Tuesday, 2nd December

The Times published  three photos of three Beatles in today's paper (p19).  They were on holiday in Tenerife with Astrid Kirchherr in 1963. Rare colour pictures taken before Beatlemania and are "expected to fetch £6,000 when they are sold at auction". And the caption was "Yesterday when all their roubles seemed so far away"

Saturday, 29th November

One of my most unexpected Beatle moments was finding this sentence at the end of a review of a book about Branwell Bronte, brother of the novelists: "He painted himself out of the famous portrait but left a sketch in which he looks a mix between a Victorian John Lennon and Woody Allen" (Saturday Review p16)

Last few days ...

Thursday, 20th November: "Ringo Starr (Thomas the Tank Engine). The most unlikely post-Beatles career turn of any of the Fab Four came with Starr's contribution to the mid-1980s TV incarnation of the rail icons".  This came from the Top Ten Children's TV Voices list in added to the end of a review of the new Paddington film (T2, p9)

Saturday, 22nd November: "Paul McCartney earns 60K per day".  Overheard conversation at Whitemoors Antique Centre - a group of unit holders were discussing an article in a tabloid newspaper.

Monday, 24th November: "Pete Best, original drummer for the Beatles, 73" from The Times "Birthday's Today" (p30).

I was doing a bit of tidying up in the Library and saw some discarded papers near the printer.  I picked up them to put in the "lost work tray" and saw they were lyrics for "She Loves You" - some budding musician must have printed them off ... aargh.

And as I type this Johnny Walker is telling me about his new radio show which will follow Paul McCartney's career after he left the Beatles and formed Wings.

Sunday, 16th November

I sometimes read the little reviews in the What's On section of the Saturday Review.  A critique of Shirley Bassey's new album included the following: "to hear her turn Hey Jude into a camp anthem is quite something. I don't think that's a complement.

Saturday, 15th November

I don't often read the business pages but flicking through an iconic picture caught my eye and I read on: "The set of six images from the Abbey Road sessions, including the zebra crossing image used on the front cover and the street sign used on the back are expected to fetch between £50,000 and £70,000 ..." Cheap! (The Times, p55).

In an article in today's Times2 (p4) Emeli Sande talks about her life - the journalist lists her recent achievements including "capping off the BBC's coverage of London 2012 with her rendition of Imagine ..." 

Sunday, 9th November

Always takes me a couple of days to read Saturday's Times.  Today I read the Magazine and on p15: Paul, Linda and Stella on location in the desert. The family were in California with Wings recording their fourth album, Venus and Mars.

According to Rachel Campbell-Johnston "Warhol's ideas were more stimulating than his work, at least going by what's on show in Liverpool".  But at least she illustrated her article (T2, p12) with a big picture of the Prefab Four - Warhol's screenprint.

Thursday, 6th November

"John Lewis propels Beatles tune towards Christmas No 1" So starts a little article in The Times (p20).  It goes on to explain "One of the Beatles last songs could be catapulted to the top of the Christmas charts after being chosen as the soundtrack for John Lewis's festive television commercial".  And the song is .. Real Love written by John Lennon. But its to be sung by Tom Odell.

I caught a little bit of Sweet Sixteen by Ringo this afternoon on Johnny Walker's show.  This week's guest was Captain Sensible who spoke about his early days touring explaining it was a "Magical Mystery Tour-like the Beatles film".

But my favourite reference was in The Times Saturday Review (p9).  In a review of a new book, "A history of the 20th century in 100 maps" I read the following sentence: "And the childhood haunts of John, Paul, George and Ringo are meticulously plotted on a 1974 map catering for the millions of Beatles fans making the pilgrimage to Liverpool". Great, eh!

Saturday, 1st November

"You know what was more thrilling to me than meeting Sir Paul McCartney?" writes Caitlin Moran in The Times Magazine about her love of "civic infrastructure".  The answer - finding a wifi network called geysers in a very remote part of Iceland.

Saturday, 25th October

Caitlin Moran (my favourite journalist) devoted her regular column in The Times Magazine to discussing who's the best Beatle.  She started with Ringo, her writing as humorous as ever, but she finally chose - Paul McCartney. I think I agree.

Tuesday, 21st October

An article in today's T2 (p4) about Annabel's Nightclub has the tagline: "The Beatles, the Queen, Lily Allen ... the world's most famous people party at Annabel's." Amusing that The Beatles precede royalty!

Friday, 17th October

Two little references on telly tonight: an "Apprentice" trailer included a challenge involving yellow candles, one contestant suggested they call the product Yellow Submarine; on the Graham Norton show, U2 revealed they've had a road named after them - this led to list of our celebrity streets including John Lennon Drive.

Paul Revere, of The Raiders, died a few days ago.  The tagline on his obit in the Times (15/10/14) reads "Leader of the patriotically attired pop group that carried America's hopes of repelling the British invasion led by The Beatles".  They ranked alongside the Beach Boys and even shared the same press agent as The Beatles - but The Raiders were  unable to "reverse the dominance of the Beatles and other British groups".

Lazy morning  in bed reading yesterday's Times including an obit.: "John Gustafson. Bass player with The Big Three, a raucous Liverpool band who rivalled the Beatles as a live attraction at the Cavern Club". Gustafson once recalled that he played with the Beatles: "I went backstage to see them and John said, "You're on", George had the flu but his guitar was there and so I played the whole of their second set, 45 minutes" (p80). Shame The Big Three - by all accounts a very good live band - never made it, but Gustafson did go on to have a successful career in music.

All that listening and watching last night meant I didn't read Thursday's T2 until this evening.  On Page 5 there's a long article about the BBC releasing a charity single of Brian Wilson's "God only knows" by a group of A-listers.  Daniel Finkelstein describes it as the song that shaped him - and was introduced to it by Paul McCartney who he heard on the radio in 1966 saying that  "Here, There and Everywhere"  (off Revolver) was inspired by it.

The National Trust are opening Flat 130, Blafron Tower for two weeks.  Its the former home of Erno Goldfinger - although he only lived in it for 2 months. The accompanying photo bears the caption "Back to the Sixties" (The Times Saturday Review p 20) It  shows a bedroom complete with an enormous picture of Beatles; better still a bedspread covered in guitars, faces and Beatle signatures!  It must have belonged to the architect's teenage child. Love this reference.

This photo only shows the bedspread in Erno's flat, but that's my favourite bit.

Friday, 3rd October

As promised the second part of "Music of the Movies" including Hard Day's Night: "the first film to embrace the pop phenomenon" in its soundtrack.

Sadly a new musical Love Me Do although set in 1962 "the year the Beatles released their first single"  doesn't include any Beatles tunes. Maybe that's why The Times critic only gave it one star!