Move over, Ms L!

Hi all, wondering why you are looking at this jumbled up page? This is due to the fact that Facebook didn't like our url since it starts with wog, so we have been forced to move the blog. This was some time ago, and we have placed a script which would automatically send you to our new location. Obviously, this hasn't worked for all of you, since we have just finished moderating some of your comments which appeared on this site recently, and not on our new (and improved!) site. So what we're saying is head on over to our new site, and update your bookmarks!

Thursday 30 May 2013

Five Beatles autographs

front
Finding a promotional post card signed by the Beatles is rare, finding one signed by five of the group's members is exceptional. But in this year's annual Beatles auction, there are no less than two sets of autographs like this:
rear

This set features five Beatles signatures. The promotional card they are on is from the Fan Club Night in the Cavern in April 1962. The reverse of the card is signed by John, Paul, George, Pete and, presumably at a slightly later date, Ringo. So if you have 5-6 grand (£'s) to spare...
The 2013 Liverpool Beatles Auction will take place on Saturday 24th August at The Paul McCartney Auditorium in LIPA, Liverpool.
Source: Liverpool Beatles Auction

Wednesday 29 May 2013

Ringo's new e-book of photos

Ringo Starr is due ot with a book of his own photographs, in the ebook format on June 12th. An expanded edition will also be released as a real book by Genesis Publications before Christmas. .
Sample from the new book

Website
iTunes

Sunday 26 May 2013

Next Archive Releases

As usual, McCartney's latest Archive release contained info on the upcoming releases. No surprise there.

Beatles on Blu-ray

As y'all probably know, "Help!" is heading our way again, now on Blu-ray. The Beatles have control over all their films, except "A Hard Day's Night". With "Help!" due out in June, The Beatles/Apple have released three of their four films on Blu-ray in the course of a year. Here's the schedule:
June 2012: "Yellow Submarine"
October 2012: "Magical Mystery Tour"
June 2013: "Help!"
Can we believe that October 2013 will see the release of the film we're really waiting for: "Let It Be". This writer thinks so.
 

Friday 24 May 2013

Sgt Pepper's caravan reappears!

The 1967 "Sgt Pepper"-inspired caravan that John Lennon gave to his son Julian has reappeared!

Back in 1982, the very first time I came over to England, I was peeping over the hedge at Tittenhurst Park in Ascot and I could have sworn I saw it. Turns out I probably did. Bracknell News has the full (although riddled with historical mistakes) story.
Originally called a Burton caravan, it was repainted by Steve Weaver at a garage in Chertsey to the specific designs of John Lennon and transported on July 24, 1967, to Kenwood, Weybridge, Surrey where Lennon was living with first wife Cynthia and son Julian. You can watch a British Pathe newsreel about the transportation of the caravan here. Said to be a birthday present for Julian, it was a belated one, as Julian had turned four in April.

After a spell in Ireland, where Lennon bought an island with second wife Yoko Ono, the caravan was moved to John's new home in Ascot to stand in the garden of Tittenhurst Park. Ringo Starr then acquired the caravan as part of the deal when he bought Tittenhurst Park from Lennon in 1973, after the Lennon's had moved to the USA. Ringo called in Cookham-based, vintage caravan restorer John Pockett to restore it. It took almost a year and by September 1983 was returned, in its full glory, from Pockett's Cookham workshop, to be placed beside Ringo's swimming pool. The caravan seemed to have disappeared without trace after the Ringster sold Tittenhurst Park for £5 million to His Royal Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu Dhabi (The Sheik of Araby for short) back in 1988.

I remember hearing about the sale, and that the sheik was only planning to use the house for a week each year, during the Ascot horse thingy. He completely refurbished the house, throwing away all sorts of Beatles memorabilia in the process, including the sound studio which had been installed by Lennon and subsequently used for recording the twin "Plastic Ono Band" albums, "Imagine" and Ono's "Fly". The studio was also used by Ringo after he bought the place in 1973, he let it out to other musicians. Famously, Judas Priest was going to use the studio to record the band's album "British Steel", but ended up recording it in the house itself.

So I feared that the sultan had just discarded the wagon, but Bracknell News paints a different picture: It appears that Ringo took the caravan with him when he moved to a property in Longcross, Surrey. It was left behind there when Starr subsequently moved again. The person who bought the Longcross property from Starr then rented it out, and finally sold up last year. The caravan was then given to Alan Carr, a well-known Ascot resident and charity fundraiser, who plans to use it as a vehicle for his charitable fundraising efforts. Sadly, the roof and most of the sides of the caravan are missing.

Alan Carr with what's left of the caravan. © 2013 Bracknell News
The money raised by the sale of the caravan will go to the appropriately named Imagine Fund, and let's just hope that the lucky buyer will be Julian Lennon. After all, it's really his belated 4th birthday gift.

Source: Bracknell News
More photos here.
And...the Kenwood blog beat me to the story, I later discovered. But it's only appropriate.

Thursday 23 May 2013

New App with Wings

For those of you with an Android phone, an iPhone, or an iPad or Android tablet, there's a free app out called UView from Universal. Using the app you can view some material relating to the Wings Over America and Rockshow releases. Install the app on your device, click it, select the Wings Over America album cover and find the Wings logo in the view finder on your built-in camera and witness the magic happening! Click on the pic for more on this. Oh, and by the way, the price for Wings Over America Deluxe just went up from £89 to £119 over at Amazon UK...well, someone had to pay for this free app!

Friday 10 May 2013

Lewisohn bio cover

The first volume of Mark Lewisohn's "definitive" unofficial Beatles biography All These Years (volume one 'Tune In') is due out this autumn. Yesterday, the book's cover was revealed (see above).
So, what do you think? Brown paper bag for "Tune In"?


   

Saturday 4 May 2013

Paul McCartney's incredible soundcheck

I'll tell ya, if this set list is correct and a preview of things to come, we are in for a very pleasant change when the actual concert in Belo Horizon, Brazil commences tonight:

Blue Suede Shoes
Got To Get You Into My Life
Sing The Changes
Let 'Em In
Calico Skies
We Can Work It Out
Eight Days A Week
Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!
Lovely Rita
Another Day
Hope Of Deliverance
Listen To What The Man Said
Hi Hi Hi
All Together Now
Your Mother Should Know
Blackbird
Here Today