News http://www.dmbeatles.com/forums/ http://www.eblah.com en Let it bequest - Jackson wants to leave Paul McCar http://www.dmbeatles.com/forums/m-1231082387/ http://www.dmbeatles.com/forums/m-1231082387/#num1
EXCLUSIVE by Zoe Griffin
The Daily Mirror

Saturday, January 3, 2009

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs.....gue-115875-21013162/

MICHAEL Jackson hopes to bury his 24-year feud with Sir Paul McCartney – by leaving his share of the Beatles back catalogue to him in his will.

Macca was furious when Jacko outbid him in 1985 to win ownership of the £350million publishing rights to the whole Lennon-McCartney songbook.

The stars, once good pals who collaborated on early 80s hits The Girl is Mine and Say, Say, Say have not spoken since.

But the debt-ridden King of Pop, now said to be battling a serious genetic lung disease, is determined to make peace with McCartney.

Jackson, 50, who according to some reports is convinced he is dying and has been using a wheelchair, has drawn up a new will where Sir Paul, 66, will inherit control of his share of the Beatles songbook if the troubled star dies before him.

Sources close to Jacko say he has always regretted falling out with Macca. One insider said: “Michael is worried about his health so decided it was time to look at his finances.

“Most of his estate has been divided up between his three children. But Michael told his lawyers he was sad he no longer talks to Sir Paul and said he wanted to make things right.”

The source added: “Michael is suffering serious back and leg pain and has for a few years. He gets spasms in his back which means he spends a lot of time in bed and a wheelchair.

“He weighs just over seven stone and is very frail. He’s also had a nasty bout of emphysema and there have been reports he has another lung disease.”

Jacko sold half of his Beatles back catalogue rights to Sony in 1995, but still makes about £40million a year from them.

Macca said recently: “The annoying thing is I have to pay to play some of my own songs. Each time I want to sing Hey Jude I have to pay.”

Last night a source close to Sir Paul said: “If Michael Jackson was to give back the song rights in his will then Macca would be delighted.”

Michael Jackson’s spokesman has officially denied the star believes he is dying.]]> Sun, 4 Jan 2009 18:19:47 I am the Paulrus Drunk Lennon recording grabs $30K at auction http://www.dmbeatles.com/forums/m-1229910033/ http://www.dmbeatles.com/forums/m-1229910033/#num1 Drunk Lennon recording grabs $30K at auction

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Maybe it wasn't John Lennon's best musical effort, but a tape of an apparently inebriated Lennon warbling a cover of Lloyd Price's "Just Because" brought a sobering $30,000 at auction Sunday in Los Angeles.

Bonhams and Butterfields auction house spokeswoman Margaret Barrett said Lennon had apparently had one too many when he got behind the mic in the 1973 recording session.

"It was six minutes, 16 seconds, and John singing very drunk and with John ad-libbing his own lyrics into the song -- so it's actually a fun song to listen to," Barrett said.

Described in the auction catalogue as "One standard orange-colored cassette tape with audio of Lennon in fall of 1973 singing the Lloyd Price song 'Just Because,' " the never-before-heard-in-public cassette was given to the former owner personally by Lennon, the auction house said.

That former owner was not identified, nor was Sunday's buyer -- for whom another Fab Four classic -- "Money" -- now might have new meaning.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/12/21/drunk.lennon.auction/index.html]]> Mon, 22 Dec 2008 04:40:33 Penny Lane The vatican 'Forgives' lennon! http://www.dmbeatles.com/forums/m-1227444231/ http://www.dmbeatles.com/forums/m-1227444231/#num1 http://www.independent.co.uk/n.....-christ-1031232.html

By David Randall and Richard Osley
Sunday, 23 November 2008


More than 40 years after John Lennon angered most of the known Christian world with his declaration that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, he has finally been forgiven. A lengthy editorial in the Vatican's daily newspaper, Osservatore Romano, has said that the statement was a mere "boast" by a young man grappling with the effects of sudden, and extreme fame.

The Pope's representative on paper has thus, albeit 28 years too late for Lennon himself to hear the good news, absolved him. Hopefully, thousands of formerly young and frighteningly pious Americans will now feel some twinge of guilt about burning Beatles records in such numbers when the fuss first broke in 1966.

The belated, but nevertheless welcome, blessing came in the Saturday edition of Osservatore Romano, which has recently had a modernising makeover. In July, it ran a story on another famous rock'n'roller, describing Elvis Presley as a "nice, sensitive young man". Now, in an article marking the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' White Album, the paper commented: "The remark by John Lennon... sounds only like a 'boast' by a young working-class Englishman faced with unexpected success, after growing up in the legend of Elvis and rock and roll."

Osservatore Romano, warming to its theme, concluded by saying: "The fact remains that 38 years after breaking up, the songs of the Lennon-McCartney brand have shown an extraordinary resistance to the passage of time, becoming a source of inspiration for more than one generation of pop musicians."

So there we have it.

The comment was made by Lennon in an interview with Maureen Cleave of the Evening Standard in March 1966. He said: "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that. I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now. I don't know which will go first – rock'n'roll or Christianity."

