How the Fab Four let it be
QUESTION
When were the first performances by former members of The Beatles after the break-up of the band in 1970? ON APRIL 9, 1970, the Beatles’ Apple organisation issued a denial that Paul McCartney had left the group. however, it was unaware of a printed interview included with advance copies of Paul’s first solo album, called McCartney, due for release the following day.
this promotional edition of the album was sent out to the Press and various broadcasting organisations a week before release and included a question and answer sheet.
the questions were prepared by Apple executive Peter Brown and it was in this interview, with Paul’s answer to question 28, that he dropped the bombshell — he was no longer a part of the Beatles.
On Friday, April 10, 1970, the Daily Mirror’s front-page story was: Paul Is Quitting the Beatles.
After the break-up, ringo Starr was the first to perform publicly, on October 1, 1970, when he recorded an appearance on Cilla Black’s BBC Saturday night variety show at the BBC television theatre in Shepherd’s Bush, West London.
he sang a duet with Cilla, a live version of Act Naturally, which he had performed on the 1965 help! album, but the show was not broadcast until February 13, 1971.
Next to perform live was John Lennon, on June 6, 1971. he and Yoko Ono appeared live with Frank Zappa and the Mothers at New York’s Filmore east.
John and Yoko were part of the encore and performed four songs which were later included on side four of John’s Some time In New York City double album.
John introduced the first song Well (Baby Please Don’t Go) as a song he used to play in the Cavern. After that first track, the rest is basically a live jam with no real gap between the three named recordings.
George harrison made his first post-Beatles public performance at the Concert For Bangladesh, held on August 1, 1971, at Madison Square Garden in New York in front of two capacity 20,000 crowds.
With millions starving in his home country, musician ravi Shankar asked George to assist him in organising a relief concert to raise funds for Unicef. In a very short time, George had got together the ‘greatest rock spectacle of the decade’ (to quote the New Musical express), including ringo, eric Going solo: George Harrison performs at the Concert For Bangladesh in 1971 Clapton, Billy Preston, Leon russell and Bob Dylan.
George invited John, Paul and ringo, but Paul declined, saying the time wasn’t right for a reunion. ringo accepted, as did, at first, John until he realised Yoko had not been invited. George performed eight of his songs including three Beatles releases: While My Guitar Gently Weeps, here Comes the Sun and Something.
Paul spent much of 1971 getting his new band Wings together and then eventually embarked on an unannounced university tour of the UK in February 1972.
On Wednesday, February 9, 1972, he and Wings played live for the first time at Nottingham University, after agreeing the concert at 5pm the day before.
the tour kicked off with a lunchtime performance for 700 curious students. After the concert, Paul, having just made his first live scheduled performance since the Beatles’ final show at Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966, was relieved by the tremendous audience response.
For the full story of the Fab Four’s lives after 1970, Keith Badman’s book the Beatles Diary Volume 2: After the BreakUp 1970-2001, is highly recommended.
graham Calkin, The Beatles UK Discography,
jpgr.co.uk, Basildon, Essex.
QUESTION
What is the origin of the word ‘intifada’? the word intifada most commonly refers to the Palestinian ‘uprisings’, the first of which exploded in the Occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza in December 1987 and lasted until 1993.
the use of the word surprised early observers, as the popular chant of that time by Palestinian guerillas was ‘ Thawra, thawra, hat-al-nast’, meaning ‘revolution, revolution, until victory’.
It was widely expected that the revolt would thus be called the thawra. intifada literally means ‘to shake’ or to ‘wake up’, and it is derived from the verb nefada, which expresses recovery or recuperation.
It suggests ‘a shaking off’, as a wet dog would shake off water or as a person might shake dust from their sandals.
andrew Platt, Canterbury.
QUESTION
In Ibiza, I saw a massive blue-andwhite boat tied up in the harbour that seemed to dwarf all the others. It had ‘Madame GU’ and ‘Georgetown’ written on it. Who owns it? the largest vessel launched by the Netherlands company Feadship in 2013, the Madame GU, is an impressive vessel that’s almost 328ft in length.
her four massive diesel engines can propel her nearly 3,000 tonnes gross weight to a maximum speed of 24 knots.
With a steel hull, aluminium superstructure and teak decks, she can accommodate 12 guests in six staterooms as well as 36 crew.
Widely recognised as one of the most beautiful vessels afloat, she won the Motor Yacht of the Year award in 2014. She is currently moored in Limassol, Cyprus.
Apart from the usual luxuries associated with such a vessel, she boasts a helicopter hangar in the bow. the helicopter with folded wings is delivered to the deck by a hydraulic helipad.
Madame GU has a tender which alone is said to have cost £6 million.
the yacht is reputed to be owned by russian billionaire Andrei Skoch, whose massive fortune (estimated at around £ 4 billion) comes from iron ore and telecoms. As a russian parliamentary deputy, perhaps Comrade Skoch is embarrassed by such conspicuous wealth and has requested that yachting registers do not link his name to the vessel.
however, in superyacht terms, Madame GU is a tiddler.
the President of the United Arab emirates has the world’s largest yacht at 597ft, but this is set to be surpassed in 2018 by a monster of 728ft.
Due to engineering limitations, it’s unlikely to be exceeded.
antony Sloan, Cockermouth, Cumbria.
QUESTION
Bruce Springsteen claims to have been the first singer to refer to cosmetic surgery in a song. Which song was it? Further to earlier replies, a tune written by tobias, Goetz & J. russell robinson in mid-1927 entitled there’s A trick In Pickin’ A Chick-Chick-Chicken laments how difficult it is to tell the age of women.
the middle eight bars of the tune state: ‘You must be wise, you must be gifted, to recognise a face that’s lifted.’
An excellent recording was made of this catchy tune by the California ramblers on edison 52043-r on June 13, 1927, in New York.
John Morphew, Wrotham, Kent.
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