Anyone who plays video games on a regular basis will be aware of the Guitar Hero/Rock Band phenomenon. Who would have thought that picking up little plastic instruments and pretending you’re a real musician could be so fun? But it is, immensely so, which is why the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises are so huge.

But as cool as Rock Band is, there is a way to make it better - make a special edition featuring The Beatles and only The Beatles. Which is exactly what is happening. The new video game, ingeniously titled The Beatles: Rock Band, features 45 Beatles tracks and is coming out for the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii later this year.

Today saw the start of E3 2009, the biggest video games show in the world. The Beatles were the star attraction on day one, with the surviving members, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, unveiling the game, showing off an exclusive new demo, and revealing more details as to the track listing for the game.

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Paul McCartney may now be 66 but he can still rock out with the best of them. Which is why he was booked to close the first night of the 2009 Coachella Festival. He played a set in excess of two hours and remembered all those people in his life who have passed away.

McCartney’s set on Friday night spanned the whole of his career, with song from his days in The Beatles and Wings sitting comfortably alongside those from his later solo career and his alter-ego The Fireman.

McCartney played alongside his four-piece band for the duration although did sing alone with an acoustic guitar for part of the set. He played both the guitar and the piano, and gave the crowd all the songs they wanted to hear.

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The UK has produced an inordinate number of talented songwriters over the past 50 years, especially when you consider the small size of the population. But who are the best of the best? Who are the people whose songs have shaped and defined Britain through music?

Artists come and go all the time, one bad album and that can be it. But the ones that endure, either staying together for years (Oasis, Rolling Stones) or whose music lives on for generations (The Beatles) are the ones who are capable of pumping out magical song after magical song.

Songwriting is a special talent that generally cannot be taught. Which is why those manufactured stars from reality shows such as The X Factor have to rely on dedicated word smiths and musicians to write their songs for them.

According to Digital Spy, OnePoll recently carried out a survey to find people’s opinion as to Britain’s greatest songwriter. The results stand up as a testament to the incredible range of talented songwriters the UK possesses, but the winner may be a surprise to some.

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40 years ago today, the four members of The Beatles, plus guest keyboardist Billy Preston, played a concert on the roof of the Apple building in Saville Row, London. Although it was cut short, it’s still regarded as a momentous moment in music history.

By this time in their career, The Beatles weren’t getting on, with tensions producing some of the band’s best music in the studio, but putting paid to the notion of performing in public. This therefore ended up being the last gig the four played in public together.

The gig on the roof is now an iconic moment, but it wasn’t popular with the authorities at the time. The Metropolitan police stopped the show, first by pulling out the leads from George Harrison’s amps and then finally cutting power to the building altogether.

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2009 has arrived so I’m actually overdue in rounding up my best of Brit Music Scene from 2008. Here we finally make it to the end of 2008 with the biggest stories and talking points between the months of October and December

October

The month began with Rick Astley unbelievably being named Best Act Ever by MTV. Meanwhile, Led Zeppelin were threatening to tour with a new lead singer in place of Robert Plant, and Pete Kay beat Leon Jackson in the charts.

There were rumors that The long-awaited Smiths reunion could finally be happening, but it still hasn’t yet. The Ting Tings called for Top Of The Pops to be brought back, and it looked as though Simon Cowell was the man to save the show.

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In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s Christmas…again. But rather than get all Scrooge about it and shout “Humbug” to strangers in the street, get in the holiday mood by watching some Christmas music videos.

Here are, in my opinion, the Top 10 Greatest Christmas Songs Of All Time, and guess what, they’re all by British artists. I’m sure you’ll disagree with some choices and argue the case for artists from other countries being included in the list but these are the songs I grew up with. And they have therefore stuck in my mind as the greatest Christmas songs.

As is tradition with these things, and what is Christmas if not tradition, the songs along with their music videos on YouTube are in reverse order. Enjoy after the cut…

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Over forty years ago, at the height of The Beatles’ powers, John Lennon claimed the band were “more popular than Jesus” and all hell (excuse the pun) broke loose. Christians everywhere decided this was the ultimate blasphemy and burned The Beatles records.

It was an overreaction by religious zealots who could see the way the world was going, with The Beatles summing up the new cult of celebrity that was about to arrive. And it did harm the way The Beatles were perceived, especially in the United States.

Lennon made the controversial remarks in an interview with the London Evening Standard. Not only did he compare The Beatles to Jesus, he also ranted about religion. But his comments were very tongue in cheek, and really should have been taken with a pinch of salt.

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When he was in The Beatles, Paul ‘Macca’ McCartney was a gem. As part of the best song writing duo who have ever lived, he and John Lennon created some of the best songs ever released, ones that still stand up to scrutiny today.

So what has happened since then to turn him in to one of the least friendly and humourless celebrities around?

Let’s not beat around the bush here, Paul McCartney’s solo stuff is crap. No seriously, even the big hits aren’t a patch on what he wrote and released when he was The Beatles.

How he has still got a career is beyond me. Here is a man definitely living on his past glories.

And it’s not just in his professional life that he annoys me. Sure, Heather Mills is (allegedly) a money-grabbing spawn of Satan, but McCartney himself was hardly innocent in the whole thing. He’s worth a fortune yet he tried to get out of giving his ex-wife any of it.

Then there was the recent concert in Israel, which although not a bad thing, was clearly just as much staged as a publicity stunt as it was for any kind of peace protest. And now McCartney has truly revealed his humourless and dour outlook on life by complaining that McDonald’s in Liverpool have a portrait of him on the wall.

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John Lennon was gay is the claim made by Philip Norman, the author of a new book about the dead Beatle titled John Lennon: The Life. He puts forward the theory that John Lennon wanted to have a gay relationship with his Beatles band mate Paul McCartney.

Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono and McCartney himself had helped Norman with the autobiography, with Ono even giving an endorsement to the book stating that it’s a factual account of Lennon’s life. Clearly she hadn’t read the whole thing first.

That endorsement has now been withdrawn, and McCartney has come out (excuse the pun) and denied the claims that Lennon had gay fantasies about him.

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Noel Gallagher has seemed to spend the last few weeks talking about anything other than Dig Out Your Soul, the new Oasis album due out on October 6th. Along with brother Liam, he has spent more time talking about other musicians and celebrities in the hopes of gaining some much-needed publicity.

Now, finally, he has decided to talk shop, and revealed in an interview with BBC 6Music that the sound and direction of the album will take many people by surprise. Basically, shock horror, it isn’t Britpop! He said:

“It’s not Britpop, let’s put it that way. It’s not our usual thing. It’s just really exciting, three of the tracks have got two drummers on, me and Zak [Starkey] playing drums. Some of it sounds a bit glam. There’s no pop singles on it. I’d be amazed if anything else gets on the radio past the first single.”

“There’s a kind of piano-y, John Lennon-y obligatory plod-away song in the middle, which Liam wrote, and that’s to break up the two sides which are pretty intense, and it’s full-on from the start to finish.”

Oasis not mainstream? That’ll be the day. According to the NME, Gallagher stated that the album was influenced by The Doors, The Stooges, and The Pretty Things, as well as John Lennon, who let’s face it, has influenced every Oasis album ever produced.

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