Macca 'just friends with heiress'

Sir Paul McCartney's relationship with heiress Sabrina Guinness is just a friendship, the ex-Beatle's spokesman said today.
The 64-year-old was photographed outside the home of the 52-year-old former love of the Prince of Wales.
The pair are said to have met for a dinner date on Wednesday night, with the socialite comforting the singer over his divorce battle.
But the singer's spokesman Stuart Bell said: "There is no relationship beyond friendship."
The singer, whose estranged wife Heather Mills is starring on US reality TV show Dancing with the Stars, said: "I realise everyone wants to see me with a new bird right now and that's very flattering.
"I have known this lady for a while. We enjoy each other's company. When we get together we talk about stuff like the environment and Al Gore, things like that."
He told the Daily Mail: "I have had a terrible day at the office and as you probably know I'm going through a pretty difficult divorce right now too."
The star added: "It's not really a big thing. We have known each other a long time."
Macca invited Miss Guinness to join him and his daughter Stella and her husband Alasdhair Willis for dinner in an Italian restaurant in Notting Hill, west London.
But his plans were scuppered by the paparazzi, and after picking her up in his chauffeured Lexus, he dropped off the heiress to the Guinness industry at a friend's house before going to the restaurant alone - informing photographers that they had ruined his night.

McCartney Signed to New Starbucks Label

Paul McCartney was introduced as the first artist signed to Starbucks Corp.'s new record label, lending an iconic nameplate to the coffeehouse giant's latest entertainment venture.
The former Beatle, who made an appearance over a video feed from London at the company's annual meeting Wednesday, said he expects to release his next album on Starbucks' new Hear Music label in early June.
McCartney said he was impressed with Hear Music's push to use Starbucks' 13,500 retail outlets as part of its sales plan. He also praised the company's dedication.
'For me, the great thing is the commitment and the passion and the love of music, which as an artist is good to see,' he said.
The company said McCartney was signing a one-album deal with Hear Music, the partnership between Seattle-based Starbucks and Concord Music Group announced last week. Financial terms were not disclosed.
McCartney's rights to his previous song catalog are not part of the deal with Starbucks, said Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks' entertainment unit. McCartney most recently released records through EMI Group PLC.
The label plans to sell albums through traditional and digital music outlets, with no advance sales and no additional content for Starbucks stores.
Rather than overshadowing the next artists to join the label, McCartney could serve as an 'anchor' artist who may help sway other musicians to the label, said Geoff Mayfield, a senior analyst for Billboard magazine.
'I can't criticize them for choosing a Beatle to start their enterprise,' Mayfield said.
The McCartney announcement is another big step for Starbucks' attempts to spin part of its consumer appeal into the entertainment business.
The coffeehouse chain already has produced and sold some albums, markets books, and helped develop a feature-length movie. Lombard said Starbucks Entertainment is currently profitable.
Hear Music has been used as a brand on other releases developed for sale in Starbucks stores. The coffee giant also has a branded page on Apple Inc.'s iTunes digital music store, and it has a handful of hybrid music-and-coffee stores that allow customers to burn tracks to CDs.
Concord, which controls several other labels, helped Starbucks sell the Grammy-winning 'Genius Loves Company,' an album of Ray Charles duets.
Lombard said Hear Music has been in talks with other artists and expects to sign two more this year and another eight next year.

New Maccaspan MP3 Player!

There is a NEW MP3 player on the main page at Maccaspan!
Now you can surf Maccaspan and listen to your favorite Paul McCartney rare tracks!

And what does it cost you? Not a darn thing!

Check it out, go to www.maccaspan.com now!

HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY!

Happy St. Patty's day everyone!
Have a green beer today. But remember not to over do it!

Cheers; Maccaspan!

Paul McCartney Leaving Capitol Records After 40 Years

Paul McCartney is splitting with the record company he’s called home for most of the last 43 years.
Except for a brief break in the early 1980s when he skipped to Columbia Records and then back, McCartney has been with Capitol since the Beatles’ first album in 1964.
But he’s leaving, effective immediately, and taking his entire back catalog of solo albums with him. That’s everything including bestsellers like "Band on the Run," "McCartney," "Ram," "Flowers in the Dirt," "Tug of War" and his critically acclaimed most recent album, "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard," nominated for four Grammys, including Album of the Year, in 2006.
That much is news. This much has also been reported: McCartney will be the first artist signed with Starbucks’ new record label. News of the label and McCartney’s potential involvement were first suggested in Sunday’s New York Post.

But I can tell you exclusively: It’s a done deal. It will be announced this week. McCartney will first offer just his new album to Starbucks for a fall release. The rest of the catalog he will sit on for the moment.
Capitol, I can also tell you, is not happy. They are part of the ailing EMI Records empire. EMI, like Warner Music, is suffering and could collapse at any time. This news is a terrible blow to them.
"They knew it was coming," a source says. "They did nothing for the 'Chaos' album, and they were reminded that McCartney’s entire contract was ending. Look, they did nothing for the Beatles’ 'Love' album this winter. It just sold on its own. Everything they do is outdated."
McCartney’s exit from Capitol is interesting in many ways. Every since the Beatles joined Capitol, all their albums and all their solo albums have come from the label.
Capitol’s association with the group since they broke up in 1970 has always been key. McCartney’s Wings albums were with the label, as was John Lennon’s "Imagine," George Harrison’s "All Things Must Pass" and Ringo Starr’s "Ringo!" Even Sean Lennon has released a Capitol album.
But all that may change now that McCartney has flown the coop. Starbucks has proven to be a much more effective seller of CDs and DVDs than record stores, thanks to their amazing retailing and branding.
Starbucks customers have come to regard non-coffee product merchandise as hip and attractive, while record companies have been unable to reach customers at all in recent years.

New Paul McCartney Album???

Sir Paul pleads: Get me back to where I once belonged

11/03/07 Exclusive By Chris Goodman

PAUL McCartney is planning to release an album as soon as his divorce is over. Friends say the former Beatle is desperate to be known for his music again “The album is scheduled for seven or eight weeks’ time, it’s imminent,” said a source close to McCartney’s company MPL.

“It’s a rock album. But he knows that just because he might win a court case, it doesn’t necessarily mean fans will buy his album. “It’s almost like starting out again for him. He lost touch with his core fans when he married Heather and he wants to reconnect.” Another McCartney aide said: “We’ve been told to stand by for an album. He has been working on it for some time and it will be the first of two projects, the second being a guitar concerto.”

But he is just as concerned at the damage the marriage has done to his reputation as Britain’s biggest rock star. “Before he met her, he was the chairman of the board of rock’n’roll,” said the source. “Now he’s more like the chairman of Grace Brothers. He’s old Mr Grace. People love

Paul because he’s a national icon but the national icon has been made to look a fool. Colleagues are talking about a series of intimate gigs to relaunch McCartney, or even an impromptu tour in the style of his 1970s band, Wings, who turned up unannounced at universities, asking to play.

Sir Paul has always been keen on intimate gigs as a way of directly reaching fans. After The Beatles gave up live performances in 1966, he suggested they turn up at pubs to play and has repeatedly planned smaller shows over the years. His daughter, fashion designer Stella, 35, has been helping him plan his future and has taken an active role in his business affairs over the past few months. “It’s true, Stella has been running the show,” said the source. “She’s making decisions, backing Paul up on a lot. “She’s his main ally and of all his children, the one most like him. She took the marriage personally, she hated it from day one, everyone who was at the wedding will tell you that, she wasn’t smiling. Stella’s a good girl, she has the same honesty and work ethics as her father. She understands the responsibility of being a McCartney.”

500 Error Message Explained... Hard CRASH!!!

Just to give you an update, the Maccaspan board is hosted on Maccaspan.com, BUT all the account info and posts are kept on a database on phpBB.com. This is the message we got when
we went tho their website.

Ouch! RAID array failure…

We’re sad to announce that during the switch of a failed harddisk to the hot-spare and the planned 2 hours required for the array to re-sync, we’ve been hit by an extremely unexpected double-disk failure which leaves us with a dead array.
As the server needs to be rebuilt with a new set of harddisks and reconfigured, there will be a number of days of downtime whilst this holding page is up on a vserver and that the server failure can be recovered from with the existing phpBB.com website and data from our private CVS repositories restored. In the mean time, please direct yourself to our temporary support forums over at Area51.
Bertie probably shouldn’t have fed the server honey to see if that would make it feel better…
Cheers :(

Where does that leave us? For now the Maccaspan forum will be temporarly be running on its
old home at forumforfree until the main phpBB gets it's database going.

