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!

Monday 31 March 2014

Abbey Road potatoes

© Copyright: McCain. Photographer: Erik Almås

The famous Abbey Road photo is still being exploited by advertising agencies, this time it's for McCain's potato crisps in the UK. Whoever okayed this poster?

McCain is releasing an outdoor and print campaign that spoofs one of the most iconic images in British music history. The ads, created by BMB, show four farmers striding across a potato field in a scene reminiscent of The Beatles’ Abbey Road cover. The work stresses that McCain uses only British potatoes. It was written by Tom Sillars, art directed by Dani Asensio and photographed by Erik Almas through Trayler & Trayler. Media was handled by PHD

Wonderwall relaunched

Wonderwall on Blu-ray
Shout Factory has relaunched the 1968 psychedelic movie "Wonderwall" on Blu-ray. George Harrison composed and recorded the incidental music for the film, and Shout Factory is using this as their main selling point in their campaign.
Set in swinging 1960's London, Wonderwall is the story of a reclusive professor Oscar Collins (Jack MacGowran) who becomes infatuated with his next door neighbors, the beautiful model Penny Lane (Jane Birkin) and her Svengalian photographer boyfriend (Iain Quarrier). When the professor attempts to rescue Penny from an overdose following a quarrel with her boyfriend, he enters the magical realm of the Wonderwall on a transformative journey, and returns to his laboratory a changed man.

Contents:
• Original theatrical version as well as the re-edited Directors Cut, featuring music from the original Wonderwall session never included in the original theatrical release
• 32-page book from director Joe Massot featuring extensive essays, historical analysis and production history
• All-new print
• High-definition restoration by the Pinewood Studios Film Restoration Team

The film is presented in NTSC Widescreen Aspect ratio 1:85:1

Special Features
• Publicity Gallery
• Publicity Text
• Biographies
• The Comic Art of Jack MacGowran
• Reflections on Love
• The Art of Marijke
• Eric Clapton - Skiing
• John Lennon Poem
• The Remo Four Music Video
• Theatrical Trailer
• Outtakes



Shout Factory is also promoting the movie by putting out clips from it on YouTube. The movie was released on March 25th.  George Harrison's soundtrack album "Wonderwall Music" is considered his first solo album, and was released in 1968 on Apple Records. George released two albums while he was still with the Beatles, Wonderwall Music in 1968 and the experimental Electronic Sound in 1969 on Apple's subsidiary, Zapple Records. Harrison was also present when the film was screened at the Cannes film festival. For a list of Beatles- and related films on Blu-ray, visit this site.

Tuesday 25 March 2014

A Hard Day's Night World Premiere

Nudge nudge wink wink
Film: A HARD DAY’S NIGHT (1964)
Time: Saturday April 12th at 6:30 PM
Movie Theatre: TCL Chinese IMAX, Hollywood, Los Angeles
Description: When the Beatles made their feature debut 50 years ago, nobody expected much. The rock 'n' roll musical had been around for a decade without producing many great films. A HARD DAY'S NIGHT changed all that. Directed kinetically by Richard Lester, the film captured a day in the life of the teen heartthrobs in high style. Writer Alun Owen toured with The Beatles for weeks to capture their characters and speaking styles. Lester let the Fab Four throw in a few improvisations and surrounded them with adept comic actors like Wilfred Brambell as Paul McCartney's grandfather and Victor Spinetti as a hassled television director. Made for $560,000, A HARD DAY'S NIGHT grossed ten times that in the U.S. alone, making it one of the most profitable films of all time. The album shot to number one instantly, which is hardly a surprise considering that the picture introduced The Beatles classics "All My Loving," "Can't Buy Me Love," "And I Love Her," “Tell Me Why" and the title tune, which was written by John Lennon in one night. World premiere restoration from the original negative and presented in collaboration with Janus films.
Director: Richard Lester
86 min.
Digital
In attendance: Alec Baldwin, Don Was
Tickets

John Lennon's manuscripts and drawings in London



Just an update on the upcoming auction of Lennons poetry and drawings.

