1994
"As the thought of the three of us actually sitting down in a studio started
to get nearer and nearer and nearer, I got cold feet about it. I thought, 'Does
the world need a three-quarter Beatles record?' "
- Paul
January
 Vap Video in Japan releases, on both home video and laser disc, the concert film Paul Is Live.
Rumours of a possible Beatles' reunion continues to gain momentum, helped by the American magazine Goldmine which reports that a Beatles session had taken place back in August at a secret location. Sources close to The Beatles deny the story. The Sunday Times newspaper gives its view on the group and their possible comeback: "The Beatles had their day. All became rich and famous. They'll remain so for the rest of their days. And some of their ditties may endure. Why can't they leave it at that?" The debate rages on in the English press when the Independent On Sunday reveals the results of their survey "How Good Were The Beatles?" Steve Jackson, a dance DJ from the London radio station Kiss FM said: "The Beatles don't mean anything to young people now!", while the saxophonist Mathew Winn announced: "They were extremely overrated. The early Beatles music was completely dull, a lot of their better stuff later on was down to their producer George Martin. Everything Paul McCartney has done since The Beatles with Wings has been dreadful; George Harrison has been pretty much a disaster and Ringo Starr just isn't a drummer!"
Tuesday January 11
News of a possible Beatles' reunion takes centre stage on television newscasts in the UK, with reports appearing throughout the day on both the BBC and ITN news. Ironically, as the get-together is being dismissed by sources close to the group, the first Paul, George and Ringo reunion session, scheduled to take place today at Paul's home studio The Mill, in East Sussex, is cancelled, not because of the public backlash against them reforming, but because Ringo decided to go on a skiing holiday with his wife Barbara.
Also today, special souvenir pieces from George's previous 48-track FPHOTS recording equipment, which had been in place at Friar Park between 1972 and 1992, are given to some of George's close friends. Accompanying each piece (be it a control knob, dial, switch or whatever), is a unique Friar Park certificate of authenticity. Replacing the console at FPHOTS is a brand new 96-track version.
Saturday January 15
Harry Nilsson, a close friend of both John and Ringo, dies of a heart attack in America. He was 52 years of age.
Tuesday January 18
The film Backbeat, which tells the story of the original "fifth Beatle" Stuart Sutcliffe, receives an advance screening at the Odeon Marble Arch cinema in London.
Wednesday January 19
In New York, at the Waldorf-Astoria, Paul makes the induction speech for John Lennon's entry as a solo artist into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Yoko accepts the award for John. Following the ceremony, in which Paul and Yoko are seen hugging each other for the first time in years, they attend a press conference where he announces that the three surviving Beatles will enter the studio next month to record together. Yoko tells the hundreds of reporters: "Give the three of them a chance!" (Incidentally, John becomes only the second artist to be twice honoured by the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, The Beatles, of course, having been inducted on January 20, 1988. The other double inductee is Clyde McPhatter, who entered as a solo artist and as a member of The Drifters.) Viewers in the UK are able to see highlights of the ceremony when the programme Hollywood Report is transmitted in certain ITV regions on February 2.
During Paul's visit to New York for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame event, Yoko gives him four John Lennon home demos, on which the "Beatles Comeback" recordings will be based. The songs in question are 'Free As A Bird' (from 1977), 'Real Love' (a version previously released in 1988 as 'Girls And Boys' on the soundtrack album Imagine: John Lennon), 'Grow Old With Me' (a version previously released on the 1984 Milk And Honey album) and 'Now And Then', from 1980, which is often referred to as 'Miss You' or 'I Don't Want To Lose You'.