So you may have to re-register just to use the OLD board unless you can remember your old account (see, I told ya to use your old username!) All new accounts will be USER registered, so
you'll be posting in no time!

PS. The old board is just as slow as ever!
http://p2.forumforfree.com/maccaspan.html


EDIT: Ok, the main board seems to be up and running for now!

Paul McCartney gives Heather Mills £2million advance on divorce

Paul McCartney has reportedly given Heather Mills a £2million “down-payment” to keep her financially solvent until the financial aspect of their divorce is settled.

According to a source close to the former Beatles, he gave the money as a “goodwill gesture without prejudice”.

The source told the Sun: “The £2million is all down to the fact Paul is a superbly warm and generous human being.”

“He recognises that there were good times. But the cash he agreed to hand over doesn’t prejudice what the eventual settlement will be. It’s to tide her over.”

In related news, Heather is still videoing her interactions with photographers during the divorce proceedings. She was spotted filming with her camcorder while driving away from Brighton railway station this week.

An onlooker reports: “She pulled out of the station holding the camera and looking out of the window. Then she sped off and ran a red light a bit further down the road. There was no way she was paying full attention to the road. It’s lucky she didn’t have an accident.”

McCartneys Have Their First Court Date

LONDON -- Paul McCartney and his estranged wife, Heather Mills McCartney, appeared in London's High Court on Thursday for a preliminary hearing in their divorce case.

Mills McCartney, 38, said nothing as she arrived at the courthouse for the closed door session. The 64-year-old former Beatle arrived at the court's backdoor soon after.

McCartney whistled and snapped his fingers as he left the building after the two-hour hearing, flashing a peace sign to photographers stationed outside the court's parking lot before being driven off in a waiting car.

Mills McCartney left through a backdoor about 30 minutes later.

The couple separated last May after four years of marriage and began divorce proceedings in July. They have a 3-year-old daughter, Beatrice.

British law forbids publishing details of allegations in divorce cases. Mills McCartney began legal action against a number of media outlets after disparaging claims about her husband, alleged to have been contained in divorce court papers drawn up on her behalf, were reported in the press.

Paul and Ringo spotted together!

SIR Paul McCartney hops into a car with daughter Beatrice — after bumping into fellow Beatles legend Ringo Starr.
Macca met the 66-year-old drummer and his actress wife Barbara Bach, 59, as he picked up Beatrice, three, from a party.

But he couldn’t chat for long — so no doubt he’ll give his old pal a ring. Ringo was one of the first to give 64-year-old Paul plenty of support after his split from wife Heather Mills, 39.

Macca — whose grown-up daughters Stella, 35, and Mary, 37, were also at the bash in Westbourne Grove, West London — looked relaxed despite the bitter High Court divorce battle.

With a little help from his friends he’ll pull through...

Outstanding Achievement Award Presented for Contributions to `Paul McCartney: The Space Within Us`

This Year's Outstanding Achievement Award Presented for Contributions to "Paul McCartney: The Space Within Us"

DMN Newswire--2007-3-1--NEW YORK -- PostWorks, New York (www.pwny.com) is proud to announce that re-recording mixer and supervising sound editor Matt Foglia, CAS, has earned this year's Cinema Audio Society Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing Award for his contributions as re-recording mixer on "Paul McCartney: The Space Within Us." The concert film debuted on A&E last October, and an expanded version was released on DVD in November.
Foglia's win in the "Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television for Non-Fiction, Variety or Music Series or Specials" category is his second straight. Last year's honor came for his work on the PBS special, "Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Hammersmith Odeon, London 1975."


The latest winning project combines live performance footage from McCartney's sold-out 2005 U.S. tour with other behind-the-scenes tour footage and interviews. Captured in HD by producer/director Mark Haefeli of New York-based Mark Haefeli Productions (www.mhp3.com), the project features a custom 5.1 surround mix, courtesy of Foglia and co-winner, music producer/mixer David Kahne.

For the project, Haefeli and editors Zoran Jevremov and Mitch Jacobson provided original media footage of the documentary and musical portions of the program to Foglia, who also received music mixes and isolated audience tracks from Kahne. Foglia then reconformed all of the music in stereo and 5.1, along with all of the accompanying audience tracks. Monitoring primarily in 5.1, Foglia mixed the documentary sections – effecting background layers and music provided by Jevremov –created sound design, sweetened the transitions and developed audience blends.

According to Foglia, his biggest challenge came in designing the sound mix prior to the beginning of the first song, "Magical Mystery Tour." "Mark and Zoran wanted the beginning to escalate in level and intensity, similar to a space launch, so that when the first song started, the intensity was at a maximum," Foglia explained. "There were so many clips, layers and internal edits, it took a lot of balancing to achieve that effect sonically, while also abiding by the network's specifications."

Continuing, Foglia added, "Mark produces and directs a lot of amazing projects, and he gives me freedom to ‘do my thing,' so working with him and his company is always a great experience."

"Paul McCartney: The Space Within Us" is the third Paul McCartney TV special produced by MHP which features Foglia's talents. Others include "Paul McCartney: In Red Square," for which Foglia was nominated for an Emmy.

Beatles guitar (Hofner) turns up at Montenegro school

A guitar that Paul McCartney threw into a crowd decades ago during a Beatles concert in Britain has turned up at a school in Montenegro, a report said Friday.

McCartney had tossed the Hofner Violin bass guitar into the audience after its neck broke, said the Vesti newspaper without mentioning the year of the concert.

Milan Dobrilovic, a Montenegrin cameraman, said he had received the guitar from his cousin Dario Persi who was the fan who caught the instrument.

Dobrilovic recently donated the guitar to a music school in Herceg Novi, a tiny town on the country's Adriatic coast.

The violin-shaped Hofner guitar was made famous by McCartney, who adopted it in 1961 and still uses the same model.

Guitars proven to have been owned by former Beatles members including McCartney and John Lennon have sold at auction for up to 330,000 pounds (640,000 dollars) in recent years.

Happy Birthday George Harrison

In honor of what would be George's 64th birthday on February 25, I
thought it would be nice to list some of his contributions to music and
to life itself. Often overshadowed by the success of Lennon/McCartney
tunes, George fought to get his songs on The Beatles LPs and it wasn't
till the last single released that a Harrison composition was released
on the 'A' side.

- The Beatles very first studio recording was written by George "Cry For A Shadow,' chosen over selections written by Lennon/McCartney.
(Credits show written by Harrison/Lennon but was mainly a Harrison composition)

- As outspoken as John Lennon was it was George who wrote three 'social
comment' songs during the Beatles reign. Taxman, Little Piggies, I Me
Mine.

- George brought in the first outside musician to play on a Beatles
record. (other than Beatles producer George Martin) It was Eric Clapton
who played on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." George and Eric were best
of friends.

- George's first wife left him for Eric Clapton. George and Eric
remained best of friends till George's death. Eric appears on the recent CD release 'Tribute to George Harrison."

- George introduced a new sound with an instrument from India called a
sitar on the record Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) and recorded a
couple more songs with the Beatles with heavy Indian music influence.

- The Beatles were huge fans of Carl Perkins and recorded more of his
songs than any other artist. After the Beatles breakup George played
concerts with Carl Perkins and was responsible for Carl's comeback.

- The 2nd biggest selling Beatles single was "Something" written by
George. In recent interviews with producer George Martin, he admits
that he maybe should have paid more attention to George's song writing
ability.

- The first couple years after the Beatles breakup George had the best
record sales of the Beatles as individuals. His first release 'All
Things Must Pass' was a 3 LP set. Soon afterwards came the 'Concert for
Bangledesh.' This was the first 'aid' type concert by a rock artist which started the benefit concert trend.

- Ringo Starr was the only ex-Beatle to have 3 consecutive number one
hits of which he says it was due largely to the un-credited assistance
of George Harrison.

