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The Beatles enjoyed and preferred pirate radio stations as an alternative to BBC radio. Stations such as Radio London and Radio Luxembourg often got exclusive Beatle interviews because of this. Among their favorite disc jockeys was Kenny Everett of Radio London. Everett chatted and joked informally with John and the other Beatles in this interview which was taped at EMI's Abbey Road studios in London, during the early stages of the White Album sessions.

Amidst "Tonight Show" appearances and walking incognito through Central Park, John and Paul display their sincere intentions to make Apple an artistic success as well as a financially viable operation with meetings to get Apple Films and Records launched as well as a press conference to announce Apple to the press.

Accompanied by six members of their executive team, Neil Aspinall, Brian Lewis, Denis O'Dell, Ron Kass, Mal Evans and Derek Taylor, John and Paul announced that Beatles Ltd. had undergone a transformation to Apple Corps Ltd., a world-wide group of companies held equally by John, Paul, George and Ringo. Described as "a new concept in business organizations," the establishment of Apple was intented "to give other artists much wider creative latitude than they have ever enjoyed in the past."

Abbey Road was the only Beatles album mainly recorded on an 8-track tape machine, rather than the 4-track machines that were used for prior Beatles albums starting with the single I Want To Hold Your Hand in 1963 and the album A Hard Day's Night in 1964. This is noticeable in the better sound separation and mixing of the drum kit. EMI's conservative management had not yet approved the use of their then-new 8-track Studer deck, and that accounts for why this was one of the rare Beatles albums to be recorded at three different studios (Trident, Olympic, and Abbey Road). The album was also the first to be recorded and mixed entirely on a solid state sound board, giving the album's sound a noticeably different "feel" from its predecessors; Harrison later remarked that the new sound was too "harsh" for his liking. Also, the Moog synthesizer is featured on the majority of tracks, not merely as a background effect, but sometimes playing a central role, as in "Because" where it is used for the middle 8. It is also prominent on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Here Comes the Sun". The instrument was introduced to the band by Harrison after a stay in Los Angeles where he was introduced to the instrument. (The first landmark pop song to employ the Moog was "Daily Nightly" by The Monkees.) Earlier in 1969, Harrison had released Electronic Sound, which featured dissonant sounds entirely made from a Moog, on Apple's short-lived experimental label Zapple.

One of the assistant engineers working on the album was a then-unknown Alan Parsons. He went on to engineer Pink Floyd's landmark album The Dark Side of the Moon and produce many popular albums himself with The Alan Parsons Project. John Kurlander also assisted on many of the sessions, and went on to become a successful engineer and producer, most noteworthy for his success on the scores for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

George Harrison – lead, rhythm, acoustic and bass guitars; lead, harmony and background vocals (sometimes multitracked); Hammond organ, harmonium and Moog synthesizer; handclaps and assorted percussion.
John Lennon – lead and rhythm guitars; six- and 12-string acoustic guitars; lead, harmony and background vocals (sometimes multitracked); electric and acoustic pianos; Hammond organ and Moog synthesizer; white noise generator and sound effects; tambourine and maracas.
Paul McCartney – lead, rhythm, acoustic and bass guitars; fuzz bass; lead, harmony and background vocals (sometimes multitracked); electric and acoustic pianos; Hammond organ and Moog synthesizer (ribbon strip); handclaps and assorted percussion and sound effects.
Ringo Starr – drums, percussion, timpani, anvil and handclaps; lead and background vocals.

What if John, Paul, George and Ringo returned to playing in small pubs, night clubs in their late 70's? John has lost his singing voice but he is playing along with the other lads. Would this be the fantasy Beatles reunion?
Enjoy!

The name "Decca" dates back to a portable gramophone called the "Decca Dulcephone" patented in 1914 by musical instrument makers Barnett Samuel and Sons. That company was eventually renamed The Decca Gramophone Co. Ltd. and then sold to former stockbroker Edward Lewis in 1929. Within years Decca Records Ltd. was the second largest record label in the world, calling itself "The Supreme Record Company". The name "Decca" was coined by Wilfred S. Samuel by merging the word "Mecca" with the initial D of their logo "Dulcet" or their trademark "Dulcephone."Decca bought the UK branch of Brunswick and continued to run it under that name.

Ironically, the turning down of The Beatles led indirectly to the signing of one of Decca's biggest 1960s artists, The Rolling Stones. Dick Rowe was judging a talent contest with George Harrison, and Harrison mentioned to him that he should take a look at The Stones, whom he had just seen live for the first time a couple of weeks earlier. Rowe saw the Stones, and quickly signed them to a contract.

