Thursday, September 24, 2015

ES-Say #40 The Long And "Winded" Road To "Photograph".

As Ringo Starr appeared this month at the National Portrait Gallery in London, it was widely written that several photographic prints from his private collection would be on display. I assumed that the website for the gallery would have more information, but at the time, I found no mention of it. Related newspaper articles gave no further details beyond the naming the gallery.  It wasn't until The Macca Report identified the display to promote Starr's Photograph (Genesis, 2015) book would be in the bookstore, that I promptly got my hiney in gear to plan a visit.

I decided to go on the 22nd of September, the day after Ringo's book would be available for purchase at the Gallery. I have passed this gallery many times before, but never had any interest in going inside. The gallery is situated between Trafalgar Square and Leister Square, two areas with several popular tourist attractions. Naturally, since it was early afternoon, the Gallery was busy with visitors as I entered through the revolving doors and then hurried into the first gift shop I saw. This gift shop was located right by the entrance, so I was confused to find no Beatles portraits anywhere. I did see a couple of postcards and magnets with Beatles-related images, but nothing else. The cashier informed me that I was in the wrong place and I needed to go specifically to the gallery's "Bookshop". I quickly bought what looked like a Paul McCartney art drawing on a postcard and left to find the specific "Bookshop".
                                                                    How Obvious!

Up the stairs I ran, when I spotted the bookshop signs and found(you guessed it..) a bookshop. In the very back on the right side was the Ringo exhibit inside what was the size of a bathroom.

 19 photos in total, with 11 available for sale at £1,900 each. 8 b&w photos displayed(left side) were listed as "sold out". Each photo was either 17th or 24th out of 25 prints, with a colour 1966 India photo of John and Paul check marked twice in place of the numbered print. All the photos seemed professionally shot, rather than basically candid. I really liked about a handful of these shots and coincidentally the "sold out" collection.

I then decided to leaf through a display copy of the book, to decide if I wanted to buy the hardcover for £35. To be honest, I wasn't that impressed with the "never before seen" photos.




Let's just say, I'm not a Ringo Starr Solo Fan, and leave it at that. But, maybe I should rant a moment that this book is intended for the general public who, apparently, forgot that originally this book was offered in 2013 in signed limited edition format and touted in America for people with disposable income. Think for a minute how much a now sold-out signed leather-bound edition costs, and this £35 cardboard unsigned copy seems less attractive. In fact, the coffee-table book is decent, but it's certainly not containing rare photos anymore and the 19 photos for sale are the highlights.

As I felt my money could be better spend on other Beatles related photo books, as there are several professional ones available, my attention turned to the fact I had stumbled upon something more exciting as a Paul McCartney fan. The postcard I had bought earlier, turned out to be advertisement for a 1964 Oil painting by Sam Walsh. "Mike's Brother" as it was titled, was on display directly above on the next floor. As I dashed back out to the entrance to find a map, I had to walk up the stairs past the "Bookshop" again, to reach the Paul painted. I think I stared at the painting for a few minutes with most interest about how in 1964, Sam Walsh managed to place a lot of interest in Paul's nose with shades of  red, but the interpretation of the hair and highlights of blue defined the picture best. I was going to have to ignore the minor hiccups of the painting(like whatever miscalculation had happened in the painting with Paul's left eye, dripping of paints, on the right side.)
  

The "Bookshop" had a guide book on sale for a whopping £3! Since the painting is on display until January 2016, I can go back and buy the identical £3.50 magnet. The rest of my day was spent getting lost in London with little reason to ever ride a bike in traffic again. I had bought a few film books containing John Lennon Imagine film reviews and mentions of Paul's Give My Regards To Broad Street being a "Turkey" film of 1984. As I strapped the books to the bike, later on, I started to recognise where I had wound up on my hour of a non-magical mystery tour. You guessed right, I ended the day by bike on "Paul Street" only a five minute walk from Broadgate(aka Broad Street) and Liverpool St. Train Station.

