People in Britain have been celebrating this festival at the end of October for more than two thousand years.They celebrate at the end of the summer, the beginning of the Celtic New Year on October the 31st , the night of All Hallows Eve .The celebration is thought to drive away evil spirits and witches.
Nowadays , is a time for parties and games.
Children dress up in halloween costumes, as witches, ghosts, vampires and other evil creatures.Then they knock on peoples´ doors and say Trick or Treat?. People give them fruit or sweets (treat). If people don´t give them anything children play a trick, like knocking their door and running away, throwing eggs at people´s doors, destroying gardens and tying cans to cars. Many houses have pumpkin lanterns in their windows to frighten witches away. Typical games are " ducking or bobbing for apples" and "buns on a string"
WATCH THE FOLLOWING VIDEO AND LEARN HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN JACK O´LANTERN (bilingual, English and Spanish)
The Beatles were an English rock and pop group formed in Liverpool in 1960 who became one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music.
It was in 1963 , a new phenomenon had just started:The Beatlemania.Whenever the band played in concert ,the influence of their clothes, look and music power was so strong on their fans ( mainly girls) that the police had to hold back them in order to avoid the screaming girls jumping onto the stage to touch their new idols.
Unfortunately for their fans, the group split up in 1970 due to many personal, music and bussiness differences among the group members.
The group consisted of four members: John Lennon ( who was tragically shot in 1980) (rhythm guitar and vocals), Paul McCartney ( bass guitars and vocals) , George Harrison(he died in 2001 after a long illness) ( lead guitar and vocals) and Ringo Starr ( drums and vocals).
The Beatles ruled the music world in the 1960s .They had 22 singles in Britain, and 18 reached number one.Every album of new songs got to number one.In the USA, there were 19 number one singles.Many people think that they were the world´s greatest band of all time.
But the band´s sucess wasn´t only for their musical past. In 1995, the three living Beatles came together to record two new Beatles´ songs Free as a Bird and Real Love.Both songs were by John.The singer recorded them but they weren´t finished.Paul, George and Ringo worked with these recordings as if they were finishing the music for John while he was working on something else.
Fans could buy new Beatles records again!!They also liked the video for Free as Bird.It showed people and places from the band´s past-Stu Sutcliffe(one of John´s art-school friends and first guitar players in the band),the Cavern(The name of the pub where the Beatles used to play), the street outside the Abbey Road Studio.
Studio albums
*Please Please Me (1963)
* With The Beatles (1963)
* A Hard Day's Night (1964)
* Beatles for Sale (1964)
* Help! (1965)
* Rubber Soul (1965)
* Revolver (1966)
* Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
* Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
* The Beatles ("The White Album") (1968)
* Yellow Submarine (1969)
* Abbey Road (1969)
* Let It Be (1970)
Life after the Beatles
Ringo acted in a few films and he continued to make records.His 1973 album Ringo was a success.Many children know and love Ringo for another reason. He was the voice of a train in a famous children´s TV programme.
George - His 1970 album All things must Pass reached number one around the world.George´s most famous song in the 1970s was My Sweet Lord, but he was taken to court because of it.It was alleged to be a copy from an old song.He also produced film´s like Monty Python´s Life of Brian and Time Bandits. He died in 2001 after an illness.
Paul has had the most succes after the Beatles. In 1971 he started a new band , Wings, with his wife Linda and guitarist Denny Laine.At first, they played in small concerts all over Britain. Band on the Run was Paul´s most successful album.Wings ended in 1981, but Paul continued making records.
John and his new wife moved to New York. Some of John´s most interesting work was on his first two albums John Lennon, Plastic Ono Band and Imagine.He returned to the recording studio in the summer of 1980 to make Double Fantasy with Yoko.One of songs from the album Starting Over was doing well when he was killed.
And now that you know a little bit more about this group, try to do the following quiz.You can check the answers at the bottom of the page.Good Luck and have fun!
QUIZ
1) John´ s Lennon first band The Quarry Men was named after a) a church b) his hometown c)school
2) Who was the first group´s drummer? a) Stu Sutcliffe b) Pete Best c) Tony Sheridan
3) Who was the last member to join the band? a) Paul MacCartney b) George Harrison c) Ringo Starr
4) What European city outside Great Britain did the Beatles use to go to play? a) Paris b) Hamburg c) Bonn
5) What was the name of the famous pub where the band used to play? a) the Groove b) the Cavern c) the Castle
6) Who was the band´s manager? a) Pete Best b) Stu Sutcliffe c) Brian Epstein
7) What was John´s first wife´s name? a) Mary b) Yoko Ono c) Cynthia
8) What was the name of the film they made in 1964? a) Yellow Submarine b) A Hard´s night Life c) Help
9) What song did the Beatles play ina live TV programme calledOur World? a) Yellow Submarine b) Yesterday c) All You Need is Love
10) What is the name of the Beatles´ last album? a) Abbey Road b) Sergeant Pepper c) Let it Be
And finally to end up with this famous group I include you some interesting links and youtube videos if you want to find more about them. beatlestube minidocumentaries about the Beatles
This is a Beatle cartoon called I´M SLEEPING
( Beatles cartoons) From 1967. After reading tales of the Knights of the Round Table, John falls asleep and has a dream — set literally against the pages of the book — of young King Arthur (drawn to resemble a figure from the "Yellow Submarine" movie) and Merlin the Magician, and a giant fire-breathing dragon that is terrorizing the countryside. The only solution: put the monster to sleep with song!
