It’s one of the greatest rock voices of all time: alternately melodic, raw, sweet and supercharged while also extremely versatile and infused with different characters. Paul McCartney’s lead, harmony and backing vocals have graced tender ballads, balls-to-the-walls rockers and almost everything else in between. But how did his talents in that regard develop and expand down the years? What has caused the vocal deterioration: insufficient technique, too much weed, old age or undisclosed health issues? And what, if anything, can be done about it?

The answers to the last two questions—provided in our interview with legendary voice teacher to the stars Seth Riggs and his wife/vocal technician Margareta—may surprise you. Heart lead guitarist Craig Bartock and acclaimed music critic/musicologist/author Allan Kozinn are our co-hosts.

For info on Seth and Margareta Riggs, go to theriggsvocalstudio.com

When, on Monday, 15th August, 1960, The Beatles left Liverpool en route to their first stint in Hamburg, West Germany, the five of them—John, Paul, George, Stu and the newly recruited Pete—were joined by five others: their manager/agent Allan Williams, Trinidadian calypsonian Harold Philips (a.k.a. Lord Woodbine), Austrian translator Herr Steiner, Allan’s wife Beryl… and her 19-year-old brother Barry Chang. 60 years later, Barry shares his memories of that fateful trip: in a van, on a boat and inside the Indra Club during The Beatles’ inaugural week there.

It was Barry who snapped the now-iconic photo of the travellers, mid-journey, posing at Holland’s Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery, in front of a memorial bearing the legend Their Names Liveth For Evermore. Half of them have now passed on; he’s here to recount how his routine vacation became the stuff of legend.

After they transitioned from a performing group to a more experimental, studio-based band, The Beatles also changed how they utilised television. No longer needing to appear on variety shows—and in comedy skits—to charm audiences and promote their records, they largely relied on videos to achieve the same. And they also used the ‘box’ more for messaging—about peace, love and spirituality… as well as about their business ventures.

Nevertheless, there was still plenty of humour and some legendary small-screen performances: from ‘All You Need is Love’ on the global ‘Our World’ broadcast to ‘Hey Jude’ on the David Frost show—sandwiching their own critically-lambasted made-for-TV movie. The sequel to BN Episode 21, ‘The Beatles on TV 1962-1966’, this show transports us from the heady ‘Summer of Love’ days of ‘Sgt, Pepper’ to the public announcement of the group’s demise—by which time individual appearances were the norm and the world seemed to be a more serious place.

There have been fakers and imitators, tributes and rip-offs, but no one sounds like The Beatles on record—including the ex-Beatles. Nevertheless, some efforts have come closer than others, the most successful being those that have managed to capture the group’s essence rather than just replicate its sound while matching the standard of song material. In this episode, we dive into the good, the bad and the ugly—including those recordings which, bearing zero resemblance to the Fab Four, were promoted by bootleggers during the 1970s to fill the vacuum created by all of those unfounded Beatles-reunion rumours.

The Fab Four’s second film, shot in vivid colour, captured a very different group demeanor to that in A Hard Day’s Night. For that first effort they’d been pumped up on pills; this time around, they were laid back on the “herbal jazz cigarettes”. And director Dick Lester, together with cinematographer David Watkin, conveyed the blissed-out vibe via stunning photography, innovative graphics and offbeat comedy.

The result, at the time widely regarded as inferior to its predecessor, is now acclaimed as a pop-art gem that, very much of its time, also helped to define its era while serving as a wide-ranging source of influence and inspiration.

Towering above all, of course, were those personalities and their music…

50 years after The Beatles’ demise, Yoko Ono is still portrayed online and by the media as the quintessential witch who broke up a famous relationship and ruined a great thing. But did she really earn this reputation? And, if not, should she shoulder at least some of the blame for the group’s demise?

A multi-layered topic, it sparks a lively conversation and clashing opinions, punctuated by The Beatles’ own recollections and a predictably eclectic collection of tracks.

The music, the inspirations, the motivations, the performances, the reservations, the fallout... as well as the cloak-and-dagger story behind how the session tape was bootlegged. Here’s what really happened behind the doors of Decca’s Broadhurst Gardens studio in northwest London—as well as in altogether more covert circumstances on the other side of the Atlantic more than a decade later.

Physically fighting cancer and a crazed attacker while mentally preparing for his transition to the next phase of his spiritual journey, the youngest Beatle navigated the last stage of his earthly existence with characteristic faith, bravery… and humour. At the same time, racing to record an album worthy of closing out a legendary career, he wrote some of his most poetic lyrics to reflect and comment on the past, present and future—complemented by sublime musicianship that resulted in one of the greatest of all posthumous releases.

Here’s the dramatic, sometimes harrowing, ultimately inspirational final chapter of a man whose humanity and creativity crossed paths with a mass of contradictions.

Charming, funny, provocative, hugely talented and already seasoned stage professionals—The Beatles were perfect for television during an era when sales of television sets were skyrocketing. And TV was also the ideal, all-encompassing promotional tool for the Fab Four. So, it was a symbiotic relationship.

At first, they were more than happy to not only perform their songs, but also participate in comedy sketches… until they no longer needed to. This show examines the group’s halcyon TV years—and provides viewer sound recordings of several ultra-rare, ‘long lost’ broadcasts.

(* = unheard since first broadcast)

“I exhibited all the classic symptoms of the unemployed, the redundant man,” Paul McCartney recalled in his authorized biography Many Years from Now. “And justifiably so because I was being screwed by my mates. So, I didn’t shave for quite a while. I didn’t get up. Mornings weren’t for getting up. I might get up and stay on the bed a bit and not know where to go, and get back into bed. Then if I did get up, I’d have a drink. Straight out of bed… I felt I’d outlived my usefulness. This was the overall feeling: that it was good while I was in the Beatles, I was useful and I could play bass for their songs, I could write songs for them to sing and for me to sing, and we could make records of them. But the minute I wasn't with the Beatles any more it became really very difficult.”

This episode takes a deep dive into a dark period for the man who’d always been most in love with being a Beatle—covering the years 1969 to 1973 when he was battling his former bandmates, his critics, even his fans… as well as himself: an artistic force of nature at an existential crossroads; a master maneuverer, sometimes outmaneuvered. It’s the revealing story of a complex character and helping to peel back the layers are two experts on the subject: Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair, co-authors of the soon-to-be-published ‘McCartney Legacy – Vol. 1: Beyond the Beatles, 1969-1973’.

https://www.mccartneylegacy.co.uk

The music: