(Entered March 23, 2000)

Thanks to Richard Layne on Ono-Net

The story below entered  March 8 has an interesting update....

From the Guardian, March 23, 2000:

Yoko Ono sends love to bed-in

Four couples who embarked on a bed-in to win £10,000 and a holiday to Canada, have been sent a basket of flowers by Yoko Ono.

The bed-in, begun 14 days ago in Liverpool, was organised by Radio City 96.7FM to recreate John Lennon's call for world peace and mark what would have been his 60th birthday.

To win, the couples are required to stay in bed all day - with the exception of 10-minute breaks every two hours So far, no one has dropped out.

Ono's gift of roses and freesias came with a card reading: "Imagine all the people living in peace. Lots of love, Yoko."

Participant Samantha Woods said: "We could not believe it when the flowers arrived. It was really kind to think of us and send her encouragement."

(Entered March 23, 2000)

Allan Kozinn reported for the NYTimes that more than nine hours of videotape of John and Yoko shot in February 1970 by Tony Cox, Yoko's former husband, has been purchased by a New England consortium of Beatles collectors. They bought the video from Mr. Cox and would like the tape to be the basis of a documentary about John.

The black and white video was recorded by Cox - Kyoko's father - over four days, from February 8 to 11, 1970, while he stayed with John and Yoko in their home near London. Cox followed the Lennons to interviews, editing sessions and rehearsals.

The new owners of the videotape say they are "in the process" of approaching Yoko in the hope that she would agree to be executive producer of a documentary based on the footage, but no discussions have taken place yet.

Yoko's lawyer, Peter Shukat told the Times, "Yoko has not seen this footage in 30 years. Therefore, it's impossible for her to make any comments about it. As her lawyer, I would add that there are other delicate issues: whether the video includes copyrighted materials that require clearances from third parties and whether Tony Cox had the right to sell it."

New York Times Full Story Here

(Entered March 20, 2000)

Thanks to Richard Joly

If you missed Julian Lennon on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" a few months ago, your chance to see it is coming up again.

The show will be repeated on NBC-TV Friday, March 31. Julian appears at the very end of the program.

(Entered March 19, 2000)

Thanks to Lynne from Ono-Net

Picked this article up from Ono-Net. Lynne posted it from a local Phoenix entertainment paper:

The backstage crowd at Saturday's Kiss concert at Blockbuster Desert Sky Pavilion included Diamondbacks star Randy Johnson and Sean Lennon,son of late Beatle John.

Johnson said he'd seen Kiss a few times but didn't want to miss the band's farewell tour.

Lennon,sporting a Kiss T-shirt,gave the classic rockers a thumbs-up. "I thought it was amazing. It was my first time,so I was a little overwhelmed," said Lennon,who has been recording with Phoenix-based Soulfly.

"I'm only 24,so they started when I was like,3," Lennon said. "Now I'm starting to realize what I missed."

Lennon said he's working on "a bunch of things" to follow up his well-received "Into The Sun" album.

(Entered March 13, 2000)

With Thanks to Jordan from The Yoko Archives

On Monday, April 17 at 10:00 PM/ET, Bravo will premiere "Gimme Some Truth: The Making of the 'Imagine' Album. The film features rare, behind-the-scenes footage of the making of John Lennon's classic album.

The hour-long program will feature previously unseen 16mm film footage shot by John and Yoko in 1971 during the recording of the Imagine album with co-producer Phil Spector.

In one scene, while sewing a pair of John's pants, Yoko says, "I don't like other people doing personal things like this for John." John responds: "She's such a good mother to me."

The "Imagine" album is being reissued in April in the USA by Capitol Records on CD, cassette and vinyl. A 16-page booklet will be included with lyrics and rare photos from the sessions.

An extended version of the film will be released in April on DVD and VHS home video.

Full Story: On Yahoo Biz

(Entered March 10, 2000)

From Launch  *** Lennon guilty before proven innocent?

(Launch) - Some folks in England are not waiting to find out whether accusations that John Lennon gave money to the IRA are true. In the face of those charges - denied by Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono - the student union of a Cambridge University college has decided to strip the late Beatle of a posthumous honorary membership.

As Gonville and Caius College Student Union president Outis Stanton explained, "In light of recent revelations, the GCSU Executive Committee has been mandated to revoke the honorary membership previously awarded to John Lennon. The GCSU would like to reiterate its support for all democratic initiatives promoting peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland."

(Entered March 9, 2000)

Corin Redgrave, writing in The New Statesman, March 6, 2000 edition, says a new bill in Britain would make it illegal to even speak up for the IRA.

Redgrave, who was a leader of the Worker's Revolutionary Party, says John Lennon never gave the WRP any money, and he is certain that he never gave money to the IRA.

Redgrave: "Yoko Ono has said that he did not. But neither her denial nor mine are likely to be widely reported. The lie, as is so often the case, has traveled three times around the world while the truth is still getting its boots on."

Redgrave says it matters a great deal that people are not reporting the truth of this matter - not just, as he says, "for the obvious reason that truth should always be preferred to falsehood" - but because a bill now going through parliament, The Prevention of Terrorism Bill, would have made John a criminal, not only for his alleged support of the IRA, but for things he sang and said.

According to Redgrave, donating the proceeds of John's song, "The Luck of the Irish" to the Irish Civil Rights movement - would now constitute a criminal act, according to this new anti-terrorism bill.

In 1972, at a rally in New York organized by the U.S. Transport Workers Union, which was also attended by members of the IRA, John issued a statement saying that he was protesting "against the killing of Irish people in the Civil Rights Movement."