Yoko reveals that in 1991 George and Neil Aspinall (not Paul) approached her with the idea of adding new instrumentation and vocals to existing John demos. According to Aspinall, she gives Paul "two cassettes of John's songs, containing five or six tracks". (In fact, Yoko gives to Paul three tapes containing the four John Lennon demos.) As Yoko recalls: "It was all settled before then. I just used that occasion (the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame) to hand over the tapes personally to Paul." She continues: "I did not break up The Beatles, but I was there at the time you know? Now, I'm in a position where I could bring them back together and I would not want to hinder that. It was a situation given to me by fate." Just prior to the Hall Of Fame event, Paul had asked Yoko if there was anything of John's that never came out.
Paul: "Yoko was a little surprised to get a phone call from me, because we'd often been a bit adversarial because of the business stuff. She told me she had three tracks, including 'Free As A Bird'. I'd never heard them before, but she explained that they're quite well known to Lennon fans as bootlegs!"
Paul then told Yoko: "Don't impose too many conditions on us, it's really difficult to do this. We don't know, we (George, Ringo and himself) may hate each other after two hours in the studio and just walk out. So don't put any conditions, it's tough enough. If it doesn't work out, you can veto it."
The fifth "Beatles comeback" song, 'All For Love', later cited by The Beatles as being recorded, is not a Lennon home demo at all. It is, in fact, only the second ever McCartney-Harrison composition, the first being 'In Spite Of All The Danger', originally recorded by The Beatles on a shellac acetate back in 1958. An edited version of the recording will appear on The Beatles Anthology 1 double album in November, 1995.)
When Paul returns to England from the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame event, he gives the audio cassettes to Jeff Lynne who spends a week, in his private studio, working on cleaning them up. He then transfers John's original mono cassettes into analogue 48-track form.
Friday January 28
Paul and Linda attend the London premiere of Wayne's World II on behalf of LIPA, at the Empire Leicester Square Cinema. Following the screening, they attend a reception at the Hard Rock Cafe where Wayne's World star Mike Myers presents them with a Hard Rock Foundation cheque for £25,000, the result of proceeds from Linda's vegetarian burgers which had been on sale at the restaurant. A report from the Wayne's World premiere appears on Channel 4's Big Breakfast the following morning, January 29.
February
Capitol Records CEMA division in America, release the first batch of coloured vinyl jukebox only Beatles singles. This series mainly features the standard UK versions plus special new couplings (i.e. 'Here Comes The Sun'/'Octopus's Garden' and 'Birthday'/ 'Taxman') especially created for this set. (The second phase, featuring four singles, is scheduled for April.)
While the world still waits for George's new album, the percussionist Ray Cooper announces in the latest issue of Beatlefan that George's new release is "just about completed", while Brian Roylance, the director of Genesis Publications, reveals that, "George hasn't even started the album!"
Monday February 7
A video clip for 'Drive My Car', by RAADD (Recording Artists Against Drunk Driving) is broadcast during ABC TV's showing of the annual American Music Awards and features Paul (as the main vocalist), Ringo and many other artists. Paul filmed his part of the video during the final part of January in London.
Still Stateside, the 30th anniversary of The Beatles' first visit to America is celebrated with a four-part feature, broadcast daily, on the CBS TV programme This Morning, during which a number of Beatles-related personnel are asked to reminisce about their time with the group. These include John's first wife Cynthia (on February 8) and their chauffeur Alf Bicknell.
Thursday February 10
In the UK, Linda visits Fakenham in Norfolk, to lay the first foundation brick of a Ross Young factory, which is dedicated exclusively to producing Linda's range of vegetarian food.
Friday February 11 (periodically until the end of the month)
Ringo: "Originally, we took the easy route, which was to do some incidental music, because, what else can we do? There were four Beatles and there are only three of us left. We were just going to do some incidental music and just get there and play the instruments and see what happened. Then we thought, well, why don't we do some new music? And then we always hit the wall and, OK, Paul had a song, or George had a song or I had a song, well, that's the three of us, why don't the three of us go in and do this. And we kept hitting the wall, because this is The Beatles; it's not Paul, George and Ringo."
