We have noticed the dates for next summer’s Chicago FEST were nowhere to be found on our site. We will fix that in the next few days. In the meantime, the dates are August 9-11, 2013. We did announce the dates in the Program book from this year’s FEST, and it will be in the new Holiday Catalogue, being mailed out by tomorrow. Look for them in your mail box by next week.

We thank all of you for your thoughts and concern after last week’s Hurricane Sandy. We were lucky. We did not lose power but did lose phones and internet access. Very eerie.

Today is Election Day and we urge all to get out and vote. It is our obligation and our right as citizens. “Power to the People” as John sang about. Today, we have the power and we are the people!!

October 12th: Apple and Capitol Records has announced the release of The Beatles Love Me Do/P.S. I Love You on Vinyl to honour the 50th Anniversary of the original release, October 5, 1962. The revised date is now October 22nd. We are completely sold out of our allotment at this time. Everyone who ordered from us will receive their copies in about two weeks. If we are able to obtain any more, we will make an announcement and put it up again in our webstore.

Today, John Lennon would have turned 72 years old. Although he didn’t make it to the age where he could actually have Yoko “Grow Old With Me”, we are still left with his enormous legacy of music, art, poetry, peace and love. If you are a facebook person, change your photo to John’s for the day. Fans all around the world are doing it. If you live in the New York area, today is the last day of The Art Work of John Lennon Exhibit at 130 Prince Street. Please check out our facebook page today as we have many things about John on this special day.

Listen to John’s music today. It is a reminder (not that we need one) of why we love him so much. The music will bring a smile to your face and, yes, occasionally a tear to your eyes. John’s spirit lives on in all of us. Happy Birthday, John, wherever you are!

Yoko is again lighting the light for the John Lennon Memorial in Iceland today. Check it out  http://imaginepeacetower.com/

Peace and Love…

50 Years ago today in the U.K., Parlophone released The Beatles first single, Love Me Do/P.S. I Love You. It was this version that had Ringo on the drums and it made it up to Number 17 on the national charts in the UK. Cosmic seismic meters took a hit that day, but it was nothing compared to what was going to happen over the next 7 1/2 years as The Beatles turn out 13 albums and over 200 songs that will be listened to for centuries to come. Their impact can never be overstated.

A commemorative Vinyl Single with the original UK sleeve was scheduled to be released by Capitol Records today, but they have informed us that manufacturing issues has pushed back the release a couple of weeks. As soon as we get an exact expected date, we will post it. The edition is fully allocated and we can not get any more than what we have pre-ordered. We only have a very small amount of these that have not been pre-orderd already.

We apologize for our site being down at this time for maintenance, but you may call in your order for this single or anything else by calling during east coast business hours, Toll Free – 1-866-THE FEST.

Scrabble® – The Beatles Edition is now in stock and so are the new Editions of Magical Mystery Tour (DVD, BLU RAY & 10″ BOX SET). Music Skins for the iPhone 5 will be in stock in a couple of weeks -8 Beatles Styles and 4 John Styles.

The Beatles filmed Magical Mystery Tour 45 years ago, in September, 1967. It was a made for TV film, shown in the U.K. and had a short run here on college campuses in 1968, but has never had a theatrical release until today, Tuesday, October 2nd. Most theatres are showing the film tonight at 7:30PM, but there are places showing it at other times over the next week. CLICK HERE to see where it is playing in your area. The films was certainly avant garde and ahead of its time, but as Paul recently said, any film that includes I Am The Walrus must be worthy. The film also features the late great Victor Spinetti (a special guest at many FESTS over the years) and fab guest, Neil Innes  (The Rutles) makes a musical appearance as well. It is not too late to make plans with your Beatles friends and family to have the chance to see it on a large screen with other fellow Beatles fans. It should be quite an experience. If you live in the New York are, we (Mark, Carol, Michelle and Jessica) are going to the Chelsea Cinema on West 23rd St, NYC. Consider this “An Invitation To Make A Reservation” for tonight. We do recommend getting tickets ahead of time, as we did. We do not know how many tickets are pre sold. Hope to see many of you later. The reason for the Theatrical showings is to herald the DVD and (for the first time)BluRay Editions, set for release on October 9th. There is also a Deluxe Edition Box Set that has lots of extras. You can pre order these this week. We expect to start shipping this Friday so you can receive them on or close to its release date.

October 1, 2012: On the exact 43rd anniversary of the U.S. Release of Abbey Road (10/1/1969), we receive the much anticipated Beatles Edition of Scrabble®. The fulfillment has begun and we hope to have almost all of the pre orders sent out by midweek. This is one of the games (like Beatles Monopoly and Beatles Trivial Pursuit) that fans are going to want to own. We have plenty in stock, so if you haven’t ordered one yet, what are you waiting for?? For all of you who are getting them, please let us know what you think of it, once ou have had a chance to play the game.

First Pre-Sale pirces for Paul’s BRAND NEW Video release ends tomorrow, Sept 28, 2012. It is being released on DVD (#2257)and BluRay (#1121) with a 40 Page Hard Cover Book included. The DVD is ONLY $25.00 and the BLURAY is ONLY $30.00.

