There'll be a new Starr on the Walk of Fame

Ringo is finally getting his due on Hollywood Boulevard.

Ringo is delighted, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce will be honoring him with a star in 2010 on the Walk Of Fame.

Ringo said, "A star for a Starr - what an honor and a privilege it is to be walked on! Peace & Love."

A special evening ceremony 7:00pm on Monday, February 8th, in front of Capitol Records in Hollywood to celebrate Ringo Starr AND the 50th Anniversary of the Walk of Fame!

Who sounds like "The Beatles on Steroids"?

Lots of folks, apparently.

EMI releasing McCartney soundtrack song

From the Daily Mirror:

Sir Paul McCartney has inadvertently found his new single is being released by EMI - the music giant he famously quit in 1997 after more than four decades, complaining he was being treated as "part of the furniture".

The track, (I Want To) Come Home, was recorded for the soundtrack of the movie Everybody's Fine and is due to be released on March 1.

The track comes out on Walt Disney Records, along with the rest of the soundtrack album - but in the UK and Europe, it will be issued by EMI, the label he quit after 45 years of Beatles and solo releases.

Ringo interviews with NPR, New York Times

Ringo chats with National Public Radio and The New York Times.

"I'll say it again: I love being in a band," Starr says. "I love playing with other human beings. I've never practiced drums unless there was another human being in the room. If you could play, I'd play with you all night. But if I'm just playing by myself, it gets boring pretty quick."

Former Doctor Who plays John Lennon

One-time Doctor Who Christopher Eccleston is playing John Lennon in a new BBC mini-series.

The 45-year-old has donned glasses and grown his hair to take the role of the musical legend for new BBC4 drama Lennon Naked.

In a newly released publicity shot the former Time Lord wears a replica white suit worn by Lennon in 1968 at an art gallery with wife Yoko Ono.

The one-off 90-minute film, which looks at Beatle’s life from 1967 to 1971, will be part of the BBC’s new spring drama season.

McCartney to present at Golden Globes this Sunday

Paul will be among those presenting awards on the show, which airs Sunday on NBC. Check yer locals.

Casting news on Yellow Submarine remake

From Billboard:

British actors Cary Elwes, Dean Lennox Kelly, Peter Serafinowicz and Adam Campbell are in negotiations to portray the members of the Fab Four in "Yellow Submarine," a remake set up at Disney.

...Kelly, who is currently on the BBC's "Robin Hood" series, is portraying John Lennon. Liverpool-born Serafinowicz ("Shaun of the Dead," "Couples Retreat") plays Paul McCartney.

Elwes, who worked with Zemeckis on "A Christmas Carol" and is in the upcoming "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn," will play George Harrison. Campbell will be Ringo Starr. His credits include "Epic Movie" and "Date Movie," and he will be seen on NBC's miniseries "Day One."

Free McCartney live album packaged with British newspaper

From Paul's official site:


Exclusive new Paul McCartney album ‘Live In Los Angeles’ free in this week’s Mail on Sunday newspaper. This twelve-track CD from Paul’s performance at the Amoeba Music record store in Hollywood on 27th June 2007 includes two-Grammy nominated performances – I Saw Her Standing There (Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance) and That Was Me (Best Male Pop Vocal Performance) – along with ten other live favourites.

The full tracklist is:
Drive My Car
Only Mama Knows
Dance Tonight
C Moon
That Was Me
Blackbird
Here Today
Back In The USSR
Get Back
Hey Jude
Lady Madonna
I Saw Her Standing There

Available free with the Mail on Sunday in the UK & Ireland on Sunday 17th January 2010 only.

Yoko reunites Plastic Ono musicians: Clapton, Voorman and more

Original Plastic Ono Band members Eric Clapton and Klaus Voorman will join Yoko Ono any many others at a New York annivsary gig next month. Check out the poster:

TV alert: Ringo on tap for Daily Show

Ringo Starr will guest on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" on Jan. 13.

Site posts exclusive Ringo interview and rehearsal footage

From the press release:

LP33.tv (www.lp33.tv), a company devoted to the discovery, enjoyment and sharing of new music, today announced that they have an exclusive interview with Ringo Starr, with previously unreleased rehearsal footage of Starr with his band, available to fans on www.lp33.tv/ringostarr. As part of the promotion, music fans can enter to win a pair of signed drumsticks at www.lp33.tv/ringostarrgiveaway.
The interview includes new insights into Ringo's collaboration with Paul McCartney and Joe Walsh, his attempts to play Beatles Rock Band, and his final answer to who is his favorite Beatle.

