Funny story of the week (if it wasn’t true) is Yoko Ono trying to stop a singer called Lennon Murphy from using her name to record under. Murphy has used the name Lennon for her Metal band since before 2000.

You all know I’m anti-Beatles, and that extends to the widow of the most overrated man in pop. All that hippie propaganda about making love and not war. Oh, I love the sentiment, I’m a bit of a hippy myself.

But isn’t it funny that Yoko, who was so instrumental in that movement, is so trigger happy when it comes to litigation? She doesn’t mind fighting wars in the courtroom, especially when it comes to any perceived loss of earnings from John Lennon’s estate.

It’s actions like this that rape the legacy of bands like The Beatles and artists like John Lennon. All those iconic images are laid to waste when the same people who represented those values of the 60s and 70s are now lawyer-happy millionaires. I can’t help thinking that if John Lennon was alive today, he might also have lapsed into a saggy faced litigation fiend.

As for Lennon Murphy, she writes eloquently and emotionally about what the name means to her and the effect the case is having on her.

In 2000 Arista Records addressed the issue of Yoko Ono potentially having a problem with our use of the name. My product manager at Arista was ironically the son of the lawyer who actually represents Yoko. So he approached Yoko, to make her aware of the use, evidently giving her blessing as Arista proceeded forward with the album release and at the same time filing for the trademark. Its takes time for all of the legal work to go through, but finally in 2003 I was granted by the United States Patent & Trademark office the ownership in the name Lennon for musical use.

One of the main claims in the proceedings is that Murphy has caused damage to the John Lennon name. That’s funny, I’d have thought Yoko Ono was doing that well enough by herself.

Update: Julian Lennon has reposted Lennon’s MySpace blog post on his pages and comments that “I feel for her & know the situation well…she has my full support”.

In an attempt to tempt those camera-shy aliens out in the open, boffins at NASA are planning to play the Beatles’ song, Across The Universe into deep space.

Now, y’all know I’m not a fan of the Fab Four. With that in mind, I’m thinking that extra-terrestrials might not be too fond of them either. They may think it’s an act of aggression. Did you think of that, NASA? Did you?

Anyway dear readers, NASA are making this attempt at pissing off the universe on the 4th February. We’re about to be considered noisy neighbours by aliens unknown. I wonder if they’ll slap an intergalactic ASBO on us?

To NASA: If you want to make it up to us, why not blast Paul McCartney into deep space? One more charity concert rendition of Let It Be and I might do it myself!

They literally pull every Beatles trick from the early days. I especially love the way they handled the “and as we wind on down the road…” section.

Great news for Liverpool which is also the European City of Culture in 2008, both events tie in nicely together and should attract attention to the City.

Of course, the organisers couldn’t possibly resist the soundbyte opportunity to name check The Beatles along with various Liverpudlian musical acts of varying quality. Bizarrely, they tried to shoehorn Atomic Kitten into their list of great musical achievements.

Anyway, this will be the third MTV Europe bash to be held in the UK, previous events were held in London and Edinburgh.

Here’s a bit more detail from the BBC report on the awards show:

Culture Secretary James Purnell said: “Liverpool is a creative force in the world music industry. This will make the European Capital of Culture year even more special.”

Liverpool City Council leader Warren Bradley said it was a “watershed in Liverpool’s return to the world stage”.

“With being European Capital of Culture, the city has rediscovered the confidence and ability to attract the world’s best,” he added.

So, congratulations to Liverpool in pulling off this major coup for 2008. Please, please, please take this opportunity to push your new musical talent to the forefront and let (The Beatles) be. Acts like The Zutons and others are the future. Focus on these guys during 2008 and forget about the Fab Four.