Monday 24 March 2014

Free Beatles book for Kindle

Richard Buskins book
Today only, "Beatles 101: The Need-To-Know Guide" (Kindle Edition), written by Richard Buskin and illustrated by Eric Cash is available for free from Kindle and Amazon.
Here's the Amazon link: Beatles 101: The Need-To-Know Guide

Omega: Some auction results

George's coat went for £46,000
We have gotten the auction results from the Omega Beatles auction at the Hotel Adelphi in Liverpool. Among other things, George and Ringo's clothes from the cover of the "Help!" album went under the hammer. Ringo Starr's cape went for £52 000, while George Harrison's rain coat fetched £46,000. The expected sales prices for these items were between £20,000 and £30,000 a piece, so the results were very good. The piano played by John and Paul at Twickenham film studios was sold for £49 000 to a South American collector. The prices we are referring to are net prices without commission, to give you an estimate, the full price for the piano was £57,500 (as well as shipping to South America), George's jacket £54,000 and Ringo's cape £61,000.

Gold disc for "Band On The Run"

Some of the items from Paul McCartney's former house keeper Rose Martin were withdrawn from the auction, following action from McCartney's lawyers.
The gold disc for "Band On The Run", inscribed "Presented to Paul McCartney & Wings by EMI Records to recognise the sale in the UK of more than £150,000 worth of the Apple long playing record album Band On The Run 1974", expected to sell for £1000 - £2000 and went for £3100.

Poster from the Hamburg days

A poster from Hamburg advertising The Beatles and Rory Storm and His Hurican at the Kaiserkeller in 1960, signed by Johnny Guitar from the Hurricanes escalated from the estimated £80 - £120 to the final sales price of £500!

But there were other lots that didn't reach their estimates, One of these was a lot comprising, among other things, an ashtray used by The Beatles when they were interviewed at their hotel by DJ Johnny Rabbit from KX-OK Radio i St. Louis i 1965. The lot also included 2 ticket stubs from the concert at White Sox Park, Chicago on the 20th of August 1965, 2 movie ticket badges, a 39 cents Beatles hair brush in original packaging, a Beatles match book, a "I LOVE JOHN" & "BEATLES" Vari-Vue badge, plus a letter, envelope and "Beatle Buddies' Club Card" from the USA Beatles fan club HQ. The lot was estimated to £500 - £700 but only fetched £340.

There were two Let It Be boxed sets up for sale, this one went for £190

It was also possible to make some bargains during the auction, most of these were things further down the list, and many of these lots were assorted vinyl records. A complete "Let It Be" boxed set with the Apple poster included went for £190, while a mint copy of the same boxed set without the poster fetched £400.

A collection of eight Japanese laser discs, "The First U.S. Visit", "Ready Steady Go!", "A Hard Day's Night", "Yellow Submarine", "The Beatles Story", "Magical Mystery Tour", "John Lennon - Imagine" and "John Lennon - The Beatles and Beyond" was sold for £60, less than a tenner a disc.

Cheap: Beatles magazines and a book

Seven assorted Beatles magazines and a book went for £38, they were "Meet The Beatles", "In America", "By Royal Command", "The Beatles", "Carnegie Hall", the book "The True Story" and a supplement from "The Times".

A full set of autographs from 1963 plus eight magazines.

A lucky bidder got away with a full set of Beatles autographs from July 1963 when they played at The Odeon in Weston Super-Mare, plus seven of the ten first original Beatles Monthly Books and a "Meet The Beatles" magazine for "only" £1700, they were valued at £2 000 - £3 000.

Other lots remained unsold, amongst them the chair and table from the Apple Boutique. A complete list of the results can be found here.

Thursday 20 March 2014

A Hard Day's Night in Leeds

Poster for the Leeds screening
The movie "A Hard Day's Night" will be screened on Tuesday 29 April at 8:15 pm at the oldest cinema in Leeds, England, the historic 102 year old Cottage Road Cinema. Supported by a full vintage programme and one VERY special surprise, they tease. Booking in advance is strongly advised for this one off Beatles show.
Tickets
£5 Seniors, Children & Students
£6 Adults
Still photo: Criterion Collection

This 50th Anniversary show is presented by "Leeds Back In The Day" and the promoters say that this will be the only screening anywhere in the UK of A Hard Day's Night. The new remastered and restored edition of the film will debut at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood April 10-13. It has not been announced whether or not the Leeds screening will be of one of the new prints of the film.
Facebook event page

The power of the fans

Aspect ratio noted in the film leader. Provided by 3-D Film Archive
Criterion Collection has done a 360˚ and is now informing that the new restored and remastered A Hard Day's Night film will be presented in the aspect ratio of 1:75:1, which is how it was originally shown in movie theatres in 1964. They originally announced the aspect ratio of the release to be 1:66:1, which was our one criticism about the release.
It could have been a typo, which they now have corrected, or it could be that they have listened to us. Either way, we applaud it.

