Paul McCartney turning his life's work into a massive digital library

Paul McCartney (Photo By Rich007)

By Steve Marinucci
Published 5/26/2011

 Paul McCartney and Hewlett-Packard rolled out their plans Thursday for the former Beatle's digital cloud archive to be maintained by Hewlett-Packard. The deal, first announced last September, will allow McCartney to archive pictures, films, videos and music and direct access for use in archival projects.  

In a phone interview Wednesday, Scott Anderson, Vice President of Customer Communications for HP Enterprise Business, explained that HP's cloud archive agreement with McCartney and MPL Communications will enable him to organize his huge collection of films, videos, photos and documents he's built up over the years. HP says McCartney’s collection currently includes more than 1 million items, including photos, video footage from live concerts, film, videotapes, recordings,  paintings and memorabilia. 

"What he wanted to do and the reason his media company, MPL Communications Ltd., found HP was that he has all these assets. Here's the most photographed, filmed, videoed and recorded guy on the face of the planet. The idea was if you can take all those photos -- there's over half a million photos and hours and hours of videos -- digitize them and while you're doing so, catalog them, so you know the date, project, location. If you can store all that stuff in a private cloud that he has access to at his fingertips, the benefits for him and MPL is that they're preserved."

"He can have those things at his fingertips, for his business, he can license them out," he says. "He can use them for press engagements or if he wants to, he can make his assets that haven't been seen before available to his fans. So the option is his. We're putting them in a secured environment available for him  to access anywhere or anytime in a very orchestrated format."

“It’s really exciting because even if I’m out on tour anywhere in the world, I will be able to say, okay, ‘Wings 1976 tour’ and instantly, it will come up," McCartney said in a statement. "You’ve got all the information, all the photos from it. And you’ll have written accounts – personal accounts and critical accounts – of what happened.” . 

Anderson says the archive is limited to what McCartney and MPL Communications own and it doesn't include anything owned by Apple Corps, the Beatles company. And he says McCartney is looking ahead to the future.

"(McCartney) is not only designing for today, but he's recognizing the music industry is changing significantly. So as we build this digital library, it allows MPL to be quite flexible with how Paul can connect with fans. It's very innovative and forward looking," he says, "and HP has been very excited to work with him to build this." 

Anderson says McCartney has already received the digital archive, but new items will be added as McCartney continues to record, perform live concerts and do other projects.

"It's probably a neverending process before everything gets into it," he said. 

Attendees at the upcoming HP Discover America client conference the week of June 6 in Las Vegas will get a preview of the McCartney-Hewlett-Packard agreement from McCartney staff members. McCartney will also perform a show for attendees at the event's closing ceremonies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friends remember Gordon Waller of Peter and Gordon

                                                 Peter and Gordon performing

                                                       "World Without Love"

Published 6/5/2011

 Gordon Waller would have been 66 years old on Saturday. His longtime musical partner, Peter Asher, and some of his friends, recalled Waller and his music in quotes we've gathered here.  

"All of us who played and sang used to stand in front of the mirror and pretend to be Elvis," Asher says about the early days. "But Gordon actually did a good job of it. He was incredibly handsome and could sing those songs with his big, Elvis-y voice…"

Asher said the original idea of Norman Newell, who discovered Peter and Gordon, and EMI about how to use them changed. "They were thinking of us as an English answer to Peter, Paul and Mary or the Kingston Trio," he says. "Of course, after 'World Without Love' came out, by far the best at the session, all this English equivalent of the U.S. folk boom went out the window. We were just going to be a pop group."

Denny Laine, who was in the Moody Blues around that time (and later Wings with Paul McCartney), said their influences had a lot in common: "We were into Elvis, and Buddy Holly, and Eddie Cochran, all those people. The down home rockers."

And he says even though they were competitors, "we were all friends in that era. There was a lot of friendly competition, let’s put it that way. But everybody was happy in their own skin. They were doing what they were doing. We kind of admired each other."

He got to know Peter and Gordon from the television work they did together. "It sort of branched from the fact that we were all doing television together. We actually went to New York with them to do the Murray the K show, and we spent that time being ‘the Brit Bands’, mixed with the American bands…that’s how we got a little bit closer."

Spencer Davis of the Spencer Davis group, recalled Waller's driving. "The vehicle of choice I used to use to drive around in Britain was a Mini Cooper S. And we all know that Gordon was a huge fan of Mini Coopers. In fact, years later, when Gordon came to stay with me in Avalon, on Catalina Island-He said, “Can I take the Mini out?” Now it’s a small island, like a mile across, the speed limit is 15 miles an hour…I said, knowing Gordon, 'Yeah, you can take it out, but DON’T GO OVER 15 MILES AN HOUR…' ”

Denny Laine says he was impressed by Peter & Gordon's reunion performance at BB King's in 2005. "I said to Peter, ‘You sound great. Why don’t you do some more shows?’ He said, 'I’ve got a day job.' I’d worked with Gordon as a solo artist -- I know he liked to do the solo stuff. But at the same time, I remembered them from the old days, and thought, it would be great if they went out and did a few shows."

