In The Beatles Anthology, a new book about the mega selling group, excerpts of which were published in Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper this week, Sir Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr aim to set the record straight about the band's journey from Liverpool teenagers to rock legends, reported the Associated Press.
The book, to be published in Britain and the United States in October, is the product of six years of work by the trio, the Sunday Telegraph said when it announced the project last spring. McCartney, 57, Harrison, 57, and Starr, 59, have collected 1,200 photographs, mostly unpublished, for the book, the paper said.
In the excerpts published this week, the three recall how Lennon was the first to quit the band, leaving to record with Yoko Ono, said AP.
According to the news agency, McCartney, whom some people believe spurred the breakup, simply made the public announcement of the split several months later in 1970.
"John was a bit annoyed with me because I think he wanted to be the one to tell anyone, or not tell them," McCartney said in the excerpt.
The band members also speak frankly about their drug consumption and their experience as wide-eyed teenagers performing in Hamburg's seedy Reeperbahn, a red-light district.
"Hamburg was quite an eye-opener," said McCartney in the excerpt. "We went as kids and came back as ... old kids!
"It was a sex shock," he added.
The book reveals that the band members continue to differ over key events in the band's history.
"I felt the group finished the minute John said, 'I'm leaving,'" said McCartney.
Starr disagreed: "There was always the possibility that we could have carried on," the paper quoted him as saying.
The interviews also show that tensions among the trio have not evaporated in the three decades since the band split up.
"Paul has a way of using stuff," said Harrison. "I mean, even now, if he's going to do a tour he'll conveniently tell the press that we're all getting back together or something"-Albawaba.com.
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