Hamburg embracing Beatles to boost tourism

Residents of Hamburg say the German city is attempting to fight a decline in tourism by embracing its famed former residents: the Beatles. Hamburg resident Horst Fascher said when the famed British band lived in Hamburg in 1960, they made quite an impression, The Times of London reported Saturday. "They were like five wild animals in those days," Fascher said. "They didn't really know how to live away from home -- they didn't know how to go out to a restaurant or wash their clothes." To honor the Beatles, Hamburg has opened a museum dedicated to the "Yellow Submarine" rock group and has renamed a local square Beatles Platz. The Times said visitors to Hamburg can now take tours of the new sites and learn more about the band's members: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, not to mention former drummer Pete Best and original Beatles bassist Stu Sutcliffe. "It was time that Hamburg paid tribute to this talented band," Hamburg Mayor Ole von Beust said. UPI.com

Paul McCartney to help open Citi Field

Singer Paul McCartney will be the first musician to perform at Citi Field, the new home of the New York Mets, a touring industry Web site says. The New York Daily News reported Friday, citing TicketNews.com, the former Beatles star has agreed to play the New York ballpark's first show July 17 with an additional performance scheduled for the next day. TicketNews.com said a third McCartney show could potentially be added with a July 21 date mentioned as a possibility. The reported performances by McCartney would take place while the Mets are idle for the All-Star Game break and then on the road July 12-27. [read more]

Phil Spector Gets 19 Years to Life

Phil Spector, famous music producer for artists including The Beatles, will not be eligible for parole until 2028. According to The Los Angeles Times, Spector, 69, was sentenced to 19 years to life for second-degree-murder. Spector declined the opportunity to address the court before he was taken away by officers. The Associated Press reports that Spector’s lawyers spent millions of dollars plus two trials making the argument that Lana Clarkson, a B-movie actress, killed herself. According to People magazine, Clarkson’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit which has yet to go to trial. [read more]

Beating with The Beatles

Like all who are highly interested in the magical arts of music, I, too, am heavily influenced by the ever-so-famous rock n’ roll band called The Beatles. Of course you know who they are, but let me give a brief background rundown. It all started in Liverpool, England. Four lads by the name of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Pete Best (George Harrison and Ringo Starr would later replace Sutcliffe and Best). They started as a usual teenage rock group, but little they did know that they would become one of the most influential bands in history, who would capture the hearts and minds of individuals like me. The first big gig for the Beatles was in Hamburg, Germany, which lasted about two years. Then, Brian Epstein, a record store manager, discovered them. At this time the members were not the ones who later became the most famous rock musicians in the world. The drummer was Pete Best, and the bass player, Stuart Sutcliffe. Stuart later left the band for someone he had loved, and then died of a brain hemorrhage, and Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best as drummer. The group felt that they needed a new drummer because Best’s skills were not up to par with the rest of the group’s talents. [read more]

10 best early Beatles songs that weren't No. 1

By May of 1964, the Beatles could have topped the Billboard charts with almost anything. And that's exactly what they did the final week of May when "Love Me Do" became their fourth chart-topping U.S. hit. It's not that "Love Me Do" is bad. That John Lennon harmonica riff alone should be enough to earn the song a spot on any proper mix tape of their early hits. But 45 years later? Chances are, you wouldn't find too many Beatlemaniacs who'd put that on the level of "I Saw Her Standing There," which only got to No. 14, or "Please Please Me," another harmonica hit that peaked at No. 3. Here's a look at 10 essential Beatle records, all of which had been recorded by late May, that would have made a better No. 1 than "Love Me Do." The other songs that did hit No. 1 that year, in order, were "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "She Loves You," "Can't Buy Me Love," "A Hard Day's Night" and "I Feel Fine." [read more]

Hamburg — the city that shaped the Beatles between 1960 and 1962

James Joyce went to Paris and found out he was from Dublin. The Beatles went to Hamburg and discovered they were from Liverpool. You often do have to go away to realise creatively where your roots lie. Hamburg helped to make the Beatles during their five visits playing at various clubs around the Reeperbahn between l960 and l962. They lived and played wholly as a group for the first time, away from their homes, in a foreign country, constantly all together, turned in on themselves, apart, of course, from all the sex and drugs and pills on tap, trying to keep awake for 24 hours at a time. [read more]

Imagine, John Lennon sneaking into Niagara Falls

When Brad Pitt rode the Maid of the Mist last month, the Niagara Falls Review plastered it all over the front page. So it was surprising to learn not a drop of ink was spilled in 1969, when John Lennon and Yoko Ono came to Niagara Falls. With the Lundy's Lane Historical Museum making a big to-do today about the 40th anniversary of Lennon and Ono's June 4, 1969 visit, Review staff desperately wanted to find a picture of the two of them in front of the falls (the photo on the front page of Friday's paper came courtesy of Ono herself). So break out the microfilm to see what kind of coverage they got in the first week of June 1969. None whatsoever. There was a wire photo June 4 showing the couple leaving Montreal at the end of their Bed-In For Peace. But the day after their stop in Niagara Falls, The Review's front page was about a fire at the Burning Springs wax museum. So the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus." Yet no coverage in 1969. [read more]

Mad genius Phil Spector may die behind bars

A millionaire by 21 whose career peaked before age 30, eccentric music producer Phil Spector spent most of his life basking in his reputation as a mad genius who had worked with acts such as the Ronettes and the Beatles. The 69-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee may likely die behind bars after a judge Friday sentenced him to 19 years to life for murdering a struggling actress in 2003. Spector was largely forgotten until Feb. 3 of that year, when he was arrested on suspicion of murdering Lana Clarkson, 40, by shooting her in the mouth at his mock-castle residence in the middle-class Los Angeles suburb of Alhambra. [read more]

Fans line up early for McCartney concert tickets

They endured a long, cool night, slept in their cars (cat style, with one-eye open) and waited impatiently with bated breath for the ticket sales to begin. Welcome to Beatlemania Truro style, still alive and kicking more than 40 years after the Fab Four took North America by storm in 1964. “I got here last night, I think it was around eleven,” said Sylvie Michaud, 36, who drove up from Westville to be first in line for when the Paul McCartney tickets went on sale at 9 a.m. at the Atlantic Superstore in Truro. Lloyd (‘Ozzy’) Osborne of Truro was next in line when he arrived at the store’s parking lot around midnight. The pair we’re among approximately 50 people who were on hand when tickets went on sale for the July 11 concert at the Halifax Commons. And why all the fuss? “Because it’s Paul McCartney,” Michaud said, a sentiment echoed by Osborne. “I’ve been a Beatle fan a long time,” the 59-year-old said. “To me it’s the longevity (of McCartney’s music).” “The music is timeless,” added a still squealing and excited Michaud. “I could jump all day,” she said, leaping in the air for joy. For full story, see Saturday’s Truro Daily News.

The sadness in Yoko Ono’s latest work

Before he died, John Lennon described his wife as the “world’s most famous unknown artist. Everybody knows her name but no one knows what she actually does.” Thirty years after Lennon’s death, that scenario is set to change. At next week’s Venice Biennale, the world’s most famous rock widow is to receive the Golden Lion award for a lifetime’s achievement in the visual arts. Wistful: The artist Yoko Ono in Venice to receive the Golden Lion award Talking to me in the lobby of Venice’s luxurious Hotel Danieli, Ono makes it clear that her curious fate, to be simultanously iconic and obscure, is the legacy of her marriage not her upbringing: she recalls that her mother enrolled her in music classes even before she went elementary school. [read more]

ONO's "I'm Not Getting Enough" Moves To #3 On The Billboard Club Play Charts

Yoko Ono continues to heat up dancefloors and the club charts with her latest remix single, “I’M NOT GETTING ENOUGH” (THE REMIXES). Currently #3 with a bullet on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Chart (Issue Date: 6/6/2009), the song has been brilliantly reinvented into a searing and undeniably flirtatious club anthem courtesy of vibrant interpretations by DAVE AUDE, MORGAN PAGE, EDDIE AMADOR, CRAIG C. and NIQUES, ZONED OUT and DOUBLE B. It’s another testament to the trailblazing pop icon’s well-documented fascination with contemporary dance and electronic music. [read more]

New Beatles museum opens in Hamburg

A new museum dedicated to the Beatles opened in Hamburg on Friday, 49 years since the band, at that time a five-piece with no Ringo Starr, first played in a run-down strip club in the German city. The museum, called Beatlemania, includes five floors of artefacts and interactive exhibits and is in the same seedy Reeperbahn area of Hamburg where the band appeared on five separate occasions between 1960 and 1962. The Beatles -- at that time John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best -- first took the stage at the Indra club on August 17, 1960. The band would belt out rock'n'roll covers for hours on end in four different Hamburg clubs, an experience credited with creating the foundations for their prodigious talent that would later make them world-famous. It was also in Hamburg that the band first performed with Starr, at the time drummer with another English band. "When there were the four of us with Ringo, it always felt rockin'," Harrison would recall later. AFP

History, Biography, Music of The Beatles

This is the story of a high school skiffle band that woke up one day in the rarified air of international superstardom. The story of The Beatles is a story of friendships made and lost, musical barriers broken, and lives permanently altered. It's a long way from Liverpool to legend. The journey has been the subject of thousands of books, articles, interviews, college courses, discussion groups, and late night bull sessions. And well it should be. When you add up all of the Beatles albums, singles, CDs and videos that have ever been sold, the total surpasses 1-billion. That’s billion, with a 'B.’ [read more]

