Nothing Is Real - A Beatles Podcast

S05E01: Side Two of the White Album: Part One The White Album is a behemoth, where do you start? How about with side two: The shortest side with the most songs. And when you think about it, shouldn’t it start with Happiness Is A Warm Gun?  Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: http://www.nothingisrealpod.com Twitter: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: http...

S04 Bonus9: The Great 2021 Let It Be Super Deluxe Edition Reveal Is Get Back/Let It Be jinxed? Shifting tracklists, various producers, repeatedly delayed, we now finally have eyes on what the 2021 Let It Be box set is going to be. Finally, you can sit back and listen to the rooftop gig in the comfort of your own home. Wait, what?  Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is R...

S04E12: A Hard Day’s Night - The Album: Part Two At the start of April 1964, The Beatles are halfway through a movie and an album without a title. By the end of the month, with A Hard Day’s Night (the movie and the song) in the can, there’s still an album to finish. So no better time to take a massive holiday. Website:  http://www.nothingisrealpod.com Twitter: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group:...

S04E11: A Hard Day’s Night - The Album: Part One In December 1963 The Beatles knew that they would be making a movie with a soundtrack in 1964. What they didn’t know was that it would be happening off the back of breaking through in America and touring the world. It was from all this that the only fully Lennon/McCartney Beatles album was born.   Website: http://www.nothingisrea...

S04E10: Paul & Linda McCartney’s RAM - Part Two On 31st December 1970, midway through recording RAM, Paul McCartney issues proceedings against John, George & Ringo to legally dissolve the Beatles. Then he flies to London to give his testimony. Will RAM ever get finished?  Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: http://www.nothingisrealpod.com Twitt...

S04 Bonus: Ram On Interview with Fernando Perdomo & Denny Seiwell May 2021 is the 50th anniversary of RAM and to celebrate, original RAM drummer Denny Seiwell and multi-instrumentalist & Producer Fernando Perdomo are putting out Ram On: The 50th Anniversary Tribute to Paul & Linda McCartney’s Ram. They joined Steve & Jason from LA to talk about the project.  Live on tape...

S04E09: Paul & Linda McCartney’s RAM - Part One It’s October 1970: John & George are in the U.K. is making Plastic Ono Band & All Things Must Pass. Against the tide, Mr & Mrs McCartney head to NYC to knock some new music into shape where they audition musicians. And lawyers.  Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: http://www.nothingis...

S04E08: The Traveling Wilburys - Part Three* Handle With Care was the proof of concept, so the obvious next step was a whole album from the Traveling Wilburys. After its huge success, what could possibly go wrong? (*Two) Live on tape from Amsterdam & Montreal, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: http://www.nothingisrealpod.com Twitter: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: http://tiny.cc/NIRFBG Yo...

S04E07: The Traveling Wilburys - Part One In 1988 an album appeared from the super-est of supergroups. The legend is that the group happened by accident. The truth is that its resident Beatle had spent a lot of time and energy willing it to happen.   Live on tape from Tallahassee & Madrid, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: http://www.nothingisrealpod.com Twitter: @BeatlesPod Faceb...

S04E06: Harry Nilsson & The Beatles  Harry Nilsson was unique. An American singer and songwriter whose talent and love of the Beatles brought him directly into their universe. As soon as he transitioned from fan to friend, it became impossible to separate his story from John, Paul, George, and Ringo.  Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: http:/...

S04E05: The Ballad of The Ballad of John & Yoko, Part Two John & Yoko caught the early plane back to London at the end of their honeymoon, but they were still explaining themselves. So why not do it through song?  Enter newlywed number two: Paul McCartney.   Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: http://www.nothingisrealpod.com Twit...

S04E04: The Ballad of The Ballad of John & Yoko, Part One In March 1969 John & Yoko were standing at the dock in Southampton about to set off on a life-changing odyssey. When it’s all over, what else is there to do but write a hit? The song that arrives is The Ballad of John & Yoko, their last stand-alone single, and last number one (sort of).  Live on tape from Dublin &...

