Sentimental Journey

On 27 March 1970 Ringo Starr released his first solo album that he had already been preparing since 1969, around the same time that Paul McCartney is recording his first solo album (McCartney).

The press was not amused with the record, because it did not contain rock 'n' roll but standards from the 1930's. Ringo had however a lot of help from his friends, notably Paul McCartney, Klaus Voorman, George Martin, Quincy Jones, Elmer Bernstein and Maurice Gibb).

The album didn't do bad in the charts, but mostly because of the association with the Beatles.

Interesting side-note: the album cover shows the Empress pub which is located in front of Madryn street (where Ringo was born) and on the corner of Albert Grove where Ringo lived from the age of 3. If you look carefully you can even see the house on Albert Grove 10.
I included a picture I took in May 2012 which shows the terrible state the Empress is in.

18 February 1933: Yoko Ono is born

Yoko Ono, artist, author, peace activist and of course widow of John Lennon was born on 18 February 1933 in Tokyo. Her parents come from a line of bankers and she is a descendant of a Japanese Emperor.

According to most musical historians, Yoko Ono first met John Lennon at the Indica Gallery in London, where she was preparing her conceptual art exhibit. John was still married to Cynthia at that time, but while she was on holiday in Greece he invited Yoko to stay with him.

They got married in Gibraltar (for the whole story just listen to "The Ballad of John & Yoko" on 20 March 1969 and spent their honeymoon in the Amsterdam Hilton where the whole world press was invited to grow their hair for peace :)

Yoko Ono has always been treated unfairly by both public and press. She was blamed for the breakup of the Beatles and for influencing John Lennon too much.

the picture is by Marcela Cataldi Cipolla and is published here under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

3 January 1926

George Martin, the famous British composer, conductor, musician and of course Beatles procucer was born in Holloway, London on January 3rd 1926. He went to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and began working for EMI in 1950. At that time he worked with comedy artists like Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan, recording novelty records.

On 13 February 1962 George Martin met up with Brian Epstein for the first time to listen to the Decca audition tapes. Martin was not impressed by the recording, but thought John and Paul had promising vocals. On 9 May 1962 George Martin agreed to a recording contract and audition, to take place later on 6 June 1962.

It is often said that George Martin brought the best out of the Beatles (musically) and he arranged and even composed many of their orchestrated songs. Best examples are Yesterday (it was G.M's idea to add the strings), Strawberry Fields and Eleanor Rigby (for which he composed a string arrangement based on Bernard Herrmann's score for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

Number 9

On 9 September 2009, EMI released the remastered  Beatles back catalogue.

09-09-09 might seem like a cool date to do anything, but in the case of The Beatles (and especially John Lennon) the number 9 has a big significance.

here is a list of some number 9-related facts...please feel free to write your own number 9 stories here below in the comments.

- John Lennon was born on 9 October 1940
- He first lived on Newcastle (9 letters) Road, in Wavertree (9 letters), Liverpool (9 letters)
- John Lennon wrote songs named "One After 909", "Revolution #9" and "#9 Dream"
- Revolution #9 appears on the 9th Studio Album of The Beatles
- The Beatles broke up after 9 years together
- His best friends were Stu Sutcliffe (9 letters) and Paul McCartney (9 letters)
- He took the 72 bus to school (7+2 = 9)
- The Beatles first played the Cavern on February 9th, 1961
- Brian Epstein first saw The Beatles on November 9th, 1961
- The Beatles' contract with Parlophone/Emi was on May 9th, 1962
- Cynthia Lennon's birthday is 10/9 and John's is 9/10
- The Beatles first single has catalogue number R4949
- The Beatles finally made it big during their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February 1964
- John Lennon met Yoko Ono on 9 November 1966
- After changing his name to John Ono Lennon, there were 9 'o' 's in his and Yoko Ono Lennon's name

Walls & Bridges (his 9th solo album) contains many references to 9


- On the sleeve of the record you can see a footballer wear a number 9 shirt
-  The record contains " #9 dream". It peaked at number 9 in the Billboard charts
- There are 9 syllables in the chorus: Ah! Böwakawa poussé, poussé
- It was released in November (9th month)
-

- Mind Games contains 9 letters
- Rock 'n' Roll contains 9 letters
- John & Yoko lived on West 72 (7+2 = 9) Street
- Sean Lennon was born on 9 October 1975
- The first Dakota Building flat that John & Yoko lived in was number 72 (7+2 = 9) 
- John was shot on 8 October (9 October Liverpool Time)
- John died at Roosevelt Hospital (9 letters) in Manhattan (9 letters)

do you know any others? Let us know!

