Latest news with #Beatles'
Boston Globe
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Does live music at Logan baggage claim actually make us feel better about the wait? Our critic went to find out.
'I wrote this song on my way here,' the man joked and launched into a reggae beat, cheerfully belting out one of the most famous choruses in the English language. 'Don't worry/about a thing/'Cause every little thing/gonna be alright...' Advertisement You may have heard about this -- live music at two Logan baggage claim areas this summer. It's Massport's idea to 'reduce travel stress,' according to an official announcement. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The experimental program, which runs through August, when officials will decide whether to make it an ongoing thing, has already been met with skeptical grumbles, including from The Globe's Full disclosure: This isn't my usual beat. I usually review classical music, where performances are generally staged in quieter venues with refined acoustics – hardly the case here. But I also play in two bands, I've busked with my accordion, and I do travel from time to time. I appreciate both a good bar act and the hell that can be a bad day of travel. And I wondered if those experiences might actually mesh. Advertisement On this muggy July evening at Terminal C, I have to say that it kind of worked. The musician, a guitarist named Mike Weidenfeller, strummed his way through mild uptempo covers; familiar songs seemingly meant to soothe. And he easily worked the frazzled crowd. 'Are you from Boston?' he asked a group of women passing before him with large rolling suitcases. 'Yes,' one of them replied. 'Welcome back,' he said. And then, when they said they had just come from Aruba: 'In that case, I'll say I'm sorry!' Weidenfeller jammed his way through another reggae standard, Beres Hammond's 'I Feel Good,' and a woman skipped across the terminal, her henna-red hair flying. 'It's a party now,' he said with a smile. Then something else caught his eye: 'Oh, that's a nice reunion over there.' cq A goldendoodle had spotted his 'granddad' sitting on a bench, and gone into a tail-wagging frenzy. As Weidenfeller strummed the Beatles' 'The Long and Winding Road,' the dog leaped into the man's lap and licked his face. cq It was a Kodak moment, and for the people I talked to, at least, the music added a friendly feel and helped to uncoil a little tension. 'It kind of adds a nice charm now that we're all stuck here waiting on our luggage,' said Jennifer Stacey, cq who was returning to her southern New Hampshire home after a vacation in Aruba. 'I hope it takes off.' Still, I have to wonder if the same would be true in truly trying travel circumstances – like the time I was stranded overnight in New York's John F. Kennedy Airport terminal after being forced to gate-check my carry-on between Los Angeles and Boston. The amenities included nonfunctional power outlets and arctic-blast air conditioning in rainy October. Over the PA, a soft-pop playlist including Paula Cole's 'I Don't Want to Wait,' Daniel Powter's 'Bad Day,' and Fergie's 'Big Girls Don't Cry' mocked me as I roamed the long concourse, unable to sleep through the sensory barrage. Sometimes big girls do cry. If I'd heard ' Don't worry/about a thing…' the next morning when my suitcase failed to appear on the Logan baggage carousel, I probably would have spontaneously combusted. Advertisement For musicians, playing Logan is a unique experience. The logistics of booking and scheduling performers this summer are being handled through Gigs4U, a Seattle-based agency that already books musicians at SeaTac International And Fall River-based singer-songwriter Brandon Furtado, 29, who played on the pilot program's launch day, said his set went well. 'I'm always trying to find new places to play, so that was a cool experience for me,' he Furtado is accustomed to playing in neighborhood hangouts, and at baggage claim, he found that 'people are kind of trying to get their stuff and go. Maybe you don't get as much engagement, so you have to work a little harder to acknowledge people and get their attention.' From a financial perspective, it mattered less whether people stopped to listen; the Live at Logan musicians cannot collect tips, but they receive $200 for each performance, with parking covered. cq The only tough part was playing to a largely-vacant room much of the time, Furtado said. 