CHOCO
Nov 30th, 2002, 01:36 PM
Beatle's final magical tour
By DAVID JONES
01dec02
Fiercely reclusive to the end, George Harrison planned his death with the secrecy of an Egyptian pharaoh and died in a place provided by fellow Beatle Paul McCartney.
THE widow of Beatle George Harrison hosted a star-studded rock concert at Royal Albert Hall yesterday in celebration of her husband and to mark the first anniversary of his death.
The best seats -- at almost $500 -- sold out within an hour for a concert that would have undoubtedly appealed to Harrison's bleak Liverpudlian humour.
"Supervisor of musical content" was guitar virtuoso Eric Clapton, who stole the Beatle's first wife Patti Boyd, and topping the bill was fellow Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, who barely spoke to George after the band split up, and refused to share a stage with him.
Stoical Olivia and son Dhani -- at 24 the image of his father, down to the centre-parted Beatle haircut, baleful brown eyes and taciturn smile -- carried off the year's biggest society pop night with aplomb. But there have been times in the past year when Olivia, 54, has almost succumbed to her grief. She has been rarely seen outside Friar Park, the gothic estate she and George loved, on the fringes of Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire.
The Harrisons became almost inseparable after falling in love 25 years ago, when Olivia was appointed his personal secretary.
Harrison went to incredible lengths to ensure his death would cause minimal distress to his wife and son. A friend described how he plotted his end and its aftermath "like an Egyptian pharaoh".
But Harrison's meticulous plans have been undermined and Olivia's pain prolonged and exacerbated by a succession of cruel blows.
When The Beatles were at their zenith, McCartney and Ringo Starr revelled in fame, and John Lennon dangerously flirted with it. Harrison, the so-called Quiet Beatle, unreservedly loathed it and became reclusive after the group's acrimonious break-up.
Then, after Lennon was shot dead in 1980, Harrison's desire for privacy bordered on the obsessive. He and his family retreated behind the high walls of Friar Park, brothers Harry and Peter were enlisted as security chief and head gardener, he stopped dropping into the nearby Row Barge pub for a lunchtime pint, changed his phone number almost weekly and paid a fortune for state-of-the-art security monitoring.
Yet he was front page news again in 1999, when a deranged knifeman, Michael Abram, breached the defences and stabbed him, almost to death.
A year later, when cancer that first surfaced in his neck and a lung in 1997 returned with a vengeance, Harrison promised himself he would retain absolute control. Never again would he allow his precious privacy, or that of Olivia and Dhani, to be violated.
However, his determination to preserve absolute secrecy was to have the opposite effect.
He was, at heart, an optimist. Even as he walked -- barely a few metres -- without support in last year's northern summer, he and Olivia fell for a beautiful Swiss villa near where he underwent pioneering cobalt-ray treatment.
His formal acceptance as a Swiss resident, on August 20, three months before he died, went unreported.
Harrison, at 58, grew frightfully thin and could barely summon the energy to work on a new album, Brainwashed, co-produced by his multi-talented son and old friend Jeff Lynne of the ELO (Brainwashed was released last week).
Dhani Harrison proudly recalls: "He never felt sorry for himself or went into depression. We took the view 'be here now' and made the most of our time. He used to say: 'Oh, you're going to have to finish all these songs'. I'd say: 'Well, not if you do it first -- get off your a--e and finish them!'
"We'd discussed the songs so much I had a very good idea of what he wanted."
While making Dhani aware of his posthumous artistic wishes, Harrison spelled out to Olivia precisely how he wanted his life to end.
Between new cancer treatments in New York, Harrison told her he wanted to make his peace with key people in his life. His differences with McCartney, dating back to the legal battles after the Beatles break-up, were buried amid tearful hugs.
"None of it matters any more," Harrison told McCartney.
Another important reconciliation was with older sister Louise Harrison, 71, who drove 1300km from her Illinois home to see him.
As children in Liverpool, Louise and George had been extremely close, but Harrison distanced himself from her in the mid-1990s because he disapproved of the conversion of her old home into a "Beatles bed-and-breakfast" inn called A Hard Day's Night.