Yeah, I really don't think I'm cut out to call myself a Ringo Starr fan. All roads lead to Paul...

Friday, September 18, 2015

ES-Say #39 The Beatles "1", for the third time, in Stereo?!?

November 6th 2015 will see the third remaster released of The Beatles  "1" (previously remastered song compilation releases in 2000 and 2011). The new material along this new release will feature each #1 charting songs' video. This new video collection is highly sought after for an official dvd\blu ray version. I'm not going to discuss these videos seeing the fresh light of day for the mass public. I feel the need(uh, the need for speed? Never mind), to discuss the fact that the new CD release for "1" has to be released three times in fifteen years.

The question is "Why"? I bought the first issue of "1" in 2000. It seems that I have taken poor care of this album. It is without a jewel case or booklet. I also suspect I left it face down on the floor rather than in a CD Wallet('member those). The bottom of the disc has some obvious scratches yet miraculously plays fine.
Luckily, listening without a booklet, I still know what each of the 27 #1s tracks are by listening. I'm playing "We Can Work It Out" from this disc, right now. I just can't understand why the production team behind this release can't "work it out" and release a suitable version. If two versions of the same CD weren't good enough, why a third?!?

Complaints from the public, apparently, about the sound quality. I'm so confused concerning the issues presented between Mono and Stereo versions, and remastering technology that I'm beyond the point of caring. These differences of sound production are important, but all I can complain about is some faint buzzing coming from the 2000 1st pressing. I could be imaging this, but I'm playing my CD on a blu-ray player and none of my mobile phones are currently vibrating as much as half these tunes are. While, I skip "All You Need Is Love" (sorry, not a big fan of this song) for "Hello Goodbye", I reflect on simpler times.

Yes, simpler times, when my Beatles collection was so rudimentary, I could fling Beatles CDs around the house without much worry. "The Beatles 1" in 2000? Whatever! I heard most of these songs regularly on the radio and there were other available CD collections, like Beatles "Red" and "Blue"(officially, 1962-1966 and 1967-1970, respectively). I don't recall ANY complaints about these two collections or even a bad word about "Past Masters volume 1 & 2". If these song versions were inferior, nobody was the wiser, until the digitally-remastered-version-for-your-pleasure popularity for CDs came about as a mandatory necessity. 

I recently found out that most or all Beatles 45 singles were originally released in Mono and the LPs had all Stereo versions. My attempts to distinguish the differences between Mono and Stereo have been mostly sided for Mono. Basically, I like the straight forward listening of Mono recording from the 60s rather than having to focus on "additional" flourishes of specific voice and instruments more detectable in Stereo recordings. In fact, if I was able to save up money, I'd easily buy "The Beatles In Mono" CD Box Set. My appreciation for Mono is partially because I nearly lost my temper listening to the heavily orchestral arrangement in Stereo for "Eleanor Rigby." All this insistence to make The Beatles sound "richer" in surround sound Stereo is lost on me, partially, because with all our "second rate" listening material prior to the year 2000.


Now, since "1" is being released again for the third time, I thought it would be good to replace my copy which I fear might break my blu-ray player any minute. Somehow, I missed the second 2011 release but it has obviously demanded another remaster from Giles Martin(George's Son,). I'm OK with the project being overtaken by the younger Martin, but I'm sure I heard that the whole album will be in Stereo, rather than this half Mono-half Stereo version I own. It's enough to tear your flip your Beatles wig. 

Sure, I went and pre-ordered the new version mostly for its videos selling point- they are going to clean up some of those videos needing to be "restored" in 2015. I'm just a bit not liking the warts-and-all of The Beatles original material being re-imagined(Ed Note: Lennon-pun, Guilty!) for a modern audience. 

Get Back, Jo Jo!

Meredith Evonne should be heard on Calico Skies Radio this week for Episode P96. Holla! (More info to relisten next week, but it's today live at 8pm EST on Wanradio from Argentina and maybe on Periscope!)


