Rassegna Stampa a cura di Luca Mantini
"A HARD DAY'S NIGHT REISSUED ON DVD"
The classic Beatles film 'A Hard Day's Night' has been reissued on DVD
'A Hard' Day's Night' portrays the claustrophobia of fame experienced by the biggest band in the world. Director Richard Lester explains: "There was always that sense, especially in being with them, that they were four parts of a marriage. They were very protective and very close and very like each other. "To help out it was important to create artificially that George was mean and that Paul was the cute one, John was the cynic and Ringo was at the back and unloved and to that extent that developed more and more as the film went on."
ALL STARS BEATLES TRIBUTE LP
Madonna, Britney Spears, Queen and The Corrs are all expected to record Beatles songs for a tribute album dedicated to the late Linda McCartney. Other stars expected to feature on the album are Lenny Kravitz, Art Garfunkel and members of Paul and Linda's former band Wings.
All the proceeds from the double CD will go to the charity Women and Cancer.
MCCARTNEY LOBBIES US ON LAND MINES
After U2 frontman Bono, who lobbied the Secretary of state Colin Powell over debt relief for poverty-stricken nations, Sir Paul McCartney meets with US Secretary of State to lobby him over the use and effect of landmines.
McCartney and his ex-model girlfriend Heather Mills are both long-term outspoken advocates for landmine victims.
Under the Kyoto Agreement the USA said it will cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 7% by 2012, the European Union promised reductions of 8% for the same period, and Japan pledged a cut of 6% between 2008 and 2012.Thirty eight nations will join the treaty, cutting their greenhouse emissions by slightly more than 5%.
Paul is first in the Rich List, the richest musician in Britain according to the annual Sunday Times Rich List.
The music top ten:
1 Sir Paul McCartney, £713 million
2 Lord Lloyd-Webber, £420 million
3 Sir Cameron Mackintosh, £400 million
4 Robert Stigwood, £200 million
5 Chris Wright, (Chrysalis Media Group), £190 million
6 Madonna and Guy Ritchie, £180 million
7=Mick Jagger, £150 million
7=Sir Elton John, £150 million
7=Jamie Palumbo (Ministry of Sound) £150 million
10 Keith Richards, £130 million
BDEVUSHKI BITLOV (THE GIRLS OF THE BEATLES)
A contemporary play based on characters from Beatles songs is on in Russia. The production, entitled 'The Girls Of The Beatles' (or 'Devushki Bitlov'), opened at the Moscow Art Theatre in February but received little critical acclaim at the time.
The theatrical company - Russia's equivalent of the Royal Shakespeare Company - have become a hit with the public in recent weeks and 'The Moscow Times' gushed: "'The Girls Of The Beatles' marks the beginning of a new era at the world's most famous playhouse." The bizarre play includes appearances from Sergeant Pepper, Rita, Lucy, Sexy Sadie and Michelle all from songs by the Fab Four of the same name.
The action is set to a Beatles soundtrack and it's mainly the later songs that are used. It does however include the tracks 'Twist And Shout' and 'Eleanor Rigby'. (April 2001)
DR ONO
Yoko Ono, the widow of murdered Beatle John Lennon, is being given a honorary degree by Liverpool university. The artist/musician recently established a music scholarship at the University to commemorate her husband, who grew up in Liverpool. Ono will receive the scholarship on 1 July at a ceremony at the Philharmonic Hall. (April 2001)
RINGO ON THE ROAD WITH A NEW BAND
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| Fiorella Gentile & Ringo Starr |
It's Official: Rock and Roll legend Ringo Starr will launch a 2001 edition of his now-famous "Ringo and His All Starr Band," featuring a new group of musicians.The band members will include:
Sheila E. - drummer and percussionist who recorded her first album more than 17 years ago. She is best known for her work with Prince. Her most recent album was Writes Of Passage (1998).
Roger Hodgson - solo musician and guitarist formerly with Supertramp. His solo albums include In The Eye of The Storm (1984), Hai Hai (1987), Rites of Passage (1997), and Open the Door (2000).
Ian Hunter - solo musician and guitarist formerly with Mott The Hoople. His career began in the 1960s and he most recently released Once Bitten Twice Shy (2000)
Howard Jones - solo musician and keyboardist who studied classical piano. He published his first album in 1983 and most recently released Perform.00 (2001).
Greg Lake - solo musician and bass player whose career spans more than three decades. He was formerly with Emerson, Lake and Palmer. His most recent albums are From The Underground: The Official Bootleg (1998) and Then and Now (1998).
None of the five has ever toured with Ringo, and Sheila E. is the first woman to ever be included in an All Starr Band.
