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Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish and Paul McCartney to play coronavirus benefit

One World: Together at Home, streamed live on 18 April, will support UN response fund

Lady Gaga is to curate One World: Together at Home, a live-streamed and televised benefit concert in support of the World Health Organizations Covid-19 solidarity response fund and in celebration of health workers around the world.

The lineup includes Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas, Lizzo, J Balvin, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Alanis Morissette, Burna Boy, Andrea Bocelli, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Elton John, John Legend, Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban and Lang Lang.

The US talk show hosts Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert will host the event, which broadcasts live across the US television networks ABC, CBS and NBC, as well as being streamed online, at 8pm EST on 18 April.

BBC One will show an adapted version of the concert on 19 April, including exclusive performances from UK artists and interviews with frontline health workers. The details of the broadcast are yet to be announced.

Other celebrities expected to appear include David Beckham, Idris and Sabrina Elba, Kerry Washington, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Shah Rukh Khan and Sesame Street cast members.

The WHO and the social action platform Global Citizen have partnered to produce the event. The latters Together at Home series, launched last month, has featured performances from artists in isolation including Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello and Rufus Wainwright.

In a WHO press conference, Lady Gaga said she had helped to raise $35m (28m) for Global Citizen in the past week. She clarified that One World was not a fundraising telethon and would focus on entertainment and messages of solidarity, with philanthropists and businesses urged to donate to the Covid-19 solidarity response fund ahead of the event.

The WHOs general director, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said:We may have to be apart physically for a little while, but we can still come together virtually to enjoy great music. The One World: Together at Home concert represents a powerful show of solidarity against a common threat.

This article was amended on 6 April 2020. Lady Gaga stated that philanthropists and businesses were being urged to donate to the organisation, rather than fans as an earlier version said. This has been corrected.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/apr/06/lady-gaga-billie-eilish-and-paul-mccartney-to-play-coronavirus-benefit

Abbey Road zebra crossing repainted in coronavirus lockdown

Council workers take advantage of the empty streets to spruce up the crossing featured on the cover of the Beatles 1969 album

The iconic Abbey Road zebra crossing made famous by the 1969 Beatles album of the same name has been repainted while the streets of London are empty because of the coronavirus pandemic.

A highways maintenance crew quietly repainted the normally busy zebra crossing on 24 March, the day after the prime minister ordered Britain to go on lockdown in an attempt to stem the spread of the virus.

A spokesperson for Westminster City Council said: This is a very busy zebra crossing and we repainted the line markings to ensure visibility and increased safety for drivers and pedestrians. Our contractors follow government advice on limiting the spread of covid-19, including social distancing and hand washing.

The
A site of national importance … the album cover for Abbey Road. Photograph: Pictorial Press/Alamy Stock Photo

The brightened markings can be seen in action on the Abbey Road webcam.

The government designated the crossing a site of national importance in 2010 and it can be altered only with the approval of local authorities. This London zebra crossing is no castle or cathedral but, thanks to the Beatles and a 10-minute photoshoot one August morning in 1969, it has just as strong a claim as any to be seen as part of our heritage, John Penrose, minister for tourism and heritage said at the time.

The remaining Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Abbey Road album with a deluxe reissue last September. In January, it was announced as the biggest selling vinyl record of the 2010s in the US. It came eighth in the UK, with British Beatles fans apparently preferring Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The cover for Abbey Road was shot at 11.35am on 8 August 1969, as John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr took a break from completing I Want You (Shes So Heavy) and The End, and Paul McCartney paused work on Oh! Darling. Standing on a step ladder in the middle of the road, photographer Iain Macmillan only had time to shoot six photographs on his Hasselblad camera given the oncoming traffic. McCartney selected the fourth image as the cover shot.

Repainting
Repainting the famous crossing. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

On the albums release, fans became convinced that McCartneys barefoot appearance related to the conspiracy theory that he had died two years earlier and been replaced by a ringer. He had in fact kicked off his sandals because it was hot.

On Abbey Road we were wearing our ordinary clothes. I was walking barefoot because it was a hot day, McCartney told Life magazine later that year. Can you spread it around that I am just an ordinary person and want to live in peace?

He parodied the theory on the cover of his 1993 live album, Paul Is Live, posing with a dog on the crossing. Pop cultural figures from the Simpsons to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Doctor Who have also re-enacted the image.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/mar/27/abbey-road-crossing-repainted-coronavirus-lockdown-beatles-album

Taylor Swift to headline 2020 Glastonbury festival

Swift is the first female headline performer since Adele in 2016 and the sixth solo female headliner in the festivals 50-year history

Taylor Swift will close the 2020 Glastonbury festival with a headline performance on the Pyramid stage on Sunday night.

