Even though the judge believed George unintentionally used some of the chords from the Chiffons “I’m so fine”, George still lost the case and paid out over £ million for copyright infringement.

I doubt that it was the money that annoyed George, it was the stain to his artistic integrity.

It’s not fair, how can you keep sounds out of your head? George didn’t know he had used similar chords to those in ‘She’s so Fine’, but he still lost the case, and was disillusioned with lawyers and the legal system from then on.

That’s what bugs me.  If George was so disillusioned with lawyers, why on earth did he want to sue little old me?

I knew the Beatles were red hot about quality control and copyright. That’s why they are still the greatest band of the 20th century. Have you ever wondered why you never find a Beatles track on a ‘Greatest Hits of the 60s’ album? Quality control and copyright issues, that’s why.

There’s only one exception to this, when John Lennon gave away his ‘Across the Universe’ track to the World Wildlife Fund. The charity stuck it on the ‘One World’ album, didn’t market it properly, and it promptly sunk to obscurity.

I’m the only person in England who bought it. It’s a shame because Across the Universe is a beautiful song.

I digress. You want to know why George Harrison was going to sue me?

It’s 1992, thirty years after the Beatles first played in the Star Club, Hamburg. I owned a Travel Agency and Coach holiday company in Earl Shilton, Leicestershire. I’m a Beatles fan and a drunk.

“I know”, I thought, I shall organise a Beatles weekend holiday to Germany. There’s a ship sailing overnight from Harwich direct to Hamburg. On board I can arrange a Beatles disco, a Beatles Quiz, and I can book the conference room to deliver my ‘Paul McCartney is Dead’ conspiracy theory speech.

The coach will take everyone to the Star Club, which is right in the middle of the most notorious night life area in Europe, the Reeperbahn. My customers are fellow drunks, from pubs all over the country, they will LOVE it.

That’s what I thought anyway. In 1992, I took 6,000 drunks to beer festivals all over Europe. Do you know how many booked for this great Beatles weekend? ….. 8!  A measly eight people. It wasn’t enough, I needed at least 30, so I sent them all their money back.

This failure wasn’t for the lack of marketing. I had printed 50,000  brochures and sent them to every pub in England and Wales.

I knew the Beatles were red-hot on copyright issues, so I ‘hid’ the Beatles Hamburg holiday on page 10 of a 24 page brochure. Nobody important would see it there, I thought …. I was wrong.

I must admit I really went to town on the Beatles page. In for a penny in for a pound I always say. I used photo copies of images from Sgt Pepper, Help, the White Album….anything I could fit onto one page.

This was all cut and paste. Literally cut and paste. I photocopied Beatles albums, cut out the Beatles photos, and stuck them down with old fashioned sticky stuff. It was great, I really enjoyed doing it. 

So as usual, 50,000 holiday brochures were sent out all over the country, and I waited for the bookings to flood in.

One day I was visiting the travel agency that my wife managed for me. I was happily having a chat with the staff, while my wife was dealing with a particularly awkward person on the phone.

Suddenly she put her hand over the phone, and said “It’s for you”… …Who is it?….”Apple Corp”……GULP! My stomach did a triple somersault, and I went all light headed. 

“I’m not here”……..”sorry, he’s out the office at the  moment”…….The awkward person didn’t go away though, my wife had to field his complaints for about 5 or 10 minutes.

Who was that? I said. “I don’t know, but he had a strong Liverpudlian accent and was very, very angry. He wants you to phone Neil Aspinal on this number…………. or you will hear from his lawyers……………” 

THAT was the moment my legs went all wobbly. I knew it couldn’t be any mates playing a joke on me, they wouldn’t know that Neil Aspinall was the Managing Director of Apple Corp. My goose was cooked.

I had a sleepless night, then gathered the nerve to phone Apple Corp. “Can I speak to Neil Aspinall please.”  No, sorry, he’s in America. “He can’t be, he phoned my office yesterday and told me to call.”

I explained what happened and the lady PA said “Oh that must have been George”…….”WHO? George Harrison!!”……”Yes he gets very upset over copyright issues.”………….COR! I wish I had accepted the phone call now.

