Should you happen to pass by our Surry Hills office this Christmas, you’ll notice our newly painted Flinders Street facing window is a tribute to possibly our most iconic and important EMI Artist: John Lennon, and the extraordinary Yoko Ono.

John and Yoko’s “War Is Over” campaign was launched back in 1969. The billboards went up across the world in cities including New York, Tokyo, Rome, Athens, Amsterdam, London, Paris and Toronto. Four decades old and still a modern design classic. Still as relevant today.

You can read more here and see a fascinating snippet of John and Yoko video interview here including the Xmas Lennon classic ‘Merry Xmas (War Is Over)”.

Merry Christmas everyone and Peace.
MP.

Last weekend, over 600 delegates and 100 musical acts descended on Perth for the second One Movement For Music Festival.

As part of the festival, on Saturday (October 9 – what would have been Lennon’s 70th birthday), we reenacted the famous John Lennon and Yoko Ono bed-ins to pay homage and discuss Lennon’s impact on the world of music.

Molly Meldrum (hat and all of course!), respected music journos Bernard Zuel, Kathy McCabe, and industry figures Ray Purvis and Michael Chugg joined our very own Mark Poston and Dixie Battersby under the sheets.

Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images AsiaPac

Whilst at One Movement, Mark Poston also sat on a State of the (music) Nation panel to discuss the industry, music, and piracy. Check out the One Movement site for the full transcript.

Join us on Oct 9th for John Lennon’s birthday & tweet 1 million wishes to IMAGINE PEACE TOWER:

Let’s send 1 Million wishes for PEACE for John Lennon’s birthday, October 9th

Dear Friends

On October 9th at 7.45pm GMT, I will relight IMAGINE PEACE TOWER in Reykjavik, Iceland in memory of my late husband John Lennon.

Please ask all your friends to join us LIVE at

www.IMAGINEPEACETOWER.com

7.45pm GMT = 8.45pm UK = 2.45pm NY= 11.45am LA = 4.45am Japan

to watch the lighting while sending wishes to IMAGINE PEACE TOWER.

You can send wishes via Twitter, email or conventional post.

Tell all your friends on Twitter by clicking here.

Spread the word.

Let’s send a million wishes for peace for John’s birthday!

love, yoko

Yoko Ono Lennon

1st October 2010

Tweet your wish to @IPTower	post your wish to IMAGINE PEACE TOWERPO Box 1009 121 Reykjavik Iceland	email your wish to wish@imaginepeacetower.com

We’re on a bit of a John Lennon binge here at In Sound HQ.

So here’s a special ditty we dug up from the archives… The unique vocal stylings of our main man Luke Steele (The Sleepy Jackson, Empire of the Sun) and his version of John Lennon’s (Just Like) Starting Over.

(Just Like) Starting Over was Lennon’s first single from his final album and 1980’s Grammy Album of the Year, Double Fantasy. It eventually becoming his biggest US solo single, staying at #1 for 5 weeks.

In celebration of his 70th birthday on October 9 this year, Double Fantasy is being re-presented in a newly remixed stripped down version remixed and produced by Yoko Ono and Jack Douglas, co-producers of the original mix with John Lennon. As Lennon’s 70th approaches, we’ll be seeing a whole festival of commemorative events and releases around the world. Stay tuned.

Music and Sport share a lot of similar attributes – They bring out insane levels of passion, fanaticism and much enjoyment to people. They make people’s lives better. Much of our staff actually ‘live and breathe’ music – just like people live for their favourite football team. Both music and sport can also create a lot of controversy and publicity.

Without diversity life would pretty boring. Some people love sports with balls and some with bats… just as some people like metal and some people like pop music. Some people even like all of these.Yesterday most of the company watched John Lennon’s The U.S. vs John Lennon while they ate their lunch. I’m leading everyone on a bit of a John Lennon re-education journey. Here was a guy who was not only one of the most talented musicians around… but he had opinions and he challenged the norm. He was fighting for a world where “love and peace and tolerance” could co-exist. The footage of him and Yoko using art and music in a really clever way to subvert the mainstream is something I really wish we’d see more of. You certainly feel his influence still.

It feels good to say out loud that the staff who work here at EMI love what they do and are in love with music. And that’s why we work with real artists and we try to always push things forward. The world needs artists more than ever. Artists see the world differently, push boundaries, make new sounds and melodies and create the soundtrack to people’s lives. Music is the highest artform. It’s a noble career when you can say you are involved in music – but it comes with a responsibility. I tell my team that if they are bored or not really engaged in what they do… that they should go do something else so that the person out there who would die for a job at EMI can have a shot – and give it their all.

It got me thinking that anyone in the media or the public eye also really has a responsibility to think about what they say.