Im ecstatic to tell you that Ill be headlining Glastonbury on its 50th anniversary See you there!

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/dec/15/taylor-swift-to-headline-2020-glastonbury-festival

‘This tape rewrites everything we knew about the Beatles’

Mark Lewisohn knows the Fab Four better than they knew themselves. The experts tapes of their tense final meetings shed new light on Abbey Road and inspired a new stage show

The Beatles werent a group much given to squabbling, says Mark Lewisohn, who probably knows more about them than they knew about themselves. But then he plays me the tape of a meeting held 50 years ago this month on 8 September 1969 containing a disagreement that sheds new light on their breakup.

Theyve wrapped up the recording of Abbey Road, which would turn out to be their last studio album, and are awaiting its release in two weeks time. Ringo Starr is in hospital, undergoing tests for an intestinal complaint. In his absence, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison convene at Apples HQ in Savile Row. John has brought a portable tape recorder. He puts it on the table, switches it on and says: Ringo you cant be here, but this is so you can hear what were discussing.

Challenging
Challenging conventional wisdom Fab Four writer-historian Mark Lewisohn

What they talk about is the plan to make another album and perhaps a single for release in time for Christmas, a commercial strategy going back to the earliest days of Beatlemania. Its a revelation, Lewisohn says. The books have always told us that they knew Abbey Road was their last album and they wanted to go out on an artistic high. But no theyre discussing the next album. And you think that John is the one who wanted to break them up but, when you hear this, he isnt. Doesnt that rewrite pretty much everything we thought we knew?

Lewisohn turns the tape back on, and we hear John suggesting that each of them should bring in songs as candidates for the single. He also proposes a new formula for assembling their next album: four songs apiece from Paul, George and himself, and two from Ringo If he wants them. John refers to the Lennon-and-McCartney myth, clearly indicating that the authorship of their songs, hitherto presented to the public as a sacrosanct partnership, should at last be individually credited.

Then Paul sounding, shall we say, relaxed responds to the news that George now has equal standing as a composer with John and himself by muttering something mildly provocative. I thought until this album that Georges songs werent that good, he says, which is a pretty double-edged compliment since the earlier compositions hes implicitly disparaging include Taxman and While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Theres a nettled rejoinder from George: Thats a matter of taste. All down the line, people have liked my songs.

The
The Beatles Abbey Road album Photograph: Pictorial Press/Alamy

John reacts by telling Paul that nobody else in the group dug his Maxwells Silver Hammer, a song theyve just recorded for Abbey Road, and that it might be a good idea if he gave songs of that kind which, John suggests, he probably didnt even dig himself to outside artists in whom he had an interest, such as Mary Hopkin, the Welsh folk singer. I recorded it, a drowsy Paul says, because I liked it.

A mapping of the tensions that would lead to the dissolution of the most famous and influential pop group in history is part of Hornsey Road, a teasingly titled stage show in which Lewisohn uses tape, film, photographs, new audio mixes of the music and his own matchless fund of anecdotes and memorabilia to tell the story of Abbey Road, that final burst of collective invention.

The album is now so mythologised that the humdrum zebra crossing featured on its celebrated cover picture is now officially listed as site of special historic interest; a webcam is trained on it 24 hours a day, observing the comings and goings of fans from every corner of the world, infuriating passing motorists as these visitors pause to take selfies, often in groups of four, some going barefoot in imitation of Pauls enigmatic gesture that August morning in 1969.

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George Harrison and John Lennon recording Let It Be. Photograph: Daily Sketch/Rex/Shutterstock

Its a story of the people, the art, the people around them, the lives they were leading, and the break-up, Lewisohn says. The show comes midway through his writing of The Beatles: All These Years, a magnum opus aiming to tell the whole story in its definitive version. The first volume, Tune In, was published six years ago, its mammoth 390,000-word narrative ending just before their first hit. (All the heft of the Old Testament, the Observers Kitty Empire wrote, with greater forensic rigour.)

Constant demands to know when Turn On (covering 1963-66) and Drop Out (1967-69) might appear are met with a sigh: Im 61, and Ive got 14 or 15 years left on these books. Ill be in my mid-70s when I finish. Time is of the essence, he adds, perhaps thinking of the late John Richardsons uncompleted multi-volume Picasso biography. This two-hour show is a way of buying the time for him to dive back into the project.

