BBC'ers Chat Live with Mark Hudson October 11th at 5 PM EST That’s Sunday, in the early evening so we hope all of you will be near your computer to say hello to Mark.

The Beatle Brunch British Isles Cruise,
what a FAB TIME we had!



The Beatles should have written a song called “Ten Days a Week”, because that’s how much fun spilled into our Beatle Brunch Cruise on the Silverseas Silver Cloud, on a trip around the British Isles, ending up in London on Saturday September 5th.

The smaller passenger capacity made it possible for Beatle Brunch host Joe Johnson to interact with the 280 passengers much easier, hosting a “Beatles Invasion Ed Sullivan” presentation, an actual Beatle “Brunch” by the pool, a Mix and Match Beatles Tea-Time trivia competition, an intimate one on one interview with True Beatles insider Tony Bramwell, and a full blown Beatles tribute concert with veteran British band, The Bootleg Beatles who got the ship rockin’ while the seas were calm.

BBC Members - Check out the Downloads Page to see some cool cruise videos.

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Beatles are Toppermost of the Poppermost...Again!

It’s Fab to be Beatle fan again! 45 years after they first made the charts in the U.S. preliminary figures indicate the Fab Four's catalog of albums -- including those titles not part of its new reissue series -- sold a combined 626,000 units in the U.S. last week according to SoundScan. In the week previous (week ending Sept. 6), the band's collective albums sold just 21,000.

The biggest seller of the reissue series was 1969's "Abbey Road," which moved 89,000 copies and debuts at No. 3 on the Top Comprehensive Albums chart behind Jay-Z's "Blueprint 3" and Miley Cyrus' "The Time Of Our Lives" (No. 2 with 120,000).

"Abbey Road" also starts at No. 1 on the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart.
All of the Beatles' individual album reissues are eligible to chart on both the Top Comprehensive Albums chart and Top Pop Catalog Albums chart. The former houses all albums, regardless of their age, while the latter is for those 18 months or older. The Billboard 200 tally includes only current and new releases. So, the band's two new boxed sets "Beatles in Stereo" and "Beatles in Mono" will chart on the Billboard 200, while the individual album reissues of the Beatles' catalog will chart on the Top Comprehensive Albums and Top Pop Catalog Albums charts.

While "Abbey Road" was the best-seller of the Beatles' reissues last week, the rest of the series did quite well.
In order of the best-sellers following "Abbey Road" are "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (74,000), "The White Album" (60,000), "Rubber Soul" (58,000), "Revolver" (46,000), "Help!" (39,000), "Let It Be" (32,000), "Past Masters Vols. I and II" (31,000), "Magical Mystery Tour" (30,000), "A Hard Day's Night" (29,000), "The Beatles in Stereo" (26,000), "Please Please Me" (23,000), "With the Beatles" (22,000), "Beatles For Sale" (21,000), "Yellow Submarine" (14,000) and "The Beatles in Mono" (12,000).

The "Stereo" and "Mono" boxed sets will debut at Nos. 15 and 40, respectively on the Billboard 200.
On the Comprehensive Albums chart, "Abbey Road" will be joined in the top 10 by four other Beatles sets: "Pepper' (No. 5), "White Album" (No. 7), "Rubber Soul" (No. 8) and "Revolver" (No. 10). On the Top Pop Catalog chart, the Beatles will own nine out of the top 10 slots, with only Michael Jackson's "Number Ones" (No. 6 with 45,000) the lone non-Fab Four title.

Up through the week ending Sept. 6, the Beatles' catalog had sold 635,000 in the U.S. this year, thus, with this week's haul of 626,000, that brings the Beatles' 2009 sum to 1,261,000.
In the whole of 2008, the band sold 1,393,000 albums in the U.S. Since SoundScan began tracking music sales in 1991, the Beatles have never sold less than 1 million albums in a year. The group's best year came in 2000, when the release of its hits package "1" helped the band sell a total of 7,289,000 in the U.S.

Listen to Beatle Brunch and play the Mind Games Contest to qualify to win the stereo box set, with 217 remastered Beatle tracks, that’s 13 original studio albums digitally remastered in stereo, plus a bonus DVD, with 13 mini documentaries, one for each LP, plus a 2-CD “Past Masters” with all The Beatles non-album singles and EP tracks also digitally remastered. Win between now and October 4th and you’re in the drawing, courtesy of Capitol EMI.

BBC Members Chat With
Mark Hudson

On Sunday, October 11th at 5 PM Eastern Standard Time BBC'ers can ask Mark all about his latest CD release, the new DVD,
"Sound Stage
with Ringo Starr and the Roundheads" and what's going on with The Hudson Brothers. Don't miss this live chat!

Mark’s new CD "The Artist" is on sale now.

You can go to www.MarkHudsonMusic.com and order yours. Brunchers will be very happy to hear, “So You Are A Star,” featuring Ringo on drums and stay tuned to Beatle Brunch for a spotlight of the song. While you’re on Mark's website look at some of the music videos he produced. They’re hilarious! Check out some of the amazing guest stars that pop up too.
From "The Artist": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxLOUx-JGwM

Over the past Summer, Mark’s worked with a band, The Gray Lions, a three piece Fillmore East rock band featuring the distinct guitar playing of Marc Rubinstein. He’s also been in Boston helping Steven Tyler with his book, "Does The Noise In My Head Bother You?" and writing songs, hopefully for the next album. They were touring until Tyler fell off the stage during a gig and dislocated his shoulder. Well, that’s one way to end the tour, even though Mark still says, “ Sometimes I feel like I'm becoming Steven Tyler with smaller lips and maybe a bigger ... never mind.”