Denny Laine: "I love anyone who’s got their own thing. "I know, of course, it’s a little bit based on the Everly Brothers, but Peter & Gordon had their own niche, their own sound, People loved them."

Keith Putney, manager of Peter & Gordon from 2006-2009, remembers a night when the conversation was about Waller. "Late one night, after a show in Stuart, Florida, Peter Asher, Jeff Ross and I were sitting at a little plastic table next to the tiki bar in our hotel. Everyone else had retired to their rooms; the bar had already closed down, but we were still talking, and as it so often did, the conversation turned to Gordon. Peter said that in the intervening years -- the 37 year break -- he had seen so many singers, so many people who wanted to perform, be it with a band, in a play, as a singer-songwriter-people who would do anything to make it.   People would give anything, do anything, to have what Gordon had, but what Gordon had was completely his own. It couldn't be taught, it couldn't be bought. He had an incomparable voice and a transfixing presence on stage, and an instinctive way of dealing with an audience. By then, they had known each other for over 45 years, but Peter still marveled at Gordon's gift."

Denny Laine recalled playing a show with Peter & Gordon in 2009.  "That night something happened . It just jelled. Gordon still sounded great. He had the voice. Something magical happens when you are doing a show with people you know. It’s more of an occasion, you’re not with strangers, and it was a great night. We talked after. We went to the restaurant and it was great to see Gordon all happy and jumping around. He’d had a good gig, you know.
"One of the last shows we did was the one on the Santa Monica Pier, which was one of the last times I got to sing with Gordon," Peter Asher recalls. “'500 Miles'" is one, in particular, that makes me miss him. That night on the Santa Monica Pier, Joan Baez, who is an old friend, got up and sang with us. We were practically back to being the Peter, Paul, and Mary thing all over again. It was Peter, Gordon and Joan”

 

 

Interview: Sylvia Hillier recalls life aboard Magical Mystery Tour bus in new book

 Introduction She's now known as Sylvia Hillier, but back in 1967, she was Sylvia Nightingale and was one of the passengers on the Magical Mystery Tour bus and in the movie. Now she's writing a book about it all. 

Q: “Your book 'Magical Mystery Tour -- My Journey' by Sylvia Nightingale' is scheduled to come out in February. What can readers expect?

Sylvia Hillier: “The book spans 50 years of my life from the moment I heard 'Love Me Do, in 1962 through until 2012, when I met Paul McCartney again at the gala screening of  the remastered 'Magical Mystery Tour' and the documentary 'Magical Mystery Tour Revisited,' which I was also in. The core of the book is about my time on Magical Mystery Tour in 1967 and I want to the reader to feel as if they are right there with me on that bus!  The rest of the book encompasses how the Beatles' music has touched my life in so many ways and helped me through some dark times. There are funny moments, a couple of surprises, but most of all the book will share the fun I had in those two weeks I was lucky enough to spend with the most phenomenal group the world has ever known!”

Q. Your book is authored as Sylvia Nightingale, but your real name is Hillier. Why the alias?

Sylvia Hillier: “Simply because that was my name when I was on 'Magical Mystery Tour' and the one that they used in the documentary. Hillier is my married name (now widowed...). 

 Q: How did you get to go?

Sylvia Hillier: “I was area secretary for the fan club in my county and on 8th September 1967, I received a telegram asking me to ring a London number, which I did and they asked me if I would be interested in going on a coach trip with the Beatles. I didn't need asking twice!! I got a phone call on Sunday 10th to confirm my place on the bus. I was to be in London early the next day on 11th September, so I simply popped a note into my place of work and said I would not be coming in. When I came back from the tour, I found I had lost my job, but it was worth it though and I soon found another one!!”

 Q: What did you think of the "Magical Mystery Tour" film? Was it really that way?

Sylvia Hillier: 'When I saw the film with friends and family on Boxing Day 1967, I felt a bit let down as it was in black and white and it was a film you needed to see in color to appreciate it. For me it epitomized the psychadelic era of the  60's, when new things were being experimented with in music and film making. The music was great as always, but I think people were expecting something along the same lines as 'Help' and 'A Hard Day's Night.' I loved it because I was in it, so perhaps I was biased!! It was a complete mystery from one day to the next, but for me it was magical.”

 Q. What kind of contact did you have with each Beatle and which one left the best impression?

Sylvia Hillier: “We had contact with all four on a daily basis as we were all on the same bus, but I did interact with Paul, John and Ringo, but not so much with George as he was very quiet and meditated a lot. Ringo was funny and very sweet, Paul was charming and he was my favorite Beatle anyway, but John was the surprise I think as I saw a different side to him on that bus that I didn't expect, a kind and gentle side. I had a long chat with him on the coach one day and learned  more about John the person.”

 Q: Which non-Beatle from the bus was your favorite?

Sylvia Hillier: “I  think my favorite non-Beatle has to be little George Claydon, he was a little man with a bit heart and I got on famously with him.”

 Q: Since Freda Kelly was on the bus, just wondering if you've seen 'Good Ol' Freda' and what did you think?

Sylvia Hillier: “No I have not seen the film,  'Good 'Ol Freda' yet, but I am so pleased that she has had the recognition she so richly deserves and I look forward to seeing it when it comes out on DVD.”