Yoko Ono lines up star-studded cast for new album

Yoko Ono has once again recruited a star-studded list of contributors to help out on her new album, which is due out in the US this autumn. Titled 'My Head And The Sky', the album features Sean Lennon (her son with John Lennon), Cornelius and Yuka Honda of Cibo Matto, among others. It is due out in the US in September. Contributors to her 2007 album 'Yes I'm A Witch' included The Flaming Lips, Spiritualized and Cat Power. [read more]

'Rain' offers a Broadway show about the Beatles

Music trends come and go - punk, disco, New Wave, grunge - but the Beatles will always be with us. More than 50 years after John Lennon first met Paul McCartney, the Fab Four from Liverpool have sold more than a billion records worldwide - but a live Beatles experience has always been elusive. Plenty of people have become fans since their 1970 breakup; also, because of their short career together - a scant but remarkable seven years between "Please Please Me" and "Let It Be" - and their abandonment of touring after 1966, even folks who were alive in the '60s may have missed their chance. [read more]

Beatles: Rock Band will "blow people's minds"

Dhani Harrison, son of The Beatles Star George Harrison, says the upcoming The Beatles: Rock Band game will "blow your mind". Clearly pulling no punches then. Having worked on the game with Harmonix since the start of the project, he should know. "The Beatles: Rock Band is going to blow people's minds. It's going to set a new standard for video games. I absolutely love it and can't wait for music fans and gamers to get their hands on it," he told Music Radar in an exclusive podcast. [read more]

Zeppelin Drummer's Gong Available

Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham's gong, which he used to set on fire during performances, is expected to net about $121,000 U.S. (about $135,000 Canadian) when it's auctioned through the Bonhams & Butterfields Auctioneers in Los Angeles on June 14. The 75-centimetre-wide hammered brass gong is painted with two Chinese characters and has been put up for sale by Bonham's sister and mother. "He [set it on fire] more or less every night," bassist John Paul Jones told the U.K.'s Birmingham Post newspaper. "His roadie Mick Hinton had to set it alight. I think he used lighter fuel and it was quite dangerous. John got the idea from Carmine Appice when we supported Vanilla Fudge in the early days." [read more]

Octopus's Garden at Mr. Baldy's a tribute to Beatles

Everyone who knows Bob Zoller knows he is a Beatles' fan. He has pictures of the Fab Four on the walls of his restaurant, Mr. Baldy's, and produces the Beatles Block, heard weekdays around noon on WCTG. Now, Zoller has added a tribute to the Beatles' song, "Octopus's Garden," with a giant painting on Mr. Baldy's dining room wall. The painting was done by local artist Amanda LeMoi. "She did the whole thing by freehand," said Zoller. "I think she did a great job." LeMoi painted the background, then turned her attention to the octopus, which dominates the left side of the painting. She even added a little Yellow Submarine to the upper region of the left side of the painting. Then, Zoller got the community involved in the finishing touches of the wall by enlisting the help of Chincoteague Elementary School's art teacher Jackie Gilfoye. Gilfoye had several members of her art class paint various fish that were incorporated into the paining and in independent paintings around the dining room. [read more]

Lecturer’s place in history thanks to passion for The Beatles

A PASSION for The Beatles has led a lecturer to contribute to an encyclopedia about the world’s best known band. Media studies lecturer Stephanie Piotrowski looked at how the image and performance style of The Beatles evolved during their five feature films, from Hard Day’s Night to Let It Be for her PhD research. Her work came to the attention of Professor Joerg Helbig, from the Alps Adriatic University in Austria, who was seeking academics to help compile an encyclopedia focusing on The Beatles films - and Stephanie’s research has now been included. [read more]

Let Him Be

Equal parts Beatle-phile fantasy and process-driven meta-documentary, Canadian indie flick Let Him Be presupposes that John Lennon might not have died and is in fact living in community-ensconced seclusion in Beasley, Ontario. When undergrad film student Tim (Sean Clement) discovers a brief video of a Lennon-looking old man in a used camcorder, he convinces co-producer girlfriend Kathleen (Kathleen Munroe) to film their efforts tracking the possibly-not-shot-dead-by-Mark-David-Chapman-in-1980 pop icon down. It’s not the worst idea, even if the fake doc about famous death thing was already done with better effect by Gabriel Range and Death of a President, but Let Him Be is rough going even for something that’s supposed to resemble a film school project. [read more]

Give Peace Another Chance : World March for Peace and Nonviolence Takes Yoko's Bed-In Around the World

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of Yoko Ono and John Lennon's Bed-In, the organizing committee of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence is organizing the launching of Bed-In activities throughout the world. The announcement will take place on Thursday May 28 at 1:30 at the Musuem of Fine Arts in Montreal. Anne Farrell, coordinator committee organizer, will also be presenting the World March for peace and non-violence at the Canadian Peace Research and Education 2009 Conference and Annual meeting at the Carleton University in Ottawa on May 28. At the Musuem of Fine Arts in Montreal event, the organizing committee, will reveal the World March activities that will take place in Canada and Quebec this fall. On this special occasion, important people from the cultural, social and political fields will be on hand talk about their involment with Peace and Nonviolence: [read more]

Lennon’s personalised railings gifted to beloved aunt up for sale

The personalised balcony railings gifted by John Lennon to his beloved Aunt Mimi have been put up for sale. The late Beatle had purchased the white iron railings bearing seven hearts for Mimi at the time when the band was at its peak in Sixties. It is believed the rocker came up with the balcony from where Mimi could watch the boats pass by while the hearts were to represent his love for the lady who raised him since he was five. The railings changed many addresses after Mimi passed away in 1991 and are now being auctioned in Bournemouth. “We have already had quite a lot of international interest,” the Daily Express quoted David Brasher, of House and Son auctioneers, as saying. “Because they are such an unusual thing I don’t think I can be drawn on what they will make, either very little or quite a lot. All it takes is a couple of fanatical memorabilia buyers,” he added. (ANI)

Doves / Kingdom of Rust

Several years before his death, George Harrison criticized electronic-techno-dance music, theorizing that fans were "destroying their nervous systems." Of course, the wonderful Mr. Harrison always seemed somewhat preoccupied with the nervous system, once claiming Beatlemania had destroyed all four Fabs' systems and then using the words "nervous system" in at least three of his post-Beatles songs. It was also a somewhat odd statement coming from the pioneer who created both Wonderwall Music and Electronic Sounds — but all that considered, it's unfortunate that George didn't live long enough to discover and appreciate the Doves. Dance purists may scoff at the band being associated with that form, but the Manchester-based trio definitely has incorporated part of that sound into its music, rising as it did from the Madchester dance scene, even scoring a dance hit while still youngsters known as Sub Sub. [read more]

BUY: Kingdom of Rust



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Wake up, Obama, we the people already know the truth

On May 21, Reuters reported that “The U.S. administration of President Barack Obama will not force Israel to state publicly whether it has nuclear weapons, an Israeli official said on Thursday. He said Washington would stick to a decades-old U.S. policy of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’” “All I want is the truth. Just gimme some truth. I’ve had enough of reading things by neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians. All I want is the truth. Just gimme some truth.” -- John Lennon, 1971. On September 18, 2004, in London, Yoko Ono awarded Mordechai Vanunu a peace prize founded in memory of and in the spirit of John Lennon’s “Give Me Some Truth” and also awarded $50,000 to New Yorker magazine correspondent and author Seymour Hersh, whom she described as “a staunch seeker of truth” for his investigative journalism. [read more]

John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band: Live in Toronto '69 on DVD June 23rd

John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band Live In Toronto ´69 is a rare look at one of the world´s most influential popular artists at a pivotal moment in his career. Filmed on the eve of the release of the Abbey Road LP — the last Beatles album to be recorded — this is the only performance ever caught on film of John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band. It had been three years since Lennon had performed onstage with The Beatles. Seemingly on a whim, John and wife Yoko Ono hopped on a plane with guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist Klaus Voormann and drummer Alan White to travel to the Toronto Rock ´N´ Roll Revival festival showcasing some of Lennon´s early musical heroes — among them Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and Little Richard. As it turned out, Lennon and the newly formed Plastic Ono Band played an equally significant role that night in the history of rock ´n´ roll, as it is widely believed this concert foreshadowed the official end of The Beatles. [read more]

John Lennon and Yoko Ono Montreal bed-in for peace was 40 years ago

The hotel room where John Lennon and Yoko Ono created a watershed moment for the peace movement at the height of the Vietnam War is a little smaller now. Part of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel suite, which has a gold plaque on the door noting its history, went to the installation of a panoramic elevator on the floor. But that hasn't dimmed the aura of the place where the ex-Beatle and Ono staged their bed-in for peace between May 26 and June 2, 1969, and recorded the iconic antiwar anthem "Give Peace a Chance" the day before they left. "The furniture has changed because of course it's 40 years ago and we do renovate every five to 10 years," hotel spokeswoman Joanne Papineau said as she gave a tour of room 1742 on Tuesday. Pictures of Lennon and Ono during the bed-in dot the walls. Sunlight floods in from the large window in the sitting room where Lennon positioned the couple's mattress and held court with throngs of people in 1969. [read more]

Dhani Harrison on his new album, his father and The Beatles: Rock Band

Dhani Harrison is well aware of the effect he has on people, and he's cool with it. "People see my face, they hear my voice, and I know they're thinking about my father. That's OK - he was a great man." But while the 30-year-old son of the late ex-Beatle George Harrison is following in his father's footsteps as a musician - he's just released his first album, You Are Here, with his band thenewno2 (a partnership between Harrison and his friend Oliver "Oli" Hecks, though the lineup has expanded to the full band recently) - he's also making his own way in the world, and has been for some time. [read more]

Robyn Hitchcock: Honesty And Hesitation

In "I'm Falling," venerable British songwriter Robyn Hitchcock sings a remarkably tender and characteristically un-straightforward love song. Ostensibly written about Beatles manager Brian Epstein's feelings for John Lennon, the song captures the dizziness and confusion of all great romances. In the song's verses, Hitchcock explores thin lines — between being well and being ill, between what you are and what you aren't, between what you do and what you should do, between what is not and what is. A sweet sort of trepidation infuses his words with a blushing mixture of honesty and hesitation. In the choruses, that gives way to a kind of conflicted surrender as "I'm falling now / You're calling now" gives way to a soaring plea to "take it away." [read more/hear audio]

Sir Paul McWho?

