"Fab Fourum", a new and different Beatles show, has just been launched! It is a half-hour all talk show about the Beatles hosted by four friends - radio veterans, authors, and lecturers - who share a love for, and have each done substantial research and reporting on, the world's most famous rock band.

The hosts include Mitch Axelrod (author of "Beatletoons," the only book covering the history of the Beatles cartoon series that ran in America from 1965 to 1969,) Rob Leonard (host of WHPC's "Beatlesongs" for over 17 years,) Ken Michaels (host of several Beatles shows on WNYT, WDHA-FM, WBZO-FM and XM Radio,) and Tony Traguardo (music lecturer and journalist, host of WCWP's "BeatleTrax" and "4F" on Podarama.com and iTunes).

In each "Fab Fourum" the hosts will discuss topics that cover all aspects of the Beatles' history, including the Beatles' group and solo works, significant events in their lives, and recent relevant news stories. Future programs will feature unique and interesting guest panelists and interviews. In the course of their first few shows the Fourum cover such topics as: Paul McCartney's recent mini-tour of the U.S., the George Harrison compilation "Let It Roll," the 40th Anniversary of the Beatles' "Abbey Road" album, and the newly remastered Beatles' catalogue.

The conversations are healthy debates on the most important musical group of all time, and each host brings his own unique perspective to the table. "Fab Fourum" can be found on iTunes, or by tuning in to the streaming podcast (that you also download) at www.podarama.com/fab_fourum

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ShockHound is running an incredible Beatles prize pack giveaway containing:

- a limited edition vinyl Beatles wall banner (one of only 100 made)
- remastered copies of Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Revolver
- limited edition 9/9/09 Beatles t-shirt made for promotional purposes only
- a super soft Beatles tee (made by Junk Food)
- a set of four Beatles pint glasses
- the book, Beatles: Off the Record, Unrehearsed Interviews
- the Beatles Monopoly board game

To find out more about ShockHound's official Beatles merchandise and to enter the contest go to:

http://community.shockhound.com/shockhound/Contests/2009/Beatles/Beatles_Contest.asp

Listen to The Beatles 24/7 on our very own FAB4 RADIO.COM Internet Radio

CLICK THE PLAYER TO LISTEN To The BEATLES
while you surf the web...

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ALL PHOTOS AND GRAPHICS ARE COPYRIGHTED AND MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED, PUBLISHED OR DISPLAYED ON A WEB PAGE WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION!
© COPYRIGHT JORIE GRACEN

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Announcing the
BEATLESNUMBER9 Award
Presented by David Holmes
In special recognition of this website

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This site has won an award for
"Outstanding Achievement in Website Management"
from The BeatlesWebsite.com

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What's in the NEW Issue of BEATLEFAN #180

Beatlefan #180 is out and in it readers will find:

Rick Glover takes a fan's look back at Paul McCartney's return to the road in the fall of 1989 and the past 20 years of Macca tours, while Brad Hundt reminisces about what a terrific year for Beatles fans that was, with Ringo also touring for the first time.

Also in this issue is a special section of articles devoted to the new Beatles remasters and "The Beatles: Rock Band" game, including Al Sussman's consumer's guide to the "must have" individual album remasters for those not buying the box sets, Wally Podrazik's explanation of why the stereo box is The Beatles for anyone and everyone while the mono box is for hardcore fans and collectors, Kit O'Toole providing a second-generation fan's take on the refurbishing of The Beatles' catalog, an interview with the writers of the liner notes for the new releases, a gamer's review of the Rock Band Beatles experience and Rick Glover's ruminations on a new bout of Beatlemania.

We also have Howie Edelson's interview with Gary "Dreamweaver" Wright about his work with George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Plus we have a review of the documentary "How The Beatles Rocked the Kremlin." And the Beatlenews Roundup reports on Macca's upcoming tour of Europe and new projects and releases, the impact of the Beatles remasters and much more.

A sample issue costs $6.00 in the U.S. or $7.00 abroad. U.S. funds only. If you want the latest issue, be sure to specify #180. Send to P.O. Box 33515, Decatur GA 30033.

Subscription info: A year's subscription in the U.S. costs only $26.00 for six issues or $30.50 if sent First Class Mail in an envelope. Canadian and Mexican subscriptions cost $34 per year. International subscriptions to all other countries around the globe are $43 (sent Air Mail) U.S. funds only. Add Beatlefan/PLUS! Web access for an additional $8 when you subscribe to Beatlefan. CREDIT CARDS AND PAYPAL ACCEPTED (goodypress@mindspring.com). For credit card orders, you can fax 404-321-3109 or call 770-492-0444 or e-mail goodypress@mindspring.com.

Become a fan of Beatlefan on Facebook by going to http://bit.ly/1fxld3. Or you can search Beatlefan on Facebook or Google Beatlefan Facebook!

COMING IN ISSUE #181: The ultimate Macca playlist from the past two decades! Check it out!

THE BRITISH BEATLES FAN CLUB MAGAZINE is a full color professionally printed publication, published quarterly. The magazine is produced by and includes regular contributions from former Beatles Book Monthly news editor Pete Nash, Craig Smith, Andy Davis, Merseybeat founder Bill Harry and Quarryman Rod Davis.

Issue #34 of The British Beatles Fan Club magazine is now available with articles on:

· Paul In Concert - MINI USA Tour reviews and Photos
· The Beatles Remasters - reviewed
· 2009 Day By Day Diary
· Upcoming Events
· Bootlegs, books, CD, DVD releases
· Crap Photo Of The Month
· News, reviews and tons more...

The Annual Subscription for The British Beatles Fan Club magazine is: UK = £15 / Europe = 40 Euro's / USA = $45.00. Payment can be made by: 1.) check or money order (in UK pounds sterling) made payable to BBFC Publishing, 2.) Cash by registered mail - $US and Euro's accepted, 3.) Credit Card via PayPal using bbfcpublishing@fsmail.net

For further information, sample copies or back issues please send a Stamped Addressed Envelope or 2 International Reply Coupons to: BBFC Publishing, P.O. Box 1766, Croydon, CR9 1EN, United Kingdom www.britishbeatlesfanclub.co.uk

APPLE CORPS LTD PROUDLY ANNOUNCE THE DVD RELEASE OF THE BEATLES FILM 'HELP!'

Apple Corps Ltd have announced the eagerly anticipated DVD release of The Beatles' second feature film 'Help!' marketed and distributed by EMI Music.

Directed by Richard Lester, who also directed the band's debut feature film 'A Hard Days Night', 'Help!' made its theatrical debut in 1965.

The story follows The Beatles as they become passive recipients of an outside plot that revolves around Ringo's possession of a sacrificial ring, which he cannot remove from his finger.

As a result, he and his bandmates John, Paul and George are chased from London to the Austrian Alps and the Bahamas by religious cult members, a mad scientist and the London police.

In addition to starring the Beatles, 'Help!' has a witty script, a great cast of British character actors and features 7 classic Beatles tracks, including:

* 'Help!'
* 'You're Going To Lose That Girl'
* 'You've Got To Hide Your Love Away'
* 'Ticket To Ride'
* 'I Need You'
* 'The Night Before'
* 'Another Girl'

The DVD will be a 2-disc set. Disc 1 will feature the original film digitally restored with a newly created 5.1 soundtrack, while Disc 2 contains an hour of extra features, including:

* The Beatles in Help! - 30 minute documentary about the making of the film with Richard Lester, the cast and crew. Includes exclusive behind the scenes footage of The Beatles on set.
* A Missing Scene - interview and photographs, featuring Wendy Richard
* The Restoration of Help! - an in depth look at the restoration process.
* Memories of Help! - the cast and crew reminisce
* Theatrical Trailers - 2 US trailers and 1 Spanish trailer.
* 1965 US Radio Spots - hidden in disc menus.

There are 2 editions of the DVD - a standard digipack and a deluxe boxed set that will contain a reproduction of Richard Lester's original annotated script, 8 lobby cards and a poster, plus a 60-page book with rarely seen photographs and production notes from the movie.

ORDER Standard digipack (US)

ORDER Deluxe Boxed Set (US) LIMITED EDITION

ORDER Standard digipack (UK)

ORDER Deluxe Boxed Set (UK) LIMITED EDITION

Both the deluxe book and the standard booklet feature an introduction by Richard Lester and an appreciation by Martin Scorsese.

THE BEATLES AS YOU'VE NEVER HEARD THEM BEFORE

CLICK TO ORDER STEREO CD ONLY (1 disc)

CLICK TO ORDER "SPECIAL" AUDIO CD/DVD Version (2 discs)

ABOUT THE ALBUM

The album features 26 tracks re-worked by George and Giles Martin for the "LOVE" show in Las Vegas, an incredible music and visual experience created out of the collaboration between The Beatles and Cirque Du Soleil. The result is an unprecedented approach to the music.

The stereo CD contains 78 minutes of music, and features 26 tracks.

Simultaneously released is a special 2 disc edition that includes the stereo CD and an Audio only DVD containing a slightly extended version in amazing 5.1 surround sound.

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BEATLESNEWS!BEATLESNEWS!
UPDATED: November 11, 2009 7:00 pm ET
GO TO BEATLES NEWS

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SUPPORT THIS PAGE!! AND BUY FAB NEW BOOKS AND CD/DVD'S

The Beatles Monopoly Game

CLICK LINK TO ORDER!

The Beatles Collector's Edition of Monopoly celebrates the music that revolutionized rock-n-roll in the 20th century. This Completely customized game features Apple and Abbey Road Studios along with every album released by the Beatles allowing fans to create their own private music anthology. Enjoy and sing along to the timeless music that has transcended generations as you collect the White Album, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and more.

The world's most legendary rock-n-roll band teams up with the world's most popular board game to bring you the ultimate Beatles experience. The Beatles Collector's Edition of MONOPOLY celebrates the music that revolutionized rock-n-roll in the 20th century. This completely customized game features Apple and Abbey Road Studios along with every album released by the Beatles allowing fans to create their own private music anthology. Enjoy and sing along to the timeless music that has transcended generations as you collect the White Album, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and more.

Six collectible tokens symbolize unforgettable songs: Hammer (Maxwell's Silver Hammer), Strawberry (Strawberry Fields Forever), Walrus (I Am The Walrus), Sun (Here Comes The Sun), Raccoon (Rocky Raccoon) and Octopus (Octopus's Garden). Come Together! Ages: 8+ 2-6 Players

Legendary 60's singer Spanky McFarlane sang lead as the front-person in the sixties band Spanky & Our Gang, with such hits as "Sunday Will Never Be The Same," "Give a Damn," "Sunday Morning" and "I'd Like To Get To Know You." She later replaced Mama Cass in The Mamas & The Papas (who had a hit with The Beatles' "I Call Your Name"). She also recorded "And Your Bird Can Sing." One of Spanky's dearest friends, Dinky Dawson, is a legendary figure in the music field, recognized as the "sound-man to the stars." He was rumored to be on the Apple rooftop with The Beatles.
 
Both guests have never appeared at such a convention for fans before. Also newly added is Rich Pagano of The Fab Faux, who will signing copies of his new solo CD. They join the current star-filled line-up of "BEATexpo 2009" coming to the Downtown Stamford (CT) Holiday Inn November 28-29, for what is turning out to be the year's most highly-anticipated music and celebrity festival, in celebration of the music of The Beatles and their era.
 
They join headliners Peter Tork of The Monkees, John Lennon's recording engineer Dennis Ferrante, original Beatles promoter Sid Bernstein, Greg Hawkes of The Cars, Butch Patrick of The Munsters, and Clay Cole, legendary television personality & rock & roll broadcast pioneer. Clay was the only TV host to have both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones on the very same show.

Here's a list of the other great guests (and there is no charge for autographs!):

~Jude Southerland Kessler, author of the wonderful historic novel, "Shoulda Been There."
~Shannon, world-famous rock & roll artist, will be bringing her amazing art to "BEATexpo 2009," after just completing her mural work in the rooms of the Hard Day's Night Hotel in Liverpool, England
~Vanilla Fudge lead guitarist Vince Martell
~The Nazz lead singer Stewkey
~Tuff Darts lead singer/guitarist Tommy Frenzy
~Garage Band Beatles/Thunder Road lead singer/guitarist Pat Horgan
~The Stories lead singer Ian LLoyd (his Dad played on John Lennon albums)
~The Strawbs lead singer John Ford
~The Fab Faux vocalist and drummer Rich Pagano
~Members of the 60's pop band The Fifth Estate, who had a hit with "Ding Dong The Witch is Dead"
~Dwight Rounds, author of the books "The Year The Music Died" and "Animals to Zombies"
~Helen Darras, author of the authorized biography, "Eddie Munster AKA Butch Patrick"
 
It should be noted that there is no charge for autographs or photos with the guests.

Joining BEATexpo's live mainstage line-up of The Beatles Forever Band, Octopus's Garden, Tim Palmieri's A-Z Beatles Songbook Show, Rotary, The Monkees' Peter Tork and The Cars' Greg Hawkes (performing his "Beatles on Uke" show + some Cars tunes) is Guitar Charlie and Benjy G (from Jimmy Kimmel Show).
 
At the Expo, there will be a mammoth memorabilia marketplace/rock & roll flea-market, karaoke recording studio, art exhibits, video theatre showing rare clips and footage, a collectibles auction, and more.

"BEATexpo 2009" is the first event of its kind in the New York/New England area in twelve years. Advance tickets are now on sale for only $15 each online from https://beatexpo.ticketleap.com/BEATexpo. Tickets will be only $20 at the door if not sold out in advance. There is also an optional early-bird V.I.P. admission available for Sunday's admission. 

For further information, visit website: www.ToursAndEvents.com/BEATexpo.htm or phone (203) 795-4737. 
"It's guaranteed to raise a smile."

New HISTORY special on the Fab Four shows music history in the making, with a rare & intimate glimpse of the group that would change the face of popular music.

THE BEATLES ON RECORD

Premieres Wednesday, November 25 at 10pm ET/PT on HISTORY™ Channel

In 1962, an unknown group from Liverpool walked into Abbey Road Studios in London to record their debut single. Over the next eight years, they would create what many consider to be the greatest collection of studio recordings of the 20th century.

THE BEATLES ON RECORD, a new documentary premiering on HISTORY on Wednesday, November 25 at 10pm, charts The Beatles' extraordinary recording journey from Please Please Me to the epic Abbey Road LP and reveals how they developed as musicians, matured as songwriters and created an enduring body of work that pushed the boundaries of studio recording, changing the course of musical history and popular culture. There will be additional airings of the special at later dates across A&E Television Networks (AETN).

Narrated entirely by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Sir George Martin, THE BEATLES ON RECORD features over 60 songs, rarely seen footage and images from The Beatles' archives along with never-before-heard outtakes of conversation from the original recording sessions. The result is an intimate look at the creative process behind each of the band's Abbey Road Studios masterpieces. The documentary is directed by Bob Smeaton, who directed the landmark Beatles Anthology series and created mini-documentaries for The Beatles' recently released re-mastered albums on CD.

THE BEATLES ON RECORD: Producer is Jonathan Clyde. Executive Producer is Jeff Jones. Director is Bob Smeaton.

The Beatles boasted some of the best-selling albums on the U.S. pop chart on Wednesday after nostalgic fans scooped up the Fab Four's much-hyped reissues.

In all, the Beatles sold 626,000 albums during the week ended September 13, according to tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan. Until last week, they had sold 635,000 copies this year, a low tally by their standards as buyers held out until the 09-09-09 release date.

Their best-seller last week was 1969's "Abbey Road," which moved 89,000 copies, making it the third-most-popular album in the United States. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band," the 1967 release that often tops lists of the greatest albums of all time, was No. 5 overall with 74,000 copies.

But don't look for either album to appear on the benchmark Billboard 200 chart, which generally ranks only those albums released in the last 18 months -- not catalog items.

On Billboard's Top Catalog Album Chart, the Beatles claimed 15 of the top 18 places with their 13 studio albums, the "Past Masters" compilation reissue and the 2000 "1" compilation. Michael Jackson was at No. 6, No. 15 and No. 16.

Behind "Abbey Road" and "Sgt. Pepper's" were "The Beatles" with 60,000, "Rubber Soul" with 58,000, and "Revolver" with 46,000. All were among the 10 biggest albums in the United States. The least-popular Beatles reissue was "Yellow Submarine" with 14,000 copies.

The Billboard 200 was led by rapper Jay-Z, who sold 476,000 copies of "The Blueprint 3," his fifth No. 1 album. The only other act to reach the top more times is the Beatles with 19.

Disney starlet Miley Cyrus was No. 2 after selling 120,000 of "The Time of Our Lives" in its third week of release.

The Beatles managed to log two new entries on the Billboard 200 -- the boxed sets containing all their albums. The new packages were offered in stereo and mono configurations, stirring up an intense debate about which one was better.

Consumers cast their votes for the stereo version, which sold 26,000 copies and landed at No. 15. The mono version, preferred by purists, ranked at No. 40 with 12,000 copies. Each boxed set counts as one unit.

