Opinions: How good were The Beatles?

JOHN PEEL, DJ: They were exceptionally good, of course, but we are talking about 25 or 30 years ago and I wouldn't care if I didn't hear their music again.

ASTON CUMMINGS, furniture restorer: It's music I want to snog to - it has amazing feel-good factor. It gives you the help you need to get off with a girl. It has such a warm glow about it.

KEN DODD, comic: They were four very nice lads who revolutionised the pop industry and put Liverpool on the map. They were unique, like all Liverpudlians.

STEVE JACKSON, Kiss 100 FM DJ: The Beatles don't mean anything to the young people now. There was far, far too much hype about them. I think now the three of them are thinking: 'Let's get back together and do something before we die.' They are all very old. I couldn't give a monkey's whether they get back together or not.

SHABBA RANKS, ragga star: I love the Beatles, they're one of my biggest musical idols.

JIMMY SAVILE: Nobody can ever be a second Elvis and there will never be the second Beatles. I think it would be marvellous to see the remaining Beatles together again. It would make life that bit more worth living.

DEREK HATTON, former Liverpool councillor: I went to the same school as Paul McCartney, although he was much much older than me. I was in the first year when he was in the last year. We used to go down to The Cavern at lunchtimes from school to see them. They were behind one of the greatest music revolutions ever to hit the world. On whether the three of them should actually get together, I think it would be interesting to see. Of course, they can never be The Beatles without John Lennon.

AMANDA CAIN, age 11: They're not a patch on Take That or East 17. I have heard of them but I don't like their music very much. It might be OK for older people.

THE BOO RADLEYS, Liverpool pop group: The Taj Mahal, penicillin, George Best, George Washington, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Manhattan, Lenny Bruce: none of these things are more important or more beautiful than The Beatles.

MATTHEW WINN, saxophonist: They were extremely overrated. The early Beatles music was completely dull, a lot of their better stuff later on was down to their producer George Martin. Everything Paul McCartney has done since The Beatles, with Wings, has been dreadful, George Harrison has been pretty much a disaster and Ringo Starr just isn't a drummer.

HUNTER DAVIES, Beatles biographer: They're mega - the best ever. They wrote 100 brilliant songs, 20 of which will be hummed on the planet as long as there are people on the planet able to hum.

KIRSTY, Beetlemania VW centre: Yes, Beetles are great. Oh, you mean THE Beatles? I don't really know much about them.

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