Saturday, September 12, 2015

ES-Say #38 I am not a tourist but for £6.99, I can be...
 
It's great being me sometimes!(no, not Paul, but he's great, too!)

I dragged myself out of bed this morning to head towards London. After checking a map, it seemed quicker to walk to Marylebone Station after getting off the tube at Baker Street. First, I got distracted by the long line on the road where the London Beatles Store is located. But, by now, I know better that the line is not to go into the Beatles tourist attraction. Apparently, Sherlock Holmes is a big celebrity in this area and his museum opening early on Saturday gets a crowd gathering. This crowd will stretch at least a couple doors down in front of the Beatles shop but these people dare not lose their place in line to check it out.
I jump through these detective-loving people, and head into the Beatles shop for the second time this month with one thing on my mind-a mass produced small Paul button for £1. However, three minutes later, I have walked out spending £4.50. Unlike the last time I visited, the shop now had a recent British Beatles Fan Club Magazine. Read by millions? I don't know, but I have some at home and I like some of the photos and info they contain.
                                     Can you find my new retro button? 

As it was still early when I left the store, after awhile I walked a few blocks over to find Marylebone Station where I smack myself in the forhead- I had used this station in June, completely unaware that this is where in the 60s, tons of young people were filmed chasing The Beatles through the station in the opening sequence in "A Hard Day's Night". Now, since I remembered my bearings it was time to snap some photos.

Aside from most of the buildings structure seeming original, it really didn't seem that large for a station that also has both rail and underground services. The twenty or so times I've seen "A Hard Day's Night" was not good enough for me to act all nerdy to say- "A-ha, that's the exact platform The Beatles ran on to catch the train in the movie!" It had a narrow feel to it but still quite interesting for train station architecture with the ceilings and brick design being highlights.



I didn't visit any of the station shops, I just walked through from one end to the other and didn't think to get a rail ticket(I had only been on the underground of the station before). I guess I must have been hungry because I left to find food.

Returning to Baker Street Station, I found a tourist merchandise shop outside that had a couple shelves of New Beatles goods mostly filled with coffee mugs, shot glasses, a few tote bags, and playing cards. The was a box containing only tote bags and large "Paul McCartney Way" metallic signs. I flip through and found a McCartney mounted picture frame that was held together with cheap clear tape on the black frames corners. I looked around for a salesperson as it was missing a price. A salesperson told me it was the last one and agree with my pointing out it wasn't in the best shape. I planned to spend £10 after it was checked for a price. "It was £25 but I can give it to you for £7.99..£6.99" the salesperson offered, and I quickly piped up "6.99! I'll get it". I'm pretty sure the shop thought I was a tourist with my New York accent so they just were being nice to make a sale. They even asked if I wanted it gift wrapped.

I decided to go home with my bubble wrapped cheesy frame containing two 1968 possibly-colour-copied Paul pictures and this nifty listed discography of all of McCartney Lps-
                   "Nifty" ain't the word, "inaccurate" is more like it!
So, even though "The Albums" list has several clearly wrong information(ie. Hope Of Deliverance is a song, All The Best came out in '87, etc), typos, stops at 2005's Chaos And Creation In The Backyard(Ed. Note: Happy CD 10 year anniversary, BTW!); At the very least they got his birthdate correct. For £6.99, I can't expect brilliance but shame for anyone who paid triple for this picture-that-I-can't-find-a-decent-place-for. How do you think I did storing it for now?
Hold your horses! I need to display Paul on the backs of your cavalry!

All I know is, I got a funny little collecting story that made me look like a newcomer to London, regardless of the laughable yet cute picture.

Become a Twitter follower of Meredith Evonne @GTBJ4250 and Not Saying Anything To Paul McCartney will Tweet stuff that may not be featured here. There's no "phrase that pays" but you might be happy to receive some news! 

