2007

December 2007

Keith's examination of the amazing Granada TV footage shot on the day when The Beatles paid a surprise visit to their studios in October 1964 has finally been published. You can read it in the Christmas edition of Record Collector magazine. Expect a bundle of further archive-related features by Keith throughout 2008 in the mag. And if you don't currently subscribe to this superb publication, why not? It's a damn good read, if I say so myself. 

Anyone know of the current whereabouts of Ayshea Brough, the host of the 1970s pop-music show, Lift Off With Ayshea and former girlfriend of singer, Roy Wood? Keith is currently doing a piece about the host and series and would dearly love to bring the article up-to-date with news of her current activities. 

Mr. Badman would love to thank the Marilyn Monroe collector, Syd Stanwell for allowing him unlimited access to his most amazing private collection of the actress. Thanks Syd! As you can guess, Keith's ongoing Monroe research is progressing very nicely indeed! 

November 2007

Thanks to everyone who's asked about how Keith's Marilyn Monroe research is going. Well, I'm pleased to say, it's going very well indeed. "I'm staggered by the amount of 'new' information relating to the actress I'm uncovering," Keith remarked this week. "I firmly believe my new discoveries will re-write many key parts of her final months." As it stands, an Autumn 2009 release date is the most likely. 

A big thank you also goes to Record Collector's Jason Draper who reviewed Keith's recently re-issued Off The Record. "This is truly one Beatles book you need," he wonderfully wrote. A perfect Christmas present, don't you think? 

Amongst Keith's latest assigments is an affectionate look back at the controversial Channel 4 1990s music series, The Word. If by chance you were in the studio audience at any programme or have an interesting tale to tell about the series, please get in touch. Thanks! 

September 2007

The latest issue of Record Collector magazine (October 2007) features Keith's full-page examination of the surviving outtakes from the 1969 Granada TV production, The Stones In The Park

Update: The alleged Wendy Richard outtakes on the new Apple / EMI Help! DVD - 
Contrary to the rumours which are spreading prior to the release of this highly-anticipated DVD, I can assure everyone that we do not actually see any of Richard's un-used filmed sequences on the discs. Instead we get newly-recorded interviews with Wendy and director Richard Lester, alongside very nice stills taken during the shooting. In truth (and obviously not touched upon in this DVD), back in 1965 as Help! was undergoing final editing, some of the movie's discarded footage was being smuggled out of the studios by one of the film's workers and given to his young, Beatle-mad daughter." (Note: The official release date of the Help! DVD has now been put back to November 5.) 

Keith filed this report after attending the HELP! DVD Press Screening in London - "This newly-remastered copy of The Beatles' 1965 movie is just superb! You'll be hard pushed to find a copy as good as this. The re-mastering has clearly worked; colours are bright, images are pin-sharp and The Fabs' wonderful music (as featured on the American DVD release of the movie) is presented in superb stereo / 5.1 Surround Sound. You'll love it. Sadly, at the screening, we didn't get to see the 'new' Wendy Richards outtakes (possibly an Apple decision) but I was promised these clips are GENUINE HELP! MOVIE OUTTAKES and not just a collection of stills." (Thanks to Peter at MBC. The Help! DVD hits the UK stores on October 29.)

Keith's new book, The Beatles Off the Record: Outrageous Opinions & Unreleased Interviews hits the shelves this Friday, September 14. He thanks one reviewer on Amazon who described the book as "A massive undertaking," before adding, "The Beatles Off The Record is a unique, essential, core title for all dedicated Beatles fans and reveals these four young men from Liverpool as no other book ever has -- or could!" 

August 2007

Keith would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has visited the site since its official launch in early August, and there's been over a thousand of you!

Following a highly-successful meeting with ITN Source supremos Ross Landau and John Nolan, Keith is pleased to announce his ITN Source-supported, archive themed, Record Collector series, Rockin' The Box will continue for another year (to the end of 2008). The first period of the article has already produced pieces on Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, The Hollies, Deep Purple, Slade, Badfinger and Tommy Steele amongst others.

Sunday, August 26 - Keith will be presenting the video show at the 2007 Liverpool Beatles Convention 

Monday, August 27 - Keith will be a guest on Spencer Leigh's BBC Radio Merseyside show talking about the re-issue of his book, The Beatles: Off The Record and discussing how research is going on his current project, Marilyn Monroe: Her Final Months; As It Was, As It Happened. 

July 2007

The Beatles Off The Record will be reissued in September with a brand spanking new cover.

The definitive book of Beatles quotes and interviews. From Cavern days to the final split, here is the story of The Beatles in their own words, plus comments from friends, associates and observers.

"Compared with some of The Beatles' later selective and polished or faulty and fading memories, this is much nearer the truth." - The Beatles' official biographer, Hunter Davies

Keith is currently working on a book about Marilyn Monroe covering the final nine months of her life and totally re-examining the way she died. "With respect to previous authors, this will be the most definitive scrutiny of this period of her life ever undertaken by any researcher. The resulting work will, in my opinion, prove conclusively the manner in which she died, and end over four decades of speculation."

Click here for Keith's statement on whether Marilyn had an affair with John F Kennedy