Beatle news briefs: Sir Paul gives Halifax Beatles fans a wakeup call

July 2, 10:21 PMBeatles ExaminerSteve Marinucci

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    Paul McCartney (AP/Evan Agostini)

What we posted Thursday:

• Gallery to auction rare Beatle photos by Bob Bonis, Allan Tannenbaum
• Beatle fan makes it his personal crusade to restore gravesite of ex-Beatle Sutcliffe

Beatles fans in Halifax got a pleasant surprise from Paul McCartney Thursday when he phoned local radio station Q104 at 8 a.m. to talk about his upcoming July 11 concert on the Halifax Common and a few other things, reported the Chronicle Herald. He discussed everything from his relationship with Michael Jackson to his surprise guest appearance in concert recently with Neil Young on Young's live cover of "A Day in the Life".

He said he initially turned down the idea of going onstage with Young. "Then Neil came over and said, 'Hey Paul, y’know ...’ So how could I refuse? He and I went out and made fools of ourselves. It was great though, it was a great big buzz," he said. “It’s crazy when you go to something as a member of the audience and suddenly you’re up in front of 60,000 people. But it was great fun to play with him because I admire him a lot.”

He also commented on the Jackson deal incident.  “When I heard it, I thought, 'Well, I don’t think that’s true.' To tell you the truth, I kinda got off that years ago. It was something for a while that I was very keen on — you can see why, naturally — I thought it was a natural with Michael taking over that something would be able to be happening there, but when I realized it wasn’t, I thought, 'Get off it.'  I’m doing well enough anyway, I don’t like those things to just sort of eat you up, y’know.”

Another speculative piece on how the Beatles catalog will affect the settlement of Michael Jackson's estate from USA Today.

Speaking of using the Beatles song catalog, a Budweiser beer ad will feature the song "All Together Now," reports the UK Guardian. You can see it here. Although it's using a Beatle song selling beer, the commercial itself isn't bad.

In a list of "The 20 Greatest Dylan Songs," Paul McCartney commented on #14, "Mr. Tambourine Man." "I know it's corny, but I heard him do it at the Albert Hall [May 9, 1965], and I was aching for him to do it and knowing Dylan I thought he might not do it. It was fantastic. First half is folky, and then the second half was electric with The Band - it was the all-time concert. A really good song, very much of the period. I was lucky to be there." (Thanks to HwyCDRRev.)

Members of "The Beatles: Rock Band" preorder club got to see a new screenshot plus "a few downloadable bonuses," though these weren't described.

We were very sad to hear of the death of British actress Mollie Sugden of the Britcom "Are You Being Served?" at age 86. The show was one of our favorites and we wrote a tribute to her in our TV on DVD Examiner column. (And if you like TV on DVD, please subscribe!) Is there a Beatle connection? In fact, there is. Jeremy Lloyd, one of the writers of the series, was the lanky dancer with Ringo in the disco scene in "A Hard Day's Night," a restaurant patron in "Help!" and Lord Hampton in "The Magic Christian," which starred Ringo Starr.

May Pang's Asian Media News is now live. In a statement, she explained the site was an effort to promote "the new Asian pop culture – the fashion, Anime, graphics, films and, of course, the cutting edge music," which her daughter and her friends were often talking about. She wrote, "I decided the time was right to utilize my Asian heritage and world wide contacts to bring this cultural movement to mainstream America… and create a place where anyone from anywhere can learn, share and embrace this new phenomenon." 

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