John Lennon anniversary: 9 October - 8 December 2010 | Fab forum

I've heard that Liverpool is staging a celebration of John Lennon's life between what would have been his 70th birthday – 9 October – to the 30th anniversary of his death – 8 December. There's to be a number of events and exhibitions in the city, though I don't have any more details as yet.

Have a look at this proposal from Mersey Beat founder Bill Harry: http://www.dmbeatles.com/forum…..#msg249950

Might be a good time to organise that visit to Menlove Avenue and Forthlin road…

I also got an email about a book, John Ono Lennon: His Life and Music, by Tim Riley, to be published December 2010 by Norton Press. It got me thinking about the inevitable onstlaught of Beatles/Lennon related products and broadcasts that we're likely to see later in the year.

So, two questions: 1) what would you like to see this year?
2) what can I do on this site in celebration of John's memory?

It has to be feasible stuff given time constraints and a general lack of funds. So commissioning an artist to produce a memorial portrait is out, as is developing some kind of 'Jam with John' mashup webtool thing, much as that might be interesting. But no, are there any special yet simple things you'd like to see on this site? I'll expand the history blog section to include all the grizzly Mark Chapman stuff, and I'll improve the photo gallery. What else can I do?

One idea I've been toying with is song/album guides for Lennon and McCartney's solo output, similar to the ones I've done for The Beatles. Would that be welcome?

Oh, my answer to 1) is the first installment of Mark Lewisohn's Beatles biog. I'm looking forward to that so much it's untrue. I'd also quite like to see the films John and Yoko made together get a DVD release, although most of them are supposed to be pretty unwatchable. Is there any unreleased music worth hearing, or did the scrape the barrel dry with the Lennon Anthology box?

Over to you…

Although I'd love to do the solo years, I still have a mountain of Beatles-era stuff to do and that needs to take priority.

It takes quite a while to research and write all the articles, and I can't see me getting masses of traffic for having covered all Lennon's b-sides or some of the lesser known Wings album tracks. Maybe I could start with a selection of better-known ones for each. I'll check out that book though – I have a John Blaney book, Together Alone, which has recording details for L&M, which got me thinking about a solo era section.

Anyway, it won't get done until the history section's done and dusted. I've currently done up to 1961, with key dates thereafter. I'm going to spend most of the year finishing it off and then I'll see what to do. If I can fit some nice Lennon-related things in too I will do.

My mum just emailed me to ask if there's anything I want for my birthday. It looks like a copy of Eight Arms To Hold You is heading my way, though not until April. I'm looking forward to it

I'll have a think about some solo stuff. I'd probably start with Lennon and go from there – McCartney's career's been far too long to make it manageable in one go, and my focus really has to be the Beatles stuff. I might do Imagine, POB and the key singles to start with, though what I really want to do for the anniversary is the events of 1980 from the end of John's retirement through to 8 December. I might try and to a day-by-day history for the whole year (McCartney's drugs bust to Double Fantasy hitting number one), but we'll have to see.

I bought Walls And Bridges on CD earlier in the year. Wish I hadn't bothered now.

I wish there was a proper anthology of Lennon's work, including Live Peace At Toronto, Live In New York City, Menlove Avenue and even the avant garde stuff (for the sake of completion). It would have been good to have those in the big collector's box.

Yes, I wish I'd waited. They were cheapish on Amazon for a while and I bought a few of them. Most of Lennon's stuff I have on vinyl but I thought it'd be nice to upgrade.

I'm listening to Imagine now. I hope they make it a little less sludgy with the remasters. Much as I love Phil Spector's production, some of the songs are just a load of mush.