The stereo version has 13 CDs plus "Past Masters," while the mono version omits "Yellow Submarine," "Abbey Road" and "Let It Be," which were recorded in stereo.

The Beatles albums were released in the United States by Capitol Records, a unit of private-equity partnership Terra Firma's EMI Group Ltd.

Beatlemania is back with the rollout Wednesday of the Fab Four's remastered CDs and first-ever video game, reaching out to a whole new generation decades after their parents - and even grandparents - first succumbed.

It's been nearly 40 years since John, Paul, George and Ringo announced their breakup, but the new game and discs caused a worldwide buzz as the Beatles returned to the top of the charts in Britain, the land where it all began.

Fans flocked to get their hands on the long-awaited sonic masterpieces, with lines snaking outside record stores in London and Liverpool. Some die-hards jammed the streets outside Abbey Road, the landmark studio where the Beatles recorded many of their groundbreaking albums.

About 50 people gathered outside the HMV music store on London's Oxford Street early Wednesday - some, like university student Daniela Gutierrez, waiting in line since 3 a.m.

"My parents were huge Beatles fans and I grew up listening to their music," said Gutierrez, 25. "I can't wait to have the game and start playing the songs."

It's not exactly 1964 - there were no fainting teens or other visible signs of feverish Beatlemania - but the long-awaited release brought the long-gone band to the top of the charts maintained by online retailer Amazon.co.uk.

Or, as John Lennon liked to say, "to the toppermost of the poppermost."

Uma Nolan, an Irish nurse visiting London, came to the Abbey Road studio to be photographed at the pedestrian crossing made famous on the "Abbey Road" album cover. She plans to buy the entire set of 17 CDs - even though she already has all the songs in the collection.

"I will absolutely go out and buy them," she said. "I'm a huge Beatles fan and have every single LP in original first edition copies. They were the first real pop group. The entire generation was waiting for that to happen. They sent worldwide pop culture off into orbit."

Nolan, 50, said remastering the Beatles albums will introduce them to a new generation.

"It brings them up do date and modernizes their music," she said. "You're enhancing what was really to begin with, so that can't be a bad thing."

High prices are apparently no deterrent - Amazon.com sold out its allotment of pre-orders for the Beatles box set, priced at $260 (170 pounds) and has a waiting list of buyers.

The robust sales are expected to add to the already considerable wealth of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, the "thank my lucky stars" drummer who joined the band just before it had its first hit, as well as Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, the widows of the late John Lennon and George Harrison. Court records publicized last year put McCartney's net worth at about $800 million.

It's also expected to boost the value of the estate of the late Michael Jackson, who owned a substantial share in the publishing rights to the Beatles' fabled back catalog.

"The Beatles: Rock Band" video game also is expected to sell well, opening a new revenue stream for the band.

Adam Liversage, spokesman for the British Phonographic Industry, said video games offer well-known bands a way to reach a wider audience and increase their earnings in the process.

"It's great for music - it is a new revenue scheme and a way for people to explore music that they otherwise might not have had access to," he said.

"These games have been around for a while, the Beatles' one isn't the first one, it is the latest in a series," he said of the new release, which follows the success of "Guitar Hero" and other music-oriented video offerings.

And, Liversage said, the Beatles' fan base extends far beyond the teenage boys who are traditionally heavy video game users and may end up introducing older people to gaming.

Other bands may follow the Beatles' lead, he added. "If you're a guitar band with a global presence then it has to be worth looking at." As for McCartney, the ex-Beatle says he hasn't tried the game and acknowledges some purists may be offended by the licensing of the Beatles' music for it.

But the tradeoff is worth it because the game will help the band reach a younger audience, McCartney said.

"For me, the most interesting thing is that it will introduce the Beatles music to people who might never have heard it because they game all the time, they don't listen to the radio, and they haven't got much of a record collection," McCartney said in an interview with New Musical Express magazine.

The magazine, which targets younger music fans, is using the releases as a chance for a major critical review of the band with the goal of getting a new generation to listen to the Beatles with fresh ears, said reviews editor Hamish MacBain.

"If we can get a bunch of 14-year-olds in 2009 to really hear them, that's a very good thing," he said.

And while some fans may shy away from spending hundreds of dollars for a complete new collection of songs they already have, MacBain said the Beatles have more devoted fans than any other musicians.

"It takes a certain class of fan to replace things time and time again," he said. "But the Beatles have a lot more of these kind of fans than any other band in the world. And having heard all the remasters ... it made me appreciate the band more."

Not everyone agrees. Rory Mulcahy, a retiree visiting Abbey Road, said he was not convinced he needed remastered CDs.

"I appreciate the songs and I love the Beatles, but I'm happy enough with the CD collection I've got," he said. "I think there is a bit of moneymaking in there."

And some young people said they don't want anything to do with the new Beatles video game.

"I don't think it would be any fun for people my age, I don't even know the words," said Sofie Lochner, a 17-year-old visiting London from Amsterdam. "That's something my dad would buy, I'm sure."

Associated Press Writer Karolina Tagaris in London contributed to this report.

The video game "The Beatles: Rock Band" is set to be released by Harmonix on Wednesday. Modeled on the already popular "Rock Band" game, and closely supervised by The Beatles and their estates, the game lets players sing and strum along to a huge list of Beatles classics over scenes ranging from Liverpool's Cavern Club to their final performance on a London rooftop.

Giles Martin: "Both Ringo and Paul have been in here a lot, working on the game. They are delighted with it."

CNN's Peter Wilkinson went to EMI's legendary Abbey Road studios and spoke to Giles Martin about the project, for which the son of former Beatles producer George Martin mixed the music.

CNN: Giles Martin, How did you get involved in "The Beatles Rock Band" project?

Martin: Well I was approached by Apple, which is the Beatles' holding company and (George Harrison's son) Dhani Harrison had met up with the head of MTV video games and they had come up with a concept, and approached the Beatles and the Beatles said "let's give it a go" and they contacted me. I went out and met the programmers and video games team and started work. Photo See images of Abbey Road studios »

CNN: Are you an enthusiast on video games like this?

Martin: I'd played these type of video games. I'd always kind of slightly looked down my nose at them, because if you played guitars and bass anyway you'd think "Why'd I want to play a plastic instrument?" They had sent me a copy of "Rockband," their main video game, and an Xbox and I had it sort of in my back room for a long time and some friends came for dinner. I said I have this video game do you want to play it? And we gathered around and played "Living on a Prayer," you know by Bon Jovi and stuff like that, I really got into it and it kind of swayed me. And then I went up to LA and someone came up to me and said, "You know my son loves these video games, they got desperately into Poison" and you know these bands from the '80s and '90s? I thought you know, it's the only way that a lot of kids will listen to music and really get into it and so I was swayed. Video Watch more about the 21st century Beatles »

CNN: How did you come up with the list of songs that are on "The Beatles: Rock Band"?

Martin: Well, the list of songs, it was a collaborative process as it is with any Beatles project, you know I work for the Beatles and myself and the head of Harmonix had a list of Beatles songs we thought would be good and then we approached Paul and Ringo and Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison (the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison). And it was kind of because it's a guitar-based game immediately it wrote itself: we knew we wanted "Day Tripper," "Drive My Car," "Ticket to Ride" -- those type of songs because they're guitar-based songs and that discounted, got out of the way, things like maybe "Lady Madonna" which is a piano song, because there is no piano controller. So it kind of chose themselves, we sort of chose what we thought would be fun for families to play together.

CNN: Can you tell us about the processes of separating the various parts of the songs, how difficult was that process?

Martin: Well, I don't know if anyone is aware, but the way these games work is you control guitar, bass and drums, if you don't play the bass correctly you don't hear the bass. The biggest problem for us is that a lot of the Beatles stuff isn't recorded separately, they started recording on two tracks, so the Cavern club which is "Twist and Shout," "I Saw Her Standing There," for instance, "Boys" is on two tracks -- all of the drums, bass and guitars together. And so we had someone here at Abbey Road, a guy named Simon Gibson and an engineer called Paul Hicks who filtered everything and so separated, made what would have been multitracks out of one track, if that makes sense ... so created new separate mixes. So when you don't play the bass in "Twist and Shout" you don't hear the bass. Sort of like taking your voice off an answer phone message with having the background still on.

CNN: Did producing the "Love" album help you in putting together the songs for this?

Martin: I think the techniques involved in this were vastly different from doing "Love." With "Love" my role was to try and morph and change the Beatles so that they fitted into that environment, and to come up with new ideas, new musical ideas of combining the music. But with this, it's almost like if you gave me a cake and I had to take all the ingredients, separate them and put them all back together and give it back to you without you knowing, that was my job here, we had to recreate the Beatles music so that it could be interactive, but so there still would be the songs you love and know.

CNN: Have you produced more songs than the 45 that are being used in "Rock Band?"

Martin: There are 45 songs in the game and we have decided to have the approach of releasing albums for all the downloads, so you can buy "Abbey Road" online, and then "Sgt. Pepper" and then "Rubber Soul." So, because we all thought that would be the best way of doing it just because albums are important and the Beatles albums are important because they are complete works of art and it's great to be able to, for instance, play the whole second side of "Abbey Road" or the medley in one go. It's 17 and a half minutes of music, people/families can get together and play that as one continuous album. That's what we decided to do and so more and more music will be available for people playing the game.

CNN: How did you choose the unreleased studio chatter you put in? Were there any surprises in the chatter that you didn't know about?

Martin: Well yeah, doing "Love" I spent a lot of time listening to the songs obviously, but not listening to the gaps between songs, why would I? We decided that it would be wrong to have dead air, to have digital silence in the game so if you are loading a song from "Abbey Road" and you see "Abbey Road," you see the room we are in now, it would be great to have that ambience. So I would go through each song we have, say if you take "I Am The Walrus," I'd go through the takes and listen to the little bits, the little bits before, tuning up, spoken word of them discussing the song. And so whenever you play the game, you hear those, you hear the interest, so you feel like you are about to play the song in the studio. And they kind of chose themselves because there are only ... the Beatles are pretty good at what they did so there are only so many takes of each version.

CNN: As someone who is a unique and enviable position of having heard most of the tapes, do you think there is anything in the archives that hasn't been released that you think should be put out? "Carnival of Light" for instance, or the long version of "Helter Skelter?"

Martin: No, I don't think so. It's not for me to say actually whether Beatles stuff should be released or not. I think that the body of work they have out there right now is incredibly representative of what they do, and I can't imagine anyone would want more. They always do, funnily enough, but let's face it the Beatles have more great songs than most other bands and just the fact that we can present them in different ways and make people interact in different ways is probably good enough.

CNN: Do you think there will be plans to produce game packs for the solo Beatles in their later careers?

Martin: I think that would be separate: the solo Beatles, their work is separate from the Beatles, obviously and that would be up to them to do. It's funny I always think of the work of John Lennon or Paul or Ringo or George as being almost like a separate life in a way, and the Beatles were this entity that got together and produced some of the greatest music ever, and they were greater as a unit than the sum of their parts.

CNN: What is Paul and Ringo's reaction to "Rock Band?" Have they played it?

Martin: They have been exposed to it. Paul's so enthusiastic about it he uses the images from "Rock Band" in his concerts now. Their reactions, Ringo was, he was amazed by the rooftop, look at the rooftop images. They only work on collaborations, they don't let companies go off and come back and deliver a product, they have to every step of the way. You know both Ringo and Paul have been in here a lot looking at the game, working on the game. Talking to us about every single aspect and it wouldn't be coming out if they weren't happy, so they are delighted with it.

CNN: There are reports of training options for drummers within Rock Band, can you tell us about this? Will people be able to drum like Ringo?

Martin: It does actually, it's funny, I've learned, I'm not a bad guitarist and bass player but I have actually learned to play drums to a certain level through doing this game.

And we have this training mode where you learn Ringo's drum parts and I think the interesting thing for me about doing this game is you start listening to what the parts are doing. The Beatles are very clever in the way they compose their music and the way they were very economical with guitar, bass and drums and you hear that in the game. So you do actually start realizing that Ringo's drum fills are unlike anything else. The chance of playing "A Day in The Life," it's a download song, it is such a strange drum part but it's incredibly effective in what it does.

CNN: What do you think about the remastered albums?

Martin: I think the remastered albums sound great. I mean they were done by, you know, friends of mine. They are, it needed doing, it really needed doing, and I know that it needed doing because I worked on "Love" and have heard the multitrack and the original versions and a lot of the credit that we got for "Love" was how beautifully clear everything sounded when really we didn't do much, it's just that people were used to listening to the CDs from the '80s that were made. And I think the remasters -- I think that they, they showed that the Beatles don't age more than anything else and their music is alive today as it ever has been.

CNN: Would you be interested in having a go at a more radical remix of say a "Love 2" album?

Martin: Well, "Love" wasn't really meant to be an album. "Love" is a show, it is a show that is still going on, it'll be showing tonight for instance, and the album was an offshoot of that. I think, you know, I am interested in doing anything that innovates and if I get a chance to work on Beatles stuff then great. But I think it has to be for a reason, it wouldn't be just so I could go and have a go at it.

CNN: Do you think that "Rock Band" and the remasters will make the Beatles sound revolutionary again to younger generations?

Martin: I think that "Rock Band" and the remasters will appeal to younger generations, I don't think it makes, I think, the Beatles sound revolutionary because they are the Beatles. It's not me that makes them sound revolutionary; it's what they did in this room 40 years ago. I love the idea that say, in the game, I have a copy of the game at home and I had a grandmother, a son who is my age and his daughter who is 11 all playing "I Saw Her Standing There" and they all knew the song. And I think that is great, I think that music is there to be enjoyed and it doesn't matter where it comes from. And the Beatles music is definitely there to be enjoyed.

CNN: Do you think that "Rock Band" will actually encourage people to join bands much like the Ed Sullivan performance in 1964 did?

Martin: They have already shown, when I first heard about "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero," I was thinking why would anyone want to play a plastic guitar? And they have shown in America that actually these games, which have become hugely successful, have actually increased the sales of guitars. There is a comparison, and I think looking back if I was a 10-year-old boy again or 11 or actually an 18- year-old, you know, you'd... The appeal of getting further into the music you love is great, you know. Joe Brown, the old musician, said to me, "The great thing about playing guitar or bass is you can, if you make a mistake you can look at the bass player or vice versa look at the guitarist, because no one knows the difference." With these games you immediately know what a bass guitar does because you are holding a representative of it in your hands. It does make people want to go and do it themselves.

CNN: Do you think there are things that bands could learn from the Beatles?

Martin: I think there are definitely things bands could learn from the Beatles. I think the Beatles learned a huge amount from other bands as well.

They say that "Sgt. Pepper" wouldn't have happened without "Pet Sounds," for instance. You know they were huge fans of Buddy Holly, and Fats Waller and Elvis Presley obviously. I think that It's really important if you are in a band not to be worried about being influenced by or even stealing stuff, let's be honest as long as you make it your own in the end. And if you are going to start somewhere the Beatles are a good place to start.

CNN: Has your father played "Rock Band?"

Martin: Funnily enough, he has been in and I showed him the work we were doing and he was astounded by the fact that we could demix stuff. I remember he came in and we were running through the music of "I Feel Fine" and having a look at the Shea Stadium footage and I showed him that we could remove the bass track from what he had recorded as everything together.

CNN: From the concert?

Martin: No, from the studio. And he was astounded at the technology. He hasn't played the game yet because I was waiting to get my hands on the right instruments because I thought I might as well make it authentic for him and just today I got sent my box of Hofner bass and Rickenbacker guitars, so maybe this weekend.

CNN: Presumably you met Paul and Ringo when you were growing up, did you realize that they were the Beatles, the great band, or did you just think of them as your father's friends at the time?

Martin: I suppose, as a kid, you know I didn't really realize what my dad did.

I was at play group, there was a story that they went round the room and they asked all the children what their parents did for a living and my dad was writing the music for "Live and Let Die" at the time and I just said my Dad just sits at home and plays the piano. I think my parents were slightly angry about it but, you know you have no idea and you have to remember the Beatles are much bigger now then they were when I was growing up. You know I grew up in the '80s, that's kind of how it was then, and now they have become, rightfully this legacy of music.

And I remember going down and meeting Paul, and I spent time with him as a kid. He was incredibly kind, I said to him, "listen I'm really interested in music." I remember being in the car with him, he was driving me, I think, somewhere, I remember we were in the car together, and he said, "You know, you should carry on doing it, you should write songs, you should do music. I mean writing songs is really hard, you know I'm Paul McCartney and I find it really difficult!" And I had a hugely privileged, I mean I know that, to have grown up around that. But I didn't, you don't really understand the magnitude of it all because it's much better that way not to. It's the same if I have to work on a song in the studios, you can't be scared of it because it's not my job to do that.

It's my job to do the best job I can for them.

CNN: Has working on the recordings, given you a greater appreciation of your father's work in the '60s?