Listen to Audio Version 12/9/15 Not Saying Anything To Paul McCartney blog by MaccaMeri #np on #SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.com/maccameri/audio-version-12-9-15-not

Tuesday, September 8, 2015


ES-Say #37 I Got Lost On Abbey Road And Broad Street (Part 2- "Abbey Road")
On my way to St. John's Wood after "Broad Street", I considered traveling to Marylebone Station. The opening sequence of  the "A Hard Day's Night" movie was filmed there. But, as it was early afternoon, I thought it might be sensible to go straight to Abbey Road before the tourist attraction got busier. I've been to the area at least a few times, but I hadn't gone there for at least two years. I thought I wouldn't remember which direction to head towards once leaving the tube station. Luckily, I found the zebra crossing right away and filmed myself on my telephone crossing the road and walking up to Abbey Road Studios.
                                                   Well done, Hoodlums! You tell 'em!

                   I stuck my camera through the railings like Ringo leaves his head there(?)

Aside from several people taking photos with the building in the background or stopping in the middle of the crossing, there was no famous people entering or exiting the studio. The huge amount of graffiti on several surround walls are layers deep between some poor attempt to cover it over with paint. I don't remember seeing clever Beatles puns on signs before to deter writing on nearby neighbours walls...
                                         I'm sorry, I should CONTINUE to write on your wall???

I decided to walk from 3 Abbey Road(the studios) to the two white fancy townhouses next door to the right. I thought that during Beatlemania that these homes were used by the Beatles at some point or Paul had lived there with Jane Asher(not true) so I snapped a picture and walked further right down the road.

                                         I'll take the building under construction please!
At this point, I kept walking away from the studios to find out how far down Abbey Road, the actual road, goes. It went on for what felt like five blocks straight passing affluent homes and places of worship before I saw a cafĂ© use "Zebra Crossing" in its name. I took more pictures of street signs but didn't know which wall was on the back of the Abbey Road album cover. I wanted to head towards Regents park, but after a few minutes I realised I had no clue where I was walking as I didn't know I was nowhere near the park. I walked back to the famous Zebra crossing to get the "front album" photo shot.
                                                   The "28 IF" White Beetle car- not found!

 I decided to leave and return to the St John's Wood Station and was directed to where to rent a bike heading towards Regent's Park. I peddled down a main road which lead into the park and I started to follow other cyclists around the outskirts of the park that I could not enter directly by bike. I wanted to go to Baker Street and after about ten minutes, I actually recognised the exit I needed to find the area. I decided to go to the London Beatles Store with the idea to not spend too much money at the tourist spot.

I've already explained my reservations about "New" Beatles goods(ES-Say #29), so I started to twitch a bit in the shop at some of the prices and items. I decided to get three post card and a button after a half hour of indecision.

   I got the Abbey Road postcard as a reminder of the day, and the rest of the items as "it's ok if I damage these things 'cause it's new goods and I hate new goods" mementos.

The day was "gear fab" and I decided to plan the trip to Marylebon for "another day"(not intended as pun, seriously!)

Ed. Note- Do what the sign says. Leave a comment below or consider leaving your facebook name to join the FB group for extra material and updates.
https://soundcloud.com/maccameri/not-saying-anything-to-paul -for an AUDIO VERSION of this entry.

Monday, September 7, 2015


Es-Say #36 I Got Lost On Abbey Road And Broad Street (Part One- "Broad Street")


Panic On The Streets Of London-Broad Street Station replaced by Broadgate development(left) across from Liverpool St. Station.

A couple of nights ago, I was poking around the internet trying to learn more about the real Broad Street train station(as in the McCartney film "Give My Regards To Broad Street"). Lots of things in England that I want to visit are usually huge commutes that take hours to get to. It turned out that Broad Street Station was under my nose for years as I have been to the site many times without knowing, and is only 20 mins by rail! The reason I didn't know it was located right next to Liverpool Street Station in London, is because it was demolished in 1987. R.I.P Broad Street Station.

