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OK, I'll try it, OK.
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♪ As soon as you're born,
they make you feel small ♪
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♪ By giving you no time
instead of it all ♪
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00:01:01,312 --> 00:01:06,275
♪ Til' the pain is so big,
you feel nothing at all ♪
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♪ A working class hero
is something to be ♪
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♪ A working class hero
is something to be ♪
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A state of war
when you're just a kid.
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Well, the missing element
was the reality, you know.
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The fact that I wasn't wanted,
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and then my worst
fears had come true.
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♪ When I was younger, so
much younger than today ♪
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00:01:47,900 --> 00:01:52,571
♪ I never needed anybody's
help in any way ♪
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00:01:52,822 --> 00:01:53,531
♪ But now ♪
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00:01:53,781 --> 00:01:54,949
John Lennon,
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00:01:55,199 --> 00:01:57,618
one of the most widely
recognized faces in the world
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00:01:57,868 --> 00:02:00,871
from the most successful
pop group of all time.
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00:02:01,122 --> 00:02:04,250
To me, John Lennon means
imagine, freedom, and love.
18
00:02:04,500 --> 00:02:08,045
A visionary,
activist, pro-mankind.
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00:02:08,295 --> 00:02:09,689
Well, he was
always the edgy one,
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00:02:09,713 --> 00:02:11,298
gave a little bit of spice.
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00:02:11,549 --> 00:02:14,051
John is the
one who started it all.
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00:02:14,301 --> 00:02:16,971
But how many people
know the real John Lennon,
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00:02:17,221 --> 00:02:20,224
the personality formed through
his childhood experiences
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00:02:20,474 --> 00:02:22,834
and the things that happened
to him before he became famous?
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♪ Won't you please,
please help me ♪
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00:02:58,762 --> 00:03:00,097
During the 1800s,
27
00:03:00,347 --> 00:03:02,308
Liverpool's importance
as a seaport
28
00:03:02,558 --> 00:03:05,519
had already attracted large
Welsh and Irish communities.
29
00:03:07,938 --> 00:03:10,524
But when Ireland's staple
food crops were destroyed
30
00:03:10,774 --> 00:03:13,694
by potato blights in the 1840s,
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00:03:13,944 --> 00:03:16,655
thousands of starving
families fled to Liverpool.
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00:03:18,073 --> 00:03:21,952
Among them was John's
great-grandfather, James Lennon.
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00:03:26,123 --> 00:03:28,751
- When James Lennon arrived
in Liverpool in the 1840s,
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00:03:29,001 --> 00:03:32,463
he turned up in a place which
really was a city of plague,
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00:03:32,713 --> 00:03:35,007
known as the hospital
and cemetery of Ireland,
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00:03:35,257 --> 00:03:38,719
as hundreds of thousands of
people escaped the horrors
37
00:03:38,969 --> 00:03:41,263
of poverty and
the potato famine.
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00:03:56,028 --> 00:03:58,739
We refer to Liverpudlians
as scousers,
39
00:03:58,989 --> 00:04:00,909
and we know scouse actually
comes from Lobscouse,
40
00:04:01,075 --> 00:04:02,201
a Scandinavian thing,
41
00:04:02,451 --> 00:04:05,120
but scouse is clearly Irish
stew by any other name.
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00:04:05,371 --> 00:04:08,958
And that really is the key bit
of the Liverpool melting pot.
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00:04:09,208 --> 00:04:11,877
It's the Irish who gives
so much to making sure
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00:04:12,127 --> 00:04:14,880
that Liverpool is sort of
in the north of England
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00:04:15,130 --> 00:04:16,131
but not really of it.
46
00:04:16,382 --> 00:04:18,259
It's somewhere
completely different.
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00:04:21,262 --> 00:04:24,890
Well, for me, Lennon
is the classic sort
48
00:04:25,140 --> 00:04:27,643
of hyphenated identity that
not many, many migrants
49
00:04:27,893 --> 00:04:29,093
within the United Kingdom get,
50
00:04:29,311 --> 00:04:31,730
but you do have this genuine
Liverpool-Irish thing.
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00:04:31,981 --> 00:04:33,461
And I think that
Liverpool-Irish thing
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00:04:33,691 --> 00:04:35,451
is at the heart of the
fact that we're living
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00:04:35,526 --> 00:04:37,069
in the People's
Republic of Merseyside,
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00:04:37,319 --> 00:04:40,239
and it's that sort of irreverence towards the establishment,
55
00:04:40,489 --> 00:04:42,449
which I think Lennon epitomizes.