Martin: It was funny when we did "Love." I sat with him in a room and we went through all the recordings as I decided to back everything up onto a better format. You know there were the original tapes and I needed to work on Protools which is a computer-based format and I listened to everything with him. It gave me a huge appreciation of what his talents are and what their talents are and were as well. Just the fact that quite often what you imagined to be the case isn't the case and their music is full of surprises.

And they always challenged each other. And just the fact that they had a good time doing it. There's a lot of talk about the Beatles, everybody remembers and there's talk about the breakup and all this kind of stuff but in the studio, in here, there was none of that stuff. It's very difficult to find outtakes where they are arguing from here. Huge admiration of my father but a touch of envy as well.

CNN: Did you ever go through a period as a teenager when you rebelled against what your father did and disliked his work and disliked the Beatles?

Martin: I didn't really pay attention to it. The Beatles weren't a large part of me growing up and I think I can speak for my dad that he... there wasn't ever a denial that he worked for the Beatles but there was certainly a "listen, I've done other things" attitude. Which I think they all had in the '70s and '80s. It was that thing, that was then and now I am doing this. So it wasn't really a large part, I don't think I really heard the "White Album" until I was 17. I was into, bizarrely I was into this Free and Humble Pie and that kind of blues rock and then I wanted to be Steve Ray Vaughn for a long time so it wasn't a big issue either way. It came as a complete surprise to me and still does, a nice surprise a great surprise that I have ended up working on the Beatles catalogue. I never thought it would happen. It's not what I drove towards. But as soon as I started doing it I found it was amazing.

CNN: Do you think there will be future projects involved with the band?

Martin: I don't know. It wouldn't be up to me. I think if there's a project, it's like the show, the show as a concept when I thought about doing a Beatles show in Vegas. The concept to me didn't sound that appealing but the chance of working with the Beatles was hugely appealing and I think everyone was nervous about it. We all, the whole creative team and especially the Beatles made it into something that was full of innovation and critically acclaimed. I think the same thing is happening with the game. I think it is exactly the same we think, "Do we?" You know and then you get into it and you realize you can do something that's good and that's worthwhile and will bring huge amounts of pleasure to people. And I think it has to be something like that, so If we did another Beatles project, or I did another Beatles project or if they give permission to do anything, it would have to be something that again would be trying to push the boundaries because that is what they are known for and that is what they still like to do.

You sit down at your favorite neighborhood restaurant and order beef bourguignon. Soon a team of waiters approaches and lays it out in front of you -- but unassembled, each ingredient in its own little saucer: floured and browned beef cubes, sauteed pearl onions, a carrot, a carafe of full-bodied Beaujolais, some garlic, the whole Julia Child rigmarole.

It's all perfectly prepared, but still. No matter how fine the individual components, they're not what you want to eat. You want beef bourguignon. And that's also why, when it comes to the lavish new Beatles box sets, you might want to choose the finished dish: "The Beatles in Mono," rather than stereo. Especially if you like to listen through headphones.

Now, there's no question that the stereo versions of these familiar songs are clearer and more vivid than they've ever been. But when the musical elements of a recording from that era are pulled apart for individual examination, things can come undone and unbalanced. On "Slow Down," the drums are sequestered in the right channel, so that when John Lennon sings "try to save our romance," the rifle shots meant to punctuate the line are muffled, nearly silenced. This is a song where Ringo Starr proves he can do everything for his band that Charlie Watts did for the Stones, but stereo relegates him to a bit part. Likewise, on "She's a Woman," almost the entire band is way off to the right, distant and vague, while to the left, clear as can be, we hear . . . maracas! The 1964 engineers' spatial arrangement of the vocals and instruments has thrown the song, as we remember it, out of whack.

Particularly on the more raucous Beatles tunes, such as "Good Morning Good Morning" from "Sgt. Pepper," mono produces one great galumphing roar -- the wall of sound, in Phil Spector's famous appellation -- that transmits the exuberance rock is meant to have. On "I'm Down" in mono, it's like Paul McCartney is desperately screaming throughout the final choruses just to be heard above his bandmates. (In stereo, he doesn't seem to have that problem, and it's all much more polite.)

The mono mixes, not just the stereo, have been cleaned up and refurbished for this release. So "Paperback Writer," for example, here sounds as noisy and vital as it did blaring from a transistor radio in 1966. And in stereo? I differ with my colleague Matt Hurwitz's assessment. Yes, you can certainly hear McCartney's bass line as never before, and you can hear every nuance of his vocal (because it's now six times as loud as anything else on the track). But the rest of the band might as well be playing in County Cork. The tune is sapped of its blast, its exhilaration. The beast of mono has been tamed, and what we are left with is "Paperback Writer" lite.

This isn't some sort of flat-Earth diatribe. There's no reason for anyone to record in mono today; there was no reason 25 years ago. But in the mid-1960s, mono was the common currency among listeners, and stereo was for Brahms and "hi-fi" gimmickry. (People used to buy sound-effects records and listen to a ping-pong ball bouncing back and forth from speaker to speaker.) Pop songs were primarily introduced to people by AM radio, which was as monaural as you can get.

Recording-studio technicians, of course, knew all this, and they fashioned pop music tracks to shine their brightest in that format. >From the booklet that accompanies the new stereo release of "Beatles for Sale" (1964): Producer George Martin and engineer Norman Smith "spent two and a half hours mixing five songs into mono and just half an hour mixing four of them to stereo."

AM, in turn, further fussed with the music's sound. Using compressors and limiters and other equipment from Dr. Frankenstein's lab, they processed the radio signal to make songs punchier, more hopped-up. There were no quiet passages in songs -- technology rendered everything equally loud and urgent, every second. If you were 14, this was exciting.

Allan Sniffen, who runs a Web site devoted to the old Top 40 format of WABC in New York, recalls that the station pumped itself up by adding boomy reverb to every sound it emitted: commercials, station ID jingles ("W-A-Beatle-C!"), DJs' blather, all of it. The objective was to sound "tight, bright and out of sight," says Don Geronimo, who grew up listening to the Beatles on Washington's WPGC and eventually became a DJ there (as well as at other AM powerhouses, like WLS in Chicago).

This effort to pummel and overpower a listener is what's present in the mono mixes and often absent from the stereo versions. Not just for the Beatles, either, and not just on CD: Many geezers can recall buying the stereo LP version of, say, a Four Tops or Martha and the Vandellas song, only to confront a tepid, feeble-sounding travesty of the clamorous mono 45 that they so loved and wore out.

A final difference between mono and stereo in the pop music of the 1960s and '70s is more of a philosophical one: It's the question of whether you want to know how the magician does his tricks. Some listeners prefer that everything in a song be as clear and distinct as possible, and stereo was made for them. Here's the snare drum, there's a trombone, and that? Well, that's got to be a mellotron. Here's what the singer is singing, and I think it means XYZ.

Other listeners just want to be overtaken by the melody and chords and overall feel of a song. They don't care if they can't make out all the words; they actually like it if they can't quite identify all the instruments. These folks want pop music to retain some mystery, even some spookiness. (Encountering "I Am the Walrus" for the first time on a faraway AM station in 1967 -- in mono, of course -- I was frightened by its densely packed cacophony, which was only enhanced by radio static. I'd never heard anything so sinister.)

So, back to the restaurant. The latter group of listeners doesn't care what's in the beef bourguignon: It's just a complex, flavorful stew that tantalizingly withholds some of its secrets. For them, may we suggest "The Beatles in Mono." Bon appetit!

STEREO: Coming at You From All Sides, as the Beatles Intended

By Matt Hurwitz

In the late '60s, with a little prodding from his sons, my father finally gave in and replaced his monaural Garrard turntable with a stereo one. Suddenly, Sgt. Pepper's band sounded so much bigger. And clearer. I could hear two distinct guitars playing, not just a generic guitar sound.

Two decades later, in 1988, I finally broke down and bought a CD player and the first of many Beatles CDs -- now, that was a jump from what I'd been hearing on vinyl for years. There were so many more instruments I'd never noticed. And notes I'd never heard.

On Wednesday, things are about to change once again, as the sound of the Beatles' music takes another giant leap forward.

Twenty-two years after the original release of the Fab Four's British catalogue on CD, the group's music will finally be reissued, the release bearing the fruits of a 4 1/2 -year project by engineers at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London to remaster the entire catalogue. All 13 original albums, from "Please Please Me" to "Let It Be," plus the "Past Masters" collection (now a two-disc set, culling from both sides of all of the group's many non-album hit singles), are being reissued in stereo, individually and in a boxed set that lists for $260. The artwork in the new releases is fully expanded from the simplified four-page booklets of the '80s, with loads of never-seen photos from Apple's archive, along with historical and recording notes.

In addition, for purists and curious fans alike, there is "The Beatles in Mono" box ($298), a collection that contains all 10 of the Beatles' albums as originally released in mono (plus a "Mono Masters" set).

So what's different from those CDs you already have? As any surviving Beatle will tell you -- and both are known to say it -- the Beatles were "a great little band" -- a rock band. What comes through on the new stereo masters is the power and quality of the original recordings of that rock band -- the quality the Beatles themselves would have heard and intended when those recordings were created.

That means you can now hear John Lennon's raucous vocal in all its powerfully shredded glory on "Please Please Me's" "Twist and Shout" (the result of recording the group's first album in one day, with a cold, no less). The Beatles' first four albums were, until now, available on CD only in mono. "A Hard Day's Night's" title track always was a great way to start an album, but its full stereo mix, now presented with vigorous dynamics intact, provides a serious kick. And "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band's" launch once again reminds listeners they're hearing what was the cutting edge of rock-and-roll and creative recording of 1967, its rich, unusual soundscape including some sounds that couldn't be replicated even today.

(For those wondering about "master tapes" and "mastering," the "master tapes" are the original stereo tapes Beatles producer George Martin and his engineers created -- the finished product from their recording sessions. "Mastering" requires the expertise of an engineer who specializes in that next step -- adjusting various bass and treble ranges and other fine-tuning before the disc heads to the pressing plant. "Remastering" means, in this case, using current technology to finalize the recordings so that they sound optimal for modern ears.)

"The technology now is far superior to what it was in the '80s, when we did them in the first place," Abbey Road Beatles project coordinator Allan Rouse told me recently at a private listening session in Hollywood. Rouse, who was accompanied by one of the project's mastering engineers, Guy Massey, joined the studio in 1971. Rouse explained that the massive improvements in digital transfer technology had grown so much over the course of two decades that more of the magnetic tapes' content was recorded into the mastering system than had been done in the '80s.

George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on "The Beatles" (a.k.a. "The White Album") reveals the presence of a Ringo Starr kick drum that was integral to rock's greatest rhythm section, alongside Paul McCartney's bass -- a beat that drives the song with a robust heartbeat not heard before. Not heard, that is, outside of the studio control room at Abbey Road when the song was mixed in late 1968 -- until now. On Abbey Road's "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," one can even hear the tip of Starr's drumsticks as they tap his cymbals -- before, we just heard the ringing of cymbals. Ringo was always there, we just didn't hear him.

In the days of vinyl, Paul and Ringo, though they played with enough punch to "make the needle jump off the record," never got a chance to actually make that happen. A powerful bass line like McCartney's on the 1966 single "Paperback Writer" (found on "Past Masters") had to be toned down during mastering for disc, because such bass recordings would, in fact, cause a phonograph needle to jump from the groove. According to original recording engineer Geoff Emerick, the sound from McCartney's bass speaker cabinet on that track was actually recorded using a similar large speaker cabinet placed face to face with McCartney's, to act as a microphone -- in order to nab all of it. That's what we hear on the new "Past Masters" -- all of the harmonics and dynamics, high and low, of McCartney's Rickenbacker bass guitar.

The remastering team also removed technical flaws, such as pops, clicks and other non-Beatles sounds, leaving the recordings pristine. Gone are McCartney's "p" mike pops (those annoying puffs of air one makes when saying words like "popcorn" or "whisper," in McCartney's case) from "Let It Be," but you can still hear Starr's squeaky bass pedal on 1963's "All I've Got to Do" (from the group's second album, "With the Beatles"). "We weren't trying to change history," Rouse said.

The Beatles, The Beatles Original Catalog - Digitally Remastered (Apple/Capitol/EMI). 5 stars.

Somewhere John Lennon has got to be getting a kick out of this 9-9-09 stuff.

The late Beatle, who famously loved the No. 9, is being showcased along with his Liverpool mates on a date that could not have been more perfectly selected.

On the same day as a new generation of Beatles' fans gets a heavy dose of what the Fab Four were all about through "The Beatles: Rock Band" video game, the group is also releasing - at long, long last - digitally remastered versions of all its studio albums originally issued on vinyl in the U.K. between 1962 and 1970.

For reasons that mere mortals may never quite understand the catalog of the world's most famous band had sounded mostly like rubbish since 1987, when the Beatles' works were officially released on CD. The sound was abysmal compared with the original vinyl masterpieces (especially those luxurious Japanese vinyl pressings) and it took them so long to finally fix the problem that it was worth wondering whether the CD age itself would be over before the job got done.

Mercifully, thanks to a team of engineers working at London's Abbey Road Studios for the past four years, the long wait is over. The results are brilliant. How to compare? Let's put it this way: If you've been listening to just CD versions of the Beatles' music during the past two decades and you suddenly hear these remasters, you'll probably feel like you've wasted years with your head under a pillow deep under water while trying to decipher the greatest music of the 20th Century. It's that big a difference.

Now, voices no longer sound shrill, but alive and exuberant. Just check out the splendor of those Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison three-part harmonies in songs like "This Boy," "And Your Bird Can Sing," or "Because." Strings in tracks like "I Am The Walrus" and acoustic guitars in ballads such as "And I Love Her," sound like they're being played live inside your head. Horns jump out of "Savoy Truffle" turning even mediocre songs into essential listening. Electric guitar parts that always seemed muffled in songs like "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey," are suddenly blasting forth with joyous jolts of clarity and power. If all that's not enough, the bass guitar parts in particular are no longer rumbling and grey but deep and resonant and befitting the intricate, melodic bass lines that McCartney brought to the band's music. Coupled with Ringo Starr's drumming they form a rhythm section that played a hugely underrated part in the Beatles' dynamic combination of grace 'n' fury.

The reissues are being presented in several different formats. For the record, the one being reviewed here is that comprising the individual 14 albums, featuring all 12 the Fab Four released in the U.K. between "Please Please Me" in 1963 and "Let it Be" in 1970. Trivia buffs are aware that while "Let it Be" was the last original album the band released, it was actually primarily recorded in early 1969, and "Abbey Road," recorded later that summer and released in late 1969 was the final album the Beatles ever recorded.

In other words, all of the music found on these extraordinary albums was recorded in just a shade more than seven years. Compare that with the recording frequency of most modern-day artists.

For financial reasons that have been well documented elsewhere, most of the early Beatles' albums in England featured more songs than their U.S. counterparts, which allowed Capitol Records in the States to release more Beatles' albums for several years.

So the 13th album in this set is "Magical Mystery Tour," which was originally released as a double E.P., in England but as a full album in America. Songs not found on the original British releases have been included here under the 14th title "Past Masters," a two CD set featuring plenty of classics like "Hey Jude" and "Day Tripper," as well as rarities like the German language versions of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You."

In addition to being released individually, the albums are also being packaged into a stereo box set, which also includes a DVD. The DVD features all the mini-documentaries concerning the albums which can be found for a limited time on the individual CDs. On the CDs they are playable only on a computer, so that partially explains the appeal of the DVD. Still, they are quite brief, just a few minutes for each album and while pleasant, they are hardly worth going overboard for.

Lastly there is also a mono box set for the more serious collector. That includes the unique mono mixes of the Beatles' first 10 albums (they stopped releasing albums in mono after "The Beatles" the 1968 set also known as "The White Album"). The mono box also includes "Mono Masters," which is similar in scope to "Past Masters." There are some bonuses with that box as well, notably 1965 stereo mixes for "Help!" and "Rubber Soul," just to make life a little more complicated.

But there can be little complication about judging the merits of the music.

The Beatles' debut "Please Please Me," was primarily recorded during a single day in February, 1963 and was essentially a chronicle of the group's stage show at the time. The Lennon and McCartney-penned title track was the band's first No. 1 record in England, but it would be another year before they hit it big in America with "I Want to Hold Your Hand."

Their output was staggering, particularly thanks to the prodigious songwriting of Lennon and McCartney and the slow but steady growth of Harrison. The latter showed early promise in songs like "I Need You," off of 1965's "Help!" and the politically-charged "Taxman" from what was arguably the band's greatest album, 1966's "Revolver." By the time of "The White Album," and "Abbey Road," he was a major force with which to be reckoned, contributing songs that included "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," with Eric Clapton on lead guitar; the love song "Something;" and "Here Comes the Sun," which was one of the first pop songs to utilize the newest instrument of the era, the Moog synthesizer.

Not everything here is flawless. The Beatles' slipped slightly in the middle of their career, bogged down from the pressures to maintain a ridiculous touring, movie-making and recording pace, and the result was album filler like lackluster covers of "Mr. Moonlight" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy." Nearing the breakup of the band they were torn and frazzled and while "Let it Be" has some sparkling segments from their last live appearance on the Apple rooftop in January, 1969, it's also an uneven album.

