June 1st: Paul McCartney was given the Gershwin Award and performed at the White House with a host of other musicians including Stevie Wonder and Elvis Costello. President Obama made the presentation. Among other songs, Paul sang Michelle directly to the First Lady. There were only 200 invited guests and  three of them are FEST friends. Our Chicago FEST MC Terri Hemmert and her sister Julie, along with Broadcaster and Beatles writer Larry Kane. The photo shows Paul with our friends. Clieck HERE to read Larry’s review of the special evening. There will be a PBS Special on July 28th on this celebration.

As of just past midnight, Saturday, May 15th, all details and tickets are now available for our 34th Annual Chicago FEST FOR BEATLES FANS, August 13-15. The line up of Special Guests is one of our best, ever! Hope you can join us.

April 28, 1974. It was a warm sunny Sunday enabling me to wear Capitol’s 10th Anniversary promotional Beatles shirt that led me to John Lennon’s door, the day John, and Harry Nilsson appeared Live in Central Park to support the first March of Dimes event. That day is still so clear in my memory – certainly the most important non family event day of my life. 36 years later THE FEST is still going strong, all from this one acorn of an idea I had. Thanks, John. Read More.

Last month at the Crowne Plaza Meadowlands Hotel (just outside New York City) was our 36th N.Y. Metro area convention – and it was another successful and high spirited FEST. A record number of Special Guests appeared, all with great Beatles stories to share. We were streaming live and over 1,000 of you watched the events on the main stage (listenonline.net)

Our musical guests included two members of Wings – Denny Laine and Denny Seiwell; British Invasion stars Spencer Davis and Billy J. Kramer; American star Chris Montez; and two of the three Hudson Brothers – Mark Hudson & Brett Hudson.  (Brett gave us a pre-release exclusive look at his new film, The Chris Montez Story). All our guests shared great Beatles anecdotes during the day – and rocked by night – backed by our longtime Beatles band Liverpool, who amazed the jammed packed ballroom and featured their performance of the entire Let It Be Album. As well as performing individual sets, Mark Hudson assembled all the musical guests on stage for hard-rocking finale jams on both Saturday & Sunday night. Liberty DeVito, a surprise musical guest, came on for Billy J. Kramer’s set and stayed for the jam. Liberty is one of the top Rock Drummers in the world, having been Billy Joel’s drummer for decades!

Other Special Guests included the legendary Andrew Loog Oldham who related stories about his time as the Beatles’ publicist in 1963 and how as manager/producer for the Rolling Stones he hooked up the two bands.  Chris O’Dell talked about her similar career trajectory of working first for the Beatles (at Apple) and then for The Stones.  We also heard from legendary promoter Sid Bernstein, photographer Allan Tannenbaum, authors Andy Babiuk, Bruce Spizer, Kristofer Engelhardt, Jon Polk, Jude Southerland Kessler, Judith Kristen and many others.  Among the many highlights was Sunday’s Musicians’ Forum in which emcee Martin Lewis and guest Andrew Oldham engaged our seven musician guests in discussion about the myriad musical styles that influenced the Fabs – illustrated by impromptu jams on songs that inspired John, Paul, George & Ringo. Attendees also enjoyed many other sessions hosted by Martin and co-MC Q104.3 deejay Ken Dashow.

More young fans attended this year than ever before and there were plenty of activities to excite them – The Beatles Rock Band Demo, daily Beatles Puppet Shows with Bob Abdou, Sing-Alongs with Karaoke Karen, Beatles Recording Studio, Art Contest, and special Trivia Competitions. And of course, there were plenty of singalongs around the hotel.

Fifteen bands competed in the Battle of the Beatles bands – with the winners being a young band from Bergen County aged 13-15 called The Yoo Hoos.  They won with a great version of I Want You (She’s So Heavy) For their encore they saluted our musical guest Denny Laine with Go Now.

On Saturday night, Fest attendees were treated to a US exclusive – presenting a reel of scenes from the upcoming feature film about John Lennon’s teenage years “Nowhere Boy”.  Martin, who made this preview possible, also gave exclusive details about the film’s US release.  It is going to be launched on Friday October 8 celebrating the 70th anniversary of John’s birth.  A new website has been set up specially for fans of John and the Beatles which will provide exclusive, information about the movie and also tells fans how they can help in spreading the word about the film.  www.NowhereBoy.com

Hundreds of exciting FEST Photos may now be found on Facebook. Have a look!

Next FEST is CHICAGO – August 13-15, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare.

For the first time ever, Ringo produces himself on his most personal album yet. Ringo is joined on Y Not by old and new friends including Paul McCartney, with whom Ringo sings on Y Not’s stunning first single, “Walk With You,” a moving new song about the power of friendship. Ringo meets Hip-O on Starr’s latest solo effort released today, January 12th on Hip-O Records/UMe. The CD is now is stock and all pre-orders have been shipped. New orders can ship immediately. Item #1793

Ringo will be doing lots of media in the next few weeks for all you Ringo watchers (Thanks, Tom)
“Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” on NBC on Jan. 12
“The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” on Comedy Central Jan. 13.
“The Jay Leno Show” on NBC on Jan. 18
“Larry King Live” on CNN on either Jan. 21 or 22.
Finally, he’ll be on “The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien” on NBC on Feb. 5.
On the radio, he’ll be on “Rockline” Jan. 20.