Here are the details

“Live Kisses” captures Paul McCartney performing the songs from his critically acclaimed “Kisses On The Bottom” album live from the legendary Capitol Studios in Hollywood. Paul is joined by a virtuoso group of musicians led by Diana Krall on the piano in these sparkling renditions of classic songs from the American songbook and the wonderful new song “My Valentine”. In between the songs there are interview clips with Paul, Diana Krall and many of those involved in the recording of the “Kisses On The Bottom” album. This is an intimate and charming performance which adds yet another facet to Paul’s already broad canvas of talents. The live concert was recorded on February 9th, the exact 48th Anniversary of The Beatles First Ed Sullivan Show appearance.

What makes this Live album so unique is that Paul is not playing any instruments. He is totally focused on the vocals, much as the original singers would have sung these songs all those years ago.

Bonus Features

All six versions of the video for “My Valentine” featuring Natalie Portman & Johnny Depp plus a “behind the scenes” featurette, all Produced by Paul.

Interview with Paul and producer Tony LiPuma on the making of the “Kisses On The Bottom” album.

Kisses On The Bottom photoshoot versions 1 and 2.

Both versions of Live Kisses come with a 40 page Hard Cover Book with photos from the sessions and rehearsals.

Track Listing

1) I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter   2) Home (When Shadows Fall)   3) It’s Only A Paper Moon   4) The Glory Of Love   5) More I Cannot Wish You   6) We Three (My Echo, My Shadow And Me)   7) Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive   8) My Valentine   9) Always   10) My Very Good Friend The Milkman   11) Bye Bye Blackbird   12) Get Yourself Another Fool   13) My One And Only Love

Produced By George Martin DVD & Blue Ray is being released today. Over the weekend we had a very special offer, picking 6 names, at random, from those of you who pre-ordered it through THE FEST. The response was huge and winners have been picked. The winners of the DVD are  Frank Walker, Irene Hinz & Claudia Upton. The Blu Ray winners are Bill Olson, Charles Tyrrell & Paul Ryan. Two of the winners are from New York, one from New Jersey, one from Illinois and two from Washington State. We truly thank all of you who pre-ordered this wonderful new film from THE FEST FOR BEATLES FANS. Your orders will be going out shortly. If you have not ordered it yet, it is only $15.00 for the DVD and $22.50 for the Blu Ray. With the bonus features, it is over 2 1/4 hours.

Saturday, September 7, 1974: I know have told this story before, but some stories are worth repeating. I was just a 26 year old manager at a Sam Goody Music store in NYC and came up with this crazy idea 10 months earlier to gather Beatles fans at a hotel to celebrate a common love for The Beatles on the 10th anniversary of their arrival in America. After months of spending every spare minute trying to get it organized, the day had finally arrived! And I was a nervous wreck. My mind was racing over capacity. What did I forget? How was it going to turn out? Could we fit everyone in the old Commodore Hotel on 42nd St, NYC? About an hour before the doors opened, Tony King, the VP of Apple in the US come up to my suite and brought me the signed instruments for the Charity Raffle, along with other items to auction. All of this is documented in the 10/24/74 cover story of Rolling Stone Magazine!! He then proceeded to give me 7 signed copies of John Lennon’s books, 6 to auction off for charity and one he personalized for me “To Mark, With Love, John Lennon, September Beatlefest, 1974, with sketches on the page. It is my most cherished item in my collection. Tony then told me that John wanted to come down to pick the winner of his guitar. I was so overwhelmed that somehow a calm come over me at that moment and I began to get ready to go downstairs. When I got to the ballroom, about 10 minutes after the opening, I looked out from the balcony and the room was completely full of Beatles fans! It is a moment I will never forget. These fans were all here because of me and my idea, and of course, The Beatles. Only a couple of people were told of John’s surprise and we had figured out his walk through the kitchen up to the balcony where we had set up a mike just for this purpose. Nobody could know or pandemonium would happen. Our MCs were Murry the K and Jim Kerr. Jim kept teasing the audience with rumors that he heard about John being in the building on that first day. We wouldn’t dare tell our MCs about what was to happen on the Sunday night! Unfortunately, John headed up to his farm in upstate NY instead of joining us, but the fans knew that this entire event would not have happened if John didn’t personally give me the go ahead. I did get to personally thank John and tell him about the convention a short while afterwards. There is no way I could have foreseen that 38 years and 117 National FESTS later, we would still be going strong, presenting a vast majority of friends and family of The Beatles and their amazing story.

Shown above is the actual Cover of Rolling Stone.

46 years ago today, August 29, 1966,  The Beatles played at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park. It turned out to be their last scheduled concert. The writing was on the wall. They had just released Revolver earlier in the month but chose not to perform any songs from it. They could still not hear themselves perform and it was cramping their creativity. They decided the studio was the place to enhance their musical ideas. It was actually George who told the others on that tour that he didn’t want to tour anymore. Fans had no idea at the time that those at the concert would be the last ones to see them in concert. If you were at that concert, we would love to hear your thoughts and memories of the evening.