Beatles News
A DENTIST who bought John Lennon’s tooth is looking for potential love children of the late-Beatle in a bid to stake a claim to his £400million estate. Dr Michael Zuk, 45, from Alberta, Canada, purchased the legendary songwriter’s decayed molar at auction in 2011 for around £20,000. Dr Michael Zuk, seen holding John Lennon's tooth, wants to find the Beatles singer's love children
Dr Michael Zuk, seen holding John Lennon's tooth, wants to find the Beatles singer's love children
Lennon, who was shot and killed in New York in 1980, gave the tooth to his beloved housekeeper Dot Jarlett in the 1960s. Speaking with The Sun Online, the dentist has sensationally revealed that he plans to stake a claim to the music icon’s vast estate using DNA from the body part.
He said: “I am looking for people who believe they are John Lennon’s child and have a claim to his estate and hopefully I can legitimise their claim. “John was a very popular guy who was having sex with lots of women and I doubt birth control was on his mind.
Source: Mark Hodge/thesun.co.uk
Never has there been — nor will there ever be — another first week on the job quite like the one Geoff Emerick had nearly 56 years ago. The year was 1962. The location was EMI Records at Abbey Road in London. Emerick was only 15.
An innovative young lad with a love of music since the age of 7, he had stepped out in faith and interviewed for a sound engineering job at the famous studio. His Dad went along with him on that interview.
He wasn’t confident he had made an impression. But, to his delight, Emerick received a call back from the studio and was hired as an assistant engineer. Hard to top that lucky break.
But, fate still had a little more in store for Emerick. On his second day of work, the self-described “button pusher” had the opportunity to sit in on the first EMI recording session of a promising band from Liverpool. They were called The Beatles.
Source: Melissa Goforth/newsandtribune.com
On Dec. 11, 1969, Beatle John Lennon and Yoko Ono arrived at the Odeon theater in Kensington to attend the premiere of Ringo Starr's movie, "The Magic Christian."
They stepped out of their Rolls-Royce and unfurled a banner that read, "BRITAIN MURDERED HANRATTY."
The banner referred to James Hanratty who had been tried, convicted, and executed for murder seven years earlier. John and Yoko were just two of thousands of people who believed he did not commit the crime.
Lennon became interested in the case after a chance meeting with Hanratty's parents, who convinced him that their son had been railroaded. John and Yoko took on the challenge of clearing his name.
Lennon has been dead for nearly 38 years and many of his causes have been forgotten. But controversy still swirls over the Hanratty case, and the question of whether Britain hanged an innocent man.
Source: Mara Bovsun/nydailynews.com
On the edge of Rishikesh, in the foothills of the Himalayas, lies an overgrown ashram reminiscent of the great ruins of the Mayans.
Fifty years ago this year, the Beatles arrived at this unlikely location at the invitation of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
The visit has passed into rock'n'roll legend even as the ashram has fallen into ruin. Much of the fabled White Album was composed in these now-derelict halls and bungalows.
Everything is crumbling, overgrown: the kitchen, the printing press, the post office where John Lennon waited for daily postcards from Yoko Ono even though he was travelling with his wife.
The "Beatles' Ashram", as it is colloquially known, serves as a humbling reminder that — as George Harrison once put it — "all things must pass". The line — the title of Harrison's first post-Beatles album — was cribbed from the Maharishi himself.
Source: Matthew Clayfield/abc.net.au
Barber Nick Palomares, known for celebrity encounters at his shop within the Fresno Yosemite International Airport, has died.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono were among his most famous clients. His son, Nicholas Palomares, said his father died Wednesday. He passed away in his sleep at his Fresno home. Up until recent days, Mr. Palomares was still cutting hair, at age 82 – although a foot surgery a few weeks ago forced him to take a break. He also had a heart condition.
Mr. Palomares spoke with The Bee last year for a feature story about his colorful career. His 14 foot-by-20 foot space, Nicholas Jet-Set Haircutting For Men, was covered wall-to-wall with framed photos of musicians, actors, athletes and politicians he met over more than half a century of cutting hair. Barber Nick Palomares sits in his chair in his shop at Fresno Yosemite International Airport in 2017, surrounded by photos, autographs and mementos of famous people he’s encountered over more than half a century of cutting hair.
“I sort of like the fact that it becomes a statement to say, ‘Fresno is not a hick town,' " he said of his celebrity photos, "because otherwise you wouldn’t have these people coming here.’"