The Happy Mondays frontman is a huge fan of The Beatles but can't recall speaking to the legendary musician because he was high on drugs at the time. He told Uncut magazine: "He once compared us to The Beatles in their ‘Magical Mystery Tour' phase, which was a great compliment. Maybe he was just being polite. "Apparently I met Paul a couple of times. I'll be f**ked if I can remember anything about it. I only remember it because someone has shown me some photos. When you've spent as much time off your t*ts as I have, there are a lot of things you're never going to remember. Despite his drug-taking past, Shaun insists he is now clean because he is tired of experimenting with substances. The 46-year-old star explained: "By the time you get to the age I am, you've been there, read the book, bought the T-shirt. At the end of the day, if I wasn't bored with drugs I'd still be taking the things. That goes for alcohol as well. Been there, done it." [more]

Legendary Musicians Bob Dylan Sir Paul McCartney Togther?

Legendary musicians Bob Dylan and Sir Paul McCartney are to team up in California over the summer, where they are expected to work on new songs as a duo, it has emerged. The news comes after Dylan declared earlier that he found the idea of working with the former Beatles 'exciting'. Buzz up!McCartney’s spokesman then declared their man would be 'very interested' in a collaboration. “Paul has a home in California not too far from Bob’s so the idea is for the two to meet when Paul is in California over the summer. They’ll obviously want to work in privacy and it’s felt one of their homes will be the best bet,” The Daily Express quoted a source, as saying. Meanwhile, Dylan recently topped the charts with his album Together Through Life and McCartney created waves with his last release musical alter ego The Fireman. “Getting these two together for any length of time is difficult schedule-wise but they both want this to work out. The music that comes out of this will be fascinating to hear,” the source added. (ANI)

Here Comes The Sun At Abbey Road

Folks from around the world spent a long Memorial Day weekend in Louisville celebrating the Beatles. The "Abbey Road Festival" featured more than 65 bands paying tribute to John, Paul, George and Ringo. Event organizger Gary Jacob said Saturday's night attendence set a record with more than 10,000 folks enjoying the music, company and good times. The crowd was able to purchase copies of some lost photos of the band during its early years. The photographs were taken by Bob Bonis, their U.S. Tour manager during their first U.S. tours in 1964, 1965 and 1966. His collection includes hundreds of candid photos of The Beatles on stage in concert, backstage, dressing and relaxing. [read more]

How The Beatles Were Carved Up

THE Beatles albums are the cornerstones of the popular music canon. Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night, Beatles For Sale, Help!, Rubber Soul… They sold in their millions all over the globe. In America, however, things were very different. The group’s early material was owned by different labels, leading to an unseemly scramble as different Beatles singles were released in competition with each other. Eventually Capitol – part of EMI, the Beatles’ British label – took control. But even then, the chaotic money-grabbing continued. As soon as they had 11 available tracks, including singles and B-sides, Capitol would release an album. (The American version of Help! was the worst offender, with a mere seven Beatles tracks, including singles, plus a bunch of film-score instrumentals.) [read more]

The bed seen around the world

It's so tempting to dismiss it all with a superior retrospective shrug. A wealthy rock star and his conceptual artist wife install themselves in a Montreal hotel room bed for a week, espousing peace as though they have just invented the idea while a media circus dutifully swirls around them. A hopelessly naive by-product of a hopelessly naive time, right? Well, yes. In some ways. Certainly, looking through a new elegantly designed volume marking the 40th anniversary of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's pacifist agit-prop project, responses may vary with knowledge of context. The effect of touchingly tender portraits of the couple with Yoko's young daughter, Kyoko, is tempered somewhat by the thought that at this time, Lennon's first wife, Cynthia, and son, Julian, were being left to fend for themselves, their only apparent fault being their failure to fit into the new utopian narrative. [read more]

Urals statue brings Fab Four back to the USSR

A sculpture of legendary English pop group The Beatles has been unveiled by the Iset River in the center of Yekaterinburg, the largest city in Russia's Urals. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr are featured as white silhouettes fixed to a brick wall. Under the figures is the lyric: "Òhe love you take is equal to the love you make", the last line of the Abby Road song The End. Vladimir Popov, president of the local Urals Beatles Club, said the band "is depicted on stage because that is their natural state, and that is how many remember them." Saturday's ceremony was attended by three original members of The Quarrymen, the band that became The Beatles. The Quarrymen re-grouped in 1997, calling themselves "John Lennon's Original Quarrymen." Band member Rod Davis told the crowd of Beatles fans that the area even had some of the Merseyside atmosphere. "This river is smaller than the Mersey, which runs through Liverpool. But we noticed that it's the same color," he said. Fellow Quarrymen members John Lowe, Len Garry and Colin Hanton, in Russia for the The Beatles on the Border festival, organized by the Urals Beatles Club, were also at the ceremony. SOURCE

The day the music lived

Buddy Holly’s only Liverpool gig changed lives and forged careers. William Leece talks to the man who has recorded memories of the rock ‘n’ roll star in a new book. CONSIDERING The Beatles owed such a debt to Buddy Holly and the Crickets, it is a shame that they never actually met, or even heard each other play. Of course, Buddy Holly was killed in a plane crash in February 1959, at a time when The Beatles were still The Quarrymen, learning their trade round the clubs of Liverpool. But it almost happened. The year before, The Quarrymen, led by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, had invited in a new lead guitarist, George Harrison. [read more]

PURCHASE: Everyday: Getting Closer to Buddy Holly



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Oh no, Yoko: John Lennon's widow sends her regrets

Yoko Ono won't visit Niagara Falls to mark the 40th anniversary of her honeymoon to Niagara Falls with John Lennon, but the widow of the late Beatle is sending rarely seen footage of their visit instead. "We'll have exclusive stuff," said Bill Colclough, a public programmer at the Lundy's Lane Historical Museum, who is organizing a musical celebration in honour of what he considers one of the most famous couples to honeymoon here. But she is sending 10 minutes of footage. It's a DVD. It's 10 minutes of whatever they were doing when they were here," Colclough said. He and city clerk Dean Iorfida used a combination of Facebook and Twitter messages to find out how to contact Ono, a New York City artist. Colclough said he learned through the mayor's office Friday that Ono had sent her regrets, but also forwarded "some very rare unseen footage" of her visit to Niagara Falls. [read more]

All you need is love - for the Beatles

Beatlemania takes over the waterfront this weekend. The 8th Annual Abbey Road on the River festival has something for every Beatle fan. You can hear more than 65 bands performing on various stages on the Belvedere. Also on display is a rare collection of candid Beatles photographs that were recently discovered. People attending can also play games, enter a singing competition, and more. As Ali Shaw of Abbey Road on the River puts it, "The fans that come to this event are fanatic, that's the only way to describe it. [read more]

Rubber Souldiers picks up where Beatles left off

What if the Beatles had gotten off the road and moved to San Francisco and started playing the Fillmore with Quicksilver and the Grateful Dead? That's the fantasy scenario that Oakland singer-songwriter, guitarist and radio host David Gans comes up with to describe the musical approach of Rubber Souldiers, a Beatles jam band he formed with Marin County folk-rock-pop-bluegrass stalwarts Chris and Lorin Rowan, who with their brother Peter (a member of Jerry Garcia's bluegrass band Old and in the Way) created the '70s pop band the Rowan Brothers. [read more]

Anoushka and Ravi Shankar: A Father and Daughter Reunion

Ravi Shankar, 89, is considered a “Jewel of India” one of the Southeast Asian nation’s highest honors, and has been playing the sitar, the multi-stringed classical Indian instrument for the past eight decades. The Beatles era, when he worked closely with George Harrison, was just a minor blip on the radar screen of his life’s work. Shankar is more than just a musician, though. Shankar gained a reputation as a virtuoso combining concert performances with his work on All India Radio, where he founded the National Chamber Orchestra. But, from the tone and pace of the concert he performed recently with his daughter, Anoushka, his real raison d’être is the child he mentored on sitar since she was eight years old.
Turning over the opening half to Anoushka, who is also half-sister to pianist Norah Jones, one could see the loving pride of a father and the doting display of a master teacher of his star pupil. Anoushka opened the concert with a series of classic ragas, accompanied by a tabla drummer, two tambura players and a flautist. [read more]

