Latest news with #post-Beatles
The Guardian
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Borrowed Time: Lennon's Last Decade review – reverential reminiscence takes its time
We have recently seen a slew of intriguing movies about John Lennon's post-Beatles existence: The Lost Weekend: A Love Story, about Lennon's brief relationship with his assistant May Pang, and Kevin Macdonald's excellent archive-clip-collage study One to One: John & Yoko. Now here is a lengthy and self-consciously reverential film, which is sadly the weakest of the group. It doesn't quite get to grips with the implications of its own title (was Lennon on 'borrowed time', exactly, in the 1970s?) and there's an awful lot of hot air from an awful lot of talking heads in its lengthy running time, some of whom are regaling us with less-than-premium-quality anecdotes – often just beamingly recalling the pinch-me moment they actually met John Lennon and, wow, he said hi and they couldn't believe it. The film covers the whole period from Lennon's arrival in New York right through the decade, the solo albums, quarrels with Paul, protests, interviews, joint ventures with Yoko, the struggle to get a green card, the 'lost weekend' with Pang, and finally his murder at the time he was planning an ambitious new global tour. Beatles-expert veterans like Ray Connolly and Philip Norman offer their reminiscences, along with broadcasters like Andy Peebles, Bob Harris and Tony Palmer – but, frankly, there are no alpha-level surviving intimates of Lennon. Obviously, there's food for thought here, a fair bit of wheat among the chaff: I didn't know that John Lennon did a special concert in New York with Tom Jones and Peter Sellers called A Salute to Sir Lew Grade, which is the kind of detail that would appeal to Beatles obsessive Craig Brown. One interviewee had an overhead view of Lennon's dead body on the sidewalk from his apartment window and, believing that a photo would be in bad taste, he instead did an eerie on-the-spot painting of the grim scene – which the film shows. And it's still a strange moment to see the TV news interview with Paul McCartney reacting at the time, clearly in shock, nervously chewing, appearing to be casual and even callous. I think Lennon himself might have been impatient with some of the piety here, but it's always interesting and sincere. Borrowed Time: Lennon's Last Decade is in UK cinemas from 2 May.
USA Today
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
John Lennon, Yoko Ono's son says new film feels like 'extra time' with his dad
John Lennon, Yoko Ono's son says new film feels like 'extra time' with his dad Show Caption Hide Caption 'One to One: John & Yoko' replays Lennon and Ono's benefit show John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged a benefit show for the children of Willowbrook in 1972, which is seen anew in "One to One: John & Yoko." In 1972, the FBI tapped John Lennon and Yoko Ono's phone at the request of Richard Nixon, who worried Lennon might undermine his reelection bid. The paranoid president couldn't have anticipated that the couple's son would be thrilled to hear the captured conversations. 'Growing up without my father, most of my experience of him has been through videos and film and music,' Sean Ono Lennon says. 'So I always feel like I'm gaining extra time with him. It was really great fun to hear the audio calls. It's nice because it's so candid and unfiltered.' Those phone calls − some amusing, others goosebump-inducing − are at the center of the new documentary 'One to One: John & Yoko' (exclusively in IMAX theaters Friday, in theaters everywhere April 18), which culminates in a benefit concert that would be Lennon's only full-length post-Beatles show. 'Yoko': The biggest reveals in the new Yoko Ono biography Sean Lennon − who has produced the music for a Record Store Day EP and a box set to mark Lennon's 85th birthday on Oct. 9 − describes it as 'an unmanicured window into their lives during a very tumultuous but also very creative time period.' By the early '70s, 'my parents had fused into a superorganism. Everything they did, they did together; all the songs they were writing were together. It was a team of two,' he says. 'This film represents the reality of that moment in time very faithfully and accurately.' 'One to One,' directed by Kevin Macdonald, follows John and Yoko as they align with Jerry Rubin and other leaders of the radicalized left. Plans are hatched for the couple to head the all-star Free the People tour, with a final stop at the Republican National Convention. Ultimately, the two peaceniks grow uncomfortable with the potential for violence and call the whole thing off. Join our Watch Party! Sign up to receive USA TODAY's movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox Instead, as John and Yoko lose hope for the movement, they decide to perform a pair of charity shows at Madison Square Garden, with proceeds providing individualized care for the disabled children of Willowbrook State School, whose heartbreaking plight was exposed by Geraldo Rivera. 'In a way, the film is about moving past political defeat to improve the world in small ways around you,' says Macdonald. For Sean, the lesson is that 'you lose the moral high ground when you become violent yourself. You see my parents realizing that some of the people who were supposed to be fighting for justice were turning into monsters themselves. ... As soon as you try to make your point through violence, you've lost the argument. "My parents were always very conscious of spreading messages of positive change and peace and love." Perhaps just as radically for the era, 'One to One' depicts John Lennon completely committed to supporting his wife in her endeavors, including attending the First International Feminist Conference alongside her. One revelation that will surprise fans is that the couple's move to America and John's fight for his green card were almost entirely driven by their efforts to regain custody of Ono's young daughter, Kyoko, after ex-husband Tony Cox fled with her. 