Paul: "As the thought of the three of us actually sitting down in a studio started to get nearer and nearer and nearer, I got cold feet about it. I thought, 'Does the world need a three-quarter Beatles record?' But what if John was on, the three of us and John, like a real new record? If only we could pull off the impossible, that would be more fun. A bigger challenge."
The historic first Beatles reunion session, when they begin work on 'Free As A Bird', takes place at Paul's Mill Studios in Sussex. (The Mill is a converted windmill on a hill overlooking, beyond the gently rolling farmland, the English Channel.) The 48-track tapes, as prepared by Jeff Lynne the previous month are padded out with George's bluesy slide guitar riff, George and Paul on acoustic guitars, Paul's bass guitar and piano (which doubles with John's original piano) and new vocals from Paul, George and Ringo. The track begins with two beats on the snare by Ringo.
Paul: "We just got on with it and treated it like any old tune The Beatles used to do, like fixing the timing and adding some new bits. George plays some great guitar and we did some beautiful harmonies."
Following the initial recordings, Paul, George, Ringo and Jeff Lynne, who had been producing the session, visit a local public house and drop in to see one of Paul's neighbours, the former Goon comic, Spike Milligan. These Beatles reunion sessions will, according to Ringo, go so well that instead of the planned week of recordings, the sessions will continue right until the end of the month, where work also briefly commences on John's tracks 'Now And Then' and 'Grow Old With Me'.
Paul: "I played these songs to the other guys, warning Ringo to have his hanky ready. I fell in love with 'Free As A Bird'. I thought I would have loved to work with John on that. I like the melody, it's got strong chords and it really appealed to me. Ringo was very up for it and George was very up for it. I actually originally heard it as a big, orchestral forties Gershwin thing, but it didn't turn out like that. Often your first vibe isn't always the one. You go through a few ideas and somebody goes 'Bloody hell', and it gets knocked out fairly quickly. In the end we decided to do it very simply. It's crazy really, because when you think about a new Beatles record, it is impossible, because John is not around. So, I invented a little scenario; he's gone away on holiday and he's just rung us up and he says, 'Just finish this track for us, will you? I'm sending the cassette - I trust you.' That was the key thing. 'I trust you, just do your stuff on it.' I told this to the other guys and Ringo was particularly pleased, and he said 'Ahh, that's great!' It was very nice and it was very irreverent towards John. The scenario allowed us not to be to ... ahh ... the great fallen hero. He would never have gone for that. John would have been the first one to debunk that. A fucking hero? A fallen hero? Fuck off, we're making a record! Once we agreed to take that attitude it gave us a lot of freedom, because it meant that we didn't have any sacred view of John as a martyr, it was John the Beatle, John the cra2y guy we remember. So we could laugh and say, 'Wouldn't you just know it? It's completely out of time! He's always bloody out of time, that Lennon!' He would have made those jokes if it had been my cassette."
George: "Because it was only a demo, he was just plodding along and in some places, he'd quicken up and in some places he'd slow down."
Paul: "John hadn't filled in the middle eight section of the demo, so we wrote a new section for that, which, in fact, was one of the reasons for choosing the song. It allowed us some input."
The final piece of music actually being recorded during this two-week period is George's guitar piece that closes the track 'Free As A Bird'. (The next "Threatles", Paul, George and Ringo, recording session will take place on June 22.)
Sunday February 13
In the UK newspaper, the Mail On Sunday, an article carries the headline: "The Beatles: Get Back", announcing that: "The Beatles are getting back together for a one-off concert that will be the biggest rock event ever staged. The three surviving Beatles are set to play alongside John Lennon's sons to a live audience of more than a million people. Paul, George and Ringo will each earn £20 million for appearing onstage on the great lawn at Central Park in New York later this year."
Monday February 14
EMI in England releases (virtually unannounced) coloured vinyl editions of the digitally enhanced versions of The Beatles 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 in a print run of only 20,000 copies for the world. EMI officially deletes the releases just prior to them reaching the shops.