- One of the last number one hits by an individual Beatle was George's
cover of 'I've Got My Mind Set On You.' George was visiting his sister
in the U.S. before they were famous here, and heard 'Set On You,' bought
the record and took it back for the Beatles to do a version. It never
happened. Years later George worked on it and released it and it hit
number one.

- In later Beatle songs and many of George's songs he uses the 'slide'
guitar effect. Sounding different than most others, after his death his
son was asked why George's slide effects sound different than others.
He replied that most re-tune their guitars to an 'F' chord but George
played with standard tuning.

- Fans of 'The Byrds' know that guitarist / singer / song writer Roger
McGuinn plays a 12 string Rickenbacker guitar which now bears his name. McGuinn traded in some guitars in order to buy the 12 string after seeing and hearing George Harrison play one in the movie and song "A Hard Day's Night."

- Harrison co-produced and plays lead guitar on the huge hit "Day After
Day" by the group Badfinger.

- George used the 'wah-wah' effect before the infamous 'Wah-Wah" pedal
was invented. Once John Lennon turned the volume control up and down on
Harrison's guitar as he played. Later he used a volume control pedal.

- He produced many films including "Monty Python's Life of Bryan" and "Time Bandits."

- George was the most spiritual Beatle. When he learned he would die due to a brain tumor, he was totally at peace with his life, and the coming
afterlife.


Wesley Schultz

Bootleg Zone. Gone for good?!?

Anyone who's posted a boot or downloaded one from the MaccaSpan forum KNEW that Bootlegzone.com was used as a krutch to get all of out bootleg info from.

What has happened? Hackers, legal action? No one knows. It just seems odd for the
site to be shut down out of no where.

Hopefully it will be rebuilt or another site will be rebuilt in it's honer.

Original Beatles' pics accidentally end up in trash

London (ANI)- Original pictures of the The Beatles were lost forever after they were accidentally chucked in the trash.

The iconic 1963 pictures - used on the cover of the Fab Four's first official album Please Please Me - were stored in two boxes at an EMI base.

But although they were marked Not Rubbish - Do Not Remove, a cleaner allegedly admitted binning them, reports the Sun.

Now EMI and Apple Corps bosses are suing the cleaner's firm for £700,000, claiming they were negligent, failed to follow instructions, failed to take reasonable care and failed to properly train or supervise their employee.

The photos - showing John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr leaning over a staircase at EMI's office in Manchester Square, London - were also used on the covers of The Beatles EP and the 1973 compilation Red Album.

They were among more than 450 transparencies and negatives kept at EMI's Brook Green base in West London.

The seven Beatles snaps had been taken by late photographer Angus McBean.

It says: "The Beatles transparencies were the only original material from the photography from this session and were historically important and valuable." Crystal allegedly fired the female cleaner.

Beatles Ready for Legal Downloading Soon

The Beatles songs — all of them — will be offered for downloading soon. That’s what Neil Aspinall, the head of Apple Corps Ltd. and the man who’s protected the Beatles legacy for the last 40 years — told me over the weekend.“All 13 core albums, the ones originally released on CD in 1987, have been remastered," Aspinall told me. "At some point they will all be released, probably at the same time.”But the film “Let It Be” remains in DVD purgatory, Aspinall says. The reason? “The film was so controversial when it first came out. When we got halfway through restoring it, we looked at the outtakes and realized: This stuff is still controversial. It raised a lot of old issues.”
All rock groups — all musicians and artists — should have a protector as devoted or committed as Aspinall. He’s never sold the group or their legacy out, but instead been the fierce protector for nearly four decades.
Where others might have had the temptation to just cash out and take the billions of dollars being offered for one venture or another, Aspinall has proceeded with incredible care and caution.John Lennon and George Harrison especially must be smiling at the thought of Aspinall keeping their names away from crass endeavors.It was Aspinall who guided the Cirque du Soleil project, “Love,” which is not only a hit in Las Vegas, but is a bestselling CD as well. It’s the only album that EMI Music can claim as a hit from this past Christmas.Aspinall did confirm for me that not everything from the show is on the CD. “A lot of the transitions wouldn’t fit,” he said. And there will not be a DVD of the magnificent show at the Mirage.“The Mirage doesn’t want it,” he said. “They want people to come see it.”Now that Aspinall has “won” his longstanding lawsuit with Apple Inc. (formerly Apple Computer), he says downloaded Beatle songs will be coming to us soon.If you missed it, Apple Records sued Apple Computer in 2002 over trademark violations after signing a 1991 agreement — and Steve Jobs paying the Beatles about $43 million.Jobs et al won, but the case went to appeal. Before the appeals court could make a ruling, a settlement was reached.The settlement didn’t address downloading. But now Aspinall says that when the Beatles songs do get put on the Internet officially, “it will be on all the services, not just one.” So all the Beatles songs will be found on iTunes, Rhapsody, etc. That’s very “PC” of him!And those 13 remastered albums? They will not include “Hey Jude,” a 1969 compilation album that Americans of a certain age fondly recall and keep in their collections on vinyl only.Aspinall said he’d kind of forgotten about it.“Do you know that Allen Klein” — who represented Lennon back then in the U.S. — “screwed that up!" Aspinall said. "He reversed the photos. The back picture was supposed to be the cover!”

Maccaspan Finetune Playlist

Beatles' Sgt. Pepper Designer Slams Apple Attitude

The designer of THE BEATLES' SGT PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND album has slammed record company Apple for denying him copyright of the infamous image. SIR PETER BLAKE was paid GBP200 ($390) for his iconic 1967 cover creation, which features life-size cut outs of the band among an array of celebrities, but is barred from using the image on a new artistic project.

He says, "I'm doing a limited edition set of prints of the album covers I've done but Apple won't let me do Sgt Pepper. "They probably think 'Stop moaning' - but somebody along the line should have thought I deserved a share, like a bonus, or even acknowledgement that I was hard done by. "I don't blame the Beatles. I wouldn't expect them to suddenly give me a thing but EMI (who distributed Apple) should have."

George Martin said the Beatles were AWFUL!

Sir George Martin thought The Beatles were "awful" and "crap" when he first heard them perform.

The legendary performer - later dubbed 'The Fifth Beatle' - auditioned the Fab Four after they had been rejected by label Decca. And he took a lot of convincing to take them on.

Martin says, "They were pretty awful.

"I wasn't impressed with their music. They were crap. I saw them in the Cavern after I signed them and they could hold an audience. What made me sign them was their charisma.

"They had this wonderful quality that when you were with them, you felt enriched by their presence and, when they left you, you felt diminished. There weren't many people who do that collectively."

The Beatles - Love or Hate it!

SOUNDS FAMILIAR By BABY GIL

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Purists may howl that this is not the way the Beatles intended these songs to be heard. But nobody really knows that for sure and Martin is probably the closest we can get to knowing how those boys felt about their music.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Philippine Star

Two years ago the famous performing troupe, The Cirque du Soleil decided to come up with a show using the music of the Beatles. Fine. Might make something interesting on stage with Lucy sailing through the sky with diamonds and dancers traipsing through an octopus garden. But no great shakes really. Everybody uses Beatles these days and we have the authentic, the bootleg and the horrendous like The Beatles Go Reggae available in the market. But the Cirque, in keeping with its top-notch reputation, wanted something truly special and called in George Martin to work on the old recorded tracks of the Beatles and come up with a soundtrack.

Now Martin is no ordinary producer. Way back in the mod ’60s, he was the guy who helped John, Paul, George and Ringo put together their famous albums. Martin helped shape Beatles music and we all know nothing was ever the same again. I do not know how long it has been since he tinkered with Beatles tracks in the studio. Probably 40 years or more. But it must have felt like Christmas morning when he got the offer from the Cirque du Soleil. He was given access to all the original Beatles tracks and clearance to do what he wanted with them. Wow!

The show entitled Love opened last June in Las Vegas. Lucky you if you caught the show at the Mirage. Those who did not, even the big Beatles fans just wrote off Love as something too way off their reach. Then something extraordinary happened. Somebody listened to the Love soundtrack made by Martin and his son Giles and told friends about their incredible experience. Those friends told others and others.

