Ringo tells the story of walking around the hotel at 4 am and telling two police officers that he can’t sleep. “Let’s go for a ride,” said the officers. “So, they let me drive the car which was great. Then we went screaming all over the city.” After the shows, Ringo again convinced local police…
On September 19, 1964, between the Dallas Tx and New York dates, The Beatles rested for a day in Alton, Missouri, at the ranch of Reed Pigman, owner of the American Flyers airline.Describing the flight from Dallas to the Pigman ranch, George, who hated flying, said:“We flew from Dallas to an intermediate airport where Pigman…
Ruby Hickman, a tour assistant in charge of booking airline flights, learned of Brian’s birthday and arranged for birthday cake and dinner. She asked the Beatles if they wanted to buy Brian a birthday present. “What for?” they responded. “He has money. He can buy whatever he wants. We’ve never bought him a present.” So…
“The End” features the only drum solo recorded by Ringo with the Beatles and comes in at a succinct 25 seconds. He disliked solos, preferring to cater drum work to whoever sang in a particular performance. His solo on “The End” was recorded with twelve microphones around his drum kit. Ringo said he copied part…
During the song’s recording sessions in April 1966, John demanded to know why the bass on a certain Wilson Pickett record exceeded that on any Beatles records. EMI recording engineer Geoff Emerick responded by boosting the bass on the record. “‘Paperback Writer’ was the first time the bass sound had been heard in all its…
October 25, 1964 – The Beatles’ third and final visit to Brighton was the 14th date of their 1964 British tour. They had previously performed at the same venue, the Hippodrome Theatre, on 2 June 1963 and 12 July 1964. The Beatles performed two concerts each night on the tour, for which they were paid…
George got his first Gibson with humbuckers in 1965, a ES-345 that he used while miming in promo videos for ‘Day Tripper,’ ‘Help!,’ ‘I Feel Fine,’ ‘Ticket To Ride,’ and ‘We Can Work It Out.’ He played it that December on what turned out to be the band’s final British tour. The following year, George…
We were doing a demo near London during a Bones Brigade tour in 1990 when a kid asked if we’d like to come to his house for dinner. It was an unusual request, but he had confidence and explained that his dad would be excited to meet us. We quickly learned that his name was…
Home From Greece July 31, 1967 – Jane, Paul and Alex Mardas leaving Heathrow.. I met Magic Alex the other day in the center of Athens.He is an old man who doesn’t want to talk about the Beatles. He told me that he has already said everything about those days with the Boys….