February (Into March)
At the very end of the month, Paul, Linda and family travel to America for a month-long holiday. Excited by the recent Beatles reunion sessions, on the plane Paul begins a diary on what happened during the recordings. Paul: "Just to remember the facts really, before they were forgotten."
March
Yoko's off-Broadway rock opera New York Rock opens at the WPA Theater in the Chelsea district of New York.
In America at the start of the month, the New York Times reports that Paul, George and Ringo are currently "adding new vocal and instrumental lines to an unissued composition taped by John."
For the next several months, George becomes actively involved in the sale of his Handmade Films catalogue.
Tuesday March 1
At the annual Grammy Awards ceremony in America, George Martin wins his fourth Grammy for his role as the producer on the original cast album of Tommy, the Broadway musical written by Pete Townshend of The Who.
Wednesday March 2
In the UK, Ringo is spotted alone on London's Kensington High Street, and later at Harrods department store.
Sunday March 13
Still in the UK, The Beatles' former chauffeur Alf Bicknell is the centre of attention on the BBC Radio One programme The Beatles Story-According To Alf Bicknell - The Fab Four's Driver Speaks Out!
Monday March 21
The 85-minute film Paul Is Live is released in the UK on PMI (Picture Music International) home video.
Wednesday March 30 & Thursday March 31
A two-day Bonham Entertainments sale is held in London. Among the Beatles collectibles on offer is a complete run of 49 Apple original singles and Beatles concert posters.
April (Into May)
John's first wife Cynthia talks about her life with him in a six-part, 44-page, series for the UK celebrity magazine Hello.
Sunday April 10
The annual survey of Britain's 500 richest people is published in the Sunday Times. The report suggests that Paul's fortune is estimated at £400 million while George's is reported to be a more modest £25 million.
Sunday April 17
George is to be found in Long Beach, California, joining the British racing driver Nigel Mansell at the annual Grand Prix.
May
The American radio stations that subscribe to the Canadian network Westwood One, broadcast a marathon 12-hour Beatles documentary entitled The Long And Winding Road, which features 240 songs including historic BBC Radio recordings and highlights from The Beatles' legendary appearances on CBS TV's Ed Sullivan Show.
Six months after placing his order, George finally takes command of his McClaren F1 supercar. The car, which set George back a cool £540,000, boasts a top speed of 235 mph!
Friday May 5
Paul, George and Ringo take a breather from Apple's smoky viewing rooms in Wendell Road in West London, to visit a vegetarian restaurant in Chiswick High Road, near to where The Beatles Anthology is currently in production.
Thursday May 11
Paul and Linda depart from London's Heathrow Airport en route to America's mid-west for the official American launch of Linda's range of vegetarian food.
Thursday May 18
After almost three months of negotiations, George sells his complete Handmade Films catalogue to the Canadian independent film and TV company Paragon Entertainment Corporation, for $8.5 million.
Thursday June 8
The three Beatles, this time with their respective wives, again visit the vegetarian restaurant in Chiswick, where again their conversation centres around the upcoming Beatles Anthology projects and their re-recordings of John Lennon's home demos.
Thursday June 22
For the first time in almost four months, Paul, George, Ringo and Jeff Lynne, in the role of producer, return to Paul's Mill Studios in East Sussex where they attempt more work on the John Lennon demo 'Now And Then', given to them by Yoko earlier in the year at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Unfortunately, the recordings do not go well and the session is aborted early. George suggests they continue with their work tomorrow, this time at his Friar Park studios in his Henley-on-Thames mansion.