 


 

Klaus Voormann Biography

Happy 70th Birthday to Klaus Voormann!

Exactly 70 years ago, Klaus was born in Berlin. He played a very important role in the Beatles universe, befriending him early during the Hamburg days, designing the Revolver cover and later playing with Ringo, George and John.

Klaus Voormann is probably responsible for bringing Astrid Kirchherr in the picture, since he wandered into the Kaiserkeller Club where Rory Storm and the Hurricanes were playing, followed by The Beatles. Klaus was so fascinated by the music that he invited Jürgen Vollmer and Astrid Kirchherr the next day to see The Beatles perform.

John Lennon called them "the Exies" and they befriended The Beatles (especially Stu Sutcliffe and George Harrison).

In the early 1960's, Voormann lived with George Harrison and Ringo Starr in their Green Street flat (London Mayfair) when Paul decided to move into Jane Asher's home and John lived with his wife Cynthia.

In 1963 Klaus was managed by Brian Epstein and had formed a group called "Paddy, Klaus & Gibson", made up of Paddy Chambers (guitar/vocals), Klaus Voormann (bass/vocals) and Gibson Kemp (drums).

In 1966 Voormann designed the cover of Revolver and received a Grammy Award for it. He would later design the cover for RINGO, George's single "When We Was Fab" and the Anthology records.

Later, he would show up on numerous ex-Beatle records: as part of the Plastic Ono band on Live Peace in Toronto 1969, on John's Walls and Bridges and appearing on The Concert for Bangla Desh.

Other Beatle-related works are:

- John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band

- Imagine

- Ringo

- Instant Karma

The Quarrymen live at the Morgue Skiffle Cellar

The story of the Morgue Skiffle Cellar is a very interesting one. It was an illegal club in the basement of a house located at 25 Oakhill park in Liverpool, and run by Alan Caldwell.

Maybe the name Alan Caldwell doesn't ring a bell, but if I tell you it is the real name of Rory Storm, you'll probably go 'aaaahhh'. Yes, Alan Caldwell was the singer of Al Caldwell's Texans, the group that Ringo Starr would join one year later (23 March 1959) and which would evolve into Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.

On 13 March 1958 the club opened for the first time, and the Quarrymen appeared on stage, probably in the following line-up:

- John Lennon: Vocals, Guitar
- George Harrison :Guitar
- Paul McCartney: Guitar
- John Charles Lowe: piano
- Colin Hanton: Drums

The illegal club did not have a long life-span: on April 1st 1958 the police raided the place a first time, and by April 22nd the club was closed permanently.

The Quarrymen probably played more than once here, but no reliable info is available. If somebody out there knows a bit more, please feel free to comment below

Incidentaly, Alan (alias Rory Storm) had a sister (Iris) who first dated George Harrison, later Paul McCartney, and who ended up marrying Alvin Stardust.

Sgt Pepper's Inner Groove

40 years ago today saw the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, probably the most famous Beatles record and one to appear always at the top of the charts when somebody does a "greatest album" list.

On of the most remarkable "songs" on the album is not a real song. It is the end of "A Day in the Life" (where the sound of fading piano chords were electronically prolonged to create an abnormal sustain) and that runs over in a 15 kilohertz tone that was designed to "freak your dog out" as John Lennon put it. Complete with laughter and gibberish, the "song" was then put in the inner groove of the record (only on UK LP's) so that the song would loop on and on unless you had an automatic needle return on your record player.

When Sgt Pepper's was first re-released on vinyl, they had actually great difficulty recreating an "inner groove", and the first pressing of the CD didn't have the ending at all.

Future pressings do have an artificial inner groove, where the end of the song is repeated a couple of times to create the idea of a "loop".