Nothing Is Real Live 2023 - The Q&A Sessions At each of the Nothing Is Real live shows in 2023 we had a Q&A session. As a taster for the whole event, here are the sessions for Belfast on October 23rd (Before Now & Then) and Dublin on November 9th (After Now & Then). Live in Person from Belfast & Dublin, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: nothingisrealpod.com/ X: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: tiny.cc/NIRFBG Mastodon:...

Review of 2023 You boy! What day is it? Ending the year in the NIR log cabin looking back at 2023 - our fifth annual review. Did anything to do with the Beatles happen this year? That’s right, the third anniversary of McCartney III. Oh, and a little tune called Now & Then. Includes a special Christmas guest!  Live on tape from Lapland, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: nothingisrealpod.com/ X: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: tiny.cc/NIRFBG Mastodon: @[email protected] Instagram:...

Bonus blurb.  16 Songs of 1966: No.17: Pantomime Everywhere It’s Christmas In 1966 there was a 17th song - the only thing heard from the Beatles between Revolver and Strawberry Fields Forever. For their annual Christmas fan club disc instead of the usual thank yous, they produced a collection of music and sketches. Like Revolver and Strawberry Fields, it showed where they’d been, and where they were going.   Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website:...

The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame 1988 was an unusual time: The biggest Beatle was George, rock stars were dealing with the unthinkable (their forties), people were paying attention to Mike Love, and the rebellion of rock & roll had been replaced by a gentlemen’s club.   Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: nothingisrealpod.com/ X: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: tiny.cc/NIRFBG Mastodon: @[email protected] Instagram: instagram.com/beatlespod/ YouTube:...

Live at the Roundhouse - Part Two In December 1968, Michael Lindsay-Hogg directed a TV special where the kings of British rock gathered to play their new material.  Unfortunately, it was with the Rolling Stones. Whither The Roundhouse? What happened next and what could have happened? Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: nothingisrealpod.com/ X: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: tiny.cc/NIRFBG Mastodon: @[email protected] Instagram:...

Live at the Roundhouse - Part One After filming the Hey Jude promo, and in the midst of recording the White Album, somehow The Beatles decide to eye up a return to the stage in the heart of London. So where should that be, and how will they pull it off? Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real. Website: nothingisrealpod.com/ X: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: tiny.cc/NIRFBG Mastodon: @[email protected] Instagram: instagram.com/beatlespod/ YouTube:...

In 1991, when so many acts from the 60s were lucratively touring, George Harrison decided to dip his toes in the water. Why? Money. Where? Japan. Who? Clapton. What…could possibly go wrong? Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: nothingisrealpod.com/ X: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: tiny.cc/NIRFBG Mastodon: @[email protected] Instagram: instagram.com/beatlespod/ YouTube: tiny.cc/NIRYT Support: tiny.cc/NIRsupport Support this show...

The plan for a quick live-in-the-studio album gradually morphs into something more 80s, more produced. Hello to Hugh Padgham. Warning: Contains Spies Like Us.  Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: nothingisrealpod.com X: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: tiny.cc/NIRFBG Mastodon: @[email protected] Instagram: instagram.com/beatlespod/ YouTube: tiny.cc/NIRYT Support: tiny.cc/NIRsupport Support this show...

Or…. Press to Play After the huge success* of Give My Regards to Broad Street, Paul McCartney wants to get back to basics. Kicking back in a small band with Eric (not that one) this is a broth that attracts many cooks… Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: nothingisrealpod.com X: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: tiny.cc/NIRFBG Mastodon: @[email protected] Instagram: instagram.com/beatlespod/ YouTube: tiny.cc/NIRYT Support: tiny.cc/NIRsupport Support this...

November 63 - Part Two As the Beatles move through the month, beyond the Royal Variety Performance they continue to pack houses up and down the UK. What recordings are waiting in the wings? I Want To Hold Your Hand and With The Beatles. Not too shabby.  Live on tape from Dublin, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: nothingisrealpod.com X: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: tiny.cc/NIRFBG Mastodon: @[email protected] Instagram: instagram.com/beatlespod/ YouTube: tiny.cc/NIRYT Support:...

Between October 31st and December 1st 1963, the Beatles pushed the envelope from being the biggest pop group in the country to something even… bigger. In a year when they just kept getting more extraordinary, by the end of November 63, the world was theirs for the taking.  Live on tape from Dublin, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: nothingisrealpod.com X: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: tiny.cc/NIRFBG Mastodon: @[email protected] Instagram: instagram.com/beatlespod/ YouTube:...

Harrison/Starkey George and Ringo always had a special bond.  As the sixties became the seventies, was there an opportunity for the Beatles to give the world a second magnificent song-writing partnership? Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: nothingisrealpod.com X: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: tiny.cc/NIRFBG Mastodon: @[email protected] Instagram: instagram.com/beatlespod/ YouTube: tiny.cc/NIRYT Support: tiny.cc/NIRsupport Support this show...