I had to promise to write a letter of apology to Apple Corp, and to destroy every brochure which contained the Beatles Hamburg holiday, otherwise they would sue me. The thing is I couldn’t destroy the brochures. It was too late. 50,000 had already been sent to every pub in England in Wales.

I decided to employ one of my fail-safe management tactics. I stuck my head in the sand, and hoped this nightmare would go away.

I sweated for about a month, but thankfully I heard no more.

The thing is, ignoring the problem worked in this case. If I had written a letter of apology, explaining that I couldn’t destroy the brochures, then Apple Corps would have had to do something with it. Probably just pass it on to their solicitors, because that’s the easiest.

I’ve been avoiding the phone all my life, which is why I wouldn’t take the original call. But once I found out it was George Harrison phoning, I was brave after the event and wished I had taken the call.

I would have wanted him to know I’m a Beatles fan. ”Beware of Darkness” George, I’m just an “Apple Scruff ”, “Living in the Material World”.

I worked out what my conversation would have been………Now, now George “All things must Pass”, It’s no good going through the “Sue me, Sue you Blues” , we’re all ”Living in the Material World” and these things happen.

I bet that would have REALLY annoyed him.

John McNally
Beatle Fan in Leamington Spa, England

This song was based on the poem,”The Walrus and the Carpenter” by Lewis Carroll, and it’s theme is death.

Although this is a classic Lennon song, John was feeling magnanimous when he sang “Here’s a clue for you all, the Walrus was Paul” in the song ‘Glass Onion’ from the Beatles White album. THAT drove the ‘Paul is Dead’ conspiracy believers wild.

There was always plenty to analyse from Lennon songs as they were all from the heart, and all about him and his state of mind. I got a lot of deep thinking out of Lennon’s lyrics. Let’s be honest, McCartney DID write the more memorable tunes.

I’m listening to Band on the Run at the moment, and the only Lennon album that can match it is his first one; ‘Lennon Plastic Ono Band’. Lennon and McCartney were chalk and cheese, but what a partnership they made!

Here’s a dozen Lennon composed Beatle songs. This was going to be my top 10, but he’s so darn good the minimum is 12.

1) Come Together
2) Dear Prudence
3) I am the Walrus
4) Help
5) I want to hold your Hand
6) A day in the Life 
7) Hey Bulldog
Rain
9) Tomorrow Never Knows
10) I’m Only Sleeping
11) Happiness is a Warm Gun
12) Strawberry Fields

What’s YOUR favourite Lennon track? I will accept solo years as well – Instant Karma for example. Over to you…………….

John McNally
Leamington Spa, England

John Lennon tried psychedelia with ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ and avant garde electronic music with ‘Revolution No.9′  but the Beatles were constrained by the 3 minute pop song format. For music to progress it needed room to expand. The concept album gave a broad canvas, and as usual the Beatles were ahead of the game, with ‘Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band’.

I’m a Beatles fan but their sound isn’t what I was looking for with Progressive Music, I wanted something with a classical orchestral feel, but with more rhythm. Progressive Rock came the closest, ‘The Five Bridges Suite’ by the Nice was good and ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ by ELP was a rock version of Mussorgsky’s work.

However why listen to a copy when you could be listening to the original? I had a horrible feeling that maybe I should just stick to classical orchestral works, but I was 20 years old and somehow that didn’t seem right.

I tried different music; Hawkwind ‘Space Rock’ – too repetitive. Pierre Henry ‘Electronic Avante Garde’ – too weird. Manfred Manns Earthband ‘Solar Fire’ – too boring. King Crimson ‘Lizard’ – too jazzy. Moondog was good, but he didn’t record enough. Tangerine Dream ‘Electronic Music’ – Not enough notes.

Eventually I realised that it was Pink Floyd who came closest to a mix of classical and rock music, with their three albums ‘Wish you Were Here’, ‘Atom Heart Mother’ and ‘Meddle’.  Atom Heart Mother in particular had 25 minutes devoted to a classical/choral suite and remains my favourite album.

