Beatle news briefs: McCartney deluxe Fireman set delay; Stella shirts update

February 4, 8:56 PMBeatles ExaminerSteve Marinucci

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  The cover of the Fireman (Paul McCartney) album
   "Electric Arguments." Deluxe editions, scheduled to be 
   shipped Jan. 31, have been delayed.
 

A couple of people have asked about the deluxe Fireman sets and if we'd heard anything about the shipping date, which was originally supposed to be the end of January. Tom Frangione came to the rescue when he passed on this note he received in answer to that question:

"We've received notification from the Paul McCartney / Fireman management team that the stock for Deluxe packages has been slightly delayed. It appears that the merchandise won't begin shipping for another two to three weeks. Apologies for any inconvenience this has caused!"

For anyone in the U.S. interested in ordering those Stella McCartney's Red Nose Day t-shirts we wrote about recently, you'll need to know someone in the UK that can send them to you. They aren't available to be shipped outside the United Kingdom. Here's the answer we received from a spokesman when we contacted them:

 Frances also sent us this note she received on her inquiry:

"Thank you for your enquiry about Red Nose Day 2009 merchandise availability  overseas. While we do have an internationally accessible website, its online shop only retails within the UK. Due to globally differing product testing laws and requirements, we are only dispatching items to UK and BFPO addresses. For inspiration for other ways to get involved and raise money for RND '09, please visit www.rednoseday.com."

He still can't get it right: Roger Friedman of Fox News finally responded to the fact he screwed up the story about Julian Lennon and Sean Lennon playing at the United Nations. But he showed his sources really don't know what's going on. His item ended up by saying it was too bad "the Lennons aren’t doing something for the United Nations." As we told you, the two Lennons aren't, though one of them might.

The schedule for the next three weeks of  Joe Johnson's "Beatle Brunch": Feb. 8, 45th anniversary of the Beatles Invasion (Part 1), Feb. 15 Beatles invasion, part 2 (Miami); Feb. 22, George Harrison birthday show. 

Two pieces of industry news on Wednesday: A performance rights bill was reintroduced in Congress, which would require royalties on radio airplay be paid artists and musicians performing the songs in addition to songwriters, reports Billboard.biz. That's more money for the Beatles. Also on Billboard.biz, Live Nation and Ticketmaster announced a merger. Any future Paul McCartney or Ringo Starr tours could be impacted. Which brings to mind the story of how the AP reported Bruce Springsteen is angry at Ticketmaster for diverting fans to a more expensive option to buy tickets to his shows. Would they try that with McCartney tickets?

This week on the "Beatles Universe" radio show, Kevin Knelman will discuss his new CD "Vintage Beatles" that featured  classical guitar arrangements of Beatle songs.  The show will give away four copies. To enter, send your name and address in an email to aaron@beatlesuniverse.com. Beatles Universe is heard Sundays at 9.00 pm (EST) on 94.9, The Rock (http://www.therock.fm).

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is celebrating the 40th anniversary of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s bed-in in Montreal with an exhibition, "Imagine: The Peace Ballad of John and Yoko" from April 2-June 21. The show will include two installations by Ono, the Wish Tree and Ex it, a group of 100 coffins with a tree coming out of each one. The museum's website is http://www.mmfa.qc.ca.

There's a new Pete Best interview in which he opens up slightly about being sacked by the Beatles in response to Paul McCartney's comments in the Howard Stern interview that the reason that the Beatles replaced him was because "Ringo was in another band, and we just fell in love with his drumming, that's the truth." "What really hurt then, and still hurts now, is that no one had the courage or the decency to tell me what they were plotting. It would have been nice if just once, in these last 47 years, Sir Paul had picked up a phone to make that call and explain it as that, just as one old mate to another," Best tells Click Liverpool. 

The man who was forced to pull the Beatles from Cuban airwaves in the 1970s even though he was a fan himself has died at age 76, reports MSNBC. Jorge "Papito" Serguera said he was following orders given from above because the Beatles were viewed as a threat to the revolution. Ironically, Serguera, who was president of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television at the time, admitted he enjoyed listening to the Beatles in private.

The Beatles Revolution Lounge at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas is holding a charity "tweet-in" Feb. 12 for users of Twitter, reports the Las Vegas Sun. So will they pay to do something they can do free at home?

Some nice shots of Abbey Road then and now in this page.

A silent film of the Beatles in Scotland failed to sell Tuesday in the UK, reports the BBC. "We are all shocked and stunned. We have no idea why the film did not sell," a spokesman for Cameo Auctioneers, which was selling the film, said. "We have always sold things like this in the past and they have sold really well. For some reason today we did not get the interest we expected, despite the fact that this is a really unique and unusual piece." The BBC said the item had a high guide price.

In case you didn't see it, we did a special exclusive interview with Mary Hopkin that we posted Tuesday.

We also posted some rare clips of Beatle versions of Buddy Holly songs, along with one by Buddy himself.

A Julian Lennon painting of a nude woman is being auctioned on eBay.

Heather Mills has forced several British tabloids to they've printed false stories they've printed about her and apologize, reports the UK Guardian. Among the stories: Mills had breast enlargement surgery and daughter Beatrice was to sing on the soundtrack of the next "Shrek" film. For whatever you think about Heather Mills, it's good that someone stood up to these guys.