BBC 'Drops Paul McCartney's Michael Jackson Impression'

The BBC will no longer show an interview in which Sir Paul McCartney impersonates Michael Jackson’s voice, it’s been reported. The corporation is said to have feared the former Beatle’s "trans-racial impression" could have proved controversial. Sir Paul is understood to have replied in the voice when asked to comment on the singer, according to the Telegraph. "McCartney started to reply in this high-pitched Jacko voice, and apparently it was very funny. But the BBC - deeply nervous, perhaps because of the Jonathan Ross-Russell Brand affair - has declined to broadcast the interview,” a BBC source told the Daily Mail. [...more...]

Paul McCartney's Christmas

IF you were panicking about getting everything done before Christmas, it might offer some comfort to find out that Sir Paul McCartney felt exactly the same. When we meet a few days before December 25, he's come "into town" from his country pile to get a few gifts, among other things. "I'm going back at the office in London's Soho Square for a few little things, going shopping, then I'm popping in to talk to Chris Evans on his Radio Two show," he says.
If dashing around this close to Christmas is good enough for a knighted Beatle, it's certainly good enough for the rest of us. [...more...]

Sir Paul McCartney: sort out Beatles iTunes deal

SIR Paul McCartney has called for an end to the deadlock stopping Beatles fans being able to download their back catalogue. The Fab Four’s work is not available online due to legal wrangling between two companies – Apple Inc and Apple Corps. The former is the firm behind iTunes and the iPod, while the latter was set up by Sir Paul with the rest of The Beatles in 1968 to look after their affairs and recordings. [...more...]

Yoko Ono to speak at Stanford in January

Yoko Ono, the widow of musician John Lennon, will speak at Stanford University on Jan. 14 in an event open to Stanford students, faculty and staff. An interactive installation of Ono's "Wish Tree" will debut on campus at a time and place to be announced. The art piece will invite people to write their wishes and hang them on the branches of a tree as part of the exhibit. A panel discussion of Ono's art work will be held on campus on Jan. 12, also at a place and time to be announced. Lennon, a member of the Beatles, was shot and killed in New York City in 1980. He had called Ono "the world's most famous unknown artist. Everyone knows her name but nobody knows what she does." Ono was born in Tokyo in 1933. Her family then moved to America but returned to Japan in 1937. She survived the American bombing of Tokyo on March 9-10, 1945, that killed 100,000 people. SOURCE

MILLS SUED BY FORMER NANNY

SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY'S ex-wife HEATHER MILLS is facing a court battle with her former nanny - following allegations she was made to go far beyond her duties as their daughter's caretaker. Sara Trumble resigned from her post as nanny to Beatrice - Mills' daughter with MCCartney - in September (08). According to British tabloid the Sunday Mirror, Trumble claims Mills made her work as late as midnight, blow dry the ex-model's hair at 7:30am and even give her naked spray tans. The pair have 28 days to settle their differences or risk thrashing out the dispute in court since Trumble lodged a constructive dismissal claim with an employment tribunal last week (begs15Dec08). A source tells the publication, "Sara and Heather started out as friends but it all went wrong after Heather's divorce. "Heather is concerned what Sara will say - she was in the heart of the family during the last days of her marriage to Sir Paul right up until after the divorce was finalised." Mills is worth an estimated $35 million (GBP24 million) following her lengthy divorce from ex-Beatle MCCartney earlier this year (08). SOURCE

New John Lennon Commercial on TV?

Can a deceased John Lennon, 28 years since his death, star in a commercial? Reuters.com reports that, with the aid of technological advancements, a new advertisement for "One Laptop Per Child" Foundation has been created featuring Lennon campaigning for the collection of "solar-powered laptop computers" for internationally underprivileged children. Employing the use of voice and image, the ad concentrates on the theme of "Imagine," from Lennon's famed song from the '70s of the same name. Lennon, who was murdered in New York City in 1980, is still revered as a famed member of '60s renowned band, the Beatles. The "One Laptop Per Child" Foundation has been in existence since 2005. SOURCE

Director scours city archives in search for truth about Beatles star George Harrison

FILM director Martin Scorsese has been digging into Liverpool’s archives as he prepares to film an authorised documentary on the late George Harrison. The film, set to go into production next year, will focus on Harrison’s spiritual and religious beliefs. And staff at Liverpool’s Record Office believe they have stumbled on evidence which might explain why the guitarist became so religious. Aside from sending old photographs of Liverpool and baptism records to Hollywood the research team have uncovered an old school register which shows an anomaly about Harrison. [...more...]