The combination of the familiar melodies, the sound of the Beatles and the work Martin did to rearrange, remix, cut, strip, splice and meld the old tracks has resulted in something incredibly exciting. Love became a must for all Beatles fans, music lovers and those interested in recording technology. Junk the Cirque du Soleil! All you need now is the CD, a player and your imagination.

Love is one case where you have to bless technology, both old and new. The old one because it wonderfully preserved the Beatles recordings. The crisp vocals, the energy of a young band and the feel of genius at work, daring conventions and breaking down limitations are all there. And this is despite the fact that most of those songs were recorded live on a single track.

As for the new, the unique takes on these old songs would never have been possible without the latest equipment. Martin probably had the time of his life creating a mind-blowing medley of For the Benefit of Mr. Kite, I Want You and Helter Skelter, using Blackbird to put a new spin to Tuesday or Julia for Eleanor Rigby or simply enhancing the originals.

Purists may howl that this is not the way the Beatles intended these songs to be heard. But nobody really knows that for sure and Martin is probably the closest we can get to knowing how those boys felt about their music. I’ve listened to Love several times and I love the fact that everything sounds new again. I am also happy to find proof for what I have always believed, that George is every bit as great a songwriter as John and Paul. His Something and While My Guitar Gently Weeps are two of the best cuts in the album. As for Ringo, Martin made full use of his drums from start to finish and he is very good.

Sgt. Pepper album sign by a 4 Beatles plus more up for sale

The John Galt Gallery Presents "The Tom Fontaine Collection" February 9th from 6 to 10pm; February 10th from 2 to 10pm. Tom Fontaine, one of the world's foremost collectors of rock & roll and movie memorabilia is sharing his collection with the public. Items include: Grammy Guitar signed by several artists including Paul McCartney, 1970 Fan Club Beatles Poster signed by John Lennon at the Helping Hand Marathon in May 1975, Sgt Pepper LP cover signed in Centerfold by all 4 Beatles, Elton John’s 1970s performance outfit , signed items by Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper(The Day The Music Died), and much more. For more information call 773-404-8000. 5% of all sales will benefit the Make-A-Wish foundation of Illinois with a $5,000 minimum guaranteed contribution by Tom Fontaine himself.

McCartney steps out for Ewan's Burns Night

Sir Paul McCartney stepped out arm in arm with a glamorous brunette for a Burns Night charity dinner at the St Martin's Lane Hotel hosted by Ewan McGregor.
It was, of course, his daughter Mary.
Like her sister Stella, Ms McCartney is a passionate anti-fur campaigner. So Mary must have been alarmed to see at least three fellow guests wearing fur - notably Yasmin Le Bon, Lulu and Bianca Jagger.
Guests were treated to haggis and Irn-Bru while being entertained by the amusingly named Red Hot Chilli Pipers. Partygoers also received a specially-made glass bottle featuring a portrait of Scotland's national bard.
The annual supper raises cash for children's charities Clic Sargent and Children's Hospice Association Scotland.
Guests were treated to haggis and Irn-Bru while being entertained by the amusingly named Red Hot Chilli Pipers. Partygoers also received a specially-made glass bottle featuring a portrait of Scotland's national bard.
The annual supper raises cash for children's charities Clic Sargent and Children's Hospice Association Scotland.

BOARD IS BACK!

http://maccaspan.com/forum/

Help us rebuild!

The board is fried.

Gone for good this time... Gonna take a while to rebuild.

Jenny Wren on Grammy Album

'JENNY WREN' ON GRAMMY ALBUM - 08.01.2007
Paul's 'Jenny Wren' has been included on the Grammy Nominations 2007 compiation album that is released on January 29th in the UK. 'Jenny Wren' has been nominated in the Best Male Pop Vocal category.

The full tracklisting is as follows:

Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
Be Without You - Mary J. Blige
Put Your Records On - Corinne Bailey Rae
Waiting On The World To Change - John Mayer
Dani California - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Sexyback - Justin Timberlake
Not Ready To Make Nice - Dixie Chicks
Jesus Take The Wheel - Carrie Underwood
Hide And Seek - Imogen Heap
Ain't No Other Man - Christina Aguilera
Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield
You Can Close Your Eyes - Sheryl Crow
Stupid Girls - Pink
Black Horse And The Cherry Tree - KT Tunstall
You're Beautiful - James Blunt
Save Room - John Legend
Jenny Wren - Paul McCartney
Bad Day - Daniel Powter
My Humps - The Black Eyed Peas
I Will Follow You Into The Dark - Death Cab For Cutie
Over My Head (Cable Car) - The Fray
Is It Any Wonder - Keane
Stickwitu - Pussycat Dolls

Beatles` LOVE grabs top spot as CD sales slump

Canadian music stores suffered from the post-Christmas blues after album sales took a typical tumble in the last week of 2006.
According to figures compiled by Nielsen SoundScan, every artist in the top 10 saw their sales decrease significantly, with Sarah McLachlan's latest effort taking the biggest hit on the album charts.
Her Christmas disc Wintersong dropped out of the No. 1 spot after one week on top, falling down to No. 27, with sales of the album dipping from 46,000 last week to just under 5,000 this week -- a drop of almost 90%.
Grabbing the top spot this week was the Beatles remix collection LOVE on sales of 15,000. Eminem's mixtape-style showcase The Re-Up (14,000) was not far behind in second, and Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveSounds jumped 10 spots to No. 3.
The compilation MuchDance 2007 climbed one notch to No. 4, Gwen Stefani's The Sweet Escape moved up two positions to No. 5, and Nelly Furtado's Loose claimed No. 6. Il Divo's Siempre slipped three to No. 7, Akon's Konvicted rocketed up nine spots to No. 8, Mes Aieux's Tire-Toi Une Buche occupied the No. 9 slot, and U2's U218 Singles hung onto the No. 10 position, after placing 11th last week.
There were no new entries in the top 100, an indication of how new CD releases completely shut down over the holidays.
In the U.S., Omarion's 21 (119,000) debuted in the No. 1 spot, followed by Akon in second, the Dreamgirls soundtrack in third, Nas's Hip-hop Is Dead in fourth, and Young Jeezy's The Inspiration in fifth.

Brown Wants To Team With McCartney

Rocker Ian Brown has asked Sir Paul Mccartney to play bass guitar on his new album.
The former Stone Roses frontman promises his new solo effort will be "something really beautiful, with violins, dead sharp beats, socially conscious lyrics" - and he wants the former Beatle to help him top the charts.
Brown says, "I'm trying to get Paul McCartney. I spoke to his assistant. I was like, 'Me name's Ian Brown and I'm a singer,' and she was like, 'Yeah, I've heard of you.'
"I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I don't mind waiting for him. I'd put it back for him. I just think in the last 40 years, no-one's touched McCartney on the bass. It's a bit of a pipe dream, but if you don't ask, you don't get, so I'm going for it."

McCartney Eyes One Last Beatles Song

Sir Paul Mccartney is planning to reunite with his late Beatles bandmate John Lennon and finish an unreleased track the pair sang together.
The Fab Four abandoned Now And Then during their prime. McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr tried to resurrect the track when they put together their Beatles Anthology albums ten years ago, but guitarist Harrison claimed it was not good enough.
But McCartney wants to go back and finish the job.
A source tells newspaper the Daily Express, "It has always niggled a bit with Paul that they didn't finish Now And Then.
"While George wasn't keen, Paul always though the song had a lot of potential. He is now hoping to complete it after all, with him singing the harmonies to John's lead vocal. It would obviously be very moving to hear the pair of them singing together one last time."
McCartney himself recently said of the song, "It needed a bit of reworking but it had a beautiful verse."

Celebrating One YEAR of the MaccaSpan forum!

Celebrating One YEAR of the MaccaSpan forum!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

I hope you all enjoyed the year as much as we have and here's to many more just like it!

2006 was great for MaccaSpan, but it was a little rough for Paul, so we want to wish Paul McCartney a Happy New Year and we hope he has a much better year in 2007!

Remember not to drink and drive! Let's have everybody have a safe and happy new year. So again, Happy New Year Maccaspanians, and a special Happy New Year to Paul, for without him MaccaSpan would never exist!

CHEERS!!!

