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GEORGE HARRISON NEWS
UPDATED: May 13, 2008 8:00 pm ET
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Radio interviews From Classic Rock Central
George Harrison interview
The Dark Horse Years

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FUN GEORGE VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8_GxCpUXWY&mode=related&search=

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"Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me" (US version)
by Pattie Boyd and Penny Junor (hardcover book)

CLICK LINK TO PRE-ORDER !!!
Will be released on August 28, 2007

An iconic figure of the 1960s and '70s, Pattie Boyd breaks a forty-year silence in Wonderful Tonight, and tells the story of how she found herself bound to two of the most addictive, promiscuous musical geniuses of the twentieth century and became the most famous muse in the history of rock and roll.

She met the Beatles in 1964 when she was cast as a schoolgirl in A Hard Day's Night. Ten days later a smitten George Harrison proposed. For twenty-year-old Pattie Boyd, it was the beginning of an unimaginably rich and complex life as she was welcomed into the Beatles inner circle-a circle that included Mick Jagger, Ron Wood, Jeff Beck, and a veritable who's who of rock musicians. She describes the dynamics of the group, the friendships, the tensions, the musicmaking, and the weird and wonderful memories she has of Paul and Linda, Cynthia and John, Ringo and Maureen, and especially the years with her husband, George.

It was a sweet, turbulent life, but one that would take an unexpected turn, starting with a simple note that began "dearest l."

CLICK LINK TO ORDER !!!

"Wonderful Today" (UK version)

I read it quickly and assumed that it was from some weirdo; I did get fan mail from time to time.... I thought no more about it until that evening when the phone rang. It was Eric [Clapton]. "Did you get my letter?"... And then the penny dropped. "Was that from you?" I said....It was the most passionate letter anyone had ever written me.

For the first time Pattie Boyd, former wife of both George Harrison and Eric Clapton, a high-profile model whose face epitomized the swinging London scene of the 1960s, a woman who inspired Harrison's song "Something" and Clapton's anthem "Layla," has decided to write a book that is rich and raw, funny and heartbreaking-and totally honest and open and breathtaking. Here is the truth, here is what happened, here is the story you've been waiting for.

"Living in the Material World"

Watch "Give Me Love" video live in Japan (1991)

"Here Comes the Sun: The Spiritual and Musical Journey of George Harrison" by Joshua M. Greene (Book)

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Author and film producer Greene focuses on the metaphysical in his examination of George Harrison, choosing to document the Beatle's relationship with Hindu philosophy and Krishna devotees over his more complex-though admittedly well-covered-relationship with his bandmates. The resulting portrait is at times flat, as Harrison gets along with just about everyone on his spiritual path, and Greene is reluctant to cast his subject in a negative light. That's a shame, as the highlights of the book feature a conflicted and embattled Harrison dealing with disappointment, frustration and loss, of which there is plenty in the Beatles' shared history.

A friend of George Harrison offers informed reflections on the late musician's spiritual quest.

Out of the insanity, claustrophobia and estrangement that came with being a member of the Beatles, Harrison emerged an affected man, in search of God and peace. Filmmaker/biographer Greene (Justice at Dachau, 2003, etc.) portrays his friend as introspective and modest, inspired by an experience with LSD ("From that moment on, I wanted to have that depth and clarity of perception," Harrison told Rolling Stone.) Harrison reached beyond intoxicants into the bliss of yoga and cosmic chants, a buzz that took him "into the astral plane." He wanted others to share his contact with the mystical and spoke of his spirituality during concerts, where his comments were met with, at best, indifference. Though he spent considerable time exploring the Hindu religion, writes Greene, the musician was a restless quester, always looking for ways to put his spiritual house in order. Greene writes of a newfound "levelheaded dispassion" as Harrison moved into his sixth decade, a sense of liberation from the material world coupled with an affirmation of nature and a personal recognition of his place in the scheme of things. Greene presents a man deeply engaged in the world he longed to transcend.

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"THE CONCERT FOR BANGLADESH (Limited Deluxe Edition) - GEORGE HARRISON AND FRIENDS" (DVD)

DVD Only version Click here

LANDMARK BENEFIT CONCERT FEATURING PERFORMANCES BY GEORGE HARRISON, RAVI SHANKAR, BOB DYLAN, ERIC CLAPTON & RINGO STARR

Apple Corps is proud to announce the release of "The Concert For Bangladesh - George Harrison & friends" on DVD and CD.

The Concert for Bangladesh was the first benefit concert of its kind in that it brought together an extraordinary assemblage of major artists collaborating for a common humanitarian cause - setting the precedent that music could be used to serve a higher cause. The concert sold out Madison Square Garden and along with the Grammy Award-winning triple-album boxset, and the feature film, has generated millions of dollars for UNICEF and raised awareness for the organization around the world, as well as among other musicians and their fans. It is therefore acknowledged as the inspiration and forerunner to the major global fundraising events of recent years. To quote the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, "George and his friends were pioneers."

Besides George himself the concert features some of his friends, including: Ravi Shankar, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Leon Russell and Billy Preston. Performances include 'Here Comes The Sun', 'Something', 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps', 'My Sweet Lord', 'Just Like A Woman', 'Blowin' In The Wind' and 'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall'.

During the struggle for independence from Pakistan millions of refugees fled to neighboring India to escape hunger, disease and bloodshed. The crisis was deepened when massive floods hit the region. Alerted to the scale of the suffering by his friend Ravi Shankar, George Harrison organized The Concert For Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden on August 1st, 1971 with the proceeds going to UNICEF.

The DVD is a 2-disc package, including the original 99-minute film restored and remixed in 5.1, as well as 72-minutes of extras. The extras feature a 45-minute documentary "The Concert For Bangladesh Revisited with George Harrison & friends", about the background to the two shows with exclusive interviews and contributions from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Sir Bob Geldof. There is also previously unseen footage: "If Not For You", featuring George and Bob Dylan from rehearsals, "Come On In My Kitchen" featuring George, Eric Clapton and Leon Russell at the sound check and a Bob Dylan performance from the afternoon show of "Love Minus Zero/No Limit", not included in the original film.

Apple Corps/WMG will also simultaneously release a special deluxe version (limited to 50,000 copies worldwide) that will feature a 64-page book and other collectibles.

The album of the concert has been remixed and repackaged as a 2-disc set, and is released in the US on October 25th, 2005 by Capitol Records and on October 24th in the rest of the world, by Sony BMG Entertainment. This will contain an additional track - the Bob Dylan performance of "Love Minus Zero/No Limit".

All artists' royalties from the sales of the DVD and the CD will continue to go to UNICEF.

Get George Harrison's "Brainwashed" album on CD, or the limited edition boxed set with a bonus enhanced DVD.

CLICK LINK TO ORDER !!!

Completed by George Harrison's son Dhani and Jeff Lynne (Traveling Wilburys, Cloud Nine) after the ex-Beatle succumbed to a long illness in November 2001, Brainwashed is a bittersweet reminder of the myriad contradictions that made Harrison such a compelling figure. One of the most warm, melodically rich albums in a career pockmarked by personal frankness and professional indifference in its latter years, Harrison finds rewarding ways here to reconcile bitter assessments of the material world (the title track) with more fleshy concerns, as his jaunty take on the Arlen-Koehler chestnut "The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" ably demonstrates. Pushing the singer's distinctive dry voice to the forefront, and with Harrison's trademark slide guitar riffs as sinewy as ever, Lynne's showcase production is mostly spot-on and refreshingly restrained, while Dhani brings his own fresh, touchingly personal insights to the record. He double-tracked his own voice onto an old recording of his father chanting the traditional "Namah Parvati" and appended it as the album's spiritual benediction, a touching reminder that while musicians come and go, music can truly embody their spirit forever. This limited edition comes in a special collectors box and includes a bonus DVD, The Making of Brainwashed, a poster, and a George Harrison guitar pick.

"Traveling Wilburys" (2 CD / 1 DVD) Deluxe Edition

CLICK LINK TO ORDER !!!

The Traveling Wilburys were one of the few supergroups that lived up to their promise, because they didn't try to. Things started inauspiciously when George Harrison, needing a B-side for a 1988 single, called in friends Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison for assistance. Two albums later--the second without Orbison, who had passed away shortly after the first was released--the loose-knit collective had recorded material that was as durable, and occasionally eclipsed, the participants' legendary solo work. The Wilburys succeeded due to a genial and contagious camaraderie that permeates both discs. What could have been a train wreck of ego clashes instead resulted in a frothy meeting of the minds. These guys are having a blast, trading lead vocals and harmonies on energetic folk-rock, quirky rockabilly, and Beatlesque pop that shimmers with the respect and esteem the members clearly hold for each other. Harrison and Lynne's rather slick production polishes off edges that might better have been left unvarnished, but there's no denying the loosey-goosey craftsmanship at work in tunes such as "Handle with Care," "End of the Line," and a striking Orbison performance on "Not Alone Anymore" that ranks with any of his finest. Both albums were million-sellers, but oddly went out of print for about a decade until Rhino resurrected them, adding two rare tracks per disc as well as a DVD of music videos and a band documentary. The resulting package is a comprehensive overview of a once--well, twice--in-a-lifetime project that, especially after Harrison's passing, will never be repeated. --Hal Horowitz

Product Description
Featuring classics like "Handle With Care," "End Of The Line," and "Heading For The Light," super-group Traveling Wilbury's Collection highlights all of the band's music and previously unreleased bonus tracks through this re-mastered double album. The DVD features behind the scenes footage of the band writing and recording, along with their 5 video clips. Limited edition Deluxe package includes 40-page booklet and other exclusive extras.