McCartney plans to work with The Killers?

Sir Paul McCartney is planning a project with US rockers The Killers, according to reports. The Liverpool Oratorio hitmaker recently attended the bands gig at Royal Albert Hall, and was bowled over by their performance. McCartney met the band backstage and applauded their performance. Also, he told the Las Vegas band that he would love to work with them on some tracks. “Paul had a great time at the gig, The Sun quoted a source, as saying. He loves their music and their great attitude, the source said. He was as pleased to meet them as they were to meet him but they were gobsmacked when he said he”d love to do something with them music-wise, the source added. (ANI)

As EMI and Apple Delay Beatles Reissues, Bootleg Sales Boom

If you still believe in Santa Claus, you might also have expected to wake up on Christmas morning and find an iPod stocked with the long-promised reissues of all the Beatles albums. But if you know the shocking truth about Santa, you probably know that the vaunted Beatles reissues don’t exist either, outside the vaults of EMI, the group’s record label, and Apple, the company the band set up in 1967 to oversee its interests. Other long-anticipated Apple projects, like DVD versions of the Beatles’ Shea Stadium concert and the “Let It Be” film, failed to turn up for the holidays as well. And if you put any faith in Paul McCartney’s passing mention, in November, that the 1967 avant-garde track “Carnival of Light” might be released, don’t hold your breath: this track has been dangled before (about a decade ago, when Mr. McCartney used it as the soundtrack of an unreleased “photofilm,” made from photographs of the Beatles taken by his first wife, Linda). [...more...]

Toledo band turned down chance to open for Beatles

Toledo’s ’60s rock ‘n’ roll band The BG Ramblers were like The Beatles before the British band even became big. “My husband had The Beatle haircut before The Beatles,” said Jenny Price, wife of the band’s guitarist, Bill Price. “He actually changed it because he didn’t want people to think he was trying to look like The Beatles.” By the end of his time in the band, Bill’s connection to The Beatles would be more than just a haircut. On Feb. 16, 1964 — a date Bill Price remembers with clarity — The Ramblers were playing a Beatles tribute show at the Peppermint Lounge in Miami, and The Beatles attended to show their appreciation. The Ramblers took a break to meet them. [...more...]

Twisting the words of Paul McCartney

Whatever Paul McCartney says or does is news, sometimes big news. In September, when he went to give a concert in Israel - making up for the Beatles concert that the Israeli government forbad at the last moment, 43 years ago - he was slashed at by some pro-Palestinian critics for "singing to the enemy". No matter the "enemy" audience was perhaps 20 percent Arab, that he also used his trip to visit the West Bank not only to see Jesus' birth place but to call in on Edward Said's music school. When he sang he also in his trademark low- key, non-preachy, way pointed his audience in the direction of compromise and healing. One of the prices of the fame he has is to see his honest words and honest thoughts twisted almost out of recognition. [...more...]

A Peak inside Yoko Ono-John Lennon Book

Yoko Ono's IMAGINE PEACE TOWER was erected on Videy island off Reykjavík on October 9, 2007, and the 100-page book contains a wealth of information on Ono’s project. In the book, she describes how the idea of the Peace Tower was born, how she and Lennon met and why they decided to fight for world peace together. Photographs from Ono’s private collection are also included in the book, along with a host of other illustrations and photographs of the Peace Tower, Videy island and its surroundings. [...more...]

Beatles Violinist Cries for Help as Copyright Ends

Patrick Halling is fighting to keep the few pence he earns every time The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” airs on the radio. The Beatles song was released in 1966 and under European Union law will enter the public domain in 2016, meaning Halling’s violin-led string background on the song will lose its copyright protection and royalties will end. “I feel it is unfair that it should just be finished,” said Halling, an 84-year-old classically trained violinist who played on many early Beatles songs at EMI Music. Halling makes several thousand pounds a year from hundreds of songs he recorded with artists including Tom Jones, the Moody Blues and Enya. [more]

History and Information on the Beatles song Words Of Love

Although the Beatles (especially Paul) were major Buddy Holly fans, and played many Holly songs in their early days, including "Peggy Sue," "Maybe Baby," "Think It Over," "That'll Be The Day," "It's So Easy," "Raining In My Heart," "Reminiscing," "Crying, Waiting, Hoping," and "Everyday," this is the only official Holly cover released in the band's lifetime. (An impromptu version of Holly's "Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues" was captured during the Get Back/Let It Be rehearsals, and is available on Anthology 3.) [...more...]

