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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After the disappointing tally of award wins at the recent 2008 MTV Video Music Awards in Liverpool, where only Leona Lewis, Paul McCartney, and Rick Astley won, it’s nice to be able to report how British artists fared better at the World Music Awards in Monaco over the weekend.

Coldplay were named as ‘Bestselling Act of 2008′ thanks to their new album, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, hit the top of the charts in countries around the world, including the UK, the US, Japan, France, and Germany. Chris Martin and chums were also named ‘Best Rock Act’ although I’m not sure I’d really class their brand of indie pop as rock necessarily.

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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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There are rumours that a long lost song written by John Lennon for The Beatles could now be completed and released as a tribute to Neil Aspinall.

Aspinall was band’s manager, and long-time friend who was regarded as “the fifth Beatle” until his death on March 24th.

The track, titled Now and Then, was discovered along with Free Bird and Real Love, both of which have since been remastered and released. Both became top ten hits proving that there is a still a demand for anything written by Lennon, or associated with The Beatles.

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Neil Aspinall, The Beatles manager and confidant died on Sunday night at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in Manhattan. He was there receiving treatment for lung cancer, and was only 66 when he passed away.

Aspinall was often referred to as “The Fifth Beatle”, a title which George Harrison himself gave to the man with probably the longest association with the band expect for Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Ringo Starr.

He was involved with the band from its earliest days, hanging flyers advertising their performances around Liverpool, England, as far back as 1961. He eventually became the head of Apple Corps., the company set up to manage all of The Beatles affairs.

He was also loyal to the end, refusing to write memoirs detailing his life with The Beatles, and any lurid secrets he may have had about the band’s tenure as the biggest group in the world, or any of its members goes with him to the grave.

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You might think that after 45 years of making money from being in The Beatles, the surviving members, namely Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, would have enough wealth not to worry about the odd release of a few unlicensed tracks here and there.

But it seems not, as Apple Corps, the Beatles company rather than the people behind the iPod, Mac and iPhone, are suing a Miami company called Fuego Entertainment, over an album entitled Jammin’ With The Beatles and Friends, Star Club, Hamburg, 1962. Catchy eh!

The album is a recording from the early days of The Beatles, before they became famous around the world, and rightly classed to be the best pop group in the world ever.

According to Yahoo! News, the eight tracks on the album were reportedly recorded from a performance at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany, in 1962.

Lawyers for Apple claim that the tracks were recorded illegally without permission, and so should not be released. They further claim that due to the poor sound quality, the album would diminish and tarnish the band’s image and memory.

More than the back catalogue being featured in adverts?

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Ah The Beatles, they were great weren’t they? Probably the best band in the world ever, and the inspiration for a ton of music which has come and gone since.

So you’d think life would be pretty sweet for the former members of the group, well Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr at least, seeing as the other two are dead and all.

But it seems only one of the two is happy to be a former Beatle right now, and with all the gossip swilling around at the moment, it’s probably not the one you think it is.

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Sony/ATV Music Publishing has opened up The Beatles back catalogue, making 259 songs available to advertisers for use in commercials.

Although open for commercial licensing, the tracks will however, have to be re-recorded by other artists, rather than the Beatles originals used in adverts.

This is the first time that Beatles songs have been available for use in commercials, and the music giant is quite protective over the material. Sony Chief executive Martin Bandier said only select brand partnerships would be considered for the deal, rather than all and sundry being allowed to latch on to the songs.

He also insisted he had a moral obligation to discuss any deals with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, as well as Yoko Ono and the family of George Harrison.

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