Friday June 23
The "Threatles", as planned, resume recordings at George's FPHOTS Studios in Henley. During the day, they decide, briefly, to attempt a version of 'Let It Be' for inclusion in the finale of the forthcoming Anthology projects. Due to John's absence, they reject this idea and instead turn their hands to a safer collection of rock'n'roll oldies. During this session, recorded on videotape by a two-camera setup, Paul, George and Ringo perform 'Thinking Of Linking', 'Ain't She Sweet', 'Love Me Do', 'I Saw Her Standing There' and many others, including 'Blue Moon Of Kentucky'. As Ringo recalls: "It was just two acoustic guitars and me on brushes." Sadly the session fails to materialise anywhere in the finished Anthology series and, to date, only 'Blue Moon Of Kentucky' has seen the light of day, with a short one minute clip appearing on ABC TV's Good Morning America on December 4, 1996. (The idea of "The Beatles as they are now" in performance was originally planned for The Long And Winding Road back in 1980, as John Lennon's affidavit of November 28 testified.) Film of Paul, George and Ringo today at George's Friar Park mansion appears in the Anthology series, including clips such as George's new McLaren sports car, with the three Beatles getting out of the car and entering his studios. Paul is heard to say, "Nice motor, nice motor. Shall we go and make a record?" This clip introduces the first screening of 'Real Love' during the first American screening of the Anthology broadcasts, and sitting around the table, with Paul talking about "The Beatles getting back together", used as a clip that introduces 'Free As A Bird'. In addition, there is miscellaneous film of the three sitting on the lawn in George's grounds, reflecting on their time in India back in 1968, where George plays, on a ukulele, his unreleased song 'Dehra Dun' and Paul plays 'I Will' on an acoustic guitar. It is during this garden get-together that the idea for a 'Let It Be' finale is scrapped. (The three Beatles will not reconvene for more sessions until February 6 and 7, 1995 - see entry.)
July
Even though the release has still not been officially announced, EMI prints a first batch of 180,000 copies of The Beatles Live At The BBC double album. The release date is still over four months away.
Tuesday July 4
Two and a half years after it was first revealed, reports from America announce that Michael Jackson's $16.5 million animated feature entitled Strawberry Fields Forever, containing over 40 original Beatles recordings, is still due for production. (Nothing is heard of it again!)
Tuesday July 11 (Thursday July 13 and Monday July 17)
Rumours circulate in the music industry that Paul, George and Ringo are to record these days at the Abbey Road Studios in London. As expected, they fail to show.
Sunday July 30
In the UK, George attends the motorcycle racing at Donnington Park.
Saturday August 20
In Los Angeles, California, the 30th anniversary of The Beatles' first performance at the Hollywood Bowl is celebrated by a huge fan gathering at the open-air venue. The American rare records and collectibles shop Pepperland sponsors the event, which runs from 11am to 8pm, and features music from The Backbeat Band.
Saturday August 27
In the UK, Ringo's stepfather, Harry Graves, dies from pneumonia in Liverpool.
September
EMI Records confirm that they will be moving out of their world-famous headquarters at 20 Manchester Square, London W1, and into new premises in the Brook Green area of West London between Hammersmith and Shepherds Bush during April or May of 1995. One of the historical landmarks at the old EMI House, the internal floor railings depicted on the group's Please Please Me and the 1973 Red and Blue albums over which The Beatles leaned, will, EMI confirm, be dismantled and re-installed at the new site. (These prized banisters will, in fact, become a memento of Paul's.)
Thursday September 15
A four-minute historic audio tape recording of The Quarry Men performing 'Puttin' On The Style' and 'Baby Let's Play House', live on stage at the St. Peter's Church Fete in Woolton, Liverpool on July 6, 1957, featuring John Lennon on lead vocals, is auctioned at the annual Sotheby's sales. The tape, which has great historic significance as this was the day that John first met Paul, is bought by EMI for its own archives. David Hughes, of EMI, says: "It's obviously a poor recording, but I can assure you we didn't buy it for the sound quality! It's undeniably a piece of history." He is naturally asked why Apple, The Beatles' company, did not purchase the tape. "We did check whether Apple was proposing to buy it, they were not. But they were more than happy that we were showing an interest in doing so."
Monday September 26
The Abbey Road Studios in London celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Beatles' Abbey Road album by holding a special reception in their car park at the front of the building.