For 30 years, Lewisohn has been the man to call when you needed to know what any of the Fab Four was doing on almost any day of their lives, and with whom they were doing it. His books include a history of their sessions at what were then known as the EMI Recording Studios in Abbey Road, and he worked on the vast Anthology project in the 90s.

The idea for a stage show was inspired by an invitation from a university in New Jersey to be the keynote speaker at a three-day symposium on the Beatles White Album, then celebrating its golden jubilee. His presentation, called Double Lives, juxtaposed the making of the album and the lives they were leading as individuals outside the studio. It took several weeks to put together, and I thought, This is mad I should be doing this more than once to get more people to see it.

Ringo
Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney in the studio. Photograph: PictureLux/The Hollywood Archive/Alamy

The next anniversary to present itself was that of Abbey Road, which took place during a crowded year in which Paul married Linda Eastman, John and Yoko went off on their bed-ins for peace, Georges marriage to Pattie Boyd was breaking up, and they were all involved in side projects. John had released Give Peace a Chance as the Plastic Ono Band and George had been spending time in Woodstock with Bob Dylan.

John also took Yoko and their two children, Kyoko and Julian, on a sentimental road trip to childhood haunts in Liverpool, Wales and the north of Scotland, ending when he drove their Austin Maxi into a ditch while trying to avoid another car. Brian Epstein, their manager, had died the previous year and the idealism that had fuelled the founding of their Apple company Its like a top, John said. We set it going and hope for the best was starting to fray badly. Other business concerns such as their song-publishing copyrights, which had been sold without their knowledge led to a war between Allen Klein, the hard-boiled New York record industry veteran invited by John to sort it out, and John Eastman, Lindas father, a top lawyer brought in by Paul to safeguard his interests.

Lewisohn has the minutes of another business meeting, this time at Olympic Studios, where the decision to ratify Kleins appointment was approved by three votes to one (Paul), the first time the Beatles had not spoken with unanimity. It was the crack in the Liberty Bell, Paul said. It never came back together after that one. Ringo and George just said, whatever John does, were going with. I was actually trying, in my mind, to save our future.

And yet Lewisohn challenges the conventional wisdom that 1969 was the year in which they were at each others throats, storming out of the recording sessions filmed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg for the verit-style movie Let It Be, and barely on speaking terms. During the making of Abbey Road, says Lewisohn, they were in an almost entirely positive frame of mind. They had this uncanny ability to leave their problems at the studio door not entirely, but almost.

In fact, Abbey Road was not the only recording location for the album: earlier sessions were held at Olympic in Barnes and Trident in Soho. And Lewisohns creation is called Hornsey Road because that, in other circumstances, is what the album might have been titled, had EMI not abandoned its plans to turn a converted cinema in that rather grittier part of north London into its venue for pop recording.

The show, Lewisohn believes, is the first time an album has been treated to this format. People will be able to listen with more layers and levels of understanding, he says. When you go to an art gallery, you hope that someone, an expert, will tell you what was happening when the artist painted a particular picture. With these songs, Im going to show the stories behind them and the people who made them, and what they were going through at the time. Certainly, no one who sees this show will ever hear Abbey Road in the same way again.

Hornsey Road is at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton, on 18 September and touring until 4 December.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/11/the-beatles-break-up-mark-lewisohn-abbey-road-hornsey-road

We Illustrated 6 People Who Dreamed Their Breakthrough Ideas

A comfy bed and a good night’s sleep are essential when it comes to brain function. Slipping into a freshly made bed with lush, fresh bedding really can set the tone for how easily you’ll settle into a peaceful slumber.

Once you drift off to sleep, there really is no limit to where your dreams may take you. Sometimes unbelievable and seemingly impossible, your dreams really can have a huge impact; changing your mind on something you were sure you were certain of, making you question what you once knew – the power of dreams can be hugely underestimated.

The Mill Shop wanted to explore what impact dreams have had on the world over the years. We’re not talking daydreams either, but full-blown, from the depths of the subconscious kind of dreams… and we were not disappointed!

James Watson – DNA Double Helix

Image credits: www.themillshop.co.uk

The discovery and theory of DNA had already been devised, but the shape and structure had eluded scientists. That was until 1953 when James Watson dreamed of two snakes intertwined, paving the way for the familiar double helix structure we see today. However, it was noted by Watson that his scientific masterpiece was almost suppressed; the theory of the double helix seemed so ludicrous at the time, that it was met with hostility and outrage when he first showcased the idea.

