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RAIN: A Tribute to the Beatles »

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• Assembly Hall »
  1800 S. First St. Champaign, IL 61820
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Two weeks ago on Sept. 9, 2009, The Beatles opened up a two-pronged attack on the charts, with releases in both music and video games. Now, in fair warning, this article features references to the Beatles as “The Greatest Band of All Time,” if you are still ignorant to this fact, please refer to a toilet.

The Beatles first and most publicized (recent) release is the digitally remastered box set of their twelve original U.K. albums, including both of the Past Masters albums and the Yellow Submarine soundtrack. Each of these albums includes the original track listing and album artwork plus a 40-minute mini-documentary compiled with information from the works. A separate and far more aesthetic release is The Beatles’ in Mono collection, which features ten albums from the greatest band of all time as they were originally recorded. Beatles in Mono is only available for a limited time with a 10,000 copy pressing. Despite the limited pressing, most markets have already sold out and there is talk of producing more.

Engineers at Abbey Road studios have been working on the digitally remastered Beatles albums for nearly four years, which is the first time they have been touched since their 1987 re-release. This is significant when compared to other bands that have released one or more remastered versions of their albums in the past decade.

Another release that caught attention on 9/9/09 was the release of Beatles Rock Band. The idea was originally brought to Harmonix, the Rock Band developer, by George Harrison’s son Dhani Harrison, and was later given the blessing from Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and Yoko Ono. The game has received rave reviews and brings many new additions to the Rock Band series, including the option of three part harmony — as per The Beatles’ work. Beatles Rock Band brings the player through The Beatles’ career beginning at The Cavern Club in Liverpool, England, and ending with the famous rooftop performance at Apple Corps Headquarters.

The Beatles also continue their streak of breaking records by holding 16 spots out of the U.K.’s top 60, breaking Elvis Presley’s previous record of 14. Here in the U.S., a compilation does not contend on the Billboard charts, but the overall total of albums sold was 626,000 after only one week.

A bit closer to home in Champaign, the famous Beatles tribute performance Rain is coming to the Assembly Hall on Sept. 30. Rain provides a multi-dimensional event with setting changes of five different scenes, costume changes, video screens and live camera projection. Tickets are still available for the event through Assembly Hall or any Ticketmaster location.