POP & ROCK

Almost 1,000 people gathered in Prague, Czechoslovakia, over the weekend to mark the death of John Lennon--and this year, unlike previously, the annual memorial was held under official auspices. The gathering close by the so-called “Lennon Wall”--once covered with slogans extolling the slain Beatle and one of his causes, world peace--marked the founding of a new independent group, the John Lennon Peace Club, which promptly demanded the release of four independent peace activists jailed in October. A small police contingent watched the crowd but made no apparent attempt to break up the gathering, even when hundreds of people lingered behind to sing Lennon songs and burn candles for peace.