Mary Shelley – Frankenstein

Image credits: www.themillshop.co.uk

One of the most iconic pieces of horror fiction ever written, it’s said that the story of Frankenstein came to Mary Shelley when she experienced a vivid nightmare. At the time, Shelley was just 18 years old and was visiting Lord Byron by Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Whilst there, it was suggested they write ghost stories to while away the hours of the cold, winter days. Unfortunately, Shelley was unable to come up with anything she considered suitable. That was however until one night when she took herself off to bed and dreamt of the monster that defined a genre.

Paul McCartney – Yesterday

Image credits: www.themillshop.co.uk

Probably one of the most recognized and well-loved Beatles songs, it’s claimed by Paul McCartney that Yesterday came to him in a dream. He awoke to find he couldn’t get a melody out of his head so began to play it on the piano. Convinced he’d stolen the melody from somewhere, McCartney began to question those around him within the music industry, but after a few weeks, no one had claimed the tune, so he developed the chords and accompanying lyrics and the rest, as they say, is history.

Larry Page – Google

Image credits: www.themillshop.co.uk

You’d be hard pushed to find anyone these days that hasn’t used Google at some point. The biggest search engine on the planet was said to have come to its creator during the early ’90s, in a dream where Page somehow managed to download the entire web and just keep the links. Once awake, Page immediately set about devising the algorithm that would pave the way for the Google we know and love today.

Albert Einstein – Theory of Relativity

Image credits: www.themillshop.co.uk

Sticking with defining scientific developments, we’d be foolish not to include probably one of the biggest “accidents” there ever was. Known for his vivid imagination, it’s no surprise that Einstein’s dreams were also pretty intense. So much so, it’s said that his most famous achievement came to him in a dream. Once he awoke, he meditated on the idea and soon formulated one of the most famous scientific theories in human history.

Niels Bohr – Structure of the Atom

Image credits: www.themillshop.co.uk

Probably one of the most significant scientific developments of all time, the discovery of the atom structure redefined physics and what we know about the world around us. At the turn of the 20th century, Neils Bohr had set about understanding the structure of the atom but no configurations seemed to fit. After many attempts to make it work, the worry he was fighting a losing battle started to set in, that was until he went to sleep one night and everything just seemed to fall into place. The idea of atoms fitting a similar structure to how the planets revolve around the sun just seemed to make total sense.

Read more: http://www.boredpanda.com/world-changing-dreams-illustration-themillshop/

Stella McCartney: Its not like Im here for an easy life

The fashion designer talks about her latest collection, the creative frustrations of eco sequins and why shes not a fan of washing her bra

I am standing in the Old Bond Street headquarters of Stella McCartneys fashion empire, waiting to interview the designer and wondering why there are massive wet rocks surrounded by moss on the shopfloor. I ask the publicity assistant and it is surely a coincidence that the fictional character Bubble from Absolutely Fabulous pops into my mind after she replies, in a voice imbued with significance and reverence: Nature.

Alongside the luxury clothing, there is also special clean air piped into every room to combat the pollution of central London, a ballpit for rich children to play in (at least, I dont think any other kind come in here) and a three-hour jamming session of original Paul McCartney music playing on repeat, as Stella explains when I meet her in a private room on the top floor. Limited-edition versions of her clothes hang all around us, saved for favoured customers who make it into this locked zone.

Inspired
Inspired by the Beatles: highlights from Stella McCartneys new All Together Now collection. Photograph: Daniel Benson/The Observer

Indeed, it turns out that the rocks have been shipped down from Pauls farm on the Mull of Kintyre, where mist rolls in from the sea the mist now rolls into his daughters garments, apparently. I was like, Dad, this is weird she explains, but can I have some rocks?

Stella is bright-eyed and perky, quite frank, open and has the manner of someone not put on this earth to waste time. I ask if we are in a VIP room, but she groans and says that when somebody called it that during the planning stages she responded that they would not be working with her for very long if they used that word again. I think it is politically important to Stella to be seen as egalitarian, which must be hard when youre selling fluffy jumpers for a grand.

Moss
Moss doesnt really want to live on Bond Street. In a store: the flagship shop in Old Bond Street. Photograph: Hufton & Crow

Anyway, the award-winning designer, 47, is dressed in layers of matching beige neutrals today, of her own design, of course. We are here to discuss a new collection she has created, called All Together Now, which is inspired by the 1968 Yellow Submarine film based on music by her father and his fellow Beatles. She has always been a proud bearer of her mother Lindas vegetarian credentials, going to great lengths to avoid any use of leather and fur. But diving right into the Beatles legacy is something new.

