THE ANTHOLOGY (Room 513)
THE ANTHOLOGY (Room 513)
After the Beatles broke up in 1970, Neil Aspinall, the Head of Apple, began working on a definitive rockumentary about the history of The Beatles. It was originally given the title of ‘The Long and Winding Road’. The concept was that The Beatles would tell their own story, debunking a number of myths along the way. There was talk of it being released in the late 1970’s but ultimately it remained on the shelf. Just when everybody thought it had gone away forever… there was an announcement from Apple that it would be finally released in 1995 to commemorate 25 years since the break up of the group. This created a media frenzy especially when it is announced that George Martin was going to dip into the vaults of EMI, Apple, and the private collection of each individual Beatle to provide an accompanying audio release. Eventually the film was given the title ‘The Anthology’ and there were to be three double CD albums released which in turn concentrated upon the formative years, the 65–67 and later Apple years respectively. If media interest was intense it literally exploded with the news that Paul, George, and Ringo (dubbed The Threatles) were reuniting for one last time to create some new music for the film. Initial hysteria was tempered somewhat by the announcement that anything new would merely be incidental music and would not include any new songs. However it became quickly apparent that the three were working on a number of John’s half completed demos with the intention of turning them into brand new Beatles numbers. The three demos that Yoko had handed to Paul were ‘Grow Old With Me’, ‘Real Love’, and ‘Free As A Bird’. It was the latter two that were eventually re-worked and released as new singles. The hype and heightened expectations continued unabated for a number of weeks. The ABC TV trailer for the Anthology declared, “The most anticipated event in 30 years (sic) – an event no-one thought would ever happen – two new Beatle songs.”
The biggest security operation ever undertaken by EMI ensured that nobody heard the finished masters until Monday November 20th 1995 (UK time) early hours of the morning. Everything seemed to stop momentarily as the world held it’s collective breath and when people first heard ‘Free As A Bird’ a common response was floods of tears, as the years rolled back to more innocent and optimistic times. The album went on sale the following day, with shops opening up at midnight to be the first to sell it. Sales were predictable phenomenal and remarkably Anthology 1 became their biggest ever success with 20-million world wide sales. The 6-hour film was shown over a number of nights by various TV networks and Anthology 2 and Anthology 3, the follow up double albums also recorded massive sales. Somewhat belatedly, as Pete Best played on many of the early songs on Anthology 1, he received royalties believed to be in the millions. Paul summed it up when he remarked that the world had waited for the next act who would prove to be bigger than The Beatles and it had happened. The Beatles had become bigger than The Beatles!!
Artwork painted and owned by ©SHANNON
THE ANTHOLOGY (Room 513)
After the Beatles broke up in 1970, Neil Aspinall, the Head of Apple, began working on a definitive rockumentary about the history of The Beatles. It was originally given the title of ‘The Long and Winding Road’. The concept was that The Beatles would tell their own story, debunking a number of myths along the way. There was talk of it being released in the late 1970’s but ultimately it remained on the shelf. Just when everybody thought it had gone away forever… there was an announcement from Apple that it would be finally released in 1995 to commemorate 25 years since the break up of the group. This created a media frenzy especially when it is announced that George Martin was going to dip into the vaults of EMI, Apple, and the private collection of each individual Beatle to provide an accompanying audio release. Eventually the film was given the title ‘The Anthology’ and there were to be three double CD albums released which in turn concentrated upon the formative years, the 65–67 and later Apple years respectively. If media interest was intense it literally exploded with the news that Paul, George, and Ringo (dubbed The Threatles) were reuniting for one last time to create some new music for the film. Initial hysteria was tempered somewhat by the announcement that anything new would merely be incidental music and would not include any new songs. However it became quickly apparent that the three were working on a number of John’s half completed demos with the intention of turning them into brand new Beatles numbers. The three demos that Yoko had handed to Paul were ‘Grow Old With Me’, ‘Real Love’, and ‘Free As A Bird’. It was the latter two that were eventually re-worked and released as new singles. The hype and heightened expectations continued unabated for a number of weeks. The ABC TV trailer for the Anthology declared, “The most anticipated event in 30 years (sic) – an event no-one thought would ever happen – two new Beatle songs.”
The biggest security operation ever undertaken by EMI ensured that nobody heard the finished masters until Monday November 20th 1995 (UK time) early hours of the morning. Everything seemed to stop momentarily as the world held it’s collective breath and when people first heard ‘Free As A Bird’ a common response was floods of tears, as the years rolled back to more innocent and optimistic times. The album went on sale the following day, with shops opening up at midnight to be the first to sell it. Sales were predictable phenomenal and remarkably Anthology 1 became their biggest ever success with 20-million world wide sales. The 6-hour film was shown over a number of nights by various TV networks and Anthology 2 and Anthology 3, the follow up double albums also recorded massive sales. Somewhat belatedly, as Pete Best played on many of the early songs on Anthology 1, he received royalties believed to be in the millions. Paul summed it up when he remarked that the world had waited for the next act who would prove to be bigger than The Beatles and it had happened. The Beatles had become bigger than The Beatles!!
Artwork painted and owned by ©SHANNON
THE ANTHOLOGY (Room 513)
After the Beatles broke up in 1970, Neil Aspinall, the Head of Apple, began working on a definitive rockumentary about the history of The Beatles. It was originally given the title of ‘The Long and Winding Road’. The concept was that The Beatles would tell their own story, debunking a number of myths along the way. There was talk of it being released in the late 1970’s but ultimately it remained on the shelf. Just when everybody thought it had gone away forever… there was an announcement from Apple that it would be finally released in 1995 to commemorate 25 years since the break up of the group. This created a media frenzy especially when it is announced that George Martin was going to dip into the vaults of EMI, Apple, and the private collection of each individual Beatle to provide an accompanying audio release. Eventually the film was given the title ‘The Anthology’ and there were to be three double CD albums released which in turn concentrated upon the formative years, the 65–67 and later Apple years respectively. If media interest was intense it literally exploded with the news that Paul, George, and Ringo (dubbed The Threatles) were reuniting for one last time to create some new music for the film. Initial hysteria was tempered somewhat by the announcement that anything new would merely be incidental music and would not include any new songs. However it became quickly apparent that the three were working on a number of John’s half completed demos with the intention of turning them into brand new Beatles numbers. The three demos that Yoko had handed to Paul were ‘Grow Old With Me’, ‘Real Love’, and ‘Free As A Bird’. It was the latter two that were eventually re-worked and released as new singles. The hype and heightened expectations continued unabated for a number of weeks. The ABC TV trailer for the Anthology declared, “The most anticipated event in 30 years (sic) – an event no-one thought would ever happen – two new Beatle songs.”
The biggest security operation ever undertaken by EMI ensured that nobody heard the finished masters until Monday November 20th 1995 (UK time) early hours of the morning. Everything seemed to stop momentarily as the world held it’s collective breath and when people first heard ‘Free As A Bird’ a common response was floods of tears, as the years rolled back to more innocent and optimistic times. The album went on sale the following day, with shops opening up at midnight to be the first to sell it. Sales were predictable phenomenal and remarkably Anthology 1 became their biggest ever success with 20-million world wide sales. The 6-hour film was shown over a number of nights by various TV networks and Anthology 2 and Anthology 3, the follow up double albums also recorded massive sales. Somewhat belatedly, as Pete Best played on many of the early songs on Anthology 1, he received royalties believed to be in the millions. Paul summed it up when he remarked that the world had waited for the next act who would prove to be bigger than The Beatles and it had happened. The Beatles had become bigger than The Beatles!!
Artwork painted and owned by ©SHANNON