R.I.P John

Today marks the 31st anniversary of John Lennon's death. His music, words and influence are still a major part in our world. John will always be an inspiration to his fans. Quoting famously from John's song Imagine....

"You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one."


We miss you John...Rest in Peace


The Beatles Blogger

Houston Beatles fan pays over $485,000 for George Harrison's Aston Martin

By NBC News

LONDON -- An Aston Martin once owned by George Harrison sold for $485,000 (310,000 pounds) at auction Wednesday, according to NBC News, citing British Press Association reports.

Facundo Arrizabalaga/AFP - Getty Images

An auction staff member polishes an Aston Martin DB5 that belonged to the late Beatle George Harrison. The car fetched over $480,000 at the Coys' True Greats Auciton on Wednesday at the Royal Horticultural Hall in London.

The former Beatle ordered the platinum silver DB5, which had a black Connolly leather interior, in 1965.
He packed the car with top-of-the-range extras, including chrome wire wheels with Avon tires, a heated rear windscreen, a radio and Britax safety belts.
Harrison's former wife, model Pattie Boyd, was recently photographed with the car when it was shown at the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel in London.
It was sold to a Beatle and Aston Martin fan from Houston, Texas, who wished to remain anonymous.
The lot was part of auctioneer Coys' True Greats Auction at the Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminster, central London.
Auctioneers said the car had just over 22,000 miles, ran well and showed no sign of "major mechanical maladies."
Chris Routledge, managing director of Coys, said: "There was a battle royal for this car which went for some 50,000 pounds ($78,000) over its estimate."
The sale price does not include a 15 percent buyer's premium.

Paul McCartney: 'I felt sick the first time the Beatles played Wembley'

Paul McCartney has spoken about his history of pre-gig nerves, revealing that he felt like quitting playing live as he was so nervous before The Beatles performed at Wembley Arena.

McCartney is currently in the middle of a European arena tour and also said that he still feels like he has to win some of the crowds over.

Speaking about his record of pre-show nerves, he told the Daily Mirror: "The first time we ever played – pre-Beatles – I screwed up. So I never played lead guitar again. When the Beatles did Wembley (Arena, then known as the Empire Pool) for the first time (in 1963), I felt sick. I thought, 'I’ve got to give this up.'"

McCartney added that even now he encounters crowd members who are "just standing there", but added: "We always manage to get them back in the end."

The singer also spoke a recurring nightmare he still has about where he is performing with The Beatles and people start walking out of his gigs.

He said of this: "I'm with The Beatles and it’s going great, then people start leaving. I turn to the others and go, 'Oh God! 'Long Tall Sally' – that’ll get them back'".

McCartney plays the first of three UK arena shows he has booked for this month tonight (December 5). He appears at London's O2 Arena tonight, at Manchester's Evening News Arena on December 19 and plays a homecoming show in Liverpool at the Echo Arena on December 20.

Check NME.COM tomorrow (December 6) for a full report of tonight's gig at London's O2 Arena.

Secret Beatles Ticket fetches $7,278 Selling on eBay

Nov 29,2011 - WhatSellsBest.com, a website tracking rare items sold on eBay, is reporting an early Beatles rehearsal ticket recently sold for $7,278. But a secret related to the tickets printing, could keep others (owning the same ticket) from ever discovering it's value.

The Ticket was distributed by CBS for a Beatles rehearsal prior to their second performance on their first trip to America, for The Ed Sullivan Show in Miami, Florida. (Deauville Hotel, February 16, 1964)

The seller's eBay listing states; "This ticket is for their afternoon rehearsal show at 2:30 pm. there were only a few hundred fans (and tickets) for this show and today, the ticket stubs are among the rarest of all beatles concert tickets in existence."

The secret related to the tickets printing is... 'The Beatles' name was never mentioned anywhere on the ticket itself. Only the location, date, and the ticket's specific use for, 'rehearsal only' are mentioned.