The storm over Lennon's quip grew when it was reprinted in an American magazine four months later. In Longview, Texas, there was a public burning of Beatles records. Radio stations across southern US states ran messages encouraging people to destroy their collections, while many banned the group from their playlists.

Even the Ku Klux Klan got in on the act, organising anti-Beatles demonstrations where the band was denounced. When the Beatles toured the US in 1966, there were death threats. There was a similar stiff reaction in South Africa, with Beatles albums banned and, some, destroyed.

Lennon held a press conference in Chicago, but did not withdraw his comments. In 1969, he tried to explain them in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He said: "It's just an expression, meaning the Beatles seem to me to have more influence over youth than Christ. Now I wasn't saying that was a good idea because I'm one of Christ's biggest fans."

Today, it seems, the feeling is at last mutual.]]> Sun, 23 Nov 2008 15:43:51 An Apple Beatle Chicago "BWTB" host Terri Hemmert celebrates 35 yr http://www.dmbeatles.com/forums/m-1227215815/ http://www.dmbeatles.com/forums/m-1227215815/#num1
'No one compares with you . . .'

November 19, 2008

BY NEIL STEINBERG Sun-Times Columnist

http://www.suntimes.com/news/steinberg/1287080,CST-NWS-stein19.article

A good radio station has a personality, a flavor, almost a smell -- there's an unmistakable fresh-laundry-snapping-on-the-line bleachiness to WGN, for instance, with Judy Markey and Kathy O'Malley chatting over the backyard fence and Orion Samuelson putting the John Deere into neutral, climbing down from the cab, squinting at the horizon and telling us how the soy bean crop is doing as he wipes his big hands on an oily rag.
Then there is WXRT, which for a generation of Chicagoans is the radio equivalent of Thai takeout -- an essential element of city living, both familiar and exotic, peanuts and limes, nutritious and sinful, an essential luxury that makes up for all the hassles.

The main course of WXRT is Terri Hemmert -- "Aunt Terri" to her loyal listeners -- who is being celebrated tonight as a "Chicago Treasure" at the Chicago History Museum. Terri just passed her 35th anniversary at the station; she joined as an announcer and public affairs director. In 1981, she became the first female morning radio personality in Chicago, and ever since her calm, soothing voice and musical laugh have been an anchor in a world of flux and madness.

How did a girl in Piqua, Ohio, get into radio?

"I wanted to meet the Beatles," she explained, over lunch at Volare on East Grand. "I saw a picture of Jim Stagg interviewing Ringo Starr." So she sought out the famed disc jockey -- who also ended up in Chicago.

"He encouraged me," Hemmert remembered. "He said, the first thing, 'Don't let anybody talk you out of it.' So I hung in there."

Eventually she would meet Ringo ("I hope it was worth the wait," he told her) and Paul McCartney ("Now it's like we're old friends," she said. "I think that's so cool") and hosts a Sunday "Breakfast With the Beatles" in addition to her weekday duties.

She also has taught the history of rock 'n' roll for 30 years at Columbia College.

"I love teaching," she said. "That's my favorite thing; I love those kids."

I observed that teaching is hard, students often intransigent. Hemmert said that's the part she likes.

"I love getting slackers and whipping them into shape," she said. "Because I was a slacker."

She is energized by the station's recent move from Belmont Avenue to NBC Tower.

"I'm still in awe of this city," she said. "I'm thrilled to be downtown."

Of course, some believe a certain scrappiness went along with being on Belmont Avenue. Has not the corporate behemoth -- the station is owned by CBS -- changed WXRT?

"People always say that -- that being owned by a corporation affected the station," she began.

"Well, it isn't as if you play 'Penis Envy' anymore," I added, mentioning a satirical Uncle Banzai ditty that Terri once played daily.

She smiled.

"WXRT has always evolved," she said. "We still play new music. We still play R&B, we still play the blues, which is very, very rare. We're a mix of old and new. People sense that we're there, and we have a commitment, and that's great."

The lovely thing about Terri Hemmert is how excited she still gets about playing music and teaching music and being in this city. She could have moved. She had offers that might have nudged her up the career ladder.

"I love Chicago so much; what a great city," she said. "I like Chicago more than I like radio. I'll die here."

You can see Hemmert at 7 p.m. at the Chicago History Museum, 1601 N. Clark. Tickets are $12.

Today's chuckle...
In honor of Terri Hemmert (whose favorite song, "In My Life," lent the headline to her item) a Beatles joke:
Q. How many Beatles does it take to change a light bulb?


A. Four.

John to come up with a light bulb. Paul to claim half of the light bulb. George to complain his lights bulbs are never considered. And Ringo, to actually change the light bulb.]]> Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:16:55 I am the Paulrus Heather Mills complains about press (again) http://www.dmbeatles.com/forums/m-1227092569/ http://www.dmbeatles.com/forums/m-1227092569/#num1 http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/18/heather-mills-pcc

Not particularly newsworthy in itself, but I did like this bit:  
Quoted Text
"Heather thinks that the intrusion into the life of a five-year-old is unforgivable," Joe Dolce, Mill's US-based representative told MediaGuardain.co.uk.


I would *love* it if it was the same Joe Dolce who did Shaddap You Face. Sadly it's not  ]]> Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:02:49 Joe