Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson were, at one time, good friends and collaborators. They worked together on a number of songs, including duets Say Say Say and The Man. However, their friendship fell apart after Jackson bought a 50 percent stake in the publishing rights to The Beatles back catalog. He did this by outbidding both McCartney and Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono.

When Michael Jackson died at the tender age of 50, rumors abounded all across the Web that he’d left McCartney the Beatles songs he effectively stole from under his nose in 1985. However, the will has been examined and there is no mention of Paul McCartney in it anywhere, which is a little bit disappointing as it would surely have been the right thing to do.

Is McCartney upset at the news? The press says yes, he says no.

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I’m not a fan of Paul McCartney as he is today: old, past it, purveyor of crap songs. But that doesn’t matter because he’s a Beatle and always will be. Which means he’s a living legend who can pretty much get anything he wants - even one-legged former models.

Surely his time in The Beatles, arguably the best pop group that has ever been, is why he’s still popular. I refuse to believe it’s because everyone loves that God awful Frog Chorus song or the absolute dirge that is Mull Of Kintyre. Instead, we remember McCartney for what he used to be and what he’s done in the past, even though he’s now way past 64.

It’s this remembrance of his past which has surely helped McCartney nab the honor of being the first artist to perform at Citi Field, the new home of The New York Mets baseball team. Who can forget that The Beatles were the first band to play at the Mets’ old home of Shea Stadium. That was in 1965 and constituted the first time a rock concert had ever been held at a sports stadium.

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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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Online file-sharing, which first came to light with Napster and is now predominantly made possible by BitTorrent and peer-to-peer networks, is a huge problem which needs to be resolved in some way or another.

You may have heard about four people closely associated with The Pirate Bay being convicted of “assisting copyright infringement” last week. The four men, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström can expect prison sentences and heavy fines.

For those who don’t know, The Pirate Bay is one of a handful of huge torrent trackers which act as directories of torrents which can be downloaded. They link to files present on people’s computers, be they copyright-free or otherwise.

Most people were shocked that A Swedish court decided to convict the men, essentially siding with the IFPI and big media companies who hold The Pirate Bay responsible for online piracy, be it of music, films, TV shows, games, or software.

However, one man, a certain Mr. Paul McCartney that you may possibly know of, has come out and stated he agrees with the ruling. In essence, Paul McCartney hates you if you’re a music pirate or someone who has any part to play in it.

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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 find out what the biggest stories and talking points between the months of July and September.

July

Most bands now love having their songs featured in video games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero, but Led Zeppelin made a stand against the grain by refusing permission for their songs to be used. Meanwhile, Mani claimed that Ian Brown was the main thing stopping a Stone Roses reunion from happening.

There were claims that John Lydon AKA Johnny Rotten from the Sex Pistols had racially attacked Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke at the Summercase festival in Spain. While the moment that the Sex Pistols swore on live TV was voted as the most requested clip ever.

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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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I was astonished when Rick Astley was named as a nominee for ‘Best Act Ever’ at the MTV Europe Music Awards alongside the likes of Green Day and U2. So imagine my utter shock and horror when Astley actually won the damn thing last night at the ceremony in Liverpool.

MTV itself were clearly embarrassed by the whole thing because Rick himself didn’t appear to accept the award and there wasn’t even an acceptance video in light of his non-appearance. This is because MTV had its clever voting system hoodwinked by a viral online campaign to secure Astley the award.

The thing is, Astley probably deserved the award just as much as most of the other nominees, with Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Green Day, Tokio Hotel and U2 also making the list. His career may have ended years ago whilst the others are all still going but he has a whole new set of fans thanks to the Rickrolling phenomenon.

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