In February 1963 The Beatles were ascendant: their second single enters the top ten, they have an album ready to come out, and they are touring in a bus with Helen Shapiro & Kenny Lynch. What else is there to do but write a hit? The song that arrives is From Me To You, their first stand-alone single, and first number one (sort of).  Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothin...

S04E02: The Ed Sullivan Shows - Part Two The Beatles landed in New York on 7th February, with 3,000 fans at the airport and a single at number one in the US charts. They were about to perform to the largest tv audience in history. After that, it was all sunshine and palm trees. And BTS.  Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: http://www.not...

S04E01: The Ed Sullivan Shows - Part One On February 9th 1964, The Beatles took to the stage of CBS Studio 50 as the headliners of that week’s Ed Sullivan Show. The legend of that broadcast has overtaken how it came to pass - a mixture of perseverance, timing, and good luck. Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: http://www.nothingisrealpod.com Follow us...

S03E13: The Nothing Is Real Review of 2020 Steven and Jason closeout 2020 with a review of all Beatle activity from the year which began with everyone expecting one thing (the Get Back movie) but ended up with everyone getting something else entirely (the McCartney III album). Plus Producer Ado is back with listener Q&As. Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Foll...

S03 Bonus Episode: McCartney III Today is the day that Paul McCartney releases McCartney III the album that’s been “Made in Rockdown”. Steven & Jason have stayed up late to reveal their initial impressions of the album and walk through it, track by track.  Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Follow us on Twitter: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: http://tiny...

S03E11: The Beatles at Christmas: The 1970s - Part One The first Christmas of the seventies had the world dealing with its first post-Beatles festive season. Going through this solo decade, each Christmas provides a snapshot of how things evolved. This first part goes from 1970 when All Things Must Pass is number one, to 1973 when an album called Band on the Run appears.  Live on tape from Du...

S03E10: All Things Must Pass at 50 Part 3 : The Album On 27th November 1970, George Harrison released All Things Must Pass: Three records, 23 tracks and 106 minutes of music, it was a culmination of his life’s work to date. He was 27 years old.   What stories lurk inside that 12 inch box? Steven and Jason break it down, track-by-track.  Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s N...

S03E09: All Things Must Pass at 50 Part 2 : My Sweet Lord At the end of 1970 the debut single from George Harrison announced a very different world from the colourful 1960s that the Beatles had soundtracked. Its popularity and influence was immense, and defined how the All Things Must Pass album was received.   However, after the song left the charts, it spent the rest of the decade in t...

S03E08: All Things Must Pass at 50 Part 1 : The Road to ATMP In May 1970, George Harrison succumbed to the inevitable and started putting together his debut solo album. He started by recording demos of the songs he had been stockpiling as a Beatle. What was the path that took him from his first composition, Don’t Bother Me in 1963, to this point? Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, i...

S03E07: The Films of Ringo Starr, or, Ringo Movie Starr After the Beatles first film, A Hard Day’s Night, came out in 1964, the general consensus was that Ringo was destined for the silver screen - all he had to do was act naturally.   Between 1968 and 1981 he made a collection of movies that managed to prove that everyone right, and also wrong.  Live on tape from Dublin & Belfa...

McCartney, the debut album from Paul McCartney, came out in April 1970 just as the headlines announced that he had quit The Beatles. At what point did this album become a solo declaration of intent? At what point did it even become an album? What does Elaine Paige have to do with anything? Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Follow us on Twitter: @Bea...

S03E05: The Kevin Godley Interview Kevin Godley left art school in 1968 and headed straight to the Beatles’ Apple Corp to pitch a musical with his partner Lol Creme. So began a career that would often overlap with the Beatles, culminating with being chosen to direct the Real Love video in 1995. In 2020 he’s as creative as ever, and is about to release his debut solo album, Muscle Memory.  Liv...

S03E04: The Anthology at 25 - Part 3 - The Aftermath In November 1995 The Beatles Anthology was born into the world in record stores and on tv screens. In the aftermath of its release were the Beatles back together, or had they spilt up again, or was it something in between?  Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Follow us on Twitter: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group:...