Apple Corps Ltd have announced the eagerly anticipated DVD release of The Beatles' second feature film Help! on October 29 which will be marketed and distributed by EMI Music. 
 
The DVD will be a 2-disc set. Disc 1 will feature the original film digitally restored with a newly created 5.1 soundtrack, while Disc 2 contains an hour of extra features, including: 
- The Beatles in Help! - 30 minute documentary about the making of the film with Richard Lester, the cast and crew. Includes exclusive behind the scenes footage of The Beatles on set. 
- A Missing Scene - Featuring Wendy Richard 
- The Restoration of Help! - An in depth look at the restoration process. 
- Memories of Help! - The cast and crew reminisce 
- Theatrical Trailers - 2 US trailers and 1 Spanish trailer. 
- 1965 US Radio Spots - Hidden in disc menus. 
 
There will be 2 editions of the DVD: a standard digipack and a deluxe boxed set that will contain a reproduction of Richard Lester's original annotated script, 8 lobby cards and a poster, plus a 60-page book with rarely seen photographs and production notes from the movie. Both the deluxe book and the standard booklet feature an introduction by Richard Lester and an appreciation by Martin Scorsese. 
 

The music video for the first single off Memory Almost Full, "Dance Tonight" is directed by Michel Gondry and features Natalie Portman and Mackenzie Crook. The video was posted on the YouTube on May 23.

The single will be released on June 18, and here is the press release.

Dance Tonight - The new single out Monday June 18th 2007
Taken from the album, Memory Almost Full

This was the last track I recorded for the album. I was on my way into a meeting in London and I always like to drop off before I actually get into the meeting, have a bit of a walk and experience life for a minute. Anyway there's a guitar shop that I always drop in on the way down the street and I went in and was chatting to the guy in there and he mentioned that he had a left-handed mandolin that he wanted to show me. So I ended up getting it anyway and I found the great thing about it was that I didn't know how to play it, because it's tuned like a violin so I had no idea what the chords were. This was good because it took me back to when I was a teenager being presented with an instrument you didn't know how to play. So I had to figure it out for myself.

I found one chord, then another one, then a real strange chord, very simple shape, but an odd chord, I still don't know what it is but it sounded great. This was over Christmas 2006. With this little instrument at home over the holiday I started doing this little thing, stomping in the kitchen, just enjoying myself, trying to find chords, and then I start singing 'Everybody gonna dance tonight' got that little thing going, and every time my little girl would come running in and start dancing, so I fell in love with this song and with the mandolin and the whole hoe-down aspect and eventually it kind of wrote itself, I just stuck a few more words in it and thought I'm just gonna keep it simple: 'everybody's gonna dance around, everybody's gonna stomp their feet, everybody's gonna feel the beat' and not try and get too deep. I liked it so much I thought I've got to record this so I ran in quickly and did it and stuck it on the album. It seemed like a good atmospheric opening. A couple of weeks ago we made the video, which was great fun. It's directed by Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind) and stars Natalie Portman and Mackenzie Crook. We had a good time doing it.

'Dance Tonight' is the opening track to my new album, Memory Almost Full.

Paul McCartney

The single will be released on 7" vinyl and CD. Tracklistings as follow.

Vinyl
Dance Tonight

CD
Dance Tonight
Nod Your Head (new mix)

"Nod Your Heard" features additional production from Sly Dunbar and featuring Lady Saw, Sizzla and Cherine.

Now the videos from YouTube.

"Dance Tonight" video


Funky Jam on "Dance Tonight" set


"Nod Your Head" video


Memory Almost Full EPK

Memory Almost Full is Sir Paul McCartney's 21st solo studio album and will be released on June 4 via Hear Music Label, the label formed by Starbucks Entertainment and Concord Music Group.

The press release from Sir Paul stated that the recording session for this album started before Chaos And Creation In The Backyard, released in 2005, and final mixing for Memory Almost Full was finished in February this year.

The tracklisting for the album:

Dance Tonight
Ever Present Past
See Your Sunshine
Only Mama Knows
You Tell Me
Mister Bellamy
Gratitude
Vintage Clothes
That Was Me
Feet In The Clouds
House Of Wax
End Of The End
Nod Your Head

The press release by Sir Paul himself:

Memory Almost Full out Monday June 4th 2007
By Paul McCartney

I actually started this album, Memory Almost Full, before my last album Chaos And Creation In The Backyard (released September 2005). The first recording session was back in the autumn of 2003 at Abbey Road with my touring band and producer David Kahne. I was right in the middle of it when I began talking with Nigel Godrich about a brand new project (which became Chaos And Creation In The Backyard).