Beatles fans begin coming together in Louisville

“Come together!” a member of German Beatles cover band Lucy in The Sky yelled from the roof of the Hyatt Regency about noon today. “Come to Abbey Road On The River!” “We’ll be there!” responded audience member Gayle Dudley, 55, from Columbus, Ind. “We never get tired of The Beatles!” It seemed like no one in the crowd at the kick-off concert for this weekend’s Abbey Road On the River celebration at Belvedere Festival Park and the Galt house Hotel and Suites could get enough of the timeless tunes. The street in front of the Hyatt, Third and Jefferson streets, was closed to vehicles so Beatles lovers could safely gather to enjoy the show. It was a fun, free love-in, with fans singing along, dreamily dancing Summer of Love-style, and even shaking star-shaped tambourines to the beat. [read more]

Lennon was nearly beaten up by magician Tommy Cooper, says book

A new book has revealed that late Beatles member John Lennon was nearly beaten up by 6ft 4in magician Tommy Cooper, after he made an insulting remark about the latter’s wife Gwen. The incident is reported to have happened at a showbiz soiree hosted by Beatles manager Brian Epstein in August 1964, and in front of guests Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Judy Garland, Dusty Springfield, Jane Asher, Cilla Black, Alma Cogan, Tommy Steele and Lionel Bart. Frank Allen, frontman with Sixties band The Searchers, recalled the incident in his new memoirs. “There was almost a fracas when Tommy Cooper perceived that John Lennon, always the caustic wit and never one to consider someone’s feelings before throwing a sarcastic line their way, had been offensive to his wife,” the Daily Express quoted Allen as stating. “The comedian rose and confronted the rock star. Cooper was an awesome size, a tall, bulky man with the face of a boxer and the looks that suggested that in a fight he was unlikely to emerge the loser. Luckily for Lennon, who was known to have played the hard man, usually when he knew he was dealing with a weaker opponent, an aide quickly intervened,” he said. Allen, who still performs with his band, added in his book, titled ‘The Searchers And Me’, that Lennon was glad for the intervention. “The Beatle was relieved to have someone save face on his behalf,” he said. “John was the guy who put mild-mannered Cavern Club DJ Bob Wooller in hospital for daring to suggest that he, Lennon, might have indulged in a sexual liaison with Brian Epstein, but would never have dared to front up to a real Liverpool hard case,” he added. (ANI)

Sir Paul McCartney’s London pad is taken off Google Street View after he made a complaint

SIR PAUL McCARTNEY’s London pad has been removed from Google Street View after he made a complaint. Macca was furious when he discovered fans could goggle at his multi-million-pound home online. It was photographed along with others on the posh street as part of Google’s ground-level views of the city. The former BEATLE’s security team, who monitor access to the house 24 hours a day, complained to the web giant. Sir Paul, 66 — whose band had a hit with You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away — has been careful about security since bandmate JOHN LENNON was murdered in 1980. [read more]

Montréal gets in bed with John and Yoko to celebrate the 40th birthday of the Bed-in

John and Yoko’s infamous Bed-in protest of 1969 in the Canadian city, Montréal will celebrate its 40th anniversary on 26th May. Rekindling the famous couple’s message of peace that formed the backdrop to this legendary event, which took place at Montréal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel, the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts has re-created the scenes in a unique exhibition, exclusive to the city. Exhibiting 140 works of memorabilia at ‘Imagine: The Peace Ballad of John & Yoko’, organised in collaboration with Yoko Ono, the show celebrates the Bed-in, which saw the devoted duo compose and record the song ‘Give Peace a Chance’. The exhibit appropriately includes a section dedicated to this light-hearted stunt, which was the second Bed-in the couple carried out – the first being conceived in Amsterdam, Holland two months earlier. Featuring the song’s handwritten lyrics, the reel-to-reel tape on which it was recorded, Lennon’s Gibson guitar and a replica of the bed from which they held court 40 years ago in Montréal - the show is a work of art in itself and one not to be missed.

Other works on display include drawings, unpublished photographs, videos, films, artworks and interactive materials that convey the couple’s message of peace. In every section of the exhibit, the sounds of music, conversation, interviews and avant-garde recordings can also be heard providing a soundtrack and insight into the couple’s lives. Admission to this comprehensive exhibition is free and allows audiences to understand and be moved by the still-topical subject. Even the Société de Transport de Montréal is in on the act, broadcasting a message of hope from Yoko Ono throughout their metro system. For further information on Montréal and the Imagine Exhibition visit the Tourisme Montréal website www.tourisme-montréal.org. Also for sweet deals to Montréal check out www.montrealsweetdeals.com.

beatlesnumber9.com

The Beatles still sound like they're fresh and new

I was just a little kid when the Beatles first performed on the Ed Sullivan Show, not more than a toddler, but because I had brothers and sisters who were in their teens, we had Beatles LPs around the house when I was growing up and I really got into their music. Even now, when one of their songs comes on an oldies station, I'm surprised by how fresh and cutting-edge it sounds. My favourite album of theirs has to be Sgt. Pepper. The artwork alone is worth the purchase price, depicting the members of the Lonely Hearts Club, including some very famous personages. It seemed that every time you looked at the art, you discovered something new. I never got to see the Beatles in concert and I don't think they played live after 1966 (except for that famous rooftop concert just before the band broke up) however, I remember seeing a ticket stub from when my cousin attended a concert at the Olympia in Detroit from, I think, 1965. If memory serves me right, the cost of the ticket was about $5. Even when you take inflation into account, it was a very low cost compared to the concerts of today. [read more]

Artist's helping hand from Beatle

A Welsh artist, working on the Caribbean island of Mustique, was surprised to find a driver who offered him a lift was Sir Paul McCartney. Dan Llywelyn Hall, 28, had his brush with fame after he was commissioned to paint six murals inside a luxury house. The Barry-born artist was walking around the island, when the former Beatle stopped to give him a lift. Mr Hall said he told Sir Paul all about the murals, which are partly inspired by the industrial landscape of Wales. "It's a very small island and I was on foot most of the time doing drawings. People in cars, which are like golf buggies, often stop and give you a lift," he said. [read more]

Biggest collection of Beatle George Harrison memorabilia

GEORGE HARRISON was always dubbed the quiet Beatle, but a team of die-hard fans have put together an exhibition to show his hidden depths. The collection is believed to be the biggest single collection of George Harrison memorabilia. For seven weeks only, the never seen before exhibition will be a feature at St George’s Hall, in Liverpool. The free event will be kick-started by a concert celebrating all that is George Harrison. The concert and exhibition is the brainchild of group ForGeorge, who spent months putting all of the exhibits together. Denise Theophilus said: “George wasn’t just a Beatle – there was so much more to him. “He achieved an awful lot in his life and we want to celebrate that. [read more]

Piers Morgan slams Ringo Starr

Piers Morgan has hit out at former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr over his decision not to sign autographs for fans. The Britain's Got Talent judge was commenting on his blog about recent reports that Starr had made an elderly woman cry when he refused to sign his name for her at the Chelsea Flower Show. Morgan said: "The ex-Beatle apparently informed the poor woman, 'I don't sign autographs, read that on my website.' "If she even knew how to use the internet, which I doubt, this lady would have found she could BUY Mr Starr's signature there on various items of memorabilia." [read more]

Beatles tribute band still focuses on details

It was Sunday, Feb. 9, 1964, the day the Beatles made their first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show." Eleven-year-old Mark Benson had heard of the British rock group before and wanted to see them play. The only problem was that Sullivan's program came on at 8 p.m., the same time Benson had to be in bed for school the next day. So, Benson's parents made a compromise -- he was allowed to watch the Beatles perform "All My Loving" at the beginning of the show; after that, he had to go to bed upstairs, forced to listen through the floorboards. This meant Benson wasn't allowed to see the Fab Four play "I Saw Her Standing There" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand." But he didn't need to. With that one song, the Beatles had changed the young Benson for life. [read more]

Springsteen's 'Imagine'

I didn’t hear much when I first listened to the title track to Bruce Springsteen’s latest CD, "Working on a Dream." It was catchy and heartfelt, but it sounded like any one of a number of Springsteen’s odes to hard work, the kind where listener and protagonist are one and the same, and you end up rooting for each other in a sort of cosmic buddy system. "Dream," then, initially conjured a scenario of a '69 Chevy being overhauled in a garage by a guy whose biggest goal is to get 'er ready to go racing in the streets. But when Springsteen and the E Street Band performed it at the Xcel Center last week, I heard it in an altogether different light: as Springsteen’s version of John Lennon’s "Imagine." [read more]

Prosecutors want at least 19 years prison for Spector

If Los Angeles prosecutors have their way, convicted murderer Phil Spector will be at least 88 years old before he is eligible for parole. In court documents filed on Tuesday, prosecutors are seeking a sentence of 19 years to life in state prison for the eccentric music producer. He is due to be sentenced on May 29. Spector, 69, was last month convicted of second degree murder in the 2003 shooting death of Lana Clarkson, a 40-year-old struggling actress. He has been in custody since the jury verdict was read at his second trial. The first trial, in 2007, ended in a deadlock. The producer, who worked with The Ronettes, The Beatles, Cher and Leonard Cohen at the height of his fame, denied murdering Clarkson. His lawyers said Clarkson was depressed about her career and committed suicide with a shot to the mouth at his mock castle in suburban Los Angeles. [read more]

