While reading various Beatles books, I've noticed some slightly
unusual Beatles connections... therefore, this little section here will attempt to compile numerous of these rather, well,
odd facts.
----
To begin with, a few tidbits from a German book, "Das Grosse Beatles-Lexikon" by R. Bratfisch:
Apple School
This was a planned Apple venture, in which kids of Apple employees would be educated by
people such as Bob Dylan. It was meant to be an alternative to the rather conservative English school system and the director
was to be Ivan Vaughn. Apparently, it came to nothing because it was too far-fetched and far too expensive.
Could you imagine, though?!
The Beatles as asteroids?
Yes, the band has arrived in outer space, as well. Four asteroids, which were discovered
in 1983 and 1984, were named Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr.
And a planet?!
On April 3, 1998, a small planet was discovered and named after the Beatles... or rather,
it's called No. 8749 Beatles 1998 GJ10 1998 04 03 Reedy Creek 43042.
And the world needs this because...?
CD's released by the Beatle Barkers. Meaning dogs bark Beatle tunes. The question is -
why?
Beatlephobia
The other extrem to Beatlemania. A few instances of it in the Sixties were:
- bans put on Beatles music in 1966 due to John's comment, which was taken out of context.
- In Indonesia, police officers carried scissors with them, in order to shorten anyones
offensively Beatle-length hair on the spot.
- In East Germany, Beatle-length hair meant the person sporting such a haircut would be
sent to the hairdresser and, if he happened to be in a restaurant, kicked out.
Stamps
Before the official English Royal Mail stamps were released this year, the Beatles had
been featured on numerous stamps of other countries. For example:
- Maldives (John in 1986)
- Antigua & Barbuda (John in 1987)
- Germany (John in 1988)
- Australia/Great Britain (John in 1988)
- Grenada (Paul in 1989)
- St. Vincent (John in 1991 and 1995)
- Gibraltar (John in 1991; John & Yoko in 1999)
- Burundi (all four and John in 1994)
...and, to name but a few more, there've been stamps in Madagascar, Dschad, Burkina Faso,
Mali, Belgium, the USA, Tanzania...
Dorinish
An island off of Ireland's west coast, this was apparently
purchased by John in 1967 (and visited by him once). To be exact, it's situated in Clew Bay, infront of County Mayo. In 1969,
John offered the island as living quarters to a group of hippies led by Sid Rawle, but due to the fact that the island had
no water nor electricity, it was impossible to live there in winter. In November 1985, Yoko sold the island to a nearby family,
who used it as grazing land. The proceeds went to an orphanage in Ireland.
--
To be continued!