Tuesday September 27
Paul and Linda, along with 48 other celebrities, attend the launch of Little Pieces From Big Stars exhibition at the Flowers East Gallery in Hackney, North London. Linda is represented at the exhibition by one of her photographs while Paul contributes a small wooden carving entitled Wood One, which sells for £12,500 when auctioned at the Royal College of Art on October 4.
Wednesday September 28
The Liverpool Institute For The Performing Arts (LIPA), holds its first press conference to announce that they are open for business and ready to begin auditioning its first students. Paul does not attend the conference but releases a press statement, which reads: "I want this to be the best school of its type in the world. Let's aim high with this, because I'm very optimistic of what we can do here." LIPA also reveals today that, besides Paul, donations for the institute have also been received from both George and Ringo.
October
This month in the UK, due to an agreement with Apple, EMI Records are forced to increase the price of their three Beatles double albums on CD, 1962-1966, 1967-70 and the 1968 White Album, by a massive 40%!
In the German town of Langenhagen, Yoko distributes 70,000 posters of a naked bottom. When asked for the reason behind this, she replies: "Faces can lie ... backsides can't!"
Tuesday October 4
In London, Paul films a special television advertisement for LIPA. The advert, which features 'C'mon People' on the soundtrack, is sponsored by Grundig and is scheduled to begin transmission during November and December. The satellite station MTV Europe announces that they are already booked to run the commercial.
Wednesday October 19
In London, George Martin holds a press reception for the re-release of his book The Making Of Sgt. Pepper at Abbey Road's Studio Two. The guests present this evening include Ben Elton, Kate Bush and the comedian Bernard Cribbins. On the same day, another Beatles book launch is taking place. This time, Steve Turner's A Hard Day's Write - The Story Behind Every Beatles Song is receiving an unveiling in Covent Garden, London, where Melanie Coe, who inspired 'She's Leaving Home', and Lucy O'Donnell, said to be the inspiration behind 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds', are in attendance.
Friday October 21
George Martin, plugging his new publication The Making Of Sgt. Pepper appears on the BBC1 lunchtime show Pebble Mill, alongside Victor Spinetti and The Beatles' chauffeur Alf Bicknell, who is there to promote his book Baby, You Can Drive My Car.
Friday October 28
EMI Records in London announce the forthcoming release, on November 30, of the double album The Beatles Live At The BBC, featuring 56 unreleased recordings. The source for these audios comes from the widow of an avid home audiotape collector from the time, who had sold her husband's original reel-to-reel tapes directly to EMI for an undisclosed sum. This is somewhat of an embarrassment to the company as they had already paid a large sum of money to George Martin who has been remixing other tapes they had acquired previously. This new set is considerably better in quality and will feature 32 songs that were never featured on any of The Beatles original singles, EPs or albums.
Sunday October 30
On NBC TV in America, George appears in a pre-recorded interview for the spiritual programme Angel 2 - Beyond The Light.
Thursday November 3
In the UK, Paul, in his dark blue customised Mercedes, driven by his driver John Hammill, is involved in a crash involving a lorry, on a hilly country lane near to where he lives in Rye, East Sussex. Paul escaped unhurt but there was extensive damage to his car. After hearing about the incident on the news, Ringo and Yoko phone him to check that he is all right.
Thursday November 17 (until Sunday November 20)
As usual, George is to be found in the pits and mixing with the drivers at the annual Adelaide Grand Prix in Australia.
Monday November 21
The press conference announcing the release of The Beatles Live At The BBC takes place in London with special guests including George Martin and the former BBC Radio disc jockeys Alan Freeman and Brian Matthew. Later Freeman and Matthew pose for photos alongside large cardboard cutouts of The Beatles as featured on the BBC album. Reports from this conference feature largely throughout the day on both the BBC and ITN news bulletins.