Official tour information is available on the ringotour web site.
The 2001 tour comes as Ringo releases The Anthology, a boxset featuring songs from previous editions of Ringo and His All Starr Band. Click here to read fans' reviews. The boxset has its own web site.
MACCA'S POETRY READING
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April 2001:
Paul McCartney has performed the first public reading of his poetry in his home town of Liverpool, joining British playwright Willy Russell and poet Adrian Mitchell at The Everyman Theatre to read poems from 'Blackbird Singing'.
It's a collection of 48 of his poems and song lyrics, published as a tribute to his late wife Linda who died of breast cancer.
A crowd of around 3,000 people gathered at a signing for McCartney, as he autographed copies of his book 'Blackbird Singing'. He explained: "I'm interested to hear what people think of my poetry.But I don't take me very seriously."
Macca, as the former Beatle is affectionately known, decided to do his debut poetry reading in Liverpool after accepting an offer to read extracts of his work in New York on April 2001.
GEORGE HARRISON INVADES CYBERSPACE WITH LAUNCH OF
HIS ALL THINGS MUST PASS WEBSITE:
www.allthingsmustpass.com
February 2001:
"Websites for me are still new territory," said George Harrison. "I still don't really know what they are supposed to do. But it was fun thinking of ideas and seeing them put together on the screen. I hope people enjoy it." Celebrating the recent 30th Anniversary release of ALL THINGS MUST PASS (lyrics), George Harrison announces his First official website, www.allthingsmustpass.com.
George took special interest in the ALL THINGS MUST PASS website. Users are invited to explore Harrison's world via quirky animations and rich media showcases. The artwork features the elements from both the original 1971 cover as well as the 2001 version. Fans will recognize Harrison's garden gnomes, who playfully roam through each of the sections on the site, including: George Harrison, where one can learn more about the musician; All Things Must Pass, where one can browse through album-related documents and view online videos for the songs "Let It Down" and "What Is Life?"; The Daily Bread, where one can view unique items from Harrison's personal archive; Cyril's Rare Guitar Shop, a look at Harrison's guitar collection; and Fun Stuff, where one can find various digital souvenirs.
BLACKBIRD SINGING
February 2001:
Paul MacCartney is going to release a new book entitled Blackbird Singing. it includes song lyrics and poems from the Beatles period and beyond; part of the work is previously unseen. Mersey poet and friend Adrian Mitchell inedited the poems at the suggestion of Linda McCartney.
An extract from one of the pieces reads:
"Sadness isn't sadness, it's happiness in a black jacket. Death isn't death, it's life that jumped off a tall cliff. Tears are not tears, they're balls of laughter dipped in salt."
His new CD "Liverpool Sound Collage", born as a soundtrack for an exhibition by Peter Blake, graphic and painter, author of the cover of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", has been released.
The sounds are partly recorded in Liverpool: the Mersey River, voices of students from his Art School plus old tapes and John's voice in "Free Now".
Paul has exhibited his work as an abstract artist at the Arnolfini Art Gallery in Bristol. His pictures include portraits of the Queen and Andy Warhol.
FASHION & ROCK
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March 2001:
John Lennon and Fashion in Milan. Tom Ford, Creative Director of Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent Couture has been inspired by John Lennon for his next winter's Men Collection!
YOKO SAYS
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January 2001:
Right now, I'm just intent on going into the studio to make the next album. Before that I will round up all the business stuff that I've been too busy to do this year with my 60th birthday and the 20th Anniversary, etc.
FIDEL CASTRO SHARES JOHN'S DREAM
December 2000: Havana (Cuba).
Fidel Castro attended the unveiling of a bronze statue of John Lennon sitting on a bench in a park of the city. The statue has been made by Cuban sculptor Josè Villa Soberon, and represents a long haired John in blue jeans. From the sixties The Beatles have been banished from Cuba because they were considered a bourgeois myth, but now Fidel declares "I share John Lennon's dreams".
January 2001:
A new site with a full Beatles database posted by researchers, collectors and friends.
www.tacoshell.com/entomology/beatleg/:bootlegs and unreleased tapes from radio and television.
"1": THE BEATLES (#1 Hits)OKO SAYS
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... Parlophone releases the new Beatles' CD "1" , which contains all of the Beatles single sides that reached the #1 position in either England or the United States: 27 tracks in one 78-minute CD. The songs have not been remixed, only remastered and are in their single versions, that's a little bit shorter.