But they always rebounded. Even when things were on the verge of total collapse in the summer of '69, they recorded their finale, "Abbey Road," which is also typically ranked extremely high among their finest works.

While it's refreshing to hear the band's first four albums sounding this wondrous in stereo - the Beatles and producer George Martin had resisted releasing those four on CD in stereo for ages, insisting that they were meant to be played in mono - audiophiles are likely to find latter-day works like 1967's "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," transcendent in the remastered format. After they quit touring in 1966, the Beatles were artistically and creatively stimulated by studio life, and hearing "A Day in the Life," complete with those ending bits of gibberish from the British LP, or "Strawberry Fields Forever" or "Penny Lane," is like a musical equivalent of that transformation from black and white to color in "The Wizard of Oz."

Looking back, they were utilizing primitive recording techniques, which are described - a bit too frequently to be honest - in the otherwise delightful liner notes booklets that accompany each album. It wasn't until "Abbey Road" that they finally worked with eight-track recording machines, but the sounds they had gotten on simpler equipment in the earlier years by "bouncing down" tracks from one deck to another is an endless testament to the wisdom of the band, their engineers but especially Martin.

Lennon and Harrison are gone now, but McCartney and Starr remain. Martin is 83, retired and partially deaf, but the Beatles work and the contributions of their producer can once again be celebrated thanks to these magnificent sounding recordings. Play them again and again and again and make things even better by playing them on a good sound system. It's the next best thing to being right there in the studio, all those years ago.

BEATLES FOR SALE!

In just 3 days, Beatlemania will strike the US all over again when most of the Fab Four's catalog will be reissued in newly remastered versions -- the first major tweak to the band's sound since the albums first arrived on CD 22 years ago.

On Sept. 9 -- i.e., 09-09-09, as in "Number nine, number nine, number nine," the spoken-word mantra of "Revolution 9" -- hard-core fans will get a chance to blow as much as $600 on music they already know as well as their own heartbeat. But should you blow a month's worth of grocery money or your kids' entire back-to-school budget on albums you already own?

In a word: yes. Here are five reasons why.

1. It's huge.

More than a repurposed roundup for obsessives, EMI and the Beatles' label, Apple Corp. Ltd., set out to ensnare every level of fan this time around, from die-hard, longtime collectors to a whole new generation of listeners.

The main 16-disc set ($259.98) includes stereo versions of the band's 12 British releases, from 1963's "Please Please Me" to 1970's "Let It Be", as well as "Magical Mystery Tour" and "Past Masters Vol. I and II." The albums are also available individually ($18.98) or in pairs ($24.98).

For those who argue that different sounds, instruments and effects (such as the vocal flange on John Lennon's voice in "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds") bubble up only in the mono mixes, there's a second "The Beatles in Mono" collection, offered only as a boxed set ($298.98). Red meat for rabid collectors, it features for the first time CD versions of the mono mixes of "Help!" and "Rubber Soul" (both first released in '65 in stereo), "Revolver," "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "Magical Mystery Tour" and "The Beatles" (a k a "The White Album").

Purists believe the mono mixes are truer to the vision of The Beatles and their producers. Because stereo was still something of a novelty in the mid-'60s, the vast majority of the band's sales came from mono versions. In the studio, the mono masters were considered the final statement on what they wanted. At times, the band was so uninterested in stereo that assistant engineers were given the scut-work of transforming the finished product into something that would wow people with a new-fangled hi-fi.

Perhaps that's why this limited-edition set is already sold-out on Amazon.com, even though it's more expensive than the main box and has fewer albums because "Yellow Submarine," "Abbey Road" and "Let It Be" were recorded in stereo.

2. 'It sounds like it did in the room,' says Sir Paul.

Four years ago, Paul McCartney, Ringo Star, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison gave the project their blessing, and some of the most sunlight-

deprived engineers on the planet, lead by Allan Rouse, went to work at Abbey Road Studios. "It's not as if it's just a bunch of people in China doing it," McCartney told Rolling Stone.

Unofficially, the collection aims to right the wrongs of a 1987 CD set, which many say sounds tinny and harsh, a simulacrum of the original full-bodied LPs. This time, studio wonks cracked open Abbey Road's vault -- twin steel doors sealed with combination locks, monitored by video cameras and protected with alarms and smoke detectors. They pulled out the original studio tapes and ran them through a Sputnik-like array of vintage and state-of-the-art gear to preserve the timeless sound while transferring the remastered masterpieces to CD.

What exactly did remastering involve? The full explanation is as complex as it is coma-inducing. But in the simplest of terms, it involved sharpening the hissy highs and warming up the bass-y lows without actually altering the mix of instruments and sounds.

They also removed noise, but not the kind that adds atmosphere. Coughs, sniffles and even chair squeaks remain -- they're part of the process, engineers say. But microphone pops or drop-outs and other technical glitches were fixed. Some of the more rocking tunes, like "I Am the Walrus" were boosted in volume.

"From a sound standpoint, you definitely can hear the difference between this and what was done 22 years ago," says Bruce Spizer, author of "The Beatles in America," who recently finished writing questions for the forthcoming Beatles edition of Trivial Pursuit. He's one of only a handful of super-fans who heard the re-mastered albums early on and he's been singing its praises ever since. "It is really stunning in clarity. I heard little nuances I'd never heard before."

McCartney put it this way in Rolling Stone: "It sounds like it did in the room when [we] recorded it."

3. It's a bona fide artifact.

The boxed sets are make-goods for collectors, many of whom chafed last Christmas when EMI and Apple offered no new discs but a "White Album"-branded $60 hoodie and $529 fountain pen. This time, EMI veterans Kevin Howlett and Mike Heatley pored over the packaging with a magnifying glass -- literally -- to make sure it resembled the originals to a tee. Each disc comes in shrunken versions of its original LP packaging, replicated right down to labels, fonts and flaws. They went to the ends of the Earth, they said, to assure that photos were matched with precise moments in time and that notes and essays helped draw a clear line through the Beatles saga.

"It's not a collection of everything The Beatles ever did. It's snapshots, really," Heatley says of the writing and pictures included in box-set books. "As you go through each album, there's background on what was going on their lives at the same time they were managing to cram out these wonderful albums."

4. It's bootleg-proof.

Probably the best endorsement of the new set comes from the least likely source: the band's most prolific bootlegger. It'll put him out of business.

In the days before the announcement of a 2009 remastered catalog, hardcore fans who were unsatisfied -- insulted, even -- by the quality of the 1987 CD set turned to unofficial sources for their Beatles fix. "Needle droppers" used advanced equipment to transfer vinyl recordings straight to disc for homemade box sets that they gave away, traded or sold.

The best of the so-called "gray market" sets came from a mysterious fan and audiophile who called himself Dr. Ebbetts. For almost 14 years, he meticulously ripped the highest quality vinyl he could get his precision stylus on, ran tracks through an unknown phalanx of gear and burned entire albums to CD for members of his mailing list. The stated goal was to get fans the best possible CD recordings of Beatles music.

Many agreed that his were the highest quality LP rips out there. But recently one of his followers helped him get an early listen to the remasters. It was like the sun in his universe exploded.

"They are good. Very good," he wrote in a mass e-mail. It made sense. Ebbetts was recording from vinyl discs cut from studio tapes. EMI was working off the tapes directly.

"The remasters sound remarkably well balanced, with solid, punchy bass, smooth mids and not-too-harsh, yet crisp, highs," Ebbetts wrote. "In comparison, many of the Ebbetts masters fall short -- weaker bass, diminished mids and often too-bright highs."

He even found the packaging enchanting. The classic album covers, inserts and sleeves made his seem like cheap, "Xerox machine fodder." The remasters, he said, "will be a collector's nirvana. As Beatles fans, it's what we've prayed for."

The Post asked the Doc via e-mail if the letter was, in fact, his own doing and not a smartly crafted piece of guerrilla marketing by EMI or Apple, or the result of him being paid off or intimidated into retirement by corporate lawyers who've surely followed his project. He confirms it was his own doing. "FOR THE RECORD, you are perfectly correct," he writes.

5. It'll irk cranky critics and impress poker buddies.

Any Beatles record that didn't inspire critics wouldn't be a proper Beatles record at all.

"The almost medical, forensic examination that The Beatles undergo is like nothing any other artist or public figure is subjected to -- Obama might be the only comparable example today," says Richie Unterberger, author of "The Unreleased Beatles: Music & Film." He's skeptical about instances in which engineers said they fixed "bad edits."

"I remember hearing them as an 11-year-old. They never bothered me," Unterberger says. But if they get smoothed over, "it might sound artificial, and you're going to get a lot of people saying, 'That doesn't sound right.' "

Though he hasn't heard the remastered catalog, he says, "It doesn't excite me as much as the record geeks I know."

People will give up sound quality to rip the new CDs to their iPods, anyway. And even the unearthed moments from the studio, Unterberger points out, will likely find their way to the Internet. "You'll probably be able to hear that soon for a lot less money if not for free."

On the other hand, if even 5 percent of fans buy these new discs, he says, "that adds up to about a million people. And they're going to tell their kids," and its likely that the 2009 remasters will become definitive for new generations.

However, the critic who wrote the glowing, Nov. 1969 review of "Abbey Road" in Rolling Stone is unimpressed. Back then, John Mendelsohn opined, "The Beatles can unify seemingly countless musical fragments and lyrical doodlings into a uniformly wonderful suite."

Today, he says he was a star-struck 22-year-old kid in awe of the magazine editors. "I got the idea that they wanted a positive review, so that's what I wrote," Mendelsohn says. Content with his memory of the tunes playing in his friend's high-school cruising vessel, he won't be buying the remasters: "No Beatles track I will ever hear will sound better to me than 'I Feel Fine' sounded in the car radio of a 1962 Pontiac."

And nobody is less interested in the tweaked sounds than the man who helped The Beatles make them.

Geoff Emerick, the Grammy-winning producer and engineer who worked on "Revolver," "Sgt. Pepper," "The White Album," "Abbey Road" and others simply says this:

"I have not heard the re-issues," he says, "and I don't intend to."

Pre-Order The Beatles Rock Band!!!

Nintendo Wii Limited Edition Bundle
XBox 360 Limited Edition Bundle

We talked to a ton of people for this month's The Beatles: Rock Band special, but no one was more special than the legendary Sir Paul McCartney. Aside from being knighted for his unparalleled contributions to music ­ which have also earned him multiple Grammy and Academy Awards ­ McCartney has been a strong advocate for animal rights and music education, and helped organize The Concert for New York City, a charity to aid the families of 9/11 victims. McCartney was an integral advisor for The Beatles: Rock Band video game, and sat down with us to discuss how the game came to fruition, as well as whether the Beatles' music will ever be available for download, and how the newly re-mastered albums sound.

GI: Thanks again for taking some time out of your morning to come and chat with us.

Paul: Yeah, okay man.

GI: It's great to be able to get your thoughts on the game a bit. I was interested to hear how you were first approached about The Beatles: Rock Band project. Did the idea to be involved in video games come from outside, or did you all think you should pursue that option and then sought out a partner?

Paul: We're always kind of looking for ideas. Post-the actual Beatles career, what tends to happen is ideas just come in, people say, "Do you want to do a movie? You wanna do a thing? Do you want to do a show in Vegas?" So we sift those ideas, as they come to us. I believe this came to us via Dhani Harrison, who's a gamer and he's of the generation. So he came up in conversation, "Would you like to do a video game?" And I was like, "Yeah, how would that work? Talk to me." He's like, "You can do this, you can do this, we'll call people who can do it, Harmonix and Rock Band people."

"Yeah, let's just see, let's talk to them." So it came in as an idea and I think just immediately we were interested in it. Then it was either going to be great or not, like The Love Show, like any of these other ideas. If it wasn't a good idea, then we'd go, "We're cool on it." If it's a good idea we heat up; like this one, it just got better and better.

GI: Over the years it's seems like very few projects have had The Beatles officially licensing... What was it do you think that made Rock Band different as you guys were looking at it? What were the high points that made you give the thumbs up?

Paul: Well as I say, you know, talking to the guys who first of all demonstrated the idea to us, and showed us some of their other stuff like Metallica and stuff and said, "This is what it's about." I guess they sold us the idea and it just seemed so attractive. And they said, "You see what it'd be is it'd be you guys, and what we want to do is go back to Cavern and then we want to come through and there would be this period, the psychedelic period, Shea Stadium period." And they told a good story. And I said, "Well, I can see that." Obviously that combined with the fact that we knew this generation of kids and not-kids, there are kind of an awful lot of people who are older that play it, and that it's something that they're passionately interested in. It just obviously made up into an interesting idea. So we just kept saying to them, "Well, if you want to do that song, show us how you might do it. Show us what graphics you would do." And then as it went along we kind of just said, "I look terrible there, that looks nothing like me." And they say, "We're working on it, it's okay." I say, "Ringo doesn't drum like that." So that was really all the input we could give having been there, having made the original records. Then we could say, "Well, that isn't all guitar, that's a piano part."And they'd say, "Yeah, we've got to wangle it a bit."

So it became just fun for us, these sessions we'd have every so often when they operated it. And they were excited. And we were excited. It became a mutual excitement, this idea of, "We can do this, this is going to work." We finally got the eyes right, they're awesome.

GI: The eyes are hard.

Paul: That's exactly what they said to us, the eyes are hard. It's funny, I like that. I'm an enthusiastic person, so I'm intrigued by that kind of thing. I realize now I see some animation things ­ I've got a five-year-old daughter, so I watch a lot of animation films. I notice the eyes are hard. Some people look very weird, because they obviously ran out of budget right about the eyes. So yeah, we just got excited. It just grew to something very exciting.

GI: It's interesting that you bring up the idea of young people, because I wanted to ask you about the fact that this may be, for some young video game players, something that they're going to experience The Beatles' music for the very first time with this game. What is it that you hope they take from your music, approaching it for the very first time maybe years after it's original release?

Paul: I think it's the same thing I want from anything I do, which is for them to like it first of all. That's why we made it in the first place. We wanted to play it to someone, in that case on a mono record player, and then through the ages on CDs, downloads. You just want them to like it. So I think that kids listening to it, I would like them to get into the music and say, "I love this song." (hums "Day Tripper") "I love that one!" So it's the same thing, I just want... I just want to be liked.

[laughter]

Paul: It's the same deal, man. It'll just be a new generation. I like the idea that they may not have ever heard it before. I doubt it would - people come to my concerts, they're like eight-years-old and they know the songs better than I do.

GI: Sure, well that was other thing. The largest majority of people obviously are coming to this being very familiar with your music. So, for that large majority, do you see something new that longtime fans of The Beatles will find to experience, kind of tackling it in a game format like this?

Paul: Yeah, you know what I find about Beatles music, is no matter what format ­ it particularly showed itself to me when I was watching The Love Show ­ is that I hear new things in the records. Because a lot of them we made sort of mono, or we made them in stereo, and to tell you the truth I don't sit around listening to Beatles music all day. So I'd hear it on the radio or someone would play it, or I'd play it on stage. But when you actually sit down and it's there in concentrated form like in a game, it's what you do, is listen to it very hard. You're in it. So that's what I've enjoyed about this. Just today in the little demo they did, "Back in the USSR" and going, "You're missing bonus points!" So I'm going, "Yeah, it's in unison!" So it's stuff that you didn't even realize you were doing is now being fed back to you and pointed out to you. So it's kind of exciting, it's like you were just a cool guy that wore those kinds of clothes, and now you're seeing yourself back and saying, "Jeez that was good! Man, that shirt was dynamite!" Do you know what I mean? Old snapshots of yourself as a kid and saying, "That haircut was pretty cool. I wish I had that shirt now." It's a nice reminder, and it shows off the music very well.

GI: Are there songs that you felt really had to be included in this game? Were there songs in The Beatles' catalog that you felt needed to be there?

Paul: Yeah mine... mine. Basically, mine. [laughs] No, there were certain songs that seemed like they would work better than others. In truth, I took a lot of direction from the game people themselves. They're the people that would tend to know. I'm a good listener, and I don't just walk into a meeting and go, "It's got to be my songs!" I'm kidding with that. When they suggested "Back in the USSR" I thought I could see that. There's enough things in it, enough elements. They do "Helter Skelter," I thought that would work. "Get Back," and certain things. But then there were certain kinds of songs that I don't think they used, maybe something more sort of gentler and acoustic like "Mother Nature's Son," which is more of an album track. So I think it's kind of the obvious game songs they kind of show themselves. Then I say ­ the guys came to us with a list and said, "We'd like these ones."And it was like, "Yeah, okay."

GI: Any ones that you didn't want to have included that you felt strongly about?

Paul: If they thought they could make it happen, I'd let them try it. I'm not like that, "You mustn't touch "Let it Be."" It's like, why not?