Disc: 1
1. Handle With Care
2. Dirty World
3. Rattled
4. Last Night
5. Not Alone Any More
6. Congratulations
7. Heading For the Light
8. Margarita
9. Tweeter And the Monkey Man
10. End Of the Line
11. Maxine - (previously unreleased, Bonus Track)
12. Like A Ship - (alternate take, Bonus Track)

Disc: 2
1. She's My Baby
2. Inside Out
3. If You Belonged To Me
4. Devil's Been Busy, The
5. 7 Deadly Sins
6. Poor House
7. Where Were You Last Night?
8. Cool Dry Place
9. New Blue Moon
10. You Took My Breath Away
11. Wilbury Twist
12. Nobody's Child - (Bonus Track)
13. Runaway - (Bonus Track)

Disc: 3
1. The True History Of The Traveling Wilburys [DVD]
2. Music Videos
3. Handle With Care [DVD]
4. End of The Line [DVD]
5. She's My Baby [DVD]
6. Inside Out [DVD]
7. Wilbury Twist (2007 Version) [DVD]

May 13, 2008 -- Reuters

'I'll see George on the other side'

George Harrison's widow Olivia has spoken of her hope that she will see the ex-Beatle again "on the other side".

Olivia, 59, has been creating a special garden at the Chelsea Flower Show in her late husband's memory.

Harrison, who died almost six-and-a-half years ago, was a regular at the show, and would return home every year with a list of plants he wanted to buy.

His family nicknamed him Capability George after the 18th Century English landscape designer Capability Brown.

In an interview, Olivia says of the garden at the home they shared in Oxfordshire: "Every time I go out there, I always think he'll just pop out from behind a shrub, like he used to."

She added: "Will I see George again? I take heart from something Michael Palin once said, which is that the idea of seeing George again, on the other side, makes the idea of death a whole lot more interesting."

"All I know is that George dedicated a lot of his life to obtain a good ending, and I don't doubt he was successful.

"The whole point of meditation is to have the experience you're going to have when you take leave of your body, so that when it actually happens, you're familiar with that transition and go, 'Oh yes, I know this place.'

"So yes, I must say that I like the thought, indeed the possibility, that one day he and I might once more be floating down the stream of time."

Olivia has created the garden for the Chelsea Flower Show, which opens next week, with designer Yvonne Innes, a three-times Chelsea gold-medal winner.

The garden is called From Life to Life, after a line in the Beatles' song It's All Too Much, and sponsored by Harrison's Material World Charitable Foundation.

Dhani Harrison hopes to wow industry bosses in the US

Dhani Harrison is apparently set to follow in his father George Harrison's footsteps with his band thenewno2.

The only son of the late Beatles guitarist formed the band with drummer Oliver Hecks and is hoping to wow industry bosses when he tours the States this year, reports the Daily Express.

The 29-year has already released new tracks on the internet and apparently wants to perform a series of live shows in the US.

A source told the paper: "Dhani isn't a big attention seeker but it's understood he hopes to go on the road in the autumn.

"Dhani will be keen to keep things low key and they'll be playing small venues, but there's bound to be a lot of interest."

Fans will have high expectations of the singer, who co-produced and performed on his father's album Brainwashed, which was released after his death in 2002.

He also performed alongside Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton at a tribute concert to his father at the Royal Albert Hall.

Harrison, 29, shares an estimated £160 million ($320 million) inheritance with his mother Olivia, according to The Sunday Times list.

Like John Lennon's offspring, Dhani Harrison is seeking to establish his own musical career. He helped to complete his father's final album before his death in 2001 and played guitar at the star-studded Concert for George. Last year he played guitar on a reworking of While My Guitar Gently Weeps produced by the rappers Wu-Tang Clan. He has formed his own band, thenewno2.

Amy Winehouse, 24, is the tenth richest person in music in Britain aged 30 and under, with an estimated wealth of £10 million ($20 million). She has sold seven million copies of her Back To Black album but often finds herself short of spare cash. Record company sources say that the singer's supply of money is being rationed while she recovers from substance addictions.

Leona Lewis, 23, the X Factor winner who topped the US single and album charts, is in fourteenth place with an estimated £6 million ($12 million) fortune. Previous reality show winners have found that they are earning less than other singers once managers and record companies have taken their cut.

Corinne Bailey Rae, whose saxophonist husband Jason died of a suspected drugs overdose last month, and Natasha Bedingfield are also worth £6 million ($12 million). The highest new entry is the Manchester-born fashion model Karen Elson (sixth) who shares her £25 million ($50 million) fortune with her husband, the White Stripes guitarist Jack White.

In a separate list of Britain's richest 100 young millionaires, Emma Watson £10 million ($20 million)), and her Harry Potter co-star Rupert Grint £7 million ($14 million)) feature for the first time. They join Daniel Radcliffe, who has added to his wealth and is now worth £20 million ($40 million).

The Sunday Times also publishes a list of Britain's Top 50 music millionaires, in which Sir Paul McCartney is valued at £500 million ($1 billion) even though his divorce hearing was told he was worth £400 million ($800 million). According to The Sunday TimesRich List, the court undervalued Sir Paul's back catalogue, image rights and recordings. It also failed to take into account the will of his first wife, Linda, who died in 1998.

Guy Hands, who bought EMI for £2.4 billion ($4.8 billion), is the top new entry in the music millionaires list with £250 million ($500 million) in seventh place. Chris Blackwell, the London-born founder of Island Records, is another new entry with £100 million ($200 million).

Pop's Top Ten under - 30s

£160 million ($320 million) George Harrison's son, Dhani

£32 million ($64 million) Vanessa-Mae Nicholson, violinist

£30 million ($60 milllion) Guy Berryman, Coldplay

£30 million ($60 milllion)Jonny Buckland, Coldplay

£30 million ($60 milllion) Will Champion, Coldplay

£25 million ($50 million) Karen Elson and Jack White

£18 million ($36 million) Katie Melua, Singer

£12 million ($24 million) Joss Stone, Soul singer

£11 million ($22 milllion) Chartlotte Church and Gavin Henson, Singer and rugby player

£10 million ($20 milllionO Craig David, Amy Winehouse and Will Young

CityZine brings you LA band, thenewno2, as a part of our "Get to know your LA Bands" series where we introduce you to a variety of bands and you tell us what you think. Recently, CityZine sat down the two band members that make up thenewno2 (hey maybe that's where their name comes from), Dhani Harrison who plays lead guitar, synths and vocals, and Oli Hecks who plays on drums and synths, to ask them about road trip experiences and guilty pleasures.

Keep an eye out on LA.CityZine for news on their soon to be released CD featuring Bryony Atkinson on Vocals, Nick Fyffe on bass, Marc Mann on Acoustic Guitar and Tom Hammond on cello. We will also have updates on any upcoming shows they will be performing in the LA.

For for more information and music samples check them out on MySpace, or keep reading to see their new music video, "Another John Doe."

Could you give a brief description of your band?

DHANI: Electro-Blues-surf-rock-Drumand Bass ?
OLO: Post World War I, gastro, electro, blues, rock.

What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it?

DHANI: "Hey You" by the Rock Steady Krew I had a fisher-price record player and the needle broke.
OLI: The Ghost Busters theme tune by Ray Parker. Jr on vinyl from WoolWorths in England.

What's the best cure for a hangover?

DHANI: Iceland
OLI: Sleep

What's on your ipod?

DHANI: Massive attack, Tricky, etc Hendrix, Zep, Beatles etc ... Wu Tang, Queens of the Stone Age
OLI: Lots of stuff from Lead Belly to Radiohead.

How do you get ready for a live show?

DHANI: Get really small
OLI: Rehearse

What's your favorite song to play live?

DHANI: I wanna be your Dog by the Stooges Bizarre fights ensue.
OLI: Give you Love by thenewno2 (Coming soon)

What's your guilty pleasure?

DHANI: It wouldn't be pleasant if I felt too much guilt.
OLI: Bacon

Who would win in a fight, a Ninja or a Pirate and why?

DHANI: c'mon .. really think about it a little Jack sparrow vs . Takira Maphoony 'nuff said
OLI: A Ninja, because he's a Ninja and not a sloppy drunkard with one eye.

What was the last album you bought?

DHANI: In Rainbows
OLI: Raising Sands (Rober Plant & Alison Krauss)

If you could rid the world of one song, what would it be?

DHANI: There are too many I couldn't choose fairly
OLI: YMCA (you know we've all had enough of that f*cking dance) or anything by M People.