'There was one group of people that arrived, and it was kind of empty afterwards.' cq Advertisement One important point: not everyone in this captive audience is necessarily a traveler. As Weidenfeller played on that recent night, Security guard Pax Brown Johnson, cq of Milton, sat on a bench as she waited for her overnight shift to begin, enthusiastically greeting her co-workers as they passed by and clapping after every song Weidenfeller played. The music helped her feel more relaxed, she said, even when 'you feel so discouraged.' cq She hoped they'd bring the music to the departure level, so more people might appreciate it. Maybe she'd even be able to hear it from her station at the secure area's exit door. She'd like that, she said. In the meantime, she knew what she wanted to hear. 'Play 'Don't Worry About a Thing!'' she urged Weidenfeller. cq An hour had passed since he last played 'Three Little Birds.' No one who had heard it earlier was still around. He played it. A.Z. Madonna can be reached at
Euronews
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
Beyoncé's unreleased music stolen during 'Cowboy Carter' tour
Hard drives containing unreleased music from Beyoncé have reportedly been stolen out of a rental car at the singer's Cowboy Carter tour in Atlanta. Local authorities received reports of theft from a vehicle on 8 July – two days before the first of her four concerts in the city. The vehicle in question was rented by Beyoncé's choreographer Christopher Grant, who had arrived in Atlanta early to prep for the singer's mini-residency. Along with the unreleased music on five thumb drives were footage, show plans and concert set lists. Two MacBook laptops, Apple headphones, as well as luxury clothing and accessories were also reported stolen. The Atlanta Police Department said in a news release on Monday it has secured an arrest warrant for a suspect whose identity was withheld. Beyoncé kicked off her tour in late April, taking her Grammy-winning album 'Cowboy Carter' to stadiums in the US and Europe. Her record-breaking album made our Best Albums of 2024 list, in which we said: "Beyoncé's 'Cowboy Carter' lassos American country music's stale stereotypes in a powerful reclamation of the genre's Black roots. (...) It's a topic that's addressed from the outset: 'AMERIICAN REQUIEM' is a slow-burning choral rebellion against outdated, racist ideologies that seek to pigeonhole artists and erase those that contributed to a genre purely because they don't fit its heavily politicised image. The rest of the 27-track album is a tour de force of tearing it all apart, melding genres and utilising the familiar (on tracks like Beatles' cover 'BLACKBIIRD') to remind listeners of the ways in which Black peoples' stories have been claimed by white people." Beyoncé will end her tour with two Las Vegas nights on 25 and 26 July.
Glasgow Times
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
George Harrison's Beatles-era photos to be released in new book The Third Eye
Random House announced that The Third Eye, which includes more than 250 black and white and colour images, is scheduled for autumn 2026. Harrison's widow, Olivia Harrison, compiled and curated the book, which covers the years 1963-69 and includes photos of The Beatles everywhere from their native Liverpool to India to Shea Stadium. George Harrison with his wife Olivia (PA) 'I want to show people, from George's unique photographic perspective during the Beatles' early years, the moments when the whole of your life is ahead of you with unknowable possibilities,' Olivia Harrison said of her late husband, who died in 2001, in a statement released by Random House. 'His images in The Third Eye capture that spirit.' The Harrison book features essays by Olivia Harrison and by two celebrated literary authors: Irish novelist Colm Toibin, a former chancellor of the University of Liverpool, wrote the introduction, and American short story writer George Saunders contributed an epilogue. The Third Eye also includes George Harrison's words alongside his pictures. Fellow Beatles Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Ringo Starr have also released photo books. Sir Ringo's Photograph, also the title of a hit song written by Sir Ringo and Harrison, came out in 2015. In 2023, Sir Paul published 1964: Eyes Of The Storm.