The Beatles: Rock Band is the title of a music game that was developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and distributed by Electronic Arts.The game consists of songs by The Beatles, from their first album Please Please Me, until the last album, Let It Be. The game was released on September 09, 2009, coincide with the release of the Beatles catalog remastered .
The game allows players to play in a virtual band that supports up to four players with the ability to perform three different musical instruments (two guitars, bass, battery, and from one to three microphones for voice). These controls are used to simulate real instruments by pressing the keys that appear on the screen.
The game will work with all Rock Band accessories, incorporating many features of the game of Rock Band series. This game is not an expansion pack for the Rock Band series, as the co-founder of Harmonix, Alex Rigopulos said about the game: "... is a completely new game created from scratch." Players can play with members of The Beatles: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
For more information go to the beatlesrockband
Since the Beatlemania has come back again mainly due to the release of a new video game called : The Beatles :Rock Band I´d like to let you know about Across the Universe an original film based on the Beatles songbook.
This could be described as a musical love film set in the 60s amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest.By looking at the above picture you may think that this film could be about a typical love story; however , it´s more than that.The love story of Lucy and Jude( named after the well known Beatles songs Hey Jude and Lucy in the sky ) is intertwined( entrelazado) with the anti-war movement and social protests of the 60s´ and the struggle(lucha) for free speech and civil rights.
Over 30 Beatles´songs are sung by the actors themselves in the film.The story moves from High schools to universities in Massachussets, Princenton and Ohio to the lower east side of Manhattan, the Detroit riots( redadas) , Vietnam and the dockyards(muelles) of Liverpool.
The film starts with a solitary dockworker man Jude(Jim Sturgess) sitting on a quiet beach front.He is singing Girl with a melancholic air looking off into the distant horizon. Later on , Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), the main female character,dances along with her boyfriend Daniel and their high school classmates, Lucy sings to Daniel " Tell me I´m the only one"...................I won´t keep on telling you more about the plot .If you like to know about how the story goes on.....Go and see it .Since it will be a bit difficult to watch it in the cinemas, as it´s a 2007 film , you can buy the DVD or hire it in special video clubs.
I highly recommend it for two reasons : Firstly, you may have fun learning some lyrics of some Beatles´ songs and secondly you may find out more about the social and political movements of the American society in the 60s. By the way, talking about the Beatlemania, in a few days we will be speaking, of course, about this worldwide famous band of the 60s from Liverpool The Beatles and the new video game The Beatles Rock Band.Don´t miss it!
This is an interesting link you may click on if you want to read the lyrics of the songs of the film Lyrics of the Across the Universe
Evanescence is an Americanrock band founded in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1995 by the singer and pianist Amy Lee and the guitarist Ben Moody.
In a typical summer camp , Ben Moody listened repeatedly to Amy Lee who was playing the piano and singing the song” I´ll do anything for love” of Meat Loaf. Impressed by her voice asked her to join a music group. This union turned out to be a gothic stylerock band with Amy Lee´s captivating voice.
After recording two private EPs and a demo CD named Origin, with the help of Bigwig Enterprises in 2000, the band released their first full-length album, Fallen, on Wind-up Records in 2003. Fallen sold more than 15 million copies worldwide and helped the band win two Grammy Awards.
A year later, Evanescence released their first live album, Anywhere but Home, which sold more than one million copies worldwide. In 2006, the band released their second studio album, The Open Door, which sold more than five million copies.
The band has suffered several line-up changes, including co-founder Moody leaving mid-tour in 2003, bassist Will Boyd in mid-2006, followed by guitarist John LeCompt and drummer Rocky Gray in 2007. The latter two of the changes ultimately led the band *to be on hiatus with only temporary replacements *sought in order for the band to finish touring. In June 2009, Amy Lee posted on the official Evanescence website that the band had been working on new material for a proposed 2010 album. to be on hiatus-to stop doing something temporary. Sought-past simple and past participle of the verb SEEK( look for) If you want to find more about this group you may click on the official site evanescence or you may also go to evanescence español
Here you are some of the lyrics of this famous group songs.We worked in 3rd ESO class the song Bring me to life ( you can see a Spanish translation on the video section placed on the right-hand side of the blog) or listen to it in English
