Oscar winning filmmaker Peter Jackson has collaborated with The Beatles for the upcoming documentary, The Beatles: Get Back, due out in August, 2021.
Get Back looks at the Fab Four in 1969 and 1970, when John Lennon, Paul McCartney,George Harrison and Ringo Starr were preparing for their first live show in two years, showcasing the camaraderie and spirit between them, as they wrote and rehearsed 14 new songs.
The film draws from 56 hours of previously unseen footage of the band, shot by Michael Lindsay-Hogg in 1969, and includes more than 150 hours of audio. Also included in the documentary is the band’s final live performance as a group in London, England.
Paul McCartney said in a tweet:
Peter Jackson has released an exclusive sneak peek of his upcoming documentary “@TheBeatles: Get Back” for fans everywhere to enjoy.
In a video message, Jackson introduced an extended preview, noting that the film was due to be finished by now, but has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying “Hopefully it will put a smile on your face in these rather bleak times that we’re in at the moment.”
Jackson’s native New Zealand has COVID-19 under control, leading him to be able to resume work on the film. He stresses that the video shared is not a trailer, but a montage of scenes so far collected for the film, set to a rehearsal recording of the movie’s title track.
The Beatles: Get Back will be released with a new book of the same name, the first official book credited to the band since 2000’s The Beatles Anthology. The new book will be out on August 31, 2021, and features an introduction by Hanif Kureishi.
The Beatles: Get Back will open in theaters on August 27, 2021.
Wu Tang Clan released “Hi,” a new single alongside Texas, on Tuesday, December 1.
Recognized as one of the pioneers of the grimy, raw, hard-nosed sound, Wu Tang Clan’s status as international stars is not to be underestimated. They were synonymous with New York for almost three-decades. Their reputation as one of the most influential factions in Hip Hop history has seen their popularity soar in nations throughout the world, one being Scotland.
It was February 9, 1998, when Clan members Method Man and RZA joined Scottish pop-rock outfit, Texas, on stage at the Brit Awards in London. The two factions were performing the remix to the latter’s top 10 UK charting single, “Say What you Want.” Now, over twenty years later, the two groups have collaborated on another trans-cultural record, “Hi.”
Featuring RZA, Ghostface Killah and with vocals from Sharleen Spiteri, the record came about during RZA’s time in Glasgow. Whilst the Clan head honcho was filming a documentary, he connected with Spiteri and subsequently contributed a verse the Wu Tang Clan track, “Hi.”
A fast-paced alternative record, the music video opens up with Top Boy actor, Kadeem Ramsay, watching footage of their iconic performance at the Brit Awards. The television then segues into a more recent interview between RZA and Spiteri in which they discuss their yearn to work together again. Ramsay’s character is a super-fan of the two groups, as his room is filled with posters, memorabilia, as well as a shirt with a picture from the 1998 Brit Awards plastered on it.
Throughout the Wu Tang Clan “Hi” music video, he is seen performing routine tasks such as; picking out an outfit, driving his car and getting a tattoo. It is revealed that he kidnapped Spiteri in an attempt to get the two groups to collaborate once again. Spiteri responds by facetiming RZA, and after a short conversation, he obliges to the request. Spiteri and Ramsay then share a smoke, as she lightly ridicules his poor attempt at tying her up.
Music venues and theaters throughout the UK turned their lights red to support the many music industry workers who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. Similar to America’s #SaveOurStages campaign, the UK has #WeMakeEvents to call upon support for the music industry across the pond.
Red lights shown at the Tate Modern and Millennium Bridge.
As a part of the Red Alert movement, a march in Manchester, England on Aug. 11 took place dubbed #WeMakeEvents. Among famous musicians who showed support for the movement were Leona Lewis, Doves and New Order.
Both the Red Alert movement and #WeMakeEvents focus on raising awareness to the live music industry falling apart. This was due to not having live shows during the pandemic. Although artists were hurt from the concert losses, so were the crew members.