When I was just finishing up everything concerned with Chaos and had just got the Grammy nominations (2006) I realised I had this album to go back to and finish off. So I got it out to listen to it again, wondering if I would enjoy it, but actually I really loved it. All I did at first was just listen to a couple of things and then I began to think, 'OK, I like that track – now, what is wrong with it?' And it might be something like a drum sound, so then I would re-drum and see where we would get to.

I took it from there and built it up. I went through, track by track, making changes as I went along. I fixed things I wasn't too keen on and it just evolved from there. Without me knowing, or really trying, it started to get its own theme, a sort of thread that holds it all together. So I suppose it's about half new stuff and half old stuff from 2003.

In places it's a very personal record and a lot of it is retrospective, drawing from memory, like memories from being a kid, from Liverpool and from summers gone. The album is evocative, emotional, rocking, but I can't really sum it up in one sentence.

There is a medley of 5 songs towards the end and that was purposefully retrospective. I thought this might be because I'm at this point in my life, but then I think about the times I was writing with John and a lot of that was also looking back. It's like me with 'Penny Lane' and 'Eleanor Rigby' - I'm still up to the same tricks!

I know people are going to look at some of the songs and interpret them in different ways but this has always been the case. The thing is that I love writing songs, so I just write and write. I never really get to a point where I start thinking I'm going to write about specific subjects. Inevitably though, what I am thinking is going to find its way into what I'm doing

The opening track of the album is 'Dance Tonight'. I recently got myself a mandolin and I was just playing about with it and came up with the basis of this track. A couple of weeks ago we made the video, which was great fun. It's directed by Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind) and stars Natalie Portman and Mackenzie Crook. I'm not going to give the plot away. You'll have to go and watch it for yourself, but we had a good time doing it.
The album title came after I had finished everything. For me, that's when they normally come, with the exception of maybe Sgt. Peppers, otherwise I don't think I have ever made an album with The Beatles, Wings or solo where I have thought of a title and a concept. I was thinking about what would sum the whole thing up and 'Memory Almost Full' sprung to mind. It's a phrase that seemed to embrace modern life; in modern life our brains can get a bit overloaded. I realised I had also seen it come up on my phone a few times. When I started bouncing the idea round with some friends they nearly all got different meanings out of it, but they all said they loved it. So the feedback helped solidify the title.

After completing the album I then started thinking about the album artwork and how I'd want it to look. I really wanted to make the CD a desirable object. Something that I know I'd want to pick up from the shelf, something that would make people curious. I hope our final concept has done that. The album sleeve itself includes an etching by a friend of mine, Humphrey Ocean. As with the album lyrics, I'm looking forward to seeing how people might interpret the artwork.

Currently I'm just starting out on the promo trail and beginning to get the first bits of feedback about the album and so far so good! It's interesting now as I'm getting to hear what other people are making of the songs and what their feelings are. I'm also talking about the album myself and I'm really enjoying the discovery process.

I really enjoyed making this album with David Kahne and I'm proud of all the songs. We had a great time. I hope that the fun we had will communicate itself to the people who are going to listen to it.

All the best,
Paul McCartney, April 2007

Apple have called a press conference at the EMI label headquarters in London UK time tomorrow (April 2), where boss Steve Jobs will make a major announcement about iTunes. There is speculation that the two companies will announce the Beatles' back catalogue going to be available on digital format.

The Beatles' own Apple Corps and computer giant Apple Inc. recently settled on the dispute on the usage of the brand name, which leads to rumors that the Beatles' back catalogue will be available on Apple Inc's iTunes Store very soon.

The Beatles' back catalogue is currently not available on any digital formats.

As previously reported, the Royal Mail will issue a set of six Beatles album cover stamps on January 9. You can order the stamps and first day cover on the Royal Mail website now.

The Beatles album Love is released today worldwide! It is released on standard CD and deluxe CD+DVD versions.

