Yesterday and Today

In the latter days of February 1990, Paul McCartney reached several key milestones on his return to the road - first up a lifetime achievement award at the 32nd annual Grammy Awards! This recognition of Macca's solo efforts in particular reached Paul at a career high, as his world tour set its sights on the second major moment of that month - a triumphant return to Japan. A decade after his infamo...

It's a new year, a new decade, and a new leg of the Paul McCartney world tour to ring in 1990! From Birmingham to Wembley, Detroit to Pittsburgh, Cincinnati to Indianapolis, Paul and the band continued their ultra-successful concert experience - wowing audiences and charming critics along the way. In fact, some critics known for their harsh takes on Macca in the past - namely Rolling Stone Magazin...

The finale of 1989 - and of the 80s - is here! And this decade just refused to go out without a bang, as Paul McCartney's World Tour rolled up to Chicago, Montreal, Toronto and the legendary Madison Square Garden! Macca's triumphant return to MSG was the culmination of his grand return to form, embraced by the public and critics alike on the back of both Beatles nostalgia and a strong new offering...

It's November 1989 and a major decade in Beatles history draws to a close...but not without a few more surprises in store. First up on the 8th, a milestone on the road to reconciliation for the former Beatles and John Lennon's estate, as The Beatles v Capitol lawsuit is finally settled (and in doing, paving the way for potential new product in years to come). Paul McCartney's momentous year contin...

The Yesterday & Today Podcast is celebrating 200 episodes with a special all-new discussion around an exciting collection of Beatles news magazine rarities! In a segment we call WE READ THE NEWS TODAY, hosts Wayne and Paul Kaminski are joined by Take it Away co-founder and co-host Chris Mercer to read, review and examine a selection of contemporaneous Beatles news magazine sources from during...

It's the fall of 1989 and the Paul McCartney World Tour is officially underway! Along the way on the road with Macca were the lessons gleaned from tours past - including the notion that his band ought to be broken-in in front of friendly or otherwise European crowds before heading to the UK or North America. And so it was on September 25th that the McCartneys - along with guitarist Hamish Stuart,...

It's September 1989 and Ringo Starr is on the road! This time Ringo and his friends are on home turf - Los Angeles California - for a star-studded line-up and audience ready to rock the city of angels. But hob-nobbing with Jack Nicholson (at the height of Bat-mania no less) or parting with Tom and Roseanne is just another day in the life of a solo Beatle taking a well-earned and sober victory lap...

In a jam-packed August of 1989, activity abounds in Beatleworld as Paul McCartney revs up for his first North American tour in 12 years. Hitting the road with wife Linda, guitarists Robbie Mcintosh and Hamish Stewart, keyboard player Paul "Wix" Wickens and drummer Chris Whitten, Macca & co hit the stage at the Lyceum Theater in New York City to play-test the new live band before a crowd of pre...

Ringo Starr is on the road! In August 1989 the All Star Band tour rolled across North America, featuring the talents of the many legendary rockers sharing the stage with Ringo...along with some special guests to boot. Chief amongst those special guests was none other than the boss himself, Bruce Sprringsteen, who joined two of his fellow E-Street Band members on stage before a crowd of star-struck...

It's summer of 1989 and for the first time in history not one but TWO former Beatles are on tour! And for the newly sober Ringo Starr, these live shows were a helpful reminder of his skills as an artist and his importance to the world of music -- hitting the road with an all-star band of friends and like-minded creatives for a triumphant North American leg in July. Joe Walsh, Nils Lofgren, Dr. Joh...

With Paul McCartney's newest LP Flowers in the Dirt climbing the charts and reigniting a wave of critical praise for Macca's music, Parlophone and Capitol release the second single slated from the album: This One. A rare glimpse into Paul's emotional state, the song captures a conciliatory tone of regret and longing...albeit alongside Paul's trademark deflection lurking around every corner. As the...

The eventful Beatle year of 1989 rolls on with a brand new release, and a brand new batch of critical acclaim for Paul McCartney. Still reeling from the critical failures of his last two projects of original material, Paul's so-called comeback album at last reached shelves -- the LP Flower in the Dirt -- and it did NOT disappoint. Through Macca's musical collaboration with Elvis Costello, plus a b...