MCCARTNEY'S EFFORTLESS ALBUM

SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY's latest album ELECTRIC ARGUMENTS was written and recorded in less than two weeks. The former Beatle has teamed up with The Verve producer Youth to release the LP as his dance alter ego The Fireman. And the rocker insists the project was nearly effortless - because the duo made no plans and instead produced the entire album in a matter of days. He says, "It's great fun to make. We just made it up as we went along. We went in with no songs, no words, nothing, and came out later that day with a whole track. "It was a buzz to work so fast. We did about 13 tracks in 13 days. There was no time to think, which is kind of nice." SOURCE

McCartney lets out secret about new recordings

You know him best as Sir Paul McCartney, but now you can call him "the Fireman." Sir Paul recently revealed that he has released three albums under the pseudonym "the Fireman." The musician signed copies of the new "Fireman" album in London Sunday called "Electric Argument." McCartney said he enjoyed the freedom of recording as the Fireman without the weight of the Beatles on his shoulders. "I kind of like hiding behind a pseudonym. It's actually just for fun, it's no particular reason, no significance. What it does is it frees you up a bit in the studio," McCartney said. "You know you go in and instead of standing in front of a mic going, in your mind 'this is a Paul McCartney vocal, Can't Buy Me Love' you kinda go in and you go, 'I'm not him, I'm some guy in a fictitious band.'" AP

'Drunk' Lennon tape sells in LA

A cassette tape of a "drunk" John Lennon recording a cover version of a rock 'n' roll song has sold at auction in Los Angeles for $30,000 (£20,200). The six-minute recording, made in autumn 1973, is of Lennon performing Lloyd Price's Just Because. "Debauched lyrics" improvised by "a drunk Lennon" include "just a little cocaine will set me right", auction house Bonhams and Butterfields said. The tape was given to the unnamed seller 30 years ago, it added. The successful bidder at Sunday's auction was also not named. [...more...]

Sir Paul McCartney Mobbed By Fans At Album Signing

Sir Paul McCartney was mobbed by fervent fans at a record signing in London yesterday (December 21). The Beatle was at the flagship HMV Store on Oxford Street to promote his new album 'Electric Arguments' under his guise The Fireman. However, when the 66-year-old's car pulled up outside he was besieged by fans eager to get his autograph in a scene reminiscent of The Beatles in the sixties. [...more...]

Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney sends GET BACKWARDS message to Heather?

A chilling secret message from Sir Paul McCartney is aimed at his ex-wife Heather Mills when his latest album is played backwards, Beatles fans are claiming.The Fireman album Electric Arguments has just been released and already fans are finding hidden meanings, which reference his bitter divorce. When final track 'Don't Stop Running' finishes there is a strange vocal noise, which played backwards clearly features a ghostly Paul whispering 'Warmer than the sun, cooler than the air.' Beatles fans reckon the message is directly aimed at Heather and means: "I have a big, warm loving heart and you are colder than ice." [...more...]

I Told Bob Dylan He was Dead

In the summer of 1969 I told Bob Dylan he was dead. He hadn’t heard the news at the time but he didn’t appear to be too bothered. Perhaps, like the rest of us who had made it through the Sixties, Bob had become inured to rock deaths - including his own. Since Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper had died in that plane crash in February 1959 a whole gang of rockers had joined the great tour bus in the sky - Eddie Cochran, Otis Redding, the Bar-Kays, Brian Jones, Johnny Kidd, Sam Cooke, Bobby Fuller, Johnny Burnette, Joe Meek, Frankie Lymon and countless others. There was one major difference however. They really were dead and Bob Dylan wasn’t but it didn’t matter. The story going round in the summer of ‘69 said he was and the rumour carried just enough fact to make it seem plausible. [...more...]

