Rolling Stones renew Universal Music Group deal; more Eagle Rock home videos announced

July 9, 2018

by Carla Hay

The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones backstage at Deportiva in Havana, Cuba on March 25, 2016. Pictured from left to right: Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts and Keith Richards (Photo by Dave J Hogan)

The Rolling Stones and Universal Music Group (UMG) have renewed their partnership that covers the band’s recorded music, audio-visual catalogues, archival support, global merchandising and brand management, according to an announcement made by UMG. The Rolling Stones have been signed to UMG since 2008. The company has been consistent about releasing reissued or archival Stones content every year. For example, in June 2018, UMG released the Rolling Stones reissue box set “The Studio Albums Vinyl Collection 1971-2016.”

UMG-owned Bravado will continue to  handle the Rolling Stones’ global merchandising rights, retail licensing, brand management and e-commerce on behalf of the band. Bravado will also continue working closely with the band and management to “identify new and innovative opportunities for creative collaboration within the worlds of art, fashion, retail, sport, lifestyle and touring merchandise. Recent examples of those collaborations are the Rolling Stones’ merchandising deals with Paris Saint Germain FC,  Colette, Selfridges and Zara.

In addition, UMG will “provide the Rolling Stones with archival support and dedicated space for the band’s physical media assets, musical instruments and equipment across the company’s ecosystem of vaults positioned around the world,” according to the announcement.

UMG-owned Eagle Rock Entertainment will also re-issue several concert films from the Rolling Stones’ archives including: “Atlanta” (1989); “Steel Wheels” (1989-90); “Voodoo Lounge” (1994); “Bridges to Babylon” (1997-1998); “Four Flicks” (2002) and “Bigger Bang” (2005-2006).

On July 13, 2018, Eagle Rock releases the Rolling Stones home video “From the Vault: No Security—San Jose 1999.” The concert was filmed in April 1999 at the San Jose Arena (now known as the SAP Center) in California, as part of the the band’s “No Security” tour.  Over the course of the 20 songs performed in the home video, fans will get to see extended jams of songs such as “Out of Control,” “Midnight Rambler” and “It’s Only Rock ‘N Roll (But I Like It).”

During the Rolling Stones’ 1997-1998 “Bridges to Babylon” tour, they walked on a bridge in the middle of the crowd, midway through the concerts, to perform on a smaller stage in the round at the center of the venue. The “No Security” tour continued that concept, and it’s clear the band enjoyed giving high-fives and and reaching out to fans in the audience as they made their way to and from the more intimate stage to perform a trio of songs: “Route 66,” “Get Off of My Cloud,” and “Midnight Rambler,” one of the highlights of the Rolling Stones’ blues-loving musical roots.

By the 1990s, the Rolling Stones—lead singer Mick Jagger, guitarists Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood and drummer Charlie Watts—had become a well-oiled corporate touring machine, but it’s clear that, then and now, they love performing and haven’t lost their high level of energy and ability to massively entertain an audience. Their are moments of spontaneity in this concert, such as when guitarist Richards impishly took over from Chuck Leavell to play keyboards during the last part of “Honky Tonk Women.” Jagger played guitar on “Some Girls” (which featured reworked lyrics that are less controversial than the original song lyrics), “Saint of Me” and “Respectable.”

The show also includes crowd-pleasing hits that have become staples at Stones concerts, such as “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Honky Tonk Women, “Paint It Black,” “Start Me Up,” “Brown Sugar” and “Sympathy for the Devil.” Other songs included in the concert are “Bitch,” “You Got Me Rocking,” “I Got the Blues,” and Richards singing lead on “You Got the Silver” and “Before They Make Me Run.”

Nearly 20 years after this concert was filmed, the Rolling Stones are still one of the world’s biggest touring acts. (The band wrapped up the “No Filter” tour of Europe on July 8, 2018.) And although the Rolling Stones have not released a studio album of new songs since 2005’s “A Bigger Bang” (and it’s unknown when they will release an album of new songs), this renewed deal with UMG is a clear sign that there will be a steady stream of other Rolling Stones content and merchandise for years to come.