Bonus Episode! Talking Mal Evans with Ken Womack Kenneth Womack is a writer, historian, and critic, who has written some of the best books about The Beatles and their inner circle.  To this list, he is about to add Living The Beatles Legend, The Untold Story of Mal Evans, the first of two books about big Mal, which comes out in November 2023.   Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast & New Jersey, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: nothingisrealpod.com X: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group:...

Mal Evans Mal Evans had a front-row seat to the entire Beatles experience, and the Beatles were happy to have him there. Whether it was as an extra in A Hard Day’s Night or co-writing a song on the Ringo album, he remains an indelible part of their landscape. Contains anvils.  Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: nothingisrealpod.com X: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: tiny.cc/NIRFBG Mastodon: @[email protected] Instagram:...

Bigger Than Jesus - Part Two Four months passed between John Lennon free-associating about Christianity to a trusted journalist, and touching down in the US for a North American tour. The “Bigger Than Jesus” controversy hung over the tour, but was it really that big of a deal?  Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: http://www.nothingisrealpod.com X: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: tiny.cc/NIRFBG Mastodon: @[email protected] Instagram:...

Bigger Than Jesus - Part One John Lennon never actually said that the Beatles were “bigger than Jesus”, but that wasn’t the point. When you’re free-associating to a trusted journalist, what’s to stop your words being lost in translation as they cross the Atlantic?  Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: nothingisrealpod.com/ X: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: tiny.cc/NIRFBG Mastodon: @[email protected] Instagram: instagram.com/beatlespod/ YouTube:...

Welcome to Season Eight Full steam ahead for the eighth(!) season of Nothing is Real. We need to tell you about live shows, the new season, the world’s most difficult Beatles quiz, and ask the burning question of “Where’s that new Beatles single?” Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: http://www.nothingisrealpod.com X: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: http://tiny.cc/NIRFBG Mastodon: @[email protected] Instagram:...

S07 Bonus: STINYC Live Jam Jason Mix The Fillmore tapes have been remixed and repurposed, so in telling the tale, let’s do some remixing and repurposing… Live on tape from Dublin, Belfast, The Fillmore, and The Lyceum, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: http://www.nothingisrealpod.com Twitter: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: http://tiny.cc/NIRFBG YouTube: http://tiny.cc/NIRYT  Support: http://tiny.cc/NIRsupport Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/nothing-is-real-a-beatles-podcast. Become a...

Stuart Sutcliffe - Part Two As a group, the Beatles were changed by Hamburg.  Individually each Beatle got something different from their time in the city and it would shape the rest of their lives …and for Stuart it was Astrid and art.  Live on tape from Dublin, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: http://www.nothingisrealpod.com Twitter: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: http://tiny.cc/NIRFBG YouTube: http://tiny.cc/NIRYT  Support: http://tiny.cc/NIRsupport Support this show...

Stuart Sutcliffe - Part One Stuart Sutcliffe was the star pupil at the Liverpool College of Art, and also John Lennon’s flatmate. By becoming a Beatle, he demonstrated that the band was a state of mind. To be a Beatle was to be something…other. Then they got the call up for Hamburg. Live on tape from Dublin, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: http://www.nothingisrealpod.com Twitter: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: http://tiny.cc/NIRFBG YouTube: http://tiny.cc/NIRYT  Support:...

Stop & Smell The Roses When work began on Ringo’s eighth album in May 1980, the outlook was good. John, Paul and George came on board to contribute, trying to rekindle the magic of 1973’s Ringo album. By the time the album came out at the end of 1981, it was a different world.  Live on tape from Dublin & Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: http://www.nothingisrealpod.com Twitter: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: http://tiny.cc/NIRFBG YouTube: http://tiny.cc/NIRYT  Support:...

Derek Taylor, Part Two Returning into the Beatleverse via Apple, Derek Taylor settles into his peacock chair at Saville Row, with a ciggie in hand, to dispense drinks and bon mots … but who is sending him all those narky messages? Answers on a postcard… Live on tape from Dublin, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: http://www.nothingisrealpod.com Twitter: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: http://tiny.cc/NIRFBG YouTube: http://tiny.cc/NIRYT  Support: http://tiny.cc/NIRsupport Support this show...

Derek Taylor, Part One In May 1963, Derek Taylor was sent to review a Beatles concert, an event that spun his world off its axis.  For the next 34 years, he would be connected to the band, even as he went from working for them in London to being a free man in Los Angeles.   Live on tape from Dublin, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: http://www.nothingisrealpod.com Twitter: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: http://tiny.cc/NIRFBG YouTube: http://tiny.cc/NIRYT  Support: http://tiny.cc/NIRsupport Support...

Mark Lewisohn Returns In January 2023 Mark Lewisohn came to Belfast to present his Evolver: 62 show. For dessert, Steven & Jason joined Mark on stage for a mixture of audience questions, chat, and Beatle diversions.  Live on tape from Belfast, it’s Nothing Is Real.  Website: http://www.nothingisrealpod.com Twitter: @BeatlesPod Facebook Group: http://tiny.cc/NIRFBG YouTube: http://tiny.cc/NIRYT  Support: http://tiny.cc/NIRsupport Support this show...