John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 'Bed-In' remembered at 50

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - In March 1969, newlyweds John Lennon and Yoko Ono skipped a honeymoon and instead staged a “bed-in” in Amsterdam to promote world peace during the Vietnam War.

Dressed in white, the artistic duo received visitors and held press conferences from bed in the presidential suite atop Amsterdam’s Hilton Hotel from March 23-29.

A photo exhibition and other events remembering Ono and Lennon, the Beatles songwriter who was shot and killed in New York in 1980, are being held this week in the Dutch capital to commemorate the events 50 years ago.

Amid flowers and self-made signs reading “Hair Peace” and “Bed Peace”, the couple put forward a simple strategy for achieving world harmony: reject violence of all forms.

“If you believe violence will solve the problem, that’s up to you. I don’t,” John told one reporter.

“Nobody’s ever tried the peace thing.”

The incident was memorialized in “The Ballad of John and Yoko”, released shortly before the Beatles broke up:

Drove from Paris to the Amsterdam Hilton / Talking in our beds for a week / The news people said, “Say what you doing in bed?” / I said, “We’re only trying to get us some peace.”

In 2012, Ono released for free “Bed Peace”, a documentary about the Amsterdam bed-in and a second bed-in the couple held several months later in Montreal, Canada.

At one point, Ono dismisses a book of poems and manifestos handed to her by a self-styled “revolutionary”.

“I’m sorry, no matter how beautiful your poem is, if you can’t share with people, it’s crap,” she said.

To honor their memory, a white “Peace Tulip” will be planted outside the hotel on Thursday.

Other commemoration events in Amsterdam include a film evening, concert and tour of the famous room #902.

Fifty years later, world peace has not yet arrived.

Skeptics at the time pointed out that not everybody can afford to stay in bed all day or be as famous as John and Yoko.

“Stop asking if it’s going to work, do something yourself,” an annoyed Lennon told one reporter in the documentary.

“Grow your hair, wear a sign.”

Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Anthony Deutsch and Andrew Cawthorne

source: news.abs-cbn.com

John Lennon's killer recalls inner 'tug of war' before the murder

NEW YORK - Before he pulled the trigger that ended the life of rock icon John Lennon nearly 38 years ago, his killer remembers being in a "tug of war" with himself over what he was about to do, and even praying for a way out of carrying out his plan.

In the end, the compulsion to gain notoriety by killing one of the most famous people in the world proved too powerful, a remorseful Mark David Chapman told parole officials at an Aug. 22 hearing that ended in a decision not to release him.

"I was too far in," Chapman, 63, said in a transcript of the hearing released on Thursday by the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

On the afternoon of Dec. 8, 1980, the former member of the Beatles left his New York apartment building on his way to a recording session when he stopped to autograph an album that Chapman, then a pudgy, bespectacled 25-year-old, was holding. It is a moment captured in a now-eerie photograph.

"I do remember having the thought of, hey, you have got the album now, look at this, he signed it, just go home, but there was no way I was going to go home," Chapman, now leaner and grayer, told the parole board.

But when Lennon returned to his home on Manhattan's Upper West Side later that evening, Chapman was waiting for him, and fired a 5-shot .38 caliber Charter Arms revolver at him, hitting him 4 times in front of his wife Yoko Ono.

The assassination-style murder stunned the music world, a generation that had grown up with "Beatlemania" and the city the British-born musician had adopted as his home.

From his confinement at the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York, just east of Buffalo, Chapman told the 2 parole board members at his hearing his sense of shame grows constantly over the murder, the impact of which he realizes will outlive him.

"A hundred years from now they're going to remember him and they're going to remember him as someone that's been murdered and it's going to be negative," he said.

Chapman was sentenced to 20 years to life after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in 1981. He has been denied parole 10 times since 2000 and will not have another opportunity for release until August 2020.

At the hearing, Chapman said he was a changed man who would welcome being released but said he didn't deserve it.

He denied a suggestion by a parole board member that he had channeled his obsession with fame into a ministry he runs with his wife that supplies Christian pamphlets to churches in Africa.

"I honestly have to disagree with that," he said. "We're sustaining Jesus."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Cynthia, first wife of John Lennon, dies: son

NEW YORK - Cynthia Lennon, the British first wife of The Beatles' songwriter John Lennon, has died aged 75, the couple's son Julian said Wednesday.

A message on the musician's website said Lennon "passed away today at her home in Mallorca, Spain following a short but brave battle with cancer."

"Her son Julian Lennon was at her bedside throughout. The family are thankful for your prayers," it added.

Julian Lennon wrote and sang a song of tribute to his mother that was posted on the site with a montage of family snapshots and footage.

"You gave your life for me, you gave your life for love," the song begins, then ends with the words "I know you're safe above."

Cynthia met John Lennon at an art class in the British city of Liverpool when she was 18 and the couple married in 1962.

"You couldn't resist being around him," Cynthia Lennon said in a 2005 interview with US television.

"You couldn't resist watching what he was up to. I mean, he was a total rebel."

In her 2006 memoir of the relationship, "John", Cynthia said the pair had had an intense but turbulent relationship.