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00:04:43,993 --> 00:04:46,137
We were a port, the
second biggest port in England,
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00:04:46,161 --> 00:04:47,955
also between Manchester
and Liverpool.
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00:04:48,205 --> 00:04:49,683
That's where all the,
the north was where
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00:04:49,707 --> 00:04:51,709
the money was made in the
1800s or whenever it was.
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00:04:51,959 --> 00:04:54,079
That was when all the brass
and the heavy people were,
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00:04:54,211 --> 00:04:56,672
and that's where the
despised people were.
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00:04:56,922 --> 00:04:58,275
We were the ones that
were looked down upon
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00:04:58,299 --> 00:04:59,717
by the southerners as animals,
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00:04:59,967 --> 00:05:01,844
and also a great amount
of Irish descent,
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00:05:02,094 --> 00:05:04,555
and blacks and Chinamen
and all sorts there.
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00:05:04,805 --> 00:05:06,515
It's like San
Francisco, you know.
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00:05:06,765 --> 00:05:08,434
And it was a very
poor city and tough.
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00:05:08,684 --> 00:05:10,227
But people have a sense of humor
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00:05:10,477 --> 00:05:12,980
because they're in so
much pain, you know?
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00:05:13,230 --> 00:05:15,542
So they're always cracking
these jokes, they're very witty.
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00:05:15,566 --> 00:05:18,402
And it's an Irish
place, you know?
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00:05:18,652 --> 00:05:20,863
It's where the Irish came
when they ran out of potatoes.
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00:05:21,113 --> 00:05:22,990
And it's where black
people were left
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00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:26,201
or workers, slaves or whatever,
and created communities.
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00:05:26,452 --> 00:05:28,212
It's cosmopolitan, and
it's where the sailors
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00:05:28,329 --> 00:05:29,347
would come home with
the blues records
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00:05:29,371 --> 00:05:31,832
from America on the ships!
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00:05:35,127 --> 00:05:36,438
Liverpool's dominance
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00:05:36,462 --> 00:05:38,464
as Britain's second
city of empire,
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00:05:38,714 --> 00:05:39,840
created thousands of jobs
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00:05:40,090 --> 00:05:41,967
in shipping and dock working.
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00:05:42,217 --> 00:05:44,511
It was in this busy world
that John's parents,
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00:05:44,762 --> 00:05:46,472
Alfred Lennon and Julia Stanley,
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00:05:46,722 --> 00:05:48,849
met before marrying in 1938.
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00:05:49,099 --> 00:05:51,018
The Stanleys were
a close knit family
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00:05:51,268 --> 00:05:53,062
from Welsh and
Irish backgrounds,
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00:05:53,312 --> 00:05:56,106
with free-spirited Julia
being one of five sisters.
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00:05:57,816 --> 00:05:59,651
This is London.
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00:05:59,902 --> 00:06:02,946
You will now hear a statement
by the prime minister.
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00:06:03,197 --> 00:06:06,742
This
country is at war with Germany.
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00:06:07,868 --> 00:06:09,304
The
outbreak of World War II
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00:06:09,328 --> 00:06:12,915
in 1939, turned Alf
Lennon's life upside down.
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00:06:13,165 --> 00:06:15,501
From his peacetime role
as a ship's steward,
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00:06:15,751 --> 00:06:17,961
Alf became one of
10,000 Liverpool seamen
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00:06:18,212 --> 00:06:21,006
keeping Britain's supplies
flowing across the Atlantic.
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00:06:21,256 --> 00:06:24,968
Dangerous work indeed,
but danger was coming closer to home.
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00:06:25,219 --> 00:06:27,971
Hitler's Luftwaffe was planning
to destroy the vital port
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00:06:28,222 --> 00:06:28,931
at all costs.
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00:06:47,199 --> 00:06:49,039
- Liverpool suffered
tremendously in the blitz,
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00:06:49,159 --> 00:06:50,994
I think it was the second
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00:06:51,245 --> 00:06:53,997
in terms of casualties
after London.
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00:06:54,248 --> 00:06:56,250
Nearly 4000 people were killed.
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00:06:56,500 --> 00:06:59,253
The actual damage to
houses was extensive.
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00:06:59,503 --> 00:07:01,046
Huge places were blown up,
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00:07:01,296 --> 00:07:03,090
so there was a real
fear of bombing.
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00:07:04,550 --> 00:07:08,595
♪ Run, rabbit, run,
rabbit, run, run, run ♪
107
00:07:08,846 --> 00:07:10,156
♪ Run, rabbit, run,
rabbit, run, run, run ♪
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00:07:10,180 --> 00:07:12,558
On
October the 9th, 1940,
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00:07:12,808 --> 00:07:15,519
Julia Lennon gave birth
to her first child,
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00:07:15,769 --> 00:07:16,979
John Winston Lennon.
