The Beatles
A rare combination of humour and pathos: the sublimely talented Neil Innes
The musician and parodist, whose mantra was ‘not to say no when there’s a way to say yes’, had a gift for creating happiness in private as well as public, as his widow poignantly attests
At last, a private education that wasn’t unmitigated misery
Robyn Hitchcock describes how his musical tastes were formed listening, aged 14, to Dylan, the Beatles, Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix on the school gramophone at Winchester
Nowhere near as miserable as I remember it: The Beatles – Let It Be reviewed
Beatles lore has long held that the film Let It Be was a depressing portrait of the band falling apart.…
How Liverpool soon outgrew the Beatles
For the bands playing at Eric’s, the celebrated Merseyside punk club of the late 1970s, even to own a Beatles record was considered embarrassing
In the dark early 1960s, at least we had the Beatles
The first half of the decade saw towns bulldozed, the Beeching cuts, everyday racism, political scandal and the threat of Armageddon. But there was also Beatlemania…
What happened to the supermodels of the 1990s?
‘What advice would you give to your younger self?’ has become a popular question in interviews in recent years. It’s…
The phoney mystics who fooled the West
Many suspect mystics have exploited naive westerners in search of spiritual enlightenment over the past century, Philip Hensher discovers
My childhood Cold War fears are back
On the day before my seventh birthday, which I spent at my grandma’s in Yorkshire, a young man named Raymond…
More mesmerising than it should be – Disney+'s The Beatles: Get Back reviewed
My late friend Alexander Nekrassov loathed the Beatles, which I used to think was a wantonly contrary position akin to…
It's amazing how little insight Paul McCartney has into the Beatles' genius
The Paul people are out in force these days. A New Yorker profile, a book and a new documentary have…
The nearest thing to Paul McCartney’s autobiography: his guide to the Beatles’ songbook
Whatever your favourite theory of creativity, Paul McCartney has a cheery thumbs-up to offer. You think the secret is putting…
James Bond and the Beatles herald a new Britain
The word ‘magisterial’ consistently attaches itself to the work of David Kynaston. His eye-wateringly exhaustive four-volume history of the Old…
As pretty as anything he’s written in four decades: McCartney III reviewed
Grade: A- The greatest songwriter of the 20th century, or just one of the top two or three? Who…
No one ‘got’ the Sixties better than David Bailey
What caught my eye towards the end of Look Again was this conversation between David Bailey and the shoe designer…
From cheeky mop tops to long-haired holy men: The Beatles come of age in America
In his latest book, the veteran pop commentator David Hepworth is concerned with satisfaction, its acquisition and maintenance. On record,…
Dion, one of the last living links to the earliest days of rock ’n’ roll
He toured with Little Richard, sang with Van Morrison, inspired the Beatles and Paul Simon. Graeme Thomson talks to Dion, one of the last living links to the early days of street-corner rock ’n’ roll
The musical benefits of not playing live
Many performers hated playing live. But freed from the stage they often made their best and wildest work, argues Graeme Thomson
Letters: The ban on public worship has enabled more of us to experience spiritual riches
Divine works Sir: Luke Coppen writes that livestreamed services ‘lack the vital communal dimension of worship’ and ‘are, at times,…
The last great purveyors of a vanishing art form: Green Day’s Fathers of All... reviewed
Grade: B+ It is an eternal mystery to me why Britain has never had much time for power pop, seeing…
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…