Also, Yoko and the Plastic Ono Band tickets go on sale this morning at 10AM for their concert February 16th celebrating her 77th birthday –  at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Appearing with Yoko are some original members of the POB and other notables – Jim Keltner, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, Paul Simon, Bette Midler, Mick Ronson and others. Twitter Yoko (http://twitter.com/yokoono) for details or call 718-636-4100.

SoundScan has just announced the Top 10 Bestselling CDs of this decade and The Beatles 1 has come in at NUMBER ONE, selling 11,499,000 copies. This is truly a phenomenal achievement, 40 years after the breakup! (NSYNC finished #2) The only way a CD can sell such huge numbers is if young listeners are buying it, and they most certainly are. It is great to know The Beatles music transcends generations and this historic achievement is proof their music will live forever!!

Webstore Update: The hot selling MusicSkins arrived in our warehouse today and so did the new Beatles Pens, Mugs, Magnets, Corgi Buses and Taxis. The balance of the USB Apples will be sent to those who pre-ordered, on Monday.

December 8, 1980 – The saddest day on the Beatles calendar. John Lennon was assassinated in front of his home on West 72nd Street in NYC. The world literally stopped for a week. As Elton John sang, in his tribute to John, “Empty Garden”  – “A gardener like that one, no one can replace”. It is still a difficult day for fans to get through, but listening to his music and thinking of all the love he gave the world definitely helps. Very few people who have ever walked the face of this Earth have become as well known and loved as John, Paul, George, & Ringo. The positive influence they have had still affects every day life. Their message of Peace and Love is very powerful and to see younger people getting the message is very heartwarming. Long Live The Beatles!

All You Need is Love.

November 29, 2001 – The day we lost George Harrison to cancer. If there ever was a day for any Beatles fans who still smokes to give them up, today is the day. Listen to his music and think about the music he could still be giving us if it hadn’t been for those damn ciggies that they didn’t know better about. We do, so do “Something” about it. When you think about The Beatles, it is a given that they had the two greatest songwriters in history – John Lennon and Paul McCartney. But it is equally amazing that they also had another one, way up there, in George Harrison. His body of work is a mountain in the world of music. His is greatly missed and our thoughts are with Olivia and Dhani on this day.

Give Me Love, Give Me Peace on Earth.

Last night, Carol and I attended an amazing John Fogerty Concert at the Beacon Theater in NYC. While there I realized it was exactly 35 years ago to the day (November 24, 1974) that the Sgt. Pepper Musical opened up at the Beacon, and John Lennon was there to lend his support. I was also invited to attend the premier and it was there that I got to personally thank John for helping to make Beatlefest 74 possible (2 months earlier). I also was able to tell him how the event went and how exciting it was. It was a very special evening indeed!

History notes that today (Nov. 25, 1968) The Beatles (White Album) was released in the U.S., however my memory is quite clear that I purchased it on the 22nd. The mystery of the real release may never be resolved, but what is clear is that one of the greatest albums of all time was released in 1968 – 30 songs, 2 albums, so varied, yet so tied together. Go listen to it today and see how fresh it sounds, especially in the new remastered version.

We wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving. Peace and Love, The Lapidos Family

Paul's New CD/DVD Set

Paul McCartney’s historic Concert opening up Citi Field in New York City this summer has just been released on a 2 CD/1 DVD set (2230). We also have a very limited supply of the Limited Edition 2 CD/2DVD set (2231) which includes the bonus DVD of Paul’s 40 minute concert on the Marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater the day he appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman.

ABC-TV is presenting a Paul McCartney Special on Thanksgiving night at 10PM EST. Scenes from The Beatles Shea Stadium Concert are going to be included.

On The History Channel the night before – Wednesday, Nov 25th, 10PM EST, there’s a one hour special called The Beatles On Record. It was put together by the director of the Anthology shows and it is supposed to be an all new program, using only the voices of John, Paul, George, Ringo and George Martin.

Update on the USB APPLE being released on December 8th. We ordered extra quantity of this item and are still taking pre-orders on it – (1256). We also have the Stereo and the Mono Sets in stock.

Here are some more updates on the newest items in our webstore. The popluar new Duvets are in stock next week and the Yellow Sub Shower Curtain is still set for early December The Beatles Black Logo Towel and the  4 Beatles Wall Decor have been delayed until Feb, 2010. You can still pre-order these (or any other new item not in stock). The Beatles and John Lennon Pens, Magnets and Mugs are not in yet, but hopefully most will be in be early December. We do not bill until they arrive.