The Beatles’ ‘Yellow Submarine’ movie gets 50th anniversary release in cinemas

April 3, 2018

The Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" (Image courtesy of Subafilms 1968)
The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” (Image courtesy of Subafilms 1968)

The following is a press release from Abramorama:

Abramorama has announced a deal with Apple Corps Ltd. and Universal Music Group (UMG) to theatrically release The Beatles’ classic 1968 animated feature film, Yellow Submarine, across North America this July in celebration of its 50th anniversary. Abramorama, Apple Corps Ltd. and UMG have teamed to give Beatles fans of all ages the opportunity to come together and share in this visually stunning movie and soundtrack.  Abramorama originally partnered with Apple Corps, Imagine Entertainment, White Horse Pictures, StudioCanal and UMG’s Polygram Entertainment on the Ron Howard documentary The Beatles:  Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years. Abramorama has a proven track record in the music-driven film space, partnering numerous times with Neil Young, Pearl Jam and Green Day and now once again with Apple Corps Ltd.

Yellow Submarine was restored in 4K digital resolution by Paul Rutan Jr. and his team of specialists at Triage Motion Picture Services and Eque Inc.  The film’s songs and score were remixed in 5.1 stereo surround sound at UMG’s Abbey Road Studios by music mix engineer Peter Cobbin. Due to the delicate nature of the hand-drawn original artwork, no automated software was used in the digital clean-up of the film’s restored photochemical elements.  This was all done by hand, frame by frame.

Richard Abramowitz, CEO of Abramorama said, “We’re thrilled to have the privilege of bringing Yellow Submarine back to the big screen so that 3 generations of happy Beatles fans can enjoy the ground-breaking animation and classic tunes and that have long been part of our collective cultural DNA.”

The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” (Image courtesy of Subafilms 1968)

Directed by George Dunning, and written by Lee Minoff, Al Brodax, Jack Mendelsohn and Erich Segal, Yellow Submarine began its voyage to the screen when Brodax, who had previously produced nearly 40 episodes of ABC’s animated Beatles TV series, approached The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein with a unique vision for a full-length animated feature.

Yellow Submarine, based upon a song by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, is a fantastic tale brimming with peace, love, and hope, propelled by Beatles songs, including “Eleanor Rigby,” “When I’m Sixty-Four,” “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” “All You Need Is Love,” and “It’s All Too Much.”  When the film debuted in 1968, it was instantly recognized as a landmark achievement, revolutionizing a genre by integrating the freestyle approach of the era with innovative animation techniques.

Inspired by the generation’s new trends in art, the film resides with the dazzling Pop Art styles of Andy Warhol, Martin Sharp, Alan Aldridge and Peter Blake. With art direction and production design by Heinz Edelmann, Yellow Submarine is a classic of animated cinema, featuring the creative work of animation directors Robert Balser and Jack Stokes with a team of animators and technical artists.

Information on local screenings can be found here:  http://www.yellowsubmarine.film/

 Yellow Submarine Synopsis

An icon of psychedelic pop culture, Yellow Submarine is a colorful musical spectacle and an exhilaratingly joyful cinematic experience for all ages – filled with visual invention, optical illusions, word play, and glorious, glorious music.

Once upon a time….or maybe twice….there was an unearthly paradise called Pepperland, 80,000 leagues under the sea it lay, a place where beauty, happiness, and music reign supreme.

But this peaceful harmony is shattered when the Blue Meanies invade with their army of storm bloopers, apple bonkers, snapping turtle turks, and the menacing flying glove in an attempt to stop the music and drain Pepperland of all color and hope.  So it’s The Beatles to the rescue, as our animated heroes team up with Young Fred and the Nowhere Man and journey across seven seas to free Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, make peace with the Meanies, and restore music, color, and love to the world.

But beyond all the glorious music, Yellow Submarine is a landmark in animation, with Heinz Edelmann’s inspired art direction conjuring up a non-stop parade of wildly different styles and techniques.  From the paper-doll residents of Pepperland, to the tinted photography of the soot covered roofs and smokestacks Liverpool, the menagerie of fanciful characters in the Sea of Monsters, the kaleidoscopic colour-splashed rotoscoping of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, the vertigo inducing op-art of the Sea of Holes, and the triumphant euphony of the It’s All Too Much finale, the film is simply a joy.

 

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