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Author Topic: Who's the 5th Beatle?  (Read 35780 times)

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Re: Who's the 5th Beatle?
« Reply #80 on: February 09, 2008, 05:44:50 PM »

George Martin by far!
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Geoff

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Re: Who's the 5th Beatle?
« Reply #81 on: March 15, 2008, 06:30:56 PM »

There aren't any fifth Beatles, but George Martin was the person most crucial to creating their sound apart from John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Wonderfully talented producer.
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Bill Harry

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Re: Who's the 5th Beatle?
« Reply #82 on: April 28, 2008, 07:16:16 AM »

Here's a piece I wrote about Sir George:


SIR GEORGE MARTIN. The Beatles
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BlueMeanie

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Re: Who's the 5th Beatle?
« Reply #83 on: April 28, 2008, 10:52:45 AM »

Very interesting article, as always Bill. Just one point though; Real Love wasn't the flipside of Free As A Bird, but a single A Side in it's own right.
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Bill Harry

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Re: Who's the 5th Beatle?
« Reply #84 on: April 28, 2008, 12:06:14 PM »

Many thanks. I appreciate any mistakes that can be pointed out. It's invaluable.
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Geoff

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Re: Who's the 5th Beatle?
« Reply #85 on: April 28, 2008, 02:26:01 PM »

Thanks Bill; I hadn't been at all aware that Brian Epstein had threatened to pull EMI's labels off NEM's shelves if EMI didn't give The Beatles a try, or that George Martin had turned down Tommy Steele. Great article. And personally, I think of "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love" as a single myself; that's how they're stored in my computer's media library!  :)
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Bill Harry

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Re: Who's the 5th Beatle?
« Reply #86 on: April 28, 2008, 03:47:16 PM »

Dear Geoff,
While George Martin went to see Tommy Steele and didn't bother, it was Dick Rowe of Decca who went to the 2 Is and signed Tommy and he became the biggest British rock and roll star of the Fifties. I knew Dick and he told me that he had never said '"Guitar groups are on their way out" as Epstein said he did. In fact, it was to the contrary. It also wasn't Dick who turned down the Beatles, as he was accused of. Mike Smith had just joined his team which was to seek new talent and Mike auditioned two groups on the same day, the Beatles and Brian Poole & the Tremeloes. He wanted to sign them both up, but as he was new to the game, Dick said he could pick one act and Mike chose Brian Poole. This was possibly because they came from nearby Aldershot and he could get them into the studio within an hour, whereas the motorways weren't built at the time and it would have taken the Beatles eight hours to get down from Liverpool
Virginia and i were sitting behind Dick and George Harrison when they were judging a beat competition at the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool and we heard George tell Dick that they'd just been down to London and heard a great group called the Rolling Stones, who were "almost as good as our own Roadrunners." Dick left the competition and rushed down to London to sign the Stones.
Dick told me he was writing his autobiography, but died before it was finished. I've been in touch with his son, but the manuscript no longer exists.
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harihead

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Re: Who's the 5th Beatle?
« Reply #87 on: April 28, 2008, 04:19:33 PM »

Wow, the things you've seen and heard! Amazing.

Re: your George Martin article, which I very much enjoyed:

Quote
he left the company. The Beatles, who had been signed to the company by Martin with such a disgracefully low royalty arrangements, couldn
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All you've got to do is choose love.  That's how I live it now.  I learned a long time ago, I can feed the birds in my garden.  I can't feed them all. -- Ringo Starr, Rolling Stone magazine, May 2007<br />

Ligger

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Re: Who's the 5th Beatle?
« Reply #88 on: May 01, 2008, 01:44:00 PM »

Excellent chronicling of pop music history, as usual, Bill.

These three sentences alone could be the basis of two complete books:

"If the version with Ringo had not been released they would never have got away with the suggestion that it was Peter Best who was
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Geoff

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Re: Who's the 5th Beatle?
« Reply #89 on: May 03, 2008, 05:29:04 AM »

Quote from: 1062
While George Martin went to see Tommy Steele and didn't bother, it was Dick Rowe of Decca who went to the 2 Is and signed Tommy and he became the biggest British rock and roll star of the Fifties. I knew Dick and he told me that he had never said '"Guitar groups are on their way out" as Epstein said he did. In fact, it was to the contrary. It also wasn't Dick who turned down the Beatles, as he was accused of.

It's odd how things work out; George Martin turned down Tommy Steele but signed The Beatles; and Dick Rowe took the rap for a decision made by someone else before signing the other great English rock and roll band of that era himself. Those wrong decisions were reasonable calls though; George Martin's forte wasn't rock and roll, and The Beatles' audition for Decca Records wasn't such that it wouldn't have left doubts in an A & R man's mind. It's only hindsight (and lazy journalism) that makes those decisions look foolish.

