Welcome to the Beatles Cinematic Universe. Continuing the current wave of music biopics — which just saw its most recent box-office triumph with Bob Marley: One Love — director Sam Mendes (Skyfall) has signed on to helm not one, but four separate Beatles biopics, all due in 2027. The movies, set to begin production next year, will each focus a single Beatle’s perspective, so John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and even Ringo Starr each get a turn in the spotlight.
It might seem like overkill, but as we discuss on the...
It might seem like overkill, but as we discuss on the...
- 3/4/2024
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
In the latter half of the 1960s, George Harrison began writing more songs for The Beatles. While he hadn’t had much interest in songwriting early in the band’s career, he took it more seriously in later years. He was so dedicated to songwriting that he wrote one song while reeling from jetlag.
George Harrison wrote 1 Beatles song while suffering from jetlag
In 1967, Harrison traveled to Los Angeles with his wife, Pattie Boyd, road manager, Neil Aspinall, and friend, Alex Mardas. He went from the airport to his rental home, where Beatles press officer Derek Taylor was due to meet him. Taylor was running late, though.
“By the time we got there the song was virtually intact,” Taylor said, per the book A Hard Day’s Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song by Steve Turner. “Of course, at the time I felt very bad. Here were these two...
George Harrison wrote 1 Beatles song while suffering from jetlag
In 1967, Harrison traveled to Los Angeles with his wife, Pattie Boyd, road manager, Neil Aspinall, and friend, Alex Mardas. He went from the airport to his rental home, where Beatles press officer Derek Taylor was due to meet him. Taylor was running late, though.
“By the time we got there the song was virtually intact,” Taylor said, per the book A Hard Day’s Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song by Steve Turner. “Of course, at the time I felt very bad. Here were these two...
- 2/18/2024
- by Emma McKee
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
In the late 1960s, George Martin, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, among others, began voicing their concerns about someone working with The Beatles. “Magic” Alex Mardas was one of Apple Corps’ earliest employees and a friend of John Lennon. He promised them unique electronic decorations and improved recording equipment. The band enlisted him to build them a shiny new studio, a project Harrison later described as a complete disaster.
George Harrison said Magic Alex Mardas was a disaster in the studio for The Beatles
As an Apple employee, Mardas grew familiar with The Beatles’ recording equipment and told them it was terribly out of date. Per the book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, Mardas began telling them he could design a seventy-two-track studio that would be more advanced than any existing studio.
John Lennon, Alex Mardas, Paul McCartney, and Les Anthony | Mirrorpix via Getty Images
This was nowhere near the truth.
George Harrison said Magic Alex Mardas was a disaster in the studio for The Beatles
As an Apple employee, Mardas grew familiar with The Beatles’ recording equipment and told them it was terribly out of date. Per the book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, Mardas began telling them he could design a seventy-two-track studio that would be more advanced than any existing studio.
John Lennon, Alex Mardas, Paul McCartney, and Les Anthony | Mirrorpix via Getty Images
This was nowhere near the truth.
- 10/4/2023
- by Emma McKee
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
In 1968, John Lennon wrote “What’s the New Mary Jane?,” a song that became known as one of The Beatles’ strangest. They had been experimenting more with their music in the second half of the 1960s, but this song seemed to take it too far for Lennon’s bandmates. It did not appear on the White Album, but that didn’t stop Lennon from trying to release it. He decided to put the song out with the Plastic Ono Band, but his Beatles bandmates didn’t let him.
John Lennon wanted to release a Beatles song, but his bandmates refused
In 1968, Lennon wrote the avant-garde song “What’s the New Mary Jane?” He wrote the song with engineer Alex Mardas, who Lennon called “Magic Alex.”
“This was a thing I wrote half with our electronic genius Alex [Mardas],” Lennon said, per Beatles Bible. “It was called ‘What A Shame Mary Jane...
John Lennon wanted to release a Beatles song, but his bandmates refused
In 1968, Lennon wrote the avant-garde song “What’s the New Mary Jane?” He wrote the song with engineer Alex Mardas, who Lennon called “Magic Alex.”
“This was a thing I wrote half with our electronic genius Alex [Mardas],” Lennon said, per Beatles Bible. “It was called ‘What A Shame Mary Jane...
- 6/26/2023
- by Emma McKee
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Cynthia Powell and John Lennon met when they were in art college. They fell in love and were married for six years. Two years prior to the end of their marriage, John met artist Yoko Ono, who began pursuing him passionately. John and Cynthia’s marriage ended after Cynthia found John at home with Yoko. That night, the scorned wife slept with one of John’s best friends, Yannis Alexis Mardas (aka Magic Alex). Or did she? It depends who you ask.
Cynthia and John Lennon | Ncj-Topix/Ncj Archive/Mirrorpix via Getty Images Cynthia Lennon discovered John with Yoko after a trip with Magic Alex
Cynthia Lennon went on a two-week trip to Greece with “Magic Alex” (who earned his nickname thanks to his electronics wizardry) and Jenny Boyd, whose sister Pattie was then married to George Harrison.
When the three of them arrived at John and Cynthia’s home at Kenwood,...
