Alan Parsons

Legendary studio wizard Alan Parsons returns with a live concert recording – Eye 2 Eye – Live In Madrid to be released March 19 in Europe and April 6 in the USA on Frontiers Records. Eye 2 Eye – Live In Madrid will come out in two separate configurations in CD and DVD format.

Eye 2 Eye – Live In Madrid was filmed and recorded at the May 14, 2004 show in Playa Mayor – Madrid, Spain. The location is a gorgeous plaza surrounded by historic buildings and is a legacy to a very fine performance from an outstanding group of musicians.

Alan Parsons’ career started aged 19 when he worked on The Beatles last two albums, Let It Be and then Abbey Road, an album recorded in the legendary London studios of the same name. He soon become a well respected studio engineer and producer, working for Paul McCartney, John Miles, The Hollies, Al Stewart and Pink Floyd among others. He is particularly renowned for his work on the Pink Floyd masterpiece Dark Side of The Moon. This classic album was recorded in 1972, and Parsons’ contribution to the album is legendary.

With The Alan Parsons Project, Alan went on to release 10 acclaimed studio albums but never performed live, even after several US and UK Top 20 hits. The Project ended in 1990 when Eric Woolfson and Alan went separate ways. Eric devoted his career to the musical theatre, while Parsons felt the need to bring his music to the live concert stage and to continue to record conceptual symphonic rock music.

As well as receiving gold and platinum awards from many nations, Alan Parsons has received 12 Grammy Award nominations for engineering and production. In 2007 he received a nomination for Best Surround Sound Album for A Valid Path.

Eye 2 Eye – Live in Madrid features an outstanding performance and for many fans this is the first opportunity to see Alan Parsons’ touring band. The musicians’ performances are superb throughout, and this could well be the definitive band line-up that Alan has toured with. An added treat is Alan singing lead vocals on three songs as well as all band members sharing the lead vocal duties.

CD track listing includes:
I Robot; Can’t Take It With You; Don’t Answer Me; Breakdown / The Raven; Time; Psychobabble; I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You; Damned If I Do; More Lost Without You; Don’t Let It Show; Prime Time; Sirius / Eye In The Sky; (The System Of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether; Games People Play.

The DVD includes the entire concert and is available in NTSC region free format with stereo mix 2.0

ALAN PARSONS FORTHCOMING TOUR DATES:
March 14, 2010 Prague, Czech Republic – Congress Centre
March 16, 2010 Warsaw, Poland – Sala Kongresowa
March 18, 2010 Bratislava, Slovakia
June 01, 2010 Paris, France – The Olympia

For more information go to www.alanparsonsmusic.com, www.frontiers.it or
www.myspace.com/frontiersrecords

Robert Zemeckis is moving forward with a remake of the animated Beatles film ‘Yellow Submarine’. The film will reportedly use motion capture and CGI to recreate the hand-drawn animation of the original film.

THR reports that Zemeckis has selected the voices that will be used for The Fab Four themselves! Cary Elwes (George Harrison), Dean Lennox Kelly (John Lennon), Peter Serafinowicz (Paul McCartney) and Adam Campbell (Ringo Starr) will become the voices of the  ‘new’ Beatles.

Zemeckis wrote the script for this version of the remake, but it is expected to essentially follow the original.

The original film “Yellow Submarine” was a 1968 animated feature based on music by the Beatles. The film follows the Beatles on their adventures to Pepperland on board their yellow submarine, accompanied by a soldier called Old Fred.

The Beatles appeared only in the film’s closing live-action scene. The original film also featured voice actors providing the voices for the animated incarnations of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

You say you want theRevolution? Well, you know, we all want to change the music world… Tapping the reach of the Internet and a power-shifting business model, musician Julian Lennon and digital pioneers Michael Birch and Todd Meagher today officially announced the launch of theRevolution LLC, a full-service, artist-focused, music services company.