Beatles covers to be on UK stamps

Six of the Beatles' album covers are to feature in a special set of UK stamps, to be issued next month.
Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Revolver are among the sleeves which will be reproduced on 9 January.

TV show The Sky at Night, in its 50th year, will also be commemorated by the Royal Mail in 2007, with six celestial images chosen by Sir Patrick Moore.

Other subjects for sets will include UK inventions which changed the world and the abolition of the slave trade.

The diamond wedding anniversary of the Queen - whose image appears on traditional British stamps - and the Duke of Edinburgh will be marked in October.

Underwater life, British Army uniforms and the centenary of the Scout Association will also feature on stamps in the UK during the next 12 months.

Paul McCartney Planning Stage Show Based on His Life

Sir Paul McCartney is planning a stage show based on his life, according to the Telegraph.
The UK paper quotes the former Beatle's cousin, the actress Kate Robbins, as saying that McCartney will approve the music and serve as musical director. The music is based on The Liverpool Oratorio — McCartney's first classical work, which he composed with Carl Davis in 1991 to commemorate his home city's 150th anniversary.

Robbins is also working on the adaptation, along with the writer Steve Brown.

The paper reports that McCartney's much-publicized divorce proceedings with his second wife, Heather Mills, have delayed the project.

The story will follow a character named Shanty (a fictionalized McCartney) from his childhood in Liverpool up through his first marriage to Mary Dee (standing in for McCartney's first wife, Linda) and the birth of a child. The couple attempts to balance their family life and their careers.

The paper speculates that the show could go up in Liverpool in 2008 — the city's year as the European Capital of Culture.

McCartney's latest classical album, "Ecce Cor Meum" — Latin for "Behold My Heart" — was released this year. His latest pop album, "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard," was released in 2005.

Merry Christmas from MaccaSpan

Wishing all the best to you and your family. Have yourself a Merry MaccaSpan Christmas!

Remember not to drink and drive this holiday.

Cheers,

McCartney, the MaccaSpan Admin

Signed Beatles Album Cover Auctioned For $115K

An album cover signed by all four Beatles as a gift for George Harrison's sister sold Friday at auction for more than $115,000.
The sale, to an unidentified buyer, was believed to set a record price for a signed Beatles album purchased at a public sale, said Mark Zakarin, president of the online auction company ItsOnlyRockNRoll.com. The exact price, with the buyer's commission, was $115,228.82. Bidding on the album began at $25,000. The copy of "Meet The Beatles," the band's first U.S. release on Capitol Records, was put up for sale by Harrison's sister, Louise. "To Lou with love from `Brother'!!," wrote George above his signature. John Lennon's inscription read, "To Lou many love from John Lennon X." Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr expressed similar feelings when all four signed the album cover while aboard a train to Washington for a 1964 concert.

Beatles still popular in Japan after all these years

TOKYO — Although the Beatles split up in 1970, the Fab Four's music continues to attract new generations of fans in Japan.
"I could hardly believe my ears," said Hidenobu Kondo, 44, recalling the day two summers ago when he heard his then 2-year-old son, Ryuichi, suddenly sing part of the Beatles song "We Can Work It Out."
"It really blew me away, because I didn't teach him English or music," said Kondo, a Beatles fan who often listens to the band's CDs as his son plays nearby. "Even a little child must have understood by intuition that the Beatles were good."
Ryuichi took the stage to belt out "I Want Hold You Hand" recently at a club in western Tokyo's Kunitachi city called "Liverpool." The venue, which is named after the port city in England where the Beatles rose to fame, features Japanese bands covering Beatles hits. An audience of about 60 people ranging from university students to a couple in their 70s clapped as young Ryuichi sang away.
The Beatles — John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — caught the imagination of Japanese baby boomers in the second half of the 1960s.
Japanese musician Yosui Inoue, 58, still remembers the day in 1967 when "All You Need Is Love" was broadcast live around the world. It was a time of "flowers and peace," he said, recalling how young people protesting against the Vietnam War would hand out flowers as a symbol of peace.
Writer Masanori Oe, 64, lived in the United States in the latter half of the 1960s and took part in antiwar rallies. He said that in the face of the draft, young Americans felt the only way they could change the world was by changing themselves.
Picture book author and singer Cocco, 29, of Okinawa, appeared at the "Dream Power" music festival held Nov 4 at Nippon Budokan hall in Tokyo, where the Beatles performed 40 years ago.
The event has been held for the past five years to support children in poor parts of Asia and Africa. The money raised is used to build schools.
Cocco, who sang the Beatles number "Norwegian Wood," said she initially had her doubts about the legitimacy of the fund-raising effort, and traveled to Vietnam to see if the money was really being used for its intended purpose.
What she found warmed her heart. Children at the school she visited gave her necklaces and flowers they had made from bamboo leaves and tissue paper, and convinced her to take part in the event.
Also performing at the festival was Naoki Sato, 33, of singing duo Love Psychedelico. Sato hailed Lennon's influence on him, saying that at a time when it was thought cool for rock musicians to say "no," Lennon's music conveyed the message that it was also cool to say "yes."
Says musician Inoue, "What is so remarkable about the Beatles is the sense of the positive they exuded."
"Love and peace are eternal," he commented. "I took them for granted when I was young, but at my age talk of such things becomes much more serious."
Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, said it was the word "Yes" written on the ceiling of an art gallery as part of her exhibition that drew her and her future husband together. Together they launched their campaign for peace in 1969. Ono says the power of love is incredible and she remains convinced that it will bring about peace one day.

Sixties London to Be Explored in Kennedys' How Did You Meet the Beatles?

By Andrew Gans
Mom, How Did You Meet the Beatles? is the title of a new work from Adrienne Kennedy and her son, Adam P. Kennedy.
Subtitled "A True Story of London in the 1960's," the theatre piece will be presented Jan. 15, 2007, at Joe's Pub. In the production playwright Adrienne Kennedy, according to press notes, "chronicles her search for fame and fortune in 1960's London, where she encountered Laurence Olivier, James Baldwin, Ricki Houston, various British writers and, of course, the Beatles." Show time is 7 PM.
Adrienne Kennedy is the recipient of three Village Voice Obie Awards for her plays Funnyhouse of a Negro, June and Jean in Concert and Sleep Deprivation Chamber. She co-authored the latter with son Adam P. Kennedy, who is the CEO of Kennedy Promotions LLC. The Signature Theatre Company also devoted its 1995-1996 season to Adrienne Kennedy's work.
Joe's Pub is located within the Public Theater at 425 Lafayette Street. Tickets, priced at $20, are available by calling (212) 967-7555 or by visiting www.joespub.com.

FBI releases files on John Lennon after 25-year wait

The FBI has released 10 files on late former Beatle John Lennon which it had withheld for nearly three decades on the grounds that releasing them could threaten the United States.
.The files were published on the Internet Wednesday at www.lennonFBIfiles.com after authorities agreed to release them following a long-running legal campaign by California academic and historian Jon Wiener and rights groups.
.Although the US authorities repeatedly resisted calls for the documents to be released after Wiener's first request was turned down in 1981, the revelations contained in them are hardly startling and many are well-known.
.Among the observations are that Lennon, a noted liberal and peace activist, had given an interview to an underground newspaper in 1971 in which he had "emphasized his proletarian background" and "sympathy with the oppressed and underprivileged people of Britain and the world."
.The files record the fact that Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, had signed a petition in support of the Cambodian monarchy when the Southeast Asian nation was being bombed by the United States during the Vietnam War.
.Lennon had also encouraged the belief that he held revolutionary views "by the content of some of his songs," the documents added, an apparent reference to his song "Power of the People."
.Despite the innocuous nature of the information in the files, the FBI had fought against their release because they contained "national security information provided by a foreign government under an explicit promise of confidentiality."
.Publication could "reasonably be expected to ... lead to foreign diplomatic, economic and military retaliation against the United States," lawyers for the FBI told the courts during a 1983 hearing.
.In a statement by the American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday, Wiener described the FBI's rationale for refusing to release the documents as "absurd."
.Although the foreign government mentioned in the documents has never been named, most analysts believe it refers to Britain.
."I doubt that Tony Blair's government will launch a military strike on the US in retaliation for the release of these documents," said Wiener.
."Today we can see that the national security claims the FBI has been making for 25 years were absurd from the beginning. The Lennon FBI file is a classic case of excessive government secrecy."Wiener had already secured the release of 300 pages of FBI documents on Lennon in 1997, information which formed the basis for his book "Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI File."
.A court ruled in 2004 that the documents should be released, but the FBI appealed the decision before finally agreeing to release them on Tuesday. — AFP

MaccaSpan "Videos" Section Update

The VIDEOS section of MaccaSpan has been updated. So along with the albums section, rather then linking you to amazon, MaccaSpan has all the video info on our own site now!