The Beach Boys

One of the more tragic and bizarre tales in rock and roll history, the Beach Boys were nonetheless triumphant in providing an American counterpoint to the Beatles' musical experiments. See how this vocal group mutated into surf-rock, baroque pop, and more... features a biography, chart action, personal info, and more!. The brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, along with their cousin Mike Love and Brian's classmate Al Jardine, vocalized together often as teenagers (usually in the mold of pop vocal groups like the Four Freshmen). California natives except for Jardine, the five rented instruments and learned them well enough to record the Chuck Berry-influenced "Surfin'," a novelty tune meant to capitalize on the burgeoning craze. It did well enough regionally to prompt Capitol to sign the boys in 1961. [read more By Robert Fontenot]

Zak Starkey on Oasis: "the smartest musicians I've ever met"

Zak Starkey, self-proclaimed son of "the greatest drummer in the world" (The Beatles' Ringo Starr, of course), former stand-in for Oasis and occasional The Who sticksman, took time out from the aforementioned schedule to talk 'Uncle' Keith Moon and Brit infamy. Before quitting Oasis over 'commitment issues', Starkey recorded 2008's Dig Out Your Soul. Our friends over at Rhythm magazine took the opportunity to talk about lead single Shock Of The Lightning's "hurtling Krautrock beat, dusted with eight bar sprinkle fills"… [read more]

Lennon bus gets kids into music

If the late John Lennon were here today, his widow Yoko Ono says, he’d love nothing more than to create music with young people. His legacy rolls into town this week, to give kids that chance. Since 1998, the nonprofit John Lennon Educational Tour Bus has provided free programs to hundreds of schools, festivals and community groups. Kids who participate get to play music, write their own songs, groove through recording sessions and ultimately produce a video. At the end of the day, the budding stars go home with a DVD of their work. “This type of mobile, technologically advanced, educational tool will allow the state to more effectively expand the interest of students in grades 6 to 12, in careers relating to recording and audio engineering,” said Asante Bradford, digital entertainment liaison for the film, music and digital entertainment office at Georgia’s Department of Economic Development, in a statement. [read more]

Science helps unravel mystery of 'A Hard Day's Night'

Some songs can be identified by a single note -- even if you can't figure out what that note is. The opening chord for "A Hard Day's Night" by the Beatles is one of the most well-known and scrutinized song beginnings in musical history, and now a researcher using physics and mathematics has helped unravel one of popular music's great mysteries. Guitarists and other musicians for more than 40 years -- without success -- have tried to recreate the sound that opens "A Hard Day's Night." While the note played on George Harrison's 12-string Rickenbacker is the most prominent, the two-second duration of the chord is filled with undertones and frequencies that musicians have been unable to identify or recreate. [read more]

Book Review: Let It Be/Abbey Road: The Beatles (Classic Rock Album Series)

At long last, the Beatles’ catalog is being upgraded for reissue later this year. Along with the upcoming Rock Band game, we may see a resurgence of Beatlemania to rival 1995, when the Anthology TV series aired and the accompanying CDs became best-sellers. It may also see the return to print of books such as former Record Collector magazine editor Peter Doggett’s Let It Be/Abbey Road, a worthy addition to the overloaded Beatles bookshelf. While Continuum’s 33 1/3 and Rodale Books’ Rock of Ages series have since popularized book-length studies of single, influential albums, neither series has made this 1998 publication redundant. What may have been the single darkest month in the Beatles’ career is the best chronicled, documented by a film, dozens (if not hundreds) of bootleg recordings, and numerous books. In January, 1969,the group recorded Let It Be, [read more]

Toronto lawyer outlines day with Lennon in book, 'I Met the Walrus'

Nearly 40 years after quietly slipping into John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "bed-in for peace" in a Toronto hotel as a teen, Jerry Levitan still gets chills whenever he returns to the scene. "I opened the door and I had goosebumps," the Toronto lawyer and eternal Beatles fanatic said in a recent interview inside Room 769, dubbed the John Lennon Suite, at the King Edward Hotel. "It's the same room," he said. "They've changed the drapes but I think it's the same look of drapes and the configuration is basically the same." Levitan was last in the room a year ago for an interview about his Oscar-and Emmy-nominated animated short, "I Met the Walrus," which recounts his glorious day with the late Beatle. Levitan returned again this year to talk about his new book of the same name. [read more]

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Abbey Road on the River's lineup too daunting? We can work it out

With 20,000 expected fans and 66 scheduled acts, there'll be a lot of Dizzy Miss Lizzies at Abbey Road on the River at Belvedere Festival Park May 21-25. "It's the coolest, most fun weekend in the city, not counting, Derby," said Roy Martin, an instructor on The Beatles at Bellarmine University's School of Continuing and Professional Studies. "You get an eclectic crowd from every demographic," Martin said, recalling young girls dancing with their grandfathers to music from neither of their generations at past Abbey Road on the River festivals. "Beatles music transcends genres and applies to every age group," Martin said, adding that Abbey Road on the River draws fans from Canada, Europe, Japan and, of course, The Beatles hometown of Liverpool, England. While Martin said, "Any band that plays the Beatles I respect and appreciate," here are a few highlights this three-time Abbey Road attendee singled out: [read more]

Beatles Expert Jude Kessler to Appear at The Black Jacket Symphony Event

Jude Southerland Kessler, author of the historically researched novel “Shoulda Been There” and a world renowned Beatles expert, will be on hand at the May 28th performance of ‘The Black Jacket Symphony Presents Abbey Road’ to meet fans and answer any Beatles related questions that concerts goers may have about the Fab Four. Ms. Kessler has spent 20 years and made seven trips to Liverpool to research her comprehensive and thorough novel about the life of John Lennon. ‘Shoulda Been There’ is the first installment of a five book series and is now in its second printing. ‘Shoulda’ covers Lennon’s life from 1940 to 1961. Her much anticipated second novel in the series, ‘Shivering Inside’, is due for publication in October 2010. [read more]

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Ringo relives flower power era

The Chelsea Flower Show opens today with green-fingered ideas to beat the recession sitting alongside the usual spectacular array of garden designs and products. This year the highlight of the gardening calendar contains everything from new rose varieties for Olympic heroines to Plasticine gardens and a gnome in hiding. The show opened its doors yesterday for Britain's Queen Elizabeth and senior royals along with stars from film, television and music, before the event opens to the public today. [read more]

LENNON'S SON WORRIED ABOUT FILM

JOHN LENNON's son JULIAN is apprehensive about a forthcoming movie chronicling his father's life - he's worried the film will tarnish his memory of the late BEATLE. Nowhere Boy, which stars Aaron Johnson and Kristin Scott Thomas, tells the story of Lennon's childhood in Liverpool, England. But his 46-year-old son has reservations about the movie, which is directed by Sam Taylor-Wood and will be released on the 29th anniversary of Lennon's death in December (09). He says, “It's weird. I know what I know, I like what I know, and I don't like some of what I know and I don't particularly want to see someone else's variation on that. But Sam seems extremely nice and the film looks as though it will be something interesting.” SOURCE

Yoko Ono to judge Twitter haiku competition

Twitter is hosting the first real-time haiku poetry competition, with judges Yoko Ono and British poet Jackie Kay, picking the best verses from entries posted live on London’s Kings Cross’s biggest digital billboard. The competition begins on Monday, May 18 and runs until Friday, May 22. Commuters arriving into Kings Cross are invited to submit three line haiku-style poems on the subject of the British summer from their mobile phones using Twitter. To submit haikus, commuters have to place the prefix @kingsplace so their entries will be picked up by the Kings Place Twitter account. The best contributions are then moderated and appear within minutes on the largest digital billboard at the station. The initiative has been launched by Kings Place, a cultural and conference centre, situated in Kings Cross. [read more]

John Lennon's Imagine rings out on Liverpool Cathedral bells

JOHN Lennon’s iconic song Imagine rang out three times across Liverpool at the weekend. The song, which asks its listeners to "imagine there’s no heaven", was played on Liverpool Cathedral’s bells as part of the North West’s Futuresonic festival on Saturday. Cathedral ringer Sam Austin, 23, a student at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music, led the team of seven volunteer bell ringers who graduated from playing the melody on hand-bells to the cathedral’s world record-beating peal. Sam was given the tricky task of translating Lennon’s original music into a format which could be successfully performed on church bells. [read more]

Beatles Day - A Top Story This Week

Beatles Day was a top story for this week. Here it is again: (BBC) The second Beatles Day has been officially launched by John Lennon's sister Julia Baird with Merseyside actor and comedian Ricky Tomlinson. At the launch at Alder Hey Children's Hospital, they handed £50,000 raised from 2008's fundraiser to charities the Imagine Appeal and Liverpool Unites. Cash raised on the 2009 Beatles Day on 10 July will again go to Imagine, as well as the Marina Dalglish Appeal. [more]

How John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono escaped deportation?