Sorry to hear that Dick Rowe never lived to publish his memoir; given the time and circumstances he lived through, it might well have been very interesting indeed (and I wonder what he made of Andrew Oldham!)
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Bill Harry

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Re: Who's the 5th Beatle?
« Reply #90 on: May 03, 2008, 11:44:36 AM »

One of my all time favourite Mersey groups was the Big Three. They comprised Adrian Barber, Johnny Hutchinson and Johnny Gustafson. Adrian, of course, made the famous 'coffin' amps, and the Beatles asked him to make one for them. When they signed with Brian Epstein, he booked them for the Star cCub in Hamburg, but said that the Star Club wanted a quartet, so he supplemented the group with Brian Griffiths. Adrian told me, "We are supposed to be the Big Three, not the Big Four" and left. Brian Griffiths was a brilliant guitarist and the group didn't suffer from his presence and I thought both line-ups were great. The Beatles were a great live group when they were John, Paul, George and Pete and don't let anyone tell you different!
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Geoff

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Re: Who's the 5th Beatle?
« Reply #91 on: May 03, 2008, 04:33:20 PM »

Quote from: 1062
Adrian told me, "We are supposed to be the Big Three, not the Big Four" and left.

I love the willfulness of that; it's the exact opposite of go-along career maneuvering.  :)

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Bill Harry

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Re: Who's the 5th Beatle?
« Reply #92 on: May 03, 2008, 05:29:07 PM »

Adrian didn't do too bad. He became stage manager at the Star Club and built them an entire sound system to enable them to record the acts on stage (he did the initial Beatles at the Star Club recordings). Joeyt Dee, when he appeared at the Star Club,was so impressed he asked Adrian to do the same for the Peppermint Lounge in New York. Adrian then began to record for Atlantic Records and became recording manager for acts such as Aerosmith and the Allman Brothers Band and has now retired to Hawaii
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Hello Goodbye

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Re: Who's the 5th Beatle?
« Reply #93 on: May 05, 2008, 03:51:38 AM »

Sir George Martin

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Re: Who's the 5th Beatle?
« Reply #94 on: May 15, 2008, 08:15:33 PM »

i like to think of myself as the fifth beatle......  ;)
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Re: Who's the 5th Beatle?
« Reply #95 on: May 15, 2008, 08:16:34 PM »

hold on! who put Yoko Ono on as an option! i mean, "Oh No!" was right!
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Love the Beatles, and all shall be right.                avatar created by freakchic

BlueMeanie

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Re: Who's the 5th Beatle?
« Reply #96 on: May 15, 2008, 08:23:31 PM »

Quote from: 1062
One of my all time favourite Mersey groups was the Big Three. They comprised Adrian Barber, Johnny Hutchinson and Johnny Gustafson.

I once saw Johnny Gustafson playing in the Gordon Giltrap Band, at the Folkstone Lees Cliff Hall in about 1979. Excellent bass player.
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Bill Harry

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Re: Who's the 5th Beatle?
« Reply #97 on: May 17, 2008, 06:12:21 PM »

A Mersey musician penned the book 'Liverpool - The Fifth Beatle' and, of course, the city and the Beatles are inextricably linked. Now, although the Guinness Book of Records has dubbed Liverpool the Capital City of Popular Music, because it has had more No. 1 records than any other city in the world,  the British Arts Council is holding a vote to find which of ten cities in Britain is the one deserving of the title of most influential music city.
If you like Liverpool, do us a favour and vote for it. Go to http://www.artscouncil.org.uk and where you see the voting for Musical City, click on it and you will see ten cities listed, so click on Liverpool.
If you want more stories about liverpool, just ask me.
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alexis

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Re: Who's the 5th Beatle?
« Reply #98 on: May 17, 2008, 09:32:24 PM »

HI Bill - Yes, tell us more please ... how about what Ye Crack was like? I went there about 20 years ago and had a few pints. Maybe I saw you there!

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I love John,
I love Paul,
And George and Ringo,
I love them all!

Alexis

alexis

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Re: Who's the 5th Beatle?
« Reply #99 on: May 17, 2008, 09:36:20 PM »

How about maybe Geoff Emerick and Hurricane Smith (Norman) as the 5th Beatles?

I mean, it musn't have been easy to translate John's ignorant ramblings ("make me sound like a thousand monks chanting") into specific mic placements, compressor settings, etc. I personally don't think the Beatles would have made it without either of them ... Smith to get the amazingly energetic sounds of the early days (I Want to Hold Your Hand, She Loves You, all of A Hard Day's Night, etc.), and Emerick from then on.

Not to take away from George Martin, and he was definitely their musical mentors, but really I don't think he had much to do with the mechanics of getting the Beatles "sound" on tape as much as these guys did.

What do you guys think?
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I love John,
I love Paul,
And George and Ringo,
I love them all!

Alexis
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