According to BBC, “Producers, engineers, tour managers, security staff, truck drivers and cleaners also marched past some of Manchester’s closed venues.”
The Royal Albert Hall joined the Red Alert movement and tweeted about their support as well.
Our events rely on countless suppliers, manufacturers and freelancers and we will all need to work together to make the shows of the future.
Following an early report from The Sun on Tuesday, BBC Radio 2 is reporting this morning that Genesis will perform together again for the first time in 13 years but without Peter Gabriel. The trio of Phil Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford confirmed the reunion on Zoe Ball’s BBC Radio 2 show. The trio will be joined by Collins’ 18-year-old son Nicholas, who will fill in for his father on drums, who had suffered nerve damage during Genesis’s 2007 tour and, like it or not, casted his future of drumming into limbo.
“We all felt, ‘Why not?’” Collins told BBC News. “It sounds a bit of a lame reason – but we enjoy each other’s company, we enjoy playing together.”
Instead of throwing it all away, Nicholas’ presence as drummer at Collins’ solo shows helped inspire the reunion, according to Banks. “He can sound like Phil and it gave us a whole idea of how we could do it, because we knew Phil couldn’t be the drummer on the road again,” said the keyboard player.
Before this, it seemed as if there was never a time that the trio would reform to bring hits like “Invisible Touch,” “I Can’t Dance,” and “Land of Confusion” back around, but they’ll kick off their ‘Last Domino?’ tour in Dublin, Ireland on November 16. They’ll also play two nights at London’s O2 Arena, as well as dates in Liverpool and Glasgow.
“I’m looking forward to doing it,” said Rutherford. “I worked it out and we’ve only done two shows in the UK in the last 28 years, so we haven’t overworked it.”
Founding member Peter Gabriel, who left the group in 1975, will not be taking part, and guitarist Steve Hackett will also miss the shows.
“Peter left the band 45 years ago and he’s been trying to live it down ever since,” said Banks. “When they put his birthday in The Times, they always say, ‘Peter Gabriel – Genesis singer.’ And I think, ‘What’s the guy been doing since then, for God’s sake?’” Banks said it wouldn’t make sense to bring Gabriel back because “most of the songs people know” came after his departure, but added,”We love Peter.”
The band, founded at Charterhouse School in Surrey in 1967, has gone on to have international success recording 15 studio albums and six live ones and selling at least 100 million worldwide. They have had 21 Top 40 hits and six number one albums. But they have not performed together since 2007, when they marked their 40th anniversary with the Turn It On Again Tour. Tickets will go on general sale at 9am on Friday, March 6.
Dating back to the late 1800s, the blues have set a musical foundation for many to grow on. From Memphis to Chicago, and Leadbelly to B.B., a great debt is owed to those 12 bars. Giles Robson is just one of those musicians who has drawn from this enduring musical genre. Originally from Jersey in the Channel Islands (a British Crown dependency) and now living in France, he is a Blues Foundation Blues Award winner and the first British or European artist to appear on the prestigious Alligator Records blues label. I had the opportunity to sit down with this harmonica-touting blues man recently as the New Year began, after he wrapped up a 5-day promotional showcase introducing himself to the U.S. – a tour that included his debut American performance at the Colony, in Woodstock, NY.
Bruce Katz, keyboards; Antar Goodwin, bass, Ray Hangen, drums; Giles Robson, harmonica; Aaron Lieberman, guitar; at Colony, Woodstock N.Y.
A disciple of the blues, his beliefs are straightforward, “I am under the opinion that the blues is the most incredible, communicative music in the world. So simple, yet it has so much feeling. I feel fortunate I fell in love with it and progressed in it.”