Meaning anyone who may have acquired a ticket second-hand, without knowledge of its historical significance, may never discover it was a Beatles ticket, or that it has a potentially high value.

To see more about the Ticket, and other rare Beatles items selling on eBay. Visit: WhatSellsBest.com

Recognized media outlets interested in discussing this press release in detail are encouraged to contact James Massey by email at; james@whatsellsbest.com or, by telephone at 1-206-497-2263.

About WhatSellsBest.com

WhatSellsBest.com is a free website which has integrated with eBay to allow visitors to actively view and track the top selling eBay items (by highest prices bid, or sold) in nearly 200 unique categories. The website also reports on trends and sales of rare (high-value) collectibles being sold worldwide.

For more information contact:

James Massey,
WhatSellsBest.com
james@whatsellsbest.com
1-206-497-2263

-----story from:  News-Antiques.com

Rediscovered Beatles Amp Expected to Fetch $100,000

An amplifier used by George Harrison during the recording of Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is expected to fetch between $80,000 and $110,000 when it goes on the auction block next month. As reported by Reuters, the rare Vox UL730 amp and cabinet was only recently discovered to have a Beatles connection, when an engineer repairing the amp noticed that Harrison’s name was etched on the chassis.
Subsequent research confirmed that Harrison indeed had owned the amp, and that he had used it on two of The Beatles’ most important albums. “Very few amps used by The Beatles have come to auction before, and to find one that was used on two such significant albums is truly rare and exciting,” said Stephen Maycock, a consultant to Bonhams, the company conducting the auction. The sale will take place in London December 15.

---russell hall
    gibson.com

Sorry for not posting

Hey Guys, Sorry I haven't been posting lately. I got so busy and totally forgot about my blog!! I do maintain the website and the facebook page daily and for some reason this blog just slips my mind! Hey we all make mistakes :) ....Anyway, Keep reading , follow and comment. I would love to hear from all of you.