Yesterday, with it being Sunday, I knew that the area would be pretty dead as Bishopsgate, is usually mobbed with people trying to get to work during the week, but on the weekend, most of the office buildings and some businesses are closed. Liverpool Street Station is less crowded and especially in the morning, so it seemed like a good opportunity to go on a wacky pilgrimage. Also, I had another excuse to practice my new interest in bike riding, around parts of the city with less traffic.

I was sure before I raced over to the Broad Street Station area that it would be underwhelming. I had read that the Broadgate development(office buildings and restaurants) was built over the whole site of the old station that had been open for 120 years with nine rails, finally couldn't stay afloat in modern times with improvements in transportation in the area. Even Paul's film from 1984, filming in the station and name checking "Broad Street" in the film's title, did little to stop the station becoming defunct two years later and gone for good in 1987.    

The first thing I did when I arrived at the area was to walk around the neighbouring streets of  the Broadgate site. I found Old Broad Street, New Broad Street, and Broad Street Avenue. None of these streets are actually found on the Broadgate(ex. Broad Street Station entrance) but basically across the road from the start of Broadgate, bunched together and consisting of a few roads(as mentioned) with what looked like some homes or businesses. I should have paid more attention to its details to tell you what is located there, but I seemed to be interested in taking photos of all the street signs. I did notice down one of these roads that the new Cross Rail project being built seemed to be going right through the area leading into Broadgate.

The next place I wandered around was the Broadgate development. It felt erie and grey but featured a circle with a layer below street level of closed restaurants with an area used as an ice rink in the winter. The best part was a bronze statue called "Rush Hour" of several commuters heading towards what can be implied as Broad Street but could be mistaken as Liverpool Station as the title plaque says nothing to remind people the area was once for the Broad Street Station. I wanted to say "what gives?" over at the Broadgate Welcome Centre, but it was closed. After wandering around this plaza in the center of where Broad Street Station entrance used to be, it's difficult to miss the 55ft steel Fulcrum art, said to be taken from part of the Kings Viaduct South which the Broad Street trains crossed to connect directly into the North London Railway.

Try not to slam into this when leaving the part of Liverpool Street Station which was extended over the Broad Street Station site. 
After I left the main Broadgate development, I was on Sun Street and rented a Santander bike to try and find the next point located further north of Liverpool Street Station called "Broadgate Tower". It took a few minutes to find but I had to get off my bike as no cycling was allowed. Weekend maintenance workers and strangers hanging out there freaked me out and I had to get out of the square-mile area as walking straight through led to stairs heading down. But, I still got a photo and moved on to riding the main roads.
Pay no attention to the blogger's fashion sense for travel, focus on the sign...you are getting sleepy...

Basically, I then rode parallel north of Broadgate Plaza, in some attempt to follow the Broad Street train line that didn't seem to show up anywhere, but then I turned left found this along the presumed path of the North London Railway.

I understand that these train cars were used on the Kings Viaduct leading to Broad Street
and/or were used on the Jubilee underground tube line, but it whatever their history they now sit as art on top of a studio building. Seeing these cars were good enough for me as I turned back South and found a bike docking station to return the bike and continue on foot. In this area I found the University Of Liverpool In London and Broadgate Quarter, a section of buildings divided by a long strip of well maintained lawn and shrubs- Oh,happy day!(not really).

At this part of the adventure, I decided to get back on the tube at Mooregate Station because I figured out that by now I  had walked east of Broad Street Station(I'm sick of calling it Broadgate development). Stay tuned to Part 2, Abbey Road in the next ES-Say.

Ed Note- Yesterday, somehow, I got several web hits from Portugal, but I do not know Portuguese, but Muito Obrigado, Portugal! Of course, I say "thank you" to anyone reading "Not Saying Anything To Paul McCartney" as I appreciate your readership(?)

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Listen to Audio version of "Not Saying Anything To Paul McCartney" blog 7\9\15 by MaccaMeri #np on #SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/maccameri/audio-version-of-not-saying

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

ES-Say #35 "You don't think, Paul, would go and do a stupid thing like that?"