'Threat' to Heather Mills-McCartney

Police have warned Heather Mills-McCartney that they have received intelligence of a threat to her safety, it has emerged.
Officers spoke to the 38-year-old and her estranged husband, Sir Paul McCartney, 64, on Thursday about the "non-specific threat" from the Merseyside area.
Ms Mills-McCartney was also told the names of the people who had made the threat, Sussex Police said.
Officers have taken steps for an "immediate police response" to be available to her if it is needed, a force spokesman added.
According to reports, she has been given a panic alarm which allows her to contact Sussex Police headquarters directly. However, officers have said there is "no imminent risk" to the model.
Bernie Murphy, Sussex Police Force Command and Control Centre Supervisor, based in Brighton, said: "On Thursday 14 December 2006 information was received from police in the Merseyside area which indicated a non-specific threat towards Heather Mills-McCartney.
"In accordance with normal police practice, and also taking into account the Osman ruling, the threat was risk-assessed.
"Police can confirm that Mills-McCartney was spoken to by officers and was fully informed of all the information, including details of the names of individuals involved. In addition, Mills-McCartney's estranged husband was also spoken to.
"Police are satisfied there's no imminent risk to Mills-McCartney.
"Local officers have been fully briefed regarding the circumstances and provision has been made for an immediate police response should this be necessary."

McCartney up for iconic accolade

The poll is about who has impacted most on British cultural lifeSir Paul McCartney has made it to the final three in the BBC Culture Show's Greatest Living Icon poll.
Viewers of the television series have been voting for which living Briton they think has had the biggest impact on British cultural life.
The former Merseyside Beatle, 64, is battling for the top spot against Sir David Attenborough and Morrisey.
The winner is to be announced during Saturday's show, which starts at 1950 GMT on BBC2.
The three are ranked ahead of David Bowie, Sir Michael Caine, playwright Alan Bennett and actors Sir Michael Caine and Stephen Fry.
Singer Kate Bush, fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood and model Kate Moss are the only women to make it into the top 10.

Stella McCartney bans pheasant shoots on Madonna's country estate!

London, Dec 16 (ANI): Music icon Madonna's English country estate will no longer be available for hunters wanting to shoot some pheasant, for pal Stella McCartney just put an end to the bloody sport at Ashcombe.
Madonna and her British director hubby Guy Ritchie rent Ashcombe in Wilts to shooting parties for as much as 10,000 pounds a day.
And, to give hunters a far more satisfying experience, the singer also bought and released 3,000 imported baby pheasants so that shooters were sure to have enough targets.
However, Sir Paul McCartney's designer daughter Stella, who also happens to be a pal of Madonna's, reportedly ripped into the Material Girl for playing a role in promoting the sport.
"Ashcombe's become a hunting factory and the Ritchies like playing rich landlords. Stella wasn't pleased when she heard about them releasing pheasants and spoke to Madonna" The Sun quoted a source, as saying.
"She's the reason Madonna is stopping shooting next year," the source added.
This is not the first time that Stella has been at odds with the singer, for she recently scolded Madge for wearing a 35,000 pounds fur coat.
Madonna herself gave up hunting peasants last year when a bird she shot did not die immediately, and she had to watch it as it struggled up the hill with blood gushing from its mouth.
"It wasn't dead.Blood was gushing from it's mouth and it was struggling up this hill and I thought, 'Oh God, I did that. I haven't shot since," the singer said last November.

Paul to take down lodge to keep pavilion

SIR Paul McCartney will knock down the lodge built on his Peasmarsh estate in order to keep his pavilion.
The former Beatle has been embroiled in a year-long planning battle to save the two-bedroom wooden lodge, at Woodlands Farm without planning permission.At one stage he even offered to tear down a farmhouse and other agricultural buildings on the estate in order to keep the lodge and pavilion.Last month he told planners at Rother District Council that he was withdrawing the application to keep both and just wanted to retain the pavilion.On Thursday the council's planning committee accepted this proposal and a legal agreement was signed between the parties.Sir Paul, who campaigned for the building of Rye Memorial Care Centre, has said the lodge was essential for protecting his privacy,In the summer two American tourists managed to get into the grounds at Woodlands and took video footage of Sir Pau's home and cars and posted it on the internet.Sir Paul's estranged wife Heather Mills McCartney is said to be planning to leave England for America after putting the £625,000 Beckley home (right) she owns on the market.She bought the five-bedroomed Grade II listed barn conversion after splitting from Sir Paul in May. It is only a few miles away from Sir Paul's 950-acre estate.But she has spent little time there, preferring to stay at her beach-front home in Hove.Friends of Heather say she has received a string of job offers in America and recently gave her first televised interview on the divorce to Sir Paul, 64, on American television.She told the show: "I get nothing but support in America. People want to come up and give me a hug."Heather's personal trainer and bodyguard is former Rye man Ben Amagoni, who she met when he worked at Hilden Health Centre in Rye.

Starr To Set The Record Straight

Former BEATLES drummer RINGO STARR is so sick of the various myths and lies about him, he's decide to tell the truth about his life in a documentary. The 66-year-old musician is currently filming a tell-all movie of his life, which is set to be broadcast on British television next year (07). He explains, "It's an anthology we're doing on me."

Yoko Ono Target in $2M Extortion Plot

A chauffeur for Yoko Ono was arrested yesterday after police said he taped her private conversations and threatened to circulate them unless she paid him $2 million.Detectives arrested Koral Karsan, 50, at his home in Amityville, N.Y., after Ms. Ono, the widow of John Lennon of the Beatles, reported him to police. Police said Mr. Karsan, who worked for Ms. Ono for seven years, threatened to circulate embarrassing photos of her and spoke of killing her and her son, Sean Lennon.Last night, Mr. Karsan was charged with first-degree attempted grand larceny. Outside the 20th Precinct on Manhattan's Upper West Side where he was taken for questioning, he told reporters he was innocent.But police said the Turkish-born driver dropped off an extortion note at Ms. Ono's home at the Dakota apartment building on Central Park West and West 72nd Street on December 8, the 26th anniversary of Lennon's killing. In 1980, Lennon was returning home from a recording studio when Mark David Chapman shot him four times with a .38-caliber revolver. Ms. Ono was with him at the time.In the rambling letter, which was accompanied by a photograph of Ms. Ono in her pajamas, he wrote that he secretly had made audiotapes of her and demanded money in exchange for their safe return. Police said he spoke of killing her, her son, and himself during a later conversation with one of her associates, which was recorded by investigators, the Associated Press reported.Last night, staff at the Dakota declined to comment, saying they had been instructed not to comment on Mr. Karsan's arrest. A publicist for Ms. Ono did not immediately return messages.However, at the parking garage adjacent to the Dakota, an attendant, Juan Ferrara, 55, said Ms. Ono informed staff there last week that Mr. Karsan was no longer working for her and should not be allowed to park there. According to her associates, Ms. Ono leases several cars, including a midnight blue Bentley, which Mr. Karsan often drove.Reached on the telephone last night, a former assistant for the family who said he knew Mr. Karsan expressed surprise at his arrest. "He always seemed like a nice guy," Dane Worthington, who lived at the Dakota with the Lennon family for 17 years, said. "I feel very bad. I know people get greedy."Mr. Worthington, who called his former employer a "sweetheart," noted that her generosity has made it easy for others to take advantage of her. In 2002, Ms. Ono settled a 20-year legal battle with former employee Frederic Seaman, whom she accused of taking personal diaries and family photographs from the Lennon apartment. The ex-employee, who was Lennon's personal assistant, ultimately apologized in court for taking the memorabilia, which he subsequently used in writing a book published in the early 1990s that detailed the day-to-day life of the former Beatle."When people like Yoko are very generous with someone who is working for them, the more generous they are, the more people want," Mr. Worthington said.

