Friday, September 17, 2010

Shining on

Next month, John's memory will be well-served as EMI reissues the Lennon solo catalogue and as celebrations across the global mark what would have been John's 70th birthday.

USA Today rounds up the main events:

•Eight reissued solo albums plus new collections, including a stripped-down expanded version of 1980's Double Fantasy, arrive Oct. 5 as part of the Gimme Some Truth catalog campaign overseen by Yoko Ono. The bonanza is an 11-CD John Lennon Signature Box.

•Nowhere Boy, a biopic tracing Lennon's teen years and the evolution of The Quarrymen into The Beatles, opens in select cities Oct. 8.

•The reformed Quarrymen pay homage to their bandleader with a 16-date Happy Birthday John! U.S. tour Sept. 23 to Oct. 9, with multiple guests in New York.

•Ozzy Osbourne recorded How, from Imagine, and it arrives Oct. 5 at iTunes as a charity single benefiting Amnesty International.

•Yoko Ono plans "We Are Plastic Ono Band" tribute shows, featuring Lady Gaga, Iggy Pop and others, Oct. 1-2 in Los Angeles. She'll be in Iceland on Lennon's birthday for a concert and the annual Imagine Peace Tower ceremony.


Then on November 12 at New York City's Beacon Theater, there will be a benefit concert in John's honor featuring Jackson Browne, Patti Smith, and other artists.

For more on the event in Iceland and the album reissues, go here.

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