Paul McCartney does not believe that meeting the Beatles would have been a good idea.

The Beatles' first signed contract with manager Brian Epstein _220

A veteran Hong Kong disc jockey expects to get up to 32,000 US dollars for autographs of The Beatles from interviews he did with them in 1964, a news report said Tuesday.

Ray Cordeiro , 83, who did a series of interviews with the band in London and Hong Kong, is putting the magazine they signed for him up for auction at Christie's in London in July.

The reserve price for the collection of autographs is 10,000 to 16,000 pounds sterling (19,890 to 31,836 US dollars), according to the South China Morning Post.

Cordeiro , who still hosts a late-night Hong Kong radio show, picked up a copy of the magazine Fabulous with pictures of The Beatles on its cover and inside on his way to one of the interviews.

"Paul McCartney asked if he could see (the magazine) ... I asked him to sign it and he did so willingly, writing 'To Uncle Ray, Yours truly Paul McCartney' on the front," Cordeiro told the newspaper.

"Then he carried on flicking through and signed wherever he saw a photo of himself. When John Lennon saw what Paul had done, he followed suit, and so did the other two."

Cordeiro said he had never until recently considered getting rid of the magazine with its autographs, which he described as one of his most prized possessions.

But he added: "I can't take it with me. So I thought I might as well have the cash and spend it some other way, maybe on a magazine of the Rolling Stones."

Press Photo/Dave OdetteClassical Mystery Tour jams with the Grand Rapids Symphony.

"Oh, I believe in yesterday."

Millions of Beatles fans certainly do.

article from http://blog.mlive.com

found on http://www.mcbeatle.de

Washington, November 24 (ANI): Sir Paul McCartney has revealed that he once had an altercation with pop star Michael Jackson, when the latter refused to increase his royalty from The Beatles songs.

The former Beatle developed a close friendship with Jackson after recording a number of hit duets in the Eighties.

Jackson purchased The Beatles’ catalogue of songs Northern Songs in 1985.

However, his refusal to raise McCartneys royalty rates led to an argument between the two singers.

McCartney says that he later realised that he was financially well-off, and decided to bury the hatchet with Jackson.

“(Michael Jackson) was like a family friend. Bite to eat, hang out and all of that. We fell out once he got Northern Songs. I put it to him and said, ‘Look you are now historically placed to really give the Lennon/MCCartney writing duo their just desserts. They’ve been working for this company 30 years, they’ve never had a rise,’ Contactmusic quoted him as saying.

“I must have put it to him about three times. And I just never heard back. So it was like, ‘Oh, well fine, if you’ve not any comment on that, then I’m afraid I sort of become a disgruntled employee.’ It wouldn’t have needed much, it was just a kind of gesture of goodwill. So… I just changed my mindset, said, ‘You know what? I’m fine, I’ve got enough,” he added. (ANI)

Found on http://www.thespoof.com

When the magazine Rolling Stone published its 20th anniversary celebration issue that ranked the top 100 albums of the last 20 years it was no surprise to anyone that Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles was ranked first.[1] The album “tops polls time and time again”[2] as the greatest rock album of all-time. In fact, no album in the history of rock and roll has inspired such profound and consistent approval from critics and fans alike. To understand why, one must recognize the important mutually supporting relationship between culture and music. Sgt. Pepper is the best not necessarily because of the music but because of its profound cultural and social role, particularly in the United States. As the role of hippies slowly grew in American society, the Beatles were increasingly drawn to the values of the counterculture, experimenting with drugs and promoting love. Sgt. Pepper reflected this change of perspective. Its songs were about drugs, expansion of the mind and soul, rejection of materialism, and dropping out of mainstream society. It was most important, however, not because of what it reflected but because of what it made possible. By exposing the mainstream to the values of the counterculture and by breaking all the rules about what a ‘rock album’ could do, Sgt. Pepper opened up whole new worlds. The most popular band on the planet had infinitely expanded the horizons of culture for millions. This is why the release of Sgt. Pepper can be described as a “decisive moment in the history of Western Civilization.”[3] The values of the counterculture existed long before Sgt. Pepper and had been primed by years of cultural domination by the liberal consensus. Sgt. Pepper could only exist because these forces were available for the Beatles to tap into. At the same time, its release catalyzed the counterculture and became a locus for the rapid development of ideals during the Summer of Love. Perhaps the blaze would have begun inevitably, but at the very least, Sgt. Pepper was a match thrown onto the waiting fire that helped to set it off.

: Paul McCartney, Peter Max and Stan Lee Reflect on Life as Superstars and Superheroes on Sale July 23, 2007

Three Icons of the Summer of Love reflect on their experience in defining the social consciousness of the late 1960's in the July/August issue of Risen Magazine, on sale nationally at Barnes & Noble bookstores on July 23. Paul McCartney, Peter Max and Stan Lee were inadvertently thrust in the role as spokespersons for a new generation. In their exclusive interviews with Risen Magazine, each acclaimed artist shares in his own way how the 1967 Summer of Love shaped their destiny and legacy.

http://www.theweekextra.com