John Lennon's Manuscript, Doodles Up for Sale

(Entered June 27, 2001)

(Thanks to Richard Joly)

It was reported by Reuters Tuesday (June 26, 2001) that two pages of drawings and notes made in preparation for a play by John were up for sale at a London autograph dealer.

Fraser's Autographs said the thirty-six lines, written on the front and back of a sheet of cardboard, were priced at $35,300.

The front of the piece includes the original working draft of John's subversive version of Queen Elizabeth II's annual speech, which was banned from the play ``In His Own Write,'' based on the JOL's  critically acclaimed books.

Instead of the monarch's preferred form of address, John's version begins: ``My housebound and eyeball take great pressure in denouncing this loyal ship.'' 

(Editor's Note: Seems a bit tame these days compared to some of the vicious stuff that now passes for humor.)

JOHN LENNON'S ART COMES TO MICHIGAN

(Entered June 22, 2001)




The historic Traverse City Opera House will host an exhibition of John Lennon's artwork with the title, "In My Life" July 7 and 8.

Presented by Yoko, local rock station WKLT and the Downtown Traverse City Association, "In My Life" will be open at the City Opera House at 112-1/2 East Front Street in downtown Traverse City July 7th from 11AM to 7PM and July 8th from 11AM until 6PM.

Proceeds from art sales will benefit Operation Smile which provides reconstructive surgery for children's faces.

YOKO ON PBS PROGRAM IN JUNE

(Entered June 19, 2001)

Yoko is one of the subjects of a new PBS series, Egg The Arts Show this month. Check local listings for the day and time of airing on your PBS station.  The Egg website features an interview with Yoko, a postcard you can send to friends, an online participation event - Laugh Piece - and more goodies. Check it out at EGG The Arts Show.

JOHN LENNON SONGWRITING CONTEST 
ANNOUNCES MAXELL SONG OF THE YEAR

(Entered June 18, 2001)

(Special thanks to Larry McGahey)

Share and Bam Ross are the big winners for their song 'Sparkle Star' in the Rock Category of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. They've won a $20,000 Maxell Song of the Year prize!

Other winners this year were:

Pop
Song Title: "Moments With You"
Songwriters: Gran Torino
Home Town: Knoxville, TN

World :
Song Title: "By Day, I Am Small"
Songwriters: Vered Harai Wetzer; Merav Roth
Home Town: Tel Aviv, Israel

Jazz
Song Title: "America Jones"
Songwriters: Sean Sullivan
Home Town: New York, NY

Rhythm & Blues
Song Title: "Cool Out"
Songwriters: Marie "Ginger" Jackson
Home Town: Riverside, CA

Latin
Song Title: "Anoche Sone"
Songwriters: Rafelito Marrero
Home Town: Miami Beach, FL

Folk
Song Title: "Yosemite"
Songwriters: Rain Perry
Home Town: Ojai, CA

Children's
Song Title: "Adam’s Lullaby"
Songwriters: Carl Gregory
Home Town: Austin, TX

Gospel/Inspirational
Song Title: "Crossroads"
Songwriters: Fred Thaler; Robin Schwarz
Home Town: New York, NY

Country
Song Title:
"What Some People Throw Away"
Songwriters: Tom Paden; Kelly Shriver; Phillip White
Home Town: Nashville, TN

Hip-Hop
Song Title: "Thesis"
Songwriters: EMPC (Sean Corwin & Reaction)
Home Town: Los Angeles, CA

Electronic
Song Title: "X"
Songwriters: Steve McGuire (Nexis Starcy)
Home Town: Griffin, IN

The winner of the $20,000 grand prize was chosen by a committee which included
Elton John, Wyclef Jean, Joan Osborne, 98º, Carlos Santana and Amy Grant. 

The John Lennon Songwriting Contest Educational Tour Bus was at the Hall of Fame during this past week continuing its mission to provide first hand learning opportunities through workshops on board the state-of-the-art mobile recording facility. The bus is built with the support of Maxell, Yamaha, Guitar Center, Shure, Aphex Systems, Alesis, MediaForm, Furman Sound, Wave Digital, Neutrek, D’Addario, Iomega, Tascam, Canopus, MC2 magazine, and other sponsors.

The John Lennon Songwriting Contest for 2001 is accepting submissions currently through September 28, 2001. Not only can applicants log on to www.jlsc.com to learn more about the contest and to get application information, for the first time, they can upload their submitted material on www.musician.com.

