SYSTEM of a Down frontman Serj Tankian is covering 'Girl' from Rubber Soul on his current tour reports Blabbermouth.

Tankian said: "For the other one, I asked the band, 'Do you guys know any songs? Any cool covers we could play?' The pianist was like, 'I could do 'Girl' by The Beatles.' I'm like, 'All right, let's try it.' We kind of tweaked it our own way and it came out kind of funny."

Late Beatles still earn

JOHN Lennon is the second highest earning dead celebrity according to Forbes.

Elvis raked in $49 million while John Lennon's $44 million in 2007 was double George Harrison's posthumous earnings last year.

Pepper band bios at a click

Stare at the iconic cover to Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Who's that chap up in the corner by Bob Dylan? Why, my foolish fop of a friend, don't you know it's Simon Rodia, the Italian-born artist who built the extraordinary Watts Towers in Los Angeles from pretty much whatever he could lay his hands on?

Thanks to a very smart piece of electronic wizardry and marketing from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography you can now click on many of Pepper's legendary crew and find out more.

British pop artist Peter Blake put together the collage from a list of those the fabs held dear and once you see the site you'll see the cover was made for the internet, "These are our heroes find out more," The Beatles seemed to challenge their audience back in the Summer of Love and now you can with ease.

I defy anyone not to get at the very least a few minutes entertainment from the click and go show, which also links to America's national biography website and I got far longer than that out of it on my fascinating ramble.

Of course, the Pepper sleeve has long been of fascination to Beatle types (including Paul is dead theorists) - which is one of the reasons it's such a success.

The biographies are exhaustive and entertaining and it's a cracking piece of marketing by the Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography.

Macca whacks out Beatles hits

AS predicted Sir Paul McCartney trolled out some Beatle oldies for a 3,000 Roundhouse Crowd at his BBC Electric Proms show on Thursday.

The BBC is showing the gig at its website and a full list confirms the following Beatles' songs made the set, 'Magical Mystery Tour', 'Got To Get You Into My Life', 'The Long And Winding Road', 'Follow The Sun', 'Blackbird', 'Eleanor Rigby', 'USSR', 'I Got A Feeling', 'Hey Jude', 'Let It Be', 'Lady Madonna', 'I Saw Her Standing There' and 'Get Back'.

High times recalled by Help director

RICHARD Lester is doing the promotional rounds for the release of the spruced up DVD of Help and there's a nice interview with the director of the first two Beatle features in The Times here.

There's much talk of John, Paul, George and Ringo's enjoyment of the herbal produce of the West Indian locations in which they shot parts of the 1965 movie.

Surely some mistake! Fabs only second in soundtrack poll

THE Beatles' soundtrack to A Hard Day's Night was pipped into first place by Prince's Purple Rain in a poll among readers of Vanity Fair.

'I Should Have Known Better', 'And I Love Her' and 'If I Fell' weren't as good as 'When Doves Cry' and 'I Would Die 4 U' readers of the US publication reckoned.

The top ten is: 1. Purple Rain, 2. A Hard Day's Night, 3. The Harder They Come, 4. Pulp Fiction, 5. The Graduate, 6. Superfly, 7. Trainspotting, 8. Saturday Night Fever, 9. American Graffiti, 10. The Big Chill.

All You Need Is Love Me Tender

PEACE has won the day in the battle of The Beatles and Elvis Aaron Presley and their accolytes.

Newspaper headline writers have had a field day with the dispute between Elvisly Yours owner Sid Shaw and Howard Cohen, owner of The London Beatles Shop over a shared basement - not far from Sherlock Holmes's fictional 221b Baker Street as it happens.

Currently running top of the headline charts is We Can Work It Out. There's lovely.

Stay in a Beatle hotel

IF you need a place to keep your face in its jar by the door, then you can now stay at Eleanor Rigby's place in Liverpool according to the Liverpool Daily Post.

The family behind the Eleanor Rigby Hotel already have a bar called Lennon's and are banking on filling their 18 rooms in part at least with visitors tempted by Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture in 2008.

Drive His Car - George's Aston for sale

"I'VE found a driver and that's a start" you may say if you are very wealthy, and you can now put your driver in a George Harrison-owned car.

It's A platinum-colored Aston Martin DB5 and will cost you $250,000 to $300,000 if estimates are correct at RM Auctions Inc.

