Beatles Albums

Solo Albums

Recent News

All Beatles news will be posted here as soon as I hear about it. I will keep all old news on this page so enjoy scrolling through it!!

---

10/4/03

>>more information on the tour

---

10/12/00

if you happened to miss out on visiting my site on this date, this is what you missed. It was located on my homepage and i just moved it here for all to see whenever they want:

John's 20th Anniversary (8th December)

For this event, I have decided to leave my website largely unchanged except for uploading a new wallpaper, and dedicating this space on my homepage to the memory of John. At this time every year, his family, friends and fans are united in grief, and on this, his 20th anniversary, we celebrate the life of the greatest musician of all time.
Happy 20th anniversary John.

John Tribute Wallpaper (NEW)
Newspaper Reports on his Death
John's Biography

---

John Lennon fans marking the 20th anniversary of his murder would like to see a statue of their idol on Trafalgar Square's empty plinth, a poll shows. The survey, by HMV, will be handed to the London Mayor, Ken Livingstone.
John was shot five times in the back by obsessed stalker Mark Chapman outside his New York flat, hours after signing an autograph for him. Chapman is still in jail after his appeal for parole was turned down earlier this year. Yoko Ono, says she will never leave the apartment and had left it virtually unchanged in two decades. "All the memories of John are here and I don't want to leave the place we created and things that he touched," she said. John had left the Beatles 10 years earlier and fans class his solo Imagine as the best song he ever did.
But Sir Paul McCartney said he would be "tickled" to know their best hits album, 1, released last month, had now gone to number one in 28 countries. He said that on Friday he would be doing what John and he enjoyed best - making music. "I'll be thinking of all the great times that we had together, and I'll be remembering him with all the love in my heart," he said.

Memorial plaque

Almost every country in the world has planned some sort of memorial to John Lennon. An English Heritage plaque is to be unveiled at his childhood home in Woolton, Liverpool. It will overlook the porch where the young Lennon taught himself to play guitar. A statue of a knotted gun will also be unveiled by the Non-Violence Foundation in Cavern Walks shopping centre, next to the original site of the famous Cavern Club in Liverpool, where the Beatles made their name. American fans will hold a memorial in Central Park, as they have every year since the shooting. But the city's mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, has angered them by refusing to lift a 1am curfew.

---

BEATLEMANIA STRIKES AGAIN

The Beatles could be heading for a new world record after their greatest hits album looks set to become the fastest seller of all time. Fans across the world have been snapping up copies of the Fab Fours album 1 since it was released a month ago. Figures suggest that the music hit managed to sell 3.6 million copies in just one week and the album has already climbed to the top of the charts in 28 countries simultaneously. 'Thrilled' Guiness World Record officials are now checking to see if the album has smashed the previous best-seller, N Sync's No Strings Attached which sold 2.4 million. A spokesman for The Beatles said after hearing the news: "They're all really, really thrilled." The album has been at number one in the UK for the past three weeks and is expected to stay in the top slot until after Christmas. Countries in which the album has topped the charts include major record-buying nations like Japan, the US and Germany. It has sold 12 million copies so far and over the coming months is expected to catch up with The Eagles Greatest Hits which shifted 26 million, the best-selling album to date by a group.

---

19/10/00

£1.5M FOR A PIANO - BY GEORGE!

George Michael has been named as the mystery telephone bidder who forked out £1,450,000 for John Lennon's piano. The pop star has promised to keep the instrument - on which the Beatles legend composed Imagine - in the UK. The Steinway upright was transported from the Beatles Story museum in Liverpool on Monday for the auction at the Hard Rock Café in London. 'So excited' Michael's spokeswoman said: "George did bid for the piano and buy it. He's just so excited to have got it at the moment that we don't know what will happen to it. "He feels it's a piece of history and he wants it to stay in the UK. He was at the end of the phone line during the auction and had a friend there for him." The museum's curator, Shelagh Johnston, had made a last-ditch appeal for the successful bidder to donate it to the museum, as its previous owner did, so Beatles fans on a pilgrimage to the city can continue to enjoy it. It is not known whether Michael will agree to the request.

'Already lost unique treasures' 'Sold, to the chap in the beard' Ms Johnston said: "We have already lost unique treasures such as the original Cavern Club and the overhead railway, now we want to keep as much of our history here as possible before it's too late.

