Beatles Fans Get Preview Of Book, Museum
John Lennon Museum, Beatles Biography Debut In Japan
British publishers Casell & Co. said in London that more than 1.5 million orders had been placed for the "Beatles Anthology."
The 370-page autobiography is being released globally in 13 languages at midnight in major cities around the world.
But Japan had a head start over the others.
"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 the difference in time zones, Japan's launch is nearly half a day ahead of Europe and the United States.
Accompanied by a Japanese band playing a string of famous Beatles songs, the 1,000 copies displayed on sale at the HMV shop in Tokyo's trendy Shibuya district vanished within the hour.
The book details how the group's record company paid the band just one old penny among them for each single record sold during the early 1960s and 10 pence for every album.
It also reveals how band members had very different memories of the myriad sensational events surrounding them.
"I am definitely a Beatle-maniac," said 50-year-old Takashi Kaneko who attended the Tokyo launch with his wife. "We grew up with them."
The release of the Beatles Anthology preceeds the opening of Japan's first museum officially dedicated to John Lennon -- the only Beatle who did not survive to see the autobiography's release.
Lennon was gunned down in front of his New York apartment on December 8, 1980. His widow, Yoko Ono, wrote his part of the memoirs in his place.
John Lennon Museum Opens In Yono
Ono, at the opening of a museum about her late husband in Japan on Thursday, admired the tribute to the Beatles songwriter but was reticent when asked about a decision denying parole to his killer.
Mark David Chapman, who gunned down the music legend, was denied parole on Tuesday. Chapman, who is serving a life sentence, was ordered held for at least two more years until his next hearing in 2002.
Ono had written a letter to the authorities appealing for Chapman's continued imprisonment, saying that if he were released, she and John's two sons, Sean and
Julian, would "not feel safe for the rest of our lives."
Asked if she felt relieved at the decision, Ono said only that: "Their decision is something I respect. I cannot say anything more than that, as I think you can imagine."
But she was more forthcoming about the museum, the first in the world dedicated solely to Lennon and founded with her blessing.
"John was a multi-faceted person, and I wanted to show this by showing the things he lived with and used," she said at a news conference. "As I walked through the museum, I thought it was very expressive."
Why Japan?
It was unclear why Ono had given the go-ahead to build the museum in a corner of a huge sports arena in this unfashionable town, some 15 miles north of Tokyo and at the heart of the urban sprawl that forms Japan's biggest metropolis.
The museum's presence in Japan would have been important to her late husband, Ono told Reuters. Lennon visited Tokyo several times, as well as the central resort town of Karuizawa.
"John had so much love for this country," she said. "His son Sean is half-Japanese and we somehow felt we were bridging the gap between east and west."
Written on a wall as visitors enter are lines from a poem by Lennon:
"East is east and west is west
The twain shall meet
East is west and west is east
Let it be complete."
Ono said that she had been nervous initially about the decision.
"I worried that if it was in Japan, people would just say, 'There goes Yoko Ono, doing bad things again'," she said.
The museum, along with a store selling Beatles memorabilia, is set to open to the public on what would have been Lennon's 60th birthday on Oct. 9. Entry costs 1,500 yen ($13.74).
Asked if she objected to such a commercialized use of Lennon's name, Ono said: "I think the Beatles were the most commercialized band in history, and I don't think John would deny that. But that wasn't bad -- it allowed him to send his message to the world."
White Piano, Lyrics, Glasses
Beatles music plays as visitors view some 130 items that once belonged to Lennon. Most were donated by Ono, including family photos, an old driver's license and a passport, handwritten lyrics for songs and his trademark wire-rimmed spectacles.
In one case rests his first guitar, scratched and battered, purchased via mail order in 1956. He was using this guitar when he and Paul McCartney had their first fateful meeting in 1957 that led to the formation of the Beatles.
On the white wall by the exit, in raised white characters, is written the date "December 8, 1980" -- the day of Lennon's murder.
"Celebrating his birthday isn't just celebrating his life but allowing his spirit to live on in us," Ono said.
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