George took possession of the Aston on January 1, 1965.

McCartney interview in MP3

THERE'S a lovely Paul McCartney interview on this musical blog, and then there's a piece about the interview (fear of your heroes) with Macca and also an MP3 you can play to hear some extracts from the conversation between Paul and the writer Lilou.

Highly recommended.

A Week To Go Till Help release

JUST a week to go before the technicolour wonder that is The Beatles' Help! is yours to own on little silver discs.

The film is out on October 29 in the UK and October 30 in the United States of America.

Eschewing the faux day-in-the-life realism that made A Hard Day's Night a favourite with critics Help! doesn't usually garner such praise and is far, far, sillier.

But you can't argue with the soundtrack: :'Help!', 'You're Going To Lose That Girl', 'You've Got To Hide Your Love Away', 'Ticket To Ride', 'I Need You', 'The Night Before' and 'Another Girl'.

And extras, where are my extras? On the second disc, which includes a making of documentary, a missing scene, cast and crew memories, three trailers. If you want more extras you'll have to shell out for the deluxe box set including a facsimile of director Richard Lester's marked up script, copies of film publicity and a 60 page book including an appreciation of the film by Martin Scorsese of all people - perfect for Christmas.

You can pre-order here.

And here's a little snippet from you tube:

Kurt's Black Beatles Sabbath

A NEW film on the tragically shortened life of Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain confirm the unhappy grungemeister's love for the Beatles.

Kurt Cobain: About a Son is reviewed positively here, recounting how gifts of Beatles albums from a favourite aunt inspired Cobain's rock blueprint - Beatle-ish melodicism delivered with Black Sabbath's power.

Michael Azerrad's non-fiction film has already been screened at the Toronto International Film Festival with attendant warnings that it is not easy viewing.

DVD features new footage

A NEW DVD shows behind the scenes and fan shot footage of The Beatles.

There's a pretty positive review of The Unseen Beatles here. It's a BBC/Warners release and from what I can find out on the web it may well not be available in the United Kingdom but is available from many webshops.

More Macca memories in double disc

COULD Christmas be on the way? Paul McCartney is reissuing his Memory Almost Full album in a deluxe edition with a DVD.

As well as footage from a 'secret' show at The Electric Ballroom in Camden, London, on June 7, there are additional songs too: Dusty Springfield cover, 'In Private', 'Why So Blue' and '222', promo clips from 'Ever Present Past' and 'Dance Tonight', complete the package.

Beatles track 'Drive My Car' is among the live tracks with 'Dance Tonight', 'Nod Your Head', 'House of Wax' and 'Only Mama Knows'.

Beware The Beatles! Spammers use MP3 bait

IT'S a compliment in a way, showing people still click with and on The Beatles, but internet security experts message labs are warning that MP3 files promising The Fab Four are delivering Mean Mr Mustard stock tips.

Elvis Presley and Britney Spears are also featuring in the scam which promises beautiful music but delivers an audio stock pitch.

So beware attachments, elvis.mp3, britney.mp3, and beatles.mp3.

Pete Best article

FAMED as the unluckiest man in pop, you can read an article on Pete Best here. It's billed as an interview but there are few quotes, none the less it's an interesting read.

Apple insider's second Beatle book

PRODUCER and former manager of the American division of Apple Records Ken Mansfield (pictured) is to release his second insider account of the Fabs: The White Book - The Beatles, The Bands, The Biz, An Insider's Look at An Era.

A man who stood on the rooftop while The Beatles blasted out their final live performance over Saville Row can certainly say he saw history. There's an excellent website featuring an excerpt and a video interview with the author.

Former president of Apple Records, Jack Oliver, said of the author, who is now described as a Christian comedian and motivational speaker: " He is one of the few insiders left that bore witness to the highs and lows of those insane days when we ruled the world."

This is Mansfield's second memoir of his Apple days following, The Beatles, The Bible and Bodega Bay.

In fact, the author now uses the work of the band as part of his Christian ministry - the luxury lifestyle led to personal disaster before Mansfield was born-again.

As well as The Beatles, Willie Nelson, the Beach Boys, Stan Kenton, Judy Garland, Merle Haggard, Lou Rawls, Andy Williams, David Cassidy, Dolly Parton, and the Flying Burrito Brothers feature on Mansfields CV.