I’m hoping that music has progressed beyond the ‘X Factor’ karaoke type singing that seems to guarantee a hit today. I have lost touch with the music industry, and if anyone could recommend new bands for me to listen to, I would appreciate your advice.

John McNally

Coming in at number three is a one hit wonder, with a great oom pah beat and anti-war sentiments…………………..Jona Lewie and Stop the Cavalry:

Dropping one place to number two is a beautiful Christmas message from John Lennon. He already said that ‘All you Need is Love’ and pleaded to ‘Give Peace a Chance’ now he’s hoping that ‘War is Over’ :

And at number one, the greatest Christmas song ever written. Composed and sung by an alcoholic genius, Shane MacGowan of the Pogues, with the late Kirsty MacColl in a duet with some distinctively un-Christian lyrics…. ’A Fairytale of New York’:

Wishing all my readers a Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year.

John McNally

‘All Things Must Pass’ was George Harrison’s first solo album where he was able to record all the half-finished songs he was unable to get onto any Beatles record. The result in 1970 was a triple album, and one of the finest recorded by any of the solo Beatles.

All Things Must Pass includes the title track, My Sweet Lord, If Not for You, Isn’t it a Pity, What is Life and many others. One of my least favourite songs is ‘Wah-Wah’ which I always thought refered to a baby’s crying sound.

Harrison wrote this after an argument with Paul McCartney. It also refers to the ‘Wah-Wah’ pedal used for guitar distortion, which McCartney complained Harrison was using too much.

However I now think there are three interpretations to this. Here’s a quote from ‘the Kite Runner’ by Khaled Hosseini; “An end to the killing! Wah wah! But like the poet says; ‘How seamless seemed love and then came trouble!’ ” (p.261)

Harrison was influenced by eastern culture and religion, and he would have known of this ‘wah wah’ term.

In Northern India ‘Wah wah’ is used as an expression of enjoyment or appreciation, the English equivalent would be ‘wow!’ 

When I was reading the Kite Runner novel I thought I may learn something about Afghanistan, instead I added another piece to my Beatles knowledge jigsaw. Serendipity is my favourite word – ‘unexpected pleasure’.

John McNally

Any Beatle fan will immediately recognise this image. Homer Simpson is John Lennon, Marge Simpson is Ringo Starr, Bart Simpson is Paul McCartney and Lisa Simpson is George Harrison.

The Abbey Road album was the Beatles swan song. Although Let it Be was issued afterwards, this was only because of contractual and artistic difficulties. When the Beatles finally split up in 1970, the Abbey Road album became the centrepiece of a fantastic conspiracy theory.

The theory was that Paul McCartney died in a 1966 car accident, and was replaced by a look-alike, left handed, bass guitar player.

The Beatles walking across Abbey road was meant to represent a funeral procession. John Lennon all in white was the preacher, Ringo Starr all in black was the funeral director, Paul McCartney barefooted (as people are buried in the East) was the corpse, and George Harrison all in denim was the grave digger.

Paul McCartney is left handed, yet he is holding his cigarette in his right hand. He is also the only Beatle walking out of step with the others. He MUST be a double then.

I have just one small part of the painting to complete, and it’s probably the best clue that Paul McCartney died in 1966. Here is a large version of my painting……Do you know what Death Clue is missing?

Beatle fans will get this straight away, but if you are aware of any other death clues on Abbey Road, please let me know…

John McNally

The ‘Classical Spectacular’ I attended was on Sunday 21st March 2010. The ticket prices were £50 and worth every penny. This review is not just historical, the Classical Spectaculars are regular events that are held at least twice a year, the next being between

18th and 21st November 2010.

What do you get for £20 to £50? Well, first of all there’s the Albert Hall. You have to be inside it, to appreciate how wonderful a building it is. Then you have the musicians: The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Choral Society, the English Concert Chorus, the Band of the Welsh Guards and Muskets and Cannons of the Moscow Militia. If that sounds good, I can assure you it is.

Classical Spectacular is a series of concerts which mixes the ‘greatest hits’ of classical music, with a ‘Last Night at the Proms’ atmosphere. Fanfare for the Common Man, the Planets Suite, Pomp and Circumstance, Jerusalem, Rule Britannia and the 1812 Overture is just a sample of the evenings music.