The lyrics to the songs are here:

Because (Love version)
Get Back (Love version)
Glass Onion (Love version)
Eleanor Rigby/Julia (transition) (Love version)
I Am The Walrus (Love version)
I Want To Hold Your Hand (Love version)
Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing (Love version)
Gnik Nus (Love version)
Something/Blue Jay Way (transition) (Love version)
Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!/I Want You (She's So Heavy)/Helter Skelter (Love version)
Help! (Love version)
Blackbird/Yesterday (Love version)
Strawberry Fields Forever (Love version)
Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows (Love version)
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (Love version)
Octopus's Garden (Love version)
Lady Madonna (Love version)
Here Comes The Sun/The Inner Light (transition) (Love version)
Come Together/Dear Prudence/Cry Baby Cry (transition) (Love version)
Revolution (Love version)
Back In The U.S.S.R. (Love version)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Love version)
A Day In The Life (Love version)
Hey Jude (Love version)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) (Love version)
All You Need Is Love (Love version)

As we are all know, the DVD has a longer running time than the CD, but what songs are exactly longer? The answer is "Revolution" and "Back In The U.S.S.R.". The running time of "Revolution" on the CD is 2:14, and on the DVD it is 3:23. For "Back In The U.S.S.R.", the running time on the CD is 1:53 and that on the DVD is 2:34. You may click on the following links to read the lyrics to the two extended songs.

Revolution (Love extended version)
Back In The U.S.S.R. (Love extended version)

You can now use your registered thebeatles.com account to preview the whole album Love on here. You can also watch the TV advert and EPK.

5 days before the release of Love, the CD version is leaked on the Internet.

EMI Hong Kong held a listening session for the forthcoming Beatles album, Love (it is coming out next Monday!!!), this afternoon in BOSE display room. The session was opened to media and press only. Nearly half of the DVD album was played on 5.1 surround sound system.

Before the album playback, EMI displayed a half-hour show prepared by Access Hollywood called Access Love, which features interviews with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, Olivia Harrison, Sir George Martin and his son Giles and people from the Love crew. It also displays some behind-the-scenes of the show and Sir George Martin and Giles displayed some snippets of the songs ("Get Back", "Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Octopus's Garden").

After the documentary, the album playback began with "Get Back". The Love version starts with what should be the backward or slow-down version of the orchestra section or final chord from "A Day In The Life", then where should be the final chord becomes the opening guitar strum from "A Hard Day's Night". It was overfaded into the drum solo from "The End" and the rooftop performance of "Get Back" [update 2006-11-16: it should be the single version instead) is coming in.

It was then crossfaded into the next song "Glass Onion". There is from "Hello hello" from "Hello, Goodbye" during the intro of "Glass Onion". The Love version is heavily remixed with a new arrangement.

The song again crossfaded with the heavily echoed "Ahhh" harmony from the next song "Eleanor Rigby". The song itself is similar to the original version. It was segued with excerpt of instrumental version of "Julia". Then police sirens came in and it goes to the next song.

And the next song is that "I Am The Walrus". When you think you love the 5.1 treatment for the strings section of "Eleanor Rigby", you need to think again, because the 5.1 treatment for those effects on "I Am The Walrus" are running around! There are some remix of brass section and "goo goo goo joob" line and the outro is extended and ends like the radio is detuning.

That ends the first section of the playback and it skipped "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and played the next mashed up medley.

"Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing" starts with "Drive My Car" and added some saxophone, probably from "Got To Get You Into My Life", during the verse. Then it fades into piano only with "What You're Doing" lyrics and then harmony section "It's so fine, it's sunshine" from "The Word" comes it. The song keeps on with the vocals from "The Word" and the music from "Drive My Car" (basically stripped down to piano). It stops after a verse with the drumming from "What You're Doing" and going back to mix of "Drive My Car" and "The Word". It fades into the next song.

"Gnik Nus" is simply "Sun King" played backward, and it is beautiful as the harmony is both haunting and sweet. And it crossfades into "Something".

"Something" is similar to the original version but the orchestra is remixed. It then goes into the intro of "Blue Jay Way", with slow-down words "He's a real nowhere man/Sitting in his nowhere land/Making all his nowhere plans" from "Nowhere Man".

And it was interrupted by the fanfares from "Being For The Benefits Of Mr. Kite!". There are some more FX sounds and some animal sounds (possibly from "Good Morning, Good Morning") over it. When the songs comes to its outro, white-noise guitar from "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" crossfades on it, and then words and guitar from "Helter Sketler" join it as well.

It ends the second section and the playback skipped "Help!" and "Blackbird/Yesterday".