Who would play you in a film based upon your life?

DHANI: An unknown
OLI: Dhani Harrison

Dead or alive. What 5 acts would you have play with you at a festival?

DHANI: Radiohead, Tricky, Goldfrapp, Devo, Wu Tang
OLI: Led Zeppelin, The Clash, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine.

If push comes to shove, what is your all-time favorite album?

DHANI: Magical Mystery tour
OLI: Probably a Dylan album, Blonde On Blonde or Bringing It All Back Home or Led Zeppelin I or IV..or Revolver

What's your most memorable on the road story?

DHANI: When I played with Eric Clapton in Italy He made me take a solo after him It was rather intimidating
OLI: Drinking 3 bottles of absinthe before jumping out of a hotel room window dressed as a Turk, hugging a TV (plugged in) and landing in a swimming pool full of Rolls Royce's and sharks that I put there earlier.

Favorite place in LA?

DHANI: Stoneyfield farms ..
OLI: The DMV. Its really vibey.

What's the best piece of advice someone has ever given you and did you take notice?

DHANI: My dad told me to keep my head down. I did.
OLI: 'Don't put you're finger in there', and no.

What would be your perfect LA day?

DHANI: Brunch at the snug. meditation at SRF music at stoneyfield .. followed by Hamasaku and the Gas light for karaoke.
OLI: Waking up to a smog free sunny day, taking the tram to the beach and passing by all the bicycles and electric carsoh wait.

What's the best book you've read and film you've seen in the last 6 months?

DHANI: Best film Superbad best book Bring out the magic in your mind by Al Koran.
OLI: A book about Film Lighting and No Country For Old Meneven though I haven't seen it yet.

What three things could you not live without?

DHANI: Cheese, red wine and two's
OLI: Air, Water and burritos

Tell us a fact about yourself we probably don't already know.

DHANI: I have the best friends in the world . I love them. I'd die for them.
OLI: I'm really into cheese.

Dhani's new song

New video from Dhani Harrison and his band The New No2, called "Another John Doe." WATCH

The first triple album by a solo artist, All Things Must Pass remains the best- selling album by a solo Beatle.

Recorded and released after the break-up of the Fab Four, the original vinyl release featured two records of rock songs, while the third, entitled Apple Jam, was composed of informal jams led by George Harrison.

Received as a masterpiece, All Things Must Pass took many critics by surprise, with Harrison having long been overshadowed by the talents of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, despite the fact that some of his later period Beatles inclusions (While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Something, and Here Comes The Sun) were hailed as highlights of their respective albums.

Recorded from May to August 1970 at Abbey Road studios, Harrison enlisted the aid of Phil Spector to co-produce the album.

It features Ringo Starr, members of Badfinger, Eric Clapton and the other members of Derek And The Dominoes, future Yes drummer Alan White, and Billy Preston.

Bob Dylan, a close friend of Harrison's, co-wrote I'd Have You Anytime with him, while Harrison covered Dylan's If Not For You.

All Things Must Pass lead single was My Sweet Lord, an enormously popular recording, topping the charts worldwide.

The album itself reached number one in the UK for eight weeks.

A remastered edition of All Things Must Pass, supervised by Harrison, was released in 2001.

Beatles fans have been paying tribute to the late George Harrison on the day he would have turned 65 years of age.

John James Chambers, founder of the Beatles Appreciation Society, met fans inside Liverpool's Cavern Walks to remember the youngest Beatle. Speaking at the Beatles statue yesterday, Mr Chambers said February 25 would have been an important milestone in Harrison's life as he would have become a pensioner.

Mr Chambers said: "We usually remember George and John on the major anniversaries of their death, but in this year of culture it seemed right to mark such a milestone birthday.

"He would have become a pensioner and been able to claim his bus pass. As the society was instrumental in campaigning for seven years for a Beatles statue, it seemed fitting to place the flowers here in Cavern Walks."

Harrison died in November, 2001, after battling lung cancer, and his ashes were scattered along the Ganges River.

Born in Wavertree, confusion surrounds his exact birthday.

On Sunday December 9th the Mods & Rockers Festival in Los Angeles is presenting a special event that will salute John Lennon and George Harrison ­ honoring the anniversaries of their passing (December 8th and November 29th respectively) with special performances of some of their songs ­ including several rarely-performed compositions.

The salute takes place as part of a holiday-themed event titled "A Very British Sixties Christmas!" ­ which celebrates the holiday season in British Mod style with live 60s music by leading revivalist band 'The Ravers!' and several guest stars including British 60s rock icon Spencer Davis, American singer-songwriter Stephen Bishop and other surprise guests.

There will be several Beatles-related Christmas songs performed including the 1967 Beatles fanclub rarity "Christmas Time Is Here Again", John Lennon's 1970 "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)" and the 1963 British Top Twenty novelty hit "All I Want For Christmas Is A Beatle".

Among the many Lennon and Harrison songs to be performed will be some tunes rarely heard performed live by any artists - including Harrison's "Old Brown Shoe", Lennon's "Hey Bulldog" ­ and rarest of all "Cry For A Shadow" ­ the 1961 instrumental that was the sole composition written by the combination of Lennon/Harrison. The tune was recorded by the Beatles in Hamburg.

The event takes place on Sunday December 9th in the Mods & Rockers Clubhouse situated in the private back-room enclave of the 1927 landmark restaurant/bar The Pig 'n' Whistle on Hollywood Boulevard ­ next door to Grauman's Egyptian Theatre. The event starts at 8pm. (Event ends at 11pm.)

In keeping with the Sixties theme ­ admission price to "A Very British Sixties Christmas!" will be at 1960s prices - only $3. The Pig 'n' Whistle will serve British beer (by Bass & Boddingtons) and British "pub grub". Contributing to the seasonal cheer ­ the beer will be "two-for-one" in the 8pm-9pm hour.

Attendees are encouraged to bring a new, unwrapped toy that will be donated to the "Toys-For-Tots" charity ­ which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.

Attendees can take advantage of free street parking in Hollywood on Sundays - or use validated parking for only $2 at the nearby "Hollywood & Highland" entertainment complex (one short block away).

The live music will be provided by L.A.-based revivalist band 'The Ravers!' - who specialize in live performance of classic repertoire by the key British rock, blues, R&B and psychedelic bands of the 1960s ­ including: The Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks, Animals, Yardbirds, Searchers, Hollies, Zombies, Cream, Them, Traffic, Troggs, Move, Small Faces, Manfred Mann, Pretty Things, Bee Gees, Pink Floyd, Spencer Davis Group, Dave Clark Five, Moody Blues and Procol Harum.

(The Ravers! recently headlined at L.A.'s Viper Room - backing actress/singer Evan Rachel Wood and the other stars of the Beatles-themed film "Across The Universe" in a Hollywood celebration of the film's premiere.)

The live music event follows a tradition established with the very first Mods & Rockers Festival. Between 1999 and 2007, the Mods & Rockers Festival has presented a series of live music events featuring performers such as Eric Burdon, Spencer Davis, Donovan, Stephen Bishop, Barry McGuire, Jackie Lomax, Denny Laine (Moody Blues & Wings), Andy Summers (The Police), Howard Kaylan (The Turtles), Gordon Waller (Peter & Gordon), Jack Casady (Jefferson Airplane), Laurence Juber (Wings), Bruce Gary (The Knack), The Records and Strawberry Alarm Clock.

The event is hosted and produced by Mods & Rockers founder/producer and Beatles scholar, Martin Lewis.

What: Salutes to John Lennon & George Harrison. And a British 1960s themed holiday celebration ­ with live music
When: Sunday December 9 ­ at 8:00pm
Where: Pig 'n' Whistle ­ 6714 Hollywood Blvd. Hollywood (Next door to Egyptian Theatre)
Who: Spencer Davis · Stephen Bishop · The Ravers! · Other special guests
Organizers: The Mods & Rockers Festival
Tickets: Only $3. (1960s prices!) Available at the door only.
Parking: Free street parking or validated parking for $2 at "Hollywood & Highland"

Details: www.ModsAndRockers.com

RZA: 'RAPPERS COULD LEARN FROM HARRISON'S SON'

WU-TANG CLAN star RZA has urged his mercenary hip-hop peers to follow the example set by GEORGE HARRISON's son DHANI - and give up their entourages and greedy ways.

The rapper was amazed when Harrison turned up alone at his studio to work on a new collaboration, after having paid for his own airfare, and insists his own bandmates could learn a lot from such humble musicians.

RZA, real name Robert Diggs, admits the recording process with young Harrison on a new song, The Heart Gently Weeps, inspired by his father's classic While My Guitar Gently Weeps was a delight - with none of the drama he's accustomed to when working with his fellow rappers.

RZA says, "Dhani paid for his own ticket from London, put himself in a hotel and stayed two days in the middle of doing his own project.

"Dhani is super-professional. Sometimes, to get (bandmates) Ghostface (Killah) or U-God in the studio, I've got to send a car for them - sometimes I have to send them money!" The Wu-Tang Clan frontman believes the hip-hop world could learn from Harrison by concentrating on music instead of money.

