NEWS ARCHIVE 2000

The Beatles' records

Readers will not need us to tell them of The Beatles' new 27-track compilation album, 1, and its quite phenomenal sales success. Still, it's worth recording here that it seems to have been Number One everywhere in the Solar System, and at this rate will still be there in the next Millennium.

Meanwhile the band's official website www.thebeatles.com has also been receiving record numbers of hits.

[top of page]

Beatles Anthology book published

'The Beatles redefined musical categories, elevated the ordinary to extraordinary heights and will be remembered forever - not least because of this astonishing book.'
The Observer, 22 October 2000.

Most readers will be aware that October 5th saw the publication of The Beatles Anthology book. This was released simultaneously in the UK, USA, Canada, France, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands and Japan, with Norway following shortly afterwards. More translations editions are due to follow in 2001.

The book is the first and only time that the surviving members of The Beatles have come together to tell their story. The Beatles Anthology runs to a total of 368 pages, with 340,000 words and approximately 1300 illustrations, including a treasure trove of unpublished photographs and documents, many from the archives of Apple and EMI, and those of the individual band members. The text features first-person narratives by John, Paul, George and Ringo, plus selected contributions by close associates including George Martin, Derek Taylor, Neil Aspinall, Stuart Sutcliffe, Brian Epstein and Mal Evans.

The project was conceived several years back alongside the Anthology CD, TV and video releases, but took on a life of its own. The Beatles Anthology book was put together in the period since 1994-95 by an editorial team of four at Genesis Publications, headed by Genesis founder and publisher Brian Roylance.

Genesis was responsible for compiling, editing and preparing the book for press. Genesis's role included carrying out major new interviews specially for the book with Paul, George and Ringo; researching the entire John Lennon text from original sources (both published and unpublished); stitching together the interweaving narrative text; sourcing and editing the pictures and the documents; overseeing the design of the book (which was carried out by Wherefore Art of London); liaising on the approval of the book by the band and the securing of clearances; and the enormous job of preparing the book for press.

Advance orders for the book ran to around 1.5 million copies worldwide, and it was the best-selling non-fiction hardback in the week after release in both the UK and USA, where it has also been reviewed widely and positively in the national press. We don't yet have all the sales information about other territories but you are welcome to tell us by email whether it hit number one in your country.

It is in the public domain that there has long been the intention to publish an accompanying limited edition version of the book. Discussions on the idea are still continuing with no decision announced at present. We'll let you know when there is news.

[top of page]

Mania Days

However you can indulge your passion for The Beatles further by securing a copy of Mania Days, the new limited edition book from Genesis. This brand new book features the wonderful photographs of the extraordinary American photographer Curt Gunther, who captured the band in all their glory on their first major tour of the USA and Canada in August-September 1964. Curt Gunther was one of an elite few who travelled around North America with the boys on their chartered jet, capturing images of the Beatles and their crazily adoring public from the insider's point of view. This is the first Genesis volume to focus on The Beatles' enormous impact on America in the Sixties.

The book is in the final stages of production, and is made available now at a special pre-publication offer price. There are 2500 copies in the edition, 160 of them as special Deluxe copies. Many advance orders have been received already, so place your order now if you wish to secure your desired copy. Read more about Mania Days on the preview page on the this site and order your copy online on our secure server.

The first copies of Mania Days will be despatched from our bookbinders in early March.

[top of page]

The Who Live

Q Magazine have voted The Who Live one of their two best books of the past 3 months: 'This brilliant photographic memoir of The Who's live performances from the '70s onwards is compiled by respected rock photographer Ross Halfin, with a candid foreword from Pete Townshend.' Here's an excerpt from Pete's text: 'I am incredibly grateful to the devoted and hard-working photographers who took all these pictures, who rose to the mystical energy of The Who with their own talent and captured some of the extraordinary moments... This is an outstanding piece of work. It's amazing to find so many images in this book that I'd never seen before and never even knew existed. It's fantastic.'

October 5th was a doubly big day for Genesis. That evening, while The Who were in New York for their Madison Square Garden shows, Ross Halfin held a special signing session for copies of the book at the flagship Barnes & Noble bookstore at the Lincoln Centre. The event proved a great success: Barnes & Noble's CEO Steve Riggio, known to be a big Who fan, was in attendance himself, as was Genesis's Will Nash.

The Who Live has proved hugely popular. Deluxe copies are completely sold out now, and regular copies are selling quickly. Remember that The Who Live is actually a book/CD set: each copy comes with a specially pressed CD of The Who Live at Leeds. If you have not yet ordered a copy, you are strongly advised to do so here now before the edition sells out for good.

[top of page]

Dylan in Woodstock

Elliott Landy's limited edition book of his photographs of Bob Dylan and The Band at the tail end of the Sixties, Dylan in Woodstock, has been very warmly received by subscribers and reviewers alike. We are happy to be able to say that as of 1st November all copies ordered have now been despatched. All the Deluxe copies are now sold out, though you can still purchase a regular copy online here for just £144 plus delivery. The following excerpts from press coverage should give you a sense of how well the book has been received:

'Elliott Landy's pictures of Bob Dylan and The Band in Woodstock capture that magical moment when rock and roll went back to the woods and the mountains and tugged on its own purest, funkiest roots. Here are six extraordinary musicians in a state of serenity and fraternity, at a time when they were making some of the finest music of their lives.'