GI: Very cool. How about lesser known songs that you felt needed to be there ­ was there anything that you felt needed to show off a particular portion of The Beatles' career? Or a style that you played during a certain period? Did you come to them and be like, "I would really like to see more from this album," or anything like that?

Paul: Well I'd like to say, "Yeah, you know..." but it's not true. The guys made very good decisions. They're really cool, they're into it. This is the thing, it wasn't like I woke up one morning and I want these songs for a game show. It was they came to us and said, "Can we have these songs for our game show?" So it was just a question of looking at what they said and seeing if they'd made good choices. I think they did.

GI: Do you think the game, from what you've seen of it so far, is doing a good job of representing the band's career?

Paul: Yeah, I think it's very in depth. That's what I like about it. It could have just been they've got The Beatles in their Ed Sullivan outfits on stage somewhere and you played all the songs. But this was the nice thing about it, as you said, why would you do a project like that? It's a question of "Okay, sell us on it. What would you do that's different? What's going to be fun? Excite me." Well, first of all, we want to go through the phases. That was taken care of, they just immediately laid that out as a given. So I was like, "Well, that's good." Then they started to get in depth. If you get certain bonus points, you get information. You get interesting anecdotes. One of my roles, and Ringo's roles was to check those. I was letting them flash by one demo, and I, "Woah, wait a minute, if this is going out then it's like the new Bible." This is like if these go out and we've endorsed it, these better be right. So I said, "Just slow that down, read this out to me... Paul said to John... oh, now that's not right. No, no what I said was we should..." They said, "Oh, great," and then they took notes. So they were very good that way. They had it pretty much laid out, but we were there to fine tune it. Particularly things like that. Certain little anecdotes that had become fan mythology, but in actual fact aren't right. Those are bound in Beatles legends. So you've got to put a few of those right, but we took the time and they were very keen to do that. So we'd just sort of say, "That's not quite how George moved." And we'd say, "Go back to some more film." And, "Yeah, okay."

GI: Have you had a chance to play either of the other Rock Band games?

Paul: I've had a chance, but I haven't dared because the people demonstrating are so damned good that I'd need to get it in a room for a day.

GI: I bet they'd do that for you if you asked them.

Paul: No, I will definitely do it. Now it's a game, I'll get one. I might even get a free one. I will now learn it. I saw what they were doing and I understand what they were doing, but it's a completely different technique to what we did, because we actually played the notes. Yeah, I'll definitely have a go at it. I have a son who's 30, so he's a big gamer, he gamed through a lot of the early stuff. I was thinking the other day, "God, that's a long way from ping pong." Do you remember standing in front of that huge set? How exciting was that? Get a bit of English on it. But his generation went through stuff like - I like Pilotwings and stuff like that. I liked the way you used to crash on purpose: "No!"

GI: I grew up in the same generation as him, so I remember those game well.

Paul: So those are great, and I say I played a bunch of that along with them, so I know the excitement of it. I just never got into it as much as the guys did, because I was doing other stuff.

GI: We were talking at the office when we first heard about the decision that you guys were going to be going with Rock Band. The appearance of this game sort of seems to indicate some willingness to allow Beatles to appear in some new formats that you're exploring. It brought up the question for us of whether you think we'll ever see some form of that kind of digital download options for people to hear the band's music? Or do you think that's something that's totally pie in the sky?

Paul: No, it's something we want. What happened is we started talking about it a few years ago, and with The Beatles, fortunately or unfortunately depending on your perspective, there are different elements. There's The Beatles themselves, Apple, and we kind of hold a lot of the rights so we can a bunch of decisions, but then you've got EMI who's our label, they hold a lot of cards too. Then we've got various other people involved. You would have iTunes or somebody involved wherever your person was going to be. So we started talking along those lines, but I'm not going to kind of dish the dirt, but one of the elements saw things wrong about the deal and got worried about certain key elements that we sort of assured and said, "You don't need to worry about that, it's going to be okay." Which has been our life, there's always someone saying, "You can't put all those people on the cover of Seargent Pepper, they'll sue you." These kind of issues still exist with labels particularly, they're dinosaurs, so you can't always do exactly what you want. And that's the case; there's a bit of a long jump, and I'm hoping it will free up because I think it will be good for everyone. As you know, I don't mind if I come out as a tape cassette, as a CD, as a download, or as a cylinder. You know, George Martin used to come out on cylinder, well we used to joke that he did.

(laughter)

But you know what I mean? It doesn't matter really what format. You can make it out of pie pastry if you want, if you can get in on that.

GI: So you'd like to see that happen?

Paul: Yeah, I'd very much like to see that happen, it's just another way for people to hear our music, and for it to reach people. I don't mind how they want, it's not to do with me how people want to listen to it.

GI: 9/9/09 is going to be kind of a big day for you guys, certainly, with the game coming out, but it's also this remastering of the original music coming out. Have you been involved in that process at all?

Paul: Yeah, we've been involved in all the processes. We were very hands-on originally making the music, and now that it's now that it's done and it's a body of work, if it's ever going to released, re-released, 5.1 whatever thing they're going to do, we listen to it, we go somewhere ­ probably Abby Road ­ and we have a session, and we just check that we're happy with it. Everything that goes out we're happy with, so yeah, we do get involved.

GI: The process is still going well? Are they done now and just waiting to release?

Paul: Yeah, it's all waiting for release. Yeah, it's all done. And it's good, you know, we ask the same questions that people would ask which is kind of, "Well, why do you need to do it?" Because they've been remastered, but the point is that now the technology is so much better. Then it was really just they said, "Why are you doing it?" We said, "To get rid of the hiss." That was like the original story as you remember, I'm sure. Now it's not that anymore, in getting rid of the hiss you lost a bunch of stuff, so now you can do it much better now. So people can play on the new formats and it sounds... You know, I made a point a few years ago when this was happening, I went to a museum and saw Winston Churchill's papers from his Prime Ministership of England during the war, and they were getting older, and browner, and crinklier. Then I went pretty soon after to a Beatles session and our songs were getting cleaner, shinier, and I was in the room with John, it felt like the session. Whereas we had always been in speakers on the wall, now we were like ­ the new experience of technology ­ I was actually in the room again with John. Of course that was magical for me, because he'd passed years before. It was like, "Shit, wow." And so whereas Winston's papers are crinkling, we're getting better and better. It's uncanny. We should be fading and getting crinkly. I love it.

GI: I'm sure that's a fascinating experience.

Paul: It's nearer to the actual sound in the room when we made the record. It actually sounds like John is there singing, and I can see the mic, and I can relive the experience. So can fans, is the main thing. When people say, "It was originally made in mono, you should have kept it like that," I say, "well go buy the mono, it's still available, you can buy it if that's what you want."

GI: It's still there!

Paul: "...you do that, and we'll do this." Take your choice. It's up to the people to choose, they got the right. Now they're choosing games.

Singles:
"I Want To Hold Your Hand"
"I Feel Fine"
"Day Tripper"
"Paperback Writer"
"Revolution"
"Don't Let Me Down"

Please Please Me:
"I Saw Her Standing There"
"Boys"
"Do You Want To Know A Secret"
"Twist and Shout"

With the Beatles:
"I Wanna Be Your Man"

A Hard Day's Night:
"A Hard Day's Night"
"Can't Buy Me Love"

Beatles For Sale:
"Eight Days a Week"

Help!:
"Ticket To Ride"

Rubber Soul:
"Drive My Car"
"I'm Looking Through You"
"If I Needed Someone"

Revolver:
"Taxman"
"Yellow Submarine"
"And Your Bird Can Sing"

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band:
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little Help From My Friends"
"Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"
"Getting Better"
"Good Morning Good Morning"

Magical Mystery Tour:
"I Am The Walrus"
"Hello Goodbye"

The Beatles (White Album):
"Dear Prudence"
"Back In the U.S.S.R."
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
"Birthday"
"Helter Skelter"

Yellow Submarine:
"Hey Bulldog"

Abbey Road:
"Come Together"
"Something"
"Octopus's Garden"
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)"
"Here Comes the Sun"

Let It Be:
"Dig a Pony"
"I Me Mine"
"I Got a Feeling"
"Get Back"

Love:
"Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows"

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- There I was, trying to wedge a microphone under my arm while simultaneously pressing colored buttons on a plastic guitar with my left hand, strumming it with my right hand and crooning, "I want to hold your hand ..."

So while it's theoretically possible, "The Beatles: Rock Band" -- whose 9/9/09 release coincides with the debut of remastered versions of the Beatles catalog -- should not be played alone. Besides the impracticality of multiple-instrument play without the right equipment, there is something rather lonely about attempting to play in a world-famous band by yourself.

When there are a lot of people in the room, however, the game -- which allows players to emulate the guitar, drums and vocals of the famous British foursome -- does make for a great time and will probably be a hit at parties. Depending on how many controllers you've got, six people can join in the musical fun at once.

Even when you're not playing, there's a lot going on. You can watch animated re-creations of the Beatles rocking out on the TV screen, and enjoy the colorful graphics, while your friends try to hit the notes. There's a somewhat accurate animated version of John Lennon looking right at you!

The songs span some of the greatest hits of the Fab Four, from "A Hard Day's Night" to "Twist and Shout" to what the game deems most difficult to play: "Helter Skelter." Watching the screen, I couldn't help think of the movie "Across the Universe" -- but that's because I was born decades after the Beatles broke up.

On "quickplay" mode, you can choose from dozens of songs on demand, but to get the full experience, you have to go into the "story." That means starting at Liverpool's Cavern Club in 1963 and progressing in time as the band got more famous.

I tried out only the first two venues, but apparently you get to continue playing with the boys right on through their fabled 1965 Shea Stadium concert and 1969 rooftop performance at Apple Music headquarters in London.

The further you get in the game, the more songs and other goodies you unlock. I collected a few photographs in my gameplay but not enough to get a "prize" or hear the much-publicized greeting from John Lennon on a rare 1963 Beatles Christmas record.

While you're gearing up for your next performance, you can see footage or animation of the Beatles in various settings. And if the 45 songs that come with the game aren't enough, you can go online and download more for $1.99 each.

I found the difficulty levels on "The Beatles: Rock Band" to be easier than in the traditional "Rock Band" games. On many of the songs, "easy" is quite rudimentary; in fact, while attempting to both sing and play guitar without a microphone stand, I cleared one song with a mere 26 percent accuracy on vocals.

"Medium" on guitar and drums with the Beatles also seems easier than "medium" on "Rock Band," while "hard" was sometimes just challenging enough for people who had played many times before, with "expert" mode still perhaps beyond reach.

The audio of the Beatles singing is also more prominent than the vocalists on the regular Rock Band tracks. In other words, it's quite clear that you're singing with the Beatles and not replacing them.

With more than one microphone, multiple singers can try out "harmonies," a feature that distinguishes "The Beatles: Rock Band" from its predecessors. When you've got only one microphone, as I did, this means stumbling around with your voice, challenging yourself to hit something that kind of sounds good with the track that's playing but that isn't the melody. The game doesn't penalize you for not singing harmonies, but finding the right blend is an interesting challenge that will surely appeal to more sophisticated vocalists.

When multiple players fail out and you have to start again, there's no booing; after all, who would boo the Beatles?

Wondering about the larger importance of the game for music history and proficiency, I consulted two experts.

Steve Everett, professor of music at Emory University, said the concept of "The Beatles: Rock Band" engages kids to learn about an important 20th-century cultural phenomenon. The band members were icons of a 1960s generational shift that called for new social structures, questioned institutions and carried a "certain optimism," he said.

Will games like "Rock Band" discourage people from taking up real instruments? Dan Trueman, professor of music at Princeton University and a director of the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, isn't worried. The people who really want to become musicians will do so, he said in an e-mail.

"I think this looks like a great way to have an intense, physical listening experience with music," Trueman said.

"The more exposure to music, and in as many ways and contexts as possible, the better," he said.

The game, which I played on an XBox 360, is also available for Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii. For a hefty $249.99, you can even buy a limited-edition Beatles guitar and drum set.

LONDON: BEATLEMANIA is set to break out again this week when The Beatles' digitally remastered albums and a new computer game are released as the world's most famous pop group finally embraces the digital age.

The legendary British quartet's entire back catalogue has been remastered and cleaned up, while the Fab Four appear in "The Beatles: Rock Band", which is tipped to become one of the world's biggest selling games.

The Beatles' company Apple Corps has historically shunned releasing their music in digital formats due to piracy concerns.

But "Rock Band" players will be able to download entire albums in the coming months as the 1960s icons catch up with 21st century technology.

The Beatles' back catalogue was first released on compact disc in 1987, though many fans felt the sound quality did not match the original vinyl, while technological advances since then have highlighted flaws and imperfections.

The new versions, to be released on Wednesday, include the group's 12 albums, plus the "Magical Mystery Tour" soundtrack and the "Past Masters" releases covering non-album singles.

Some are tipping them to dominate the charts around the globe.

Two box sets are also being released: one in stereo and the other in mono.

The albums are those released in Britain, and retain the original artwork and track listings.

It is the first time that the group's first four albums - "Please Please Me", "With The Beatles", "A Hard Day's Night" and "Beatles for Sale" - have been released on compact disc entirely in stereo.

The albums were digitally remastered over a four-year period at Abbey Road Studios in London, where The Beatles - lead guitarist George Harrison, rhythm guitarist John Lennon, bassist Paul McCartney and drummer Ringo Starr - recorded most of their music.

The remasters were done "utilising state of the art recording technology alongside vintage studio equipment, carefully maintaining the authenticity and integrity of the original analogue recordings," Apple Corps and record label EMI said.

"The result of this painstaking process is the highest fidelity the catalogue has seen since its original release.

"It was agreed that electrical clicks, microphone vocal pops, excessive sibilance and bad edits should be improved where possible, so long as it didn't impact on the original integrity of the songs," they said.

De-noising technology was only used for less than five of The Beatles' 525 minutes of music.

To mark the revival, the BBC is running a Beatles Week, with programmes examining the band in the studio, their first visit to the United States, their impact in the former Soviet Union and the Beatlemania phenomenon. The broadcasts feature previously unreleased out-takes and studio chat.

Meanwhile the Fab Four have been recreated in virtual forms in "The Beatles: Rock Band", a game that lets players join the band as they springboard from gigs in their native Liverpool, northwest England, to global stardom.

Players strum away at plastic replicas of guitars played by Lennon, Harrison and McCartney, keep the beat on a version of Starr's drum kit, or try out Beatles harmonies.

Forty-five songs are included with the videogame, and more of the bands' tunes will be sold as digital downloads from the Internet.

The "Abbey Road" album will be released in October, followed by "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" in November and "Rubber Soul" in December.

The videogame will be available for play on the three major consoles: Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, and Nintendo's Wii.

A 30-second clip has been produced to promote the game, using archive footage, actors and computer trickery to bring the famous "Abbey Road" cover to life.

"The project is a fun idea which broadens the appeal of The Beatles and their music," McCartney said.

The concept for the videogame was honed with input from McCartney and Starr as well as from Beatles widows Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison.

"How wonderful that The Beatles' legacy will find its natural progression into the 21st century through the computerised world we live in," Starr said.

"The game is good, the graphics are very good - and we were great."

World Premiere: "Studio 2" - Beatles Tribute Song - Fab 4 Radio (Internet)

Beatles tribute song chosen for world premiere. Fab 4 Radio mainly plays songs of The Beatles. Quite selective, only the best new is accepted. Fab 4 Radio calls "Studio 2" -- Cool.

Beatlemania lives, especially in Las Vegas, where the Cirque du Soleil's Love is still a smash and Beatles tribute bands perform nightly. "The songs of The Beatles have a magic quality that transcends time," says Bill Donati.

Byron's Dream, Bill's new CD, includes a whimsical song about EMI's Abbey Road and seeing the group perform on August 19, 1966, in Memphis. "I saw both shows," says Donati. "I sat right behind the stage. We were all curious about their secret sessions at EMI's Abbey Road studio. The songs had a unique sound.

"Fab 4 Radio's debut of my song is a thrill. The station has a great playlist with listeners in 50 nations. I couldn't get George, but I got Jimmy," says Donati, referring to famous musician Jimmy Pou who toured the world as Harrison in Beatlemania. "Jimmy co-produced Byron's Dream. He is a fabulous guitarist and will be in Liverpool in late August performing his tribute to George Harrison." Recorded at Nactrax in Las Vegas; available on CD Baby on August 19.

Listen to The Beatles 24/7 on our very own FAB4 RADIO.COM Internet Radio

CLICK THE PLAYER TO LISTEN To The BEATLES
while you surf the web...

(available on iPhones thru RadioTime.com)

Beatles 'shark' Klein dies at 77

Music entrepreneur Allen Klein, blamed by many for contributing to the demise of The Beatles, has died in New York at 77 after suffering from Alzheimer's.

In a career spanning five decades, Klein earned a reputation as a ruthless operator, extracting lucrative deals from labels for his clients.

In the mid-1960s, he managed The Rolling Stones for five years.

Later managing The Beatles, he tried and failed to secure control of copyrights on their behalf.