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00:07:18,939 --> 00:07:20,417
The day
that Lennon was born,
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00:07:20,441 --> 00:07:23,193
we do have a record of
the Luftwaffe bombings.
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00:07:23,444 --> 00:07:26,321
There was no bombing raid
over Liverpool that night.
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00:07:27,281 --> 00:07:27,948
I would think at the end
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00:07:28,198 --> 00:07:29,408
of the Battle of Britain,
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00:07:29,658 --> 00:07:31,219
you could say that
Churchill was at the height
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00:07:31,243 --> 00:07:32,911
of his popularity at that point.
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00:07:33,162 --> 00:07:36,290
So, there are people
who named their children
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00:07:36,540 --> 00:07:40,752
after Winston Churchill, not
that many, it has to be said.
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00:07:41,003 --> 00:07:45,966
♪ So run, rabbit, run,
rabbit, run, run, run ♪
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00:07:47,718 --> 00:07:48,903
The early
wartime years saw
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00:07:48,927 --> 00:07:51,013
John and Julia living
with her parents
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00:07:51,263 --> 00:07:53,348
in a small house
in Newcastle Road.
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00:07:54,600 --> 00:07:57,352
But although John's
father Alf paid the rent,
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00:07:57,603 --> 00:07:58,729
he was rarely home.
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00:08:00,314 --> 00:08:02,274
He was destined to be at
sea for months at a time.
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00:08:03,692 --> 00:08:05,611
Here we have
another kind of myth,
128
00:08:05,861 --> 00:08:09,031
that John Lennon's father ran
away to the Merchant Navy,
129
00:08:09,281 --> 00:08:11,074
but of course he was
an indentured member
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00:08:11,325 --> 00:08:12,576
of the Merchant Navy,
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00:08:12,826 --> 00:08:16,455
and the Merchant Navy was a
key part of the war effort.
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00:08:16,705 --> 00:08:18,957
We needed to keep those
merchant ships going,
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00:08:19,208 --> 00:08:20,792
bringing those
goods from America,
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00:08:21,043 --> 00:08:23,086
bringing those armaments
from America as well.
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00:08:23,337 --> 00:08:25,005
So he didn't have a choice here.
136
00:08:25,255 --> 00:08:28,091
So really, he didn't run
away from John Lennon.
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00:08:28,342 --> 00:08:30,511
He just went back to doing
what he'd always done,
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00:08:30,761 --> 00:08:33,180
which was to be a member
of the Merchant Navy.
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00:08:34,431 --> 00:08:36,433
During
a voyage in 1943,
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00:08:36,683 --> 00:08:39,186
Alf's luck ran out when he
left his ship in New York,
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00:08:39,436 --> 00:08:42,314
hoping to join another
and improve his prospects.
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00:08:42,564 --> 00:08:45,817
Without the right documents,
he was left high and dry
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00:08:46,068 --> 00:08:48,570
and held as an illegal
alien on Ellis Island.
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00:08:48,820 --> 00:08:52,616
His pay was stopped, and
Julia feared the worst.
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00:08:52,866 --> 00:08:54,201
Suddenly without money,
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00:08:54,451 --> 00:08:57,162
Julia was forced to seek
part time work in two pubs,
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00:08:57,412 --> 00:08:59,122
and it was here she
began a casual affair
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00:08:59,373 --> 00:09:02,125
with a soldier,
Vernon Taffy Williams.
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00:09:03,252 --> 00:09:04,670
Ever-changing
domestic arrangements
150
00:09:04,920 --> 00:09:06,040
and different father figures
151
00:09:06,213 --> 00:09:07,422
during John's early years
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00:09:07,673 --> 00:09:10,092
were to leave their
lasting scars.
153
00:09:10,342 --> 00:09:11,510
His real father, Alf Lennon,
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00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:14,263
came home to find Julia
pregnant by another man.
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00:09:15,472 --> 00:09:17,015
Then, amid the arguments,
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00:09:17,266 --> 00:09:20,477
Julia surprised everyone
by spurning both men.
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00:09:21,478 --> 00:09:22,896
With his marriage over,
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00:09:23,146 --> 00:09:25,023
Alf took John to stay
with his brother Sydney
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00:09:25,274 --> 00:09:27,234
before returning him to
his Julia's oldest sister,
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00:09:27,401 --> 00:09:30,028
Mimi Smith, and
her husband George.
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00:09:30,279 --> 00:09:31,989
- I think what's interesting
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00:09:32,239 --> 00:09:33,657
about Lennon's
wartime experience is
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00:09:33,907 --> 00:09:36,034
that he's not evacuated.