But first we need to talk about the shop itself, of which Stella is equally proud. She was really specific about the rocks, she says, after her dad agreed to liberate them. We had to reinforce the floors, to weight-bear them and all that sort of stuff, for my rock passion. And then, you know, they werent quite the right colour, so now we spray them. Stella also wanted moss on them, but the problem with keeping that going, as she explains, sadly, is that moss doesnt really want to live on Bond Street. In a store.

Kate Moss does though. She is living happily above us on the wall, in a framed photo with her arm around Stella, taken soon after they began working together as designer and muse, when Moss walked in McCartneys graduating fashion show from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 1998. Their friendship has continued, with Kate even cutting the ribbon to open this very shop in 2018 it now being one of 56 stand-alone Stella McCartney stores around the world, which all stay true to their founders environmentalist roots by using only LED lighting, saving 75% of the power of traditional bulbs, and sustainable wood and paper. The UK shops are all fuelled by wind power.

Oh yes the Moss is here, in many ways, the McCartney agrees. When I put it to her that her friend is now a national treasure, she says Moss would never accept such a role, because you probably wouldnt like her so much if she did. Youd be like, Oh, bummer, shes not as cool as we thought she was. But Ill tell her, says Stella, clearly proud of her friendship. Ill say, Sophie says youre amazing. We both know she will do no such thing, but still.

We
We all live in a yellow submarine: baby Stella and the McCartney family, 1974. Photograph: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive

The new Beatles-inspired range includes knitwear with ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE embroidered on it in various languages and Savile Row tailored jackets inspired by the marching-band suits in the film. There is a long, psychedelic Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds dress, and plenty of yellow submarine motifs throughout the collection, which is for women, men and children. Look at that fucking Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band bag for kids, how cool is that? she says as she shows me her inventions.

The idea came to her after the film was remastered last year and her dad held a family screening. Just a little one, but it was literally like all of the Beatles children and grandchildren there. Influenced by the kids enjoyment of the film, she says she saw it through completely fresh eyes. It just hit me really hard. I went far too deep into all the meanings. Even the line All together now I thought, that is so incredible that these four kids from Liverpool, at such a young age, came up with something so inclusive, which feels very contemporary to everything that were talking about today, in the now. I came away feeling really inspired, like I had to do something with it.

Models
Models wearing clothes from the All Together Now collection Photograph: Daniel Benson/The Observer

I tell her that I recently showed it to my fascinated seven-year-old and it reawakened childhood memories of having my mind blown at a similar age, as if you could almost get drunk on the psychedelic imagery.

I agree completely. Its a gift. All hand-drawn with individual gels and, you know, who today in the world of music is going to create an animated film like that? Who on earth has created a body of work like that? I cant name anyone.

McCartney lives in west London (as well as in the countryside, where she rides horses) and is married to Alasdhair Willis, with whom she has four children. Her unwavering moral commitments have put her in an interesting position as an activist in the fashion business, which she describes as the second most harmful industry to the planet. Its my intention to stand shoulder to shoulder with the conventional houses and show that you can actually be respectful in your supply chain and manufacture.

To which end, shes created alternatives not just to leather and fur, but also to all sorts of other materials, such as PVC, because its chemical production is so harmful, and they say its cancerous to the people who work with it, and then the residue runs into the rivers because the factories are built on rivers. It has taken her 10 years of innovation to make a clear shoe without using it.

Is it satisfying to have to work hard on the invention side of things? No. Its not like I go, Oh, Im not going to use PVC because the challenge will make me more creative. Its like, Well, that fucking sucks, and Ive also only got three sequins that I can use in two colourways as opposed to 5,000 that everyone else will use. If everyone else was sustainable, we could have a level playing field, so it does feel unfair but its my choice and I believe very much in my reasons for working in that way. You know what? Its not like Im here for an easy life.

She says recent changes in the industry, with other designers waking up to the planet, are led by people power. These recent changes are consumer-driven. I dont think our industry would be doing that if the customers werent demanding it.

Dress
Dress to impress: Stella McCartney with her husband Alasdhair Willis. Photograph: Mike Marsland/WireImage

So its simply a capitalist response to the market? I think so, yeah, and thats OK, because thats capitalism, you know, thats what happens. But now is the time, as a consumer, to really understand. Were going to have to push the people in power. And how fucking amazing is it that its 15, 16-year-olds who are doing that? Thank God for them.