He adds, "I try to explain that to the hip-hop people, because sometimes we all stuck on this money s**t, but if you do music first, money is going to come." The new Harrison/RZA collaboration can be heard on the new Wu-Tang Clan album 8 Diagrams, which also features guest spots from the Red Hot Chili Peppers' John Frusciante and Erykah Badu.

The George Harrison Fund for UNICEF has announced a donation of US$ 450,000 for relief and recovery efforts for the victims of cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh.

A release from Washington Monday said the cyclone affected about 8.5 million people in Bangladesh in 30 districts and about half of the affected people are children. An estimated 600,000 of them are under five years of age. The contribution-evenly split between immediate relief and long-term recovery interventions-will go towards meeting the immediate funding needs of UNICEF, currently estimated at almost US$ 30 million.

George Harrison had a long association with Bangladesh and UNICEF. "Children are at their most vulnerable during natural disasters and it is incumbent upon all of us to act fast to save as many lives as possible," said Olivia Harrison, wife of late George Harrison whose great contribution to Bangladesh's liberation war is still remembered with gratitude. President and CEO of the US Fund for UNICEF said "with such a large number of children affected in Bangladesh, UNICEF is playing a key role in ensuring their survival in the coming weeks and months."

He said, "This contribution keeps alive George Harrison's longstanding tradition of goodwill towards Bangladesh, but shows that children need our assistance, regardless of the borders they are born between."

In 2005, Olivia Harrison launched the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF in her late husband's name with an initial donation of $1 million.

It specifically targets UNICEF programs in Bangladesh but also provides lifesaving assistance to children suffering from civil conflict, natural disasters and poverty elsewhere. The launch of the fund coincided with the release of a DVD and CD of 'The Concert for Bangladesh' which generates further income for the fund.

The release said with cold weather on the way, children and women in Bangladesh require urgent life-saving assistance such as medical supplies, food, clothing and shelter to be able to survive. Other critical priorities include ensuring access to a safe water supply and sanitation facilities to mitigate the threat of waterborne diseases such as cholera and dysentery, to which children are particularly susceptible.

All things must pass, including George Harrison's music to iTunes.

On Tuesday, Harrison's solo work finally became available on the world's most popular digital download service, meaning all four former Fabs' post-Beatles oeuvres are now represented.

Nine of Harrison's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-worthy albums can be purchased, from his landmark 1970 double-disc All Things Must Pass to 2002's posthumously released Brainwashed.

The latter, Grammy-winning collection was released months after Harrison succumbed to cancer in 2001 at age 58.

Harrison's entire catalog has been digitally remastered, and the tracks will be available in DRM-free format for $1.29 each. Some of the albums, including George Harrison, Somewhere in England and Living in the Material World, feature bonus songs.

Harrison's catalog was the last of the Beatles' to migrate to iTunes; before Tuesday, only his Traveling Wilburys' music was on the iPod-populating site.

A year ago, Harrison and John Lennon's solo work was cleared for release on all major digital distributors except Apple's iTunes-the computer company was embroiled in a legal battle with the Beatles' Apple Corps at the time. With that spat resolved, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr came aboard earlier this year, followed by Lennon in August.

Now the countdown is on for the Beatles.

Both McCartney and the band's record company, EMI, have confirmed that the entire Beatles catalog is getting digitally remastered for online sale. Sources say the Beatles' tracks could be available on iTunes by the end of the year, although the launch may be pushed back to early 2008.

Meanwhile, the iTunes news comes just two weeks after Martin Scorsese announced he was working on a biopic of Harrison that would feature interviews with his band mates and some rare material from his archives.

"The whole episode is incredibly painful," she told CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason.

Photos: Fab Four Finds

Now, for the first time, the ex-wife of two music icons is talking. In her new book, "Wonderful Tonight" - that Clapton song was written about her, too - Boyd is finally adding her own lyrics to her story.

The daughter of a British Air Force pilot, Boyd was a 20-year-old model in 1964 when her agent told her to report to London's Paddington Station to play a bit part in the Beatles film "A Hard Day's Night." It was a role that changed her life forever.

Boyd, who played a schoolgirl on a train, said just one word in the movie: "Prisoners." That was it. But she caught the eye of George Harrison, who made sure he sat beside her at lunch.

"And I thought he was really pretty gorgeous," she said.

Out of loyalty to a boyfriend, she told Harrison she already had a date.

"My one girlfriend said, 'Are you completely mad? Dump the boyfriend immediately," she said. "So I did."

Harrison and Boyd became one of mod London's most glamorous couples. He was the shy Beatle, and she appeared on the cover of British Vogue. When they married in 1966, Boyd writes: "I was so happy I thought I might burst."

It was Boyd who introduced Harrison to meditation, which led the Beatles to India in 1968. She recently found her pictures of the trip.

"And that was, I think probably the last time that George was terribly peaceful and happy and calm," Boyd said.

But "after India," Boyd writes, "our lives and our relationship seemed to fall apart." With the sudden death of their manager, Brian Epstein, the Beatles had to become businessmen.

"And there was an awful lot of tension within the band and I think what was happening is that George was bringing that home," she said. "It definitely put stress on our relationship."

Harrison meanwhile had become close friends with another musician. Eric Clapton began showing up at the Harrison home frequently. Boyd could sense right away that Clapton was attracted to her and Harrison had started to become openly flirtatious with other women. Boyd thought it was something she just had to put up with. His spirituality was also making him increasingly remote.

Photos: Eric Clapton

"He'd have a bag around his neck with beads in it and keep chanting 'Hare Krishna.' And it's very difficult," she said. "I don't know if you've tried it, to talk to somebody while they're chanting."

But Clapton showed her the attention Harrison wouldn't. He wooed her obsessively one day, inviting her to his band's London apartment to play her a song.

"It was the most incredible song," she said. "He played 'Layla.'"

A song about a man obsessed with an unavailable woman. There was no mistaking "Layla" was Boyd.

"It's a pretty enticing song, you know? It's deeply seductive," she said. "I mean, you know, it's the most incredible song. And he sings it so - it's so heartfelt. It bowled me over."

Later that evening, at a party, it all came out when Harrison discovered Boyd and Clapton talking.

"And Eric said, 'I have to tell you something. I'm in love with your wife.' And I thought, 'Oh no!' I just wanted the ground to open up," Boyd said. "This is not a situation I was happy to be in. Anyway, George was furious and said, 'Well, go off with him if you want.' And I said, 'No, I'm coming home with you.'"

Boyd would stay in the marriage for three more years. The final straw was the discovery that Harrison was having an affair with a close friend.

In the first draft of her manuscript, Boyd discretely chose not to mention the name of the woman, whom she described as "the wife of one of our closest friends." But as she was finalizing the book, she called Ringo Starr to ask his advice and consent because, she now acknowledges, the woman Harrison slept with was Maureen Starr, Ringo's wife.

"She was the last person I would have expected to stab me in the back," Boyd writes, "But she did." The marriage was over.

"I thought that there was no room for me, in this ludicrous situation we'd all found ourselves in," she said. "Everyone behaving badly. You know, truly it was a mess!"

So in 1974, she left George and moved in with Eric. Remarkably, when they were married three years later, George attended the wedding party. And Clapton wrote another hit song about his new wife, "Wonderful Tonight."

But the marriage was anything but wonderful. Clapton began drinking heavily - two bottles of brandy a day. Living with him was "ghastly," Boyd said. Then Boyd, who'd tried unsuccessfully to have children, learned Clapton was about to have a baby by another woman.

He told her over dinner. "I just felt as if I'd been stabbed in the heart," she said.

Clapton even asked Boyd to help raise the boy, Connor, who would later die in a tragic fall. But it was a concession Boyd couldn't bring herself to make.

"I felt if I were to accept it, I would be destroying myself," she said. "And I would therefore have to leave."

So at 43, she was suddenly alone and only realized how lost she was when she contacted an old friend.

"And I said, 'Oh Amanda, hi. It's Pattie. I used to be Pattie Boyd.' And she said, 'You still are,'" Boyd said. "Oh, I was still, I suppose, connected with the idea of, 'Well, if I'm not Mrs. Eric, who the hell am I?' I'd lost my identity."

In time, she found it again through her love of photography. Pattie had always taken snapshots. Now she began taking pictures more seriously. And the model who'd started her career in front of the camera became an accomplished professional behind it. Later this week, an exhibition of her work will open at the Morrison Hotel Gallery in New York.

She made peace with Harrison years ago. When he died in 2001, "I felt completely bereft," she writes. "I couldn't bear the thought of a world without (him.)"

And a now-sober Clapton remains a friend. She still loves "Layla."

"It doesn't hurt," she said. "I'm beyond that. But I know it was for me. I like that."

George Harrison's Haven
The Australian Home of the Late Beatle and his Wife

George was a Pisces, so he liked to have water around," Olivia Harrison says of her late husband, singer, songwriter, guitarist-and Beatle-George Harrison. In the couple's South Pacific-style compound on Hamilton Island in , Australia's Whitsunday Islands, she says, "the pool actually comes into the house, and there's a walkway over it. He always wanted to walk on water, so walking over water was the next best thing."

