Wednesday, November 5, 2014

The Untrue Beatles reunion

For many years the rumor of the Beatles reunion has been around.  And it is quite a nice thought to all of fans---that the Beatles hadn't truly broken up.  That they were still making music together and having a good time.   In the 1970's the rumor that the Beatles were reuniting ran rampant.  I think all four of the guys were asked about when it was going to happen on a daily basis.    Of course after John's death, those questions mostly came to an end and then a new set of rumors began----the rumor that the Beatles secretly recorded together before John's death.

One of the most outlandish of these rumors came to light in 2003 when an auction was selling a box and a cassette that they claimed was used in the Beatles reunion recording session that happened on November 2, 1976 in a recording studio in L.A.   The auction claimed that the session, which was naturally produced by George Martin, did not go well and by the end of the 5th song, one of the Beatle members stormed out of the studio.   At the request of the Beatles, the tapes were to be deleted, except for one master tape, which Abbey Road Studios has in their vaults.  So all that was left was a box with the date and name of the songs and a blank cassette tape.   Give me a break!   Who believes this junk?



Well to help debunk this reunion rumor, the Tokyo Beatles Fan club magazine in their March 2004 issue wrote a fan story about a fan who met Paul in London on November 2, 1976!    Here is that story.




The Rumour proved to be untrue
By Kenji Maeda
Tokyo Beatles Fan club Magazine issue 31
March 2004

You should have taken by surprise when you read the newspaper on 17th December 2003.  Papers said that the Fab Four recorded five songs secretly at a studio in Los Angeles on 2nd November 1976 and they say that the tape has a credit of the names of the Beatles and five titles:  “Happy Feelings,”  “Back Home,”  “Rockin’ Once Again,”  “People of the Third World,” and “Little Girl.”
But this can’t be true.  We can prove that it was impossible for the Beatles to meet together in LA on that date.  One of our club members, Takashi Sekiya from Nagano prefecture, Japan had met with Paul McCartney in London on that day!  It was only 12 days after Paul and Wings had finished their last concert at the Empire Pool in Wembley, London (21st October).

On 1st November 1976, when visiting the Abbey Road Studios, Takashi heard from a guard that Paul was busy mixing Wings new album which later turned into the “Wings over America” album.  He waited there and saw all of the band members including Paul and Linda go into the studios.  Paul was driving a purple Austin Mini and Denny Laine was driving a Mercedes.  Takashi didn’t bring a pen to get an autograph that day.  So he decided to come back again to the studio the next day.

Paul and Linda on November 1, 1976 photographed in London


On 2nd November, Paul came to the studios alone and on foot (maybe direct from his house on Cavendish Avenue).  At the entrance, fans asked Paul why he didn’t bring Linda that day and Pau said, “she is taking care of the children.”  At last Takashi got Paul’s autograph with a doodle and it is still one of his treasures.  So it is certain that Paul McCartney was in London, not LA on 2nd November 1976!

The autograph Takashi got from Paul with doodle on November 2, 1976

Then how about the other three Beatles?   George attended a party arranged by Warner Brothers in Los Angeles on 17 November.  He may have been there in early November (He soon left LA and recorded several songs in New York with Paul Simon for the “Saturday Night Live” show on the 19th.  He later appeared in London and recorded an interview with Bob Harrison the 30th of that month).   Ringo appeared on stage with The Band in San Francisco and played drums on “I Shall be Released” on 24th November (later released as a movie “the Band/the Last Waltz”), so he could have been in the west coast in early November.  How about John?  There has been no available information about John during this period but he was enjoying the life with Yoko in New York after the long “Lost Weekend” era.  It must be hardtop imagine that he went back to LA alone (It has been said that John and Yoko dined with Carly Simon and her husband James Taylor on 31st December that year at the Shun Lee Dynasty restaurant in Manhattan). 

There has been many rumours about the Beatles.  But these rumors are not always true.  They are untrue in many cases.  But anyway, these rumours may show how the band named the Beatles is still great, after 34 years since their break-up.



1 comment:

  1. HA! The tipoff, for one, are the horrible titles! "Rockin' Once Again", yeah, right! Thanks, gave me a laugh! And what are the chances that you'd find an alibi for one of the Fab Five! (i'm including George Martin). Well...around here, on this blog....the chances are pretty good! I fancy me chances with MTBFR!

    Thank you, Sara!

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