The dress is casual, and it’s a good time party atmosphere helped by the comedic introductions to each piece by the conductor John Rigby.

The Albert Hall website has a useful feature where you can see the view of the orchestra from the seats you choose. This eliminates a lot of the worry when visiting a new venue. Why not check it out now?

John McNally

PS. The concert also includes lasers, indoor fireworks, muskets, cannons and balloons. 

One of them had heard that the Birmingham brewery Mitchells and Butlers were looking for a band to play at their trade fairs. So they decided to call themselves the M & B Band and tried to get sponsored by the brewery.

Unfortunately the M&B Brewery changed their marketing policy, and the lads never got the sponsorship they hoped for. In the meantime however the group had played at many venues as the M&B Band, and while they wanted to change their name, they didn’t want to confuse their customers and fans.

So they decided to call themselves something beginning with M and B, and became………..the Moody Blues! 

The original five Brummie lads were Ray Thomas, Clint Warwick, Graham Edge, Mike Pinder and Denny Laine (who later joined Paul McCartney and Wings, co-writing the “Mull of Kintyre“).  Mike Pinder and Denny Laine both left early in the Moodies career, and were replaced by John Lodge and Justin Hayward.

1967 saw the Moody Blues produce their “Days of Future Passed” album together with a full classical orchestra. This album contained their biggest hit “Knights in White Satin“.

However I prefer their tribute to the late Timothy Leary ‘Legend of a Mind’, from “In Search of the Lost Chord“, 1968. This was a good showcase for Ray Thomas’s talent as a flautist.

John McNally

These articles could be classified as Product Reviews, EXCEPT you never read a bad review! After all, the blogger won’t make any money out of saying how bad something is.

What’s  worse than the blatant sales pitch, are those blogs where the reviews aren’t even personal. They are just a rehash of the products sales page, or a PLR article scattered with BUY buttons.

These Blog owners are making a fundamental error. They know that the purpose of the blog is to make money, however by FOCUSING on this aspect, their blog loses QUALITY. If the blog has no quality it will lose traffic, and ultimately lose money.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a famous book on philosophy, that sold millions of copies in the 1970′s.
The book criticises the scientific tradition of splitting the world between subject (YOU) and object (the BLOG). Instead the author advocates looking at the world as a whole, and the glue between subject and object is QUALITY.

Religious people also recognise how unsatisfactory the world is, when only perceived with a duality between subject and object. However their “glue” is called LOVE. The Beatles knew about this, but they didn’t need thousands of words to explain it, they could do it in one lyric. “All You Need is Love”.

“Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right thoughts. Right thoughts produce right actions, and right actions produces work which will be a material reflection for others to see of the serenity at the centre of it all. ” Robert M. Pirsig,  ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ (1974) Bantam Books, page 267.

John McNally

The only bit’s I liked were “Are we like Sheep?” and “The Hallelujah Chorus” – but that was over an hour away.  I was having trouble keeping my eyes open, and my girlfriend was having the same problem, so in the interval we ‘did a runner’.

The Zetland Arms was just outside the church, and over a pint of delicious real ale we decided not to go back. Next pub was the Tilted Wig where we saw a football match while imbibing a lovely local brew called “The Tilted Pig” from Slaughterhouse Ales. (Their brewery is on an old abattoir site).

Before returning home we thought we would pop into the Punch Bowl for some cheap Barnsley bitter. While enjoying our pint, we heard the strains of a Christmas carol coming from the other end of the pub! When we walked over to see what was happening, we discovered a folk group and choir of about 20 people all having a great time.

It was a ‘retirement party’ that had been abandoned in December because of snow. Hence the Christmas carols in April! Everyone made us very welcome, and we were soon members of the choir singing along to the popular tunes.

THAT’S what I like about pubs……..they’re PUBLIC. Anyone can go in, and you never know who is there, or what is happening, until you go inside. The Punch Bowl  turned a disappointing Messiah into a fantastic Christmas experience!

John McNally