CLUB SANDWICH 74

BACK IN THE BEATLES

You can't fail to have missed the news: the Beatles are back...and with a bang

            It started out as a press conference to promote local auditions for LIPA, the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts school that is to open its doors just months from now. Not that the conference was itself any run-of-the-mill affair, you understand: this one was taking place not in Liverpool or London but in New York, at Planet Hollywood, and with a number of stars in attendance.
            But Paul, LIPA's lead patron, was not among them. He was back home in England, busy being a Beatle once again. And when this story got out, the news wires of the world glowed crimson. All it took was a phone interview with New York radio station WNEW, and this statement from Paul:
            “ I'm sorry I can't be there with you but I've got the best possible excuse - I'm working in the studio on a couple of tracks from a Sixties beat group you may have heard of, called the Beatles. These tracks will be released at the end of this year as a couple of cherries on the cake of The Beatles' Anthology. “
            to capture the imagination of the global news media. You probably saw the resulting headlines on the TV and in the press. (Probably saw? They were virtually unmissable.)
            In greater detail, Paul told WNEW about the unfinished and until-now-unreleased John Lennon song, 'Free As A Bird', saying that the tape given to him by Yoko, was "a mono cassette with John's piano and voice...but we did a techno job on it: we wrapped ourselves around it so it's the other three Beatles with John, and it's really a cool record. George plays some beautiful guitar and we do some real nice harmonies, so much so that Ringo, who was sitting in the control room, said, 'It sounds like the bloody Beatles!'"
            Paul then went on to tell WNEW listeners about another song that has reunited the four Beatles - whereby he, George and Ringo have completed, in similar fashion, John's 'Real Love', a track which, even in its unfinished form, was issued on the 1988 movie soundtrack album Imagine: John Lennon. "This February we actually got together in the studio again and did another one," Paul explained. "So we've got two tracks now, two really cool little tracks. My studio manager Eddie Klein was saying 'We did the first one last February. We did this one this February so I'll see you next February and if we work for 12 years we might have an album!'"
            As if all this wasn't exciting enough, Paul has exclusively told Club Sandwich about yet another dimension to the "reunion" stories.
            “ Yes, there's more to it. We've done two new songs, 'Free As A Bird' and 'Real Love', and we've also had some nostalgic listening sessions at Abbey Road Studios, with George Martin, sifting through likely Beatles archive recordings, old takes of stuff, for the Anthology. In fact, George [Harrison], Ringo and I are beginning to see each other quite regularly, discussing the Anthology records, TV series, book and so on. It's like being back in the Beatles again.”
            What all this means is that The Beatles' Anthology is going to be very hot news come November, when the TV series is expected to hit the screens, and when the first of several CD collections of previously unissued Beatles archive recordings, plus the new tracks, are made available for worldwide consumption.
            Coming hot on the heels of EMI's announcement that the Beatles' Live At The BBC, released only late last year, has already sold almost six million copies worldwide, the Anthology is clearly going to be massive.
            And, of course, you'll be able to read much more about it in Club Sandivich nearer the time.