"His sense of humour was the same as ever," she said. "People always teased him about his sticky-out ears; now his oxygen tubes were hanging over them. He laughed and said, 'My ears finally came in useful for something.'"
They parted with what she called a "Harrison Hug".
Harrison then set about arranging the practicalities of dying.
Unwittingly, he set in train the events that were to trouble Olivia.
He was anxious that he died in accordance with the traditions of the Krishna religion, so that his passage to the next life would be assured. He was also determined that his final resting place would not, under any circumstances, become a shrine.
On Thursday night, November 22, he was smuggled on a private jet at JFK Airport, New York, to 9536 Heather Rd, Los Angeles, a handsome, stone-built mansion on the manicured fringes of Beverly Hills that McCartney had bought from singer Courtney Love.
Harrison requested the presence of the two Krishna devotees who had acted as his spiritual mentors since he embraced the movement three decades earlier.
As his life ebbed away, they knelt at his bed, taking turns to chant the "Hare Krishna" mantra over and over. Harrison believed anyone who heard Krishna's name at the precise moment of death would go directly to him.
The end came mercifully quickly. Although subsequent reports recorded the time as 1.20am, the death certificate states that he died 12 hours later. His place of death was named as 1971 Coldwater Canyon -- an address that does not exist.
When the ruse emerged, an LA lawyer filed a formal complaint of falsification to demonstrate that even legendary pop stars were not above the law.
Another legal case involves the attempted sale of keepsakes by a former brother-in-law.
One secret that remains uncovered is the whereabouts of Harrison's remains.
After his simple cremation, there was endless speculation about the destination of his ashes. The most commonly held assumption was that they would be scattered on the Ganges.
But early last December, the Harrison family was granted a licence to export the ashes from LA to Switzerland. Apparently they were to be strewn across George's beloved gardens at Collina d'Oro, the villa he and Olivia fell in love with.
If so, no one at the house will confirm it.
The final resting place of the Harrison remains a mystery.
For that much, at least, the Quiet Beatle would be thankful.
By DAVID JONES
01dec02
Fiercely reclusive to the end, George Harrison planned his death with the secrecy of an Egyptian pharaoh and died in a place provided by fellow Beatle Paul McCartney.
THE widow of Beatle George Harrison hosted a star-studded rock concert at Royal Albert Hall yesterday in celebration of her husband and to mark the first anniversary of his death.
The best seats -- at almost $500 -- sold out within an hour for a concert that would have undoubtedly appealed to Harrison's bleak Liverpudlian humour.
"Supervisor of musical content" was guitar virtuoso Eric Clapton, who stole the Beatle's first wife Patti Boyd, and topping the bill was fellow Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, who barely spoke to George after the band split up, and refused to share a stage with him.
Stoical Olivia and son Dhani -- at 24 the image of his father, down to the centre-parted Beatle haircut, baleful brown eyes and taciturn smile -- carried off the year's biggest society pop night with aplomb. But there have been times in the past year when Olivia, 54, has almost succumbed to her grief. She has been rarely seen outside Friar Park, the gothic estate she and George loved, on the fringes of Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire.
The Harrisons became almost inseparable after falling in love 25 years ago, when Olivia was appointed his personal secretary.
Harrison went to incredible lengths to ensure his death would cause minimal distress to his wife and son. A friend described how he plotted his end and its aftermath "like an Egyptian pharaoh".
But Harrison's meticulous plans have been undermined and Olivia's pain prolonged and exacerbated by a succession of cruel blows.
When The Beatles were at their zenith, McCartney and Ringo Starr revelled in fame, and John Lennon dangerously flirted with it. Harrison, the so-called Quiet Beatle, unreservedly loathed it and became reclusive after the group's acrimonious break-up.
Then, after Lennon was shot dead in 1980, Harrison's desire for privacy bordered on the obsessive. He and his family retreated behind the high walls of Friar Park, brothers Harry and Peter were enlisted as security chief and head gardener, he stopped dropping into the nearby Row Barge pub for a lunchtime pint, changed his phone number almost weekly and paid a fortune for state-of-the-art security monitoring.