Still photo courtesy of Criterion Collection

That second theory would be very flattering, yet it does fall into a pattern. When Apple Records/Universal Music first published the cover of last year's "The Beatles On The Air: Live At The BBC Volume 2", they had lengthened George's tie. After we noted that, they went back and changed it, the final version that appeared on the released cover restored the original length of the tie.

Now if they had only released the full info about "The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963" a little bit earlier, we might have been able to inform them that they included two different radio recordings of the same performance of "She Loves You" on the release, and that some of their info about broadcast dates were off.

Still, it seems as we fans are beginning to have a bit of impact on some of their decisions, so let's keep on pointing out their mistakes!

As for the DVD in the Criterion Collection edition, it is region coded to 1 (USA), so unless one has a region free DVD player (which is perfectly legal), it can't be played here in Europe. A UK edition of the film is expected to be released on July 21st by Second Sight films if we are to believe the combined info from NME.com and Second Sight films.

Second Sight Films posted this photo on their Facebook page
"A Hard Day's Night" is also the subject of an upcoming documentary on UK TV Show "The One Show", much like "Magical Mystery Tour" was the subject of an "Arena" special.

Wednesday 19 March 2014

A Hard Day's Night - back cover

A Hard Day's Night - back cover

Criterion Press Release (much the same as yesterday's blog post):

A HARD DAY’S NIGHT (DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY/DVD Edition & DVD Stand Alone Edition)

Meet the Beatles! Just one month after they exploded onto the U.S. scene with their Ed Sullivan Show appearance, John, Paul, George, and Ringo began working on a project that would bring their revolutionary talent to the big screen. A Hard Day’s Night, in which the bandmates play slapstick versions of themselves, captured the astonishing moment when they officially became the singular, irreverent idols of their generation and changed music forever. Directed with raucous, anything-goes verve by Richard Lester (Help!) and featuring a slew of iconic pop anthems, including the title track, “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “I Should Have Known Better,” and “If I Fell,” A Hard Day’s Night, which reconceived the movie musical and exerted an incalculable influence on the music video, is one of the most deliriously entertaining movies of all time.

1964 • 87 minutes • Black & White • Monaural/5.1 surround • 1.66:1 aspect ratio

DIRECTOR-APPROVED DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital film restoration, approved by director Richard Lester, with two audio options—a monaural soundtrack and a new 5.1 surround soundtrack made by Apple Records—presented in uncompressed monaural and DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary featuring various members of the film’s cast and crew
• In Their Own Voices, a new piece combining interviews with the Beatles from 1964 with behind-the-scenes footage and photos
• You Can’t Do That: The Making of “A Hard Day’s Night,” a 1994 documentary program by producer Walter Shenson
• Things They Said Today, a 2002 documentary about the film featuring Lester, music producer George Martin, writer Alun Owen, cinematographer Gilbert Taylor, and others
• New piece about Lester’s early work, featuring a new audio interview with the director
• The Running Jumping and Standing Still Film (1959), Lester’s Oscar-nominated short featuring Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan
• Anatomy of a Style, a new piece on Lester’s approach to editing
• New interview with Mark Lewisohn, author of Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years—Volume One
• Deleted scene
• Trailers
• One Blu-ray and two DVDs, with all content available in both formats
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Howard Hampton
• More!
Press image. Photo: ©2014 Criterion/Apple Corps Ltd

TITLE: A HARD DAY’S NIGHT (DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY/DVD EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2363BDDVD
UPC: 7-15515-11741-8
ISBN: 978-1-60465-845-3
SRP: $39.95
PREBOOK: 5/27/14
STREET: 6/24/14

TITLE: A HARD DAY’S NIGHT (SINGLE-DVD EDITION)
CAT. NO. CC2372DDVD
UPC 7-15515-11851-4
ISBN 978-1-60465-854-5
SRP $19.95
PREBOOK 5/27/14
STREET 6/24/14

The release is now available for pre-order from Amazon.com: Blu-ray & DVD Dual format   or DVD