A place for family getaways and for welcoming friends, it was called "Letsbeavenue," a pun on a line by British comedian Tommy Cooper, "Let's be having you." Although the property was far from their house on Maui and halfway around the world from their mansion in Henley-on-Thames, where they spent most of their time, the enormous distance was its attraction.

"George was always on a quest to get as far away as he could," Harrison says. "We found Hawaii and built a house there. But he wanted to keep going. We went to Tasmania, New Zealand, Australia. I had the feeling that he maxed the planet out, looking for solitude. It was about 'How far away can I get?' "

In the early 1980s one of his friends in Hawaii, British racing driver Sir Jackie Stewart, suggested attending the Australian Grand Prix. "Jackie knew about Hamilton Island," Harrison says. "It was undeveloped, with only one bungalow on the whole island. It was pristine and stunning-just what George was looking for."

In the next four years the couple bought a six-acre lot high on a cliff and built their tropical sanctuary. "He loved the idea of being there, and the Australians loved him. He had good memories of Australia. When the Beatles visited, more people turned out for them than for the queen."

As a Beatle, George had fulfilled most of his other dreams. In fact, as with many answered prayers, it was overwhelming. "He was shell-shocked from the whole Beatle experience," Harrison says. "Literally shell-shocked. He hated loud noises. And imagine if all day, every day, for five or six years, people were screaming at you when you opened your door, jumping on the hood of your car, looking in your window. And then there were the death threats. He wanted to be far away. And he wanted sunshine."

George Harrison grew up in the frosty winters of postwar Liverpool, in the sort of terrace house that had a fireplace and a stove but no central heating. "As a child he used to wake up in the winter, and sometimes it would be half an hour before he'd get out of bed. He'd have to chip the ice off the inside of the windows-the inside!"

His father, a former sailor, told George stories of the tropics, filling his head with Pacific imagery. "George liked the South Pacific look," Harrison says. "He wanted the house to look natural, to fit in with the island landscape. When he designed it, he wanted round thatched structures like [Fijian] bures. Because the walls are curved, they were hard to decorate. But he didn't buy paintings. He liked sculpted objects-New Guinea art especially. He bought a lot of fertility objects, totems and tapa cloth."

The main house has the master bedroom, and there are three thatched guest huts, all of them built with bamboo and indigenous materials. "The tree trunk at the center of the living room he actually found on the island," says Harrison. "He used to go around the island, nicking plants for our garden. He'd even take big trees and replant them. He said, 'I want it to be a jungle.' "

Because Hamilton Island has not been overdeveloped, it's full of antipodean creatures. Being in the house, Harrison says, was "at times like being in a zoo, except we were the ones in the cage, because we'd get monitor lizards, kookaburras, wallabies and snakes at the windows looking in at us."

Inspired by the exoticism and simplicity of tropical life, George Harrison wrote the song "Gone Troppo," which contains the lines, "He smile, mucho in a sunshine / Highlife counting de fruit bat / Troppo, gone troppo . . ."

"Our final visit to Letsbeavenue was in the year 2000," Olivia Harrison says. "It was the last of our big journeys together, before an even bigger journey for George."

Now, after four decades of silence, the woman who drove two music legends wild tells the raw, unexpurgated story of her life...

We met secretly at a flat in South Kensington. Eric Clapton had asked me to come because he wanted me to listen to a new number he had written.

He switched on the tape machine, turned up the volume and played me the most powerful, moving song I had ever heard. It was Layla, about a man who falls hopelessly in love with a woman who loves him but is unavailable.

He played it to me two or three times, all the while watching my face intently for my reaction. My first thought was: 'Oh God, everyone's going to know this is about me.'

I was married to Eric's close friend, George Harrison, but Eric had been making his desire for me clear for months. I felt uncomfortable that he was pushing me in a direction in which I wasn't certain I wanted to go.

But with the realisation that I had inspired such passion and creativity, the song got the better of me. I could resist no longer.

That evening I was going to the theatre to see Oh! Calcutta! with a friend and then on to a party at the home of pop impresario Robert Stigwood. George didn't want to go to the show or the party.

After the interval at Oh!Calcutta! I came back to find Eric in the next seat, having persuaded a stranger to swap places with him. Afterwards we went to Robert's house separately but we were soon together. It was a great party and I felt elated by what had happened earlier in the day but also deeply guilty.

During the early hours, George appeared. He was morose and his mood was not improved by walking into a party that had been going on for several hours and where most of the guests were high on drugs.

He kept asking 'Where's Pattie?' but no one seemed to know. He was about to leave when he spotted me in the garden with Eric. It was just getting light, and very misty. George came over and demanded: 'What's going on?' To my horror, Eric said: 'I have to tell you, man, that I'm in love with your wife.'

I wanted to die. George was furious. He turned to me and said: 'Well, are you going with him or coming with me?'

I had met George six years previously, in 1964, when he was filming A Hard Day's Night. Britain and most of Europe was in the grip of Beatlemania.

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were mobbed everywhere they went, and at their concerts thousands of hysterical teenagers cried and screamed so loudly that no one could hear the music.

Shortly before they started shooting A Hard Day's Night, The Beatles took America by storm. In February 1964 they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, one of America's most prestigious programmes, and attracted an audience of 73million.

I was a model, working with some of the most successful photographers in London, including David Bailey and Terence Donovan. I was appearing in newspapers and magazines such as Vanity Fair and Vogue, but in March my agent sent me along to a casting session for a film.

She called later to tell me I had been offered the part of a schoolgirl fan in a Beatles film. On first impressions, John seemed more cynical and brash than the others, Ringo the most endearing, Paul was cute and George, with velvet-brown eyes and dark chestnut hair, was the best-looking man I had ever seen. At a break for lunch I found myself sitting next to him. Being close to him was electrifying.

Almost the first thing he said to me was: 'Will you marry me?' He was joking but there was a hint of seriousness. We got together soon after that and married two years later on January 21, 1966. I was 21, he was 22. I was so happy and so much in love. I thought we would be together and happy for ever.

Three years later, in 1969, George wrote a song called Something. He told me in a matter-of-fact way that he had written it for me. I thought it was beautiful and it turned out to be the most successful song he ever wrote, with more than 150 cover versions.

Frank Sinatra said he thought it was the best love song ever written. George's favourite version was the one by James Brown. Mine was the one by George Harrison, which he played to me in our kitchen.

But, in fact, by then our relationship was in trouble. Since a trip to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in India in 1968, George had become obsessive about meditation. He was also sometimes withdrawn and depressed.

My moods started to mirror his and at times I felt almost suicidal. I don't think I was ever in any real danger of killing myself but I got as far as working out how I would do it: put on a diaphanous Ossie Clark dress and throw myself off Beachy Head.

And there were other women, which really hurt me. George was fascinated by the god Krishna who was always surrounded by young maidens. He came back from India wanting to be some kind of Krishna figure, a spiritual being with lots of concubines. He actually said so.

No woman was out of bounds. I was friendly with a French girl who was going out with Eric Clapton. When she and Eric broke up, she came to stay with us at our house, Kinfauns, in Esher, Surrey.

She didn't seem remotely upset about Eric and was uncomfortably close to George. Something was going on between them but when I questioned George he told me my imagination was running away with me, that I was paranoid.

I left to stay with friends and within days George phoned to say the girl had gone. I returned home but I was shocked that he could do such a thing to me. I felt unloved and miserable.

It was around this time that Eric began to come over to our house. He and George had become close friends, writing and recording music together.

Eric's guitar playing was held in awe by his fellow musicians. Graffiti declaring 'Clapton is God' had been scrawled on the London Underground, and he was an incredibly exciting performer to watch. He looked wonderful on stage, very sexy.

But when I met him he didn't behave like a rock star ­ he was surprisingly shy and reticent. I was aware that Eric found me attractive and I enjoyed the attention he paid me.

It was hard not to be flattered when I caught him staring at me or when he chose to sit beside me. He complimented me on what I was wearing and the food I had cooked, and he said things he knew would make me laugh. Those were all things that George no longer did.

One night in December 1969 I took my 17-year-old sister Paula to see Eric play in Liverpool. Paula was very pretty and a bit of a wild child, and that night Eric fell for her. After the show we all went to a restaurant and everyone was quite drunk and raucous. When the rest of us went back to the hotel, we left Eric and Paula dancing.

The next night Eric was playing in Croydon and again Paula and I went to watch, and again there was a wild after-show party, this time at Eric's Italianate manor house, Hurtwood Edge in Ewhurst, Surrey. Soon after, Paula moved in with Eric.

In March 1970, George and I moved into a new house. Friar Park was a magnificent Victorian Gothic pile near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, with 25 bedrooms, a ballroom, a library, a formal garden of 12 acres and a further 20 acres of land.