Decca Studios, Broadhurst Gardens, London
"…first formal audition for a British record company,in a studio 2 miles from EMI, the Beatles nervously taped 15 songs chosen by Brian Epstein to show off every facet of their talent…each song done live on 2 track mono tape…A&R assistant Mike Smith had been sent by Dick Rowe to see the Beatles 19 days earlier in Liverpool…the Beatles completed the session in an hour…Smith promised to call Epstein."

Acoustic White

In 1968 the world turned upside down. The long years of the post war economic upswing had led many to declare that class struggle was obsolete, revolution outdated, the working class bourgeoisified, capitalism invincible. Within a few short months, though, they were all proved wrong.

Articles
Vietnam's Tet offensive

May 1968

Checoslovaquia 1968
In Vietnam, US was being humiliated and millions of students and youth in the west were in open rebellion against the war and the system that generated it.
From the pitched battle of London's Grosvenor Square, to the barricades in Paris and on to the riot outside the Chicago convention of the US Democratic Party, young people were openly challenging and fighting the establishment.

Key, though, was the movement of the working class. Long written off by every academic and so-called radical as 'bought off' and 'petit bourgeois,' one leading so-called 'Marxist' began 1968 by declaring that the workers would not move for a generation. How wrong they all were.

The events in France during May 1968 vindicated a genuine Marxist approach. The greatest general strike in the post war period showed the mighty power of the working class, only defeated by the scandalous role of the French Communist Party.

1968 brought an end to the political 'stability' of the post war period and was an early indicator of the revolutionary events that were to follow in the 1970s.

In Czechoslovakia, workers took to the streets in struggle against the tyranny of Stalinism, in Northern Ireland the civil rights movement mushroomed. In America itself, as well as huge anti-war protest, the black civil rights movement lost one of its leaders, Martin Luther King, at the hands of a gunman, but would develop to challenge the reactionary bigotry of the American political establishment.

After King's assasination many major US cities erupted. The biggest riot of them all was probably in Watts Town, where a sizable area of Los Angeles was torched.

In June, Bobby Kennedy, who may well have won the Democratic nomination for the presidential election on an anti-war ticket was gunned down at a meeting.

And at the convention itself, in Chicago in August, the police went wild and attacked the anti-war demonstrators outside and inside the convention, with truncheons, maces and tear gas. At least two delegates were dragged from the hall by the police, and the riot reached a high point on the steps of the Hilton Hotel where the world's television flashed the pictures of the brutal beatings being meted out by the Chicago police force.

Inside the convention Senator Ribicoff grabbed the microphone to condemn the 'gestapo' tactics of Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley, supposedly a fellow Democrat. The convention overturned the anti-war motion by 1,567 votes to 1,041 and elected nonentity Hubert Humphrey as its presidential nominee.

In Britain it was a year of student protest and occupations. A year of cultural turmoil and experiment, with bands like the Beatles at there greatest and most powerful. It was also a year of the first political stirrings against the right wing policies of the Labour government. Barbara Castle was busy preparing her draft for the controversial 'In Place Of Strife,' a document that would be echoed later on with the waves of Tory anti-union legislation in the 1980s. The government had also introduced a 3.5% ceiling on wage rises. The October party conference was incensed and voted against the wage restraint policy.

Apple Records was founded in 1968 as part of the Beatles' Apple Corps project. At this time, the Beatles were contracted to Parlophone in the United Kingdom and Capitol Records in the United States. In a new recording deal, EMI and Capitol agreed to distribute Apple Records until 1975. Apple owned the rights to records by artists they signed, while EMI retained ownership of the Beatles' records, issuing them on the Apple label but with Parlophone R-prefixed catalogue numbers. Apple Records owns the rights to all of the Beatles' videos and movie clips.

The group spent the early part of 1968 in Rishikesh, Uttar Pradesh, India, studying transcendental meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Their time at the Maharishi's ashram was highly productive from a musical standpoint, as many of the songs that would later be recorded for The Beatles (White Album) and Abbey Road were composed there by Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison. Upon their return, Lennon and McCartney went to New York to announce the formation of Apple Corps. The middle of 1968 saw the band busy recording the double album The Beatles, popularly known as The White Album because of its plain white cover. These sessions saw deep divisions opening within the band, with Starr temporarily leaving the band. The band carried on, with McCartney recording the drums on the songs "Martha My Dear", "Wild Honey Pie", "Dear Prudence" and "Back in the USSR". Among the other causes of dissension were that Lennon's new girlfriend, Yoko Ono, was at his side through almost all of the sessions.

Most of the songs that would end up on The Beatles had been conceived during the group's visit to Rishikesh, India in the spring of 1968. There, they had undertaken a transcendental meditation course with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Although the retreat, which had required long periods of meditation, was initially conceived by the band as a spiritual respite from all worldly endeavors – a chance, in Lennon's words, to "get away from everything" – both Lennon and McCartney had quickly found themselves in songwriting mode, often meeting "clandestinely in the afternoons in each other's rooms" to review the new work. "Regardless of what I was supposed to be doing," Lennon would later recall, "I did write some of my best songs there." Close to forty new compositions had emerged in Rishikesh, a little more than half of which would be laid down in very rough form at Kinfauns, George Harrison’s home in Esher.