John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono managed to escape deportation by the Nixon White House for their anti-war activities, thanks to some high-powered New Yorkers. Previously unseen letters penned by then-Mayor John Lindsay, Dick Clark, Rep. Bella Abzug and Joan Baez explain the circumstances. “It is possible for one to disagree with their personal and public way of life. Their cultural contributions cannot be ignored,” the New York Post quoted Clark as saying in one of the letters. Lindsay dubbed efforts to boot the couple “unusual and harsh” and “an attempt to silence constitutionally protected First Amendment rights of free speech.” The letters will go on display an exhibition, entitled ‘John Lennon: The New York City Years’ at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex later this month. (ANI)

Beatles More Popular Than God...

Beatles More Popular Than God...father was a top story for this week. Here it is again: (MusicRadar) The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night is the best reviewed movie of all time - so says Rotten Tomatoes, which just compiled a list called, appropriately enough, the "50 Best Reviewed Movies Of All Time." The 1964 black-and-white rock 'n' roll comedy scored a whopping 100% Fresh ranking - out of the 70 reviews counted - putting The Fab Four's cinematic debut, directed by Richard Lester, at the toppermost of the poppermost. [read more]

North East teens with The Beatles film revealed

FORGOTTEN film of North East teenagers putting questions to The Beatles in 1963 will be revealed tonight. The clip from a Tyne Tees TV programme is included in a show which is part of this weekend’s Late Shows event. Venues in Newcastle and Gateshead which are normally closed in the evening will open their doors from 7pm until late, offering a range of free events to visitors. One happening is at Tyne & Wear Archives, which is based in Blandford House in Blandford Square, which is also home to the Discovery Museum. A rolling drop-in programme tonight from 7-11pm includes a mix of items from the Northern Region Film and Television Archive. This is made up of old regional TV material, amateur home movies and promotional films for the North East and its industries. [read more]

Paul McCartney Phones Barack Obama

Paul McCartney has placed a call to The White House and spoken with President Barack Obama. The Beatles’ legend was phoning the President to make him aware of The OneVoice Movement which is first discovered on his trip to Israel and Palestine last year. The OneVoice Movment is working towards a two state solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict. McCartney wants Obama to recognise the organisation and help them work towards peace in the region. "This seems to me like a great idea, the symbolism of two people from both sides coming together to spread their message of peace via music is exciting and inspiring for me. I hope President Obama looks into this organisation and feels that OneVoice could be part of a peaceful solution," he said in a statement. [read more]

George Harrison's teenage angst

It was 40 years ago today, more or less, that my book about the Beatles first came out. While working on it, I asked all the Beatles for an example of their writing, some scrap that I could use to identify each hand. I also picked up hand-scribbled lyrics from the floor of Abbey Road, stuff that otherwise would have been burned by the cleaners. Some time early in 1967 I was visiting George Harrison at his bungalow in Esher when he gave me a few lines of what appeared to be a poem. On the reverse side, in Brian Epstein's hand, were instructions on how to reach Epstein's country house in Sussex. Six months later, George gave me a better example of his handiwork - the original handwritten lyrics to "Blue Jay Way", which was on the Magical Mystery Tour album. I used this in the first edition of the book, in 1968, and forgot all about his piece of unfinished poetry, just shoved it in a drawer. [read more]

The Beatles’ Contract History with Capitol Records

My previous post on sales of Beatles albums in the U.S. seems to have precipitated a lot of interest so I thought I’d briefly discuss the history of the Beatles contracts. If you’re interested in reading them, copies of the pertinent agreements are posted at deconstructingpopculture.com. These are a matter of public record having been filed in litigation actions in both London and New York. First a little bit about Capitol Records, which released (most of) the Beatles’ recorded musical work. Capitol was incorporated in 1942. Its stock was publicly offered in 1946. In 1955 EMI acquired 96.4% of the shares outstanding. On January 1, 1956 Capitol and EMI entered into the first of a series of what they called Matrix Exchange Agreements (“MEA”), subsequently renewed and amended. Pursuant to the MEA EMI undertook to supply masters to Capitol and Capitol to EMI in consideration for a license fee equal to a percentage of the retail sales price in the country of manufacture. Because each company had rights of first refusal to the other’s product the MEA was the foundation of the operating relationship between Capitol and EMI. [read more]

'Close Your Eyes and' ... They're With You

Please make welcome Mark, Gary, Tom and Terry … the Beatles? Not quite. However, when 1964 The Tribute invades Appalachian Fairgrounds in Gray, Tenn., on May 23 during the Battle of the Pigs BBQ and Car Show, double takes could be in order. Fans may squint hard, listen close and notice precious little difference between the famed lads from Liverpool, England, and the fellows from … Ohio. “Rolling Stone magazine has acclaimed them as the best Beatles tribute band on Earth,” said Steven Gardner, press agent for 1964 The Tribute. “They are insanely detailed and accurate.” Formed in 1984 by Mark Benson as something with which to enjoy occasionally, that 1964 The Tribute took off astounded the band. They had no clue. [read more]

Music spun in reverse

Early rock and roll singers, from Elvis Presley and Pat Boone to the Beatles and Rolling Stones, took songs originally done by black performers and created “cover” hits. In some cases the often provocative lyrics and rhythms were sanitized, or “whitinized” of sexual references. Other songs, such as “Hound Dog,” were refashioned. In “A Brief History of White Music,” the fall production at the Oregon Cabaret Theatre in Ashland, the musical turntables are spun in reverse. A trio of black singers takes music written and made popular by white artists and spice them up with a touch of soul and rhythm and blues. [read more]

George Harrison Mini Cooper One-Off Model to Be Auctioned for Charity

During the Mini's 50th anniversary "Mini United" event the company will present Olivia Harrison with this psychedelic reinterpretation of George Harrison's extravagant original Mini. The car will be auctioned off to support George's Material World Charitable Foundation. In 1966, a Mini Cooper S was given to each member of The Beatles by their manager Brian Epstein. Lead guitarist George personalized his car with a custom paint job. As was the theme at the time, the car received a zeitgeist paint scheme with psychedelic images such as yantras and Sanskrit mantras. His widow, Olivia, had a hand in designing this one-off example. It was styled as a modern interpretation of George's car. Olivia says George was a huge Mini fan and the fact that Mini's anniversary celebration also benefits the Material World Foundation makes it an enjoyable and meaningful collaboration. [read more]

Full text of George Harrison's 1963 letter to fan Lynn Smith

Dear Lynn, Your boyfriend’s wrong isn’t he... The easiest thing for me to do, is to write all the answers to your questions altogether. First of all, we have ALL got leather overcoats! The version of the story of how John, Paul and I met, which you have read, (buses and chips and Germany), is the real one. I sing in the chorus, and on every other line of ’She Loves You’, i.e. I saw her yesterday - and she told me what to say, etc. and the harmony which suddenly appears in the middle part of ’I’ll Get You’ (singing wrong words, if you listen closely). [read more]

The Beatles

The Beatles, the legendary Liverpool band adored by one and all are probably one of the most critically acclaimed bands in the history of music. Also known as the “Fab Four” and the “Liverpool Lads”, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were bombarded with fame controversy and the their obvious career-making musical genius. The band was formed in 1960, which probably makes the Beatles the only thing I like about the 60’s. Lennon met Paul McCartney on 6 July 1957 when Lennon added him to his band, The Quarrymen a few days later. On 6 February 1958, George Harrison was invited to watch the group.Harrison joined the Quarrymen as lead guitarist after a rehearsal in March 1958. Ringo Starr only officially joined the group in 1962. Fame comes at a price and the Beatles had their fair share of controversy. From snubbing Imelda Marcos, the first lady of the Phillipines and being pushed and jostled by hostile crowds to publicly stating that they were more famous than Jesus, the band has indeed faced it all. [read more]

The Church of Love: A Blessed Beatles Event

Against the Beatle naysayers of the world, there is a well-documented list of ‘firsts’ that can be used to win the argument on technical points—first live, international satellite broadcast (“All You Need Is Love”, 1967), first use of feedback in a studio recording (John Lennon’s vibrating A string tacked onto the intro of “I Feel Fine”, 1964), first rock band to employ stadiums for live shows (started at Shea Stadium, 1965, ended at Candlestick Park, 1966), first rock musicians to mix amphetamines and strippers (the influence of amped, bored, Reeperbahn strippers on the Fab Four is often overlooked). That’s just a partial list, mind you, but it nicely illustrates the significance of the band to anyone who needs a reminder. However, everyone I know that loves the Beatles does so not for their technical or cultural milestones. They love them for their music, which naturally includes their spirit, which naturally comes from their story. [read more]

Lennon to be honoured with Imagine pealing on Liverpool church bells

John Lennon will be honoured with the performance of his peace anthem Imagine, on the bells of one of the churches in his native Liverpool, England. Cathedral chiefs had given the thumbs up to the bellringers to perform the particular song despite the number’s controversial line, “Imagine there’s no heaven.” “Allowing Imagine to be pealed on our bells does not mean we agree with the song lyric,” Contactmusic quoted a spokesman as saying. We recognise its power to make us think. As a cathedral we do not shrink from debate. We recognise the existence of other world views,” he added. And the idea was said to have left the former Beatle’s widower Yoko Ono touched, who said it was “so beautiful, it made me choke up”. Lennon was murdered outside his Manhattan home he shared with Ono nearly thirty years ago. (ANI)