The Yesterday & Today Podcast is proud to present an all-new extended interview with the one and only Pete Best! This summer, Pete hits the road with the Pete Best Band throughout North America, and we're here to talk to the former Beatle about his upcoming live appearances and much more. In 2008, Pete released the LP Hayman's Green, a rock'n'roll retrospective of Liverpool's music scene, the...

It's March 1989 and a new solo album from Julian Lennon is fresh on the stands - a stylistic departure titled Mr. Jordan. This latest effort in some ways marked the end of Julian's success streak as a pop star, though the effort did still manage to chart in the US, Canada and even go top 20 in the Australian market. While John Lennon's eldest son endeavored to craft musical distance from his late...

It's 1989 and George Harrison is still riding high on the success of the debut Traveling Wilburys LP! Of all the former Beatles, Harrison's late-80s resurgence resonated with near-universal public and critical acclaim, and the momentum of successful collaboration between George and producer Jeff Lynne showed no signs of slowing down. Also on an upturn in the early weeks of the year was Ringo Starr...

It's the end of the line for 1988, and the beginning of the epic super-group: The Traveling Wilburys! With the release of their debut LP ``Volume 1", George Harrison and friends Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and Jim Keltner floored both modern and classic rockers alike with a signature blend of harmony, guitar, and rambler-style songcraft. Listeners of the day, curious to know if t...

A flurry of developments in the lives and legacies of all four former Beatles permeated October 1988, starting with the debut of the feature-length IMAGINE film chronicling the life of John Lennon, opening in movie theaters across the world. This template for future Beatles archival projects was met with warm embrace by John's fans, and was an important milestone in the preservation of film foota...

It's the summer of 1988 and a fresh wave of "Lennon Fever" was sweeping its way across pop culture. In this case, however, not all of the attention on the late great John Lennon was positive - case in point the scathing, unapologetic, and often needlessly cruel biography called The Lives of John Lennon by author Albert Goldman. Goldman's feet were held to the fire by a furious but captivated publi...

As the summer of 1988 heats up, a new super-group emerges from the primordial soup of rock'n'roll...they are The Traveling Wilburys. Born from a supplementary recording session in support of George Harrison's latest Cloud 9 single, George (aka Nelson Wilbury) was joined by fellow music legends Tom Petty, Jeff lynne, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison to produce the superb track Handle With Care -- quickly...

It was a busy March in 1988, with new music, releases, conventions and interviews surrounding the world of the former Beatles. First up, a first since the Beatle days with George Harrison and Ringo Starr conducting an interview together for the television program Aspel & Company. This eventful exchange covered topics ranging from the death of John Lennon, the status of ex-Beatle relationships,...

It's February 1988 and the promotional tour for George Harrison's Cloud 9 album remains in full swing. The former Beatle who often seemed the most uncomfortable with press tours was now in the thick of one, this time labeled as a "come back" story which further fried the nervous system. To cope, George (along with Cloud 9 producer Jeff Lynne) showed up for the radio program Rockline a few glugs to...

It's 1988 and a busy year of activity in Beatle world kicks off with a wave of retrospection. On January 20th the band was inducted into the Rock'n'Roll hall of fame, a recognition of their achievements in music and their cultural impact upon the world. Unfortunately for them (and for, apparently, one agitated Beach Boy also in attendance), the legal squabbles dogging Paul, George and Ringo for ne...

It's the end of 1987 and George Harrison is riding the wave of a major comeback. With a new hit single in Got My Mind Set On You speeding up the charts, and a new LP - Cloud 9 - connecting with both fans and critics in equal measure, Harrison's resurgence in the latter half of the 80s was proof positive once again of that lingering Beatle magic...so pervasive even nearing 20 years since the band's...

On November 2nd 1987 Dark Horse Records releases Cloud 9 by George Harrison. While George himself would insist (and rightly so) that one cannot be in the midst of a "comeback" if one has been there the entire time, no one - not even George - could not deny the reinvigorated attention upon his music heralded by the LP's lead-off #1 single Got My Mind Set On You. The happy album in which this smash-...

Even 17+ years after the breakup of the Beatles, solo career competition remained alive and well in the worlds of Paul McCartney and George Harrison. In October of 1987, George's first new single from a studio album release in over 5 years - Got My Mind Set On You - was blazing up the charts and stood poised to top them. The public's embrace of this unlikely comeback foretold the success of the fo...