Beatles dot.com together

The Beatles: Online venture is accompanied by new greatest hits release

LONDON, England -- The Beatles have entered the Internet age with the launch of their first official web site amid an apparently low key reception for the band's new greatest hits album.

On the new web site -- www.thebeatles.com -- Internet surfers can see the band's biggest hits brought to life by top Internet designers who were given artistic help and guidance by Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr as well as John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono.

The online venture came in conjunction with the release of a new compilation album made up of the 27 songs which made it to top spot in the UK and U.S. charts.

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But despite a £1.5 million ($2.2 million) launch for the new record it turned out to be a hard day's night for a London record store when it opened its doors at midnight on Sunday to sell the latest Beatles album.

The store is like holy ground to diehard fans because, back in 1962, Brian Epstein used it to make a demo disc by an unheard of new band he was managing -- the Beatles.

Thirty-eight years later the HMV store had hoped to be besieged by hundreds of fans awaiting the release of the new record.

But there were few signs of Beatlemania -- just 30 had turned up by midnight despite the offer of a special certificate for the first 350 buyers of the greatest hits album. A second store in the Beatles home town of Liverpool saw a slightly better turn-out of 100.

Among the first in the queue in the northern English city was pop star Elvis Costello, who was then asked by staff to sign copies of his own albums.

In London, those who did turn up at the Oxford Street store jostled to get the first copy of the album "1".

"Well at least we've managed to create a bit of mayhem," said an HMV spokesman, recalling the hysteria the Fab Four created in their 1960s heyday.

First in line was Japanese Naoto Ito. "I'm honoured to be the first to buy the record," he said.

Ito was unsure what to do with his certificate: "I guess I'll keep it so when I retire I can look back on how much I liked the Beatles," he said.

He was soon pushed aside by mop-topped Londoner Alan Harrington, who described himself as "the world's number one Beatles fan."

Harrington said he had spent about £40,000 ($57,300) on Beatles records and memorabilia since the 1960s. "No one could touch me. I've got the knowledge and the experience," he said.

Ito explained his devotion to the Fab Four: "I've been listening to the Beatles since I was 14 and I just don't get bored. They're still magic."

Beatles producer, George Martin, sometimes dubbed the fifth Beatle, said: "It barely took eight years to cover this collection -- 'Love Me Do' to 'The Long And Winding Road' - but it was a lifetime in the world of rock and roll."

The launch of the site and new album is well-timed for the Beatles' record company, Britain's EMI Group Plc, which is currently in merger talks with BMG, the music arm of Germany's Bertelsmann AG to form the world's leading player in the industry.

EMI Recorded Music Chief Executive Officer Ken Berry said: "The Beatles are the most influential band in popular music and no other band has had their degree of chart success."

Abbey Road Studios, giving the world's media a sneak preview of the web site designs, left it to the Beatles to write their own epitaph for a group that shows no signs of fading away.

Ringo Starr recalled: "It felt with us four it was magical and it was telepathy."

George Harrison said they can never split up: "The music is there. Whatever we did is still there and always will be."

Paul McCartney felt that "The Beatles were always a great little band. Nothing more, nothing less."

And the typically blunt and boastful words were recalled of the late John Lennon: "The Beatles really could play music together. I thought we were the best group in the goddamn world."

Reuters contributed to this report.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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