Beatles photos to be displayed

Hundreds of newly discovered, unpublished photos of The Beatles during their first U.S. tours in 1964, 1965 and 1966 will be on display during this year's Abbey Road on the River event in Louisville. The photographs were taken by Bob Bonis, who was their manager during those tours. They show the Beatles on stage in concert, backstage, recording in the studio, getting haircuts, bowling and just hanging around. The photos made their world premiere at the Not Fade Away Gallery in New York City, and will be at Belvedere Festival Park and the Galt House Hotel between May 21 and 25, this year's dates for the event. [read more]

Lennon's bloody clothes displayed

A new John Lennon exhibition, due to open in New York later, will feature a paper bag containing the bloody clothes from the night he was shot dead. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex display also features the piano from his apartment and handwritten lyrics. His widow Yoko Ono, who has created the display, said the clothes were "hard to include" and she feared she "might be criticised as well" for including them. Lennon was murdered outside the Dakota apartment building on 8 December 1980. [read more]

The Magical Mystery Tour

The discography of the Beatles is like a literary anthology. With just a few lyrical brush strokes, Lennon, McCartney, and their mates made us mourn the lonely death of Eleanor Rigby, taste the strange bittersweet kiss of the girl who came in through the bathroom window, and wonder what life would feel like were we living in a yellow submarine. The lyrics presented the images that went straight to our hearts: shot us into the sky, dropped us to our knees, danced us dizzy, and brought us back. The Magical Mystery Tour, choreographed by Jill Eathorne Bahr and performed by Charleston Ballet Theatre, is exhilarating for that Fab Four storytelling and for the symbolic motion that flows naturally from it. [read more]

Liverpool teen lands role in big screen John Lennon film

TEEN actor has landed a part in a big screen film about the early life of John Lennon. John Collins, who lives in Orrell Park, got the part of Ivan Vaughan in Nowhere Boy after an audition at Maghull High School. The 15-year-old will play the close friend of John Lennon, who was responsible for introducing Lennon to Paul McCartney. The promising actor impressed producers at three auditions, despite having no experience. He said: “I didn’t know how big the film would be until I started looking through my lines. I still can’t believe it.” John, who is currently studying for 11 GCSEs including drama, said working with an A-list cast, including Anne-Marie Duff, inspired him to work in films. [read more]

Musical Mystery Tour: Messages Embedded in Your Favorite Album

Ever since the mid-'60s, when thousands of bored and/or hopped-up Beatles fans wore out their needles playing Revolver backward, music fans have searched recordings for hidden messages. Often, the findings reflect nothing more than enhanced imaginations: If you really hear Robert Plant pledging his devotion to Satan on "Stairway to Heaven," you may need to cut down on the hot-knifing. But plenty of real missives are embedded in your favorite albums and videos. Can you dig 'em? [read more]

Liverpool is still a big noise in music

WITH dozens of gigs and a music industry conference to rival any on the planet, Liverpool Sound City is strong evidence that the city’s music scene is in rude health. Liverpool may not be seen as the centre of the music world as it was in the Merseybeat era of the 1960s, but the city is still home to a thriving music scene and a strong network of studios, promoters and venues, from the Echo Arena Liverpool to bars and clubs galore. That music scene will be celebrated this month by Sound City, which runs from May 20 to May 23 and will see performances from over 400 bands including chart-toppers White Lies, rising star Little Boots, Hollywood actor Juliette Lewis and local stars The Zutons. [read more]

ONO FIGHTS TEARS DURING PRESS UNVEILING OF LENNON EXHIBITION

JOHN LENNON's widow YOKO ONO fought back tears as she spoke about an upcoming exhibition recalling the legendary BEATLE's time in New York. Nearly 30 years after Lennon was murdered outside his Manhattan home, Ono has released several personal possessions to go on view in public for the first time at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex. Entitled John Lennon: The New York Years, the exhibition includes guitars, a posthumous Grammy Award and Lennon's iconic New York City t-shirt. There will also be some more controversial items on show - including the bag used to hold Lennon's blood-stained clothes after he was shot dead by Mark Chapman in 1980. And the death of her husband still upsets Ono, who battled with her emotions as she discussed Lennon's love for the city in which he was killed. She told reporters, "It (the bag) was hard to include. And I thought it might be criticised as well. "I know it's a kind of a sad and very poignant kind of paradox that he loved this place so much and this is where he was killed. I still get affected by it. If it (his death) was a slow a process we could have talked about it or something." The exhibition opens on Tuesday (12May09). SOURCE

Bob Dylan Unrecognizable During Trip To John Lennon's Home

Bob Dylan went unrecognized during a trip to John Lennon's home. The music legend wasn't spotted by fellow visitors as he joined a $24 excursion to the late Beatles star's childhood house. The "Like A Rolling Stone" singer was in Liverpool as part of his current world tour and a spokesperson for National Trust - who own and maintain the modest semi-detached property - admitted the organization was stunned to be asked to accommodate him. The representative said: "We couldn't believe it when his agent rang us and asked if we could get Bob on one of our tours to see John's house. He spent ages going through photo albums and all the memorabilia. He's definitely the biggest celebrity we've ever had on our tours. But incredibly no one else recognized him." [read more]

The Beatles White Album to be performed live by Aussie greats

MANY bands have had a shot at Beatles covers, but four of Australia's most popular singers are about to cover an entire album. The Living End's Chris Cheney, You Am I's Tim Rogers, Grinspoon's Phil Jamieson and Josh Pyke will perform the Beatles' 1968 album known as The White Album in full in August. "It used to terrify me as a kid, now I feel more affinity for it, I feel more inside it," Rogers says of the 30-track double album that includes Helter Skelter, Dear Prudence, Back in the USSR and While My Guitar Gently Weeps as well as the throwaway Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da and the experimental Revolution No.9. It's so disparate, so many different styles and atmospheres and feelings and even recording techniques. [read more]

Wilmington's Johnny Kay on his days with Bill Haley...and The Beatles...and Mick Jagger

When it comes to the early days of rock 'n' roll, Wilmington's Johnny Kay had a birds-eye view as a member of Bill Haley's backing band, the Comets. He was there in Hamburg, Germany, in 1962, meeting with The Beatles after their show in front of a crowd of screaming girls, even getting a preview of their unreleased single "Love Me Do." He was there in England in 1966, when the elevator he was riding with Bill Haley and Little Richard got stuck between floors. He watched as Richard dropped to the floor crying, "Oh Lord, we're gonna die!," and laughed along with Haley at Richard's overreaction. And he was there in 1972, backstage at Wembley Stadium, in London, talking to the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger. [read more]

ONO Continues To Ignite Dancefloors & The Billboard Club Play Charts

Yoko Ono continues to heat up dancefloors and the club charts with her latest remix single, “I’M NOT GETTING ENOUGH” (THE REMIXES). Currently #9 with a bullet on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Chart (Issue Date: 5/16/2009), the song has been brilliantly reinvented into a searing and undeniably flirtatious club anthem courtesy of vibrant interpretations by DAVE AUDE, MORGAN PAGE, EDDIE AMADOR, CRAIG C. and NIQUES, ZONED OUT and DOUBLE B. It’s another testament to the trailblazing pop icon’s well-documented fascination with contemporary dance and electronic music. Yoko explains: “Whenever I hear dance music, my body starts to move before I think. It’s very instinctive and liberating. I think we should dance through life instead of marching. Marching is not an aggression, really, but it’s something that can become like an aggression. Dance allows you to free yourself. You can have fun...it’s joyous, unrestrained and very healthy too. Sometimes it’s nice to just jump around.” [read more]

George Harrison's unseen lyrics go on display

Previously unseen lyrics penned by late George Harrison have been put on display at the Beatle's London recording studios. An official Beatles biographer, Hunter Davies, would collect scraps of paper the band threw on the floor of the Abbey Road studios during recording sessions in the 1960s. While researching a new edition of his Beatles biography, Davies discovered the previously unseen lyrics, penned in 1967 when Harrison was aged around 24, contactmusic.com reports. 'I can't believe I have kept George's lyrics for all these years but had forgotten about it until now,' said Davies. [read more]

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Beatles poster captures woman's passion

When Susan Martin was 13, she came across a Beatles poster she sorely wanted at Kresge’s in downtown Lincoln. The year was 1964, and the British pop band had taken the U.S. by storm after its February appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” The poster, produced by the Louis F. Dow Litho Co., commemorated The Beatles’ Royal Command Performance at the London Palladium in 1963. It featured all four band members — John Lennon and George Harrison standing, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr seated — in the doorway of blue brick building. The poster also included their faux autographs next to each one. Unfortunately, Martin didn’t have the $1.98 needed to buy it. “I didn’t have a lot of money then,” she admitted. [more]

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John Lennon's New York life reborn in SoHo expo

The green card John Lennon fought for years to get, the guitar he played at his last public appearance and the bloodstained glasses he wore on his last day of life can all be seen at an extensive new exhibit of the late, great Beatle. "John Lennon: The New York City Years," which opens Tuesday at the SoHo annex of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, represents the first museum show dedicated to a key love of Lennon's life - the city itself. As Yoko Ono told the Daily News, Lennon loved New York "because it's the most culturally developed city in the world." "He was an intellectual," the widow says, "so he felt a part of that." [read more]