McCartney On Lost “Carnival” Track: Don’t Expect “Strawberry Fields”

Paul McCartney has revealed more about the Beatles’ lost song “Carnival of Light,” a 14-minute track the band recorded in 1967 but never released. While McCartney wants people to hear the track, which he has described as a “happening,” he recommends fans keep their expectations in check. “People are thinking there’s another ‘Strawberry Fields’ somewhere [and] you know, this is more plinky-plonky,” McCartney told the Times U.K.. “I mean, I like it, but it’s not to everyone’s taste.” The song was apparently not for George Harrison’s taste either, since the guitarist blocked “Carnival” from appearing on the Fab Four’s Anthology 2 collection. [...more...]

As the Fireman, McCartney offers pretty good album

Paul McCartney is at pains to remind the world it was he — and not his foil John Lennon — who brought the experimental flair to the Beatles' psychedelic period, with his fondness for tape loops and collage-style arranging. The former Beatles bassist recently revived talk that he will release 'Carnival of Light,' a 14-minute experimental jam the band recorded during its acid-gobbling phase. The track was played at an electronic music festival in 1967, then buried in the archives. Yet McCartney's embrace of the avant-garde has rarely manifested itself in his 'official' post-Beatles solo albums. Instead, he indulges his inner Stockhausen on a side project dubbed the Fireman with Martin Glover, aka Youth, a former member of Killing Joke and the Orb and a producer who has worked with U2 and the Verve. [...more...]

Beatle associate can sue over 'charlatan' claim, says High Court

A former associate of The Beatles has won the right to sue in England over a New York Times article which called him a charlatan. Because the article was published online the case should go ahead, the High Court has said. John Alexis Mardas was known as 'Magic Alex' when he associated with The Beatles in the late 1960s. In a story on the Maharishi in the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune Allan Kozinn referred to "Alexis Mardas, a supposed inventor and charlatan who had become a Beatles insider". Mardas sued, claiming that the article suggested that he was a conman, a trickster, that he lied about being an inventor and that without his interference The Beatles might have stayed together for longer and produced more music. [...more...]

Paul McCartney: 'Beatles Took Out Personal Ads Just To Get Name In Print'

Sir Paul McCartney has revealed that he and John Lennon used to take out personal advertisements in newspapers just so they could see their name in print. Sir Paul said the pair, along with late Beatles guitarist George Harrison, would simply invent adverts for a Liverpool newspaper before they were famous. "There used to be this paper in Liverpool called Mersey Beat. And in it you had a column where you could put personal ads. And so John and George and I used to put them in. Just so we could see our words in print, you know?” he told The Times newspaper. [...more...]

Bob Gruen, rock photography, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin: A Conversation with Famous Rock Photographer Bob Gruen

Photographer Bob Gruen's images are among some of the most reproduced in rockdom: John Lennon, arms across his New York City t-shirt; Led Zeppelin posing in front of their private plane; a very cool Clash in an open-air ride, en route to their gig with the Who at Shea Stadium. And yet, Gruen says he never took those photos (nor any of the others in his gallery of thousands) with an eye on the iconic. "The New York City t-shirt picture was not planned at all," he says. "None of them were planned." New Yorker Gruen never had any aspirations to make a career of rock photography. When he started in 1965, there was hardly any such thing. Taking pictures was a matter of survival for him. "I didn't choose this as a business plan. We didn't have those words back then," he says. "It was more by default because I just couldn't get up and do the nine-to-five job." [...more...]

Former Beatles drummer reveals Liverpool band's Thing

Original Beatles drummer Pete Best has revealed the band once owned a very strange 'pet' in their early days - a pool of George Harrison's sick, known as 'The Thing.' The vomit spent two weeks on the floor of a Hamburg hotel and the group became fond of it during this time. The 'honourary Beatle' was born when a stubborn and hungover George refused to clean it up while arguing with cleaners, unwilling to deal with such a disgusting mess. Ex-band member Best said he was the only one who stuck to alcohol during their drug-fueled period in Germany, and when George tried to match him he came a cropper. Pete, who was replaced by Ringo Starr, said: "In the middle of the night, George leaned out of his bed, spews his guts out, rolled over again and went back to sleep." Fans and fellow musicians added to the pile with everything from cigarettes and beer cans to plasters during its time as the bands companion. [...more...]

