January 02, 2019

Beatles Live -- Melbourne, Australia Concert - 06-1964 - 24 minutes






Wednesday 17 June 1964 - The Beatles' final two shows in Melbourne, Australia took place on this day.

In the afternoon George Harrison went driving in an MG in the Dandenong Mountains with tour organiser Lloyd Ravenscroft. Concerned with more important matters, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr had their hair cut in their hotel, the Southern Cross.

This was The Beatles' last of three consecutive nights of shows in the city's Festival Hall, Each night they gave two concerts, which were enjoyed by a total of 45,000 people.

Cameras from the Australian Channel 9 recorded the sixth and final show of the Melbourne leg of the world tour. It was screened on 1 July 1964 as an hour-long special, The Beatles Sing For Shell, named after the oil company which sponsored the broadcast.

Nine of The Beatles' Melbourne performances were included in the show: I Saw Her Standing There, You Can't Do That, All My Loving, She Loves You, Till There Was You, Roll Over Beethoven, Can't Buy Me Love, Twist And Shoutand Long Tall Sally. During Long Tall Sally, a male audience member rushed onto the stage to shake John Lennon's hand.

The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein had initially agreed to allow Channel 9 to show just 12 minutes of the performance. However, after watching the recording an hour after the show he had a change of heart and increased the limit to 20 minutes.

In the end 22 minutes of The Beatles were included, the rest of the hour being footage of Australian and international performers. The only song from the set not broadcast was This Boy. Full bootleg recordings exist of both concerts from this day.

Source: https://www.beatlesbible.com/1964/06/17/live-festival-hall-melbourne-3/

The Year in Music 2018: Paul McCartney scores first US #1 album since 1982 with "Egypt Station"

In September of 2018, Paul McCartney released Egypt Station, his first album in five years. It became McCartney’s first album to reach #1 on the Billboard 200 since 1982’s Tug of War.

Nearly all of the album was produced by Greg Kurstin, who’d previously worked with Adele, Foo Fighters, Sia, Kelly Clarkson and other stars. OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder also co-wrote and produced a track on the album, “Fuh You.”

McCartney promoted Egypt Station with a variety of special intimate concerts, including a July 23 gig at Abbey Road Studios in London; a July 25 show at the Cavern Club in his hometown of Liverpool, U.K.; and a release-day performance at New York City’s Grand Central Terminal that was streamed on his official YouTube channel.

Sir Paul also appeared in The Late Late Show‘s popular “Carpool Karaoke” feature with host James Corden in Liverpool in early June. In the segment, McCartney and Corden drove around the city singing various Beatles tunes and solo songs by Paul, while also visiting McCartney’s childhood home, Penny Lane and other landmarks. In addition, Macca played a set at a local pub called The Philharmonic.

Paul’s “Carpool Karaoke” segment, which aired on The Late Late Show on June 22, was hugely popular on YouTube. An hour-long prime time special featuring extended footage from the segment aired on CBS on August 20.

Paul also released a number of music videos for the Egypt Station songs, the most high-profile of which was a short film for “Who Cares” that co-starred Oscar-winning actress Emma Stone. The surreal clip echoed the song’s anti-bullying theme, and in conjunction with the tune and video, McCartney partnered with a number of organizations to launch a new campaign, #WhoCaresIDo, which seeks to inspire people to stand up to bullying and negativity.

Meanwhile, McCartney also mounted the Freshen Up Tour, kicking off the trek with four concerts in Canada in September. He also played Japan, mainland Europe and the U.K. In addition, Sir Paul played two headlining sets in October at Texas’ Austin City Limits Music Festival.

At Macca’s final 2018 concert, December 16 at London’s O2 Arena, his ex-Beatles band mate Ringo Starr and Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood joined him during the show’s encore for a rendition of the Fab Four’s “Get Back.”

The Freshen Up Tour is scheduled to start up again in 2019 with a series of South American shows in March and a U.S. leg that gets underway in May.

Also of note: 2018 marked the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ classic self-titled double album, aka The White Album. To mark the milestone, expanded reissues were released on November 9.

The most expansive of the reissues was a seven-disc Super Deluxe edition that boasts three CDs of studio outtakes, a CD of rare demo recordings, and a Blu-ray disc featuring 5.1 surround-sound, mono and stereo mixes of the album.

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Source: https://www.classichitsandoldies.com/v2/98627/