100

Apparently my next episode will be the 100th episode......technically.

We actually passed the 100 mark sometime ago, but when I started achieving the show in July 2006 (when it officially "returned"), the numbering in feed started at 1. Going by that numbering, episode 99 was just released yesterday.

Go figure.

May/Nancy, Roadtrip, Atlanta and That's 70's Show.....SLIDESHOW EDITION!

Check out the podcast version of this trip here!

This entry is one of the reasons this blog is a good idea. I am able to capture some stuff that just doesn't come through on the podcast. For example...if you think I was full of hot air about some of the May Pang/Nancy Andrews stuff, I have some photos...

Now share my advanced version of a road trip sideshow!



Here is Highway 41...the middle of nowhere. It's Wednesday and I am starting my trek to Georgia!





I've crossed the state line! I feel so accomplished. I've never driven to another state by myself before.....maybe I should find other things to get excited about. By the way, I pulled over for the pictures, I'm not driving off the road!



Here is my hotel room. I didn't spend much time there, but it was a place to rest my head during all the fun.



The next day I went to the Hagerdorn Gallery a bit early. I wanted to pick up some copies of the book. I got to see Nancy Andrews and May Pang, as well as a sneak preview of the exhibit! Nancy even signed a copy of her book early!



This is the (iconic) picture of Ringo which greeted people when they walked in.



I'm a comic book lover, and I missed new comic book day the previous day. It was interesting going to a different store in a different state to catch up on my books. I told you I was weird!



I went to the mall and saw this odd arrangement in the parking garage. You can't see the full picture...but the sign is saying to go right while on the right we are told "do not enter".

HUH!



Now I'm inside the mall enjoying my lunch and devouring Nancy Andrews book....this is the part she signed!



On my way back to the gallery, two things happened. I got stuck in Atlanta traffic (which is apparently famous) and got lost...which was half of the point in me scoping it out earlier in the day!



I made it, and here are the stuff being sold and signed. You could bet I bought everything on that table and got it signed. May and Nancy were troopers signing until the wee hours of the night.



This was one of the most amazing pieces. The original camera Nancy took the pictures in during the 70's and the original copies. THE ORIGINAL COPIES.



The stars of the show...John Lennon's former girlfriend May Pang and Ringo Starr's ex-fiancee Nancy Andrews. Old friends from the 70's reunited.



Nancy mingling with fans of her photos.




May also made the rounds answering every question she could.



Nancy's introduction which ran across the stairs.



The reception was 3 hours long on a Thursday night and it still had many people coming, some staying until after the official closing!







I had May Pang take the picture of Nancy and I, and Nancy take the picture of May and I. This way I would have an "Andrews original" and a "Pang original" portrait of myself and a Beatle muse! We then had our friends at the gallery take some of all three of us together. I love how May's shot gives Nancy the Ringo POPE hat!



May signing a book for a fan who turned out to be a photographer of 70's rockers herself! You can hear her story and a Captain Planet singalong on the podcast! She and May sat in a corner calling old mutual friends.



Where I told Nancy Andrews I was going to see Star Trek (it was premiering in a few hours), we both attempted to do the hand sign. She was better than I was.



I'm at the theater seeing Star Trek. It was good. I've always been a Star Wars guy but I enjoyed myself. I felt stupid for not realizing Spock was Sylar from HEROES (my new obsession).





The next day (last Friday) I drove back down to Florida. A few miles from the state line, I saw some signs for a used book store. It said "all books under 4 dollars" so I decided to check it out. I got a nice Beatles book, an Elvis one and some reality show fiction thriller.





Crossing the state line back to Florida! Once again I am not driving off the road, I'm pulled over.

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. This has gone down as one my best Bertone Beatle Bonanza memories. This is right up there with the Pete Best Band back stage access from 2006...maybe even better! I look forward to more like this!

Here are some useful links to check out!

May Pang on Twitter.
May Pang's official website.
May Pang on Facebook.
May Pang on Myspace.
Instamatic Karma website.
Nancy Andrews on Facebook.
Nancy Andrews official site.
Nancy Andrews on Iconic Photos.
Hagerdon Gallery
Bertone Beatle Bonanza interview with May Pang
Bertone Beatle Bonanza interview with Nancy Andrews

Roadtrip!

I'm in Georgia right now enjoying myself.

This will be a very memorable episode of "Bertone Beatle Bonanza". I've already met May Pang and Nancy Andrews in person. I'll be getting my books signed and doing interviews. I'll even be giving away a copy of "Instamatic Karma" in a contest on the podcast!