28 Years After Lennon's Death, McCartney Still Trying to One-Up Him

Lennon may be dead and buried, but that doesn't mean Sir Paul McCartney can't tie up his galoshes and start stomping around on the memory of his former band mate. His current petty "clarification" involved telling reporters how he was actually the Beatle who told everyone about Vietnam being sucky. That poncer John would have been singing "I wanna hold your hand" forever if it hadn't been for him! [...more...]

Lennon forgiven by the Vatican - would he care?

Forty-two years after John Lennon made his infamous remark about The Beatles being bigger than Jesus, the Vatican has finally forgiven Lennon for his slip of the tongue in 1966. It was announced on November 23 2008, that the official Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano had forgiven John Lennon for his comment. In an interview with journalist and Beatles confidant Maureen Cleave in 1966 Lennon said: “Christianity will come and go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that. I know I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus right now. I don’t know which will go first, rock and roll or Christianity”. [...more...]

Sir Paul McCartney’s advice to the Dalai Lama

Sir Paul McCartney reveals this week in Prospect, the political magazine, that he once wrote to the Dalai Lama to criticise him for eating meat after the religious leader stated: “As Buddhists we believe in not causing any suffering to any sentient beings.” Sir Paul, 66, said: “Then I found out he was not a vegetarian, so I wrote to him saying, ‘Forgive me for pointing this out, but if you eat animals then there is some suffering somewhere along the line’. “He replied saying that his doctors had told him he needed it, so I wrote back saying they were wrong.” SOURCE

Love, peace and a laugh along the way: 50 years of Yoko Ono the artist

Yoko Ono brought love, peace and even a glimpse of death to Tyneside yesterday, with the opening of one of her biggest exhibitions in Europe. Outside the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead was a "coffin car", a hearse in other words. Visitors can hire it for a spin, during which they may contemplate their final passage (in the front seat, curators were keen to point out). "I do that not to frighten people but to make them understand how precious every day is," Ono told the Guardian. "I do as much complaining as other people but when I think about it I realise how lucky we are to have these days." [...more...]

Welshman changed the Beatles, says McCartney - WalesOnline

Much of the band’s later political work like Revolution was written by Lennon – and though Give Peace A Chance was credited to Lennon/McCartney, it was widely seen as essentially a solo effort from John. Mr Clayson said: “I think Sir Paul is rewriting history, now that Lennon is gone.” Steven Howard, lead singer with Liverpool tribute act the Mersey Beatles, said the band’s members had a massive influence on each other and Paul’s claims may have some credence. [...more...]

Sir Paul McCartney: I was the anti-war Beatle

Sir Paul McCartney claims that it was he – and not John Lennon – who politicised the Beatles. He has shunned music magazines to give an interview to an intellectual journal in which he describes how he introduced the group to the “very bad” Vietnam war. It paints a picture at odds with the conventional view of the Beatles, that McCartney was writing pop ditties such as Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da while Lennon was composing overtly political songs such as Revolution. McCartney says he began his political awakening by meeting Bertrand Russell, then in his nineties, at the latter’s home in London in the mid1960s. [...more...]

The Coolest Beatles Songs You Might Have Missed, Vol. 2

Today's list is the second installment in a series that will run every Friday for the next few weeks, in which I'll highlight my favorite lesser-known Beatles tracks. (Click here to check out last week's list). John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr wrote and recorded such consistently amazing songs that, even if you ignore all their #1 hits and everything on their famous Red and Blue best-of compilations (which I'll be doing for these more obscure Beatles lists), there are still dozens and dozens of amazing songs, some of which you might've missed along the way—even if The Beatles are the biggest, most influential band in rock history. As you get familiar with (or rediscover) these songs, I think some of them might even surpass your old, more-overplayed favorites. [...more...]

John Lennon’s son no longer mourns his death

English singer songwriter Julian Lennon has revealed to his fans, who were offering him condolences on the death anniversary of his father John Lennon, that he no longer mourns for his dad. The late Beatle member had been gunned down by crazed fan Marc Chapman in New York on December 08, 1980, and fans all over the world still gather together annually on the date to mourn his death. But now Lennon’s 45-year-old son has revealed that he no longer grieves for his dad and is thankful to him instead. [...more...]