Tuesday 18 March 2014

A Hard Day's Night announced by Criterion

Finally announced by Criterion. New cover by Rodrigo Corral

Finally, the official word on this. Criterion just announced this title for June 24th, along with the cover depicted above.
"Meet the Beatles! Just one month after they exploded onto the U.S. scene with their Ed Sullivan Show appearance, John, Paul, George, and Ringo began working on a project that would bring their revolutionary talent to the big screen. A Hard Day’s Night, in which the bandmates play slapstick versions of themselves, captured the astonishing moment when they officially became the singular, irreverent idols of their generation and changed music forever. Directed with raucous, anything-goes verve by Richard Lester and featuring a slew of iconic pop anthems, including the title track, “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “I Should Have Known Better,” and “If I Fell,” A Hard Day’s Night, which reconceived the movie musical and exerted an incalculable influence on the music video, is one of the most deliriously entertaining movies of all time."

A HARD DAY'S NIGHT
United Kingdom
1964
87 minutes
Black and White
1.66:1
English
Spine #711

So, looks like they messed up the aspect ratio after all...

Disc Features:
DIRECTOR-APPROVED EDITION:
  • New 4K digital film restoration, approved by director Richard Lester, with two audio options—a monaural soundtrack and a new 5.1 surround soundtrack made by Apple Records—presented in uncompressed monaural and DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray (dual-format only) 
  • Audio commentary featuring various members of the film’s cast and crew (dual-format only)
  • In Their Own Voices, a new piece combining interviews with the Beatles from 1964 with behind-the-scenes footage and photos
  • You Can’t Do That: The Making of “A Hard Day’s Night,” a 1994 documentary program by producer Walter Shenson
  • Things They Said Today, a 2002 documentary about the film featuring Lester, music producer George Martin, writer Alun Owen, cinematographer Gilbert Taylor, and others (dual-format only)
  • New piece about Lester’s early work, featuring a new audio interview with the director (dual-format only)
  • The Running Jumping and Standing Still Film (1959), Lester’s Oscar-nominated short featuring Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan (dual-format only)
  • Anatomy of a Style, a new piece on Lester’s approach to editing (dual-format only)
  • New interview with Mark Lewisohn, author of Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years—Volume One (dual-format only)
  • Deleted scene (dual-format only)
  • Trailers
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Howard Hampton
So it looks like you'll have to get the dual edition (=DVD and Blu-ray in one box) to get it all. The price isn't at all bad, $31.96 from Criterion's Web shop, $15.96 for the standard DVD.

"Deleted scene" is intriguing, could it be "You Can't Do That" or something completely different? Paul's solo scene?
Criterion's official page is here.

Monday 17 March 2014

Fully signed "Let It Be"

Fake or does it count? You be the judge.
A unique signed LP is coming up for auction soon - signed by all four. But is it fake or does it count? Here's the story: John Lennon autographed a Let It Be LP cover for a fan in May 1975 at the WFIL “Helping Hands Marathon.”
In the early 1990s, George Harrison signed a separate album; this album was then signed by Ringo Starr on June 4, 2006, in Toronto.
Soon thereafter, the John-signed and the Harrison & Starr-signed covers were perfectly “melded” together by a top-notch paper restorer.
The resulting cover with three signatures was then made complete when McCartney signed it on July 15, 2010.
The autographs have been authenticated by expert on Beatles signatures, Frank Caiazzo:

"This Let It Be LP is the only one known to exist bearing the signatures of all four members of The Beatles, and as such, it is exceedingly rare and desirable. Add to that the fact that this is one of very few LP covers which have been autographed on the front by the entire band to surface, making this indeed a very special signed Beatles album cover."

I must confess that this album is almost good but not quite, in my mind. The album Lennon signed didn't pass through the hands of the other three.

Link to the auction

Green Apple

Photo of John Lennon, Mick Jagger and Paul's girlfriend, Maggie McGivern.

The inspiration behind the Beatles' Apple Corps was this painting by René Magritte. This 1967 photo of John Lennon, Mick Jagger and a woman in Paul's living room in Cavendish Avenue, is the first time I've seen the painting in colour. It confirms that the Apple is green, that the table is somewhat nut coloured and the background is brownish. Something like this:

B/W photo colourised

The photo was taken with Lizzie Bravo's camera. Here's the story from Lizzie: "(I) was outside waiting for John, as usual. That’s Mick Jagger, and there’s a young lady there too. Terry Doran was there also, and George arrived as Stu (Kendell) was leaving. Terry took the photos of Stuart and the three guys (John, Paul and Mick), but Stu only has one, which he gave me in high definition. His whole story, beautifully told to me in detail several times, is in my book."
Lizzie Bravo's book has yet to be published.

