The Beatles “Love” 10th Anniversary Gala

Anniversary logo

This is already old news, but since this blog has been in hiatus for a while while I was moving house, here goes:

It all started when The Beatles presented a new video for the Love version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps. A further four videos were posted on their YouTube channel, under the common slogan The Beatles LOVE, titled Evolution of Props, Evolution of Sound, Beginning of Evolution and Octopus’s Garden.

The gala performance of the revamped “Love” show by Cirque du Soleil at Hotel Mirage in Las Vegas was held July 14th. In attendance were Paul, Ringo , Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, Giles Martin, plus multiple celebrities like Joe Walsh, Ron Howard, Kevin Nealon, Olivia Newton John, Jack Black, Paul Schaffer, etc. George’s widow, Olivia Harrison was also there, but their son Dhani was absent, due to prior commitments. An unconfirmed report said Paul McCartney’s daughter Mary was also in the crowd. From the Beatles writers camp, Matt Hurwitz and Allan Kozinn were in attendance, and Gillian Lomax, the Beatles LA tour guide was there, representing Beatle-a-rama, the internet radio station.

Gillian Lomax with Sean.

A mini site was created at love.thebeatles.com to further promote the show, which has by now lasted longer than The Beatles did as a group.

The above film was uploaded by people in the audience who had no idea that the show they attended was indeed the 10th anniversary one, and they were thoroughly surprised when the two Beatles appeared on stage after the performance. Here’s a different angle:

Sean Lennon took this photo of Paul and Yoko, which he shared on social media:

Photo: Sean Ono Lennon.

Matt Hurwitz wrote three articles for Variety for the anniversary, and a further piece about the gala performance in the aftermath:

– Behind the Tech of Cirque Du Soleil’s ‘Love’

– A Day in the Life of Cirque’s ‘Love’ Artisans

– Cirque’s Beatles-Themed ‘Love’ Gets a 10th Anniversary Makeover

– Beatles Family Reunites for 10th Anniversary of ‘Love’ Show

After the show, both Paul and Ringo tweeted this photo to their followers:

Paul and Ringo’s twitter photo.