'His beautifully simple images of those rustic Woodstock days have been brought together in this luxurious, suede-bound volume that, whether it's Bob taking out the trash or Bob in the sun-dappled reverie of creation, reveals a relaxed side to the man rarely seen.'

'In virtually every photograph, he seems contented, at ease with himself in a way that he had not been before, nor, for that matter, has been since.'

'Ravishing photos of the man and the artist at work and play at a crucial time in his life, packaged immaculately.'

'Presented in such splendour, the importance of Landy's unique archive is all the more apparent. Dylan never looked so relaxed as in these shots from '68 and '69, when he was by all accounts an attentive family man, at peace with his life and his legend. No other photographer ever captured Dylan in such a playful mood.'

'Landy has now published his photographs of Dylan, in a beautifully bound volume, Dylan in Woodstock. It is a book that says more about the notoriously reclusive rock star than perhaps even its author realises. It is the very ordinariness that is so appealing. Landy's portraits are of an ordinary man doing ordinary things. Photographs of him emptying the rubbish, larking around on his children's trampoline or simply doing the kind of thing fathers have always done.'

'A holy shrine. This exceptional book is worth every Deutschmark.'

'The most wonderful photographs of Dylan.'

[top of page]

Ravi Shankar

Ravi Shankar, who turned 80 earlier this year, is on tour this autumn with his daughter Anoushka (whose second album is a favourite of Madonna, according to a recent interview with the latter in Rolling Stone). Ravi & Anoushka are playing the following dates: University of Arizona Centennial Hall, Tuscon, AZ (November 4th), Copley Symphony Hall, San Diego, CA (12th), University of Michigan Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, MI (17th), New Jersey NJPAC (21st). Next year they play the Foellinger Great Hall at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Urbana, IL (April 27th 2001), and the Rialto Center for the Performing Arts in Atlanta, GA (May 6th). Anoushka has solo dates lined up at the University Theatre, University of California, Riverside, CA on April 18th, and the Dinkelspiel Auditorium in Palo Alto, CA on May 9th.

In case you missed it, you can still read the text of Ravi Shankar's exclusive interview with genesis-publications.com on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Some copies of Raga Mala are still available from this site.

[top of page]

The Genesis Gallery

A unique collection of signed limited edition prints, featuring the work of some of the world's leading photographers, musicians and artists. In keeping with Genesis reputation for quality which is second to none, this select series of prints will be reproduced using processes that originate from the time of Fox Talbot.

The Gallery is delighted to launch with Klaus Voormann's oil paintings and drawings.

[top of page]

Forthcoming projects:

Take a Big Gulp!

We are delighted to give you advance warning that we are currently working with the entirely eccentric 'Legs' Larry Smith on a forthcoming Genesis limited edition book/CD set. Larry's formidable talents stretch over numerous fields (it says here). Let Larry tell you himself: 'Artist, composer, musician, writer, designer, accomplished chef and serious serial shagger - is there no end to this man's spots?!? Will we ever be free of this boy's influence? A founder member of the legendary Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, he rose to cult status and then mysteriously varnished'

Larry is an accomplished musician and artist (educated in art and design in Oxford, London and New York) who has worked with The Beatles, John Cale, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Sir Elton John, Keith Moon, Paul McCartney, Jim Capaldi, Rod Stewart & The Faces, The Travelling Wilburys, Yes, and others.

He has recently been working on a series of new computer-generated art pieces specially for this book, which will be titled Gulp! He is also writing a magnificent and witty text to accompany the images. 'You'll hate them, and they'll hate you,' says Larry a little modestly of his artworks. His musical talent will also be showcased in an accompanying CD of original new works. We can assure you that this limited edition will surprise you. Register your interest in a copy of this limited edition now by emailing us at gulp@genesis-publications.com. It's due in 2001.

[top of page]

Sir George Martin

As previously noted here, we are very excited to be working on a forthcoming limited edition book/CD set with legendary producer of The Beatles, Sir George Martin.

George is writing an illustrated memoir of his life and career: he recently marked the 50th anniversary of his joining EMI, and this spring sees the release by EMI a new 6-CD box set of highlights from his career (release date as yet unconfirmed). George's book, to be titled Playback, will be issued in a signed and numbered limited edition with accompanying CD. Let us know now if you're interested in a copy by emailing us at robby@genesis-publications.com.

Swedish subscribers will be interested to note that Sir George, who turned 75 in January 2001, is giving a lecture in Gothenburg on 10th February.

[top of page]

Crossroads Project

Crossroads is a place for retreat and healing of the souls, and the cost of a month's treatment is less than at comparable centres in Europe and the USA. For further information and a colour brochure, please see the website. Alternatively please telephone +1 268 562 0035 or fax +1 268 562 0036. In Europe you may telephone Carol Campbell on +44 (0)1275 847187 or fax +44 (0)1275 817306 or email her here.

[top of page]