Though reviled by many, others admired his ability to negotiate with record labels.

"Don't talk to me about ethics," he once told Playboy magazine. "Every man makes his own. It's like a war."

He said John Lennon had hired him to protect his interest in The Beatles, because he wanted what he called "a real shark - someone to keep the other sharks away".

Charity gig

Klein helped the Stones negotiate a new contract with their label but the relationship soured after he bought the rights to the band's 1960s songs and recordings - classics like (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction and Jumpin' Jack Flash - from a former manager.

Keith Richards later described Klein's time with the group as "the price of an education".

The Beatles hired Klein in 1969 over the objections of Paul McCartney, who preferred his father-in-law, Lee Eastman.

At the time, a New York Times profile referred to him as "the toughest wheeler-dealer in the pop jungle".

Klein himself once sent out a holiday card parodying the 23rd Psalm:

"Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, because I'm the biggest bastard in the valley."

His copyright battle for the Beatles came as tensions among the four reached breaking-point.

Eventually he did score a rich recording deal for The Beatles but by then John, Paul, George and Ringo were not even on speaking terms, and the band dissolved in 1970.

One year later, however, George Harrison hired Klein to put on the all-star Concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden in New York - the forerunner of the mammoth charity gigs of the 1980s and 1990s.

Accountant at heart

"I never wanted to be a manager," Klein told The Star-Ledger of Newark in 2002. "It was going over the books that I loved. And I was good at it."

Allen Klein was born in Newark, New Jersey, on December 18, 1931 and spent several years in an orphanage after his mother's death during his infancy.

Later raised by a grandmother and an aunt, he served in the US Army before joining a Manhattan accounting firm, according to his company.

He started his own firm, which later became ABKCO, in the late 1950s.

His other clients in the music business including Sam Cooke, Bobby Darin and Herman's Hermits.

According to the Associated Press, he was reputed to be the basis for the slick manager Ron Decline played by Jon Belushi in the 1978 film The Rutles, as well as the inspiration for John Lennon's 1974 song Steel and Glass.

His funeral will take place in New York on Tuesday.

Michael Jackson's death won't affect any Beatles-iTunes deal

Michael Jackson's position in long-time efforts to make the much-coveted Beatles catalog available digitally is one of the most misunderstood aspects in the very complicated negotiations.

The sudden death of one of the world's best known entertainers on Thursday will have no impact on whether songs from the Fab Four will finally make it to iTunes and other Web music stores. Rumors aside, no deals are imminent, music sources told CNET News.

Jackson bought ATV Music Publishing, the company that owned the words and music to 250 Beatles songs, nearly 25 years ago. He sold a 50 percent share in the company to Sony in 1995 and together they operated Sony/ATV. The actual recordings of the Beatles playing their songs is owned by EMI, one of the four largest music labels, and Apple Corp., the company that looks after the Beatles' business holdings and rights.

What that means is that if you want to record and release a version of "Help," then you need to compensate Sony/ATV. A filmmaker wishing to add a recording of the Beatles performing the song to a soundtrack must negotiate with EMI and Apple Corp.

In the latter scenario, Sony/ATV would collect a share of that deal and could veto it since the company owns the copyrights to the music and words. That typically doesn't happen, and to be clear: Sony/ATV has never stood in the way of a digital deal for the Beatles catalog, according to sources with knowledge of the negotiations. Indeed, the sources said that Jackson and Sony/ATV welcomed it.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Jackson was in financial trouble at the time of his death. Jackson borrowed twice against his Sony/ATV stake, according to the Journal story. How that will affect Jackson's stake in Sony/ATV, which was held in trust, is unclear.

"Jackson was incredibly proud of his association with Sony/ATV Music Publishing and his role in the company," said a company representative. "He was a great partner."

Correction: Michael Jackson borrowed against his stake in Sony/ATV, and how that will impact the company is unclear.

In an incident that raised the ire of Beatles fans all over the world, Jackson in 1984 managed to buy the Beatles catalog in spite of efforts of others, including Paul McCartney, to buy it. He then gained the rights to most of the Beatles catalog.

In years since, because of financial troubles, Jackson has lost full ownership of the catalog.

In January, Spinner.com had reported a UK Daily Mirror tabloid report that Michael Jackson had reportedly left the Beatles catalog to Paul McCartney in his will. Of course, like most tabloid headlines, this story is as solid as sawdust.

In actuality, probably nothing may happen, since the catalog is not solely owned by Jackson anymore, but was the property of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, of which he only owned 50 per cent interest.

But even if Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono or any of the Beatles brain trust is able to get the catalog back under their control, this Jackson maneuver will never be forgotten.

THE BEATLES' ENTIRE ORIGINAL RECORDED CATALOGUE REMASTERED BY APPLE CORPS LTD. AND EMI MUSIC FOR WORLDWIDE RELEASE ON SEPTEMBER 9, 2009

London, England - Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music are delighted to announce the release of the original Beatles catalogue, which has been digitally re-mastered for the first time, for worldwide CD release on Wednesday, September 9, 2009 (9-9-09), the same date as the release of the widely anticipated "The Beatles: Rock Band" video game. Each of the CDs is packaged with replicated original UK album art, including expanded booklets containing original and newly written liner notes and rare photos. For a limited period, each CD will also be embedded with a brief documentary film about the album. On the same date, two new Beatles boxed CD collections will also be released.

The albums have been re-mastered by a dedicated team of engineers at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London over a four year period utilising state of the art recording technology alongside vintage studio equipment, carefully maintaining the authenticity and integrity of the original analogue recordings. The result of this painstaking process is the highest fidelity the catalogue has seen since its original release.

The collection comprises all 12 Beatles albums in stereo, with track listings and artwork as originally released in the UK, and 'Magical Mystery Tour,' which became part of The Beatles' core catalogue when the CDs were first released in 1987. In addition, the collections 'Past Masters Vol. I and II' are now combined as one title, for a total of 14 titles over 16 discs. This will mark the first time that the first four Beatles albums will be available in stereo in their entirety on compact disc. These 14 albums, along with a DVD collection of the documentaries, will also be available for purchase together in a stereo boxed set.

© Apple Corps Ltd, 2009

Within each CD's new packaging, booklets include detailed historical notes along with informative recording notes. With the exception of the 'Past Masters' set, newly produced mini-documentaries on the making of each album, directed by Bob Smeaton, are included as QuickTime files on each album. The documentaries contain archival footage, rare photographs and never-before-heard studio chat from The Beatles, offering a unique and very personal insight into the studio atmosphere.

A second boxed set has been created with the collector in mind. 'The Beatles in Mono' gathers together, in one place, all of the Beatles recordings that were mixed for a mono release. It will contain 10 of the albums with their original mono mixes, plus two further discs of mono masters (covering similar ground to the stereo tracks on 'Past Masters'). As an added bonus, the mono "Help!" and "Rubber Soul" discs also include the original 1965 stereo mixes, which have not been previously released on CD. These albums will be packaged in mini-vinyl CD replicas of the original sleeves with all original inserts and label designs retained.

The Stereo Albums (available individually and collected in a stereo boxed set)

The stereo albums have been remastered by Guy Massey, Steve Rooke, Sam Okell with Paul Hicks and Sean Magee. All CD packages contain original vinyl artwork and liner notes, extensive archival photos. Additional historical notes by Kevin Howlett and Mike Heatley. Additional recording notes by Allan Rouse and Kevin Howlett

* = CD includes QuickTime mini-doc about the album

Please Please Me* (CD debut in stereo)
With The Beatles* (CD debut in stereo)
A Hard Day's Night* (CD debut in stereo)
Beatles For Sale* (CD debut in stereo)
Help!*
Rubber Soul*
Revolver*
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band* (also includes 1987 notes, updated, and new intro by Paul McCartney)
Magical Mystery Tour*
The Beatles*
Yellow Submarine* (also includes original US liner notes)
Abbey Road*
Let It Be*
Past Masters (contains new liner notes written by Kevin Howlett)

'The Beatles in Mono' (boxed set only)

The mono albums have been remastered by Paul Hicks, Sean Magee with Guy Massey and Steve Rooke. Presented together in box with an essay written by Kevin Howlett.

+ = mono mix CD debut

Please Please Me
With The Beatles
A Hard Day's Night
Beatles For Sale
Help! (CD also includes original 1965 stereo mix)+
Rubber Soul (CD also include original 1965 stereo mix)+
Revolver+
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band+
Magical Mystery Tour+
The Beatles+
Mono Masters

Re-mastering the Beatles catalogue

The re-mastering process commenced with an extensive period conducting tests before finally copying the analogue master tapes into the digital medium. When this was completed, the transfer was achieved using a Pro Tools workstation operating at 24 bit 192 kHz resolution via a Prism A-D converter. Transferring was a lengthy procedure done a track at a time. Although EMI tape does not suffer the oxide loss associated with some later analogue tapes, there was nevertheless a slight build up of dust, which was removed from the tape machine heads between each title.

>From the onset, considerable thought was given to what audio restorative processes were going to be allowed. It was agreed that electrical clicks, microphone vocal pops, excessive sibilance and bad edits should be improved where possible, so long as it didn't impact on the original integrity of the songs.

In addition, de-noising technology, which is often associated with re-mastering, was to be used, but subtly and sparingly. Eventually, less than five of the 525 minutes of Beatles music was subjected to this process. Finally, as is common with today's music, overall limiting - to increase the volume level of the CD - has been used, but on the stereo versions only. However, it was unanimously agreed that because of the importance of The Beatles' music, limiting would be used moderately, so as to retain the original dynamics of the recordings.

When all of the albums had been transferred, each song was then listened to several times to locate any of the agreed imperfections. These were then addressed by Guy Massey, working with Audio Restoration engineer Simon Gibson.

Mastering could now take place, once the earliest vinyl pressings, along with the existing CDs, were loaded into Pro Tools, thus allowing comparisons to be made with the original master tapes during the equalization process. When an album had been completed, it was auditioned the next day in studio three - a room familiar to the engineers, as all of the recent Beatles mixing projects had taken place in there - and any further alteration of EQ could be addressed back in the mastering room. Following the initial satisfaction of Guy and Steve, Allan Rouse and Mike Heatley then checked each new re-master in yet another location and offered any further suggestions. This continued until all 13 albums were completed to the team's satisfaction.

New Notes/Documentaries Team

Kevin Howlett (Historical and Recording Notes) - Kevin Howlett's career as an award-winning radio producer spans three decades. His music programmes for the BBC have included many documentaries about The Beatles, including 'The Beeb's Lost Beatles Tapes.' He received a Grammy nomination for his involvement with The Beatles' album 'Live At The BBC' and, in 2003, produced the 'Fly On The Wall' bonus disc for 'Let It Be... Naked.'

Mike Heatley (Historical Notes) - Mike entered the music business via HMV Record Stores in 1970, transferring to EMI Records' International Division three years later. He eventually headed up that division in the early Eighties before joining the company's newly created Strategic Marketing Division in 1984. In 1988, he returned to International, where he undertook a number of catalogue marketing roles until he retired in December 2008.

During his career he worked with many of EMI's major artists, including Pink Floyd, Queen, Kate Bush and Iron Maiden. However, during the last 30 years he has formed a particularly strong relationship with Apple, and has been closely involved in the origination and promotion of the Beatles catalogue, besides solo releases from John, Paul, George and Ringo.

Bob Smeaton (Director, Mini-Documentaries) - Bob Smeaton was series director and writer on the Grammy award winning 'Beatles Anthology' TV series which aired in the UK and the USA in 1995. In 1998 he received his second Grammy for his 'Jimi Hendrix: Band of Gypsys' documentary. In 2004 he gained his first feature film credit, as director on the feature documentary 'Festival Express.' He subsequently went on to direct documentaries on many of the world's biggest music acts including The Who, Pink Floyd, The Doors, Elton John, Nirvana and the Spice Girls.

Julian Caiden (Editor, Mini-Documentaries) - Julian has worked with Bob Smeaton on numerous music documentaries including 'Jimi Hendrix: Band of Gypsys' and the 'Classic Albums' series, featuring The Who, Pink Floyd, The Doors, Elton John and Nirvana among others. He has worked on documentary profiles from Richard Pryor to Dr. John to Sir Ian McKellen, Herbie Hancock and Damien Hirst and on live music shows including the New York Dolls and Club Tropicana.

The Abbey Road Team

Allan Rouse (Project Coordinator) - Allan joined EMI straight from school in 1971 at their Manchester Square head office, working as an assistant engineer in the demo studio. During this time he frequently worked with Norman (Hurricane) Smith, The Beatles' first recording engineer.

In 1991, he had his first involvement with The Beatles, copying all of their master tapes (mono, stereo, 4-track and 8-track) to digital tape as a safety backup. This was followed by four years working with Sir George Martin as assistant and project coordinator on the TV documentary 'The Making of Sgt. Pepper's' and the CDs 'Live at the BBC' and 'The Anthology.'

In 1997, MGM/UA were preparing to reissue the film 'Yellow Submarine' and, with the permission of Apple, asked that all of The Beatles' music be mixed for the film in 5.1 surround and stereo. Allan requested the services of Abbey Road's senior engineer Peter Cobbin and assistant Guy Massey and, along with them, produced the new mixes.

Two years later, he proposed an experimental stereo and surround mix of John Lennon's song 'Imagine' engineered by Peter Cobbin. Following lengthy consultations with Yoko Ono, the album 'Imagine' was re-mixed in stereo and the Grammy award-winning film 'Gimme Some Truth' in surround and new stereo. This led to a further five of John's albums being re-mastered with new stereo mixes and the DVD release of 'Lennon Legend' being re-mixed in 5.1 surround and new stereo.

Further projects followed, including The Beatles 'Anthol¬ogy', 'The First US Visit' and 'Help' DVD and the albums 'Let It Be...Naked' and 'Love' along with George Harrison's 'Concert for Bangladesh' DVD and album.

For a number of years now, Allan has worked exclusively on Beatles and related projects.

Guy Massey (Recording Engineer) - Guy joined Abbey Road in 1994, and five years later assisted on the surround remix for The Beatles film 'Yellow Submarine.' This led to The Beatles' 'Anthology' DVD and later, along with Paul Hicks and Allan Rouse, they mixed and produced 'Let It Be... Naked.' In 2004 he left the studios to become freelance and has engineered The Divine Comedy: 'Victory for the Comic Muse,' Air Traffic: 'Fractured Life,' James Dean Bradfield: 'The Great Western' and Stephen Fretwell's 'Magpie,' co-producing the last two. Since leaving, Guy is still a vital member of the team, and has been the senior engineer for the re-mastering project and was responsible for surround and new stereo mixes for the DVD release of 'Help!'

Steve Rooke (Mastering Engineer) - Steve joined Abbey Road in 1983 and is now the studio's senior mastering engineer. He has been involved on all The Beatles' projects since 1999. He has also been responsible for mastering releases by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Paul Hicks (Recording Engineer) - Paul started at Abbey Road in 1994, and his first involvement with The Beatles was assisting engineer Geoff Emerick on the Anthology albums. This was followed by 'Yellow Submarine Songtrack,' 'Anthology' DVD and 'Let It Be... Naked.' Like Guy Massey, he has also become a freelance engineer and since leaving the studios he has been responsible for the surround mixing of Paul McCartney's DVD 'The McCartney Years' and The Beatles' 'Love.' Paul has been in charge of the mono re-masters.

Sean Magee (Mastering Engineer) - Sean began working at Abbey Road in 1995 with a diploma in sound engineering. With a wealth of knowledge in analog and digital mastering, he has worked alongside Paul Hicks on the mono re-masters.

Sam Okell (Recording Engineer) - Sam's first job as a member of the team was in 2006, assisting Paul Hicks on Paul McCartney's DVD 'The McCartney Years,' and during that same year he was responsible for the re-mastering of George Harrison's 'Living In The Material World' CD along with Steve Rooke. This led to him restoring the soundtrack to the Beatles film 'Help!' in surround and stereo, in addition to assisting Guy Massey with the song remixes.

Sam has re-mastered 'With The Beatles' and 'Let It Be.'

Simon Gibson (Audio Restoration Engineer) - Simon joined Abbey Road in 1990. He has progressed from mastering mostly classical recordings to include a much wider range of music, including pop and rock, with his specialized role as an audio restoration engineer. Apart from the re-mastering project, his other work includes George Harrison's 'Living In The Material World,' John Lennon's 'Lennon Legend,' The Beatles' 'Love' and the 'Help!' DVD soundtrack.

APPLE CORPS LTD., MTV AND HARMONIX ANNOUNCE "THE BEATLES: ROCK BAND", WORLDWIDE RELEASE SET FOR 9/9/09
(http://www.thebeatlesrockband.com)

The music-based video game, an unprecedented, experiential progression through and celebration of the music and artistry of The Beatles, will be available simultaneously worldwide in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and other territories for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system and Wii home videogame console from Nintendo.