Cynthia and John Lennon | Ncj-Topix/Ncj Archive/Mirrorpix via Getty Images Cynthia Lennon discovered John with Yoko after a trip with Magic Alex
Cynthia Lennon went on a two-week trip to Greece with “Magic Alex” (who earned his nickname thanks to his electronics wizardry) and Jenny Boyd, whose sister Pattie was then married to George Harrison.
When the three of them arrived at John and Cynthia’s home at Kenwood,...
- 4/23/2023
- by Kelsey Goeres
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
John Lennon and Cynthia Lennon got together when they were teenagers, before John blew up from Beatle fame. Though John had been unfaithful throughout their time together, it was when Cynthia walked in on John and Yoko Ono that put a definitive end to their marriage. Here’s what happened that day.
Yoko Ono and John Lennon | Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images Cynthia found John with Yoko after arriving home from vacation
Cynthia had suspicions about Yoko, but she wasn’t sure about them until she walked into her and John’s kitchen after returning home from a vacation to find her sitting with her husband on the floor amidst piles of dirty dishes. It was May 1968.
Cynthia had been on a two-week vacation in Greece with one of John’s friends nicknamed “Magic Alex” thanks to his electronics wizardry and Jenny Boyd, whose sister Pattie was then married to George Harrison.
Yoko Ono and John Lennon | Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images Cynthia found John with Yoko after arriving home from vacation
Cynthia had suspicions about Yoko, but she wasn’t sure about them until she walked into her and John’s kitchen after returning home from a vacation to find her sitting with her husband on the floor amidst piles of dirty dishes. It was May 1968.
Cynthia had been on a two-week vacation in Greece with one of John’s friends nicknamed “Magic Alex” thanks to his electronics wizardry and Jenny Boyd, whose sister Pattie was then married to George Harrison.
- 4/17/2023
- by Kelsey Goeres
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
After John Lennon and George Harrison promptly fled the ashram of guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi after hearing a rumor, the two Beatles tried to make amends with the spiritual leader. However, The Beatles’ stay in Rishikesh left a bad taste in Maharishi’s mouth. According to a new book, the spiritual leader couldn’t find it in his heart to forgive the singer-songwriters.
John Lennon, George Harrison, and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi | Keystone/Getty Images Why John Lennon and George Harrison quickly left Maharishi Mahesh Yogi during The Beatles’ stay in India
In 1968, Maharishi invited The Beatles to learn Transcendental Meditation at his ashram in Rishikesh, India. The group mainly agreed because they needed spirituality at the time. Their manager, Brian Epstein, died the year before, and they lacked direction.
However, things at the ashram soured quickly. According to John’s wife, Cynthia, “Magic” Alex Mardas, an inventor and Apple Corps employee,...
John Lennon, George Harrison, and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi | Keystone/Getty Images Why John Lennon and George Harrison quickly left Maharishi Mahesh Yogi during The Beatles’ stay in India
In 1968, Maharishi invited The Beatles to learn Transcendental Meditation at his ashram in Rishikesh, India. The group mainly agreed because they needed spirituality at the time. Their manager, Brian Epstein, died the year before, and they lacked direction.
However, things at the ashram soured quickly. According to John’s wife, Cynthia, “Magic” Alex Mardas, an inventor and Apple Corps employee,...
- 2/25/2023
- by Hannah Wigandt
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
The clarity of Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back brings a lot out in the mix. Audiences can see chord changes and teary eyes. Members of The Beatles’ inner circle also make appearances. Peter Brown, who was Brian Epstein’s assistant, pops by with papers. Longtime friends Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans, the managing director of Apple and the band’s road manager, respectively, stick around to make sure the band is getting what they need, while co-producer and engineer Glyn Johns does the same for the audio. Jackson also gives hazy focus to the man who disturbed the sound, Yanni “John” Alexis Mardas, better known as “Magic Alex.”
In The Beatles: Get Back, Magic Alex develops, designs, and delivers a state-of-the-art recording console, which creates far too much hum to be usable in recordings. He also gifts John Lennon with the prototype of a combination rhythm guitar and bass.
In The Beatles: Get Back, Magic Alex develops, designs, and delivers a state-of-the-art recording console, which creates far too much hum to be usable in recordings. He also gifts John Lennon with the prototype of a combination rhythm guitar and bass.
- 12/1/2021
- by Mike Cecchini
- Den of Geek
“‘Forrest Gump’ with a mantra” — that’s the underlying premise, in a nutshell, of “Meeting the Beatles in India,” which has filmmaker Paul Saltzman recounting the week he spent hanging with the Beatles under the tutelage of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi during their famous sojourn to the ashram in 1968. Saltzman has a tale to tell in having been nearly the only non-entourage-member along for the enlightenment alongside the Beatles for that legendary spiritual/media event. By virtue of the camera in his backpack, he also ended up being a house photographer, too… although he forgot about the wealth of stills in his basement for several decades afterward, maybe offering proof that there’s such a thing as too much meditation.
It’s all good reason enough for Saltzman to turn the camera on himself and a few choice expert witnesses here, even if none of the anecdotes or insights are especially profound.
It’s all good reason enough for Saltzman to turn the camera on himself and a few choice expert witnesses here, even if none of the anecdotes or insights are especially profound.
- 9/10/2020
- by Chris Willman
- Variety Film + TV
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