Here comes the sister

Fifty years ago, in March 1963, a young band from Liverpool made musical history with the release of its debut album, “Please Please Me.” The Beatles became one of only two acts to sell more than a billion records (Elvis Presley was the other), and changed the face of popular music forever.

Louise Harrison — older sister of Beatles’ lead guitarist George — is currently in Israel plugging the group’s legend, her brother’s memory, and especially his focus on peace and love. She’s doing so via The Liverpool Legends, a lively Beatles cover band she manages, which is performing at the Holon Beatles Festival, running Wednesday through Sunday.

“I know if my brother [George] was still here on the planet he would love to be along with us, spreading the Beatle message of love and peace,” Harrison told her Israeli audience in a pre-recorded clip.

“So please, come out to our show, and while you’re there, I’d be happy to give you all a ‘Harrison hug,'” she said as the camera pans to a shot of the Liverpool Legends playing the Beatles’ anthem “All you need is love.”

George Harrison during a press conference at Schiphol Airport, shortly after his arrival with the Beatles in the Netherlands in 1964 (photo credit: Nationaal Archief, Den Haag, Nederlands/Wikipedia Commons)

Louise, who lives in Illinois, played her part in breaking The Beatles in the US by sending their records to small-town DJs.

“She got ‘From Me to You’ played by a local station in Illinois in June 1963, the first US airplay The Beatles received,” The Daily Mail reported recently.

Five months later, The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan show.

While George was the shy one, Louise is less so. In the 1990s, she turned her home into a Hard Day’s Night B&B, a guesthouse with a Beatles museum and, having reportedly not been left money in his will, also sold Beatles memorabilia after George’s death in 2001.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he0B0VMxCsw