This video created by Bryan Anthony with our sincere thanks.
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Introduction: It had been a
long time and perhaps a little too long since the last time I saw
Dr. Yury Pelyushonok. The last time I spoke with him would of been
sometime during 2012 before he moved to back to Russia to practice
medicine. And so it was with great delight that my friend Alan
Chrisman emailed me to let me know that Yury was visiting Ottawa.
Both Alan and I agreed that it would be a great if the gang of us in
Ottawa's inner Beatles circle got together and had lunch with Yury.
We agreed to go to the Mandarin for a Chinese buffet on January 22,
2026. The food was excellent and I tried oysters for the first time
in my life! I'm not much of a seafood fan but I have eaten octopus
too. The egg rolls and garlic spareribs were yummy!
In attendance at the luncheon were Alan Chrisman, event organizer of the two Ottawa Beatles Conventions, Boris Rebinczak who contributed his photos of the Cavern at the Ottawa Beatles Site, Al Findlay who contributed his brilliant musical talents in the documentary "How The Beatles Rocked the Kremlin" and of course Dr. Yury Pelyushonok, author of "Strings For A Beatles" Bass" as well as this writer included. "Strings For A Beatle Bass", first edition, white cover is a limited printed book that number 147 copies which is highly sought after by Beatle collectors (if you can find one!). And in spite of its limited printing, it had an enormous impact on the Beatles legacy. It is a brilliant read from beginning to end which reveals how Beatles music was smuggled into Russia during Communist times.
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| Dr. Pelushonok's book has
been used as a research tool for Apple Records and MPL
Communications. Those projects were "The Beatles Revolution" with
ABC Television in New York which helped to promote the new "Beatles
1" CD and "Paul McCartney's In Red Square" broadcast pulled out some
historical information from Pelyushonok's book which did not
receive a credit listing at the end of the
film by its producer Mark Haefeli (Yury had sent a copy of the book
to Mark for research purposes.) While we were a little taken aback by that omission, Pelyushonok would
later find himself interviewed extensively
in Leslie Woodheard's documentary of "How
The Beatles Rocked The Kremlin." I remember receiving an email from
Leslie Woodhead requesting a copy of Yury's book and so I gave him the
authors phone number and contact info. In the 2nd edition printing of "Strings For A Beatles Bass" (which included two new chapters to satisfy a publishers demand) saw the book making its way to Professor M.L. Liebler of Wayne State University. Apart from teaching English, the Professor has a course on the Beatles music at that campus. Liebler is a great believer in the Beatles and is himself a poet that has been published several times over. Liebler had contacted me about Yury's "Strngs For A Beatle Bass" and I made a suggestion to the Professor to come to Ottawa and talk about how publishers work with writers. The deal he made with me was he wanted to do a poetry recital in Ottawa in exchange for his help. (He even ordered up a box of Yury's books for his Beatles class.) Professor Liebler does "slam poetry" which is a combination of storytelling, theatricality, and social commentary. To say the least, when his poetry recital concluded he left his audience wanting for more. But I digress....Our luncheon with my Russian Beatle friend went well. There was a lot of name dropping as they say. So here is a short list of the honourable mentions that I remember from that luncheon: The late Tony Copple, the late Neil Aspinall, Geoff Baker, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, Sean Lennon, Yoko Ono, Leslie Woodhead, Alex Kay of ABC television in New York and Mark Lewisohn. I would be amiss if I didn't also give honourable mentions to the following musicians: Drummer Randy Innes, lead vocalist John Jastremski, Al Findlay guitarist and vocals, and Yury Pelushononk, all of whom who performed so passionately on the "Yeah, Yeah, Virus" for Leslie Woodhead's documentary "How The Beatles Rocked The Kremlin." I would also like to thank Bryan Anthony for editing the "Yeah, Yeah Virus" Youtube video that you see at the top of this page. As with anything that I do for these Beatle projects that I write, once again today I went the extra-mile for Beatle readers. While Dr. Pelyushonok was smuggling Beatles music into Russia, I came across an American lady by the name of Joanna Stringray. In the 1980s she was doing the exact opposite of what Pelyushonok was doing: she was smuggling out rock music that was performed by the Russian underground rock stars. Her claim to fame is the release of "Joanna Stingray Presents RED WAVE", a double album of underground music made by four musical forces: Aquarium, Kino, Alisa, and Strange Game. I have included the mini documentary video on Joanna Stingray below as well as a link to the audio soundtrack of "RED WAVE". With my health in very slow decline, for I am after all 71-years-old as I write this, for me it's always been about the music, in particular the Beatles. My photography and indigenous artwork interests would come next. I try to stay young mentally with a positive attitude. Consider this: the day before our luncheon with Dr. Pelyushonok, I had a 3-hour session getting my 4th tattoo on my upper right chest. I'm looking forward in completing the tattoo in a month from now and who knows, just maybe, just maybe I might write one or two stories the Beatles before my time is done. The Beatles are FOREVER FAB IN MY BOOKS. Long live the Beatles music. Thank you, John, Paul, George and Ringo. You've all been great friends to me. John Whelan Researcher for the Ottawa Beatles Site January 26, 2026 |