MENDIPS FOR SALE

(Entered June 13, 2001)

JOHN LENNON TRIBUTE CONCERT RESCHEDULED FOR SEPTEMBER

(Entered June 10, 2001)

IK! has it on good authority that the John Lennon tribute-benefit concert in NYC which had been postponed from its May 10 date..will now take place on September 20.  As background, what follows is the story we ran in April telling you about the show.

(Originally Entered April 15, 2001)

A TNT all-star tribute is being planned for this fall in honor of John Lennon.  The cable network (with blessings from Yoko), is putting together a concert special at New York's Radio City Music Hall.  The event will be filmed and is expected to air on TNT on or near John's birthday, October 9.  No artists have yet been confirmed for the show, but a spokesperson for the network said the three remaining Beatles will be asked to participate.  Proceeds from the event will go to the Violence Policy Center, whose mission is to end gun violence by educating the public, the news media and policy makers about the public health costs of injuries and deaths from firearms.

SEAN PLAYS ON NEW SUPERHERO ALBUM

(Entered June 6, 2001)

Sean plays turntables on a new album called Action Figure Party.. an album that is being called the uniting of "rock's superheroes for the ultimate alternative rock/jazz throw down."  Put together by keyboardist/songwriter/vocalist Greg Kirsten, the record is a jazzy jam session that is described in various reviews as "hip-hop" "funky" and "trip-hop."

Other artists on the album include Miho Hitori from Cibo Matto (background vocals); Gabrial McNair from No Doubt (trombone); David Ralicke from Beck (sax, trombone); Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers (bass); Gary Novak from Alanis Morisette band (drums).

Reviews for Action Figure Party:

"... party-exuberant...high-cholesterol grooves ... a funky good time."
-- Los Angeles New Times

"... rock, hip-hop, dub, and soul influences -- all smothered over a layer of funky jazz." - sonicnet.com "these songs are melodic, groove filled... a jazzy mix of funk sexiness and trip-hop cool."
-- hob.com

"...a richly layered sonic collage of modern technology, dance and trip-hop beats over a foundation of traditional jazz textures and melodies to form an album of undeniable grooves."
-- Boston University Free Press

"Action Figure Party is the type of record you might expect to be played in messy dorm rooms/bachelor pads/groove centers"
-- Boston University Free Press

As an added feature on the website, you can play an action figure video game and hear music from the CD.

Click Here to Check Out the Official Web Site

JOHN'S MURDER NAMED MOST SHOCKING MOMENT

Thanks to Larry McGahey

(Launch) - The 1980 murder of former Beatle John Lennon ranked first in VH1's 100 Most Shocking Moments In Rock and Roll poll, which aired recently on the cable-music network. The list compiles amazing, provocative, surprising and tragic events in music history. 

Other events making the list include Michael Jackson marrying Lisa Marie Presley; Milli Vanilli being exposed as lip-synchers; Jerry Lee Lewis marrying his 13-year-old cousin; Bobby Darin finding out his sister was really his mother; Kurt Cobain committing suicide; and David Crosby being a sperm donor to Melissa Etheridge and Julie Cypher. 

PAUL WANTED TO DROP LENNON FROM "YESTERDAY"

LONDON (AP) - Paul McCartney longed for "Yesterday" to be acknowledged as his song, but Yoko Ono wouldn't permit it, the former Beatle says. "Yesterday," like most of the Beatle songs, was
officially credited to McCartney and John Lennon. "At one point Yoko earned more from 'Yesterday' than I did," McCartney said in an interview published Tuesday in Radio Times. "It doesn't compute,
especially when it's the only song that none of the Beatles had anything to do with. I asked as a favor if I could have my name before John's on the 'Anthology' credits for 'Yesterday,' and Yoko
refused." McCartney also said "it's not true" that he is worth more than $1 billion, as The Sunday Times newspaper recently reported. "I don't even know how much I'm worth, and I'm not sure my accountants know either," McCartney said. "But I'm very well off, which is great because as a working-class lad from Liverpool, that was my intention."

STU SUTCLIFFE EXHIBIT AT  HALL OF FAME IN CLEVELAND

CLEVELAND (AP) - Before there was John, Paul, George and Ringo, there was Stuart Sutcliffe and his vision of rock and roll. Sutcliffe, a bass player sometimes called the "fifth Beatle," was the band's
unofficial stylist in its early days. His influence on the group - from their black leather jackets to their haircuts - is chronicled in an exhibit that opened Tuesday at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. A talented young artist, Sutcliffe met John Lennon at the Liverpool Art School in 1959 and joined Lennon's band, Johnny and the Moondogs. Sutcliffe died at age 21 from a brain hemorrhage
in 1962, a year after he left the group and just six months before the Beatles' first hit, "Love Me Do." Most of the collection at the rock hall had been unseen publicly until Pauline Sutcliffe loaned the items to the Beatles Story Museum for a year. The exhibit will remain in Cleveland until September 3.

