City leaders in Benton, Ill., where George Harrison took a brief pre-"Ed Sullivan Show" vacation in 1963, have voted not to fund a Beatles-themed mural in the community.
California rtist John Cerney planned to paint the 16-foot mural in a piece of city-owned property near Interstate 57 and asked the city to pay him $2,000 for travel and motel costs while he was in Benton.
Most City Council members weren't crazy about the idea:
"What is that going to benefit the city?" questioned Commissioner
Donnie Wyant after city attorney Tom Malkovich reported he and Gartner
contacted the artist to confirm Cerney's intentions.
"We're kind of hoping they (visitors) would want to stop and
get a picture of the mural and spend some time and dollars in our
communities, whether it be our restaurants or antique shops,"
Commissioner Dennis Miller said.
"The Beatles don't enthuse me at all, so I'm going to vote no," Wyant said.
"I'd rather put that money toward a police officer," said Police and Fire Commissioner Donald Storey.
Harrison's sister, Louise, lived in Benton with her family when George and his brother Pete visited the community in September 1963.
While in town, George bought a new Rickenbacker guitar; accompanied the family on a camping trip; sat in with a local group, the Four Vests, at the VFW hall; did a radio interview, and bought some records including James Ray's "Got My Mind Set on You," which he covered years later.
A "psychedelic eye" mosaic that once graced the bottom of John Lennon's swimming pool has been restored and will be displayed in an upcoming museum display in London, the Kenwood blog reports.
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Barry Tashian of Barry and the Remains recalls touring with the Beatles in 1966.
“I remember after the Toronto show, I went to George Harrison’s room and
hung out with him for a while,” Tashian said. “I saw my first-ever
cassette player that night; he played me Ravi Shankar. I also left my
sunglasses in his room, and we got up early the next day, and I saw The
Beatles arriving at the gig. I noticed that George was walking up the
steps into the plane and came up the aisle, and he had on two pairs of
sunglasses. I thought, ‘Wow, cool, he wore my sunglasses.’”
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Gerald “Gabe” McCarty, who jammed with George Harrison in Benton, Ill., four months before the Beatles' American debut on the "Ed Sullivan Show" died July 3 at age 83.
Harrison was visiting his sister, Louise, who lived in Benton and ended up sitting in with McCarty's band, the Four Vests, while visiting the local VFW outpost.
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The former Pigman Ranch in Missouri, where the Beatles spent a couple days relaxing during their 1964 U.S. tour is auctioning off a few items of Fab-related memorabilia ahead of the site becoming a state park.
Items for sale include household furniture and appliances in place when
the Beatles visited the property for three days in September 1964: an
antique fridge, antique chairs, original windows from the main house, an
old green lamp, a yard swing, an old lantern, old doors, and occasional
chairs.
The ranch was owned by the pilot of the Beatles' private plane for the tour, Reed Pigman. Several photos of the Beatles at the ranch ended up on the back cover of the band's Rubber Soul LP.
Pigman, meanwhile, suffered a cardiac event and crashed his plane in 1966. He and 82 of 98 other people on board the flight died as a result of the accident
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Love, Love, Love: Various members of the Beatles clan are in Las Vegas this weekend celebrating the 10th anniversary - and re-vamping with new music and production pieces - of the "Beatles Love" show by Cirque de Soleil. Lots of media coverage, as you might expect, including this Guardian interview with Giles Martin, who created the mash-up music for the show with his late father, Beatles producer George Martin and two pieces from Variety: One on the show's makeover and another on the cast members.
Meanwhile, Sean Lennon tweeted this to prove he'd arrived in Sin City for the show.
Paul McCartney posed with Pennsylvania Highway Patrol officers during his tour stop in Philadelphia this week.
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Roag Best, Pete's step-brother and son of Beatles assistant Neil Aspinall, told Beatles News Insider he's starting a new Beatles history museum in Liverpool.
"We bought
a four-story building on Mathew Street between the Cavern Club and the
Hard Day's Night Hotel," he said. The building faces the Cavern Club "so
our position I think is pretty wonderful."
...The building will have displays of Beatles history going up through 1970
with memorabilia he inherited from his mother, Mona Best ("who was a
hoarder") and from his father, Neil Aspinall (whose link to the Beatles
should be known to anyone reading this) and stuff he has collected
himself over a 30-year span. (Pete is not involved.)
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An Australian man who pelted the Beatles with eggs when they visited that nation in 1964 is now a politician - and an eccentric one at that:
Mr Katter, a champion of Queensland farmers, has some unconventional
views. He once claimed there were no homosexuals among his voters,
promising to walk “backwards from Bourke to Brisbane” if any could be
found.
He has called for the culling of bats because they carry so many
diseases that they amount to the “greatest possible danger to human
life”.