Bangladesh should thank ex-Beatle Harrison, says lawyer

A Bangladeshi lawyer who wants his country to officially recognise George Harrison and Ted Kennedy for highlighting its 1971 struggle for independence has taken his battle to the country's high court. Masood Sobhan says it is a "disgrace" that the former Beatle and the US senator were never formally thanked by Bangladesh for publicising its suffering as it fought for independence from Pakistan. "It is shameful. It is really a tragedy that we have to go to court to seek recognition for their great contribution to this country," Sobhan told AFP. It is a national debt. We should recognise them out of decency, out of moral obligation and out of gratitude." Sobhan also wants the country to honour former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi, who allowed many Bangladeshis to take refuge across the border during the war. [...more...]

Sir Paul McCartney refuses to cull wild boar on his estate

Dozens of the wild boar, which weigh up to 900lbs, are "wreaking havoc", it has been claimed. Sir Paul, 66, a vegetarian and animal rights campaigner, has not bowed to pressure from locals who want to control numbers at his 1,500-acre estate in Peasmarsh, East Sussex. Government policy gives landowners and communities power to cull the animals if they threaten the environment, farming or human safety. Neighbours say crops, trees and gardens in the area are suffering because of the boar. "The boar are doing huge damage. They are also dangerous if confronted. Locals are up in arms. They are breeding like rabbits," on eperson told The Sun. [...more...]

Book features unpublished photos of Beatles

It’s the act we’ve known for all these years, and yet the Beatles remains sufficiently fresh, young and alive in the hearts and minds of their fans that every snippet of film, every newly discovered photograph and every unused musical outtake retains the ability to enrapture. Imagine, then, the impact of more than 230 unpublished pictures of the group from perhaps its most creatively fertile period – the 1966-67 studio sessions that produced Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Kaleidoscope Eyes: A Day in the Life of Sgt. Pepper, from Houston-based Curvebender Publishing, features the photos of Henry Grossman, a New York-based photographer on assignment for Life magazine, taken at London’s Abbey Road studios on the evening of Feb. 28, 1967, the night the Beatles first rehearsed a new John Lennon composition called Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds. [...more...]

McCartney denies stealing song

Sir Paul McCartney's band 'The Fireman', accused of stealing Blind Willie Johnson' song, has denied such claims insisting that the track was used merely as "inspiration".
McCartney has been accused of using some elements of blues star Johnson's track 'Let Your Light Shine On Me' for their new song 'Light From Your Lighthouse' in their latest album 'Electric Arguments', the ‘Contactmusic’ reported. The band has denied breaching copyright saying Johnson's song was also based on a famous gospel composition. "It's true that 'The Fireman' used the 'Blind Willie Johnson' track as inspiration for our own song. His is a traditional song and this is not the first time an artist has made their own version using such a traditional song," the duo told ‘NME.com’. SOURCE

Lennon license plate coming to more states

The state of Florida was the first to have John Lennon "Imagine" license plates, but now more states could be getting them. Yoko Ono allowed Florida to use Lennon's self-portrait and the word "Imagine" on a specialty plate, with the money raised from its sale going to the Florida Association of Food Banks. More than 31,000 of the plates have been sold in Florida.The company that helped create the plates, Foundation Consultants, is pushing to get the plate in Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Illinois first, then the 17 other states that allow specialty license plates. The plates would help generate funds for food banks in each state. SOURCE

The mystery of Lennon's tomb

TODAY, THE 28th anniversary of the death of John Lennon, Havertown radio producer Denny Somach will be on Howard Stern's Sirius Satellite Radio show at 7 a.m. to discuss what he calls the mystery of Lennon's remains. Despite Lennon's death certificate stating that he was cremated on Dec. 10, 1980, at Ferncliff Cemetery, in Hartsdale, N.Y., Somach claims that Yoko Ono once stated in an interview that Lennon was buried but never provided more specifics about where. Somach has his own bizarre theory on the whereabouts of Lennon's remains, which he says he won't get into on Stern's show in case a listener has info to report. The veteran radio producer appeared on Stern's show last year to talk about Led Zeppelin and the group's boosting of classic blues tunes, including some over which they lost court battles. Today's interview will be broadcast on Sirius throughout the week. [...more...]

