Meet the Beatles for Real: BBC

Showing posts with label BBC. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 22, 2026

Paulie the Kidd

Paul with Johnny Kidd and Mick Green of The Pirates. Most likely taken September 3, 1963 because that is when Johnny Kidd and the Pirates were also on Pop Goes the Beatles on the BBC.

Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Beatle Blasts Radio 1 Ban (1996)

Beatle Blasts Radio 1 Ban

No author listed

March 11, 1996

Paul McCartney today hit out at Radio 1 bosses who have banned the Beatles' new single from their playlist. The Beatles are at number four in the charts with " Real Love " despite the BBC's refusal to play the track on its prime shows. They claim the single "lacks merit" and is a turn-off to young music fans.

Multi-millionaire McCartney says, "If Radio 1 feels we should be banned, it's not exactly going to ruin us overnight. But as I see it, Radio 1 is part of the BBC, and the BBC is paid for by you and me.

"I can afford the license fee, but from my time growing up in Liverpool, I know a lot of people have to work damn hard to find the cash."

McCartney accused the station's "kindergarten kids" of being out of touch with the audience they were trying to woo after losing some 5 million listeners in recent years. McCartney said, "You can't put an age limit on good music. Just because I don't suffer from teenage spots doesn't mean I can't play the guitar any longer. I'm forever reading how bands like Oasis are openly crediting the Beatles as an inspiration."

Monday, May 26, 2025

Paul chats up a bird in the background

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Guarded outside the BBC

May 13, 2010

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

The Beatles BBC Archives (1962-1970) - A Book Review

I recently read the book The Beatles BBC Archives (1962-1970) by Kevin Howlett, which I should have read 10 years ago when I first got the book. What stopped me from reading it all these years? The weight of the book -- it is one of those heavy, hardback Beatles books. I flipped through it many times, but never actually read it cover to cover. That is until now. I discovered that it was a book I could borrow with my "Kindle Unlimited" subscription, so I read the ebook version. (More on that to come).

I have always loved the Beatles' 1994 Live at the BBC album. (And for those of you who are old-school Beatlelegers, the Great Dane set!) There are so many great songs on that album that you can't find anywhere else: Solider of Love, I'll Be on My Way, So How Come No One (Love Me), Don't Ever Change, etc etc etc. What really amazed me after reading this book is realizing that the Beatles were on a time crunch to get these songs recorded for the BBC and many of them were done in one take. All of the performing in Hamburg allowed the Beatles to go into the BBC studio and sing a song they had sung live without any problems.

This book chronicles every BBC appearance of the Beatles from 1962 to 1970 and includes transcripts of many excellent, rare interviews with them. The photos in the book aren't rare, but they are gorgeous!

Kevin Howlett is the Beatles BBC expert. He has previously written books on the subject, and you can hear him on the Beatles Sirrus XM channel talking about the BBC sessions. He had access to the BBC files and vault and gave a great history of how the Beatles shows on BBC (Pop Go the Beatles, From Us To You) happened and about the relationship between the Fabs and host Brian Matthews. It is a super fun book and a must-read if you are a fan of the early Beatles (which I hope you all are!)

As I mentioned, I read the ebook on Kindle, which was nice as I traveled on an airplane. However --- be warned that if you read the Kindle version of the book, you will NOT be able to read the letters and documents on your e-device. They look very blurry and distorted. The photographs look great, but everything else is not legible. Thankfully, I bought the hard copy of the book a long time ago, and once I got home, I took it out and read those documents in the book.

This book was published before Live at the BBC 2 was released, so it could use an update on what songs are available, but that doesn't stop the book from being a must-read. Have you read this book? What did you think?

https://amzn.to/4aHnfId

If you want to purchase this book from Amazon, please consider using this link. Any purchase made through the affiliate link earns this site a small percentage of the sale. All money earned goes toward the annual fee to keep this site online. I will be paying the fee in about 1 month and I am $3 short of having the full amount--- so please help if you want. Thanks!