His journey into music started with the violin at age seven, then on to the saxophone three years later “because I watched a lot of old movies when I was ten or eleven year old,” Robson shares. “They always had the big bands, and I really fell in love with the swing horn lines.” While on a school art trip to Spain, he picked up his first blues harp. “I (had) heard it on the theme tune to Roseanne, a guy named John “Juke” Logan, and I heard Will Smith play it on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. I was intrigued by it. When I got back to Jersey, it just so happened that there was an African-American harmonica and guitar duo, Cephas and Wiggins, playing within a week of getting back. My parents sent me to see them and the rest is history. I just got hooked.”
Formal training helped prepare Giles for his foray into the blues. “My sax teacher was an acid jazz player and got me playing Charlie Parker heads (challenging melodies) and showed me the basics of improvisation. So when I started playing harp, I had that little bit of knowledge to help me out.” When it came to learning the harmonica, “I was teaching myself,” Giles divulges, “I would pretend I was a member of the Muddy Waters band and I would play the same solo along with the record, over and over again. “
I am under the opinion that the blues is the most incredible, communicative music in the world. So simple, yet it has so much feeling.
Giles Robson
Giles Robson, pre-show at Colony, Woodstock N.Y.
His efforts took hold and in 2007 Giles Robson and The Dirty Aces stepped onto the European music scene, receiving praise in the UK press. “That was an interesting band,” he notes. “I was trying to do a crossover with lots of different elements in it. I was trying to be as original as possible. But I realized my strength was in doing the blues, the pure blues with a little twist. I was getting too rock for blues and too blues for rock. It showed me what can and cannot work. “
After three recordings with The Dirty Aces, Robson signed with V2 Records in Holland. Now a solo artist, For Those Who Need the Blues was later made. “ We recorded that album in six hours. This was my return to the pure blues,” he professes. With a new record in hand, he was booked at an upcoming festival in Holland under the name Giles Robson and The Dirty Aces. “They were expecting this garage rock. I went over with the band I had just recorded with and did the pure blues. The people went crazy. From that moment on things changed around for me.”
Giles Robson, Colony, Woodstock N.Y.
Reflecting on that moment of musical purification, “The blues is always there, and it needs to be. I met a lot of people on this (current) tour that told me that they got into this music as they got older. Once you get to 40, you’ve probably been through several life events that the blues tackle. Divorce. Relationships. When you’re in your early twenties, pop music works because you’ve not been through any of that heartbreak and such. When you get older you’ve been through it. It’s not a shallow thing. You can’t help but think about things in your life that blues sings about.”
In December 2017, while performing at a festival in Europe, Robson crossed paths with Grammy-nominated, W.C. Handy Award-winning blues guitarist Joe Louis Walker. Walker saw his performance earlier that day and invited him up to jam during his set. “We got on musically very well. Then we talked for hours after the show about lots of blues music,” Giles recalls. A few months later while touring around Europe and listening to acoustic blues while traveling between shows, Robson started thinking, “I’d love to do an album with someone who could really do this (acoustic blues) music justice, and then the idea came, it was Joe. ”
Recording session for Journey To The Heart Of The Blues
“I wanted to hear his voice, which is one of the most incredible voices in the blues,” Robson declares. “I wanted to hear his voice without a band behind him, in an intimate situation. I wanted my harmonica next to that voice. I contacted him and he was very keen on it. It was a beautiful experience.” Journey To The Heart Of The Blueswas the end result of this homage to acoustic blues, garnishing a 2019 Acoustic Album of the Year Blues Music Award. Bruce Katz (Gregg Allman, Ronnie Earl, Delbert McClinton, John Hammond,) joined the pair on piano for the recording sessions. “Joe brought Bruce in, an excellent sort of foil for the music. He is a funky player, but has this level of finesse that gave it an extra depth and added synergy in the studio.” Alligator Records picked up the album and it was tracked and mixed at NRS Recording in Catskill, NY for distribution in the U.S.
I was teaching myself … I would pretend I was a member of the Muddy Waters band and I would play the same solo along with the record, over and over again.
