April 8, 2008 12:32

Stars attend funeral of Beatles' long-time friend

Yoko Ono and Pete Townshend are in attendance

Photo Gallery: The Beatles
Photo: Pa Photos

Yoko Ono, members of The Who and Beatles producer George Martin have attended the funeral of Neil Aspinall.

The Fab Four's longtime friend and former manager was buried in front of 250 mourners at the Church of St Mary The Virgin in Twickenham, west London.

Paul McCartney's daughter Stella, Ringo Starr's wife Barbara Bach and original Beatles member Pete Best were also in attendance.

McCartney was abroad at the time of the service but he sent flowers to the service, reports BBC News.

The Who's guitarist Pete Townshend later played his guitar to Bob Dylan's 'Mr Tambourine Man' and then to late Beatle George Harrison's solo hit 'My Sweet Lord', which marked the end of the service.

Aspinall, who once served as The Beatles' road manager and later as chief executive of the band's Apple Corps Ltd, passed away at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where he was being treated for lung cancer.

After becoming The Beatles' first road manager and driving them to gigs in vans, he became the head of Apple Corps, where he was executive producer of the highly successful 'Beatles Anthology' series in 1995, as well as the 'Beatles 1' compilation albums in 2000.

He also reportedly initiated the first of three lawsuits on behalf of Apple Corps against Apple Inc for trademark infringement.

One of Aspinall's final projects was overseeing The Beatles' back catalogue for an anticipated re-release later this year.

Aspinall stepped down as head of the company last year, as previously reported.