John, Paul, George and Ringo

I started loving the Beatles since I was 10, since TV3 played A Hard Day's Night and Help! My parents had nothing to do with it because my dad's too Ah Beng for something like this and my mum's a Bee Gees fan.

They were my first favourite British band.

Like Freud's psychosexual development theory, there was a really long latency stage where the Beatles were not a part of my life. There wasn't any time for the guys from Liverpool, half of whom are already dead. Didn't help that my favourite Beatle was John Lennon, who was very much dead by the time Beatlemania came into my life.

In between my various musical interests, the Beatles came back into my life when Cirque du Soleil started Love at The Mirage in Las Vegas, a show based on the music of the Beatles. Downloaded the soundtrack and I was back to that time in my life again. Love will be one thing I'm gonna catch if I'm ever in Vegas.

Older and (a little) wiser (with thanks to the Internet), I poked around the post-Beatlemania albums like the White Album, Revolver, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, etc and my favourite post-Beatlemania album is the Sgt Pepper album, one of my favourite tracks being With a Little Help from My Friends, the one track where Ringo was lead vocals. If Yoko Ono's still getting money from album sales, I'm not buying.

It was like the Beatles were back in style again or something because to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Sgt Pepper album, BBC celebrated by getting some of today's artistes to re-record the album; some of them good, others could be better.

Then there was Across the Universe, that visual extravaganza based on the music of the Beatles; the weak plot covered up by 30 odd Beatles songs sung by a cast of unknowns in 2 hours 11 minutes. (Speaking of cast of unknowns, I think 21 starring Jim Sturgess is worth checking out).

I remember wanting to watch Aladdin the panto (Malaysians cashing in on the Beatles), but was low on funds and couldn't find the time to go catch it.

I wonder what other money milking venture they're gonna think of next.

The thing about the Beatles that I love is that their 2 minute songs don't feel like 2 minutes - it feels and sounds like they're longer than that. (Okaylah, so Hey Jude's over 7 minutes, but that's an exception to the rule). That, and you don't need to have a great singing voice to sing them.

I should do a Beatles pilgrimage to Liverpool some time in my life.