BEATLE NEWS ROUNDUP

THE Maharishi Mahesh Yogi died February 5th at age 91. Maharishi was an Indian guru made famous by the time the Beatles spent with him in 1968 studying transcendental meditation. Much of the music of the White Album came out of the many weeks they spent there. The Fabs had a falling out with him over rumors he made a sexual advance on fellow guest Mia Farrow. We know now this wasn’t true, as Farrow’s ex-husband, Frank Sinatra, would have sent a couple of the boys over to break Maharishi’s legs.


NASA is beaming a transmission towards Polaris, the North Star, 431 light years away. The transmission is the Beatles song “Across the Universe”, positing that some aliens might groove to Lennon’s lyrics. I’m just hoping “jai guru deva om” isn’t the launch sequence code for an attack on Earth.

Also, the movie Across the Universe, a musical based on works of the Beatles, is out on DVD.


PAUL McCartney was up for three Grammy awards this year –

Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
(For a solo vocal performance. Singles or Tracks only.)
Dance Tonight
Paul McCartney
Track from: Memory Almost Full
[MPL/Hear Music]

Best Pop Vocal Album
(For albums containing 51% or more playing time of VOCAL tracks.)
Memory Almost Full
Paul McCartney
[MPL/Hear Music]

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance
(For a solo vocal performance. Singles or Tracks only.)
Only Mama Knows
Paul McCartney
Track from: Memory Almost Full
[MPL/Hear Music]

Macca didn't win, losing out to Justin Timberlake, Amy Winehouse and Bruce Springsteen, respectively.

Oddly, Paul did not attend, but Ringo, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison were on hand for a what was billed as a 40th anniversary celebration of Sgt. Pepper (the Beatles album, not the Bee Gees movie). Besides performances by Cirque du Soleil of "A Day in the Life" and the cast of 'Across the Universe' singing "Let It Be", which isn't even on 'Pepper', I don't think the anniversary was mentioned. Beatles' producer George Martin and his son, Giles 'nepotism is cool' Martin, won a Grammy for the soundtrack to the Cirque du Soleil show Beatles' show, 'Love'. I think it was a little unfair to put remastered/remixed Beatles songs up against new material, and a little bizarre for Ringo (who didn't win anything) to help accept the award.


I MET the Walrus, which sets a 1969 interview with John Lennon to animation, is up for for an Oscar for Best Animated Short.


MACCA faced Heather in court on Monday, February 11th, to try to reach a divorce settlement. She wants $98 million, but Sir Paul prefers to give half of that. The hearing was conducted in private. Mills, who has fired and is suing her lawyers, represented herself. It's apparently all but over, with the judge preparing to make the final decision.

MEANWhile, McCartney recently denied rumors that he had an angioplasty last year. In related news, Ringo denied that he had rhinoplasty.

FOLLOwing other Fab son musicians, James McCartney will release his debut album later this year. James’ famous dad plays on the album, and the two may tour briefly together.

RINGO released his new album, 'Liverpool 8' in January, which you can read about here. He had a run of TV guest shots, including “Good Morning America”, “The Late Show”, “The Late Late Show” and “Rachael Ray”. He played his the title track at every venue. Craig Ferguson had him on for the whole hour, so he also did his solo hit "Photograph" and Beatle tracks "Boys" and "With a Little Help From My Friends". Those must have been the four tracks he rehearsed with his current band, because they did the same set on A&E's Private Sessions. Ringo famously walked off the set of "Live with Regis and Kelly" over the time they were giving him to do his song. Apparently Gelman demands all music performances to be 2:30. Ringo cut his 4:30 song to 3:30, but wouldn't budge from that, creating an impasse. I can see both sides. Ringo knew about the restriction ahead of time, but if you're going to force everybody to do a song in 2 1/2 minutes, why have music at all? Perhaps if they were doing a show in the late '50s/early '60s, then 2:30 would be ample time.