She recently bought back her brand in its entirety, having previously sold a 50% stake to French investors Kering. I wonder if she stays at work late into the night. Oh fuck no. Im very passionate about my art. And when youre in it, youre in it. But if somebody says, Hey you could stay here until 2am, or you could go and ride your horse with your kids, bareback, Id take option two. Any day of the week. Eating a bag of chips. She found her own buyout reinvigorating and did it to protect my name, my history it was kind of about heritage and family and continuation.

Does this mean that her two daughters and two sons, who are aged between eight and 14, will take over the business one day? I dont know. Of course one side of me is like, I want the kids to do this. But then its like, is that my ego? I dont want to put that pressure on them. My mum and dad didnt go, Right, youre going to be writing all the next albums. The kids should just do what they want to do. Indeed, she recently watched Succession, a TV drama about a media dynasty that battles over who will inherit the family business, and found it a bit depressing, actually.

Fashion means everything to her, though. She even wants to analyse my outfit. Psychologically, she says, I find it incredibly interesting that you chose a vintage-esque, ethnic, quilted cotton coat to wear today. Its a very feminine piece, probably women made it. It says you probably celebrate some kind of hand touch, heritage, some kind of travel. The gold cuffs on my shirt, also tells a lot about you, that little bit of Lurex peeping out.

The
The kids should just do what they want to do. Stella with models at Milan mens fashion week SS20. Photograph: WWD/REX/Shutterstock

Shes not so keen on my leather boots, oops, (People dont bring leather into me, generally) but, tragically, its my face that says most about me, which will teach me not to make such an effort next time.

And then youve got your red lip and you know, youve got a lot of makeup on, Stella McCartney notes, staring at my head. A pettier person than I might respond that she is wearing exactly as much makeup herself, only its all in neutral shades just like her outfit but Im not, so I wont.

Kidswear
Kidswear featured in the All Together Now collection Photograph: Daniel Benson/The Observer

The publicist tells me there is time for me to ask one last question, so I use my precious minute to ask what she thinks of dry cleaning. Do we actually need it in the world today? Stella bursts out laughing, almost barking with amusement that I would use my precious last moments on this topic.

I love you, she says, this is such a great, random question. OK, so I went to St Martins when I was a baby and in my free time I studied on Savile Row to be a bespoke tailor. It was a very masculine world, incredible, obsessed.

Were you the only girl in the room? I was the only girl who had ever been in the room. I was there for three years and I barely learned how to set a sleeve head in a sleeve. Its like architecture. Its amazing. And the rule on a bespoke suit is you do not clean it. You do not touch it. You let the dirt dry and you brush it off. Basically, in life, rule of thumb: if you dont absolutely have to clean anything, dont clean it. I wouldnt change my bra every day and I dont just chuck stuff into a washing machine because its been worn. I am incredibly hygienic myself, but Im not a fan of dry cleaning or any cleaning, really.

Menswear
Menswear from the All Together Now collection worn on model Photograph: Daniel Benson/The Observer

And then her assistant whisks me away, urged by Stella to show me around even more of the shop, because building it killed me. I had no interior designer and no architect, we did it all in-house. So the assistant leads me into a downstairs lavatory, naturally, because celebrities have signed their autographs on the wall, she explains, trying to find some names to show me but finding only that of Keith Lemon, who has written a pee joke. And then I find one myself, a message signed with a name that looks an awful lot like Alasdhair. Is this Stellas husband, I ask?

Oh yes, the assistant says!

I JUST WANT MY WIFE BACK, it reads.

All Together Now launches tomorrow, available in Stella McCartney stores, at stellamccartney.com and farfetch.com

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2019/jul/07/stella-mccartney-its-not-like-i-am-here-for-an-easy-life

Dry aged beef? Paul McCartney’s and Quincy Jones’ slow-moving squabble

Seven months after Jones insulted the Beatles musicianship, McCartney finally claps back

The musician-on-musician public tiff, sometimes referred to as a rap beef, has become something of an art form in recent years. Drake and Pusha T, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj and Cardi B: these are epic battles in which artists use social media and the worlds greatest producers to release devastating diss tracks about each other, often responding to the latest slur within hours.

For older artists, it can be hard to muster that kind of animosity. But Quincy Jones and Paul McCartney, with 161 years and 45 Grammys between them, are giving it a go albeit without quite as much malice as their hip-hop counterparts.

