Happy Birthday to Ringo Starr who turns 68 today. I’ve always considered Ringo as “the happy Beatle,” because he was always smiling in their group pictures. His official website says all he wants for his birthday is more “Peace and Love.”
Source: www.ringostarr.com
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Classic Album: Plastic Ono Band John Lennon - DVD Release Date: April 29th
This DVD release is the latest addition to the ‘Classic Albums’ series that documents the making of important pop and rock albums.
This is John Lennon’s first solo album (from the studio) after leaving The Beatles. It was heavily influenced by John and Yoko’s primal scream therapy at the time. This DVD includes interviews of Yoko Ono, Ringo Starr and Klaus Voorman. The album was originally released in late 1970, with Ringo on drums and Klaus on bass.

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$59,750.00 was the winning bid for this very famous set of autographs from all four of The Beatles, during their visit with Elvis on August 27th, 1965.
The auction was held on April 5th at Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas. I was talking to my friend at FansOnTheRun about what a big deal it is for Beatle fans, so we decided to verify the story.
It took some searching, but we finally found a link that confirms the story that this indeed was a valid auction sale. It was lot #30321 in Heritage entertainment memorabilia auction #688 described as Beatles’ Autographs on Elvis’ Personal Stationery - August 27, 1965.
As the story goes…The Beatles were scheduled to play the Balboa Stadium in San Diego and Elvis was filming Paradise, Hawaiian Style in Hollywood. On the night of August 27, 1965, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr arrived at Elvis’s house in Bel Air, where Elvis personally greeted them at the door for what became known as the “summit meeting” of pop music and rock and roll.
During that meeting Jerry Schilling, a member of Elvis’s “Memphis Mafia,” got the autographs of all four Beatles on a 5″ …

CNN just rebroadcast a Larry King interview with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr this past weekend. Originally broadcast last June, the interview also features Olivia Harrison, Yoko Ono Lennon, and Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil. They celebrated the first year anniversary of the LOVE show, a high tech blend of modern circus theatre set to an exciting mashup of Beatles music remixed by Sir George Martin and his son Giles.
CNN filmed the tribute show from the Beatles Revolution Lounge at the Mirage in Las Vegas. There’s great dialog between Paul and Ringo, and an interesting story from Olivia talking about how George and Guy came to be friends and fans of each other’s work, and combined their talents to create the LOVE show, the first of it’s kind to celebrate the art and music of the Beatles.
The show’s soundtrack features the Beatles music remixed by Sir George Martin and his son Giles, from the original Abbey Road studio master tapes. LOVE The soundtrack album has both the stereo CD and the 5.1 surround sound DVD, which does sound awesome. The album won a Grammy this year for the surround sound mix.
40 …

Do you remember John Lennon’s “lost weekend?” Most fans don’t. That so called “lost weekend” lasted 18 months, from 1973 to 1975, when Lennon split from Yoko in New York and headed to L.A.
Ono hooked John up with a former personal assistant by the name of May Pang, who has just released a book of personal photos from that lost weekend era. This is actually her second book, which is really just a collection of photos.
It’s interesting to note that Cynthia and Julian Lennon have endorsed the book, called Instamatic Karma. I personally love the name; it’s a great play on words. And of course, the book has created a big buzz. But what I really like about this time period of John’s life is that he really got back into his music, and also collaborated with many other artists too.
Not only did he record three hit albums; Mind Games, Rock n’ Roll, and Walls and Bridges, but Lennon also recorded and worked with David Bowie, Harry Nilsson, Mick Jagger, and Ringo Starr. He also performed with Elton John in 1974, in what I believe may be his last concert performance.
Whatever Gets You …

Events like the Grammys are great learning moments. There’s so much more to most of these artists than their “hit songs.” Once you dig into their catalog and their roots, you find all kinds of things you may not have known before. But one thing’s for sure. This year’s 50th anniversary show really turned into solid gold.
I’d like to share a few of MY favorite Grammy moments with you…
Herbie Hancock surprised everyone with his win for Album of the Year with River: The Joni Letters. Presented by the legendary Quincy Jones, it was one of many “feel good” moments in this year’s Grammy show.
Vince Gill had the funniest line of the evening when Ringo Starr presented him with the Grammy for Best Country Album; “I just got an award presented to me by a Beatle. Have you had that happen yet, Kanye?”
Gotta love it. Bonnie Raitt introduced the classic rock segment of the show featuring John Fogerty, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, who really rocked the house!
The LOVE Soundtrack Album won BOTH categories it was nominated in; Best Compilation Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other …

I’ve been watching with interest as music memorabilia fetches higher prices. A recent example is a pretty cool auction lot package from Apple Corps., Capitol and EMI that sold for $12,100 on eBay. The lot included a specially designed Beatles flag as part of a promotion of the new Help! DVD set. The 12 by 18 foot flag flew over the Capitol Records building in L.A. in the days leading up to the DVD release last November, and was raised by Ringo Starr in a special rooftop ceremony where he signed a certificate of authenticity.
Video of Ringo raising the flag for Help!

The entire auction lot package featured the special flag, a trip to London, a VIP tour of Abbey Road Studios, and limited editions of the deluxe DVD box set of Help!, a set of 8 lobby card reproductions from the film, and a promo CD from the soundtrack. The eBay auction was managed by Kompolt with charity proceeds going to the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Foundation. Wow, what a great prize package and for a worthy cause indeed.
Ringo is always such a gracious host, especially onstage. He & Dave Stewart …

Ringo Starr & Dave Stewart and band will perform a short set of Ringo’s songs, live at an exclusive event celebrating the release of Ringo’s new Capitol/EMI album, Liverpool 8.
Video with Ringo & Dave
from media.ringostarr.com
Join the free live webcast at ringostarr.com Friday 4:00 pm ET, 1:00 pm PST on Friday, January 25 at Los Angeles’ House Of Blues on Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles’ KLOS 95.5 FM is helping promote Ringo’s new album, Liverpool 8 on CD or USB Wristband at Amoeba Music in Hollywood.
The Imation Flash Wristband holds up to 256 MB of data and can be used on any computer’s USB port. thetechzone.com has a good article with picture.
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I recently read this on whereseric.com/news:
VH1 Classic just began a new television series called “Classic 60 Minutes” featuring never-before-seen footage and interviews. The debut episode put the spotlight on Eric Clapton, and will feature a host of classic rock artists. It’s really great to see one of the so-called music channels actually play music and show the history behind the songs and the artists.

VH1 Classic is also giving us an early preview of Ringo’s new album Liverpool8.
vh1classic.com
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Born in 1942, the former Beatle passed away on this date (November 29th) in 2001. My friend Nellie O’Apple at FansOnTheRun posted a cool YouTube video that’s the perfect tribute to George Harrison, the man and his music.
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is from the Concert For George, at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 2002, a year after Harrison passed away from cancer. Performed by an all-starr cast including Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, featuring Eric Clapton on lead guitar, with Dhani Harrison looking like a very young George on stage.
God Bless You, George. All Things Must Pass into Love & Peace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC1EZcrZEIs

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