One morning shortly after moving in, a letter arrived for me with the words 'express' and 'urgent' written on the envelope. Inside I found a small piece of paper. In small, immaculate writing, with no capital letters, I read: 'dearest l,'as you have probably gathered, my own home affairs are a galloping farce, which is rapidly degenerating day by intolerable day . . . it seems like an eternity since i last saw or spoke to you!'

He needed to ascertain my feelings: id I still love my husband or did I have another lover? More crucially, did I still have feelings in my heart for him? He had to know, and urged me to write. 'please do this, whatever it may say, my mind will be at rest . . .'all my love, e.'

I assumed it was from some weirdo.

I got fan mail occasionally ­ when I wasn't getting hate mail from George's fans. I showed it to George and others who were at the house. They laughed and dismissed it, as I had.

That evening the phone rang. It was Eric. 'Did you get my letter?' he asked.

Pattie Boyd: 'My hellish love triangle with George and Eric' - Part Two

Then the penny dropped. 'Was that from you? I had no idea you felt that way.' It was the most passionate letter anyone had ever written to me and it put our relationship on a different footing. It made the flirtation all the more exciting and dangerous. But as far as I was concerned, it was just flirtation.

From time to time during the spring and summer of 1970, Eric and I saw each other. One day, walking down Oxford Street, he asked: 'Do you like me, then, or are you seeing me because I'm famous?'

'Oh, I thought you were seeing me because I'm famous,' I said. We laughed.

He always found it difficult to talk about his feelings, instead pouring them into his music and writing.

Once we met under the clock in Guildford High Street. He had just come back from Miami and had a pair of bell-bottom trousers for me ­ hence the track Bell Bottom Blues. He was tanned and looked gorgeous and irresistible ­ but I managed to resist him.

On another occasion I drove to Ewhurst and we met in the woods nearby. Eric was wearing a wolf coat and looked very sexy. We didn't go to his house because someone would have been there. A lot of people lived at Hurtwood Edge: his band, the Dominos, Paula and Alice Ormsby-Gore, another of Eric's girlfriends.

The convent girl in me found the situation uncomfortable but strangely exciting, and so it was later that year after Eric had played me Layla in the South Kensington flat that I succumbed to his advances.

After George and Eric's confrontation at Robert Stigwood's party, I went home with my husband. Back at the house I went to bed and George disappeared into his recording studio.

The next time I saw Eric, he turned up unexpectedly at Friar Park. George was away ­ I don't know whether Eric knew that in advance ­ and I was on my own. He said he wanted me to go away with him: he was desperately in love with me and couldn't live without me. I had to leave George right now and be with him.

'Eric, are you mad?' I asked. 'I can't possibly. I'm married to George.'

He said: 'No, no, no. I love you. I have to have you in my life.'

'No,' I said.

He produced a small packet from his pocket and held it out towards me.

'Well, if you're not going to come away with me, I'm going to take this.'

'What is it?'

'Heroin.'

'Don't be so stupid.' I tried to grab it from him but he clenched his fist and hid it in his pocket.

'If you're not going to come with me,' he said, 'that's it. I'm off.'

And he went. I hardly saw him for three years.

He did as he threatened. He took the heroin and quickly became addicted. And he took Alice Ormsby-Gore with him.

Eric already did a lot of drugs, the ones we all used ­ marijuana, uppers, downers and cocaine ­ and he drank quite heavily too. But his dealer had been insisting recently he bought heroin when he supplied him with cocaine.

Eric had been using it infrequently for about a year and had amassed a big pile. He now set about using it. He and Alice retreated into Hurtwood Edge and pulled up the drawbridge. He didn't leave the house, he didn't see friends, he didn't answer the door or the telephone, and the two of them sank into virtual oblivion.

By this time Paula had gone. She had been with Eric in Miami when he was recording Layla and knew instantly it was about me. She had always had a suspicion he was with her only because she was the next best thing to me and I was unobtainable. Hearing Layla confirmed it.

She had been seriously in love with Eric, but he destroyed her pride, her self-esteem and her confidence, which were already fragile.

On top of that, her big sister was the last person to whom she could turn for comfort. I tried to telephone Eric but Alice always answered, so I hung up.

I turned my attention to my husband and to renovating Friar Park. For a brief period the project united us but the house was so enormous, and there were always so many people living in it, that we never had any intimacy. Most of the time, even when George was in the house, I didn't know where he was.

At meal times, too many other people were at the table for us to have any real conversation. And even though we shared a bed, he was often in his recording studio or meditating half the night in the octagonal room at the top of the house that had become his sanctuary.

I felt more and more alienated. I didn't feel included in George's thinking or his plans. I wasn't his partner in anything any longer. He was surrounded by yes-men. When I challenged him about it he said: 'Well I'd hate to be surrounded by no-men.'

I heard from Eric again in January 1971, two months after he had walked out vowing to take the heroin. He wrote to me from a cottage in Wales.

On the title page of a copy of Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men, he had written: 'dear layla, for nothing more than the pleasures past i would sacrifice my family, my god, and my own existence, and still you will not move. i am at the end of my mind, i cannot go back and there is nothing in tomorrow (save you) that can attract me beyond today. i have listened to the wind, i have watched the dark brooding clouds, i have felt the earth beneath me for a sign, a gesture, but there is only silence. why do you hesitate, am i a poor lover, am i ugly, am i too weak, too strong, do you know why? if you want me, take me, i am yours . . . 'if you don't want me, please break the spell that binds me. 'to cage a wild animal is a sin, to tame him is divine. 'my love is yours.'

It was signed with a heart. That one short note stirred up feelings I had spent two months suppressing. I wrote and told him what he wanted to hear.

'How are you? I hope the Welsh air has been soothing your mind and warming your heart. Oh, I so long to spend some time with you there . . . it would be beautiful to be together, just for a while.

'If the stars should suddenly change their course and I can come to Wales I'll send a telegram. Please take care of yourself. 'Moons full of love 'L'

As soon as I had posted the letter I had terrible doubts and immediately wrote a postcard. It simply said: 'Hullo, Please forgive and forget my bold suggestion.'Love L'

His reply came by return of post on the dust jacket of a book of Scottish ballads and was written in green ink.

'it was rather significant that i received both communications on the same morning. something like watching a boomerang in flight.'

He said he understood my situation and didn't know what to recommend.

'i love you even though you're chicken.'

Nothing came of our fantasies and I didn't see or speak to him again until August 1971. George had persuaded him to come out of Hurtwood Edge briefly to perform at a charity event, Concert For Bangladesh, in New York.

Eric was in a bad way but George thought that if he got him on stage, even propped up with drugs, his addiction would become an open secret and maybe he would open the door a little to his friends, who might be able to help.

Everyone knew that if Eric was to have a chance of getting through two performances ­ one in the afternoon and another that evening ­ he would need a supply of heroin when he arrived in New York.

I remember discussions about finding a really good one, called White Elephant, for him. It had to be very pure because he never injected ­ he was terrified of needles ­ but snorted it instead, as if it was cocaine, from a gold spoon he wore round his neck. Alice found it ­ she always did the scoring.

While they were living at Hurtwood Edge, she went to London to do the sordid business of getting supplies while Eric stayed at home. If ever they ran short, she would give him her share and take something else. She was drinking at least two bottles of vodka a day so he could have the heroin.

That day he and I scarcely spoke. He was surrounded by people, then on stage, and he was very out of it; I'm not sure he really saw me. It was a shock to think that he had done this to himself because of me. At first I felt guilty, then my feelings would swing violently the other way and I was angry that he should have asked me to choose between him and my husband.

When the concert was over, Eric and Alice went back to the horrors of their self-imposed prison at Hurtwood Edge. Pete Townshend of The Who was the only friend who refused to take no for an answer and went to the house so often that eventually Eric had to see him.

Pete persuaded him to perform at another charity concert, this time at Finsbury Park, North London.

The show in 1973, billed as Eric's comeback, was a triumph. I was sitting in the audience with George, Ringo, Elton John, Joe Cocker and Jimmy Page. Eric didn't look well ­ his addict's diet of junk food and chocolate had made him put on weight.

As I heard the opening wail of Layla, the first number of the evening, then the lyrics, my blood ran cold. He might have been wrecked for the previous three years but he hadn't forgotten how to tear at the heart-strings with his guitar.

All the emotion I had felt for him when he disappeared from my life welled up inside me.

The show reminded Eric there was an alternative to his life as an addict and eventually he agreed to accept treatment. He got off the heroin ­ and went straight on to alcohol.

He became a regular visitor to Friar Park and professed his love for me with increasing vigour. Letters arrived almost daily in which he pleaded with me to leave George and be with him.

Meanwhile, things between George and me were going from bad to worse. I don't know what his feelings were about Eric when he reappeared in our lives.

We had been so stoned on the night of Robert Stigwood's party that he might have forgotten about the confrontation in the mist, but I don't think so. George never spoke about it but after that night I think he felt he could be as blatant as he liked in his pursuit of other women.

In spring 1973 we were supposed to go on holiday together. The day before we were due to leave, George said he wasn't feeling well and couldn't go. He ended up going to Spain, supposedly to see Salvador Dali, with Ronnie Wood's wife, Krissie.