Giles Robson on learning to play the harmonica
“The beauty of the blues,” Giles lauds, “is the people already know the chord changes. They are really familiar with it and you put in your own individual harmonica style, or song style, or lyrics. It’s a magical thing. Sometimes musicians lose their way with the music because the technical ego takes over. They say on something as simple as that, I have to do something more complicated. As you get older, it becomes a lot easier to be naturally simple. Just do what is able.”
Don’t Give Up On The Blues artwork
His latest recording, Don’t Give Up On The Blues, which came out late September 2019, isa shift from Journey to the Heart of the Blues. Robson puts it this way, “I wanted to do original songs with blues structures. We’ve got original riffs in there, but we wanted to respect the structure and rhythm of the blues.” Capitalizing on their previous success, Bruce Katz joined on for this project. “Bruce is incredibly versed in the traditions of the piano.” Expanding on the approach to the album, “We didn’t use an out and out traditional guitar player or traditional bass player. We didn’t want to be too fussy about it. It is an album that has both the traditional and a splash of dirty.”
Bruce Katz, keyboards; Aaron Lieberman, guitar; Giles Robson, vocals/harmonica
As part of the Robson’s showcase tour, Don’t Give Up On The Blues was presented front and center. Backed by Bruce Katz on keyboards, Aaron Lieberman on guitar, Ray Hangen on drums, Antar Goodwin on bass, (who all played on the album) and joined by special guest vocalist Katie Henry, Giles and crew showed why this latest recording has been called, “Retro. Timeless with an edge of modernity so the sound is relevant and fresh today,” by the UK’s Bluesdoodles.com. I attended the Colony show in Woodstock, NY, where the music expanded and contracted throughout the set, allowing each song the opportunity to offer it’s own blues narrative. As the New Year begins, Don’t give up on the Blues continues to chart high on American and European blues radio.
Giles Robson, Aaron Lieberman; Colony, Woodstock
When it comes to blues harp influences, Giles points to the Chicago players. “All of them,” he says. “Everyone has their own distinct style. Some are very simple but still captivating. Some are very technically advanced and still captivating. They all had feeling and emotion. It’s pretty miraculous what they did with the instrument. The two main guys were Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson for me. I listen to them almost on a daily basis. “
The blues are based in suffering and heartache, but for Robson’s blues, 2020 is looking bright. A new record getting global recognition combined with a touring schedule filled with club and festival dates across the US and Europe, it will be hard to find a downside for this rising blues man. Perchance you run into Giles out on the musical highway, take a moment and imagine you’re both in a James Bond movie. “How would you like your blues, Mr. Robson?” “Pure. Not stirred.”
With each new year comes the promise of new music, and this year is also the start of a new decade. To usher in the new era, musician Jake Bellissimo has collaborated with legendary composer Gerald Busby on a new song, “The Budding of The Rose.” The song is from Bellissimo’s new album The Motion That We Make, which is set to release later this month.
Formerly of Rochester, NY, Bellissimo has been living in Berlin, Germany. The song is a cross-Atlantic effort with Bellissimo providing lyrics, and Busby setting them to melody and composing music for viola from his home at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City. The resulting song is sublime. The ardent love song traipses through a sonic garden of delight. It’s contemporary, yet timeless and classic.
Busby has resided at the Chelsea since 1977, when his mentor Virgil Thompson procured him a room. A child prodigy, he was playing with the symphony by the age of 15. He started composing later in life, and debuted professionally when he wrote the score of Runes for choreographer Paul Taylor’s dance company. He’s best known for writing the music for Robert Altman’s acclaimed movie 3 Women.
Bellissimo, in addition to being a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, runs the label Drunk With Love Records. The Motion That We Make is a contemplation on motion, mortality, and coincidences. It is a reflection on the places they’ve been and the people they’ve loved, and those they’ve lost. Watch for the release on January 24 on Drunk With Love Records.