In the vanguard of theRevolution is the single “Lucy,” co-written by Lennon and James Scott Cook, to be released on a four-track EP on December 15. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to two charities focused on lupus, an autoimmune disease afflicting Cook’s Grandmother Lucy, as well as Lennon’s late childhood friend Lucy Vodden, a watercolor painting of whom led John Lennon to write “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”

With the mission of “Turning the music business into the musician’s business,” theRevolution (www.theRevolution.com) serves as the funding vehicle which endeavors to partner with both emerging and established artists to give them control as well as ownership of their creative output and to help build their fan bases and, ultimately, their brands. Under its singularly structured, transparent 50/50 “artist partnership” model, the artist forms a company and theRevolution funds it, with musical artists owning equity in their own companies.

Through its subsidiary the Artists Alliance and its affiliates, theRevolution provides artists an a la carte menu of integrated services, among them: business/legal affairs; product design, manufacturing and retail/direct distribution; online transactional management; tour/event logistics, sponsor outreach; marketing, promotions and branding; and music publishing/licensing.

“Julian and I have been friends for over 20 years and have partnered on several businesses together, as I have with Michael. Our combined understanding of technology and the music industry, our love of innovation, and our ability to capitalize our own company make this new partnership ideal,” explains Texas-based Todd Meagher, a former songwriter for Warner Chappell Music who, as an internet entrepreneur, successfully founded and sold such entities as Credit.com. In 2002 Meagher created the industry’s first 50/50, artist-owned model, going on to launch MyStore.com with Michael Birch and Lennon in 2006, in the early days when MySpace did not allow direct sales. As an outgrowth of both businesses, Meagher approached Lennon with the idea of a full-service, artist-focused music services company, and Lennon agreed not only to be a partner, but to be its first artist after a nearly ten-year hiatus from the music industry.

“I think the digital age of music has allowed independent artists to be heard, where maybe they would have not been before due to record labels’ pigeonholing of music, musicians and style,” explains Lennon. “theRevolution puts artists into business for themselves. It came about because I personally couldn’t see a way forward, given the state of the music industry, and wanted to start something new – a new model – which will hopefully continue to grow and be accepted, appreciated and become successful.”

That hopefulness is shared by Birch, the media community/Internet marketing guru who co-founded BirthdayAlarm.com, Ringo.com and the social networking site Bebo, which AOL bought for $850 million. An advisor to myriad companies, this past summer Birch helped launch PROfounders Capital, a UK investment fund for entrepreneurs. “Many artists are quite good at promoting themselves, but you need other elements to build a proper business and brand,” says Birch. The model of theRevolution is to fully align its interests with those of artists (i.e., one party doesn’t make money unless the other does) and, for artists used to turning over the lion share of the revenues from their music to traditional labels, says Birch, the key is education. “We need to build our reputation as a true partner and prove our dedication to building long-term careers.”

On December 15, the company will mark its first release with the four-song EP Lucy, featuring the same-named title track written by James Scott Cook and Julian Lennon. Produced by Todd Meagher, the lead single “Lucy” is Lennon’s first single in close to a decade.

Lennon initially planned only to sing background vocals on the song, but before its completion he learned that his childhood friend Lucy Vodden had passed away after a long battle with lupus. With some lyric changes the decision was made for the song to be a duet between Lennon and Cook. By remarkable coincidence, Cook told Lennon that Lucy was also the name of his 92-year-old grandmother who has been living with lupus for years. Seeking to honor the memory of both women, a portion of the proceeds from the single will be donated to two charities, St. Thomas’ Lupus Trust (www.lupus.org.uk) and the Lupus Foundation of America (www.lupus.org).

The EP – inside of which buyers will discover a fold-out copy of Julian Lennon’s original watercolor drawing of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” – features two versions of “Lucy,” the studio track and an acoustic version. There’s also Lennon’s slow and sentimental song “Beautiful,” which will appear on his full-length album Everything Changes, to be released in 2010, and Cook’s song “Sober,” which will be on his own eponymous album next year. RED Distribution (a division of Sony Music Entertainment) is providing manufacturing, retail distribution and radio promotion for the EP, and the title track will initially be available for download online exclusively at iTunes until the first of the year, which will also make a donation to the lupus charities. VH1, YouTube, MySpace Music and Yahoo Music have all agreed to support the video release.

