The Beatles
Did Radio 2 really need to give us four days of the Beatles to celebrate Abbey Road?
This Changeling Self, Radio 4’s lead drama this week, clearly ought to have gone out in August. It’s set —…
The bias against digital music is more emotional than scientific
It’s an increasingly common lament that computers have ruined everything, and a longing for the days before Google and Twitter,…
Funny moments swamped by an intolerable romance: Yesterday reviewed
Yesterday is the latest comedy (with sad bits) from Richard Curtis, directed by Danny Boyle, about an unsuccessful singer-songwriter, Jack,…
The greatest Beatle? Pete Best
Which of the Beatles would you most like to have been? Not either of the dead ones, presumably. Nor the…
The short, happy life of the long playing record
On 19 June 1948, the modern LP was unveiled at a press conference by the Columbia Records president Ted Wallerstein,…
Alan Johnson: the rock and roll years
We’ve had Alan Johnson the lad from the slums of north Kensington, Alan Johnson the postman and Alan Johnson Member…
Jimmy Webb’s memoir – what happens to talented people when fame gets the better of them
For those in the know, Jimmy Webb is one of the great pop songwriters of the 1960s and 70s, up…
The Swinging Sixties meet Henry James in Anthony Quinn’s saucy Eureka
In Eureka, Anthony Quinn gives us all the enjoyable froth we could hope for in a novel about making a…
Nostalgia for skiffle – and the first stirrings of British pop
‘It was easy, it was cheap, go and do it,’ sang the Desperate Bicycles on their self-funded debut single in…
In rock 'n' roll you need an accountant more than talent
Birds have been giving me a lot of grief of late. There’s Tappy — the blue tit who has built…
How refreshing to find the BBC doing its job instead of handwringing about Islamophobia
Here’s the bad news. One day you or someone like you will be shopping in a mall or enjoying a…
A great retro shop with a dreary message: V&A’s You Say You Want a Revolution? reviewed
Back in the high optimism of the 2008 presidential campaign, one of Barack Obama’s more extravagant hopes was that ‘the…
The Heckler: love your music, Macca, just not sure about you
It’s slightly galling, after years of sticking up for Paul McCartney, to read a new biography of the bloke and…
Everything you always wanted to know about Sixties pop —and more
It might seem an odd choice, but after reading Jon Savage’s new book, I think if I had a time…
Why most four-year-olds deserve to be sectioned
The first episode of Let Us Entertain You (BBC2, Wednesday) definitely couldn’t be accused of lacking a central thesis. Presenter…
John Lennon’s desert island luxury
Beatlebone is an account of a journey, a psychedelic odyssey, its protagonist — at times its narrator — John Lennon,…
I’ve never thought much of John Lennon’s music – until now
It’s probably blasphemous to admit that I’ve never thought very much of John Lennon’s music. Common sense tells me it…
The best of British — from Agatha Christie to the YBAs
Is it true that, having lost an empire, we reinvented ourselves as an island of entertainers? Do we channel the…
What’s the point of BBC Music?
To Radio 2 to meet Bob Shennan, controller of the BBC’s most popular radio station (the station attracts one third…
From ragtime to the X Factor: the epic story of popular music
As pop music drifts away from many people’s lives, so its literature grows ever more serious and weighty, as though…
Wealthy, cosmopolitan – and sometimes rough: the secrets of Hamburg (and my grandmother)
‘What was it like growing up in Liverpool?’ a journalist asked John Lennon. ‘I didn’t grow up in Liverpool,’ he…
Why do we always beat up on drummers?
It’s rare that I see a piece about music that makes me want to cheer from the rafters and shake…
Ringo's no joke. He was a genius and the Beatles were lucky to have him
Ringo’s no joke, says James Woodall. He was a genius and the Beatles were lucky to have him
All Together Now, by David Rowley - review
Too many Beatles books? In my house there’s always room for one more, and this week’s addition is All Together…
Wearing well
Born in the same year as John Lennon (1940), I was a sucker for the Beatles from the start. They…
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