'Imagine being a mother whose daughter has been kidnapped and you're searching everywhere and you can't find her and nobody seems to (care),' Macdonald says. 'That moment where she sings 'Don't Worry Kyoko' and screeching and writhing is one of the most amazing moments in the film actually, when you understand that's about her pain at losing her daughter. 'This is a human tragedy that allows you an access to Yoko and her feelings that I don't think people have been previously willing to take on board.' Yoko and Kyoko reunited a decade and a half after Lennon's murder. 'Like me, (Kyoko) was exposed to the limelight and celebrity culture when she was very young, and she had a very hard time,' Sean says. 'I love her very much, and I'm just grateful that life has made it such that we're able to spend these years together, because we didn't get to when I was a kid.' Amid an era of eerily parallel political upheaval, Ono, now 92, lives a quiet retirement. ('I'm trying my best to take care of her,' Sean says. 'She's doing well, considering her age.') Would Lennon be doing the same, if he were alive? 'John was nothing if not progressive, and I think he would have made his opinions clear about authoritarianism around the world and the move to the right in America,' Macdonald says. 'He would have been outspoken, he was always brave. … Sometimes it comes across as naivete, but there's an enthusiasm for improving himself that's endearing.' For Sean's part, 'I've spent most of my life trying to avoid speaking for him. But I do believe that one thing that was consistent about my dad intellectually and artistically, he was never the same from one year to the next. His mind was always evolving, he was always discovering new ideas and inspiration. 'Whatever you think John Lennon would think today is probably not it. He was always changing his mind. He would probably surprise you because he always surprised everybody.'
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sean Lennon says his parents John and Yoko were ‘the first power couple'
Musician Sean Lennon, the son of late Beatles star John Lennon and his wife, fellow musician Yoko Ono, has suggested his parents were the first true 'power couple'. John and Yoko are the subject of a new documentary from Kevin Macdonald that explores their relationship and work around the time that John was organising his only full post-Beatles concert at Madison Square Garden in 1972. The film, which was made with the cooperation of Sean, Yoko and the Lennon estate, includes extensive archive footage along with audio recordings of interviews and private phone calls. 'Anyone who pays attention to John and Yoko in the latter part of The Beatles, and then together through the Seventies, can see that my dad had this feeling that John and Yoko had sort of fused into one person,' Sean told The Telegraph in an interview this week. 'He had all these terms [such as] 'JOKO'! He said that they were one, and there should be one word: JohnandYoko.' 'I think a modern psychologist might say that [my dad] was a bit co-dependent,' he continued. But the reality is, he didn't want to individuate any more. 'They were the first power couple, like Brangelina or whatever. He wanted them to be an institution beyond just marriage and family. He wanted them to be an artistic union, a political union, a romantic union.' The documentary also delves into the racism and hatred Yoko received from Beatles fans and members of the public who blamed her for breaking up The Beatles. In 2021, Yoko appeared to agree with fans who suggested that Peter Jackson's three-part documentary, Get Back, had helped to dispel this notion, as archival footage showed her sitting quietly reading the newspaper or knitting while the band are at work. 'The thing with Yoko, though, that they have to say, is that she doesn't impose herself,' Jackson pointed out in an interview with 60 Minutes. 'She's writing letters, she's reading letters, she's doing sewing, she's doing painting, sometimes some artwork off to the side.' In an interview with BBC Radio 6 Music last year about the Grammy-nominated expanded box set edition of John's 1973 album, Mind Games, Sean discussed the influence his mother had on his father's work. At the time he was writing his fourth solo album, Mind Games, John was in the middle of his famous 18-month separation from Ono, a period referred to as the 'Lost Weekend'. 'A lot of people said like, 'Yoko wasn't around for this record, why are they featuring her in the booklet' or something,' Sean began. 'And I think there's a lot of history, there's a lot of assumptions made about that time period because they were sort of on their way towards that famous separation that people call the Lost Weekend. 'But the truth is, even when they were apart they were always talking, so I don't think they ever really broke up, all his stuff was still in the apartment with my mum. It's not like they had a real separation. And on top of it, all my dad was thinking about was her.' He pointed to the album artwork for Mind Games: 'It's a collage of my mum literally the size of a mountain, and he's this little tiny thing sort of fading into the background. 'And I think it's clear what his view of my mum was in his life. She was monumental, obviously. And the whole album is about her.' One to One: John & Yoko shows in IMAX exclusive previews on 9 and 10 April – and is in cinemas nationwide from 11 April.