Here's the only photo I had previously seen:

Martha, Paul and the painting
Paul still owns the painting. Here's the accompanying photo of Paul from the same occasion in 1967:


Put them together and you get the full scene. Note the abandoned first design of the Sgt. Pepper drum skin on Paul's wall, John kept the one they actually used:
Composite

Sunday 16 March 2014

A Hard Day's Night in July

Screen capture from the Miramax DVD (2000)
NME (New Musical Express) reports that the 1964 film, which follows a day in the life of the band as Beatlemania is in full swing, has been fully restored and will be in cinemas and available to download on July 4. A limited edition DVD and Blu-ray release will follow on July 21.
Source: NME.

As we have reported earlier, your first chance to see the newly restored film with a remastered soundtrack will be at the Turner Classic Film Festival in Hollywood in April.

As for this "limited edition" business, it's not yet known if this will apply worldwide or just for the USA market. This is a way of marketing product in the USA which, among others, The Walt Disney Company has been doing for years. They don't wish to have too many products in the market at the same time, allowing their PR efforts and marketing campaigns to target specific films at any given time. In Europe, several of the Walt Disney company's DVD's have been generally available, and at the same time only available in limited quantities (often in a DeLuxe packaging) stateside.  Whether or not "A Hard Day's Night" will still be limited edition worldwide remains to be seen.

From what WogBlog has learned (and posted in previous blog postings about the film), the new version of "A Hard Day's Night" will be a brand new transfer to the digital domain (in 4k), and for the first time on DVD the original aspect ratio 1.75:1 from the 1964 theatrical screenings of the movie will be used. Earlier editions on DVD has been cropped either horisontally (MPI/Buena Vista) or vertically (Miramax).

Twitter photo from Giles Martin reveals a bigger picture (and a hair)

And the audio is also improved, Giles Martin has produced a surround version of the soundtrack, which will be a selectable audio option along with a remastered (by Ron Furmanek) original mono soundtrack for that 1964 experience.

What remains to be seen (and heard), is whether or not they have been able to address the problem of several songs sounding to slow, compared to the album. In 1964 the songs performed in the "TV-studio" segment of the film was affected by having to film TV-monitors at a higher speed to avoid a rolling bar on those screens. Played back, the songs in those scenes sounded slower. This problem can be overcome with today's digital technologies, and we are eager too se if they have tried to fix this.

Aspect ratio: exhibit A, taken from the film's original 35mm leader. Provided by 3-D Film Archives

Thursday 13 March 2014

Inside the Star Club in 1963

Tony Sheridan on stage - still from "Hafenpolizei - Die Party" 1963
Thanks to a recent TV screening of this 1963 cop series "Hafenpolizei", we can now have a look at the interior of the famous "Star Club". Performing on stage is Tony Sheridan, with Gibson Kemp on drums. I located this version on YouTube. We enter the club at around the 08:00 mark. The Beatles played several times at the Star Club, their final appearance was in late December 1962, just a few months before these scenes were filmed.

Wednesday 12 March 2014

June 17th for McCartney Archives

Original sales poster
This just in from Tom Brennan's important Beatles news site:
  • Wings: Venus & Mars - Paul McCartney Archive Collection deluxe edition (2 CDs +DVD): June 17, 2014
  • Wings: Speed Of Sound - Paul McCartney Archive Collection deluxe edition (2 CDs +DVD): June 17, 2014

So, it looks like it's Speed of Sound and not Red Rose Speedway after all. And the release date is the day before Paul turns 72.


New U.K. Beatles magazines

W H Smith has published a magazine with a DVD.
This magazine, "The Beatles Are Coming", was recently published by W. H. Smith in the U.K. It's 98 pages with 200 photos of Beatlemania, the concert years from the Cavern Club to Candlestick Park. The accompanying DVD is a one hour film, according to the label it's "rare and unseen".  If you have seen the film, please let us know how rare it really is. The magazine has been in the shops since December, we only just found out about it.
The newspapers Daily Mail and Daily Mirror have also recently published one Beatles magazine each, both are out now.

Daily Mirror's Beatles magazine advertises "The lost tour diary".

