JAPAN/ UK: JAPANESE BEATLES FANS ARE THE FIRST TO GET THEIR HANDS ON THE BEATLES OFFICAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Record ID: 500915

  • Title: JAPAN/ UK: JAPANESE BEATLES FANS ARE THE FIRST TO GET THEIR HANDS ON THE BEATLES OFFICAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY
  • Date: 4th October 2000
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF PEOPLE PICKING UP COPIES OF "ANTHOLOGY" (4 SHOTS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE PAYING FOR "ANTHOLOGY" AT THE SALES COUNTER (3 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 19th October 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TOKYO, JAPAN AND LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
  • City:
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Arts,General
  • Reuters ID: LVA2LR9YUWHP0FMDYTB7P9MLI8RU
  • Story Text: Hundreds of Japanese Beatles' fans have become the first worldwide buy the first autobiography of the "fab four".
    Japan became the first major city worldwide on Thursday (October 5) to release the Beatles Anthology, the first official autobiography of the Fab Four written by the band members themselves.
    In the trendy Shibuya district HMV record shop, the nation's glam and glitz queen sisters, Mika and Kyoko Kano, counted down to the moment Tokyo and the gathered 500 fans had been waiting for.
    Over 1.5 million orders had been placed on the 370-page Beatles Anthology that was released globally in 13 languages at midnight in major cities around the world.
    And thanks to the difference in time zones Japan proudly became the first worldwide launch of the tome.
    "The publishers have been very strict in embargoing the release date but we got special permission to do it at midnight today," said Paul Dezelsky, president of HMV Japan.
    Due to this difference, Japan's launch is nearly half a day earlier than Europe's and the U.S.'s.
    Despite its 6,800 yen (62 U.S. dollars) price tag, the 1,000 copies displayed on sale vanished within the hour.
    For musicians that still play Beatle songs, like Shingo Oshiba & Special Onion Slice, its all in the message their songs continue to provide generation after generation.
    "Their songs have an air of hope to it, of when in the sixties people were still looking forward to better days ahead. I think people look back with nostalgia to those days.
    Furthermore, the Beatles also delved in the mysteries of one's inner feelings. Its quite deep actually," said Japanese musician Shingo Oshiba.
    In London the fever for the Beatles Anthology has also made fans stay up late in order to buy the book as it went on sale just after midnight.
    The release of the Beatles Anthology preceeds the official opening, next week, of the Japan's first museum officially dedicated to John Lennon -- the only Beatle not to have survived to see the autobiography's release.
    Lennon was gunned down in front of his apartment on December 8, 1980. His widow, Yoko Ono, wrote his part of the memoirs in his place.
    km/jrc
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