 Contrary to popular belief, teenagers John Lennon and Paul McCartney did not attend a Holly concert; Tony Bramwell, a school friend of McCartney and George Harrison, did. Bramwell met Holly, and freely shared his records with all three. Lennon and McCartney later cited Holly as a primary influence (their band's name, The Beatles, was chosen partly in homage to Holly's Crickets). The Beatles did a cover version of "Words of Love" that was an almost perfect reproduction of Holly's version. Fan McCartney owns the publishing rights to Holly's song catalogue.

Decenber 8, 1980,
I had just picked up the latest Issue of Playboy magazine with a new Inerview with John and Yoko. I was living at home with my parents and didn't think they would like me having Playboy in the house. I went into my basement bedroom shut the door and turned on my stereo receiver to the local classc rock station and settled back to read the Interview. After quickly looking at all the girls in the magazine - I started to read the introduction to the Interview. This intro had so many great details of the Dakota building inside and out. Just when the Interview was about to begin the radio station I was listening to interrupted a song to bring a news break.....
"John Lennon was shot in New York city tonight".... "more details as we get them". This was very odd moment reading this article about John Lennon and this news from New York city. I popped in a cassette tape into my cassette deck and started recording up and down the FM & AM searching for more infomation and then I went to the television set and turned it on and started going though all the channels only to hear Howard Cosell tell me the news..........

 December 8, 1980 was an unusually warm day in New York City. John Lennon was up and about early, first to his favorite haunt, Cafe LaFortuna, for his morning coffee then to the barber before returning home. He would then do an interview for the BBC before a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz for Rolling Stone magazine.

 Sellers had casual friendships with two of the Beatles, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Harrison told occasional Sellers stories in interviews, and Starr appeared with him in the anarchic movie The Magic Christian (1970), whose theme song was Badfinger's "Come and Get It", written by Paul McCartney. Starr also gave Sellers a rough mix of songs from the Beatles' White Album; the tape was auctioned and bootlegged after his death. Sellers also recorded a cover version of A Hard Day's Night (1965), in the style of Laurence Olivier's interpretation of Richard III.

 The concept of a Beatles themed hotel in Liverpool had been prevalent amongst Beatles enthusiasts in the city since the late 1980's. The choice of a suitable location and the finance to make the vision a reality only came together in 2004 when plans were finalised to convert one of Liverpool's classic city centre buildings into a luxurious 4 star hotel.

From an early stage the objective was to create a unique environment that offered high quality hotel facilities with an exciting and interesting 'twist' in the clever presentation of a theme that would be both subtle yet challenging in the way the incredible story of the Beatles was told.

Located in the 'Beatles Quarter' of the city adjacent to the world famous Cavern Club, the Hard Days Night Hotel will feature visually stunning specially commissioned artwork covering key events in the lives of four lads from Liverpool whose fame knows no boundaries.

On 16 January 1980, Wings went to Tokyo for 11 concerts in Japan.Whilst McCartney went through customs, officials found 7.7 ounces (218.3 g) of cannabis in his luggage.He was arrested and taken to a Tokyo prison whilst the Japanese government decided what to do. McCartney had been previously denied a visa to Japan (in 1975) because he had been convicted twice in Europe for possession of cannabis.Public figures called McCartney to be tried by a jury for drug-smuggling. Had he been tried and convicted, he would have faced up to seven years in prison. The members of Wings cancelled the tour and left Japan. After ten days in jail, McCartney was released and deported. He was told that he would not be welcome in Japan again, although a decade later he played a concert in Tokyo.

In 1984, Paul and Linda McCartney were both busted in Barbados for possession of marijuana.

 "never could see any other way"

 Issued in Britain on June 1st, 1967, and a day later in America,Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is also rock's ultimate declaration of change. For the Beatles, it was a decisive goodbye to matching suits, world tours and assembly-line record-making. "We were fed up with being Beatles," McCartney said decades later, in Many Years From Now, Barry Miles' McCartney biography. "We were not boys, we were men . . . artists rather than performers."

 It also underscored the real-life cohesion of the music and the group that made it. Of the 700 hours the Beatles spent making Sgt. Pepper (engineer Geoff Emerick actually tallied them) from the end of 1966 until April 1967, the group needed only three days' worth to complete Lennon's lavish daydream "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds." "A Day in the Life," the most complex song on the album, was done in just five days. (The oceanic piano chord was three pianos hit simultaneously by ten hands belonging to Lennon, McCartney, Starr, Martin and Beatles roadie Mal Evans.)