Goo Goo G'Joob,
The Beatles Blogger

Paul McCartney weds in nostalgia-filled ceremony

LONDON — A hint of autumnal Beatlemania was in the air today as Paul McCartney, for the second time in his improbable life, climbed the steps of venerable Old Marylebone Town Hall to take himself a bride.
True, thousands of heartbroken female fans crowded the columned building in 1969 when he married Linda Eastman, and only a few hundred showed up today as he wed another American, Nancy Shevell, at the very same registry office.
But the feeling this time was not regret at the loss of a bachelor heartthrob. Instead there was joy that McCartney, regarded as a national treasure and revered the world over, seemed happy again.
The 69-year-old former Beatle appeared proud, content and eager to share his joy with the crowd, raising his bride's hand in triumph as he walked down the steps after they became man and wife in a simple civil ceremony attended by close family and friends, including drummer Ringo Starr and Barbara Walters, a second cousin of the bride.
"I feel absolutely wonderful," McCartney told fans as he arrived at his home after the ceremony. He was expected to sing a new song he had composed for his bride at the reception.
Gone was the memory of McCartney's terribly unhappy marriage to Heather Mills, which ended in 2008 in an ugly public divorce. Remembered was his marriage to Eastman, a serene union that lasted nearly three decades until her life was cut short by breast cancer, leaving McCartney alone and adrift despite his fame and wealth.
The ceremony this afternoon was everything his wedding to Mills was not: simple, understated, almost matter of fact. By contrast, McCartney and Mills married in an over-the-top lavish spectacle at a remote Irish castle that was disrupted several times by news helicopters flying overhead, hoping for a glimpse of the A-list guests.
This time, the smiles seemed genuine.
The affection — and rose petals and confetti — showered on McCartney and his bride captured his particular place in British life.
Long gone are the days when the Beatles divided Britain between young and old, or between hippies and straights. The band is revered as part of a glorious musical and cultural era when Britain seemed a more confident place. There was no controversy whatsoever when McCartney received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 1997.
Today Sir Paul — or Macca, as he's usually known — is celebrated as a musical legend who is still composing and releasing CDs, even if they no longer routinely shoot to No. 1 on the charts. His forays into opera, ballet, painting and poetry have not been critical successes, but none of these have tarnished his reputation.
Shevell, 51, appeared radiant and composed in an elegant, ivory gown cut just above the knee. She wore a white flower in her long dark hair, and only light makeup and lipstick.
The dress was designed by McCartney's daughter, Stella, a star in the fashion world who also helped concoct the three-course vegetarian feast served to guests at the reception at McCartney's home in St. John's Wood, a property he bought in 1965, when the Beatles were topping the charts with metronomic regularity.
McCartney, who has long admitted to tinting his hair to keep out the gray, looked youthful in a well-cut blue suit and pale blue, skinny tie.
The couple married on what would have been band mate John Lennon's 71st birthday. Some guests speculated that Lennon would have been among the guests had he lived, with the rift between them having healed.
The wedding party included Beatrice, McCartney's young daughter with Mills, who had been expected to serve as flower girl.
McCartney is credited for having survived a number of tragedies — the 1980 murder of one-time songwriting partner Lennon, the loss of his beloved first wife Linda, the 2001 death of guitarist George Harrison and the public breakdown of his marriage to Mills — with his upbeat nature intact.
Mills, a much younger model who had lost part of her leg when she was hit by a motorcycle, tried to battle McCartney in the court of public opinion during their divorce. She accused him of cruelty and sought a gargantuan $250 million settlement.
But her charges against McCartney didn't stick. Few if any fans turned against him, and the divorce court judge ruled against her, calling her demands exorbitant and unfair.
The very public spat opened McCartney's vast fortune to unprecedented public scrutiny. Long rumored to be pop's first billionaire, he was found to have assets worth about $800 million, including works by Picasso and Renoir and luxury real estate in the United States, Britain and elsewhere.
His wealth reflects in part his incredible global popularity — in recent years he has filled stadiums from Rio to Russia, producing tens of millions of dollar of revenue with each tour.
Shevell, who is independently wealthy and quite successful in her own right, is not seen by the British public as being interested in McCartney's fortune.
The couple met four years ago in the Hamptons, a seaside playground for the rich and famous on the eastern tip of Long Island in New York.
Some reports say that Walters played matchmaker, inviting McCartney to a dinner she knew her second cousin Shevell would attend.
Walters said she cried during the ceremony, which she called "beautiful and wonderful."
Shevell, who was married for more than 20 years to attorney Bruce Blakeman and serves on the board of New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, is also a vice president of a lucrative New Jersey-based trucking company owned by her father.
She has stayed out of the public eye since taking up with McCartney, refraining from commenting on her relationship with the man once known as "the cute one" in the world's most popular band.
She has a few things in common with Eastman: like McCartney's first wife, she is American and affluent.
Unlike Eastman, who performed with McCartney's post-Beatles band Wings, Shevell is not expected to join her husband onstage on his extended world tours.
She joins a pantheon of "Beatle wives" — each band member married more than once, and many of the unions were troubled.
Lennon abruptly left his first wife for Yoko Ono, and Cynthia Lennon has complained in print about his abusive treatment of her and his neglect of their son, Julian.
His relationship with Ono was punctuated with occasional breakups, but is often portrayed as a happy marriage, and since his death she has curated his works and burnished his legend.
Starr's first marriage also ended in divorce, but he has had a long, stable union with his second wife, the actress Barbara Bach, who joined him at Sunday's ceremony.
The two even went through a recovery program together when Starr decided to confront his alcoholism.
Harrison's first marriage — to the model Pattie Boyd — ended in divorce when she left him for guitarist Eric Clapton. He had a long happy marriage to Olivia Harrison, who plays an important role in the recently released Martin Scorsese film about Harrison.
If the mood today is any indication, the man responsible for classics like "Penny Lane" and the angst-ridden "Eleanor Rigby" may find pleasure and contentment in the years ahead. That's certainly what his fans are hoping.
 ---freep.com