Beatles News

In the wake of conciliatory comments from Paul McCartney that Yoko Ono didn't break up the Beatles, the two will appear on the same movie soundtrack.  Comedy director Judd Apatow's movie, "This is 40" will feature Yoko's "I'm Your Angel" from "Double Fantasy" and "Lunch Box/Odd Sox" , an outtake from Wings' "Venus & Mars" album.  The soundtrack will be available December 11th.  The movie hits theatres in the US on December 21st.

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Henry McCullough, guitarist in the original lineup of Wings, is critically ill after suffering a heart attack.   The 69-year-old McCullough suffered cardiac arrest at home in Ireland.  His sister, Rae Morrision, counters reports that he had died, but says the family is gravely concerned and flying in to be with Henry.

Probably best known for his year and a half as part of Wings, including his guiatar work on "My Love", McCullough was also a member of Joe Cocker's band, and played the historic Woodstock concert in 1969.

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  The Beatles sit atop the UK’s Official Singles Chart, on its own 60^th anniversary.  With sales of 22.1 million singles over the last 50 years, the Beatles charted in the UK’s Top 40 thirty-one times, including seventeen Number Ones.

The Beatles’ closest competitors?  Not all that close: Queen, with 12.8 million sold, and Abba, with 11.3 million . The Rolling Stones place fourth, with 10.1 million singles sold over their 50-year career. 

The 90’s are well-represented with Oasis, Take That and the Spice Girls taking up the 5th, 6th and 7th spots. Black Eyed Peas bring the list up to date in thirteenth place with 7 million singles sold.

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  John Lennon’s 1971 letter to Eric Clapton inviting him to form a band goes up for auction December 18^th.  Said John: “Eric, I know I can bring out something great, in fact greater in you that had been so far evident in your music. I hope to bring out the same kind of greatness in all of us, which I know will happen if/when we get together.”  Clapton had played in the Plastic Ono Band in 1969. 

The auction also includes letters from Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and George Gershwin, as well as Charles Dickens and George Washington. The Lennon letter is expected to fetch up to $30,000 US at the auction in Los Angeles.

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16 yr. old Nick D’Alosio has the financial backing of several celebrities, including Yoko Ono, for a news summary mobile app called “Summly”.  The British teen has been creating apps since he was 12, and wanted a way to better access news content on his mobile device.  He got backing from a small group of investors last year, which led to more funding from Yoko, Ashton Kutcher, Mark Pincus and others.

D'Alosio has used the $1 million to hire "some serious scientists" to improve on his original algorithm, which works by selecting words from a given article to build a summary that will perfectly fit onto the screen of an iPhone--no more scrolling to read or waiting to load.

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Beatles manager Brian Epstein will be honored in his native Liverpool with a statue sculpted by the same artist responsible for the statue at Liverpool John Lennon International Airport.   A group of Epstein's friends and fans says it will work to raise 60,000 pounds ($96, 274 US) to pay for the statue scuplted by Tom Murphy.  The effort has the support of Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers and Billy J. Kramer, who were also managed by Epstein.  The Liverpool City Council has approved the request for the statue, to be located at the former home of Epstein's father and grandparents (now a guest house) on Anfield Road.

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A cassette tape that took the Beatles to the moon aboard Apollo 14--along with other classic 60's artists--goes up for auction later this month in a space and aviation-themed auction.  It was one of austronaut Edgar Mitchell's tapes on board, and he vouches for its authenticity.  Songs include: ‘Spinning Wheel' by Blood Sweat & Tears,  Creedence Clearwater Revival's ‘Looking Out My Backdoor,’  Marvin Gaye's ‘Heard it Through the Grapevine,’ the Beatles' ‘Something’  and ‘Here Comes the Sun,’ and Simon and Garfunkel's ‘Homeward Bound.’

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Sir Paul McCartney tells Sir David Frost that Yoko Ono should not be blamed for breaking up the Beatles.  In an hour-long interview airing in November, Paul tells Frost: "She certainly didn't break the group up…I don't think you can blame her for anything.”

ul McCartney tells Sir David Frost that Yoko Ono should not be blamed for breaking up the Beatles.  In an hour-long interview airing in November, Paul tells Frost: "She certainly didn't break the group up…I don't think you can blame her for anything.”

"When Yoko came along, part of her attraction was her avant garde side, her view of things," McCartney says. "She showed [John] another way to be, which was very attractive to him. So it was time for John to leave."

Paul also says he doubts John would have details

John Lennon’s tooth is at the center of a necklace now—and a UK dental care center’s effort to fight mouth cancer.

"The patients think it's great," said practice owner Chris Branfield.

"You turn on the TV and it's all doom and gloom and people come to the dentist and have apprehensions about that.

"This is about communicating – showing that dentists are people, too, and if we can help along the way, then all the better."

The centre is the first in the UK to host Lennon's tooth, purchased at auction by a Canadian dentist who collects celebrity teeth, and placed like a gemstone in a necklace with a peace symbol.

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The actor and author known to Beatles fans as the voice of John Lennon in "Yellow Submarine" has died. John Clive was exceptionally versatile, appearing in clasic films such as "A Clockwork Orange" and the oringinal 1969 version of "The Italian Job", as well as several British TV series.  Later in life, he became a best-selling author, with such books as "KG200" and "Broken Wings".  Clive died after a brief illness, according to his family.  John Clive was 79.

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Ringo Starr and the 2012 edition of the All-Starr Band will play two shows in New Zealand in February 2013--marking Ringo's first performances there since the Beatles' 1964 tour.

Ringo will again be joined by Toto's Steve Lukather, Richard Page from Mr. Mister, Todd Rundgren, Mark Rivera, Gregg Rolie (of Santana & Journey fame) and fellow percussionist Gregg Bissonette, for shows on February 7 at CBS Arena, Christchurch and on February 9 at the Vector Arena, Auckland. 

If something sounds familiar about those dates, it's because they will be the 49th anniversaries of the Beatles' arrival in the US and famous first performance on "The Ed Sullivan Show", respectively!

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The release of "The John Lennon Letters", edited by official Beatles biographer Hunter Davies, is getting some flak from some who say it's a case of TMI. Music journalist Neil McCormick argues, "We've reached the bottom of the barrel.  This is John Lennon's shopping lists." Davies himself defended the letters to CBS News, saying, "There have been hundreds of biographies of John Lennon, but they get fatter, thicker and they get more removed from John.  When you are reading the letters, you feel you were there. And h e's not writing for posterity..."

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Peace activist Ono said the LennonOno Grant for Peace, established in the name of her late husband, former Beatle John Lennon, rewarded Lady Gaga for combining stardom with activism and changing "the mental map" of the world.

"Lady Gaga is in a position of number one as a singer songwriter," Ono told Reuters Television. "And when you are number one you don't want to risk yourself. And she did."

Grammy-winning Lady Gaga, who shot to fame with her debut album "The Fame" in 2008, accepted the puzzle-shaped award in Reykjavik along with a monetary prize that she said she will give to the Elton John AIDS Foundation

Gaga said she would continue to "communicate compassionately to the world and its leaders," and dedicated the award to "youth empowerment around the world."

"I dare you to be compassionate in a cynical age," she added.

Last month, at an event in New York City, Yoko Ono awarded the prize to the members of Pussy Riot. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich were sentenced to two years in jail in details