MaccaSpan adds Podomatic Page 3

Something's new at MaccaSpan Radio! MaccaSpan on Podomatic page 3!
Also, we will be hitting the 50th episode by the end of the YEAR!

www.maccaspan.com/radio/player.html

Stella has a Baby!

Fashion designer Stella McCartney and her husband Alasdhair Willis have welcomed the latest addition to their family - a baby daughter, Bailey Linda Olwyn Willis.The little girl was born on Friday in London, weighing 7lbs 14 oz. She is a second child for the couple, who celebrated the birth of son Miller in March 2005, and a fourth grandchild for Stella's father Paul McCartneyThe tireless animal rights campaigner's pregnancy hardly impacted on her busy schedule, with the 35-year-old recently announcing the continuation of her successful collaboration with sportswear brand Adidas, and preparing for the launch of her organic facial care range in spring 2007.

Astronauts awake to Beatles Tune

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery woke up to The Beatles on Sunday, their first morning in space, where the first order of business will be to make sure their ship wasn't damaged during launch.
The crew lit up the sky late Saturday with a fiery ascent that practically turned night into day in the first nighttime launch in four years. Then it was on to the international space station to rewire the orbital outpost.
The astronauts began their day to the mellow tunes of "Here Comes the Sun."
"Good morning, Discovery. We especially want to thank you for the burst of sunshine you brought into our lives last night. It was an awesome launch," Shannon Lucid from Mission Control radioed up to the crew.
"It was pretty great for all of us, too," Commander Mark Polansky responded.
Astronauts will spend the day inspecting the shuttle for potentially critical heat shield damage from debris falling off the external tank during lift off, the problem that doomed the shuttle Columbia in 2003.
Nicholas Patrick, one of the five astronauts experiencing zero gravity for the first time, will use the shuttle's 50-foot robotic arm and similarly long boom with sensors and a camera to inspect the ship. The survey was to start at 3:12 p.m.
Discovery is to dock with the space station Monday to begin the intricate work. Three complicated spacewalks are planned to rewire the space station from a temporary to a permanent power source.NASA had to beat the odds to get off the launch pad Saturday. After only a 30 percent chance of good weather earlier in the day and a two-hour delay in fueling, Discovery streaked through a moonless sky at 8:47 p.m. EST.
"It just all came together perfectly," launch director Mike Leinbach said.
The mood was also upbeat aboard Discovery.
"I think we have five people who just haven't stopped smiling yet," Polansky said after the shuttle reached space.
During its 12-day mission, Discovery's crew will also deliver an $11 million addition to the space lab and bring home one of the space station's three crew members, German astronaut Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency. American astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams will replace him, staying for six months.
The two veterans aboard the shuttle are Polansky and Robert Curbeam, who will spacewalk three times. The others are pilot William Oefelein, and mission specialists Patrick, Williams, Joan Higginbotham and the European Space Agency's Christer Fuglesang, who was the first Swede in space.
Fuglesang carried some unusual food into orbit: several cans of moose sausage and moose pate.
The mission is one leg of a three-year race to finish construction on the space station before shuttles are retired in 2010. After Discovery's mission, 13 more shuttle flights are needed to complete the lab.
The launch was the first at night since Endeavour's flight in November 2002 and only the 29th in darkness of NASA's 117 total shuttle launches.
"What you've seen tonight is the successful accomplishment of the most challenging, demanding, technically state-of-the-art, difficult thing that this nation or any nation can do," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said.
Mission Control in Houston told Discovery's crew that there were no initial reports of any serious problems and that the shuttle was "in great shape."
NASA had required daylight launches for three flights after the Columbia accident so that clear images could be taken of the external fuel tank. Foam broke off Columbia's tank at liftoff and struck the spacecraft's wing, leading to the disaster that killed seven astronauts.
Saturday's launch was only the fourth since the Columbia disaster in 2003 and the third of the year. It also was the last scheduled liftoff from pad 39B, which will be modified for new rockets that will take astronauts back to the moon in 2020.
"It's kind of the end of an era," Leinbach said.
Waiting at the space station for his visitors to arrive Monday, U.S. astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria played celebratory music for Discovery, "Song 2" by Blur, highlighting the lyrics: "Woo hoo! Woo hoo!"

MaccaSpan "Albums" Section Updated!

The albums section has been updated with basic album info for now, rather then just linking you to Amazon like it did before. The album info pages will eventually expand. In the future, I am hoping to have the same for the DVD/VHS section and I also want to add a SINGLES section.
MaccaSpan - We're always under construction!

SIGNED BEATLES ALBUM UP FOR SALE

A RARE Beatles album signed by all four members of the band is on sale in a Stratford gallery.The copy of the 1967' Magical Mystery Tour' album, signed by John, Paul, George and Ringo, is on display in Foster Frame in Greenhill Street as part of a collection of signed albums being sold. The album is the soundtrack to the 1967 film of the same name.The picture shows Siobhan O’Sullivan, of Foster Frame, in Stratford, with the album.

Naked Heather pics left on tip

In happier times ... Macca and Heather in picture similar to some of those dumped -->By NICK PARKER HUNDREDS of family photos of Sir Paul McCartney and estranged wife Heather Mills were found dumped yesterday.
The intimate pictures — taken during happier times before their bitter divorce battle erupted — were discovered in bin bags on waste ground.
One shows Heather, 38, in bed barely covered by a white sheet — with her artificial leg standing on a black stiletto shoe beside the divan. Others show her posing nude and showing off her bump while heavily pregnant.
She is also seen wearing diamond earrings in a bath — and in a pink swimsuit while playing in a whirlpool bath with their three-year-old daughter Beatrice.
Sir Paul was shocked when The Sun revealed the find last night.
He said: “I’m very grateful to the Sun for getting these pictures back to me.”
The collection appears to be a McCartney family album taken by the ex-Beatle and his loved ones dating back 30 years. Sir Paul was said to be particularly distressed to learn that touching pictures of his late wife Linda were among those found dumped.
Linda, who died from breast cancer in 1998, is in snaps of a family holiday to Australia and on a cabin cruiser.
Lost love ... Macca and LindaThe haul also includes one of the last pictures of Paul and Linda out together. Tragic photographer Linda looks pale and frail beside him.
The photographs — packed into cardboard boxes — were found among thousands dumped in bin liners on a patch of London wasteground yesterday.
We immediately alerted Sir Paul and arranged to hand the colour prints to him. The private shots show naked Heather leaning out of a Victorian-style bath wearing only diamond stud-earrings.
She gazes over her shoulder while around seven months’ pregnant in a series of snaps.
More than 30 other private pictures show pouting Heather poolside in swimsuit. Four of the dumped pictures are cheeky close-ups of her bum as she sports a skimpy striped thong-style swimsuit.
More pictures show Macca and Heather sitting on a bench in front of India’s Taj Mahal.
Other romantic moments include snaps of trips to Venice, America’s Grand Canyon and on safari in Africa. Private moments showing Sir Paul’s love for little daughter Beatrice were also caught on film.
One set shows the doting dad feeding her with a silver spoon. In another he is bare-chested as he cuddles Bea, who is wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words: “My Daddy Rocks.”
Sir Paul is also pictured astride a grey pony at a riding school with Bea giggling on his lap. Neither are wearing helmets.
Pictures of Bea in the bath and trying on sunglasses as she gets dressed with her mum were also dumped.
The discovery is the latest twist for the warring couple — locked in one of the messiest divorces in showbiz history.
Heather — who is demanding an £80 million divorce — has been accused of leaking papers alleging Sir Paul beat her and his first wife Linda.
He furiously denies the claims. Heather further turned the screw by suggesting she will demand Peasmarsh — Sir Paul’s £4million, 160-acre estate.