Julian Lennon first came to the public’s attention as a musical artist with his 1984 debut album Valotte, which produced two Top Ten singles, “Valotte” and “Too Late for Goodbyes.” The album led to a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. Along with his sophomore effort, The Secret Value of Daydreaming (Atlantic),” his subsequent albums include Mr. Jordan, Help Yourself and the independently produced Photograph Smile— his most critically acclaimed album to date. In recent years, Lennon has focused on photography and other endeavors, also producing the eight-time internationally award-winning documentary WhaleDreamers. For more information on WhaleDreamers, visit this location >

“Vinyl Saturday” is the latest project from the people that brought you “Record Store Day”. The event involves 200 indie music retailers across the country, which will sell a unique LP boxed-set edition, limited to 5,000 copies, of the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” as part of a series of promotions designed to drive foot traffic into stores hard-hit by the boom in digital music sales.

Exclusive 40th-anniversary vinyl edition of the album, licensed and produced by EMI, includes a T-shirt and poster featuring artwork from the collection’s two-sided hit single, “Come Together”/”Something.”

Former Beatle Paul McCartney said he was happy to support the cause with what is sure to be a collector-coveted edition of “Abbey Road.”

“When I recently played Amoeba (musicstore) in L.A., I realized what fantastic memories such a collection of music bring back when you see it all in one place,” McCartney said in a statement.

Be sure to check out the official site of Record Store Day at www.recordstoreday.com!

Source: Variety

The official trailer for ‘Nowhere Boy’ has hit the web. The directorial debut of Sam Taylor-Wood, ‘Nowhere Boy’ is based on the book ‘Imagine This: Growing Up With My Brother John Lennon’ by Julia Baird about her half-brother’s pre-Beatles life including when he first met Paul McCartney.

The film focuses on the years in which John Lennon was raised by his aunt, Mimi Smith, and later reacquainted with his biological mother, Julia. Lennon’s mother was tragically killed in an auto accident when John was just starting to get to know her in his late teens.

Goldfrapp have written the score for the film. Lead singer Alison Goldfrapp said that the group has written a traditional score for the movie, which is based around “very orchestral” music in a recent interview.

Producers are currently in negotiation with Yoko Ono to include original John Lennon songs in the film.

The official one sheet poster for ‘Nowhere Boy’ has been revealed. The directorial debut of Sam Taylor-Wood, ‘Nowhere Boy’ is based on the book ‘Imagine This: Growing Up With My Brother John Lennon’ by Julia Baird about her half-brother’s pre-Beatles life including when he first met Paul McCartney. The film focuses on the years in which John Lennon was raised by his aunt, Mimi Smith, and later reacquainted with his biological mother, Julia. Lennon’s mother was tragically killed in an auto accident when John was just starting to get to know her in his late teens.

Goldfrapp have written the score for the film. Lead singer Alison Goldfrapp said that the group has written a traditional score for the movie, which is based around “very orchestral” music in a recent interview.

Producers are currently in negotiation with Yoko Ono to include original John Lennon songs in the film.

Focus Features has just premiered a new clip exclusively on the official Facebook page for Richard Curtis’s Pirate Radio! You can check it out here >

Be sure to check out some brand new images from the film in the gallery below!

Pirate Radio is the high-spirited story of how 8 DJs love affair with Rock n Roll changed the world forever. In the 1960s this group of rogue DJs, on a boat in the middle of the Northern Atlantic, played rock records and broke the law all for the love of music. The songs they played united and defined an entire generation and drove the British government crazy. By playing Rock n Roll they were standing up against the British government who did everything in their power to shut them down. The band of rebels is lead by The Count, played by the Academy Award Winning Philip Seymour Hoffman, Quentin the boss of Radio Rock, Gavin the greatest DJ in Britian, Midnight Mark, Doctor Dave and Young Carl who comes of age amidst the chaos of sex, drugs and rock n roll. The film features an unbelievable selection of music including The Beatles, The Stones, Beach Boys, Dusty Springfield, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Smokey Robinson, David Bowie, Otis Redding, and Cat Stevens just to name a few. The film is laugh out loud funny and speaks to the rock n roll rebel in all of us.

Directed by Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Four Weddings and Funeral, Notting Hill), the cast includes Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Sturridge, Talulah Riley and January Jones.

The film is slated to hit theaters on November 13, 2009.

Become a fan of the Pirate Radio Facebook Page here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pirate-Radio/138487523550

Paul McCartney has unveiled the tracklisting for his new live album and DVD, ‘Good Evening New York City’, which will be released on November 23.