South Wales Guardian
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- South Wales Guardian
Cedar climbed by Beatles and oak in Woolf poem among Tree of the Year nominees
Voting opens on Friday for the Woodland Trust's annual competition, which aims to celebrate and raise awareness for rare, ancient or at-risk trees across the country. The winner will be announced in September and will progress to represent the UK in the European Tree of the Year finals. Ten nominees from across the country have been chosen to meet this year's theme of 'Rooted in Culture', which seeks to highlight how trees inspire creative minds and become ingrained in our cultural landscape. As voting kicks off, Dame Judi Dench, who is patron of the Woodland Trust, said: 'Our oldest trees hold more stories than Shakespeare; some were putting down roots long before he began writing, more than 400 years ago. 'They are as much part of our heritage as any literature. 'I hope you will join me in voting.' A panel of experts selected nine trees of differing ages and species for the shortlist, while the public chose a 10th as a wildcard entry. This year, David Treanor, from Glasgow, put forward the 'Argyle Street Ash', pointing to its reference in James Cowan's 1935 book, From Glasgow's Treasure Chest, as 'quite the most graceful ash I have seen'. The shortlist also includes the Borrowdale Yews in Cumbria – a huddle of ancient trees described by William Wordsworth in his 1803 poem 'Yew Trees'. The Beatles' cedar tree in Chiswick, which is around 300 years old, was nominated given that the band perched on one of its low-swooping boughs in a video for their song Rain in 1966. The King of Limbs in Wiltshire made the list after Radiohead named their 2011 album after the ancient oak, which they spotted when recording at nearby Tottenham House. Also nominated is the Tree of Peace and Unity in County Antrim, Northern Ireland – a lime formed of two trees that grew together into a single trunk and became a symbol of reconciliation when leaders met there in 1998 at the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. The nominated Lollipop Tree on Salisbury Plain played a starring role in the final scenes of Sam Mendes's First World War film 1917 and the Lonely Tree in Llanberis, Wales, may feature in Netflix's upcoming series of The Witcher. And the Knole Park Oak in Kent, thought to be Britain's tallest at 135 feet, made the list as the tree believed to have inspired an epic poem in Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando. Voting is open until September 19 via the Woodland Trust website, with a winner to be announced on September 26. Laura Chow, head of charities at People's Postcode Lottery, which is supporting the competition, said: 'These trees have witnessed key moments in history, provided solace to war poets, been a supporting artist in a blockbuster film, and inspire reflection and creative photography as the seasons change.' 'We're looking forward to seeing which one the public votes as the winning tree'.
North Wales Chronicle
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- North Wales Chronicle
Cedar climbed by Beatles and oak in Woolf poem among Tree of the Year nominees
Voting opens on Friday for the Woodland Trust's annual competition, which aims to celebrate and raise awareness for rare, ancient or at-risk trees across the country. The winner will be announced in September and will progress to represent the UK in the European Tree of the Year finals. Ten nominees from across the country have been chosen to meet this year's theme of 'Rooted in Culture', which seeks to highlight how trees inspire creative minds and become ingrained in our cultural landscape. As voting kicks off, Dame Judi Dench, who is patron of the Woodland Trust, said: 'Our oldest trees hold more stories than Shakespeare; some were putting down roots long before he began writing, more than 400 years ago. 'They are as much part of our heritage as any literature. 'I hope you will join me in voting.' A panel of experts selected nine trees of differing ages and species for the shortlist, while the public chose a 10th as a wildcard entry. This year, David Treanor, from Glasgow, put forward the 'Argyle Street Ash', pointing to its reference in James Cowan's 1935 book, From Glasgow's Treasure Chest, as 'quite the most graceful ash I have seen'. The shortlist also includes the Borrowdale Yews in Cumbria – a huddle of ancient trees described by William Wordsworth in his 1803 poem 'Yew Trees'. The Beatles' cedar tree in Chiswick, which is around 300 years old, was nominated given that the band perched on one of its low-swooping boughs in a video for their song Rain in 1966. The King of Limbs in Wiltshire made the list after Radiohead named their 2011 album after the ancient oak, which they spotted when recording at nearby Tottenham House. Also nominated is the Tree of Peace and Unity in County Antrim, Northern Ireland – a lime formed of two trees that grew together into a single trunk and became a symbol of reconciliation when leaders met there in 1998 at the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. The nominated Lollipop Tree on Salisbury Plain played a starring role in the final scenes of Sam Mendes's First World War film 1917 and the Lonely Tree in Llanberis, Wales, may feature in Netflix's upcoming series of The Witcher. And the Knole Park Oak in Kent, thought to be Britain's tallest at 135 feet, made the list as the tree believed to have inspired an epic poem in Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando. Voting is open until September 19 via the Woodland Trust website, with a winner to be announced on September 26. Laura Chow, head of charities at People's Postcode Lottery, which is supporting the competition, said: 'These trees have witnessed key moments in history, provided solace to war poets, been a supporting artist in a blockbuster film, and inspire reflection and creative photography as the seasons change.' 'We're looking forward to seeing which one the public votes as the winning tree'.