"He was a very jealous young man at the time, and he had a lot of pain inside," she said, explaining that he had once hit her.

They stayed together until 1968, as The Beatles grew to be the world's biggest group.

'A lovely lady'

John left her after beginning an affair with Japanese artist Yoko Ono in 1968 and the couple was divorced.

The song, "Hey Jude", was later written by John's fellow Beatle Paul McCartney to comfort Julian Lennon during his parents break-up, and was initially titled "Hey Jules."

"The news of Cynthia's passing is very sad," McCartney said Wednesday.

"She was a lovely lady who I've known since our early days together in Liverpool.

"She was a good mother to Julian and will be missed by us all but I will always have great memories of our times together."

British journalist Hunter Davies, who wrote the only official biography of The Beatles, remembered Cynthia Lennon as a contrasting character to her husband.

"She was totally different from John in that she was quiet and reserved and calm," Davies said.

"John treated her appallingly. He slept with Yoko in their marital home and as we discovered later, he also physically attacked her, but she was loyal to him," he added.

John Lennon was later murdered by a troubled fan in New York in 1980.

At the time John was reconciling with Julian, the son he had had with Cynthia.

"Near the end, before his tragic death, of course, they were getting close on the phone; they were connecting," she said.

"It was just coming back and it was wonderful. Then, of course, his life was cut very short."

After her death was announced, The Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr tweeted a tribute: "Peace and love to Julian Lennon. God bless Cynthia."

Yoko Ono said she was "saddened" by Cynthia Lennon's death.

"She was a great person and a wonderful mother to Julian," Ono wrote on her Facebook page.

"She had such a strong zest for life and I felt proud how we two women stood firm in the Beatles family."

After her split from John Lennon, Cynthia remarried three times, tying the knot for the fourth and final time in 2002 with nightclub owner Noel Charles who died in 2013.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney says 'I Do' for third time

LONDON - Paul McCartney married for the third time on Sunday, exchanging vows with American heiress Nancy Shevell at the same London register office where the former Beatle wed his first wife Linda in 1969.

The beaming couple emerged from the grey-stone Old Marylebone Town Hall to confetti and cheers from dozens of fans who had waited hours to catch a glimpse of the music legend and his new wife.

Brunette Shevell, 51, wore a knee-length, long-sleeved white dress which reports said was designed by McCartney's fashion designer daughter Stella.

The bride also had a white flower in her hair and carried a small posy of roses, while "Hey Jude" singer McCartney wore a dark suit and light blue tie. One newspaper had a headline saying: "Yes-today", in a reference to the famous Beatles song.

Despite his huge wealth as a key songwriter and frontman for the world's most successful pop band, 69-year-old McCartney chose a modest civil ceremony before a small group of family and friends.

Ringo Starr, the only other surviving member of the "Fab Four", and his wife Barbara Bach were among the guests at the wedding. Ex-Beatle John Lennon, who was assassinated in New York in 1980, would have been 71 on the day of the wedding.

After the ceremony, which lasted just over an hour, the newlyweds returned to McCartney's home in St. John's Wood for an evening reception.

The property in the upmarket area of north London is just a few streets away from the Abbey Road Studios where the Beatles recorded many of their most famous songs.

Asked how he felt after marrying for a third time, he told reporters: "Terrific, thank you. I feel married. I feel absolutely wonderful."

Sweet serenade

Rock'n'roll royalty including Starr, Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood and guitarist Jeff Beck attended the reception, as did model Twiggy and artist Tracey Emin.

Late Beatle George Harrison's widow Olivia turned up to the soiree, which was also designed to be a low-key affair.

McCartney's spokesman declined to divulge any details of the wedding day, but celebrity-hungry tabloids in Britain, where the affectionately named "Macca" is hugely popular, have been poring over every detail.

According to reports, McCartney composed a song for Shevell especially for their big day.

He was also expected to perform "Let it Be", which he sang to Shevell on one of their first holidays together three years ago, and her favorite "Let Me Roll It", the Sunday Mirror said.

McCartney was married for 29 years to American photographer Linda until her death from breast cancer in 1998. He said at the time that he and Linda had spent just 11 nights apart during their marriage.

McCartney's marriage to former model and charity campaigner Heather Mills was less happy.

The couple wedded in 2002 in a lavish ceremony at Castle Leslie in Ireland estimated by celebrity magazines to have cost around $3.2 million.

But four years later they confirmed they had separated, blaming media intrusion into their private lives, and in 2008 the couple divorced.

A judge had to rule on the size of the divorce settlement after the couple failed to reach agreement themselves, and Mills was awarded 24.3 million pounds ($38 million), ending one of the most acrimonious breakups in showbusiness history.

She had claimed 125 million pounds and said McCartney was worth 800 million pounds, although a judge found his fortune was worth half that amount.

McCartney has a son, two daughters and a stepdaughter from his marriage to Linda, and a daughter from his marriage to Mills.

The independently-wealthy Shevell, who was married to an attorney for more than 20 years and serves on the board of New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, has a son. - Reuters

Source: gmanews.tv