2002
Jan. 1: New York's Times Square rings in the New Year with Paul McCartney's song "Freedom," which is heard during the festivities.
Jan. 10: Spin magazine, the modern music version of what Rolling Stone was in the late '60s, picks none other than the Beatles as the greatest group of all time in a list of the 50 greatest bands. The rest of the top five: The Ramones, Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley and the Wailers and Nirvana. Also on the list: U2 (13th), The Grateful Dead (27th), The Who (39th), The Beach Boys (45th) and Pink Floyd (49th).
Jan. 13: Public papers released in the UK after 30 years show that the payments from "The Concert for Bangladesh" album were held up for seven months by a Beatle legal feud after the group was put into receivership, reports the UK Guardian. The legal papers are filled with indications that Paul didn't like Allen Klein. One instance in particular says Paul, incensed over Phil Spector's reworking of "Let It Be," issued an edict in 1969 told Klein that no one could touch his music without his permission. Paul ended a letter to lawyer Allen Klein with the words ``don't ever do it again'' after Klein brought in Phil Spector to work on the song ``The Long and Winding Road." ``In future no one will be allowed to add or subtract from a recording of one of my songs without my permission,'' McCartney said in the letter.
Jan. 16: Reports circulate that George's long out-of-print autobiography, "I Me Mine," will be reissued. The book has been unavailable and hard to find for many years.
Jan. 20: The re-released "My Sweet Lord" single reaches No. 1 in the UK. Its stay at the top lasts only one week, as it's replaced by "Hero" by Enrique Iglesias.
Jan. 23: The murder of John Lennon took top spot in VH1's poll of most shocking events in rock, reports Ananova. Lennon also made the top 10 for his comment in the '60s that the Beatles were "bigger than Jesus."
Jan. 25: Amnesty International announced it would honor Paul McCartney with a lifetime award for using for activism on social issues, both through his music and his support for animal rights, famine relief and landmine bans. McCartney has "consistently used his status as both a musician and a public figure to raise awareness of a variety of critical social issues," said Amnesty International U.S. director William F. Schulz.
Feb. 3: Paul is among the performers at Super Bowl XXXVI. He sings "Freedom" in a program honoring America's everyday heroes. The band includes Brian Ray on bass and Paul "Wix" Wickens on keyboards.
Feb. 3: Reports circulate, via Richard Porter, that the Anthology videos are being mixed for DVD. This report pans out after Abbeyrd's Beatles Page learned exclusively that the Anthology DVD was set for release later in the year, though they were postponed until early next year.
Feb. 4: Paul announces the schedule for his Driving U.S.A. tour. The tour, which starts in Oakland, CA.on April 1, encompasses 22 shows. Although the official announcement indicated a European tour would begin in May, because of the tour's incredible financial success of the tour, Paul schedules a second American leg, "Back in the U.S.," for later in the year.
Feb. 8: Britain's HMV record stores pay tribute to a historic day in Beatle history. On this day 40 years earliier, HMV says they helped introduce Beatles' manager Brian Epstein to a young record producer called George Martin, thus helping to launch the most fabulous recording career in music history. On 8th February 1962 Epstein visited the famous HMV store at 363 Oxford Street. In those days the store had a small cutting room on its second floor, which was used for transferring music from tapes to 78-rpm discs. Epstein had been trying to get a deal for The Beatles, but had been rejected by a number of the major record companies - including Decca, who famously asserted that the days of four-piece guitar bands were over. He now needed more demo discs to continue his search for a contract. HMV's disc cutter, Jim Foy, was immediately impressed by The Beatles' music and excitedly spoke to a colleague, Sid Coleman of publishers Ardmore & Beechwood, who were based in the same building. Coleman had a friend called George Martin, a producer for the small Parlophone label. A meeting with Epstein was fixed, and so started pop music history. Eight months later, on Friday 5th October 1962, The Beatles released their first single, Love Me Do, and the rest was history.
Feb. 8: Bob Wooler, longtime compere at the Cavern and who figured in many aspects of Beatle history, dies. Wooler, who suffered from diabetes and a heart condition, was found in his flat and was taken to a public ward at Royal Liverpool Hospital. Messages from friends, including one from Paul McCartney, arrived at his hospital bed. Joe Flannery said of Wooler, "He was the gentleman of the Cavern. He was so loved by everybody." Over 500 friends attended the funeral. Among those attending were Freda Kelly, former secretary of the Beatles' Fan Club, Les Maguire and Freddy Marsden from Gerry and the Pacemakers, members of the Merseybeats, Ian Edwards, leader of the Zodiacs and Dave Jameson from the Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.