Japan keeps Lennon's memory alive

John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono is marking the 28th anniversary of the musician's death by playing a special memorial concert in Tokyo. Japan is one country where John Lennon's memory is kept very much alive. Beatlemania has never really died. Every night in Tokyo, bands dressed as John, Paul, George and Ringo faithfully reproduce their sound. Even though many of the musicians would struggle to hold a conversation in English, they know every word of the entire Beatles songbook. [...more...]

Love is still all you need

ON the 8th of December, twenty-eight years ago (1980), John Lennon, founding genius of the world’s greatest pop group, the Beatles, was shot to death on a New York sidewalk by a crazed obsessed fan, Mark Chapman. It was Lennon who helped set the rhythm of 1960s idealism. Yet his words, ‘all you need is love’, echo through the decades with increasing force the further we descend into greed, self-adulation, global terrorism and religious, ideological and tribal-inspired international conflict. It was Lennon, through his songs and protests with second wife, Yoko Ono, who popularised the ‘60s ‘attitude’. That attitude was this: (1) be open to experiment in order to change; (2) change your consciousness and then your culture in order to progress beyond hatred and fear; (3) spread progress for the universal good of humankind. [...more...]

Lennon Shot Dead 28 Years Ago

This coming week, throngs of John Lennon fans will come together once again to celebrate his life and remember the day that he was murdered outside of his home at the Dakota. The Beatle was shot on the night of December 8th (28 years ago this Monday) by Mark David Chapman (who was just denied parole again). Shortly after, he was pronounced dead at Roosevelt Hospital, and was later cremated in Hartsdale, New York. Today, those who loved and admired him continue to commemorate his life. In New York, the tributes take place this Sunday. While many are impromptu gatherings, the Lennon Tribute will go on as planned, and there will also be a concert called "For the Love of Lennon" presented by the New Arts NYC. Simply show up to the Central Park Bandshell at 1 p.m. to take part in the latter; the organizers say “It’s about doing something out of love for this city, and in honor of a profound artist and New Yorker who continues to touch the hearts, minds and ears of millions." [...more...]

Jethro Tull reschedule Mumbai gig after terror attacks

Jethro Tull have rescheduled a Mumbai gig after it was cancelled due to last week's terror attacks on the Indian city (November 26-29). The band were forced to axe the original gig, due to take place on November 29, after the city was subjected to an ongoing siege that saw nearly 200 people killed by terrorists. They will now play the concert tonight (December 5), along with special guest Anoushka Shankar. Shankar is the daughter of Ravi Shankar, the legendary sitar player credited with introducing The Beatles to Indian music. [...more...]

The Coolest Beatles Songs You Might Have Missed

Today's list begins a series that will recur every Friday for the next few weeks, in which I'll highlight my favorite lesser-known Beatles tracks. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr wrote and recorded such consistently amazing songs that, even if you ignore all their #1 hits and everything on their famous Red and Blue best-of compilations (which I'll be doing for these more obscure Beatles lists), there are still dozens and dozens of amazing songs, some of which you might've missed along the way—even if The Beatles are the biggest, most influential band in rock history. As you get familiar with these songs, I think some of them might even surpass your old, more-overplayed favorites. [...more...]

Farewell from drummer who rejected The Beatles

The most-recorded drummer in the country who twice turned down the chance to be in The Beatles will be performing his final gig in Hertford. Bobby Graham and his fellow jazz artists will be playing at the free event at the Old Barge Pub in The Folly on Thursday (December 11) from 8.30pm. He told the Mercury: "I decided I've done my bit for England. My health isn't very good and I've been playing since I was 8 and I'm now 68, and 60 years is a long time. [...more...]

'Wonderful Christmas': The soundtrack of my life

Sometimes, I really like to compare myself to that song "Wonderful Christmastime" by Paul McCartney and his band not-the-Beatles. Wings was their other name. There are comparisons to be made all over the place. First off, the song debuted in November of 1979. My birthday was in July of 1990. That means the song came out exactly 10 years and eight months before I was born. Coincidence? I think not. McCartney sang and wrote this timeless Christmas piece. He used to play for the Beatles; my father used to drive a Volkswagen Beetle. But of course, when the 1960s were over, he stopped being a hippie and sold out like everyone else in that generation, became a doctor and bought a BMW. Clearly you can see where I'm going with this. "Wonderful Christmastime" has been following me for years. [...more...]