Help! jackets on display before auction

George and Ringo's Help!-jackets headed for auction
The jackets used by George Harrison and Ringo Starr on the cover of the "Help!" album are to be auctioned off, after having been on display at Liverpool's "Beatles' Story" museum for a week.

The jackets on display in front of a U.S.A. Help! movie poster
The jackets will be on display at the museum until Wednesday 19th March, when they will be sent to the Adelphi Hotel to be auctioned on 20th March, Beatles' Story writes.
The jackets come from the private collection of movie director Richard Lester (82). Richard recalls "The jackets were left after filming the scenes in Austria and I recall keeping them because I did actually like the style and thought I could wear them. I actually remember turning up on the set of Petulia in 1967 (which starred Julie Christie) wearing George's jacket only for the crew to make comments and give me stick for wearing it because of the cape at the back! In addition to the jackets we also ended up with Ringo's Winkle Pickers from the film which I donated to charity many years ago."
The sale is part of an auction of more than 200 lots of rare Beatles memorabilia and vinyl records to be hosted by Omega Auctions on March 20 at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the release of The Beatles' number one hit Can't Buy Me Love.

Bailey takes credit for "Eight Days A Week"

Collectors' edition of GQ magazine
In a collectors' edition of the magazine GQ there are two John Lennon-related interviews. One is with Yoko Ono, recounting what it was like to meet John for the first time, the other with photographer David Bailey. He talks about a tesnion between John and Paul, a tension that made him ask the pair to look in f´different directions when he took their photo. But it was not as tense as between the Oasis brothers, Liam and Noel Gallagher, who he photographed for their first Rolling Stone cover:  "I did it in ten minutes because I thought they were going to kill each other."
Bailey's first meeting with Paul McCartney also got off on a bad note, when the photographer opened with "Michelle, my belle' - are you f***ing joking, Paul?" Paul's reply was "Piss off!", according to Bailey, who was recently reminded of the incident by Paul himself.
The photographer talks about smoking joints with Lennon on the roof of the Ad Lib club in London. He also takes credit for having invented the title of "Eight Days A Week": "John Lennon was in the Ad Lib one night and he asked me how hard I worked. And I said, 'How hard do I work? I'll tell you, John, I work eight days a week.'"

You can read both the Yoko Ono interview and the David Bailey interview online here.

Tuesday 11 March 2014

Facebook popularity

The official facebook pages of The Beatles and their members
One, rather new method of measuring that fickle thing, "fame", is to look at how many "likes" the official Facebook page of the group or artist has amassed. As you can see from the illustration above, captured earlier today, The Beatles are well on their way to the 40 million mark.
As for the individual members' pages, the late John Lennon is "in the lead" with 15 million plus likes, Paul McCartney only has a third of that number. George Harrison knocks up around half the amount of likes of McCartney, with Ringo Starr finishing last with only around 1,7 million likes.
For comparisons sake, we also show the still active Pete Best. This year as always, he is hosting his own "Best Fest" at the Casbah Club during Beatle Week in Liverpool. Read more at petebest.com.
Adding up each band member's followers is another way to see that The Beatles are greater than the sum of their parts, we gather.

Often mentioned as rivals to the Beatles, the still working band the Rolling Stones has close to 18 million followers on Facebook, not half as many as The Beatles.

Of the more contemporary artists, Miley Cyrus has 44 million followers, that's four million more than the fabs, whereas McCartney's friend Dave Grohl and his Foo Fighters has around 10,6 million followers.

Sunday 9 March 2014

McCartney: Chile concert official

The first announced gig in the new year of Paul's ongoing "Out There"-tour is Chile 
PaulMcCartney.com just announced the first official word about the upcoming new South America leg of the "Out There" tour: April 21 at the Movistar Arena in Chile. We have previously mentioned proposed upcoming concerts in Uruguay and Peru. Meanwhile, there's also been rumours of a concert in Costa Rica for May 2nd, all of which adds up to what looks like a South American leg. Still no news about any UK gigs, although McCartney said last year that he was going to play in the UK in 2014. South Korea may be in the works though. Last year, Paul McCartney was sent a photo of a South Korean piano player with a poster, which read: "Sir Paul McCartney! Please have a concert in Republic of Korea!! There are millions of fans waiting for you." Paul remarked: "Lily Cole sent me this pic - may lead to a show in Korea. Hope so! Paul". March 7th, Korea Times ran a news item that said that the Jamsil Olympic Stadium in southern Seoul has been rented on May 28 for a potential concert with McCartney.

