news
beatles reunion rumoured
The UK music industry is rife with rumours that Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr are to perform live together for the first time in over thirty years, and that the concert will be billed as The Beatles. The three surviving Beatles last worked together in the studio in 1996, when they reworked a lost Lennon demo from 1974 into the hit single "Free As A Bird". Despite various combinations of former Beatles working together since the band officially split in 1970, The Beatles themselves have not performed together since their rooftop concert in London's Savile Row in 1969. At that time they had not toured since 1966. With the twentieth anniversary of John Lennon's death fast approaching, interest in any reunion is bound to be even bigger news than usual.
chapman fails in parole bid
Mark Chapman, the man who assassinated John Lennon, has lost his latest bid to be released from prison. Chapman is serving a life sentence for gunning down Lennon on the steps of the Dakota building, in New York's Central Park, on 8th December 1980. His latest attempt to gain his freedom was said to be partially thwarted by a letter sent to the Parole Board by Lennon's widow Yoko Ono. State prison officials claim that Chapman still receives over 1000 death threats per week.
brussels blocks emi/warners merger
The European Parliament has ruled that the merger between EMI and the Time-Warner group announced in January can not go ahead. The Monopolies and Mergers Commission has been investigating the deal in depth, and has deemed it to be an unfair and uncompetative proposition. EMI are also currently embroiled in a legal battle with the United States government over alleged record store price fixing.
paula yates dead
Paula Yates, co-presenter of ground-breaking eighties music show The Tube, was found dead in bed at her home in West London. Speculation is that Yates took her own life, although a police autopsy proved inconclusive. In recent years Yates' tulmutuous personal life has proven to be more newsworthy than her career, largely due to her marriage and subsequent split from Bob Geldof, and her relationship with INXS frontman Micheal Hutchence, who accidently killed himself during a bizarre sex act in a Sydney hotel in 1997.