The song release of "No More Lonely Nights" back in September 1984 to accompany the theatre release of "Give My Regards To Broad Street", gets my vote for being the most gruelling single to collect. I honestly now need a checklist to figure out how many different versions of this song are available. I recently had a similar problem counting the amount of single versions of 1982's "Tug of War" and "Take It Away" that had been released over the last 33 years. But, "No More Lonely Nights" takes the prize for multiple back-to-back different versions of the same song within a few months.

 I have to briefly explain that some of these versions were edited for different audio formats on the Broad Street soundtrack albums(LP, CDs, Cassettes) due to including clips of film dialogue. That's another conversation(yes, it is!). I'm only going to moan about the song as a stand along single. At the moment I have four LP versions plus the Holland 45rpm(same track listing as one of the UK versions).
Apologies, someone thinks "foot bombing" my photo is the hight of comedy...

There are some other of the single versions of the song on the Holland 1993 cd. All of this was pretty much fine and dandy, with my thought that the DJ copy of the "Mole Mix" was the hardest one to acquire valued around £250, but I've got a CD-R copy of that for the moment.
This past holiday weekend, I went with the "Photo Foot Bomber" to a relatives home. After about a half hour, I remembered that a vinyl copy of a McCartney single was on "Now 4" (a compilation series up to around Now 90) stored under the relatives old record cabinet. "Cool, it's got 'No More Lonely Nights' on it!", I said as I waved it around the room. But, no, it wasn't cool as I read the liner notes and found out there wasn't a playing time listed for the song.

Beep a duck, this was a version I had heard of and didn't have. This information is slightly incorrect because the Arthur Baker remix (AKA Special Dance Mix) was not on the original soundtrack(LP & Cassette). It would have been straight from a fifth version of the Lp single. I was kindly pemit to take "Now 4" home to figure out how long the song was on my own record player.
This version(Special Dance Mix) is supposed to be 4:21 mins long. I played the Lp along with the "same"  Holland CD version. Turns out the Holland CD version is not 4:21(as listed), it's 4:18 and :06 longer than the "Now 4" version. These amazing :06 whole seconds features basically a "Yeah Baby!" and as a result makes the "Now 4" 4:12 version...yet another version. 

Sure, I wanted to fling the LP out the window, but even Wikipedia's listing of the Special Dance Edit and Special Dance Mix is incorrect(Now 4 calls it the "Mix" but that's the actual "Edit" at 4:12, making the incorrectly named "Edit" the "Mix" at 4:18 or 4:21, for a few seconds of dead air.)

Are you still with me? I don't want to make declarations yet about the "Playout" versions, but the roundup of the different single versions can be summed up in the following way-It's Exhausting!
         My "No More Lonely Nights" singles now horrid foot-free

Basically, 
1.the radio version was released as the 4:30 min-ish "Ballad" version
1a. Somehow the Ballad is slammed together with a re-recording of "Silly Love Songs" (don't ask).
2. a 5 min-ish "Playout" version, 8:10 min-ish "Extended Version" 3. that 4:12-ish Arthur Baker(Special Dance Edit) and
4. 4:18 Arthur Baker(Special Dance Mix)
5. Another nearly 7 mins of an Extended Playout Version(it's listed wrongly as the Extended Version, and can't be correct as it's over a minute shorter than the 8:10 actual extented version)
6. The nearly 9 min Mole Mix.

Actually, it does look like I made some "Playout Version" declarations. I think I need both a metal and a monument for trying to untangle those versions.

Did I mention the mis-printed label version? Well, that doesn't change the song lenghts to even count at all. Some of these versions(as mentioned) were edited for the soundtrack releases, but as I mentioned also about the 1993 track listing error, It's a timing issue of editing official single releases rather than actual new versions.

No more lonely nights? Of course not, I've got a foot and vinyl singles to keep me company! (Help!)