Under Clause 11 of the terrorism bill, he would have been liable to ten years' imprisonment. Clause 11 makes it an offense to "invite support for a proscribed organisation" or to "arrange", "manage," or "assist in arranging or managing" a meeting that a person knows is "to support a proscribed organisation", or "to further the activities of a proscribed organisation", or is "addressed by a person who belongs to or professes to belong to a proscribed organisation".

Redgrave makes the point that if John were alive today and gave money to any party that supports the struggle of the Kurds against Turkish oppression, or that protests against the Russian authorities' torture camps in Chechnya, he would be liable to prosecution. The bill also includes groups organizing protests against genetically modified crops, or to a group protesting against the dumping of nuclear waste. The bill is designed to catch all of these activities and to make them illegal.

Type "John Lennon" In Search Archive For Full Story

(Entered March 8, 2000)

(Thanks to Paul Boyd)

Four couples are preparing to stage a bed-in in a Liverpool shop window as part of a 60th birthday celebration for John Lennon.

Paying tribute to the famous ``Bed-In for Peace'' staged 31 years ago by John and Yoko, the four couples will hop into their double beds Friday (March 10) and begin a lie-in competition to see who can stay there the longest.

Passers-by can check their progress in a shop window at the city's Cavern Walks shopping center, close to the legendary Cavern Club.

Can't make it to Liverpool for the event? You can watch the competition live on the Internet at www.yourliverpool.com .

Organizers say the couples will only be allowed to leave their beds for a 10 minute ``comfort break'' every two hours and will have only a radio -- and each other -- for entertainment.

The two who stay in bed the longest will win a 10,000 pound prize and a trip to Montreal to stay in the same bedroom where John and Yoko's ``Bed-In'' was captured for history by the world's media.

(Entered March 2, 2000)

(Thanks to Larry McGahey)

The March 4 edition of Billboard Magazine carried a photo of Yoko, Sean and Yuka at the Sear Sound in New York City. The caption stated that Yoko was working on an upcoming release with Sean and Yuka, along with guitarist Marc Ribot and drummer Joey Barron.

Pictured in the Billboard photo are Yuka Honda (Cibo Matto); Yoko; Sean; a Sear staffer and (seated) studio owner Walter Sear.

While we're reporting about Sean, Jordan from The Yoko Ono Archives, alerted us to a brief mention of Sean at a Paris fashion show on Wednesday, March 1. Apparently Paul and Linda's daughter, Stella McCartney was showing a collection for Chloe at the Opera. The news article said the Paul was there along with Jerry Seinfeld and Sean.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000301/en/france_fashion_4.html

(Entered March 2, 2000)

(Thanks to Paul Boyd; Larry McGahey; Dorothy Hatchett; Jon Wiener)

A member of the Irish Republican Army has claimed that he met with John Lennon to discuss a benefit concert to help raise funds for the IRA in 1972.

The person making these claims wishes to remain anonymous - which of course makes corroboration or proof of the claims impossible to obtain.

IRA-X says he met with John at his NYC apartment in 1972 and said John was up-to-date on events in Ireland. He also says John was very knowledgeable about the politics of the day. He claims John suggested staging a benefit concert "for families and Republican prisoners." As we know, no concert of this kind was ever held.

Professor Jon Wiener, who has been researching the FBI files on John Lennon for several years, pointed out to me that the IRA in 1972, was not a terrorist organization. But rather, the "Provisional IRA" favored armed struggle at the time. So even if John and Yoko had donated funds to the cause of "giving Ireland back to Ireland," it would not have been a "peacenik" funding "terrorist" causes as the press is headlining this story around the world.

Yoko has insisted that she and John did not give money to any pro-violence groups, but rather donated money to women, children and orphans in need when such funding was requested - from many countries, including Ireland.

In the Observer article from February 20, 2000, Tariq Ali, a member of the International Marxist Group in the 70's and a friend of John's said, "We talked about these issues all the time and I'm sure (John) would have told me if he was thinking of giving money to the IRA. I think M15 has got it wrong, through a combination of sloppiness and bull---t." Ali also denied that John had funded Red Mole.

Roger Smith, then a member of the Trotskyist Workers' Revolutionary Party said, "There was absolutely no connection between us and Lennon that I knew of. We would have considered ourselves very lucky if he'd given us money."

Professor Wiener told the BBC that while John was sympathetic to the Irish civil rights movement, the British intelligence service could have been misinformed about any link with the IRA.

http://www.itn.co.uk/Entertainment/ents20000229/022901.htm

(Entered March 2, 2000)

It was reported in a Uncut magazine that Yoko sent a box of baby clothes (probably the John Lennon Carter's collection) to Liam Gallagher's new son, Lennon, who was named after John. Lennon was born in September of 1999.

Yoko sent the Gallaghers a card about a week after Lennon was born that said, "Lennon, welcome to the world. Love, love, love. Yoko '99." Then a big box of clothes arrived from New York.

Gallagher, who was going to write a thankyou note to Yoko but said he felt silly writing "Dear Yoko" decided to phone her instead. Liam says he got straight through to her. Liam: "Is that Yoko?" Yoko: "Yeah, who's that?" Liam: "Oh, it's Liam. Anyway thanks for all the gear you sent."

Gallagher said, "I'm not one of them who goes 'oh she split The Beatles.' They split themselves up you know what I mean. She seemed dead nice on the phone and like, listen, I love him, I've got respect for him..if he was into her, then they're both the same person, I reckon."

Gallagher said Yoko invited him and his son over for "tea and biscuits" and that he would be happy to take her up on that offer.

http://www.undercover.net.au/rnmnw3.html
http://www.music365.co.uk/autocontent/news_025614.htm

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