Tuesday November 22
The American press launch for The Beatles Live At The BBC album takes place today, with special guests in attendance including Carl Perkins and Chuck Berry.
Wednesday November 30
The Beatles Live At The BBC, the first album of new Beatles recordings since The Beatles Live At The Hollywood Bowl in 1977, is released today in the UK. Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus, London, strike an exclusive agreement with EMI to become the first shop in the country to sell the record by throwing open its doors in the early hours of the morning. Between 12 midnight and 2am, the store sells 250 of its initial 4,000 copies order. First in the long queue is Steven Bennett, a 33-year-old market researcher from Surrey, who becomes the first person in the UK to buy the album. He tells the waiting reporters: "I couldn't buy the first Beatles album, so I wanted to make sure I could buy the last." By the end of the first day of sales, a spokesman for Tower Records enthused: "It's the biggest album of the year for us. We've sold more than 1,000 copies ... we've had people buying the album from Poland, Russia and many from Italy and America."
To help with the celebrations of this historic release, Ringo, at his office in London, gives a live satellite interview to ABC TV's Good Morning America as well as doing an interview for the Beatles Live At The BBC electronic press kit. In the UK today, the BBC album's release is featured in reports on the BBC and ITN news bulletins.
December
Paul records with the legendary Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck at his home studio in Sussex.
This month, an otherwise unreleased George song is included on an American promotional only Warner Brothers 6-CD box set, entitled Mo's Blues, which is presented to the company's employees to commemorate the retirement after 30 years of Mo Ostin, the Wamer Brothers chief executive. George's song, written to celebrate Mo's 50th birthday, is called simply 'Mo'. The set also features John's '(Just Like) Starting Over', The Traveling Wilburys' 'Handle With Care' and George, again, with 'All Those Years Ago'. Other artists on the set include Frank Sinatra, The Kinks, Jimi Hendrix, The Smiths, Neil Young and many others.
Tuesday December 6
The album The Beatles Live At The BBC is released today in America.
In the UK, Alun Owens, the scriptwriter for The Beatles' first film A Hard Day's Night in 1964, dies after a short illness.
Saturday December 10
The Beatles Live At The BBC enters the UK Music Week top 75 album chart at number one.
Wednesday December 14
In the UK, the ITV network breakfast television station GMTV screens a clip of The Beatles' archive film sent out by Apple to promote The Beatles BBC album. Billed as "Previously Unseen" footage, fans are naturally disappointed to discover the "unseen" footage actually derives from the groups' concert at the Palais De Sports in France on June 20,1965, and has been prevalent amongst Beatles collectors for many years. This promotional clip features excerpts of the songs 'Long Tall Sally', 'Rock And Roll Music', 'Can't Buy Me Love', 'I Wanna Be Your Man', 'Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby', 'Ticket To Ride' and 'A Hard Day's Night' all cleverly synched up with their audio counterparts on the Live At The BBC album. (The BBC2 show TOTP2 features a complete screening of the promotional film on December 17.) Apple clears the clip for promotional TV screenings until February 15, 1996, when all the distributed master tapes of the film are returned to the Apple Corps offices in London and America.
Thursday December 15
EMI announces the possibility of a new Beatles single to be taken off the Live At The BBC album. The company announces their original choice of couplings to be 'Soldier Of Love'/'I'll Be On My Way', but this is subsequently dropped in favour of a three-track single. Capitol Records in America reveal their choice for a single to be 'Baby It's You'.
Saturday December 24
In America, The Beatles Live At The BBC album enters the Billboard Top 200 album chart at number three.
Monday December 26
Channel 4 in the UK joins in on the current Beatles frenzy by screening a complete version (which means 'Hey Bulldog' is included) of The Beatles' 1968 animated fantasy film Yellow Submarine.
Friday December 30
Ringo's first wife Maureen dies in America after complications following a bone marrow transplant. Ringo is reported to be "devastated" by her death. (The couple had divorced on July 17, 1975, after a ten-year marriage.)
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