Last time out I discussed the famed One Hand Clapping film, which recently emerged into cinemas 50 years after its first planned public airing. But theatrical screenings of the documentary essentially served as an epilogue to the main event of ..read more

For all of Paul’s hyper-productivity in the 1970s, the Wings era featured an awful lot of unfinished or abandoned projects. There was the bizarre cartoon/concert film mash-up of The Bruce McMouse Show (1972); the aborted double-album version of 1973’s Red ..read more

There have been lots of ‘insider’ books written about The Beatles down the years – from wives and girlfriends (Cynthia Lennon, Patti Boyd, May Pang), relatives (Mike McCartney, Louise Harrison, Julia Baird/Lennon), recording mentors (George Martin, engineer Geoff Emerick), Hamburg ..read more

I think it was John Lennon who once described George as the “invisible singer” in The Beatles, meaning (I think) that he was invariably overshadowed by the vocal prowess of John and Paul during their time together. It’s sometimes difficult ..read more

When Paul McCartney emerged from a four-year solo career hiatus in the spring of 1997, much had changed in the pop landscape – certainly in the UK, at any rate. While he had been immersed in the mammoth multi-media Beatles Anthology project and then caring for Linda after her initial breast cancer diagnosis, a generational shift had taken place, drawing distinct lines in the sand between the musical old guard and newcomers banging loudly on the door. Radio 1 – the country’s main on-air conduit for all things rock and pop since the late 1960s – had ditched its traditional broad church appeal an ..read more

Ringo is known, among other things, for his distinctive groove behind the drum kit, but in recent times his musical groove has become a touch too comfy, too predictable. The stream of EPs he’s released since 2021 have yielded diminishing returns, with his last one – 2023’s Rewind Forward – the most disappointing yet, a ho-hum batch of songs (despite one being written by Macca) which largely saw him going through the motions of tired “peace and love” tropes and routine pop/rock work-outs he’s done countless times before. So when he confirmed last year he was not only working on a full-blow ..read more

With the advent of the internet over the past 25 years, sales of print publications – much like CDs – have taken a sizeable hit, and music magazines have been no exception. As well as cutting back on pages and reducing in size, one way publishers have propped up flagging circulations is to start producing special editions (or ‘bookazines’ as they’re sometimes known) focusing on popular acts or genres, tempting pop/rock fans with whole issues dedicated to their fave raves at a cheaper cost than they’d have to pay for a book. Uncut magazine’s long-running ‘Ultimate Music Guides’ are probably the ..read more

When a deluxe edition of John’s classic John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album was first seriously mooted back in 2020, I was curious to see how deep they could excavate and unravel a record which famously was as ‘bare bones’ as you could get. At most, the songs featured just three instruments – guitar or piano, bass and drums – and vocals, with a few numbers offering even more slender arrangements. Coming off the back of John and Yoko’s so-called ‘primal scream’ therapy in California in the midst of The Beatles’ split, these stripped back recordings were Lennon’s way of mirroring the intent ..read more

Amid all the hullabaloo surrounding the release of ‘Now and Then’ in November, the major facelift and expansion of the definitive Beatles compilations which followed in its wake seemed something of a footnote. The Red and Blue albums – or 1962-66 and 1967-70, to give them their official titles – were overhauled and freshened up to cash in on the tidal wave of publicity accompanying “the final Beatles song” and also, handily, the 50th anniversary of their original release. This saw the addition of a whopping 21 tracks to the albums’ already-hefty 54-song running order, plus remix ..read more

Let me start by saying how much I love Band on the Run. I think it’s one of the greatest albums ever made, right up there with Sgt Pepper and Abbey Road, and never tire of listening to it. It’s undoubtedly among Paul’s best solo records (though I think he has topped it on two or three occasions), and comfortably his most critically-acclaimed and commercially successful. It is one of the signature albums, along with the likes of Rumours, Led Zepplin IV and Dark Side of the Moon, from that 1970s era when LPs ruled the world and sold by the bucketload. It boasts a couple of monster hits ..read more