Ronnie, then bass guitarist with The Faces, and Krissie were friends of ours who often came to stay at Friar Park. I was desperately hurt: another of my friends was sleeping with George.

When I challenged him he denied it.

I went to the Bahamas instead with my sister Paula, who was battling her own heroin addiction. While there we had a call from Ronnie Wood. He was on tour and said he might come to see us for a few days. He didn't seem upset that his wife was with George -- he just thought it was funny they had gone to see Dali.

Ronnie is the most adorable man, and maybe at that moment some fun, laughter and a pair of comforting arms were what I needed.

The final straw for George and me was his affair with Ringo's wife, Maureen. She was the last person I would have expected to stab me in the back.

I discovered from some photos that she had been staying in the house with George while I had visited my mother in Devon. He had given her a beautiful necklace, which she wore in front of me.

Then I found them locked in a bedroom at Friar Park. I stood outside banging on the door yelling: 'What are you doing? Maureen's in there, isn't she? I know she is!' George just laughed.

Eventually he opened the door and said: 'Oh, she's just a bit tired so she's lying down.'

I went straight to the top of the house and lowered the flag bearing the om symbol that George had been flying from the roof and hoisted a skull and crossbones instead. That made me feel much better.

Maureen wasn't even prepared to be subtle. She would turn up at Friar Park at midnight and I would say: 'What the hell are you doing here?' 'I've come to listen to George playing in the studio.' 'Well, I'm going to bed.' 'Ah, well, I'm going to the studio.'

The next morning, she'd still be there, and I'd say: 'Have you thought about your children? What are you up to? I don't like it.'

'Tough,' was her response.

Ringo didn't have a clue what was going on until I rang him one day and said: 'Have you ever thought about why your wife doesn't come home at night? It's because she's here!' He flew into a rage.

George continued to pretend that nothing was going on and would leave me feeling as though I was becoming paranoid.

I felt undermined and unloved and George was so terribly difficult to talk to. He had become worse in the last year, maybe because Eric kept coming around and making it obvious that he wanted to see me. George must have sensed we were having an affair but he never said so.

One evening the actor John Hurt was with us. Eric was due to come over too and George decided to have it out with him. John wanted to make himself scarce but George insisted he stay.

John remembers George coming downstairs with two guitars and two small amplifiers, laying them down in the hall, then pacing restlessly until Eric arrived ­ full of brandy, as usual.

As Eric walked through the door George handed him a guitar and amp -- as an 18th Century gentleman might have handed his rival a sword -- and for two hours, without a word, they duelled. The air was electric and the music exciting.

At the end, nothing was said but the general feeling was that Eric had won. He hadn't allowed himself to get riled or to go in for instrumental gymnastics as George had. Even when he was drunk, his guitar-playing was unbeatable.

That whole period was insane. Friar Park was a madhouse. Our lives were fuelled by alcohol and cocaine, and so it was with everyone who came into our sphere. We were all as drunk, stoned and single-minded as each other. Nobody seemed to have appointments, deadlines or anything pressing in their lives, no structure and no responsibilities.

Cocaine is a seductive drug because it makes you feel euphoric and good about yourself. It takes away your inhibitions and makes even the shyest, most insecure person feel confident.

And we had so much energy -- everyone would talk nonsense for twice as long and drink twice as much because the cocaine made us feel sober. George used cocaine excessively and I think it changed him.

Marijuana wasn't destructive. Dope in the Sixties -- a very different drug from the skunk kids smoke today ­ was about peace, love and increasing awareness. Cocaine was different and I think it froze George's emotions and hardened his heart.

On New Year's Eve in 1973, Ringo held a party at his home. George went ahead of me and when I arrived he said: 'Let's have a divorce this year.'

In 1974 George told Ringo that he was in love with his wife. Ringo worked himself up into a terrible state and went about saying: 'Nothing is real, nothing is real.'

I was furious. I went straight out and dyed my hair red.

In June that year, I returned home one evening to find Eric, Pete Townshend and Graham Bell, another musician, larking around at our house.

I made them dinner, which we ate amid forced jollity, then Eric took me aside and pleaded with me again to leave George. We were alone together for what felt like hours, and he was so passionate, desperate and compelling that I felt swamped, lost and confused.

I had to make a choice. Would I go to Eric, who had written the most beautiful song for me, who had been to hell and back in the last three years because of me and who had worn me down with his protestations of love?

Or would I choose George, my husband, whom I had loved but who had been cold and indifferent towards me for so long that I could barely remember the last time he'd shown me any affection or told me he loved me?

That night Eric left and went off almost immediately to America on tour. On July 3 I told George I was leaving him. It was late at night and I went into the studio and explained that we were leading a ludicrous and hateful life, and that I was going to America. When he came to bed, I could feel his sadness as he lay beside me. 'Don't go,' he said.

Half of me wanted to stay and to believe him when he said he would make it better, but I was at the end of my tether.

The next day, with a great sadness in my heart, I packed some things, said a tearful goodbye to Friar Park and flew to America. What I had felt for George was a great, deep love. What Eric and I had was an intoxicating, overpowering passion.

It was so intense, so urgent, so heady, I felt almost out of control. Having made the decision to leave my marriage, I knew I had to be with him, go everywhere with him, do everything he did, keep up with him in every way. Which, on that tour of America in 1974, meant drinking.

Exclusive video interview...

July 12, 2007 -- Henley Standard


Peter Harrison
1941 - 2007

Peter Harrison, older brother of the late Beatle, George Harrison, and a long-time Henley resident, has died at the age of 66. He had been ill with cancer.

Peter was the second youngest of three sons born to Liverpool bus driver Harold Harrison and his wife Louise. Besides George, who died in 2001, Peter had another brother, Harry, and a sister, Louise.

The Harrisons' childhood home was in Wavertree, Liverpool, until 1950 when the family moved to Speke.

Peter, a keen and successful sports enthusiast in his teenage years, ran for Liverpool schools and loved swimming. He attended Rose Lane Secondary Modern School and took up an apprenticeship as a panel beater when he left school.

He worked for several companies in the city. When he was 19 he met Pauline, who was 16, at the famous Casbah Coffee House in Liverpool, acknowledged as the venue where the Beatles' story began.

In 1965, Peter and Pauline were married in Maghull in Sefton, a dormitory town of Liverpool. They eventually bought their first house in Penketh, Warrington.

They moved to Greys Road, Henley, in 1974, when Peter joined his brother Harry to help look after and maintain Friar Park, George's mansion on the outskirts of the town.

Peter was a keen golfer and a member of Henley Golf Club for more than 30 years. He was well-known in the town as a sociable and affable man with a great sense of humour.

He retired two years ago and he and Pauline travelled widely to New Zealand and Australia. Last year, in June, he was diagnosed with cancer and fought it with his usual tenacity and determination. He died in the Capio Reading Hospital on June 1st.

Peter leaves Pauline, three children - Ian, 39, Linda, 37, and Mark, 35 - and four grandchildren - Sophie, 9, Felix, 6, Adam, 6, and two-and-a-half-year old, Peter-John (P-J).

Beatle's muse comes clean...

She wasn't the most successful model, nor was she the most beautiful Englishwoman of her generation. So what made Pattie Boyd the lover and wife of two of the greatest musicians of rock history? And the inspiration for three of the greatest love songs to a single woman man has ever recorded?

If you're too young to remember the name Pattie Boyd, perhaps the names George Harrison and Eric Clapton might resonate. One a Beatle. The other la creme de la Cream. Both gods of the guitar. And the songs they wrote about their muse? Something. As in "Something in the way she moves, attracts me like no other lover". Then Layla, written by Clapton when he was Derek of the Dominos and passionately in love with, as Elvis might have sung, "the girl of my best friend". And finally, Wonderful Tonight - the anthem of the errant husband, intoxicated by drugs, alcohol or a mistress, who suddenly remembers where his real affections lie.

For the best part of four decades people have tried coaxing Boyd into "dishing the dirt". Now, apparently, she has. Next month "the iconic muse to musical icons George Harrison and Eric Clapton speaks out in a compelling and moving autobiography illustrated with her own breathtaking and intimate photographs", to quote the publicity from the publisher, Headline Review.

According to London's Daily Mail, which has obviously seen a sneak preview of the book she's written with the journalist Penny Junor, there's quite a lot of salacious tittle-tattle - as one might expect for a reputed £950,000 ($2.2 million) advance.

The 63-year-old Boyd lives in a 17th-century cottage in West Sussex and is said to be enjoying the prospect of her account going head-to-head with Clapton's autobiography, for which he has apparently been paid £3.5 million. According to the Mail, "she intends to lay bare the bizarre details of how the singer agreed to swap his own girlfriend for Pattie as a trade-off with Harrison".

"She is also said to be planning to tell the full story about dark rumours that during their nine-year marriage, Clapton, battling an addiction to drink and drugs, was an abusive and violent husband who cheated on her with a string of women because she couldn't bear him children."

