The Beatles Museum in Hamburg, Germany will close down at the end of this month.
The five-storey 'Beatlemania' museum was opened in May 2009 but will apparently be shut at the end of June due to a (can you believe it?) lack of interest from Fab Four fanatics.
Speaking to German newspaper Hamburger Morgenpost, manager Folkert Koopmanns said that the museum – which has over 1,000 pieces of memorabilia on display and is located in the same area where The Beatles played live shows when visiting the country in the early '60s – has had only 150,000 visitors since opening three years ago.
"In view of the high deficits, there is no solution left but closure, if you want to act responsibly," Koopmanns said. "A privately run museum as big as Beatlemania is condemned to fail without public support. That's a fact that we fought against until enthusiasm turned into resignation – a bitter experience. We had many hopes and wishes, unfortunately only some of them were fulfilled in the city which John Lennon used to say he became an adult."
******************************
A lost recording of John Lennon and Yoko Ono celebrating the release of one of the Sixties' most famous "political" prisoners over the phone has come to light.
John Sinclair; poet, one-time manager of the band MC5, and leader of the White Panther Party, had been given a 10-year jail term in 1969 after he gave two joints to an undercover policeman. Lennon (who recorded the song John Sinclair on his Some Time in New York City album) and Ono appeared at the "Free John Now Rally" at Ann Arbor's Crisler Arena on December 10, 1971. Three days later, Sinclair was set free when a court ruled that Michigan's marijuana laws were unconstitutional.
"Lennon came into my life like an angel from above and managed to spring me from prison, for which I am forever grateful," says Sinclair.
The rally inspired the creation of Ann Arbor's annual pro-legalization Hash Bash rally, which continues to this day, and contributed to the drive for decriminalization of marijuana under the Ann Arbor city charter.
Sinclair plays at "A Freedom Rally Celebration in Memory of John Lennon" at O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, London, W12, on June 14.
Lennon-Sinclair Conversation
******************************
Dhani Harrison, the 33-year-old son of late Beatle George Harrison and George's second wife, Olivia, secretly tied the knot with Icelandic former model Sólveig Káradóttirover the weekend in his native England.
Harrison and his longtime girlfriend got hitched at Friar Park, the family's estate in Henley-on-Thames, which is approximately 40 miles west of London. Among the celebrity guests were Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
******************************
Our final item has nothing whatsoever to do with the Fab Four but we didn't feel like writing a separate article so we're tucking it in here.
Elvis Presley will soon be immortalized with his very own hologram. Digital Domain Media Group, the same company that recently created a hologram of late rapper Tupac Shakur that debuted at last spring's Coachella festival, has teamed up with the company that owns the rights to Presley's likeness and is working to produce a holographic Elvis for use in a variety of Elvis-related projects.
"We are thrilled to have been chosen to bring new performances and original shows where fans can have their own, new experiences of Elvis," Digital Domain Media Group chairman and CEO John Textor said. "This agreement enables us to participate in the success of any number of potential virtual Elvis appearances."