I'm taking pictures and will post them on this blog (I knew it was good for something) when I get back!

New Layout

Thanks APPLE (my friend from "The Batman Universe" podcast) for pimping out my blog.

I suppose it'll be worth it to update this thing more now. I suppose I should update the podcast again soon.

I actually do have another interview done last month, just is undergoing some heavy editing. Happy April!

We're Back!

Back from the break and a new episode has been posted with returning guest, Beatles Examiner Steve!

Hope you all enjoy!

It's good to be back.

Check this blog space out because my Batman friend Apple will be doing some crazy edits with the layout!

On a break

Bertone and Bertone Beatle Bonanza have been super busy and are on a break. Be back soon!

We all live

I started blogging last night when my computer had a power outage. Wasn't too happy about that.

I figure it's time for a normal episode of "Bertone Beatle Bonanza" again. All these interviews, specials, Wings Wednesdays and Monday Reports are cool, but I realize J-Term was our last STRAIGHT NORMAL episode. I will try and get one out this weekend.

Dhani Harrison is starting to become the official Beatles spokesperson. We've learned two interesting items from him as discussed on the podcast

1) The Beatles: Rock Band will contain unreleased songs and

2) The Beatles may decide to digitally sell their music through the website since iTunes isn't working out.

Selling it through their website exclusively is interesting. I do hope we can get on track with iTunes though...

In other podcast news my co-host and I are also on a show called Couch Potatoes where we jabber about TV.

I found a used book store in Tampa this last weekend that had some CHEAP out of print Beatles books. I could have easily spent over 50 dollars there but I controlled myself and only spent a few bucks. Can't wait to read some of them and to go back when I have more money!!

I also bought two books specifically on the making of the YELLOW SUBMARINE film. As I've said before I enjoy the Beatles books when they are more focused on paritcular aspects. This way they bring something more to the table than the other ones do. Now I can become a YELLOW SUBMARINE movie expert.

Not much activity on this blog lately, but plenty of activity elsewhere.

I just posted the first three episodes of the Beatles cartoon up on the website! Be sure to check it out.

The Pete Best Band has annouced that they will not be touring the US this year which saddens me somewhat. They put on a great show and they haven't been to Florida since 2006, so I was looking forward to seeing them again.

Still they will be touring different parts of the world and seeing new sites so I can't fault them for wanting to do that.

It's March

Hope all is well! The podcast and the webpage have been doing alot of growing last month. We did nine shows in one month which is a record for us!

Maybe we'll break it this month...

We also did lots of interviews. My one with Nancy Andrews will air this weekend!

Laurence Juber interview

The interview with former Wings member Laurence Juber is now posted. The breakup with Wings was always very ambiguous and I was always very curious about what went down. Laurence helped clear up some myths. Also turns out he is Sherwood Schwartz's son-in-law. I also find out about an unmade Wings movie that I had never heard of.

This interview had some issues. For one I had a sore throat, and the recording program kept malfunctioning. When I went to edit the sound stuff it turned out the interview was deleted from my computer! I was horrified but luckily I was able to recover it. Laurence was great to have on and his body of work is awesome. I hope you all enjoy the interview.

Whoops

Wow. Been a while since the last blog post. On the upside, I have been pretty good about putting new episodes out this month. Even have a new feature called the "Monday Report". Let's see if we that will be as "regular" as Wednesdays With Wings.

Speaking of Wings, I interviewed Laurence Juber earlier this week. Podcast should be up later this weekend when I get time.

Also getting ready to put the picture and lyrics databases on the site. Rick is working on the lyrics and I am currently organizing the picture database on Flickr. Tagging and naming is tedious when it's over 1000 pics! Thank you Alex for donating the pics!

Like I said it's been a busy month. Hopefully the blog won't lapse!

Work has been keeping me busy lately. Like I've said before, 2009 is proving to be a really busy year.

Eric is back from his Beatlequest overseas and we should see, or hear, him back on the show soon.

I haven't been able to keep up with all the news due to my schedule, but apparently Decca Records is ending it's existence in the next few weeks. I wonder how different things would've been had they signed The Beatles.....

Well we would've had a Beatles history with no George Martin and less creativity control and possibly Pete Best over Ringo.

Hmmmm

I've also heard (but no article that I've seen has given a direct source yet...or I haven't found one) that Paul is cancelling his upcoming tour to stay home with his daughter Beatrice. If it's true good for him. In the 70's he dragged Heather, Mary, Stella and James everywhere but I suppose he wants to do things differently now. Wings tours were different anyway, especially the early ones.