It began in February, when Quincy Jones gave a wildly unguarded interview with New York magazine in which as well as claiming that Marlon Brando had sex with Richard Pryor, that he knew the true identity of who killed JFK and that he had dated Ivanka Trump Jones cast aspersions about the Beatles musicianship.

Jones said: They were the worst musicians in the world. They were no-playing motherfuckers. Paul was the worst bass player I ever heard. And Ringo? Dont even talk about it.

I remember once we were in the studio with George Martin, and Ringo had taken three hours for a four-bar thing he was trying to fix on a song. He couldnt get it. We said, Mate, why dont you get some lager and lime, some shepherds pie, and take an hour-and-a-half and relax a little bit.

So he did, and we called Ronnie Verrell, a jazz drummer. Ronnie came in for 15 minutes and tore it up. Ringo comes back and says, George, can you play it back for me one more time? So George did, and Ringo says, That didnt sound so bad. And I said, Yeah, motherfucker, because it aint you. Great guy, though.

The interview was well received many cheered Joness honesty but Jones felt bad about what was said, and later apologised, saying it had been a case of word vomit and that bad-mouthing is inexcusable.

Now, seven months later, McCartney has responded, not via a YouTube diss video, but via another lengthy profile with a legacy media title, this time GQ magazine. In the piece, McCartney recounts the apology call from Quincy.

So he rang me, and Im at home on my own. And Id finished work, so I had a drink, and now Im grooving at home, Im cooking, Ive got a little bit of wine going, Im in a good mood, and I dont give a shit. So I get a phone call: Is this Mr McCartney? Yes. Quincy would like to speak with you. Because hes always worked through security guys.

I said, Hey, Quince! Paul, how you doing, man? Im doing great how are you, you motherfucker! Im just jiving with him. Paul, I didnt really say that thing I dont know what happened, man. I never said that. You know I love you guys!

I said, If you had said that, you know what I would have said? Fuck you, Quincy Jones! And he laughed. I said, You know I would say to that: Fuck you, Quincy Jones, you fucking crazy motherfucker! So actually we just had a laugh. And he was like, Oh, Paul, you know I love you so much. Yeah, I know you do, Quince.

McCartneys rejoinder is not exactly a knockout blow, and it seems the two men have buriedwhat was already quite a blunt hatchet. Still, McCartney was at pains to point out that hes actually quite good at the bass guitar.

I dont think Im the worst bass player hes ever heard, he said. Or maybe hes never heard bad bass players.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/sep/13/quincy-jones-paul-mccartney-squabble

Quincy Jones: ‘The Beatles were the worst musicians in the world’

Record producer takes swipes at the Beatles, the machiavellian Michael Jackson, U2 and more

Music

Quincy Jones: ‘The Beatles were the worst musicians in the world’

Record producer takes swipes at the Beatles, the machiavellian Michael Jackson, U2 and more

Deputy music editor

Michael

Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones at the 1984 Grammy awards. Photograph: William Nation/Sygma via Getty Images

Legendary record producer Quincy Jones has described the Beatles as the worst musicians in the world as he recalled meeting the band for the first time during an interview to promote a new Netflix documentary and US television special.

Quincy
Quincy Jones in 2017.

In the new interview with New York Magazine, he discussed his first impressions of the Beatles in unsparing terms. They were the worst musicians in the world, he told interviewer David Marchese. They were no-playing motherfuckers. Paul [McCartney] was the worst bass player I ever heard.

Drummer Ringo Starr came in for particular opprobrium: And Ringo? Dont even talk about it.

Jones recalled arranging Love Is a Many Splendoured Thing for Starrs 1970 debut solo album Sentimental Journey.

Ringo had taken three hours for a four-bar thing he was trying to fix on a song. He couldnt get it. We said: Mate, why dont you get some lager and lime, some shepherds pie, and take an hour-and-a-half and relax a little bit.

The
The Beatles in 1964. From left: Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon. Photograph: CBS Photo Archive via Getty Images

In the interim, Jones called English jazz drummer Ronnie Verrell into the studio.

Ronnie came in for 15 minutes and tore it up. Ringo comes back and says: George [Martin], can you play it back for me one more time?

So George did, and Ringo says: That didnt sound so bad. And I said: Yeah, motherfucker because it aint you. Great guy, though.

Jones, 84, reserved praise for Eric Claptons Cream, the guitar skills of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Tropiclia artists Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, but lamented U2s latterday output. I love Bono with all my heart, but theres too much pressure on the band, Jones said.