John Lennon remembered

It was 28 years ago Monday -- Dec. 8, 1980 -- that John Lennon was assassinated. That's not a milestone anniversary, but there isn't a year that goes by that the day doesn't make me stop and think. I was still clinging to teenage status when it happened. I heard about it -- incredibly, it seemed at the time -- from Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football. My dad, a compassionate, musically-attuned man, was basically unmoved. Score one for the generation gap. I listened all night to the radio stations play Beatles' songs. I watched on TV as throngs gathered outside the Dakota. I vowed to honor Yoko Ono's request for a silent moment of meditation at the appointed time. Yet I ultimately missed it because I was flirting with some girl. Hey, I was 19. [...more...]

Beatles Christmas Fan Club Records

Their rock contemporaries (The Rolling Stones, The Animals) looked down on the novelty of a Christmas Record, while their pop contemporaries (The Four Seasons, The Beach Boys) saw it as an opportunity to cash in, yet the Beatles themselves managed again, somehow, to have it both ways. The Beatles Christmas Records were sent to the Official Beatles Fan Club once a year between 1963 and 1969; not Christmas songs per se, they mostly consisted of just the lads themselves clowning around in the studio, creating Xmas (and other) improvised songs, and inserting the obligatory holiday wishes. [...more...]

Paul McCartney returns as the Fireman, and the acid-rock flows

As Paul McCartney is at pains to remind the world, it was he – and not his foil John Lennon --- who brought the experimental flair to the Beatles psychedelic period, with his fondness for tape loops and collage-style arranging. The former Beatles bassist recently revived talk that he will release “Carnival of Light,” a 14-minute experimental jam the band recorded during its acid-gobbling phase. The track was played at an electronic music festival in 1967, then buried in the archives. Yet McCartney’s embrace of the avant-garde has rarely manifested itself in his “official” post-Beatles solo albums. Instead, he indulges his inner Stockhausen on a side project dubbed the Fireman with Martin Glover, a.k.a. Youth, a former member of Killing Joke and the Orb and a producer who has worked with U2 and the Verve. [...more...]

Listen to John Lennon’s vision of heaven

As the world prepares to mark the 28th anniversary of John Lennon’s death next Monday, fans can hear extracts from his ‘lost’ peace interview. David Charters reports. THE prophet, like all great visionaries, risked ridicule in offering his message to others and, indeed, the cynics mocked him for his long hair and beard, and for not being what they wanted him to be. He is long gone now, though his knowing smile is still remembered by older men and women. They had admired him so much when they were all young – many wars ago. [...more...]

Bigger than the Beatles

The Monks documentary will show for first time in America beyond New York City or Chicago this Friday at USM. For more than thirty years this band of American GI's were not able to talk about their strange experience as a rock band in cold war Germany. In the film they recount their story for the first time. The Monks were five American soldiers in 1960's Germany who billed themselves as the anti-Beatles. They were loud, and "heavy on feedback, nihilism and electrical banjo." They dressed like monks, they mocked the military and are credited with the invention of industrial, punk and techno music. [...more...]

HARRISON WAS OFFERED PYTHON ROLE

A newly unearthed interview with THE BEATLES has discovered GEORGE HARRISON was originally offered the role of JESUS CHRIST in MONTY PYTHON's THE LIFE OF BRIAN. The musician, who died in 2001, was a driving force behind the religious comedy classic, which follows the story of a young Jewish man born in the same era and location as Jesus Christ, who is mistaken for the Messiah. Harrison funded the project after the movie's backers pulled out over the controversial subject matter and appeared in a small cameo role. But Harrison was originally supposed to have taken on a much bigger part. He says, "They wanted me to play the part of Christ. At the beginning, when he's doing the sermon on the Mount. That's what they tried to get me to do. But I thought it was a bit too controversial."
The role was subsequently taken by Kenneth Colley. SOURCE

Who Killed John Lennon?

In recent years, there have been countless stories about the U.S. government abusing its surveillance powers. They range from government agents listening in on the telephone calls of American citizens to the FBI harassing innocent people over their free speech rights for simply criticizing the government. And once some government bureaucrat decides to focus on a certain person, the data files are collected and civil liberties are undermined. This type of behavior, however, has been going on for a long time. Such was the relentless harassment and government stalking of John Lennon. It is not only a chilling tale of paranoia and abuse of power, it is also a lesson for our times. [...more...]