The playback continues with the count-in from "Strawberry Fields Forever". If you have listened to the online preview, you probably would know it is seamless mix of different takes of the song (most noticeable are demo, take 1, take 7 and take 26) and of course, its outro edit piece of drums. During the outro, you can find sections of "Sgt. Pepper", piano solo from "In My Life", "Piggies" and then outro of "Hello, Goodbye".

Music gently rises up for the next piece, a mix of "Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows". The piece starts with "Tomorrow Never Knows" with heavily echoed (simulate the Leslie-speaker effect) vocal from John, and then George's vocal from "Within You Without You" overdubs the music of "Tomorrow Never Knows". When it reaches the line "And life flows on within you and without you", music from the other song fades out and only the sitar and vocal from "Within You Without You" remain. When vocal begins again with "Try to realise...", music from "Tomorrow Never Knows" flows back in. And the song ends with the seagull effects and ending verse from "Tomorrow Never Knows".

"Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" starts off with a heavily remixed intro, with added drum beats (it sounds like electronic beats somehow). The arrangement though is kept to be very similar to the original version.

And the playback ended after this song. For everyone who went to the playback section, there is a CD sampler which contains the 4 tracks you can hear from the official website.

It is quite emotional for me as it is the first actual 5.1 release by the Beatles and I can listen to some of the tracks first in surround sound. The 5.1 mix is really good and bring up the freshness of the Beatles music once again. I would like to thank you everyone from EMI Hong Kong for providing this opportunity for me to enjoy it.

The album will be released next Monday on CD and CD+DVD deluxe edition.

You can preview four tracks from the forthcoming Love album on The Beatles Official Website now. They are "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Octopus's Garden", "Lady Madonna" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". The same four tracks were also released on a promotional sampler CD and were leaked on the Internet now. You can click on the above song titles to read the lyrics of the new version.

Apple issued a press release on Love last Tuesday:

"LOVE" RELEASED IN STEREO AND 5.1 - ON NOVEMBER 20TH 2006

Tuesday 16th October

We are releasing the LOVE album in stereo and 5.1, November 20th. This will be the first Beatles album available in 5.1.  

The stereo CD will contain 78 minutes of music. The DVD surround sound version on DVD disc album will be a slightly extended version with 81 minutes of music.

After being asked by the remaining Beatles, Ringo and Paul, along with Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, to make experimental mixes from their master tapes for a collaboration with Cirque du Soleil, Sir George Martin, The Beatles legendary producer, and his son Giles Martin have been working with the entire archive of Beatles recordings to create LOVE. The result is an unprecedented approach to the music. Using the master tapes at Abbey Road Studios, Sir George and Giles have created a unique soundscape. The release of this album, which is also featured in the Cirque du Soleil/Beatles collaborative production of the same name at The Mirage in Las Vegas, has been much anticipated.

“This album puts the Beatles back together again, because suddenly there’s John and George with me and Ringo,” said Paul McCartney. “It’s kind of magical.”

“George and Giles did such a great job combining these tracks. It’s really powerful for me and I even heard things I’d forgotten we’d recorded.” commented Ringo Starr.

“The album has the feeling of love and that’s why the title is Beatles LOVE,“ added Yoko Ono Lennon, "They have let everything that is beautiful and daring come out.”

“The music is stunning. I think the most amazing thing about it is that you can pull it apart and all the elements carry with it the essence of the entire song,” said Olivia Harrison.

Tony Wadsworth, Chairman and CEO of EMI Music UK and Ireland said, “George and Giles’ highly original work in creating the LOVE album gives us a genuinely new Beatles album. It makes us respect even more, if that were possible, the creativity and brilliance of the band behind the greatest catalogue in the history of recorded music.”

The 5.1 disc is a DVD-Audio/DVD-Video hybrid. The audio is presented in high-resolution 96/24 5.1 surround on the DVD-Audio part of the disc. The DVD-Video part carries 5.1 surround in DTS and Dolby Digital as well as a PCM stereo mix. This DVD album is designed to be played on DVD video equipment but will carry no video component.

