April 28, 1974, New York City. It was an unseasonably warm Sunday (as it is today, here). It was warm enough to wear my new Capitol Records 10th Anniversary Beatles T-Shirt to Central Park to see John Lennon and Harry Nilsson talk for about 15 minutes on the main stage to support the March of Dimes Walkathon. 100,000 people were there and it was the shirt that led me directly to John (The pretty full story has been told previously). That was the day I met with John and told him my idea of a Beatles Fan’s Celebration. He got all excited about it and I will never, ever forget his exact words. John said, “I’m all for it. I’m a Beatles Fan, too!” With that one 15 minute meeting, my germ of an idea started to take definite shape. I think he liked the fact that I was a true fan (who also happened to work in a record store) and not some big corporation person. A little more than 4 months later, the first Fest was held at the old Commodore Hotel in NYC and over 8,000 fans were in attendance. John, true to his word, donated a signed guitar of his for the Charity Raffle. He wanted to come down and pick the winner in person, but on that day decided to go out of town. We even had a microphone for him set up in the balcony, with a path in through the kitchen. We didn’t tell a soul about it, but we were ready! I wish he had the chance to see it, but I did get to tell him all about it, in person, a little later that year. The convention was the cover story of Rolling Stone in their 10/24/74 issue, with the heading “Strange Rumblings in Pepperland”. The cover had a Beatles Lunch Box on it and the story was written by Joel Siegel. It has been a truly amazing 35 years and I feel privileged to be able to present the FESTs still in 2009! It is quite clear now that The Beatles music will live forever and the pure joy of The Beatles has been successfully passed

For the first time on U.S. soil since August 29, 1966, Paul and Ringo performed together this past Saturday night, April 4th, at the David Lynch Foundation Benefit Concert at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. It was great to see so many FEST regulars at this historic event and we weren’t disappointed. The evening had many great musical highlights but for Beatles Fans, it was the last hour that was magical. Ringo came out and performed It Don’t Come Easy, Boys and Yellow Submarine (with Sheryl Crow and Eddie Vedder giddily singing background vocals). It was a great moment. Then, after resetting the stage, Paul and his band amazed the totally sold out audience with Drive My Car, Jet, Got to Get You Into My Life, Let It Be, Lady Madonna, Blackbird, Here Today, Band on the Run, and Can’t Buy Me Love. Paul then introduces “Billy Shears” and the place exploded as Ringo came running on the stage to sing With A Little Help From My Friends. Paul sang the harmonies and response lines in THE SAME MICROPHONE! After the song they had their arms around each other and had an exuberant glow about them. Most fans, including myself, were teary eyed at this moment. Then Ringo hopped on the drums for an appropriate song for the evening. It was a benefit with a goal of teaching 1 million children transcendental meditation. Paul said he wrote the song while in India in 1968 and performed Cosmically Conscious (from 1993’s Off the Ground CD) with most of the evening’s ensemble. The grand finale was I Saw Her Standing There with everybody joining in. What an unforgettable and historic evening! Other unannounced guests included Jerry Seinfeld, Howard Stern and Mike Love. Donovan was the catalyst who helped organize this event, and it was also wonderful seeing him again. Look for a probable TV special and a DVD of the event later this year.

What an amazing weekend it was! We hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed presenting it to you. The musical lineup was truly special. Liverpool was never better and their sets brought the house down, especially Side One of Abbey Road on Saturday. Oh Darling and I Want You were particularly breathtaking. This was followed by Earl Slick, who joined for Nobody Told Me and I’m Losing You, two of John’s songs that Earl was the original guitarist on. Greg Hawkes of The Cars (who performed super showcases earlier for his Beatles UKE CD), came on and with Uke in hand did the Paul McCartney version of Something. Then did The Cars My Best Friend’s Girl. Neil Innes was next up with a beautiful rendition of Beware of Darkness and then did Imitation Song, a song he wrote just for the occasion. And if that was enough, Ronnie Spector, the first Rock and Roll Hall of Famer to ever grace our stage, lept on to the stage and belted out Baby I Love You, followed by Try Some Buy Some, the song that George wrote for her and released on Apple Records, and finished with her signature Be My Baby, one of the all time greats. It was a special moment and everyone was singing along. It was a tough act to follow, but Mark Hudson led the jam that included brother Brett, Earl and Greg, and when Hey Jude finally came around, it was almost 12:30AM. The room was packed, energy level off the charts and a splendid time was had by all! Also, Victor Spinetti mesmerized all, on stage in the afternoons with his stories about his antics with the Beatles. Fans were lined up to buy his autobiography. We sold out of the paperback edition, but we have a small quantity of the first edition Hard Cover, which he graciously signed for us. Click Here – #6081 if you want one of these copies. Congratulations to Blueberry Acres, who won Sunday’s Battle of the Beatles Bands. If you go to our Facebook site, you can see photos from the FEST from us and from attendees. We are sure we will see many fans tonight at Radio City Music Hall, where Paul & Ringo join Donovan and others for the David Lynch Foundation. Can’t wait! Please say hi if you spot us.