The Beatles: Rock Band will allow fans to pick up the guitar, bass, mic or drums and experience The Beatles extraordinary catalogue of music through gameplay that takes players on a journey through the legacy and evolution of the band's legendary career. In addition, The Beatles: Rock Band will offer a limited number of new hardware offerings modeled after instruments used by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr throughout their career.

The Beatles: Rock Band will be offered as standalone software and hardware as well as a limited edition bundle. The game will be compatible with all Rock Band instrument controllers and other current music-based video game peripherals.

* Available on 9/9/09: The Beatles: Rock Band Software - Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii: $59.99 MSRP
* The Beatles: Rock Band Standalone Guitars - Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii: $99.99 MSRP
* The Beatles: Rock Band Limited Edition Premium Bundle: Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii: $249.99 MSRP

Please note: Pricing outside of the US to be announced at a later date.

The Beatles: Rock Band marks the first time that Apple Corps, along with EMI Music, Harrisongs Ltd, and Sony/ATV Music Publishing, has agreed to present The Beatles music in an interactive video game format. The Beatles: Rock Band will be published by MTV Games and developed by Harmonix, the world's premier music video game company and creators of the best-selling Rock Band. Electronic Arts will serve as distribution partner for the game. In addition, Giles Martin, co-producer of The Beatles innovative LOVE album project, is providing his expertise and serving as Music Producer for this groundbreaking Beatles project.

Exclusive content created by Apple Corps, MTV Games and Harmonix will be made available to fans over the next few months who participate in a pre-order campaign through major retailers. More details on The Beatles: Rock Band game and pre-order will be revealed in the coming months.

Please visit thebeatlesrockband.com.

The music of The Beatles will arrive as a playable video game for the first time on September 9, 2009 when The Beatles: Rock Band hits stores in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The game, which will be available for Xbox, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii on the same day, "takes players on a journey through the legacy and evolution of the band's legendary career," according to a press release issued by the title's makers, Apple Corps, Harmonix and MTV Games. While there's no playlist or word about venues and avatars, there will be a limited number of instruments issued that are modeled after guitars, basses and drums John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr used (regular Rock Band peripherals will be compatible, too).

Three offerings will be released on September 9th: The Beatles: Rock Band software; standalone guitars; and a limited edition premium bundle that will presumably include the game and some configuration of instruments. And there's an incentive to pre-order now: the game's makers say exclusive content will be accessible to those who reserve the game in advance through major retailers over the next few months. The game's official Website is active and promises updates.

McCartney, Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison are all backing the game, which is being overseen by Love co-producer Giles Martin. Rumors that Beatles music would finally come to Rock Band or Guitar Hero fired up in June 2008 after insiders speculated that the appearance of the Fab Four's music in American Idol, the film Across the Universe and the Cirque du Soleil Love production indicated Apple Corps might be willing to loosen their famously tight grip on the band's catalog. In October 2008 the game's makers made it official, announcing, "This game will take you on a journey from the Beatles first album Please Please Me until the last album at Abbey Road," as Apple Corps CEO Jeff Jones put it. "It will span samples of the whole catalog all the way through." At the time, McCartney added, "I like people having the opportunity to get to know the music from the inside out."

The game will be the first Rock Band title specifically branded to a band, though the game does offer full albums; the Guitar Hero series includes special versions for Aerosmith and Metallica.

Beatles fans still patiently waiting for Paul McCartney to release the band's 1967 sound collage "Carnival of Light" were surprised by an even better gift this weekend as a 10-minute version of The White Album's "Revolution 1" leaked onto the internet, giving fans a never-before-heard listen of what the White Album sessions must have been like. The track makes it clear why seemingly unrelated "Revolution 1" and the maniacal "Revolution 9" sound collage share the same name: In "Revolution 1 (Take 20)" John Lennon steers an extended, more experimental version of "1" to its breaking point, using it as a conduit before launching into the avant-garde "9."

According to the Ateaseweb message board, the song first surfaced on an upcoming, Europe-only bootleg Revolution: Take Your Knickers Off, as nod to Lennon saying "Take your knickers off and let's go" before "Revolution 1 (Take 20)" started rolling. As for how the song leaked out, that's an even bigger mystery. According to Mark Lewisohn's book The Beatles: Recording Sessions, only two copies of the take were made when recording the song was completed on June 4, 1968. One copy left the studio with Lennon that day, and the other remained behind. It's unclear which copy appears on the bootleg, nor how the Revolution makers even acquired it.

"As someone who's heard, I'd say, 99.8 percent of the Beatles music that has leaked onto bootleg, this is really interesting," Beatles expert Richie Unterberger told EW.com. The site also reports Lennon was lying on his back while recording the vocals to make his voice sound different.

2009 is shaping up to be a big year for Fab Four fans still clamoring for unreleased material. Talking about "Carnival of Light" back in November, McCartney said "The time has come for its moment. I like it because it's like the Beatles free."

YouTube has been pulling down the videos of Take 20, so get a listen over at Twelve Major Chords.

Forty-five years ago this week-February 9, 1964-the Beatles made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. I was six years old and don't remember much about it, but my mother never tired of telling the story of what happened that night in the Goldblatt household.

We owned one television, a black-and-white Motorola monster built into a battleship of walnut cabinetry that also housed a record player, a radio tuner, and stereo speakers. My five-year-old sister and I functioned as remote controls for my father, who, when he was home, would lie on the couch and exercise absolute dominion over programming. The arrangement was more onerous than it sounds; wherever we were in the house, whatever we were doing, if my dad wanted to change channels, one of us had to run into the living room and do it.

The payoff for our labors came on Sunday night at eight o'clock, when we'd gather around the TV-my mom and dad on the couch, my sister and me on the pine-green carpet at their feet-for Ed Sullivan. It was the only program we watched together, a coincidence of agendas: My dad liked the show enough to watch it straight through, my mom liked the idea of having the family together at the end of the weekend, and my sister and I liked staying up past our usual 7:30 bedtime. On a typical Sunday night, according to my mom, my sister lasted until 8:15; I'd start to doze off 15 minutes later. By 8:45, we'd both be conked out on the carpet, ready to be toted to the bedroom we shared as soon as Sullivan signed off at 9:00. But February 9, 1964, was different. My mom said you could sense it from the start of the show. There was a buzz in the studio audience that came through the speakers and seemed to take hold of me and my sister. We were suddenly up on our haunches-as skittish, she said, in her Louisiana twang, as long-tailed cats in a room full of rocking chairs. She had just enough time to notice the difference before Sullivan introduced the Beatles, and the crowd broke into a torrent of screams . . . at which point, my sister and I rushed the TV. The two of us sat mesmerized, perhaps a foot from the screen, as Paul McCartney began to sing "All My Loving." We did not move the entire hour, not even during the commercials. Afterwards, when my mother tried to tuck us into our beds, we kept kicking the covers loose. She got us settled down after half an hour, but around midnight, she was awakened by several loud thuds. She ran into our room and found us jumping up and down on our beds, literally bouncing off the walls, making nonsensical noises that sounded vaguely like Beatles songs.

It's difficult for baby boomers to convey to their children, and now to their grandchildren, the otherness of the Beatles. There was, of course, the sheer size of the phenomenon. Beatlemania was a kind of collective derangement, an abrupt skewing of popular perception. By April, the group held down the top five positions on the Billboard magazine chart and had seven other songs in the top 100. That meant that if you turned on a radio in the spring of 1964, you heard a Beatles song. I remember thinking that the Motorola tuner was a Beatles music player; once I turned it on and heard Louis Armstrong singing "Hello Dolly," and thought the thing was broken.

But Beatlemania went beyond radio. The girls in my first-grade class would sing Beatles songs as they lined up in the schoolyard, then break into spontaneous screams until the teachers shushed them. I remember a boy named Andrew crying in the back of the classroom because his mother made him cut his hair, which he'd wanted to grow out like the Beatles. My best friend, Eddy, who was a year older than I was, persuaded his parents to buy him a Beatles single-I'm almost sure it was "A Hard Day's Night." I remember going over to his house and staring at it. Not playing it; that was too risky. Just staring at it, the paper sleeve and record together . . . and then, holy of holies, the vinyl itself. Eddy set it down on the pillow of his bed, and the two of us stepped back and venerated it.

Even in 1964, though, no one could have predicted that by the end of that decade the Beatles would bear the same relationship to popular music that Shakespeare bore to the English drama of his time: clearly within it, yet curiously beyond it. Just as there is no explicable way to get from Nicholas Udall's Ralph Roister Doister to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, so too there is no way to get from Leiber and Stoller's "Jailhouse Rock" or Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" to John Lennon's "Revolution" or Paul McCartney's "Helter Skelter." Given the landscape of musical influences available to the Beatles, what's the logical precedent for "Eleanor Rigby" or "I Am the Walrus" or "Golden Slumbers" or "Nowhere Man" or "Penny Lane" or "Across the Universe" or the entire Sgt. Pepper album? The question that jumps to mind with each of these recordings is: Where the hell did that come from?

For each generation's most popular musicians, from Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Judy Garland to Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, and the Temptations to (I suppose) Eminem, Mariah Carey, and Beyoncé, there's a traceable progression to their musical development, a discernible link with what came before. What set the Beatles apart was that they seemed to conjure their greatest work out of the ether-or maybe out of the breath of a muse.

Consider the first verse of "For No One": "Your day breaks, your mind aches / You find that all her words of kindness linger on / When she no longer needs you." The subject matter couldn't be more familiar-in essence, breaking up is hard to do. But the mood is Thomas Hardy. The compactness is William Carlos Williams. The rhythms and internal rhymes are Emily Dickinson, with hints of Dylan Thomas and Gerard Manley Hopkins. There's nothing remotely like it in popular music. Now consider that the words were written by McCartney, who was 23 at the time, who set out to write a pop song, not a work of literature, and who, by his own admission, never put as much effort into his lyrics as Lennon did.

When asked once whether he himself was a genius, Lennon replied, "Yes, if there is such a thing as one, I am one." Whether Lennon was correct is debatable. He was no intellectual giant-"Imagine" is melodic and moving, especially given what we know of his fate, yet it's as trite and grandiose as a mass-produced sympathy card. His inability to see through Yoko Ono's bluff art is forgivable, perhaps, as the indulgence of a spouse, but not otherwise. On the other hand, Lennon did have flashes of exquisite clarity throughout his life, even towards the very end, as in the justly celebrated line from "Beautiful Boy": "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." He also had a largeness of sensibility that both reflected and shaped the times in which he lived. Does that amount to genius?

The question of genius becomes less debatable when asked collectively of the Beatles. If there is such a thing, they had it-in spades. Indeed, the strongest evidence of their collective genius is found in the unimpressive post-Beatles careers of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr. Lennon, who had once appeared to some an amalgam of Jonathan Swift, Lewis Carroll, Buddy Holly, and Howlin' Wolf, devolved into Lenny Bruce with a guitar and a howling Oedipus complex. McCartney, who as a Beatle seemed to channel George Gershwin as often as Chuck Berry, became just another Brill Building­caliber singer-songwriter, a harder-edged Neil Diamond. Harrison, who had developed into a great songwriter through osmosis, released one magnificent triple-LP solo album, All Things Must Pass, consisting primarily of a backlog of Beatles-era material, and then a string of ever-more-unlistenable records before hooking up with a group of fellow has-beens, including Dylan and Roy Orbison, to form the intermittently palatable Traveling Wilburys. Starr, after the success of his solo album Ringo, went on to become a nostalgia act, even now peppering his stage performances and interviews with two-fingered peace signs straight out of 1970.

Clearly, in the case of the Beatles, the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. But isn't that a hopeful sign for the human condition? There's potential in each of us, perhaps, for greatness-a potential that cannot be gauged or accounted for, a potential that cannot be tapped by social engineering, because the formula for its realization is mysterious. (What would a happy childhood, a structured adolescence, and a formal musical education have done to John Lennon?) Of course, the overwhelming majority of us will never be truly great at anything. But the potential for greatness, even if it's rarely realized, is the first and final counterargument to the grim sterility of materialism. We're more, the Beatles remind us, than the cells of our bodies, more than the atoms of our cells, more than our drives and appetites, more than our economic relation to the state and to one another.

Under just the right circumstances, we can transcend the deterministic logic of what we are and come to the truth of why we are. Being the Beatles was the why of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr's lives. It was their raison d'être, their teleology, their lasting contribution.

And it was what had me bouncing off the walls 45 years ago this week.

After the story was filed, the editor turned to me and said: "Why didn't you ask where The Beatles stayed before the concert?"

The old wisdom that the dumbest question is the one you don't ask never rang more true. I'd missed getting close to one of the great moments of Shea.

The legendary concert was probably their worst live performance ever but it didn't matter since no one could hear them, including themselves, above the screaming teenage girls.

The orgasmic screaming began a year and a half earlier when the Fab Four touched down at Kennedy airport on Feb. 7, 1964, 45 years ago. To mark the first shot fired of the Beatles invasion, on March 21 The Dix Hills Performing Arts Center and The John Lennon Center for Music and Technology at Five Towns College will present a celebration and a concert of Beatles music. The Beatles tribute band, Mostly Moptop, will perform "Fab 45s for the 45th" a recreation of many of the Beatles hit singes.

Anthony Pomes, an advisory board member of The Lennon Center, fronts the band when not at his day job as marketing director of Garden City Park's Square One Publishers. Pomes and the group will perform the five, count 'em, five Beatles tunes that monopolized the top of the American charts of April 4.

Tickets for the March 21, 7:30 performance are $20. For more information contact the Dix Hills Performing Arts Center box office at 631-656-2148 or check it out online at www.DHPAC.org.

Here's some history, thanks to the arts center PR department, on what was happening at that cultural crossroads when the Beatles hit New York:

The Beatles' historic arrival in America, at JFK Airport in Queens, NY, marked the rebirth of popular music and accelerated the band's meteoric rise to fame on a worldwide scale. Their landing in America came five years to the week after a plane crash killed several of rock 'n roll's most promising young stars (including Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, in what singer/songwriter Don McLean would declare "the day the music died" in his 1971 hit song "American Pie"). Coming also as it did just a few months after the traumatic assassination of President Kennedy in November 1963, the warm arrival (on a cold day) of these four charming young lads from Liverpool was in marked contrast to the prevailing mood of this country. Two days after first hitting American soil, The Beatles appeared on TV's The Ed Sullivan Show--an event that had instant cultural and commercial effects that still resonate to this day. The trip to America led to popularity and industry sales figures never before seen, pointing record companies towards a massive global market for the suddenly international stars from England.

Up On the Roof
by Richard Porter

The 40th anniversary of The Beatles Rooftop Concert celebrated on a Special London Beatles Walk.

Beatles fans got a big surprise when they turned up for a special Beatles walking tour on 30th January ­ they were allowed on the roof of 3 Savile Row!

That day was the 40th anniversary of the Beatles playing their last ever live performance on the roof of their Apple headquarters. It was the climax of the film 'Let It Be'. The original idea of the film was that the Beatles would be perform a huge concert which would be filmed and recorded for posterity. Rehearsals, which were also filmed, began at Twickenham Film Studios in early January 1969. However there was no agreement on where to do the concert, and an exasperated George Harrison walked out, telling the others he would see them 'around the clubs'.

George finally came back after negotiations and filming and recording reverted to the Apple Studio in the basement of 3 Savile Row. However Paul McCartney wanted some sort of climax for the film and also wanted to play live. It was therefore suggested they should get on the roof of 3 Savile Row and play a few songs. It was to be their last ever live performance.

Initially the Bootleg Beatles, Britain's leading Beatles soundalike band, were due to play on the roof for 40th the anniversary, but Westminster Council wouldn't give them a license over fears of the safety of the building, which has been unoccupied for several years.

Even though the Bootleg Beatles gig had been cancelled I thought there should be some sort of commemoration. Members of the British Beatles Fan Club had decided to go down to Savile Row anyway and have a party so I asked them whether they would like to do a special tour that day. We planned to arrive in Savile Row around noon ­ the same time the Beatles played on the roof.

A few days before the walk I got hold of the phone number for the Kier Group, that now own 3 Savile Row, as I wanted to find out why the Bootleg Beatles concert was cancelled. I was put through to Leigh Thomas, the site manager there. During our conversation I mentioned by special tour and asked whether we could have access to the roof. I've been doing Beatles tours for 20 years and never been up on the roof on a tour, so I was sure he was going to say no. But I was wrong, he said yes! He said that as long as not too many people turned up we could all go and see the roof. I was amazed ­ but also had a dilemma, I wanted to publicise the special addition, but wanted to make sure numbers were manageable on the tour. I therefore made it a surprise for the people that turned up.

Just before the event I was called by CNN, who wanted to cover the tour. It was going to be a very special day!

I arrived in good time for the 10.45am start of the tour. Eventually about 25 people turned up, less than the maximum of 30 that Leigh said could get on the roof. I was very relieved. We were met by the CNN crew and I told the people on the tour that we were actually going on the roof. That announcement received some gasps of surprise.