Feb. 14: In a survey for the upcoming 100th issue of MOJO Magazine, Paul McCartney named John Lennon as his ultimate hero, though he acknowledges he could have just as easily chosen George Harrison or Ringo Starr. "I've got a few heroes, but if I really have to plump for one, well howsabouts .... John? But I have to add the reservation that it could also be the other Beatles - or Elvis. Or Little Richard. Or Nat King Cole."
Feb. 15: "Eleanor Rigby" was the lone Beatle entry in the 2002 inductees in the Recording Academy Hall of Fame, which were announced Feb. 14. The 55 new entries include Fats Domino's "Ain't That a Shame," Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant," the Lovin' Spoonful's "Do You Believe in Magic?," the album "Highway 61 Revisited" by Bob Dylan, "Jambalaya" by Hank Williams Sr., "Midnight Special" and "Goodnight Irene" by Leadbelly, "Shotgun" by Junior Walker and the All-Stars, "Society's Child" by Janis Ian and "When You Wish Upon a Star" by Cliff (Jiminy Cricket) Edwards.
Feb. 24: Paul McCartney makes a surprise appearance at the tribute concert held for George Harrison in Liverpool. "I thought I should just come on and say how much George would have loved this," Paul McCartney said at the concert. "When I heard there was a tribute to George, I just thought - that's special. I have so many memories of him, so many, when I'm driving through Speke I see my old house, and his. We were such good friends from such a long time ago. I used to get the bus at Ardwick Road, and he was the stop after me. We used to have half an hour on the bus to talk about music and guitars and stuff like that. Of course, I knew him before I knew John and Ringo. He was a good lad. It is a great tribute to him. He wouldn't have taken it all so seriously - but secretly, he would have loved it! I know he would have been very proud. He gave such a lot to the world - his music, his spirituality. And as for the cause - well, we all hope for a cure for cancer. All we can keep doing is raising the money for the research." Paul altered the lyrics slightly in singing "Yesterday" to "Why he had to go, he would not say."
Feb. 25: A reported 32-minute tape of the song "She Said She Said," described as a "lost Beatles tape," is to be auctioned by Christie's, reports the Liverpool Echo and Ananova. The tape, owned by an American collector, has 32 takes of the song and includes John Lennon and Paul McCartney discussing it. The collector had reportedly been negotiating with Yoko Ono and Julian Lennon to sell the tape, but talks broke down. The tape is to be auctioned sale April 30 with a reserve price of £152,000.
Feb. 28: Ravi Shankar wins his third Grammy for Best World Music Album (for solo artists, duos or groups, vocal or instrumental) for the album "Full Circle / Carnegie 2000" on Angel Records. It was his first Grammy since 1972, when he won for Album of the Year for "The Concert for Bangladesh" with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Eric Clapton and Klaus Voormann. His other Grammy (and the first he'd ever won) was in 1967 when he shared the award for Best Chamber Music Performance with Yehudi Menuhin for the album "West Meets East."
March 4: Reports begin circulating that Paul and Heather Mills will marry in June.
March 6: Yoko Ono has purchased a billboard in London (as she has in the past in Tokyo and New York) to promote a message of peace using a lyric from John Lennon's song, "Imagine," reports Ananova. The London sign features the words, "Imagine all the people living life in peace." "After the horrible events of September 11, I thought it was a very important time to remind people of this message, because the world needs peace," Yoko Ono said. "I first put the billboard in Times Square, it's still up there, and then in Tokyo, with the same message in Japanese and English. I wanted it in London because it's a city that I have a special love for, and have fond memories of."
March 15: It is announced that Yoko Ono has purchased John Lennon's childhood home at 251 Menlove Avenue in Liverpool and donated the home to the National Trust. The BBC reported she worked anonymously through a third party and was "thrilled" at the purchase, which reportedly cost more than £150,000. Yoko said, "I am thrilled that we have managed to buy John's main childhood home. It is especially pleasing that we will be able to keep such an important part of John's and The Beatles' history intact and out of the hands of unsympathetic private developers. I think Menlove Avenue has an important place in Beatles history and it saddened me to think that it might be lost. The fact that this is happening in the same week that Liverpool Airport is officially opened as Liverpool John Lennon Airport would have made my husband very happy." A private foreign company was said to be interested in the house, and it was also feared someone with no music interest would buy it.