As the inaugural musical event at Citi Field, the site of the former Shea Stadium, the July 2009 shows held special significance not only for McCartney but for generations of his fans. The shows were performed on the same hallowed ground that The Beatles, in 1965, played the 34-minute show that would set the precedent for the modern day stadium rock show–and where in 2008 McCartney joined Billy Joel for the final rock show before the original stadium’s demolition.

The 33 tracks include hits from McCartney’s solo career, as well as his Beatles and Wings back catalogues. The DVD footage was filmed using 15 high-definition cameras, while 75 audience members were also given Flip Cams.

The deluxe edition bonus DVD will feature footage of McCartney’s July 15 performance on the outdoor marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater, previously available only as a webcast on the Late Show with David Letterman website. The marquee set, which marked McCartney’s return to the site of The Beatles U.S. television debut, generated front page headlines and literally stopped traffic as word of mouth generated a crowd that packed Broadway from Columbus Circle to Times Square.

Paul McCartney’s July 17-21 Citi Field stand has already been unanimously hailed by critics and audiences alike as the concert experience of a lifetime. On November 17, Good Evening New York City will document it for the ages.

The tracklisting for ‘Good Evening New York City’ is as follows:

Disc 1:
‘Drive My Car’
‘Jet’
‘Only Mama Knows’
‘Flaming Pie’
‘Got To Get You Into My Life’
‘Let Me Roll It’
‘Highway’
‘The Long And Winding Road’
‘My Love’
‘Blackbird’
‘Here Today’
‘Dance Tonight’
‘Calico Skies’
‘Mrs Vandebilt’
‘Eleanor Rigby’
‘Sing The Changes’
‘Band On The Run’

Disc 2:
‘Back In The USSR’
‘I’m Down’
‘Something’
‘I’ve Got A Feeling’
‘Paperback Writer’
‘A Day In The Life’/'Give Peace A Chance’
‘Let It Be’
‘Live And Let Die’
‘Hey Jude’
‘Day Tripper’
‘Lady Madonna’
‘I Saw Her Standing There’
‘Yesterday’
‘Helter Skelter’
‘Get Back’
‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’/'The End’

DVD Tracklisting:
‘Drive My Car’
‘Jet’
‘Only Mama Knows’
‘Flaming Pie’
‘Got To Get You Into My Life’
‘Let Me Roll It’
‘Highway’
‘The Long And Winding Road’
‘My Love’
‘Blackbird’
‘Here Today’
‘Dance Tonight’
‘Calico Skies’
‘Mrs Vandebilt’
‘Eleanor Rigby’
‘Sing The Changes’
‘Band On The Run’
‘Back In The USSR’
‘I’m Down’
‘Something’
‘I’ve Got A Feeling’
‘Paperback Writer’
‘A Day In The Life’/'Give Peace A Chance’
‘Let It Be’
‘Live And Let Die’
‘Hey Jude’
‘Day Tripper’
‘Lady Madonna’
‘I Saw Her Standing There’
‘Yesterday’
‘Helter Skelter’
‘Get Back’
‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’/'The End’

The official theatrical one sheet for Richard Curtis’s Pirate Radio has been revealed. Check out the poster and trailer below!

Pirate Radio is the high-spirited story of how 8 DJs love affair with Rock n Roll changed the world forever. In the 1960s this group of rogue DJs, on a boat in the middle of the Northern Atlantic, played rock records and broke the law all for the love of music. The songs they played united and defined an entire generation and drove the British government crazy. By playing Rock n Roll they were standing up against the British government who did everything in their power to shut them down. The band of rebels is lead by The Count, played by the Academy Award Winning Philip Seymour Hoffman, Quentin the boss of Radio Rock, Gavin the greatest DJ in Britian, Midnight Mark, Doctor Dave and Young Carl who comes of age amidst the chaos of sex, drugs and rock n roll. The film features an unbelievable selection of music including The Beatles, The Stones, Beach Boys, Dusty Springfield, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Smokey Robinson, David Bowie, Otis Redding, and Cat Stevens just to name a few. The film is laugh out loud funny and speaks to the rock n roll rebel in all of us.