Boyd was a 20-year-old model in 1964 when she met the youngest Beatle during filming for A Hard Day's Night. She married Harrison in 1966 and is said to have introduced the Beatles to the Indian mystic the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi four years later.

According to the Mail, while married to Harrison, she may have had a fling with John Lennon, who documented his sexual obsession with her in graphic diary entries.

When Boyd and Harrison met Clapton at a party in Chelsea in 1968, the guitarist fell for her immediately. They began an affair, but Boyd refused to leave Harrison - prompting Clapton to write Layla about thwarted obsession.

When Clapton finally confessed to Harrison, according to the Mail, Harrison is said to have told him: "Whatever you like, man. You can have her and I'll have your girlfriend."

Living with Clapton, however, was not easy. His addictions and affairs contributed to Boyd's battle with the bottle. In fact, Clapton wrote another, less well-known, song about her called The Shape You're In, documenting her alcoholism.

So much for rock's most famous muse. But what about the other women who have inspired unforgettable songs? Who was Sting's Roxanne? Van Morrison's Gloria? Chuck Berry's Maybellene? Noel Gallagher's Wonderwall? Ray Davies's Lola? We may not know all the muses, but we do know some of the most important. Women (and why are men so seldom considered muses?) who have inspired songs which have survived for the best part of half a century.

Take Suzanne Verdal. Puzzled? What about these opening lines to Leonard Cohen's most famous song? "Suzanne takes you down/ to her place near the river/ You can hear the boats go by/ You can spend the night beside her." Did they do it? Or didn't they? Last year Verdal, speaking to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in her new home, California's Venice Beach, denied those poetic phrases and seductive tones had ever had their desired effect.

Back in the 1960s, she was married to the Canadian sculptor Armand Vaillancourt, and yes, they lived in a place by the St Lawrence River in Montreal. Cohen has admitted this much on film: "There was a woman named Suzanne who was the wife of a friend of mine, Armand Vaillancourt, who is a great Montreal sculptor, still a friend of mine, and his wife was Suzanne Vaillancourt. She invited me down to her place near the river, and she did serve me constant tea filled with little pieces of orange." Both deny their lyrical encounter was, in Cohen's phrase, "compromised by carnality". But Suzanne didn't sound all that convincing in her interview. "I was the one that put the boundaries on that because Leonard is actually a very sexual man and very attractive and very charismatic. And I was very attracted to him, but somehow I didn't want to spoil that preciousness, that infinite respect that I had for him, for our relationship, and I felt that a sexual encounter might demean it somehow."

Bob Dylan, for once, was less elliptical. Yes, he wrote songs about Joan Baez. But the hymn he has described as his best song (and the one he has, reputedly, never sung in concert) is Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands - the 11-minute finale to the double album Blonde on Blonde, released in 1966. It was written - as innumerable Dylan websites attest - for the woman he married in 1965, his now ex-wife, Sara, born Shirley Noznisky. By the time they met she had married and become Sara Lownds - which more than one Dylan scribe has noted sounds suspiciously like Lowlands. Ten years later, on Desire, Dylan acknowledged his muse in Sara with the lines, "Stayin' up for days in the Chelsea Hotel/ Writin' Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands for you". They divorced in July 1977.

Sydney has a bit part in this story. According to Rolling Stones legend, Marianne Faithfull's first words in St Vincent's Hospital on coming out of her suicide attempt in the Chevron Hotel in 1969, were: "Wild horses wouldn't drag me away." And so Mick Jagger wrote the Rolling Stones ballad. That's Faithfull's version, anyway. Others say Keith Richards wrote the song about his newborn son Marlon, whom he was leaving to go on tour, and that Jagger rewrote the lyric except for the opening line.

But surely Jagger wrote Angie, about his dalliance with David Bowie's ex-wife, Angela? That's what Angie Bowie has always claimed. The truth, according to Jagger is, that Richards wrote the title, inspired by his daughter, "and I wrote the rest of it".

Of course, the most famous rock muse of all is Yoko Ono. Apart from the obvious - The Ballad of John and Yoko, written when John Lennon was still a Beatle, and Oh Yoko, the closing song on his solo album Imagine - Lennon is said to have written half a dozen songs about Ono. Yet, arguably, the finest love song ever written by a Beatle about his wife wasn't written by Lennon or Harrison. Paul McCartney wrote several love songs for Linda (strangely, none for Heather). Among them are I Will, The Lovely Linda and My Love. But the best, undoubtedly, is Maybe I'm Amazed, written in 1969 as the Beatles were breaking up and Linda was proving his anchor. Even George Harrison - who knew a thing or two about love songs - admitted it was one of the greatest songs McCartney wrote.

BEATLES WIDOWS WILL NEVER WED AGAIN

John Lennon and George Harrison's widows fear they'll never marry again - because no one will be able to replace their husbands. Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison joined Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr for an appearance on the Larry King Live show in America on Tuesday and confessed love is no longer something they're hoping for.

Ono told King, "We feel so strongly about our husbands that sometimes it's hard for us." Harrison added, "Their presence is very powerful and very strong."

But neither widow feels sad about the fact they'll never be a wife again. Harrison explained, "The incredible thing about them (Harrison and Lennon) is everything they left the world and left us is uplifting and joyful.

"There wasn't anything that they left that was negative... That's pretty unique."

Never before available on CD Traveling Wilbury's songs will be released when their long unavailable two albums 'Volume 1' and 'Volume 3' will be reissued.

Rhino has combined the two albums into what will be called 'The Traveling Wilburys Collection'.

It will include a bonus DVD of video clips plus the previously unreleased 'Maxine' and 'Like A Ship' from the Volume 1 sessions and the 'She's My Baby' B-side 'Runaway' as well as 'Nobody's Child' from the 'Nobody's Child: Romanian Angel Appeal' benefit album on 'Volume 3'.

The Traveling Wilburys were George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison for Volume 1. Orbison died in 1990 just a few months after the release of the first album.

They followed up the first album with the joke title 'Volume 3'.When I spoke with George Harrison in 1994, he suggested that a third album wasn't out of the question but it never came to be. "Well the story at the moment is that we've all been doing our day jobs, and the Wilburys being a kind of hobby has been just put on hold," he said in the Undercover interview. "So Tom Petty had just done an album, and he did a whole bunch of tours at the end of last year and going into this year. Bob Dylan, as you know, is continually on tour. And I did that live album and tour, so I'm not sure when we'll do a new record, because, you know, I'm planning to start planning and writing a new studio album ... although we all got together in New York for Bob Dylan's Madison Square Garden show, which was for 30 years of Bob Dylan kind of celebration".

Tom Petty's 'Full Moon Fever' is often referred to as Volume 2. An unofficial Volume 4 has also done the rounds but it is mainly already released material from Harrison, Orbison and Petty albums.

The Traveling Wilburys Collection will be released in June.

Visit the Traveling Wilburys new Web page!

Disc One - TRAVELING WILBURYS VOL. 1

1. Handle With Care
2. Dirty World
3. Rattled
4. Last Night
5. Not Alone Any More
6. Congratulations
7. Heading For The Light
8. Margarita
9. Tweeter And The Monkey Man
10. End Of The Line
Bonus Tracks:
11. Maxine*
12. Like A Ship*

Disc Two - DVD - The True History Of The Traveling Wilburys

Music Videos:
1. Handle With Care
2. End Of The Line
3. Inside Out
4. She's My Baby
5. Wilbury Twist

Disc Three - TRAVELING WILBURYS VOL. 3

1. She's My Baby
2. Inside Out
3. If You Belonged To Me
4. The Devil's Been Busy
5. 7 Deadly Sins
6. Poor House
7. Where Were You Last Night?
8. Cool Dry Place
9. New Blue Moon
10. You Took My Breath Away
11. Wilbury Twist
Bonus Tracks:
12. Runaway (B-side to "She's My Baby" UK CD and 12?)
13. Nobody's Child (previously released on Nobody's Child: Romanian Angel Appeal)

*previously unreleased

April 7, 2007

CLAPTON NOTE STOLE 'LAYLA'

The inside story of how Eric Clapton sneakily stole his pal George Harrison's first wife, Pattie Boyd, has finally been revealed. In her upcoming autobiography, "Wonderful Tonight," Boyd, a former London model, says her 10-year storybook marriage to the beloved Beatle collapsed after she received an unexpected love note from Clapton.

"One day, I got a letter in the mail. It was written on a piece of paper torn out of a copy of the novel 'Of Mice and Men,' " writes Boyd, the inspiration both for Harrison's most famous song, "Something," and for Clapton's "Layla."

"In tiny, scrawly, little handwriting it said, 'Dear Pattie, I have always loved you and this is breaking my heart. All I want is to be with you.' So I showed it to George, who just dismissed it. Early that evening, the phone rang and it was Eric. He said, 'Did you get my letter?' "

Boyd launched into an affair with the guitar great and eventually dumped Harrison to marry "Slowhand" in 1977. That marriage would last 11 years, and through it all Clapton remained friends with Harrison, up to the Beatle's untimely death in 2001.