Canada's opposition leader, says Sir Paul McCartney is wrong on seals

Michael Ignatieff, Canada's new opposition leader, has denounced European animal right activists including Sir Paul McCartney for their hostility to seal hunting. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph Mr Ignatieff hit out at last week's vote by the European Parliament to ban the sale of seal products. The former left-wing British television host was elected leader of Canada's Liberal Party on May 3. "We look at the culling of deer in Scotland and wolves in Europe by farmers and find it very frustrating to see this reaction to a carefully regulated and managed cull here, which is an economic mainstay of some of the poorest communities in Canada," he said. "Europe's inability or refusal to see the seal cull for what is smacks of hypocrisy and misunderstanding.Paul McCartney, I love your music - but leave the seals to the people who know them. This is not marginal to us, this is very important." [more]

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MCCARTNEY DENIES ENGAGEMENT RUMOURS

SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY has denied reports he is engaged to girlfriend NANCY SHEVELL The former Beatle has been dating the New York socialite since last year 2007 and has introduced Shevell to his friends and family. British tabloid the Sunday Express reports the pair has recently got engaged but are keeping it secret so MCCartney's ex-wife Heather Mills won't use it as an excuse to get in the spotlight. A spokesman for MCCartney says, "There is not truth in it whatsoever. They have not become engaged in any shape or form. It is utter nonsense." SOURCE

'Sgt. Pepper' is spiced up

Producer/guitarist Michael Goldwasser, his partner Ticklah (a k a keyboardist/producer Victor Axelrod) and their reggae collective, the Easy Star All-Stars, have been recording authentic roots reggae and dub since 1997. But it wasn't until 2003, when the pair got the bright idea to reimagine one of rock's classic concept albums — Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon — as a reggae album that the group garnered mainstream attention. It followed up that enjoyable and successful album by turning Radiohead's slice of 20th-century paranoia and ennui, OK Computer, into the slightly less enjoyable but Radiohead-approved Radiodread. For Act III of its tributes to concept albums, the group has corralled an all-star lineup of singers to recast the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band into Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band, and has again struck sonic gold. [more]

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Yoko Ono Calling, and It's For You

It's called Telephone Peace. It will have a little sign on it which says if it rings, pick up the phone. And, according to a NY Times review of the exhibit, it will indeed ring from time to time. When it does, it will be Yoko Ono calling, live, to chat with you. Here's the Times: ... A touch of the avant-garde playfulness of Lennon's early New York period is on display as well. Near the exit is "Telephone Peace," a white telephone mounted on a wall, with a card telling visitors to answer the phone when it rings. "This is something we did at the show in 2000," Mr. Henke said. "Yoko would periodically call in and speak to whoever answers." Ms. Ono seemed amused at the prospect. "Yes, you pick up the phone," she said, "and it will be me...." [more]

Dylan and McCartney don't mix

This collaboration of legends may not be such a good idea. But it's no surprise that it is generating excitement. It's that dreaded word "collaboration". It has become the holy grail of the arts world. If you can bring two big names together, preferably from different art forms, then gaze in wonder. That is an order. Never mind the quality, feel the breadth. I was an audience victim of such a collaboration last week. The world's most exciting choreographer, William Forsythe, got together with the country's most exciting art gallery, Tate Modern, to mount a dance performance in Tate's gigantic Turbine Hall. Naturally it was sold out. Dancers stretched, altered their body shapes, gazed up at the high, distant roof, apparently making statements through dance about gravity, as Forsythe laboured to find some connection between dance and the vast Turbine Hall. The hall is not made for a dance audience, so the spectators had to sit on the floor or stand. It was one of the worst, and certainly most uncomfortable, two hours of my life. [more]

The mixed-up boy who would join Sgt. Pepper's band

It's 1957 and 15-year-old Paul McCartney is in a cramped kitchen singing the first song he wrote, I Lost My Little Girl. Lounging in the doorway watching him is John Lennon, struggling to reconcile envy and awe. Lennon's mother, Julia, listens intently and is moved to tears. "Oh, Paul, beautiful," she says. "You wrote that for her, didn't you? Your mother." Paul mumbles a response, an awkward teenage boy. Julia knows that McCartney has lost his mother to illness, how deeply it affected him. "It's awful," she says. "Taken from you at such an early age." Lennon can't let this show of maternal tenderness pass by: He seizes the opportunity to wound the mother who abandoned him, and whom he only recently rediscovered. "She had cancer," he snarls at Julia. "What's your excuse?" [more]

Cathedral plays Lennon's Imagine

The bells of Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral are to ring out to John Lennon's anti-religious anthem Imagine. The bells will play the 1971 song, which begins "Imagine there's no Heaven", as part of an arts festival on 16 May at 1300 BST and 1430 BST. A cathedral spokesman said: "Allowing Imagine to be pealed on our bells does not mean we agree with the song lyric." The song has drawn criticism from some religious figures as Lennon himself as called the anthem "anti-religious". Liverpool Cathedral said it had carefully considered the "sensitivities" surrounding the song's lyrical content. [more]

Author Twitters As She Writes Second Novel About John Lennon

Author Jude Southerland Kessler opened her Twitter account just three days ago, but already she’s developed quite a following by revealing several times a day the details and sources that she’s finds to complete her second Lennon novel, “Shivering Inside”. ‘Shivering Inside’ is a historically accurate account of John Lennon’s life from December 1961 - February 1964. It is Ms. Kessler’s second book and is due for publication in October 2010. The first book, ‘Shoulda Been There’ covers John Lennon’s life from 1940 - Dec. 1961. It was released in January 2007 and is already in its second printing. The subsequent books in the series will be, ‘She Loves You’ (Feb. 1964 - 9 Nov. 1966), ‘She Once Had Me’ (Nov. 1966 - Lost Weekend) and ‘Shine On’ (Lost Weekend - Dec. 8, 1980). Jude Southerland Kessler holds a Master's degree in English from the University of Maryland. She has traveled to Liverpool seven times and has spent 20 years researching The Beatles. When she’s not writing, she can be found lecturing or contributing to many Beatles events and newsletters. Jude Kessler can be found on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JudeKessler. Or for more information you can go to her website: www.ontherockbooks.com or email her: rjkess@comcast.net. Press Release

STILLER MOURNED LENNON'S DEATH AT VIGIL

BEN STILLER felt connected to JOHN LENNON following the rocker's assassination in 1980 - he joined thousands of fans in a famous vigil outside the BEATLES legend's New York apartment. As a wannabe rock star, Stiller was inspired by living just blocks away from his idol Lennon's apartment in the Dakota building. When news leaked out that the singer had been murdered by Mark Chapman, thousands of stunned fans gathered outside the residence - and 15-year-old Stiller felt compelled to join them. He recalls, "I lived in 84th Street and Lennon lived at the Dakota, 12 blocks away. My friend Jonathan and I were fledgling musicians - we had a band and we were big Beatles fans. When we heard he'd been shot we went down to the Dakota and stayed out there in that crowd of people the whole night. "It was so sad I couldn't believe it. No one knew what to do - people were crying and chanting Give Peace A Chance." And the star insists it was one of the most memorable experiences of his life: "It was like group mourning and I think for a teenager it was a unique experience. I felt connected to him because of the music and because he was a real New Yorker. I always felt it was the coolest thing in the world that he lived in our neighbourhood." SOURCE

When John and Yoko gave peace a chance

It’s 40 years since the global antiwar anthem Give Peace a Chance was created during John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s celebrated bed-in. Here key people in the room recount the story of that heady week. Like so many who streamed through the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in that week in May 1969, I was there by chance. Life magazine was working quickly to cover this unexpected event, and while normally I did a lot of fashion photography, this was a sudden assignment anyone would have been a fool to pass up. A few hours, I thought. I had no idea I would be there for a week. I stayed for two reasons: because John and Yoko wanted me to; and because it seemed to me they were doing the right thing at precisely the right time. It was only two years after the “summer of love”, when hope was never higher, when an entire generation of young Americans, Canadians and Europeans believed they held the world’s future in their hands. It was a time of idealism, of optimism, of pacifism. Yet the Vietnam War was at its peak; there were more than half a million US soldiers in combat. Global opposition to the war was coalescing. [more]

JESUS CHRIST THE BEATLES HELP RAISE $500,000 AT WAXWORKS AUCTION

JESUS CHRIST and his disciples, THE BEATLES and MICHELLE PFEIFFER have been sold off in a bizarre California waxworks auction. Profiles In History bosses were asked to help Hollywood Wax Museum clear out old displays - by selling off eerie doubles to the highest bidder. And the recession failed to stop fans from digging deep to acquire waxworks of their heroes and heroines - the auction brought in close to $500,000 (£333,300). The Last Supper models fetched over $15,000 (£10 million) when they went under the hammer as one item at the big sale last week (01May09), while The Beatles were for sale at $12,980 (£8,650). Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman from the Batman Returns film fetched $8,260 (£5,500) and Charlton Heston's Moses waxwork went under the hammer for just over $7,000 (£4,600). Other sale highlights included the wax figures of the cast of M*A*S*H, W.C. Fields, Marilyn Monroe, Stevie Wonder, Sylvester Stallone as Rambo, Tom Cruise and two Titanic scenes featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. SOURCE