The LOVE CD and DVD track listing is:
1. Because
2. Get Back
3. Glass Onion
4. Eleanor Rigby
Julia (Transition)
5. I Am The Walrus
6. I Want To Hold Your Hand
7. Drive My Car/The Word/What You’re Doing
8. Gnik Nus
9. Something
Blue Jay Way (Transition)
10. Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!/I Want You (She’s So Heavy)/Helter Skelter
11. Help!
12. Blackbird/Yesterday
13. Strawberry Fields Forever
14. Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows
15. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
16. Octopus’s Garden
17. Lady Madonna
18. Here Comes The Sun
The Inner Light (Transition)
19. Come Together/Dear Prudence
Cry Baby Cry (Transition)
20. Revolution
21. Back In The U.S.S.R.
22. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
23. A Day In The Life
24. Hey Jude
25. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
26. All You Need Is Love

The late John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, has filed a lawsuit in Manhattan's state Supreme Court, accusing EMI and Capitol Records Inc. of violating a half-dozen agreements by "willfully and knowingly underreporting royalties" by hiding the "true use and disposition of Lennon's recordings." Ono's three-page filing, which included a summons and notice but no detailed complaint, also accuses EMI and Capitol of "intentionally and systematically rendering dishonest and grossly deficient accounting statements."

A spokeswoman for EMI/Capitol, Jeanne Meyer, would not discuss Ono's lawsuit specifically, but she said, "Artists from time to time request audits of their royalty accounts. Sometimes there are differences of opinion, which is understandable given the complex nature of recording contracts." Meyer said the contracts are sometimes subject to interpretation "but 99 times out of 100 these things are resolved in an amicable way."

You can read more on BBC News website.

The album, LOVE, will be released on November 20 on CD and CD+DVD deluxe edition via Apple/Cirque du Soleil/EMI. It will be a 78-minutes album with remixes from the Beatles back catalogue. The album was created by Sir George Martin with his son Giles Martin. The tracklisting is as follow:

Because (Love version)
Get Back (Love version)
Glass Onion (Love version)
Eleanor Rigby/Julia (Transistion) (Love version)
I Am The Walrus (Love version)
I Want To Hold Your Hand (Love version)
Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing (Love version)
Gnik Nus (Love version)
Something/Blue Jay Way (Transition) (Love version)
Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!/I Want You (She's So Heavy)/Helter Skelter (Love version)
Help! (Love version)
Blackbird/Yesterday (Love version)
Strawberry Fields Forever (Love version)
Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows (Love version)
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (Love version)
Octopus's Garden (Love version)
Lady Madonna (Love version)
Here Comes The Sun/The Inner Light (Transition) (Love version)
Come Together/Dear Prudence/Cry Baby Cry (Transition) (Love version)
Revolution (Love version)
Back In The U.S.S.R. (Love version)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Love version)
A Day In The Life (Love version)
Hey Jude (Love version)
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) (Love version)
All You Need Is Love (Love version)

Here comes the album artwork:

Sir Paul McCartney has just found out in the next decade, the copyright to the Beatles' back catalogue songs written by him with the late John Lennon will return to him without any legal actions. Speaking to the Daily Express, Paul said, "In about 10 years a lot of the back catalogue returns to me, just legally. Some of the important rights are about to return which I didn't realise." As Paul puts it, "You know what doesn't feel very good is going on tour and paying to sing all my songs. Every time I sing 'Hey Jude' I've got to pay someone."

LOVE Soundtrack will be released in November, with an exact release date yet to be confirmed.

The album LOVE came about when Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr plus John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono and George Harrison's widow Olivia, asked the Beatles producer Sir George Martin and his son Giles to make experimental mixes from original Beatles master tapes for a collaboration with Cirque De Soleil.

Speaking about the project, Sir George Martin said, "The music was designed for the LOVE show in Las Vegas but in doing so we've created a Beatles album. The Beatles always looked for other ways of expressing themselves and this is another step forward for them."

Discussing the creation of the project, Giles added, "We took all the Beatles catalogue from tape, the original four tracks, eight tracks and two tracks and used this palette of sounds and music to create a soundbed. What people will be hearing on the album is a new experience, a way of re-living the whole Beatles musical lifespan in a very condensed period."

The license plate "BEATLES" as part of the new customised license plate scheme by Hong Kong Government was auctioned last week and it was sold at HKD$370,000. Mr. Chan, who won the bid, claimed he would buy a new car to accompany the plate with, and then he would drive the car whislt listening to the Beatles songs. He originally expected to win the bid at the price of one million, and he now found the pirce "much cheaper than expected".

Hop over to theBeatles.com and you will see a new tag saying the Official Beatles Online Store (only US store opens at the moment). You can click here to go directly to the store.

(Top, left to right: With The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper, Revolver; Bottom, left to right: Abbey Road, Help!, Let It Be)

The UK Royal Mail is going to issue a set of 6 stamps with classic Beatles album artwork on. They are expected to be issued in January 2007.