Directed by Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Four Weddings and Funeral, Notting Hill), the cast includes Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Sturridge, Talulah Riley and January Jones.

The film is slated to hit theaters on November 13, 2009.

Become a fan of the Pirate Radio Facebook Page here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pirate-Radio/138487523550

“It was three great nights for the band and for me personally it was very exciting to be back opening a new stadium on the site of the old Shea Stadium where we had played 44 years previously. Even more exciting because this time round you could hear us!” Paul McCartney’s historic three-night musical christening of New York’s Citi Field, witnessed by 120,000-plus attendees and universally hailed as a concert experience for the ages, will be immortalized November 17 when Hear Music/Concord Music Group releases Good Evening New York City. This momentous musical experience will be available in two formats: a 3-disc (2 CD + 1 DVD) standard edition and a 4-disc (2 CD + 2 DVD) deluxe version featuring expanded packaging and a bonus DVD including McCartney’s traffic-stopping, headline-making July 15 performance on the Ed Sullivan Theater marquee (including bonus numbers not aired on the Late Show with David Letterman broadcast). The set will also be made available in high quality vinyl. In any configuration, the 30+ songs and nearly 3 hours of music comprising Good Evening New York City are a must-have for attendees wishing to relive the July 17, 18 & 21 shows, those who couldn’t get tickets and/or anyone interested in an audiovisual document of a living legend. Good Evening New York City marks McCartney’s 2nd release for Hear Music. The first was 2007’s highly acclaimed Memory Almost Full. The standard version of Good Evening New York City will be available at participating Starbucks company-operated locations in the U.S. and Canada and wherever music is sold.

As the inaugural musical event at Citi Field, the site of the former Shea Stadium, the July 2009 shows held special significance not only for McCartney but for generations of his fans. The shows were performed on the same hallowed ground that The Beatles, in 1965, played the 34-minute show that would set the precedent for the modern day stadium rock show–and where in 2008 McCartney joined Billy Joel for the final rock show before the original stadium’s demolition. As documented on Good Evening New York City, “I’m Down” from the 1965 set list was revived for the Citi Field shows, albeit this time played through a PA that was not overpowered by screaming fans (though there were still several thousand who tried). Other highlights of Good Evening New York City include faithful takes on Beatles classics “Drive My Car,” “Got To Get You Into My Life,” “The Long And Winding Road,” “Blackbird,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “Back In The USSR,” “Paperback Writer,” “Let It Be,” “Hey Jude,” “Helter Skelter” and more, plus “Something” rendered on ukulele gifted to Paul by George Harrison, and a tribute to John Lennon in the form of a medley of “A Day In The Life” and “Give Peace A Chance.” Wings era chestnuts include “Band On The Run,” “My Love,” “Let Me Roll It” and the pyrotechnic tour de force of “Live And Let Die,” while timeless McCartney solo material ranges from “Here Today” to the upbeat “Flaming Pie” and “Dance Tonight” to a pair of numbers from Electric Arguments, the 2008 album released under the alias of The Fireman.

The concert footage featured on Good Evening New York City standard edition features concert footage directed by Paul Becher, who has overseen live visuals for McCartney for some 200 performances and counting. The 33-song 2 hour 40 minute performances were shot in High Definition using 15 cameras and digital footage incorporated from 75 Flipcams handed out to fans over the course of the three night stand. The audio mix, in both stereo and 5.1, was handled by longtime McCartney engineer Paul Hicks, whose credits include the recent Beatles remasters, The Beatles Anthology, Let It Be…Naked and two Grammy awards for his mixing work on the Beatles’ Love album.

The deluxe edition bonus DVD will feature footage of McCartney’s July 15 performance on the outdoor marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater, previously available only as a webcast on the Late Show with David Letterman website. The marquee set, which marked McCartney’s return to the site of The Beatles U.S. television debut, generated front page headlines and literally stopped traffic as word of mouth generated a crowd that packed Broadway from Columbus Circle to Times Square.

Paul McCartney’s July 17-21 Citi Field stand has already been unanimously hailed by critics and audiences alike as the concert experience of a lifetime. On November 17, Good Evening New York City will document it for the ages.

For the latest news on the legendary Paul McCartney, check out his official website at www.paulmccartney.com!