Beatles News

On the 36th anniversary of the untimely assassination of John Lennon, we wanted to step back and reflect on one of rock’s greatest songwriters and poets. Lennon’s musical contribution was enormous, his pathos and introspective soul spoke to a nation of lost British souls, and then to the rest of the world. John Winston Lennon was born October 9, 1940, into a working class family in Liverpool, England. His early life was difficult. His father took off to the seas, leaving his young mother to raise her son alone. When he was a teenager, Lennon’s mother was killed in an auto accident. Lacking parental guidance, Lennon was a troubled youth, prone to rage and anger. Eventually he channeled his passion into art school and then into music.

It's a cool, sunny morning when the busload of tourists descends onto Havana's John Lennon Park. That's Aleeda Rodriguez Pedrasa's cue. She jumps out from under the shade of a nearby tree and scurries toward the bronze statue of the Beatles legend -- all the while fishing for a pair of spectacles in her purse. She quickly places them on the bridge of Lennon's nose, seconds before the first of the tourists moves in for a picture. Padrasa has one of the most unusual jobs in Cuba: She's the keeper of Lennon's glasses. It's a job for which the government pays her 245 Cuban pesos a month, more than what many other Cubans make. "I've been working here for two years," says the 72-year-old Padrasa.

On 8 December 1980, John Lennon was shot four times in the back outside of his apartment building in New York City. He was 40 years old. 7 days after his death, millions of people paused their daily routines to honour Yoko Ono's request for ten minutes of silence in commemoration of his contributions. 30,000 gathered in Liverpool, 225,000 in New York City's Central Park. The radios went silent, too.

Nigel Sinclair -- producer of The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years -- told Billboard that Tuesday's (Dec. 6) news that the Ron Howard-directed movie was nominated for best music film at the 59th annual Grammy Awards is a great ending to the story of making the film. "Working with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Ron Howard was the experience of a lifetime. Getting nominated for a Grammy on top of that is just completely over the top. We [the producing team] are all honored,” Sinclair said in a phone interview from London. "Ron and all the producers were very encouraged that we found a story to tell that was fresh and wasn't the same story that people had heard. We found a way to shine a light on this extraordinary adventure with a slightly different emphasis and find some new truths for a new generation."