Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), a musical film starring the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton , was a commercial failure and an “artistic fiasco”, according to Ingham.
In the late fall of 1978, a German promoter made an offer for the band to tour. The Metamorphosis lineup (Ingle, Bushy, Dorman, Pinera and Rhino) made preparations, but just before they were to depart for Germany, Dorman’s father took ill and another bassist, Keith Ellis (formerly of Boxer ),…
Read More
Sérgio Dias, the only remaining original member, led the band until its dissolution in 1978.
At the beginning of 1977, the Beach Boys had enjoyed their most lucrative concert tours ever, with the band playing in packed stadiums and earning up to $150,000 per show. Concurrently, the band was the subject of a record company bidding war, as their contract with Warner Bros. had been…
Read More
Released in January 1977, Animals reached number two in the UK and number three in the US. NME described it as “one of the most extreme, relentless, harrowing and downright iconoclastic hunks of music”, and Melody Maker ‘s Karl Dallas called it “[an] uncomfortable taste of reality in a medium…
Read More
In 1977 the Bushy/Brann/Kramer/DeMartines grouping wound down after being plagued with bad management and tour dates that had started off in theaters but ended up in bars and clubs. Bushy, Kramer and DeMartines formed Magic and Lee Dorman put together a new IB lineup with Rhino that contained British singer…
Read More
The only one to feature previously unreleased material was The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl (1977); the first officially issued concert recordings by the group, it contained selections from two shows they played during their 1964 and 1965 US tours.
The Broadway musical Beatlemania , an unauthorised nostalgia revue, opened in early 1977 and proved popular, spinning off five separate touring productions.
Early in 1975, Brian signed a production deal with California Music , a Los Angeles collective that included Bruce Johnston and Gary Usher, but was drawn away by the Beach Boys’ pressing demands for a new album. In October, Marilyn persuaded Brian to admit himself to the care of psychologist…
Read More
On 24 April 1976, during a broadcast of Saturday Night Live , producer Lorne Michaels jokingly offered the Beatles $3,000 to reunite on the show. Lennon and McCartney were watching the live broadcast at Lennon’s apartment at the Dakota in New York, which was within driving distance of the NBC…
Read More