Beatle news briefs: McCartney's busy weekend

  The cover of "McCartney," released on April 17, 1970.

It's going to be a busy few days for Paul McCartney. Tonight is the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio. As we mentioned in our last news briefs, the show will be webcast at http://music.att.net. His set is scheduled to begin at 10 p.m. PDT. And if you don't mind a possible spoiler for the set, check out this column from early Friday. Yes, there's mention of Fireman songs. (And if you attend Coachella tonight, please send us a set list and a report.)

Sunday is the New Joint Hard Rock Hotel show in Las Vegas. Is this show a sign of the future for Sir Paul? Could a Hard Rock or a Vegas residency be in Paul's future? We queried Paul's press rep on the word that other Hard Rock gigs are in the offing for Paul and were told "sounds like a rumour." Santana just signed a long residency at the Hard Rock. Elton John and Celine Dion have done it. It would give some stability to his life, especially in regard to Bea. (And, additionally, people get married in Las Vegas all the time.)

If you're waiting for the deluxe Fireman package, you're apparently going to have to wait a little longer. Those who have ordered it tell us it's been delayed yet again.

Two major events in the life of Paul McCartney occurred on April 17. In 1970, the "McCartney" album was released in the UK. And in 1998, Linda McCartney died. It'll be interesting if Paul does a tribute to her at Coachella tonight.

There were over 120 signatures last we looked on our petition to get Ringo his own Hollywood star. You can see our story about it here.

Frank C. Branchini tells us the Grateful Dead's April 14th show in Washington featured a cover of "Come Together."

We have a big interest in books that compile past writings about the Beatles. There's a new one coming April 23 in the UK and June 8 in the U.S. called "The Mammoth Book Of The Beatles," available in the U.S. through Amazon.com,  in the UK through Amazon.co.uk and in Canada through Amazon.ca. It’s a 600-page collection of writing both old and new, praising and critical, of the Fab Four. It features articles by Maureen Cleave (the "Beatles are bigger than Jesus" article), Charlie Gillett, William Mann, Hunter Davies, Lester Bangs, Kenneth Tynan and Paul Gambaccini, among others. It also features interviews with George Martin and Glyn Johns from the long out-of-print book "The Record Producers," ‘an extract from Mitch Axelrod’s book about the Beatles cartoon series and a previously unpublished interview with Mersey Beat's Bill Harry. We'll take a closer look at it in the future, but it sounds like a good addition to your library. 

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