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  Remembering George March 6, 2005 Reporter :Jana Wendt Producer : Catherine Hunter  One year after the death of former Beatles guitarist George Harrison, his closest friends — and some of the biggest names in the music industry — came together to celebrate his life. But this was no ordinary jamming session. Concert For George took place in the Royal Albert Hall, with a memorable line-up including Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton and Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar. Since then, a DVD has come out (winning a recent Grammy) and a limited edition book. The normally reclusive Olivia Harrison, who married George in 1978, was in Australia this week to promote the book and spoke to Sunday's Jana Wendt ... George Harrison was born in 1943 in Liverpool. It was Paul McCartney who introduced George to John Lennon and in 1959, the three formed The Silver Beatles. By 1962, Ringo Starr had joined the band now known as The Beatles and they became the biggest name ever in popular music. Harrison's songs included 'Taxman', 'Here Comes the Sun' and 'Something' (the latter described by Frank Sinatra as the greatest love song of all time), all of which were performed at the 2002 Concert for George. Harrison was the most spiritually inclined of the four Beatles and introduced the others to the philosophy of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and transcendental meditation. He would continue on that spiritual path for the rest of his life and on stage for the tribute was his great mentor, Ravi Shankar, who taught Harrison to play the sitar. One of the most poignant moments of the Concert for George was seeing Harrison's only son Dhani on stage playing his father's guitar with such luminaries as Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney. So astonishing is the physical likeness that it was, at times, almost as if the young George was back. Indeed, Olivia Harrison was heard to say, "With Dhani up on stage it looked as if George had stayed young and we all got old!" There were many great moments in an evening that blended Harrison's love of Eastern music with many of his own songs. There was Paul McCartney doing a moving rendition of Something on his ukelele, Ringo Starr singing Photograph and even the Monty Python gang, singing the outrageous Sit on My Face and The Lumberjack Song.  It was Olivia Harrison who gave her blessing to the evening, even though she had planned to spend the first anniversary of George's death in seclusion. Instead she spent the evening with literally thousands of friends and fans.Olivia Trinidad Arias met George Harrison in 1974 and Dhani was born four years later. She shared with George the desire for a spiritual life and both eschewed the trappings of celebrity, seeking a private life. But she hit the headlines in 1999 after an intruder broke into their Oxfordshire estate intent on murdering George. It was Olivia who saved her husband by attacking the intruder with a lamp. Since George's death in November 2001, Olivia Harrison has become a more public figure, intent on finishing numerous projects started by her husband. She's planning to re-release the Travelling Wilburys on CD next year and has been very involved in the Material World Charitable Foundation set up by Harrison in 1973. And of course, there's been the follow-on from the Concert for George, first with the DVD coming out and most recently a book commemorating the concert. Published by Genesis Publications, Harrison's publisher for 25 years, it tells the story of the concert from the early rehearsals and features stories from many of his closest friends. Eric Idle remembers, "George once said to me, 'If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.'" But despite her more public role, Olivia Harrison puts paid to the idea she is intent on perpetuating the memory of George Harrison. "He didn't care what people thought about him or didn't think about him. That wasn't why he did what he did, "says Olivia Harrison, "He just lived a life and did what he loved to do, which was write music, garden, go to motor races and be with his son and family." "History has been written. It's not going to be rewritten. He was a great man and a great songwriter and a great singer and just a wonderful man." The DVD of Concert for George is now available in Australia, and for more information on the book, see www.genesis-publications.com |
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