Yet he was front page news again in 1999, when a deranged knifeman, Michael Abram, breached the defences and stabbed him, almost to death.
A year later, when cancer that first surfaced in his neck and a lung in 1997 returned with a vengeance, Harrison promised himself he would retain absolute control. Never again would he allow his precious privacy, or that of Olivia and Dhani, to be violated.
However, his determination to preserve absolute secrecy was to have the opposite effect.
He was, at heart, an optimist. Even as he walked -- barely a few metres -- without support in last year's northern summer, he and Olivia fell for a beautiful Swiss villa near where he underwent pioneering cobalt-ray treatment.
His formal acceptance as a Swiss resident, on August 20, three months before he died, went unreported.
Harrison, at 58, grew frightfully thin and could barely summon the energy to work on a new album, Brainwashed, co-produced by his multi-talented son and old friend Jeff Lynne of the ELO (Brainwashed was released last week).
Dhani Harrison proudly recalls: "He never felt sorry for himself or went into depression. We took the view 'be here now' and made the most of our time. He used to say: 'Oh, you're going to have to finish all these songs'. I'd say: 'Well, not if you do it first -- get off your a--e and finish them!'
"We'd discussed the songs so much I had a very good idea of what he wanted."
While making Dhani aware of his posthumous artistic wishes, Harrison spelled out to Olivia precisely how he wanted his life to end.
Between new cancer treatments in New York, Harrison told her he wanted to make his peace with key people in his life. His differences with McCartney, dating back to the legal battles after the Beatles break-up, were buried amid tearful hugs.
"None of it matters any more," Harrison told McCartney.
Another important reconciliation was with older sister Louise Harrison, 71, who drove 1300km from her Illinois home to see him.
As children in Liverpool, Louise and George had been extremely close, but Harrison distanced himself from her in the mid-1990s because he disapproved of the conversion of her old home into a "Beatles bed-and-breakfast" inn called A Hard Day's Night.
"His sense of humour was the same as ever," she said. "People always teased him about his sticky-out ears; now his oxygen tubes were hanging over them. He laughed and said, 'My ears finally came in useful for something.'"
They parted with what she called a "Harrison Hug".
Harrison then set about arranging the practicalities of dying.
Unwittingly, he set in train the events that were to trouble Olivia.
He was anxious that he died in accordance with the traditions of the Krishna religion, so that his passage to the next life would be assured. He was also determined that his final resting place would not, under any circumstances, become a shrine.
On Thursday night, November 22, he was smuggled on a private jet at JFK Airport, New York, to 9536 Heather Rd, Los Angeles, a handsome, stone-built mansion on the manicured fringes of Beverly Hills that McCartney had bought from singer Courtney Love.
Harrison requested the presence of the two Krishna devotees who had acted as his spiritual mentors since he embraced the movement three decades earlier.
As his life ebbed away, they knelt at his bed, taking turns to chant the "Hare Krishna" mantra over and over. Harrison believed anyone who heard Krishna's name at the precise moment of death would go directly to him.
The end came mercifully quickly. Although subsequent reports recorded the time as 1.20am, the death certificate states that he died 12 hours later. His place of death was named as 1971 Coldwater Canyon -- an address that does not exist.
When the ruse emerged, an LA lawyer filed a formal complaint of falsification to demonstrate that even legendary pop stars were not above the law.
Another legal case involves the attempted sale of keepsakes by a former brother-in-law.
One secret that remains uncovered is the whereabouts of Harrison's remains.
After his simple cremation, there was endless speculation about the destination of his ashes. The most commonly held assumption was that they would be scattered on the Ganges.
But early last December, the Harrison family was granted a licence to export the ashes from LA to Switzerland. Apparently they were to be strewn across George's beloved gardens at Collina d'Oro, the villa he and Olivia fell in love with.
If so, no one at the house will confirm it.
The final resting place of the Harrison remains a mystery.
For that much, at least, the Quiet Beatle would be thankful.