Source: By Carmen George cgeorge@fresnobee.com
A mum whose son passed away suddenly late last year has written an open letter to Sir Paul McCartney asking him to help save Hastings Pier in his memory.
Janet Gross’ son Brad died on November 24, 2017, at the age of 45, a week after suffering a heart attack.
Brad – who was a drummer in a number of bands in Hastings – was originally from Connecticut, USA, but moved to London 14 years ago before moving to Hastings in 2008.
In her letter to the Beatles legend, Janet referred to Friends of Hastings Pier which is trying to raise £500,000 before May 31 to keep the pier in public ownership.
She wrote: “The reason I am writing to you is that Hastings Pier is in trouble. The pier is now up for sale to a commercial buyer. The last time this happened it was left to decay and was eventually abandoned.
“The Friends of Hastings Pier is a community group fighting to keep the freehold as a community asset while leasing the above-deck as a commercial operation.
Source: Stephen Wynn-Davies/hastingsobserver.co.uk
The Holmdel Theatre Company will present a reading of Stephen Larsen's play My Old Friend on Monday, June 4th at 7:00pm. The play is about a little-known final meeting of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. This is the first public reading of the play. Admission is free and coffee is served.
The play begins on November 5, 1980. John Lennon, alone in his apartment at the Dakota in New York City, is at a crossroads. He has been having recurring dreams of death and is ready to make big changes in his life, that is if he can summon up the courage. Just then, who should appear, unannounced at his door but Paul McCartney. The two haven't seen each other for about four years. John is both glad and a bit wary at the sudden appearance of his old friend. Can they mend fences? Can they come together? Or they forever doomed to be bound by the strands and complications of their shared history?
Source: By Gary Wien/newjerseystage.com
It is hard to think about Lukas Nelson and Dhani Harrison, successful artists in their own right, without thinking about their very famous fathers, Willie and George. The two young men, friends with one another, openly embrace their fathers’ legacies. Each will perform this Saturday at BottleRock.
If you listen to this band’s self-titled 2017 debut album, the variety is striking – from plantive country ballads starkly evoking Willie Nelson to R&B to honky-tonk to gospel to acoustic folk music to rock ‘n’ roll and more. “I grew up with a hodge-podge of different influences,” Lukas said, “and when I’m writing, I’m never trying to restrict myself.
“Whatever music is playing in my head, I have to put it down. I did 39 tracks that we had mastered. We just strategically chose what we thought was a great first album and we left out some really great songs so that we’d have material to follow up with. We just picked it song by song, what was the best song and we didn’t really think about genre so much. That’s kind of how we work.”
Source: David Kerns/napavalleyregister.com
Fifty years after The Beatles' psychedelic animated movie classic, Yellow Submarine, hit theaters, Titan Comics is prepping a graphic novel take on the trippy adventure. In this Apple-approved version, Simpsons comics artist Bill Morrison re-tells the story of the cheerful, music-loving underwater world Pepperland's invasion by the marauding, music-hating Blue Meanies, who turn the citizens into statues by shooting arrows that drop green apples on their heads while imprisoning Pepperland's guardians, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, in a soundproof globe.
Just before he's captured, Pepperland's Lord Mayor sends Old Fred off in the Yellow Submarine to get help in Liverpool, where he corrals Ringo and his pals, John, George and Paul, to travel back and battle the Meanies using love and music.
Source: Gil Kaufman/billboard.com
In the earliest days of The Beatles, the fact that John Lennon and Paul McCartney began composing their own material as opposed to using songs provided by other songwriters was highly unusual. In fact, at the time — the early 1960s — it simply wasn't done. Undoubtedly in the beginning it was probably seen more as an oddity rather than an indication of the duo ultimately being credited as one of the great songwriting teams of all time.
"It wasn't the norm," Bill Harry, editor of Liverpool's Mersey Beat, the first and most recognized newspaper devoted to the local music scene, and lifelong friend of The Beatles, explains in an exclusive interview. "In America you have the Brill Building and things like that, with professional songwriters like Carole King and different people. That was the situation. The songwriters wrote the songs and the artists were given songs by the songwriters. It was similar in Britain with the A&R men. For instance, [producer] George Martin virtually insisted that The Beatles do 'How Do You Do It' by Mitch Murray for their first single, and they eventually had to talk him out of it. He finally agreed. When they first said they wanted to do their original numbers, he said, 'When you do a number as good as this, I'll let you record your own stuff.'
Source: By Ed Gross/closerweekly.com