At least it's not another "PAUL IS GETTING MARRIED" rumor. Can we stop with those? Please?

Still catching up on all my new Beatles books. Reading Julia Baird's (John's half sister) new book, but decided to read her old one first to do a compare. So far her new one is better as it's more in depth. Like Pauline Sutcliffe's book (Stu's sis), the author (also a sister of a deceased Beatle) seems to have some issues they are working through using the book.

Not that it's a bad thing. Julia seems like a nice person and her childhood was nothing short of tragic.

I'll try and post a new show soon.

Meantime some big stuff are coming up for the website.

Movies

I've rejoined some Beatles message boards I haven't been a part of or posted on in years. I'm doing it because I'd like to get more in touch with the Beatles community. The Pete Best message board has always been one of my favorites. A nice close knit group of devoted fans who really go above and beyond in promotion for The Pete Best Band.

That and I'm addicted to the forums arcade. I waste so much time on there.

One fan on the Shabby Road message board just sent me the mp3 of my May Pang interview from early 2005. WOW! Relistening to it brought back so many memories! I'll be posting it as a retro episode soon.

I've been watching some Beatles movies on the internet. Like bad biopics. Tonight's viewing pleasure was the 1979 tv movie "Birth Of The Beatles". Oh dear. I stopped counting mistakes. It was horrible. Hilarious though. So many errors my gosh.

The sad thing is Pete Best and Dick Clark worked on it so they should've known better, but perhaps there influence couldn't even save this.

The story about Paul and Pete lighting a condom on fire in the Hamburg club and it being put out? Yeah in the movie it's a full blown inferno.

New Show Posted

First show of the year has been posted! My guest host this week to fill in for absent Eric is none other than Beatles Examiner writer and Abbeyrd webmaster Steve Marinucci. We discuss the Beatles news highlights of last year, the wonders of Ringo's "Caveman" movie and more.

Download and enjoy!

I'll be traveling again for a bit due to family issues, but I should be churning some more shows out this month with different guest hosts. A fan has also unearthed my May Pang interview which I haven't heard in years. It is the most requested rerun and I lost my master tapes years ago. I'll try and post it again soon.

Back From Vacation

Vacation is now over and it was grand but busy. I actually did so much going back and fourth that I needed a break from vacation!

I got some cool Beatles stuff for Christmas. I am too exhausted to make a full list but my family did good this year. One item of particular note was the Beatles Monopoly game. Those of you who read this know I posted about it months ago stating "I must have this". When I saw it, I looked at my Stepmom and asked if she knew from the blog. She didn't. I suppose she just knew from being my Stepmom or something.

Eric is actually on an epic Beatles hunt in Europe this month so we won't be seeing him until February. Lets hope he comes back with some stories.

We'll be doing our first show back in a few days. In place of Eric we will have another guest host. Some of you Beatle Bloggers may recognize him as he's been doing this Beatles Blogging for a long time now. You'll see when the show comes on..

Reread some Beatle books and saw the Beatles cartoons as I now have my DVDs of them. Wow. I will discuss those more in depth later.

Hope you all had a good vacation. Now lets get back to work!

Rod Davis invites Paul McCartney, Julian and Sean Lennon to play with Quarrymen

The Rod Davis interview is now posted.

Interestingly enough he mentioned that it might be cool to have Paul McCartney sit in on bass for the reformed and touring Quarrymen. He extended an invitation which he added also applies to Julian and Sean Lennon. Would be awesome if this could happen!

SURPRISE

I didn't say anything for months just in case something fell through. It's happened before.

After some planning and e-mails, I am very pleased to annouce that tommorow morning I will be recording an interview with Rod Davis, an original member of the Quarrymen.

Did you know the Quarrymen are still making music and touring?

Learn more when I post the interview after editing it. Look for it sometime this weekend!

Update

We now have a twitter account!




.........whatever that means!

Web Designer

I had to let our last web designer go due to hacking and web sabatoge. Currently looking for a new one and e-mailing Craigslist ads.

Paul McCartney's visit to Israel is going well by all accounts. Many people predicted an assassination but it appears he'll get out alive. I'm honestly not all that enthused by the trip. Paul did Red Square and that was also a big deal and now it's this. I know I'm in the minority, and I understand it's a big deal for the country, but it just is not something I'm too excited about hence me not posting alot about it despite it being a big news piece.

Unpopular opinion, and I probably am wrong, but that's the way it goes.

New Phone

I fixed the problems we were having with the shows hotline. I apologize to those who have been leaving messages that I haven't been getting.

The new number for the show hotline is 206-350-7935!

GIVE US A CALL!