McCartney Grateful For Return of Photos

SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY is ecstatic after a batch of private family photographs were returned to him, after they were found discarded on a London rubbish tip. The intimate pictures - including some of the former BEATLE's late wife LINDA MCCARTNEY - were discovered by British newspaper The Sun earlier this week (begs04DEC06). The photos show MCCartney in happier times, with a number dating back 30 years. One of the family albums contains snaps of MCCartney's estranged second wife HEATHER MILLS proudly showing off her bump while heavily pregnant with the couple's daughter BEATRICE, and posing in a Victorian bath wearing nothing but diamond earrings. Shocked at the finding, MCCartney says, "I'm very grateful to The Sun for getting these pictures back to me." The 64-year-old is currently embroiled in a bitter divorce battle with Mills, who has sensationally claimed he physically abused her during their four year marriage. The couple split up in May (06) and began divorce proceedings in July (06).

McCartney fronts copyright fight

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Paul McCartney and Robbie Williams joined thousands of other performers on Thursday in an appeal for an extension to British copyright on their recordings.
They called for "fair play for musicians" in a full-page advertisement in the Financial Times containing more than 4,000 names.
On Wednesday a review for the government rejected extending copyright on sound recordings and performers' rights beyond the existing 50 years.
The advert said it had been placed on behalf of more than 3,500 record companies and 40,000 performers.
"We call upon the UK government to support the extension of copyright in sound recordings," the appeal read.
Cliff Richard, whose first hit "Move It!" from 1958 is close to the cut-off point for copyright protection, has led the way in highlighting the issue.
Without a change in the law, the catalogue of McCartney's Beatles could be up for grabs from 2012 and 2013, including early hits like "Love Me Do" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand".
In his report on intellectual property, former Financial Times editor Andrew Gowers argued the consumer must be protected as well as the artist. He said there was no evidence bands moved to the United States or elsewhere to extend their copyright protection.
The British Phonographic Industry says it will continue to lobby for a copyright extension to 95 years, the same as in the United States, and noted the final decision lies with the European Commission.

Beatles lyrics sell for £97,000

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Texas bookstore owner bought a rare page of working lyrics for Beatle Paul McCartney's song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" for $192,000 at an auction of rock and pop memorabilia at Christie's on Monday.
Bill Butler also won the bidding for one of rock legend Jimi Hendrix's electric guitars -- a 1968 Fender Stratocaster -- for $168,000, the guitar's strap for $10,800 and a photograph of Hendrix and band members Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell framed by two topless blondes for $5,400.
"I'm worried about getting it all home," Butler, wearing a tan baseball cap emblazoned with the Texas state flag and the words "Vote Kinky Friedman," joked with reporters after the auction.
Butler retired from the telecommunications industry before opening his rare and used book shop in Rosenberg, Texas, just outside Houston. He said he would display the guitar at his bookstore but would store the 1968 McCartney lyrics in a fireproof file cabinet.
Butler lost the bidding for a black leather vest worn on stage by Hendrix. The vest was bought for $28,800 by Don Bernstine, who acquires rock memorabilia for the Hard Rock Cafes, hotels and casinos.
Other big sellers included a notebook containing handwritten lyrics by reggae star Bob Marley, which went for $72,000, and a handwritten poem by Doors singer Jim Morrison, "The American Night," which was sold for $50,400. Both went to private collectors in the United States. Prices included buyer's premiums.
Christie's fall New York auction of 147 lots of guitars, clothing, handwritten lyrics and other memorabilia took in a total of $1,117,920 from people who placed bids in person, by phone and over the Internet. That total was at the upper end of the auction house's estimate of $800,000 to $1.1 million.
The auction included items connected to Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Madonna, the Jackson Five, Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen, Miles Davis and others.A previously unheard and undocumented interview with John Lennon for Crawdaddy music magazine was sold for $38,400 and an acoustic guitar Dylan played during camping trips went for $24,000. A handwritten 1972 letter by John Lennon to a music magazine about the political situation in Northern Ireland fetched $24,000.
However, a review of Sophocles' "Antigone" written as a junior high school assignment by pop star Britney Spears fetched only about $250, to laughter and applause from bidders, far below the low estimate of $500 -- despite auctioneer Helen Bailey's best efforts.

UPDATE

Beatles lyrics penned by Sir Paul McCartney have been sold for $192,000 (£97,000) at an auction in New York.
The handwritten early version of Maxwell's Silver Hammer from 1968 were given to the musician's biographer Barry Miles soon afterwards.
A guitar owned by the late Jimi Hendrix which had been kept at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame fetched $168,000 (£85,000) at the Christie's sale.
A page from Britney Spears's schoolbook made only $240 (£120).
Beatles reunion
It contained the pop star's handwritten review of a Sophocles translation from when she attended junior high school at the age of 13, with notes from her teacher including "write more neatly".

Hendrix's guitar is a Fender Stratocaster
The auctioneer was forced to start the bidding at only $50 (£25) due to a lack of interest.
Other sales included a notebook containing lyrics written by Bob Marley, which commanded $72,000 (£36,445).
A poem penned by Doors frontman Jim Morrison made (£25,500) - well beyond its $12,000 (£6,075) estimate.
Another item with a Beatles connection was sold for $38,400 (£19,435) - a taped interview with John Lennon from 1974 which formed the basis of an article for Crawdaddy magazine.
He discussed his songwriting technique and the possibility of a Beatles reunion.

Maxwell's Silver Dollar

London, Dec 4 (ANI): Original Beatles lyrics handwritten by Paul McCartney and a Fender guitar owned by Jimi Hendrix are among the lots to be sold in a big auction of rock and pop memorabilia. The item that is expected to fetch the highest price is a page of draft lyrics for the Beatles song Maxwell's Silver Hammer. Christie's expects it to fetch up to 300,000 dollars. "McCartney lyrics rarely appear on the market and have not appeared for about six years," said Helen Hall, of Christie's. The lot also includes two copies of the song that a member of the Beatles' staff wrote out for use by other members of the band. They are the only trio of Beatles lyrics to have appeared on the market. Maxwell's Silver Hammer, which appears on the Abbey Road album, took three days to record and overdub, and caused considerable arguments between the band members as they hurtled towards their break-up. McCartney insisted that the song was a possible single but Lennon disagreed, later calling it "a typical McCartney single, or whatever". Lennon was not even present in the studio when it was recorded because he was recovering from an accident. "We spent more money on that song than any of them on the whole album, I think," he said. The auction at Christie's in New York will cover more than five decades of music history, with lots ranging from Miles Davis' trumpet to a handwritten page from Britney Spears' schoolbook, featuring her teenage analysis of the play Antigone, up for grabs. Love letters by Bob Dylan and a previously unheard interview of John Lennon are also among the lots. (ANI)

Paul McCartney Takes Over Classic FM

Classic FM is pleased to announce a day of special shows featuring Sir Paul McCartney. Tune into the station on Thursday 7th December to hear Sir Paul choose some of his favourite classical tracks and hear the first live recording of 'Ecce Cor Meum'. Don't miss our special Paul McCartney programme from 11am - 1pm when Paul presents his own show and keep your ears peeled throughout the day when we play music from his latest album 'Ecce Cor Meum' and he discusses his music. From 6.30pm join reporter Bob Jones on Classic Newsnight for a special Liverpool Legacy report when Paul discusses his love of Liverpool. And at 8pm don't miss the hour-long In Conversation With Anne-Marie Minhall special when Paul talks about his latest release 'Ecce Cor Meum'. For the next three hours sink into your armchair and enjoy the all-Paul McCartney Evening Concert with Nick Bailey, featuring an exclusive recording of the world premiere of 'Ecce Cor Meum', which was recorded at the Royal Albert Hall on 3 November. Paul will also be popping in to tell Nick Bailey what it was like on the night and keep your ears peeled for the full play of 'Standing Stone'.

You Never Give Me Your Money

Sir Paul McCartney is still seething after taking John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono's advice - because it cost him millions of pounds.
The music legend was keen to buy back the copyright of the original Beatles songs for the relatively cheap price of GBP12.5 million in the eighties. But Ono warned him against the purchase, insisting the deal wasn't worth anything.
Pop star Michael Jackson seized on the opportunity and bought the rights for GBP28 million. They are now worth in excess of GBP500 million and part-owned by Sony.
Beatles producer Sir George Martin says, "Paul spoke to Yoko saying, 'Shall we buy it back between John and myself?'
"But she said it wasn't worth it.
"At present, the copyright is worth something approaching one billion dollars."
"Paul's always had a chip on his shoulder about that."