BEAT Monthly Pics!

For my birthday, my friend Jeff gave me a set of the first 20 BEAT Monthly magazines, which appeared to be owned by a lucky young girl from Sussex who managed to snag autographs from The Dakotas, Tony Jackson of the Searchers, and Sounds Incorporated. BEAT Monthly was the first venture of Johnny Dean/Sean Mahoney before starting The Beatles Monthly. Enjoy the pictures and articles.

Articles from the 1966 North American Tour

Here are some photos and articles from KRLA BEAT and Hullabaloo covering the Beatles' 1966 North American tour. I have other articles covering the tour that I will be posting shortly. The top article focuses on the Remains, the phenomenal Boston band that opened for the Beatles on this tour. I have been fortunate enough to meet the original members of the Remains and to see them perform in concert. I can assure you that they are as powerful and entertaining as they must have been back in 1966. Their Epic LP, Capitol Records live session material and reunion album are essential to fans of Sixties music. It is astounding to me that they did not achieve the commercial success they deserved to obtain. Leader Barry Tashian went on to achieve success working with Emmylou Harris and Graham Parson, and later began recording bluegrass albums with his wife, Holly.

Fred Cantor and Michael Stitch have put together a remarkable documentary on the Remains entitled America's Lost Band. If you have the opportunity to see it at your local film festival, etc. do not pass up the chance. For more information about the film and the Remains, please check out my feature in the latest issue of Ugly Things, which you can purchase directly through the website or perhaps at your local newsstand. You can also check out the Remains official website for more information.

"We are going magical now, folks."

Here are some articles and photos relating to The Beatles' television production, Magical Mystery Tour, which I think was brilliant and way ahead of its time for television in 1967. MMT is a psychedelic dadaist masterpiece, which flew directly over the heads of the Boxing Day viewers who were probably expecting a more straight-forward Christmas special. And then there was the problem of it airing in black and white...

I'm sure many fans, such as myself, would love a deluxe DVD edition with at least some of the almost 10 hours of cut footage included as a bonus. I'd especially love to see the Spencer Davis Group segment.

Record Collector: December 1988

Here is an interesting article on The Beatles' Christmas Records from the December 1988 issue of Record Collector magazine. You can click to enlarge the pages if you wish to read it. I will return to post some scans over the Christmas break. Until then, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year.

You can head over to Alison's Wonderland for an entry on the Christmas on Earth Continued festival...

Chu-Bops Bubble Gum Beatles Miniature Album Collection

Between 1981 and 1983, Chu-Bops produced 9 different series of 3" X 3" grooved bubble gum records housed in replica LP sleeves with a song lyric on the back. Each LP sold for 35 cents apiece. Series six featured Elvis Presley, series nine The Rolling Stones, and series eight covered 16 Beatles albums on the Capitol (and AHDN soundtrack on United Artists) label. Presented here are scans from my collection (thanks, Jeff) of ten different Beatles mini albums, still sealed. Looks like the White Album suffers the same fate as its vinyl counterpart - ring wear!