Producer Steve Lillywhite: “The Beatles never made anything you could play in a stadium”
Producer and engineer Steve Lillywhite has explained why Queen gives The Beatles a run for their money when it comes to being the greatest band of all time.
Lillywhite – the six-time Grammy award winner – is known for his work on U2‘s ‘The Joshua Tree‘ and ‘Achtung Baby’, Talking Heads‘ ‘Naked’, Siouxsie and the Banshees‘ ‘The Scream‘, The Rolling Stones‘ ‘Dirty Work’, Counting Crows‘ ‘Hard Candy’ and more. While appearing on Warren Huart’s Produce Like A Pro podcast, he explained that what really makes a band the greatest of all time is their ability to get the biggest audiences in the world moving.
“Always it’s been the Beatles when you talk about the greatest bands ever. But there’s an argument now that the Beatles never made anything you could play in a stadium. The Beatles never made anything you could play at a huge sporting event,” he said.
He continued: “So Queen, when you talk about the greatest bands ever… I would never say anyone is the greater than The Beatles, but there’s an argument right now that Queen, because of their ability to transcend stadiums, there’s an argument that they are more relevant today than the Beatles are.”
The one flaw to the argument is that former Beatle Paul McCartney has been able to perform the band’s hits such as ‘Hey Jude’, ‘Let It Be’, ‘Yesterday’ and others during stadium tours, which have worked well with huge crowds.
Though, tracks from Queen’s discography such as ‘We Are The Champions’, ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ remain sports stadium staples to this day.
In other news, Macca recently paid tribute to the late Michael Parkinson, calling him a “great guy” and a “good friend”.
Parkinson appeared on the album cover of Wings‘ ‘Band On The Run’ as an escaped convict, and was a personal friend of McCartney’s. Taking to Twitter on August 19, McCartney wrote of Parkinson: “He was a pleasure to talk to and we always had fun. He appeared on the front cover of ‘Band on the Run’ as one of the escaping convicts in the title song. He was very knowledgeable about many subjects and a keen sports-lover. I will miss him personally, as a good friend. I send all my love to his family and friends. Cheers Michael, you’re a great guy okay!”
McCartney also recently announced the revival of his Got Back tour, with new dates in Australia. The new dates will take place from 18 October in Adelaide to 4 November on the Gold Coast.
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Anagricel Duran
NME