A Royal Mail spokesman said, "The Beatles special stamps promise to be a big hit with fans the world over when they go on sale."

He continued, "Royal Mail is featuring some 1st Class Beatles album covers to commemorate the UK band that stands for all that's great in popular culture."

Here are the soundtrack album details. The cover of the album is on the right. The CD tracklisting of the soundtrack The U.S. Versus John Lennon is:

Power To The People
Nobody Told Me
Working Class Hero
I Found Out
Bed Peace
The Ballad Of John And Yoko (by The Beatles)
Give Peace A Chance
Love
Attica State (live)
Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama
Imagine
How Do You Sleep? (instrumental score)
New York City
John Sinclair
Scared
God
Here We Go Again
Gimme Some Truth
Oh My Love
Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)

It will be released on digital format as well, but the track "The Ballad Of John And Yoko" will be omitted.

It would be nice if you could help a hand and vote for The Beatles Studio here. Thank you!

You can watch the trailer of The U.S. Versus John Lennon below.

The album artwork for Paul's upcoming classical album, Ecce Cor Meum is on the right.

Paul will release a new classical album, his fourth to date, Ecce Cor Meum on September 25, 2006 via EMI Classical. Press release as follow:

Paul McCartney To Release New Classical Work 'Ecce Cor Meum'

Release Date: 25th September 2006

Paul McCartney releases his new full-length work of classical music Ecce Cor Meum through EMI Classics on 25th September 2006. Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart) is Paul's fourth classical album since his first released in 1991, The Liverpool Oratorio.

Ecce Cor Meum has been more than eight years in the making and its origins follow in the historic tradition of composers that have been commissioned to write music for the world-renowned Magdalen College Oxford. Paul was specially invited by Anthony Smith (President of Magdalen College 1998 – 2005) to compose something to set the seal on a new concert hall for the college. His hope was for 'a choral piece which could be sung by young people the world over in the same way that Handel's Messiah is'.

Ecce Cor Meum, an Oratorio in four movements, is scored for choir and orchestra. The text combines both English and to a lesser degree, Latin. Paul's knowledge of Latin comes from his classical education at The Liverpool Institute High School for Boys, where he had learnt three languages by the time he was 12. Paul says: "Not all of this has been retained over the years as my path went in other directions, but my love of language remains, and as Latin is known and sung by choirs all over the world, I felt it would be appropriate to use at times during the piece."

Like many great composers Paul, started with the music and then looked for a subject that fits. Several ideas for lyrics occurred to him, but they only gelled when he took part in a concert of John Tavener's music in the Church of St Ignatius Loyola in New York. "While I was waiting to do my bit, I was looking around the church and I saw a statue, and underneath it was written 'Ecce Cor Meum'. I had done some Latin at school and I always had a fondness for it. So I worked it out. I believe it means Behold My Heart".

In November 2001, the first version of Ecce Cor Meum was given its first preview performance by the Magdalen College Choir, which was conducted by Bill Ives at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. This was a great learning experience for Paul. “Eventually I made it all come together through correcting a lot of misapprehensions – a lot was learned before the Sheldonian performance, but a lot of it was learned afterwards. An experienced choral composer knows that children can't be given huge sustained passages; they don't have the energy and the stamina. At the Sheldonian there was some quite hard stuff that I didn't realise because I'd done it on the synthesiser (which has endless stamina!), but during that first performance, the solo treble couldn't come on for the second half – I think I'd used him up in the first half! These are things that people either learn because they are taught them immediately at the first lesson or you learn through the years, so it was good to go through the piece a lot of times, and we took out huge choral sections and gave them to the orchestra. If it had been a Beatles song I would have known how to do it. But this was a completely different ball game.”

Produced by John Fraser, Ecce Cor Meum was recorded this year at the legendary Abbey Road Studios between March 13th and 17th. It was performed by EMI artist Kate Royal (soprano); The Boys of King's College Choir, Cambridge; The Boys Of Magdalen College Choir, Oxford and The Academy Of St Martin In The Fields conducted by Gavin Greenaway.

NME reports that the soundtrack for the documentary film, The U.S. Vs. John Lennon, will be released on September 26 in the US. The soundtrack will include a live version of "Attica State", recorded at the John Sinclair Freedom Rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1971, and an instrumental version of "How Do You Sleep?". The UK release date is to be settled.