The Beatles Story would love to be able to bid for the piano, but we are a privately run museum and it is completely out of our league." It had been feared the piano would be bought up by a US or Japanese collector and whisked out of the country. The private British collector who bought it eight years ago has let the Beatles Story exhibit it for the last 10 months. Lennon bought the Steinway in 1970 and put it in the studio at his home in Tittenhurst Park, Berkshire. A host of other cherished Beatles memorabilia was sold at the auction.

They included: unpublished photographs of Lennon which £140 a tin of Beatles merchandising talcum powder £200 a postcard sent by Ringo Starr to his grandmother from a Butlin's holiday camp in 1962 £950 a beige corduroy jacket owned and worn by Lennon, £2,000 a Hammond C3 organ used by Lennon in his studio £40,000 a Ferrari owned by Lennon restored by Dodi Fayed £110,000 a pair of Lennon's wire-rimmed glasses worn when he composed Imagine £6,000.

---

9/10/00 (John's 60th birthday!)

YOKO'S TRIBUTE REVIVES LENNON MEMORIES

A chilling song John Lennon wrote about the "angel of destruction" just before his death has been released for the first time to mark what would have been his 60th birthday. In Help Me To Myself, John wrote: "Well, I tried so hard to stay alive/ But the angel of destruction keeps on hounding me, all around." Soon after he penned the lyrics, obsessed fan Mark Chapman shot him four times outside his New York apartment. Later in the song Lennon chants "oh help me Lord". Yoko said: "He was playing this on the piano at home, half-laughing and saying 'wouldn't it be something if we ever put this out?' "They say that people start to think of God near death. It's possible that that was the case here. Whatever he was thinking he was doing, it is a beautiful song and I wanted to share it with you. "I'm so happy that John's 60th birthday is getting so much attention and love from people all over the world. I'm also thrilled that the interest in him as a writer and musician is stronger than ever." The song John finished with Yoko Ono on the night he died, Walking On Thin Ice, is also included on the reissued version of John's final album, Double Fantasy.

Chapman asked John to sign a copy of the album sleeve the evening he killed him. His first post-Beatles solo album, 1970's John Lennon/ Plastic Ono Band, also hit the shops again. Yoko enjoyed minor success when she released Walking On Thin Ice in February 1981, two months after her husband's death.

---

Commemorative events for John's Birthday

Yoko marked John's birthday by opening a museum dedicated to him in Tokyo, Japan. Australians built a huge ice sculpture of the legend in Sydney. The words "remember love" were written in the sky above New York's Central Park, where there is a memorial to John Lennon. John's half-sister, Julia Baird, planted an oak tree in Liverpool's Peace Gardens, behind St George's Hall. Children from his former primary school, Dovedale, sang "happy birthday" as 60 white balloons were released.

---

28/9/00

PAUL'S ART

Beatles singer Sir Paul McCartney always wanted to be an artist - but thought he's be criticised for "crossing over". "I know that anyone who crosses over out of his own field tends to get criticised, so I just painted for myself and didn't tell anyone," he said. "For years I kept it quiet, and only my family knew that I painted." He finally began at the age of 40, painting 500 canvases in 17 years, some of which are being exhibited at Bristol's Arnolfini gallery.

---

26/9/00

LENNON WOULD SUPPORT FREEDOM BID, SAYS KILLER

The murderer of former Beatle, John Lennon, believes the sixties star would want to see him walk free from jail. Mark Chapman shot Lennon in the heart 20 years ago in front of wife, Yoko Ono (pictured), outside his New York home.

But Chapman is up for parole next week and believes Lennon would support his plea to be freed after serving time in prison for murdering the star. Speaking to the Daily Express, Chapman, 45, said: "I think he would be liberal, I think he would care. I think he would probably want to see me released."

Sentenced

Chapman was sentenced to life imprisonment after shooting the top musician on December 8 1980. After being convicted, Chapman admitted to revelling in the fame of the killing but now wants to led an ordinary life again. Chapman said: "Sure, I don't think gloat is the word. But my identity was such, so low that I had to kill somebody."

Assassination

On the day of the assassination he approached Lennon as he and Yoko Ono emerged from a limousine outside their apartment. "A voice in my head said `do it, do it, do it, do it'. I aimed at his back and pulled the trigger five times and all hell broke loose in my mind," he said. Chapman also admitted he deserved to die for the crime and should have received the death penalty.

Christian

Chapman has pledged to become a Christian preacher and travel the world spreading the word if granted freedom at the October 3 hearing. He said: "I could have an impact, a positive impact. I could travel to different places and tell people what happened and how their answer, as well as mine, is in Jesus."