Beatles Bits: Weekly news roundup

The Las Vegas Sun details the spruced up version of the Beatles' "Love" show.

The 10th anniversary celebration with Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison is this July, and we want to use the new technology and projection and choreography that wasn’t available to us a decade ago.

We looked at it color-wise, happy-wise, also of what we can give back and take the show even higher. It’s true that we have taken many steps. We’re touching everything, so there will be a lot of new projection content. We also have new images of The Beatles that we didn’t have 10 years ago.

We didn’t have archives of The Beatles themselves, and that went into the show now because we have that confidence with ourselves, Cirque and Apple. That relationship is one that has gone very well, so those possibilities are there now.

In a separate story, Giles Martin details some of the show's musical upgrades.

Is “I Am the Walrus” really working? What if we put “Twist and Shout” here? I played the music to Paul — he never understood why “Walrus” was there anyway. He said, “It’s not in the context.” So we thought let’s put in “Twist and Shout.” It’s a very vibrant song.

Giles also mentions in the story that he's currently working on the music featuring in Ron Howard's upcoming documentary about the Beatles' live performance years.

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A great story about a prank George Harrison played on Phil Collins.

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Via Meet the Beatles for Real: When Paul McCartney returned to the Cavern - 1968.

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A Kenyan nature conservancy has named a baby rhino after Ringo Starr.

Three years ago, to help bring awareness to the battle against poaching, Ringo changed the main page of his website to the photo of a baby rhino. With Ringo's name, this baby rhino -- and many others -- might have a little better chance of survival.

... Much to our delight, Ringo Starr replied that he'd be honored to have a baby rhino named after him and could help us spread the word.

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The man who designed the posters for most of the Beatles' significant Merseyside shows is creating one to celebrate the Cavern Club's 60th anniversary.

Tony Booth, who is now 82, was discovered by Beatles manager Brian Epstein on Whitechapel when he was in his early 20s, and he went on to create some of the promotional material which helped to launch their early careers.

...He said: “I hand-painted most of The Beatles gig posters during the early 60s, but the posters also included many other top groups of the time, including Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Undertakers,  the Big Three, the Remo Four – the list is endless.”

 
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Ringo Starr's Twitter account was hi-jacked by pranksters last weekend, resulting in one message saying "f*** the Beatles" and another suggesting One Direction's was "a bit smelly."

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In more humiliating Beatles news, Paul McCartney was turned away from a Grammys after-party hosted by Tyga because he wasn't recognized by bouncers.

Paul was joined by Beck and Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins as he got turned away, after which he could be heard joking while sharing his surprise.

'How VIP do we gotta get? We need another hit, guys. We need another hit,' the music icon said, jokingly adding: 'Work on it!'

Tyga, whoever he is, later tweeted:

"Why would I deny @PaulMcCartney stop it. He's a legend," he wrote. "I don't control the door. I had no knowledge SIR PAUL was there. I just performed and left."

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A funny story from Giles Martin, who'd stuck a news article about his involvement in the Beatles' "Love" show on his refrigerator.

“A few months ago, my housekeeper pulled the story off the fridge and read it,” Martin said, laughing. “I come home, and she says to me, ‘You know Paul McCartney?’ She seriously had no idea who I was or what I did, and she’s been working for me for more than a year.”

“Then she says, ‘I walked by Abbey Road (studios) and saw where they walked across the street (for the “Abbey Road” cover shoot) and saw the outside of the studios,’”

Martin said. “I said, ‘You know, you can go inside. You can tour it.”

So Martin wound up taking his housekeeper on a tour of Abbey Road. She was positively thrilled.