Full article at: http://www.infobeat.com/fullArticle?article=407081658

YOKO GIVES LENNON SCHOOL $33,000 - IT'S CALLED "SNUB" BY MEDIA

May 13, 2001..CNN

Yoko gave $33,000 to John Lennon's childhood school - Dovedale County Infant in Liverpool.  When the school sent professional artist, Joanne Shaw's painting of John to Yoko as a thank you, Lennon Estate lawyers contacted the artist, warning her not to sell her Lennon portraits.  The news story that appeared on the CNN web site with the headline "Yoko Snubs Lennon's School" ran as follows:

LIVERPOOL, England -- John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono has forbidden an artist from using portraits of the former Beatle to raise money for his old school. Joanne Shaw, 26, had hoped to use her prints of Lennon to help his former school raise money for urgent repairs. But after Dovedale County Infant School, Liverpool, had sent Ono one of two prints as a 'thankyou' for an earlier £25,000 ($33,000) donation, Shaw received a letter of warning from her attorneys.

New York-based law firm Shukat Arrow Hafer and Weber explained that Ono held exclusive rights to his image and that Shaw would not be able to use the prints for fundraising purposes. Shaw, from Castleford, West Yorkshire, in north England, had originally sent the portraits of Lennon to Dovedale after hearing that the school was fund-raising to undertake general improvements. While one print was hung up at the school, a second was sent to Ono who then instructed her attorney to contact the artist warning her not to produce any further prints to be used for fund-raising.

The letter, signed by Peter Shukat, said: "You should be aware that your deriving your drawing from somebody else's photograph would not be permissible in the law. Because of other exclusive arrangements that Miss Ono has with others about using Mr Lennon's likeness in merchandising areas she would not be in a position to grant you the right to utilise your print for fund-raising purposes."

Shaw, who has painted for the Prince of Wales and the Sultan of Brunei, described the response as "totally wrong."

She told the Press Association: "An artist can paint whatever they want. It all started out as a generous gesture to his old school and it's provoked a bit of response from Yoko.

"I find it so sad that someone in her position feels threatened. I am not allowed to paint a picture of John. The only way they could object would be if I used the prints to promote a product. It just seems funny that she has gone over the top on it. If Yoko has the right to stop me from painting she stops my life so where do you draw the line?"

Her agent, Alan Black, said: "Yoko's attorneys are basically saying that she has broken the law by making a painting up from several photographs. They are saying that the image on the photographs are copyright of Yoko Ono. But she (Ono) must have released the photographs into the public domain, through magazines, for Joanne to get hold of them. Once it has gone into the public domain no-one has any right to it, except the photographer or the publication it appears in. If an artist derives a picture from a photograph then the photographer is the only one who can affect things, either by asking for accreditation or for royalties. There isn't an artist going that doesn't work from photographs. We are not breaking the law as we understand it and we are prepared to stand by that."

CELEBRITIES TURN OUT FOR ONE-NIGHT-ONLY
"JOHN AND PAUL" MUSICAL ON BROADWAY

(Entered May 9, 2001)

NEW YORK (AP) - Celebrities turned out in force at a benefit performance of "John and Paul," a musical tribute to the friendship between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Among those in attendance Monday night (May 7) at Manhattan's New Victory Theater were Mary Tyler Moore, Kathleen Turner, Lorraine Bracco of "The Sopranos," and soap opera diva Susan Lucci. The performance was a benefit for The All Stars Project, a New York-based group that works with inner-city youths, and On Your Marks/Breakthrough, a national group that helps low-income students prepare for higher education. "John and Paul" explores the relationship between Lennon and McCartney.

In an earlier report from Launch.com, Steven Schecter, who served as musical director, said, "It's a musical biography and it's original music. It does not use any of the Beatles music, but I'm a lifelong fan of the Beatles, so I breathe their spirit and I think the spirit lives in this music.  But it's a story about a friendship that changed the world."

Schecter says it's possible the show will find a permanent theater home.  There are also talks of making the production into a television movie.

GEORGE HARRISON HAS MORE CANCER SURGERY

(Entered May 3, 2001)

Thanks to Larry McGahey

A LUMINARIA FOR GEORGE THIS JULY

(Entered May 3, 2001)

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