Vinyl box sets of Beatles remasters in the works

According to Mojo:

"They are incredibly complicated in terms of getting the masters right and getting the packages right," added Jones. "How do you assemble them? How do you put them in a box? How much do they cost? We want to make sure we're doing it right and that people get real value from it."

Yoko will pen memoirs

Yoko Ono is planning to write a book about her years with John Lennon.

She said: "I would love to do it. I just have to find the time.

"It will be my next book, which will be written in the next five years."

Review: Treasures of the Beatles

If you've seen any of those "vault" books, you know the format for this one: A lavishly produced volume sporting lots of glossy pictures and little envelopes containing accurate reproductions of various artifacts.

In this case, it's the Beatles, so you get lots of fascimile tickets, handbills and posters. Kinda cool, but also a bit limited. For one thing, the focus for most of the goodies is the band's early years. So there are lots of fake tickets to concerts, etc. But the later years--including the Apple years, which would've yielded lots of interesting ephemera--are skimmed over.

All this is accompanied by a pretty routine overview of the band's history, which anyone interested in the collection's artifacts could likely recite from memory. So I'm not really sure who "Treasures of the Beatles" is intended for. I suppose a first-generation fan--someone who lost his or her ticket stubs to the real shows and is charmed by the reproductions--might enjoy it.

But for most fans, it's hardly an essential purchase. The Beatles "Anthology" book has many more photos of the band and various artifacts from their career and fascinating text to boot. And there are plenty of other Fab books of nostalgic interest out there as well.

I can imagine a more in-depth book of this sort, featuring reproductions of more obscure items (fan club items, picture sleeve art, buttons, press handouts, etc.) being of great interest to Beatles collectors, but this one isn't terribly exciting. I suspect it was a Christmas-time cash-in for the publisher more than anything else.

Review: Nowhere Boy soundtrack

The film this soundtrack accompanies hasn't opened here yet, but I imagine it makes a suitable backing to the story, which charts the young John Lennon's coming of age.

Naturally, the musical focus is on early rock'n'roll: Elvis, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eddie Cochran, the usual suspects. A nice touch is the addition of a few newly recorded tunes by the "Nowhere Boys" (the press release and liners on the promo copy I received don't identify the musicians' identities. These are skiffle-like covers of rock'n'roll tunes and the early Lennon-McCartney tune "In Spite of All the Danger," which attempt to capture the early Fabs' sound.

The only tune by the real John Lennon is "Mother."

All in all, a good collection of 50s rock'n'roll standards. Not something you need if you already have such tunes in your library, but I suppose it may serve as a nice introduction to viewers new to this era of rock and to the story of Lennon's early years.

Complete track list:

Disc: 1
1. Jerry Lee Lewis - Wild One
2. Dickie Valentine - Mr Sandman
3. Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats - Rocket 88
4. Elvis Presley - Shake, Rattle & Roll
5. Wanda Jackson - Hard Headed Woman
6. Screamin' Jay Hawkins - I Put A Spell On You
7. The Nowhere Boys - Maggie May
8. The Nowhere Boys - That'll Be The Day
9. Eddie Bond & The Stompers - Rockin' Daddy
10. Eddie Cochran - Twenty Flight Rock
11. The Nowhere Boys - That's Alright Mamma
12. The Nowhere Boys - Raunchy
13. The Nowhere Boys - Movin' and Groovin'
14. Big Mama Thornton - Hound Dog
15. Gene Vincent And The Blue Caps - Be-Bop-A-Lula
16. Aaron Johnson - Hello Little Girl
17. The Nowhere Boys -In Spite Of All The Danger
Disc: 2
1. John Lennon - Mother
2. Chuck Berry - Roll Over Beethoven
3. Bill Haley & His Comets - Rock Around The Clock
4. Little Richard - Rip It Up
5. Elvis Presley - Baby, Let's Play House
6. Buddy Holly - Peggy Sue
7. Buddy Knox - Party Doll
8. Bobby Fuller Four - I Fought The Law
9. Vince Taylor & His Playboys - Brand New Cadillac
10. Dale Hawkins - Susie-Q
11. Shirley & Lee - Let The Good Times Roll
12. Barrett Strong - Money (That's What I Want)
13. Fats Domino - Ain't That A Shame
14. Lloyd Price - Stagger Lee
15. Frankie Vaughan - These Dangerous Years
16. The Del-Vikings - Come Go With Me

Beatles chart best-selling album of last decade

The Fab Four's compilation disc, 1, was the best seller in America, moving 11.5 million units during the decade. More...