In the enjoyably unguarded Q&A, Jones chastised his most famous charge, the late Michael Jackson, for stealing a lot of stuff from other artists without paying them.

He was as machiavellian as they come, he said.

Jones also claimed to know the identity of JFKs killer (Chicago mobster Sam Giancana: We shouldnt talk about this publicly) and to have briefly dated Ivanka Trump 12 years ago: She had the most beautiful legs I ever saw in my life. Wrong father, though! Later in the interview, Jones called Trump senior a fucking idiot.

Jones has won 27 Grammy awards out of 79 total nominations. Jacksons 1982 album Thriller won eight of those awards.

Jones balked at New York Magazines suggestion that any of his productions had ever underperformed. What the fuck are you talking about? he asked Marchese. Ive never had that problem. They were all big.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/07/quincy-jones-the-beatles-were-the-worst-musicians-in-the-world

Paul McCartney tickets bought for homeless given to Salvation Army leader’s daughter

Major Brendan Nottle defends actions over Melbourne donation but says: We get it wrong sometimes

The leader of the Salvation Army in Australia has defended his organisations actions after his daughter was given donated Paul McCartney concert tickets that were supposed to be for homeless people.

The seven tickets were initially given to homeless people by the Beatles fan Chris McDonald. But four hours before the 5 December show, two of the ticket holders were unable to attend and returned them, the Salvation Army major Brendan Nottle said.

At the last minute, two tickets were returned and [a manager] made the decision to give them to my daughter [Ash Nottle]. It had absolutely had nothing to do with me, he told 3AW on Thursday. The manager did the ring-around of other homeless people and volunteer staff and wasnt able to move them because it was so late.

He said his daughter had accepted the tickets under the premise that she would be attending to look out for the five homeless people at the concert. Ash Nottle attended the concert with her partner.

Brendan
Brendan Nottle in front of Parliament House after finishing a walk from Melbourne to Canberra to bring attention to the plight of homeless people. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

The Salvation Army will reimburse the donor for all seven tickets, Nottle said, adding that concert tickets were not an appropriate donation for homeless people.

When youre working with homeless people, to be blunt, do homeless people need tickets to Paul McCartney or do they need a roof over their head?, he said.

We are not Ticketmaster, we are not concert promoters, we dont do that stuff and we get it wrong sometimes, you know.

Nottle added that the situation could have been handled better and the organisation would absolutely learn from this.

The tragic thing is the daughter thats involved is one of the most giving people I know. In this work you dont do this stuff for the kickbacks.

McDonald told Fairfax Media he still supported the charity. They do an awful lot of good for people and for the homeless, he said. I have been a recipient of their relief so I know how important the work they do is, but the golden rule is never to dip your hand into the donations it calls the integrity of the entire organisation into dispute.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/dec/28/paul-mccartney-tickets-bought-for-homeless-given-to-salvation-army-leaders-daughter

Inspiration for the Beatles’ Lady Madonna? National Geographic

Sir Paul McCartney says photo of woman breastfeeding inspired him to write song

Sir Paul McCartney has spoken of his inspiration for the Beatles song Lady Madonna: a photograph of a woman breastfeeding her child in National Geographic.

McCartney said he was inspired to write the song, which reached the top of the charts in 1968, after seeing then image in the magazine in the 1960s.

National Geographics January 1965 issue included a photograph entitled Mountain Madonna, of a woman whose way of life was threatened, with one child at her breast and another laughing up at her.

She looked very proud and she had a baby … And I saw that as a kind of Madonna thing, mother and child, McCartney said.

Sometimes you see pictures of mothers and you go: shes a good mother. You could just tell theres a bond and it just affected me, that photo. So I was inspired to write Lady Madonna, my song, from that photo.

Sir
Sir Paul McCartney performs in in Tinley Park, Illinois, as part of his latest tour. Photograph: Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP/Getty Images

The musician also spoke of not getting tired after a long live performance, even at 75.

I think I feel very healthy and I do shows three hours long and I dont feel knackered at the end of it. I still feel strong, he said.

The singer, a vegetarian for decades, was speaking to National Geographics editor in chief, Susan Goldberg, about his Meat Free Monday campaign and new documentary short.

The film features daughters Mary and Stella McCartney, as well as actors Emma Stone and Woody Harrelson.

McCartney, discussing the effect of livestock agriculture on climate change, said: Were on this incredible planet and there doesnt appear to be another one within sight.

One Day A Week is released on Friday on YouTube.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/02/inspiration-for-the-beatles-lady-madonna-national-geographic-paul-mccartney