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This date will mark your last chance to qualify to win the jacket. We’ll select one lucky BBC member, a new member or a current member, to win it. Many thanks to Russ Lease of www.BeatleSuits.com for providing The Rubber Soul Jacket as our latest thank you. This beautiful suede will warm the (rubber) soul of any Bruncher this winter.Join The Beatle Brunch Club and live the culture.

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What a Year on The Brunch!
Thanks for making 2009 a great year for Joe Johnson’s Beatle Brunch.
Just one week ago, we “cruised” into the new year with Fab memories of our Beatle Brunch Cruise around the UK.

In 2009, we really kicked the Beatle Brunch Club into gear, with more than a half dozen incredible live chats! And what prizes we had for our Beatle Brunch listeners and Club Members! Last year we gave away The Beatles Remastered box sets in both stereo and the hard to find mono, plus one lucky BBC member received a limited edition gold record plaque from Capitol EMI with his name engraved on it.

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Another Year Over, but
What's Next for The Beatles?
A look back at the Beatle year that was 2009

by Tom Frangione

2009 was a great year to be a Beatles Fan!

Who would have believed that back in 2000, the release of seemingly the most unimaginative compilation (The Beatles' "1") would go on to be the biggest selling CD of the ensuing decade? Surely that's fodder for a piece on the state of the music business for another time, but more tellingly, it showed that thirty to forty years on, there's no sign of the Beatles star fading away. For the record, I'm OK with that.

Wrapping up the "00's" was a year that Beatle fans had abundant reason to celebrate. Certainly September 9th (forever etched in our minds as "9-09-09") was a banner day, with the long overdue release of the Remastered catalog albums on CD.

Issued as a complete box set with a bonus DVD, individually, and even in a deluxe mono box for collectors, the releases showed that the CD market still had some life left in it. While some still moaned about not having 2-on-1's, bonus tracks and the like, it's clear that Apple looked at this to be the catalog presentation for the long run (real or perceived) and did it smartly, leaving the albums to stand on their own, with the singles collected on "Past Masters" as with the previous catalog issued in 1987-88. And while entrée into the world of iTunes is no closer to fruition (think about it - why make the music available for download when you're trying to sell CD's? Besides, the newly enhanced sound would have to be compressed for the digital download format, nullifying the real value here), an Apple-shaped USB drive with all the albums was issued shortly after the discs.

On the same day the remasters were released, the Fabs entered the video game arena with the much-hyped appearance of The Beatles Rock Band. While I demo-d the game at the Chicago Fest For Beatles Fans in August, I have to confess, I just don't get it. Not because I sucked at it (I actually scored pretty high), not because of any snobbery as a real musician ("real" in this case is defined as a "legend in my own room") nor because of any techno-phobia. I just don't get the thrill of pressing buttons in time with flashing notes on a screen. At the risk of sounding too much like my dad, if these young kids spent half the time learning to play REAL music on REAL instruments as they do on this game .... Anyway, even old time purists like me found something of value in the audio tracks as remixed by Giles Martin, which can also be found in collectors circles as the game components have been, er, "de-engineered" (come on - you KNEW that was gonna happen ....).

As Ringo is honing in on 70, and Paul soon to follow, the surviving Beatles seemed to enjoy a bit more quality time together this year. Besides appearing at a gaming convention to promote the Rock Band game, a couple of studio recordings emerged with both Paul & Ringo as well. The first was "I'm In Love Again" on longtime crony Klaus Voormann's album "A Sideman's Journey", followed by the Xmas week release of "Walk With You", the lead single from Ringo's forthcoming album "Y Not" on which McCartney duets.

Moreover, the two historically reunited on stage in New York as part of the concert to benefit the David Lynch Foundation for Transcendental Meditation. Following a three song set by Ringo, Paul and his band did an abbreviated set culminating with the return of "Billy Shears" to perform "With A Little Help From My Friends". The performance was surreal on many levels - seeing Paul and Ringo together tops that list, of course, but also the dynamic of Paul serving as a "backing" musician (when's the last time you saw that?), and knocking it out of the park with his response vocal and patented bass lines. Following an encore of the never-performed-live "Cosmically Conscious" (quite appropriate, given the cause), Starr and McCartney left no doubt about who rock's best rhythm section was, tearing through "I Saw Her Standing There".

That appearance was just one of several trips to the New York stage for Sir Paul this year. Following his guest appearance to close Shea Stadium in 2008, he returned to the new Citi Field in July to christen the new park where Shea once stood, as part of a summer tour. The three night stand was captured on the excellent "Good Evening New York City" CD/DVD set. The deluxe edition, issued only at Best Buy, contained a bonus disc with his appearance atop the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theatre, recorded the same week as the Citi Field shows. The traffic-stopping set recalled not only the Beatles appearance at the hallowed venue, but also the famous rooftop concert captured in the movie "Let It Be". Paul returned to New York for one more stage appearance in October, at the Actors Guild benefit on Broadway, to perform "On A Slow Boat To China" in tribute to composer Frank Loesser.

Closing the year, Paul brought his tour to Europe, and dusted off a couple of songs he'd never done in concert, "Obladi-Oblada", "And I Love Her" (ok, he did that one in the"Unplugged" special) and his brand new song "(I Want To) Come Home" from the film "Everybody's Fine". For good measure, he revisited the holiday classic "Wonderful Christmastime" which he had not performed live since the final Wings tour in 1979.

And while it was seemingly quiet in the Lennon and Harrison camps, both were honored in high fashion - John with the superb exhibition at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex in New York, and George on the other coast with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

George was celebrated with the release of the "Let It Roll" multi-label retrospective, which incited a goodly amount of debate about the repertoire, as certain hits were omitted, and once again Beatles titles (though recordings of George in concert) were included. In any event, the iTunes incarnation of the collection included a previously unreleased demo of "Isn't It A Pity" that is well worth seeking out.
While there were no new discs from the Lennon vaults, we did get new albums from both Yoko and Sean, and a year end single marking Julian's return to recording.

And while we did not get a new album from Paul, there was a deluxe edition of his excellent "Electric Arguments" album issued, with bonus tracks and a DVD. Paul's "Fireman" project was also celebrated in a month-long satellite radio spotlight "Fireman Radio" which featured scores of unreleased, live and rare recordings. In addition, we got a CD release of the recent "Amoeba's Secret" EP (timed with its Grammy nomination), and the release of "The Family Way" on DVD, featuring Paul's film score.

Ringo's "Soundstage" concert from 2005 saw two reissues this year, one as a CD/DVD set, and one as a standalone DVD. Also on DVD, TimeLife released a 9-disc set of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony and performance highlights, featuring the Beatles induction, and Paul's terrific rendition of "Blue Suede Shoes" from his 1999 induction.

Both Paul and Ringo found time to guest star on friends recordings, too. Paul can be heard with Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens) on Yusuf's "Boots and Sand", while Ringo can be heard with former partner Mark Hudson on a remake of "So You Are A Star" on Hudson's recent solo outing.

Where’s My Brunch Mr. Program Director?

What? Your city doesn’t carry Beatle Brunch? Then call your local station’s Program Director and complain loudly. We stream online at one of our affiliates		Joe Johnson’s Beatle Brunch Show Schedule “The Beatle-ful Year of 2009” January 10th "Meet the Beatles LP" January 17th “The Beatles Cartoons” January 24th "The Rooftop Concert" January 31 "The US Invasion" February 7 "Love Songs" February 14 Valentine’s Day "George's Birthday" February 21