Seeing the news with a story about an AFL football player saying that he thinks Footy players should stay in the closet “to protect the fabric of the club” is a dangerous message on so many levels. “Coming out” is actually much more courageous and brave than kicking a football. It reminded me that it’s a sad fact that unfortunately, in 2010, that there are people who genuinely live their lives with pre-existing judgements on people because of their gender, their race, their religion and their sexuality. There are people who don’t even see women as equal to men in this world. If I know anything about anything its that life is too short to not express yourself and reach your full potential. And its too short to spend your life worrying about what other people do in their private lives. Get on with your own!

The terms “freedom” and “personal choice” are things we need to remember and fight for more than ever.

The world is a great place because its full of diversity and difference… not because everyone is the same.

So if you are 14 year old or a 40 year old reading this then I hope it inspires you to do something positive. And if you haven’t watched it – then I highly recommend seeking out The U.S. vs John Lennon as an interesting piece of history and a study on “Freedom”.

Flip the AFL Anti-Homophobia campaign slogan (”It’s Not Who You Are.. It’s How You Play The Game”) and you get ‘ It’s not how you play the game, it’s who you are”.

Think about it.

As the 29th anniversary of his unspeakably tragic death recently passed, we honour and celebrate the utter legend that is John Lennon.

Please take a minute to read this message from Yoko Ono: An Affirmation For Planet Earth.

images courtesy of Sir George Martinn and orsorama

It is far too difficult for this inarticulate writer to express any kind of tribute to such a pivotal, brilliant and fascinating character as Lennon with mere words, so instead we let his own words and music paint the picture – and remember him with a few of our favourite clips (see below).

“I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now?” – John Lennon

The face of music was literally changed forever. John lives on. Peace and love! (and basketballs and cigarettes!)

Some favourite clips from uz EMI’ers &’ ettes:

• Which one are you? (Asha)
• How old are you? (Asha)
• Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands (Paul G)
• The Walrus (Asha)
• Power To The People (Meegs)
• Playing basketball with Miles Davis (Craig H)
• The ballad of John and Yoko (Tara)
• Imagine (Pri)
• Beautiful Boy (Nikki)
• Jealous Guy (Nikki)
• Marlboro cigarettes commercial with George Harrison (Asha)

Hilarious early American interview. Interviewer: “Which one are you?” John: “Eric”… (Asha)

John: “How old are you? Let’s see how many rings you’ve got on your head…” (Asha)

John came out with a brillliant line at the Royal Variety show in 1963. With the Queen watching he said, “Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands, and the rest of you just rattle your jewelry”. So the Queen gives him a wave. (Paul G)

The Walrus. One of my favourite-ever clips, mainly for John’s hilarious facial expressions. The finest piece of nonsense ever written! (Asha)

Power To The People. You have to applaud a guy who’s not afraid to speak his mind. (Meegs)

John Lennon and Miles Davis playing basketball together Really cool footage (Craig H)

The Ballad of John and Yoko. The oversized sunnies, floppy hats, the twangy guitar. It’s such a cool ‘ballad’ about the two of them. (Tara)

Imagine. I love the Glee version… amazing (Pri)

Beautiful Boy. This song brings me to tears almost every time I hear it… Hey, I’m a softie! It’s a declaration of true and perfect love. It’s so sad he never saw him “come of age” as he sings in this beautiful song. It also has one of my favourite quotes “Life is what happens to you when you’re making other plans”. Oh, John. (Nikki)

Jealous Guy. What a melody! Such a great example of John’s near perfect coupling of purposeful melody with poignant and honest lyrics. Kills me every time. (Nikki)

John Lennon and George Harrison make a commercial for Marlboro Cigarettes. Brilliant. (Asha)

A little birdie told us some very good and some very sad news today…

Electro-glam-pop-oh-so-sensual duo Goldfrapp are set to score the upcoming film Nowhere Boy – a biopic about John Lennon’s childhood and teen years.

“We have written the score for a film called Nowhere Boy. It’s about John Lennon as a boy.” Alison Goldfrapp wrote on her blog.

The film is based on Lennon’s half-sister Julia Baird’s book Imagine This: Growing Up With My Brother John Lennon. Appropriately, the score was recorded with a full orchestra at Abbey Rd studio. As for Goldfrapp’s follow up to last year’s sun-drenched, ethereal Seventh Tree, that’s in the works too – no ETA just yet.

Nowhere Boy was scripted by Matt Greenhalgh, who proved his merits with the stunning Anton Corbijn biopic on Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, Control. Can’t wait for the London Film Fest premiere and local release! It really is Beatle-mania out there…

And in less-cheery Beatles news, the very Lucy of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds fame has passed away at the age of 46 of the autoimmune disease lupus. Lucy O’Donnell went to school with John Lennon’s son Julian. In 1966, Julian took his painted picture of the three year old Lucy to his father and explained “it’s Lucy in the sky with diamonds”.

Not a bad legacy, eh? Rest In Peace.