We arrived at Savile Row around 11.30am and I gave a talk outside about the history of Apple and the build up to the rooftop concert. We were then met by Leigh Thomas who led the first group into the building, along with the CNN crew. We decided only a few could go up at once as the roof is relatively small.

3 Savile Row is currently being redeveloped as an office building and has been gutted. For that reason we couldn't really stop and look through the building as some rooms were unsafe. However I did put my head around the door of what used to be John and Yoko's 'Bag One' office on the ground floor, and the former press office on the first floor.

Due to the renovation work going on there is no working elevator in the building so we had to go up many rather dark flights of stairs to the roof. All the while I was being interviewed by CNN about my reactions of being there on such an anniversary. Eventually we saw daylight ahead of us and made our way on to the roof. Although I'd been up a few times before, it still took my breath away to see the very familiar surroundings up there, although notice many changes too. For instance the door to the roof is now facing Savile Row, where before it was on the side. The wall around the door is now tiled, whereas in 1969 it was brick. One very familiar thing still there was the glass structure on the roof of No. 2 Savile Row, which can be seen very clearly in Let It Be. One thing that I noticed straight away is that the area where the Beatles were playing is very small. The film crew must have been right on the edge of the building to get them all in shot. I also thought of the Rutles send up of the rooftop concert when 'Ron Nasty' kicks a technician over the edge!

Luckily when we were on the roof it was a bright, sunny day and we were sheltered from the wind, unlike the Beatles 40 years earlier.

While I was on the roof quite a crowd had gathered by the doorway, as fans had gone to Savile Row independently to celebrate the anniversary. Some people waiting outside spotted Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones walk by! A surreal moment on a Beatles anniversary, though the Stones did rehearse at Apple for their Hyde Park concert.

While inside the building I was shown a green plaque to commemorate the concert, which the Kier Group will put on the building as soon as they get planning permission from the council. A big unveiling is planned, to which Paul and Ringo will be invited.

As only a few people were allowed on the roof at any one time I had to go up and down the steps many times to collect all the people on the tour and must have spent and hour and a half either on the roof or in the building. Finally it was time to go and I completed the tour by going to Abbey Road. We then went to Richoux, Paul McCartney's favourite restaurant in St John's Wood, to celebrate with a few friends. It was a great way to end a wonderful day.

Richard Porter

Richard does Beatles London walks five days a week for London Walks. He is also available for private tours. For more info please see http://www.beatlesinlondon.com
He is also the owner of the Beatles Coffee Shop, http://www.beatlescoffeehop.com which is part of St John's Wood underground station, the nearest to Abbey Road. The shop sells food and drink as well as a large range of official Beatles merchandise.

Beatles building up for sale

The Apple building where The Beatles performed for the last time has been put up for sale, with its owners expecting to sell it for £25 million ($45.6 million)

The five-storey building at 3 Savile Row, London, is the former headquarters of the Beatles' Apple Corps in the late 1960s after the band bought it for £500,000 ($912,489).

And on January 30, 1969, the Fab Four of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr played on the rooftop for the last time.

They had been recording Let It Be, their final album, in the basement studio, before staging their first live performance for nearly three years.

Owners Kier Property plan to sell it for office space but they believe the Beatles conenction will send the value up.

Built in 1735, the building was once bought by Lord Nelson for his mistress Lady Hamilton.

Leigh Thomas, Kier's associate director, said: "It's being marketed internationally. If someone wants a bit of heritage with a bit of history of the band, then this is the place.

"I still get goose bumps in here. It's the world' biggest piece of memorabilia.

Tribute group The Bootleg Beatles had planned to play a 40th anniversary show on top of the building but it had been cancelled by police and council officials due to safety fears.

The band's Andre Barreau, who plays George Harrison, said he and David Catlin-Birch, who plays Paul McCartney, did manage to play a couple of songs without the police knowing.

He told NME.com: "We snuck up there to play a few songs to mark the occasion. We did 'One After 909' and 'Get Back', which were a couple of the songs out of the five that The Beatles did.

"It is a shame. Loads of bands - from U2 to Oasis, apparently - have asked to play up there and we're the only ones who've ever been allowed [the band performed for the gig's thirtieth anniversary]. But it wasn't to be this time, sadly. Maybe, if we're still going in ten years time."

Today is the fortieth anniversary of The Beatles' iconic gig, which saw the band take to the Apple roof unannounced and perform what would be their final public gig together.

The anniversary show had originally been cancelled by police and council officials due to safety fears.

However, The Bootleg Beatles' Andre Barreau, who plays George Harrison, told NME.COM that he and David Catlin-Birch (Paul McCartney) did manage to play a couple of songs on the roof without the police knowing.

"We snuck up there to play a few songs to mark the occasion. We did 'One After 909' and 'Get Back', which were a couple of the songs out of the five that The Beatles did," he said.

"It is a shame. Loads of bands - from U2 to Oasis, apparently - have asked to play up there and we're the only ones who've ever been allowed [the band performed for the gig's thirtieth anniversary]. But it wasn't to be this time, sadly. Maybe, if we're still going in ten years time."

Today's show was in support of the Peace One Day charity.

Ironically, in 1969, the Metropolitan Police cut The Beatles' gig short by cutting the building's power.

We don't know what it'll look like, how it'll play or even what it'll be called. But Harmonix's collaboration with The Beatles is the odds-on favorite to be the biggest thing to happen to videogames, and maybe even music, in 2009.

The creators of Guitar Hero and Rock Band have turned millions of gamers into faux rockers with plastic instruments, letting non-musicians experience the joy of jamming. And what better way to put on a show in your living room than with the legendary music of the greatest band of all time? Harmonix is forgoing Rock Band 3 this year to concentrate its efforts on re-creating the Fab Four's music in interactive form. Even if this were just downloadable content for Rock Band, it would be one of the best things to happen this year. As a standalone game, it'll be unstoppable. (As long as Harmonix includes an option to sing the entire B side of Abbey Road without stopping, I'll be happy.) - Chris Kohler

Greg Hawkes saw The Beatles play the Baltimore Civic Center on Sept. 13, 1964. He was 11.

That night something joyous exploded in his head. Already taking piano and clarinet lessons, he began to learn guitar. The first Beatles song he played was "She Loves You."

Nearly 45 years later, Hawkes - keyboard and synthesizer whiz for '80s Boston new wave hit-makers the Cars - has released a 15-track solo CD of all-instrumental Beatles covers. This isn't just any Beatles tribute. It uses only one instrument: the ukulele - four types, from baritone to soprano.

"I've come full circle," Hawkes said with a laugh during an interview at his Lincoln home.

What does he think Cars fans will make of "The Beatles Uke"?

"I don't know if it would be shocking," said Hawkes. "If they were a fan of (the Cars), they probably knew I was somewhat of an eccentric and liked odd sounds. From that point of view, it's a natural. On the other hand, its definitely a step into left field."

Hawkes has moved from the electronic world into the organic. His reintroduction to the ukulele - he had one as a kid - came eight birthdays ago in the form of a present from his wife, Elaine.

"I thought that was pretty neat," he said. "It was more fun than I thought it would be. I started playing it all the time."

And now he has a collection of about 20 ukes. Last year he contributed a song to a compilation CD called "My Favorite Martin," where musicians played songs on their favorite Martin acoustic guitars. Except for Hawkes, who was brought into the project by former Cars guitarist Elliot Easton. He recorded "Eleanor Rigby" on a Martin uke.

The executive producer, James Jensen, liked the result so much he asked Hawkes to put together an entire album.

"The first thing I thought of after he suggested it was a whole album of Beatles things," Hawkes said. "At first I thought, 'Is that too much? Should I spread it around?' He said, 'No, I like themes.' So it was like, Beatles instrumental, there's my theme."

He recorded it over six months last year at Cybersound Studios on Newbury Street with co-producer Perry Geyer.

"The main limitation of the ukulele is the range," Hawkes said. "You have to play all the bass parts up an octave, maybe two. Then, replicating the vocal parts in some cases proved to be a challenge."

Hawkes chose music from all phases of the Beatles' career: including four by ukelele aficionado George Harrison and 11 by John Lennon and that other famous ukelele-lover, Paul McCartney.

"I'm still trying to figure out how to do 'Revolution No. 9,"' Hawkes quipped.

Hawkes had a close encounter with a Beatle in 1989 when friend and producer Chris Hughes was working on McCartney's "Flowers in the Dirt" album. He said to Hawkes, "I'm doing a track, 'Motor of Love.' Would you fancy coming to London to play keyboards on it?"

It was one of the easiest decisions Hawkes ever made.

"Paul told Chris he wanted the track to sound a little like 'Drive' by the Cars," Hawkes said, lighting up at the memory. "For him to know the song and validate it in such a fashion. In the control room he had a shelf with 30 CDs lined up and he had 'The Cars Greatest Hits' in there."

For "The Beatles Uke," Hawkes chose a range of songs. Some psychedelic, some whimsical, some poignant. All melodic. But none kitchsy.

"The ukulele is often remembered, and still regarded, as a jokey instrument at the top of the list," Hawkes said. "But I enjoyed Tiny Tim. He was very knowledgeable about the Tin Pan Alley composers and history of the songs."

Hawkes has not been dormant since the Cars dissolved in the late 1980s. He's a regular member of the Turtles and its offshoot group, Flo & Eddie. He's played with Easton and Todd Rundgren in the New Cars, a revamped version of his old band. And he was part of a large band that included Christopher Cross, Denny Laine and Lou Gramm that toured last summer doing "A Tribute to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

When Hawkes plays out now - he'll be at Bull Run in Shirley on March 7 and Club Passim in Cambridge on March 22 - he plays Beatles songs, his own compositions and even Cars tunes.

"After 'Heartbeat City,' we started using sequencers and it got to be you couldn't play a Cars song without turning on a computer," Hawkes said. "For a while I thought you couldn't even play music without a computer. So the ukulele was such a joy to discover - the total opposite, which is a fun approach for me.

"Playing Cars songs on ukulele is a little funny, but I don't mean it as a joke," he said. "It's a nod, obviously, to my history. It's like, 'See, you can even play Cars songs on a ukulele. You don't even have to have an electric guitar or a synthesizer.' "

In the news today there is a report in the Pepperland Bugle that Pop Go the Beatles, the radio show that was banned in the U.S. will be rebroadcast in it's original form on REAL MUZIC WEB RADIO.

www.myspace.com/realmuzicwebradio

Every Tuesday night at 9:00 you can hear one hour of the alternate studio takes and mixes plus live in-concert & BBC radio performances that made this show infamous.

According to our source, Ronnie of Ear Candy Magazine in his review of the show:

"I can honestly say that Pop Go the Beatles is probably THE best Beatles radio series that I've heard - especially from a Beatle fan's perspective and what THEY would expect from a Beatles show."

You can find out more about the Pop Go the Beatles through the show's website.

www.popgothebeatles.com

Photos of Paul, Ringo and Barbara Bach, Yoko, Olivia Harrison, Julian and Cynthia Lennon from the "LOVE" premiere (July 2006 Las Vegas)

Ringo arrived on the red carpet with Barbara at 7pm. Paul followed at 7:05 pm. The "LOVE" performance started at 7:30pm and ended at 9pm. Afterwards there was a private VIP party for guests with an all star jam going into the wee hours of the morning.

List of celebrities attending the performance:

Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, Olivia Harrison, Sir George Martin, Giles Martin, Julian Lennon, Sean Ono Lennon, Blair Harrison, Dhani Harrison, Cynthia Lennon, Paul McCartney,Brian Ray (who said it was "Fantastic"), Rusty Anderson (called the show "Mindbending"), Wix and his wife, Siegfried & Roy, Prince, Woody Harrelson, Billy Crystal, Tony Bennett, Megan Mullally, Eddie Murphy, Busta Rhymes, Virginia Madsen, John Densmore (The Doors), Jennifer Coolidge, Michael Richards, Elisha Cuthbert, Sean Avery (LA Kings), Brian Wilson (Beach Boys), Eliza Dushku, Rachel Leigh Cook, Dylan McDermott, Gina Gershon, Jason Patric, Dita Von Teese, Shannon Elizabeth, Helen Mirren and Taylor Hackford, Neil Patrick Harris, Elizabeth Berkley, Deborah Harry (Blondie), Heatherette, Dhani Jones (Philadelphia Eagles), Victoria Tennant, Roberta Flack, David LaChapelle, Danny Gans, George Wallace, David Brenner, Kevin Nealon, Wayne Brady, Paul Reiser, Chris Ferguson, Carrot Top, Melissa Rivers, Eric Idle (Monty Python), Sheila E. (Ringo Starr's Band), Colin Hay (Ringo Starr's Band), Richard Marx (Ringo Starr's Band), Hamish Stuart (Ringo Starr's Band), Billy Squier (Ringo Starr's Band), Edgar Winter (Ringo Starr's Band), Gus Van Zant, Annie Duke, Nigel Lythgoe (American Idol), Steve and Maureen Van Zandt, Jeff Lynne (ELO), Dave Stewart (Eurythmics), Phyllis McGuire, Mitsou Gelinas, Ginette Reno, Andre-Philippe Gagnon, David Foster and Humberto Gatica.

The Beatles LOVE

Director - Dominic Champagne, Music Directors - Sir George Martin & Giles Martin

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

LOVE is presented exclusively at The Mirage in Las Vegas. This joint artistic venture marks the first time that The Beatles company, Apple Corps Ltd., has agreed to a major theatrical partnership. The project was born out of a personal friendship and mutual admiration between the late George Harrison and Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte.

LOVE brings the magic of Cirque du Soleil together with the spirit and passion behind the most beloved rock group of all time to create a vivid, intimate and powerful entertainment experience.

Sir George Martin, The Beatles original producer, and his son Giles Martin worked with the entire archive of Beatles recordings to create the musical component for LOVE. The result is an unprecedented approach to the music for a stage production. "After spending more than 40 years of my life working with The Beatles and their wonderful music, I am thrilled to be working with it once again, on this exciting project with Cirque du Soleil," said Sir George Martin. "The show is a unique and magical experience."

Using the master tapes at Abbey Road Studios, Sir George and Giles have created a unique soundscape for LOVE. "I think we will achieve a real sense of drama with the music, the audience will feel as though they are actually in the theatre with the band. People are going to be knocked out by what they are hearing!" said Giles Martin.

Dominic Champagne directed and wrote the original concept for the show which captures the essence of love that John, Paul, George and Ringo inspired during their astonishing adventure together. LOVE evokes the exuberant and irreverent spirit of The Beatles. "When we embarked on this extraordinary adventure in 2002," said Gilles Ste-Croix, Show Concept Creator and Director of Creation, "we set out to create a timeless, three-dimensional evocation of The Beatles music. Drawn from the poetry of the lyrics, we developed a preliminary concept that explored the content of the songs in a series of scenes inhabited by real and imaginary people." The international cast of 60 channels a raw, youthful energy underscored by aerial performance, extreme sports and urban, freestyle dance.

LOVE is presented in a custom-built theatre at The Mirage featuring 360-degree seating and advanced high definition video projections with 100-foot digital, moving images. The panoramic surround sound system envelopes the audience who will experience The Beatles music like never before ...

Apple Corps Ltd. is planning to release the album through EMI Music in November.
TICKET PRICES:
*$150, $125, $99, $69

TO RESERVE TICKETS:
By phone: 702 792 7777 or 800 963 9634
Online: http://www.cirquedusoleil.com, http://www.thebeatles.com or http://www.mirage.com.

The revised version of Capitol Albums Vol. 2 with the correct mono mixes of Beatles VI and Rubber Soul are now available in some stores.

Although my local Canoga Park, California, Best Buy still had the original versions today, I purchased one of the new, revised versions today at my local Tower Records store.

The revised version can be identified by an "SK1" after the set's stock number that appears in very small print at the bottom of the "NEW... VOLUME 2" sticker that is affixed to the outside front of the sets (see image of a sticker from the revised version below).

Please note, all of the sets we've seen, original and revised editions, have the "NEW... VOLUME 2" sticker. A set is only a revised version if it has the small "SK1" after the stock number at the bottom of the sticker.

Upon closer inspection of the CDs, we've learned you can also tell which version of the CD you have by inspecting the small stock number on the inside margin on the play-side of the disk. On revised copies of the Beatles VI and Rubber Soul CDs, the CD stock number is followed by "RE-2", which we assume stands for "Revision 2". Original versions of the CDs don't have an "RE" number. Also, copies of the "The Early Beatles" and "Help!" CDs now have an "RE-1" designation where the original CDs don't have an "RE" designation at all, but they are the same in any case.

We've also learned at What Goes On that some customers who requested a return mailer from the Capitol Customer Service 800 phone number have already received their pre-paid mailers, so if you requested one, you should be getting it shortly.

Several fans have inquired whether they should keep their "wrong" CDs as opposed to turning them in. Well, we don't know if these are ever going to be "collector's items", tons of them were made, and it depends how many are kept by fans and how many are returned to Capitol and destroyed. We're keeping ours, but we also admit it's unlikely they'll ever be worth anything special.

GO TO FAB NEW BOOKS AND CD/DVD'S

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