The Independent
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Sean Lennon says his parents John and Yoko were ‘the first power couple'
Musician Sean Lennon, the son of late Beatles star John Lennon and his wife, fellow musician Yoko Ono, has suggested his parents were the first true 'power couple'. John and Yoko are the subject of a new documentary from Kevin Macdonald that explores their relationship and work around the time that John was organising his only full post-Beatles concert at Madison Square Garden in 1972. The film, which was made with the cooperation of Sean, Yoko and the Lennon estate, includes extensive archive footage along with audio recordings of interviews and private phone calls. 'Anyone who pays attention to John and Yoko in the latter part of The Beatles, and then together through the Seventies, can see that my dad had this feeling that John and Yoko had sort of fused into one person,' Sean told The Telegraph in an interview this week. 'He had all these terms [such as] 'JOKO'! He said that they were one, and there should be one word: JohnandYoko.' 'I think a modern psychologist might say that [my dad] was a bit co-dependent,' he continued. But the reality is, he didn't want to individuate any more. 'They were the first power couple, like Brangelina or whatever. He wanted them to be an institution beyond just marriage and family. He wanted them to be an artistic union, a political union, a romantic union.' The documentary also delves into the racism and hatred Yoko received from Beatles fans and members of the public who blamed her for breaking up The Beatles. In 2021, Yoko appeared to agree with fans who suggested that Peter Jackson 's three-part documentary, Get Back, had helped to dispel this notion, as archival footage showed her sitting quietly reading the newspaper or knitting while the band are at work. Enjoy unlimited access to 100 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up 'The thing with Yoko, though, that they have to say, is that she doesn't impose herself,' Jackson pointed out in an interview with 60 Minutes. 'She's writing letters, she's reading letters, she's doing sewing, she's doing painting, sometimes some artwork off to the side.' In an interview with BBC Radio 6 Music last year about the Grammy-nominated expanded box set edition of John's 1973 album, Mind Games, Sean discussed the influence his mother had on his father's work. At the time he was writing his fourth solo album, Mind Games, John was in the middle of his famous 18-month separation from Ono, a period referred to as the 'Lost Weekend'. 'A lot of people said like, 'Yoko wasn't around for this record, why are they featuring her in the booklet' or something,' Sean began. 'And I think there's a lot of history, there's a lot of assumptions made about that time period because they were sort of on their way towards that famous separation that people call the Lost Weekend. 'But the truth is, even when they were apart they were always talking, so I don't think they ever really broke up, all his stuff was still in the apartment with my mum. It's not like they had a real separation. And on top of it, all my dad was thinking about was her.' He pointed to the album artwork fo r Mind Games: 'It's a collage of my mum literally the size of a mountain, and he's this little tiny thing sort of fading into the background. 'And I think it's clear what his view of my mum was in his life. She was monumental, obviously. And the whole album is about her.'
Forbes
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Paul McCartney's Wings Album Soars More Than 5,000% In Sales
Paul McCartney's Venus and Mars charts again in the U.S. after a massive 5,435% sales spike, which ... More comes via a remastered vinyl edition. LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 18: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Sir Paul McCartney performs at The O2 Arena during his 'Got Back' world tour on December 18, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by) Paul McCartney doesn't need to release anything new to bring himself back on the Billboard charts, though, of course, he's not yet done creating. The legendary musician appears on a pair of rankings this week — not under his own name, but rather with the moniker he used during one of the most successful periods of his post-Beatles career. As fans raced to get their hands on a reissued version of a decades-old title, the beloved project experiences a surge in sales. Wings's Venus and Mars is back on two Billboard charts. The full-length reappears on the Vinyl Albums tally at No. 23 and also lands on the Top Album Sales ranking, where it settles at No. 45. The set isn't brand new, but now it's back in the conversation in the music industry, if only for a short time, as interest in the collection grew exponentially. Venus and Mars is now back among the bestselling vinyl titles in the U.S. for just the second time ever. It once climbed as high as No. 11 on that ranking, nearly giving Wings a top 10 on a list that didn't even exist when the album first arrived.. Over on the Top Album Sales tally, the collection has only spent a total of three frames as one of the top-selling releases in the country. The highest it's ever climbed on that chart is No. 31, so while this latest return at No. 45 doesn't mark a new peak, it's also not too far from it's best showing. According to Luminate, Venus and Mars sold 2,500 copies in the U.S. in the most recent tracking week. That's a strong number for a reissue of an album that's been around for decades — and especially notable given how little it moved just a week prior. In the previous frame, the set couldn't even manage 100 copies. That means that from one span to the next, the Wings title enjoyed a sales spike of 5,435%. The Venus and Mars surge can be attributed to a recent reissue that targets McCartney's most devoted supporters. The full-length was re-released on vinyl in a half-speed remastered form, which may not sound like a major change, but it was enough to grab the attention of collectors and audiophiles alike. While the music remains largely the same, the format offers improved sound quality and a what must be a unique listening experience. Venus and Mars originally arrived in 1975, following Wings's breakout success with Band on the Run. The set includes the beloved singles 'Listen to What the Man Said' and 'Letting Go,' and it showed that post-Beatles, McCartney was still able to craft big wins and critical favorites – ones that have clearly stood the test of time.
