Amazing equestrian skills. Guitar, vocals.
Jan van der Meij -
Irreplaceable as ‘loud McCartney’. Temporarily unavailable due to 40 years of
faithful service in front of a guitar amp. Guitars, vocals.
Wednesday, 3 April 2019
Review: Bed Peace: The Battle of Yohn and Joko
A new play opened 29 March at The Cockpit Theatre in London. ‘Bed Peace: The Battle of Yohn and Joko’ is the brainchild of Rocky Rodriguez Jr and is a joyous as well as tempestuous exploration of the burgeoning political awareness of John Lennon under the gentle tutelage of his newly-found soul mate, Yoko Ono.
The core focus of the play is the very familiar May 1969 Bed-In for Peace in Montreal. As a prelude to this event the playwright artfully weaves in a narrative of current events, expertly delivered by four supporting actors. One actor in particular stood out. Amelia Parillon delivered an impassioned diatribe, living the pain of a young black woman in the 1960s. Another actor presented a disappointingly stereotyped view of the average white middle American who really couldn’t see what the problem was – this view overlooks the huge number of white middle Americans who DID know what was going on and DID try to change things for the better. Still, it was a powerful opening that encouraged a ‘rage against the system’ within the audience psyche in preparation for the events to come.
Rodriguez intriguingly surmises that the impetus for John and Yoko’s peace campaign was Yoko’s miscarriage in November 1968. It was while Yoko was in hospital, with doctors attempting to save her unborn child, that the couple recorded its heartbeat; later released as Unfinished Music 2: Life With the Lions. The original recording plays during this performance. Yoko, passionately played by Jung Sun Den Hollander, demands of John why he can’t cry over the death of their child and pleads with him ‘to do something’ to improve the world. He asks her to marry him, they do, now over to the Bed-In.
Once again, Rodriguez skillfully mixes in scenes intended to not only inform the audience of historic events but also to inspire an emotional response. I felt John’s frustration, his hurt, his anger, when, from a ‘bag’, he attempts to give a press conference about Yoko’s ‘Total Communication’ and all they want to know is what The Beatles are up to. Yoko is there all the way, encouraging John gently and persistently to allow himself to feel that pain. Next, John and Yoko in bed speaking with the students protesting at People’s Park in San Francisco. The actor playing John, Craig Edgley – he really develops his performance so well as the play progresses – speaks John’s words over the original phone recordings.
The four supporting actors then take polar positions, representing a variety of contemporary views, they quiz John on his sincerity – “I came to see if John Lennon would actually take the time to hear the stories of the oppressed. This whole affair is to just feed your ego.”
The play ends with the creation of ‘Give Peace a Chance’. I thought this was ‘too long for a short focus’ but involving the audience in its creation was inspired. We all closed the show together, stamping our feet, clapping our hands and singing our hearts out.
Rodriguez, interestingly a LIPA graduate, is a playwright of great talent. I shared this experience with a friend who is not such an intense Beatles fan but who is very knowledgeable of the events of the time – he was impressed.
‘Bed Peace: The Battle of Yohn and Joko’ is on at The Cockpit Theatre, Marylebone, London until 28 April.
BBFC membersare offered a discount.
http://thecockpit.org.uk/show/bed_peace ~ Terry Bloxham
Tuesday, 2 April 2019
Congratulations to our 'Let It Be' Ticket Winners!
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| Let It Be UK Tour 2018 - Credit Anthony Robling |
Congratulations
to our 5 lucky winners!
Meryn Nixon
Cara Reay
Lucy Barrett
Phil Chapman
David Kerr
Each winner will receive two tickets to the opening night performance at the venue they indicated in their competition entry. Winners have been notified and will be contacted by our contest sponsor with instructions.
Thank you to everyone who entered!
If you didn't win, it doesn't mean you can't see the show. Just visit the website to get the details.
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