Cuba recently hosted a tribute to John Lennon, commemorating the 21st anniversary of his death. The Communist government of Cuba has hailed the dead Beatle as a fellow revolutionary; and thus worthy of being celebrated. (The fact that he's safely dead probably also helps.) This is a far cry from the 1960s, when Beatles recordings were banned as a decadent imperialist influence, and were passed around secretly as samizdat and listened to behind closed doors by an underground of fans.

Posted by: Alex 4.0 | http:// | Mon Dec 10 04:02:05 2001

Given Lennon's apocryphal enormous FBI/CIA file, perhaps this is a case of 'my enemy's enemy is my friend'?

Posted by: Jimbob | http://the-fix.org | Wed Dec 12 06:40:52 2001

I want to get my hands on that Manic Street Preachers DVD - Live at the Karl Marx Theatre in Cuba. Fidel was there.

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org | Wed Dec 12 12:25:52 2001

Fidel? The actual dictator who has run one of the world's most repressive regimes for four decades? Wow, cool...

Posted by: Paulo | http:// | Wed Dec 12 13:12:40 2001

Yep, that Fidel. In an interview in a spanish paper, the Manic mentioned that they met with him before the concert, and he told them that he couldn't stay too long because he had other commitments. The impression was that Fidel didn't really "get" their music, and attended just as a courtesy...

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org | Wed Dec 12 14:11:36 2001

sounds right. He has been courting the Nu Marxist punk movement lately, presumably to pass on his legacy to younger blood.

It'd be rather ironically amusing if he held a Havana Punk Festival of all the most politically radical punk/hip-hop acts -- all held in a country where all dissent is ruthlessly suppressed and information severely restricted.

Posted by: Budovski | http:// | Thu Dec 13 07:21:46 2001

John lennon was a total wanker in his day and a wanker in death . poor fidel must be getting old and loosing the plot to endorse such a decadent wanker

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