Friday 7 March 2014

George on Bob Dylan tribute concert

"Bobfest" from 1992 is now out on DVD and Blu-ray

The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration (dubbed "Bobfest" by Neil Young) from 1992, originally released on CD and VHS in 1993, is now out on DVD and Blu-ray for the very first time. This edition contains 40 minutes worth of bonus material, including interviews and footage from the rehearsals before the concert. The footage is from a new HD-master with remastered sound. It looks absolutely superb! Unfortunately, they have not chosen to include both the songs George Harrison performed, at the concert and on the televised broadcast we also got to see and hear "If Not For You". I wish they could have included this performance, now that they've chosen to include extra material.
  1. Like a Rolling Stone - John Mellencamp
  2. Blowin' in the Wind - Stevie Wonder
  3. Foot of Pride - Lou Reed
  4. Masters of War - Eddie Vedder & Mike McCready
  5. The Times They Are a-Changin' - Tracy Chapman
  6. It Ain't Me Babe - June Carter Cash & Johnny Cash
  7. What Was It You Wanted - Willie Nelson
  8. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight - Kris Kristofferson
  9. Highway 61 Revisited - Johnny Winter
  10. Seven Days - Ron Wood
  11. Just Like a Woman - Richie Havens
  12. When the Ship Comes In - The Clancy Brothers and Robbie O Connell with special guest Tommy Makem
  13. War - Sinead O'Connor
  14. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues - Neil Young
  15. All Along the Watchtower - Neil Young
  16. I Shall Be Released - Chrissie Hynde
  17. Love Minus Zero/No Limit - Eric Clapton
  18. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right - Eric Clapton
  19. Emotionally Yours - The O Jays
  20. When I Paint My Masterpiece - The Band
  21. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere - Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Rosanne Cash & Shawn Colvin
  22. Absolutely Sweet Marie - George Harrison
  23. License to Kill - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
  24. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
  25. Mr. Tambourine Man - Roger McGuinn
  26. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) - Bob Dylan (introduced by George)
  27. My Back Pages - Bob Dylan, Roger McGuinn, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Eric Clapton & George Harrison (who sings a verse)
  28. Knockin' on Heaven's Door - Everyone (George shares a microphone with Ronnie Wood)
  29. Girl of the North Country - Bob Dylan
Bonus film:
Behind the Scenes (includes footage with George from rehearsals) (Playing time: 39 minutes)
Bonus concert performances (not in HD):
  1. Leopard-skin Pill-box Hat - John Mellencamp
  2. Boots of Spanish Leather - Nancy Griffith with Carolyn Hester
  3. Gotta Serve Somebody Booker T. & the M.G.'s
Whenever he's on stage, George plays an acoustic guitar.
$19.88 for the Deluxe Edition [Blu-ray] from Amazon

The TV broadcast of the missing "If Not For You" is available on YouTube, but the quality of course does not compare to the DVD/Blu-ray.

Thursday 6 March 2014

Bootleg Recordings 1963 - on vinyl

From Sapple Records
The Beatles – Bootleg Recordings – The Copyright Extension release is now out as a vinyl bootleg. The release consists of 4 LPs on 180 gram virgin vinyl with a 40-pages booklet including rare photos. Which goes to show that if Apple can't do it, the bootleggers are ready! This is a limited edition of 500 numbered packages, and also includes a 2-disc CD version. And don't call them Dutch imports, as far as WogBlog can tell, these bootlegs originate from Spain.

the back cover

Monday 3 March 2014

Star Club revisited

A new release based on the Star Club recordings of the Beatles
So, it looks like someone has decided to try to profit from some Beatles recordings made in 1962 - that year that escaped the new EU copyright extention act.
"OxTango Music proudly presents The Beatles Live at the Star Club - The Definitive Remaster - a brand new completely remastered set of these crucial Beatles live recordings."
Seeing as the Beatles won control over these recordings back in 1991, following an aborted reissue by Sony, we don't think that neither the website nor the company will escape the attention of Apple Corps Ltd.
Ever since the 1998 court ruling, for which George Harrison testified on behalf of the Beatles, releases of the Star Club material have so far been limited to the underground market.

Website for this release