The tracklisting for 1 is: Love Me Do, From Me To You, She Loves You, I Want To Hold Your Hand, Can't Buy Me Love, A Hard Day's Night, I Feel Fine, Eight Days A Week, Ticket To Ride, Help!, Yesterday, Day Tripper, We Can Work It Out, Paperback Writer, Yellow Submarine, Eleanor Rigby, Penny Lane, All You Need Is Love, Hello Goodbye, Lady Madonna, Hey Jude, Get Back, The Ballad Of John And Yoko, Something, Come Together, Let It Be and The Long and Winding Road.
"The Beatles Anthology", the first autobiographical book by the Beatles is published in eight languages and contains unreleased family shots and holiday snapshots, lots of documents and quotes and their entire life story in their own write.
The first ever official Beatles website.The first ever official Beatles website is due to be launched. On the site, at www.thebeatles.com, users can see the band's last ever performance on the roof of the Apple building, a virtual tour of the Studio 2 at the Abbey Road studios where numerous Beatles classics were recorded and other rare archived footage.
  
Two more books have been issued by the end of October in Great Britain and USA: Jann Wenner's "Lennon Remembers-The complete Rolling Stone Interviews" (Chronicle Books), an unabridged edition of the interviews that Lennon gave Rolling Stone in 1970, with a Yoko Ono's introduction; and "The Last Interview: John Lennon and Yoko Ono" (Sidgwick Books), which goes back to a few days before the assassination of the former Beatle.
GEORGE MICHAEL BUYS LENNON PIANO
The Steinway piano on which John Lennon wrote 'Imagine' (bought by Lennon for £1,000 in 1970) has been sold to George Michael for £1.45 million. The star outbid fellow Beatles fans Robbie Williams and the Gallagher brothers. The piano was the star lot in a Beatles sale which was held simultaneously in London, New York and on the internet.
It now has to leave its temporary home, The Beatles Story Museum in Liverpool, where it has been on show for most of the year.
Other unique items for sale included Lennon's Ferrari 330GT sportscar, which went for £110,000, and a pair of his famous wire-rimmed broken glasses.
In the secret diaries which Beatles manager left with his chauffeur and have been auctioned this year in a sale of Beatles memorabilia, Brian Epstein says how much unhappy he was at school and plagued by other people's responses to his homosexuality. He died of an overdose at the age of 32.
Also on sale there has been a four-page letter written by Paul McCartney to him:
"Your biggest trouble is you take it all too seriously," McCartney writes. "Name one big worry of the past that doesn't look a bit far away now."
Epstein's chauffeur, Bryan Barrett, has sold 14 lots - which also include a hand-drawn Christmas card from John Lennon - having kept them untouched for 33 years.
PAROLE DENIED TO LENNON KILLER
ATTICA, N.Y. (October 2000)
State Sen. Michael F. Nozzolio, chairman of the Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee, had asked parole authorities to deny Chapman's bid.
"John Lennon represented a vision of hope, peace and love. Tragically, his positive message and his life were fatally ended by Mark David Chapman. It is the responsibility of the New York State Parole Board to ensure that public safety is protected from the release of dangerous criminals like him."
"I am afraid it will bring back the nightmare, the chaos and confusion once again. Myself and John's two sons, would not feel safe for the rest of our lives," Yoko Ono wrote. "Releasing Chapman might spark violence against him by angry Lennon fans. They would feel that it is unfair that the 'subject' is rewarded with a normal life while John lost his. Violence begets violence. If it is at all possible, I would like us to not create a situation which may bring further madness and tragedy to the world."
Chapman had an "exemplary disciplinary record" while in prison, the parole board did said, but his killing of Lennon has was "calculated and unprovoked." In addition to being one of the most famous musicians in the world, Lennon was also a husband and a father of two young children. "Your most vicious and violent act was apparently fueled by your need to be acknowledged," the board told the killer. "During your parole hearing, this panel noted your continued interest in maintaining your notoriety."
A NEW MUSEUM IN TOKIO
Lennon's 60th birthday (October 9, 2000).
YOKO ONO has opened a new museum in Yono, near Tokio, dedicated to the life and art of her late husband JOHN LENNON. The museum contains photographs, instruments, hand-written lyrics and other collectibles. www.taisei.co.jp/museum
Speaking to reporters, Ono said: "I worried that if it was in Japan, people would just say, 'There goes Yoko Ono, doing bad things again.'
"John had so much love for this country (Japan). His son Sean is half-Japanese and we somehow felt we were bridging the gap between East and West."
In addition to the museum, a major Lennon exhibition has been held at the Rock'n'Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland , and, in the UK, digitally remastered versions of two of Lennon's solo albums - 'Double Fantasy' and 'Plastic Ono Band' - have also been re-released to mark what would have been the vocalist's 60th.
Copyright © 2000 Thou Art All Rights Reserved
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