Paul McCartney’s official website, paulmccartney.com, is giving fans a chance to ask him questions on a regular basis.  The new feature, “You Gave Me the Answer”--named for a Wings song from the Venus & Mars album--will permit fans to submit their questions on a regular basis, and each month, Paul’s answer to one will be posted.  Fans may submit as many questions as they like, and winners will be notified by e-mail directly.

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Paul McCartney and wife Nancy Shevell headed to New Orleans to be part of Carnivale and Super Bowl festivities.  The couple were spotted at Rolling Stone magazine’s party in the VIP area of the Budweiser Hotel, watching Pitbull and Flo Rida perform, mingling with guests and dancing the night away. 

Paul and Linda and Wings recorded the Venus and Mars album in New Orleans in 1975.

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Stella McCartney has once again put red noses on a classic Beatles photo for charity.  Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day campaign in the UK features a 1969 Beatles pic, as well as images of Kate Moss, Marilyn Monroe and British comedian Tommy Cooper.  Comic Relief celebrates Red Nose Day on March 15, and the shirts are available through the charity’s website: rednoseday.com.

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The Beatles’ former Apple Corps offices on London’s Savile Row—the site of the famous rooftop concert—nay become an Abercrombie and Fitch store.

The plan to open a new store has prompted protests among retailers, including the Saville Row Bespoke Association, which seeks to preserve the area’s character as a center for upscale men’s tailoring.

The council received objections stating the store would have “an unacceptable impact on the character and function of Savile Row, inappropriate congregation of crowds on the street outside, increased footfall will lead to safety issues on the highway, and potential noise and disturbance to surrounding properties,” according to the documents.

The U.S. company intends to open a children’s outlet at 3 Savile Row, which is listed as a historic preservation site. The property is close to century-old tailors’ shops like Gieves & Hawkes, H. Huntsman & Sons and Henry Poole & Co.

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A newly-found excerpt from a song written by Stu Sutcliffe in 1959 may be incorporated into a new song by a Liverpool musician. Dean Johnson says of the lyric to “Sheila”:

“The prose is very poetic, with the influence of Keats or Byron, the great English Romantics.  It’s interesting that the level of sophistication is way ahead of early Lennon and McCartney.”

The lyrics to "Sheila" read, in part, “Shall sorrow lean her drooping head, to touch with your dark lightly tread, a flower shrinks from cold and rain, but bright new sun cheeks cheer again.”

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Proud dad Paul McCartney dropped in to help his son James in the recording studio, where James is working on a new album.  James has previously released two EPs, Available Light and Close at Hand, and done some touring in the UK and North America, as well as helping dad on the Driving Rain and Flaming Pie albums, and mom Linda’s Wide Prairie album.  The proud papa tweeted to fans: "Having fun in the studio with James on his new album" and also shared a picture of the pair at the mixing desk.

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George Harrison’s son, Dhani, says it was very emotional for him to record the Beautiful Creatures movie soundtrack at Abbey Road Studios.  He tells Rolling Stone, "I spent my whole life in and out of Abbey Road. Recording at Abbey Road was emotional: my first time recording there, my first time hearing something we composed for an orchestra of that size and my first major Hollywood film soundtrack."

The 34-year old-came up with arrangements for the orchestra and recruited guests including Ben Harper and the Hollies' Tony Hicks, who is the father of Dhani's bandmate, Paul. Dhani adds, "I was able to put a 54-piece orchestra in Studio 2, which is really weird. It's where my dad spent a lot of his formative years, as well as Paul's dad [Hicks], who recorded in Studio 1."

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Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon are continuing their campaign against fracking (the natural-gas drilling technology hydraulic fracturing), and the air pollution and water contamination that have alarmed some residents since the practice took off several years ago. Mother and son are travelling around communities in New York and Pennsylvania to draw attention to the cause, and even went to New York’s state capital, Albany.

Last year, Sean started a website and campaign called Artists Against Fracking, drawing signatures from Paul McCartney,  as well as writer George Saunders, Martha Stewart, MGMT, Beck, Jimmy Fallon and others.  Actress Susan Sarandon has joined Sean and Yoko on their travels.

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Paul McCartney has joined those speaking out against the Cayman Turtle Farm, a popular tourist attraction that allegedly is raising turtles for food under inhumane conditions.

The farm offers tourists the chance to learn more about the endangered green turtle as well as the loggerhead turtle, crocodiles and other Caribbean wildlife . But it also breeds turtles for human consumption.

Now undercover filming by the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) has alleged that the turtles bred for their meat are kept in inhumane conditions, suffer illness and injury and that tourists could be in danger of illness from handling the animals.  Paul is lending his support to the WSPA.  Sir Richard Branson says he awaits additional findings "with interest."

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To mark her 80^th birthday on February 18th, Yoko Ono will give a Plastic Ono Band concert the night before in Berlin, Germany, with son Sean as band leader.

Ono's retrospective, HALF-A-WIND SHOW opens in Frankfurt on February 15, and will tour to major museums across Denmark, Austria and Spain in 2013 and 2014. This year, her albums from 1968-1985 will be reissued, and a career-spanning art book, Infinite Universe At Dawn, will be published, highlighting six decades of her work.

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