''Quiet Beatle'' Harrison Dies Aged 58

[Guest guest]

By Paul Majendie

 

LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - ''Quiet Beatle'' George Harrison has lost his battle against cancer, closing another sad chapter in the history of the world's most famous pop group.

 

The soft-spoken guitarist died at a friend's home in Los Angeles at the age of 58 on Thursday with his wife Olivia and son Dhani at his side, succumbing to the cancer that overshadowed his last years.

A long-time devotee of Hare Krishna, Harrison was always in search of religious meaning in his life.

 

Yoko Ono, whose husband John Lennon, McCartney's songwriting partner, was gunned down outside their New York apartment in 1980, said Harrison had woven magic.

 

For pop fans around the world, it was the end of an era.

 

Outside the Abbey Road studio in London made famous by the Beatles, tearful fans paid tribute to the lost icon who strodeacross the pedestrian zebra crossing in one of the group's legendary record covers.

 

''He'll be on my mind today. I'm going home. I'll light a candle, say a little prayer,'' said Jade Funk.

 

Fellow fan Geraldine Scott said: ''Goodbye George. God bless.''

 

An album of their 27 number one hit singles topped music charts around the world last year, 30 years after the break-up of the group that shaped the 1960s and revolutionized music.

 

FLAGS LOWERED

 

Liverpool, birthplace of the Beatles, put official flags at half mast. A book of condolence was opened for the guitarist who wrote ''All Things Must Pass.''

 

His songs played all day at Liverpool's Beatles Museum.

 

McCartney, whose wife Linda died of cancer, paid tribute to Harrison's courage in battling the disease.

 

''He was a lovely guy and a very brave man and had a wonderful sense of humor. He is really just my baby brother,'' he told reporters outside his London home.

 

McCartney said he had last seen Harrison, a life-long smoker, a few weeks ago: ''He was obviously very unwell but he was cracking jokes like he always was and he'll be sorely missed. He was a beautiful man.''

 

Ono said Harrison had brought magic to all who knew him.

 

''George has given so much in his lifetime and continues to do so even after his passing, with his music, his wit and his wisdom,'' she said.

 

''My deep love and concern goes to Olivia and Dhani. The three of them were the closest, most loving family you can imagine.''

 

Harrison, whose many compositions included ''While My Guitar Gently Weeps,'' first disclosed in 1998 that he had been treated for throat cancer.

 

SHUNNED THE LIMELIGHT

 

''It reminds you that anything can happen,'' said Harrison, who cheated death when stabbed by an intruder at his English country home in 1999.

 

He always shunned the limelight. His image was perfectly summed up in the first Beatles song he wrote: ''Don't Bother Me.''

 

Like Lennon, he soon grew weary of Beatlemania as the group rushed from concert to concert in stretch limousines, dogged at every turn by screaming, hysterical girls.

 

Harrison was just 27 when the band split in 1970.

 

The youngest member of the world's most famous pop group will be remembered for his devotion to Oriental mysticism. It was he who persuaded fellow Beatles to fly to India and sit at the feet of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

 

A long-time devotee of Hare Krishna, Harrison was always in search of religious meaning in his life.

 

''When you have had all the experiences, met all the famous people, made some money, toured the world and got all the acclaim you still think -- is that it? Some people might be satisfied with that -- but I wasn't,'' he once said.

 

Fellow pop star Bob Geldof said: ''He wasn't a reluctant Beatle. He knew that his place in popular culture was absolutely secure. He was very curmudgeonly about the fame thing. But he was very gentle.''

 

Reuters/Variety REUTERS