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00:09:36,285 --> 00:09:37,578
So he doesn't go to North Wales
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00:09:37,828 --> 00:09:40,664
as many children
from Liverpool went.
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00:09:48,463 --> 00:09:50,674
I think if we look at
Lennon's early life,
167
00:09:50,924 --> 00:09:53,302
we can see that it was an
era of great austerity.
168
00:09:53,552 --> 00:09:55,846
Rationing, of course,
had been brought in.
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00:09:56,096 --> 00:09:58,223
The culture of Britain
is completely different
170
00:09:58,473 --> 00:10:00,809
from the culture that
comes in the 1950s.
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00:10:01,059 --> 00:10:03,437
Mostly, people
listen to the radio.
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00:10:03,687 --> 00:10:05,439
Joking is very important.
173
00:10:05,689 --> 00:10:07,609
A lot of the comedians
that Lennon would've heard
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00:10:07,816 --> 00:10:10,068
in his early life,
Ted Ray, Arthur Askey,
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00:10:10,319 --> 00:10:12,487
and Tommy Handley, all
come from Liverpool.
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00:10:16,033 --> 00:10:18,285
The biggest musical
star is George Formby,
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00:10:18,535 --> 00:10:20,078
the lad from Wigan.
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00:10:20,329 --> 00:10:22,080
It would've been impossible
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00:10:22,331 --> 00:10:25,125
to envisage a figure
like Elvis Presley.
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00:10:25,375 --> 00:10:28,211
♪ He had a ukulele
in his hands ♪
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00:10:29,921 --> 00:10:31,107
♪ Don't sit under
the apple tree ♪
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00:10:31,131 --> 00:10:33,216
♪ With anyone else but me ♪
183
00:10:33,467 --> 00:10:35,677
♪ Anyone else but me ♪
184
00:10:35,927 --> 00:10:38,347
♪ Anyone else but
me, no, no, no ♪
185
00:10:38,597 --> 00:10:40,766
In June 1945,
186
00:10:41,016 --> 00:10:44,269
Julia Lennon gave birth
to her illegitimate child.
187
00:10:44,519 --> 00:10:47,189
But following disapproval
from her own father,
188
00:10:47,439 --> 00:10:49,733
the girl was given
up for adoption.
189
00:10:49,983 --> 00:10:52,861
Despite Alf Lennon
refusing to divorce Julia,
190
00:10:53,111 --> 00:10:56,573
she embarked on a new relationship with John Bobby Dykins,
191
00:10:56,823 --> 00:10:58,784
a sometimes salesman and waiter.
192
00:10:59,034 --> 00:11:02,162
He was just as unpopular as
Alf in the Stanley family
193
00:11:02,412 --> 00:11:04,331
and was often
referred to as Spiv.
194
00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:08,710
♪ I just got word
from a guy who heard ♪
195
00:11:08,960 --> 00:11:10,921
♪ From the guy next door to me ♪
196
00:11:11,171 --> 00:11:12,547
- He were are in Newcastle Road,
197
00:11:12,798 --> 00:11:14,591
which is in the
suburbs of Liverpool.
198
00:11:14,841 --> 00:11:17,928
We normally associate
suburbs with respectability,
199
00:11:18,178 --> 00:11:20,472
but in this street, there
were many comings and goings,
200
00:11:20,722 --> 00:11:23,183
which were less
than respectable.
201
00:11:23,433 --> 00:11:26,353
The fact that Julia
Lennon was living in sin
202
00:11:26,603 --> 00:11:30,565
but also in an adulterous
relationship is significant.
203
00:11:30,816 --> 00:11:32,776
Julia and
new partner, Bobby Dykins,
204
00:11:33,026 --> 00:11:34,861
took John Lennon to
live in a small flat
205
00:11:35,112 --> 00:11:38,615
where their living arrangements
soon fueled another crisis.
206
00:11:38,865 --> 00:11:41,535
News had reached Julia's
father, Pop Stanley,
207
00:11:41,785 --> 00:11:44,663
that John was not only
sharing a bed with Julia,
208
00:11:44,913 --> 00:11:46,623
but with Dykins, too.
209
00:11:46,873 --> 00:11:49,209
Liverpool Child Welfare
Service stepped in,
210
00:11:49,459 --> 00:11:51,461
and John was quickly
sent to live with Mimi
211
00:11:51,712 --> 00:11:54,047
and her husband
George in Woolton.
212
00:11:54,297 --> 00:11:57,718
- In 1933, protection of
children legislation ensured
213
00:11:57,968 --> 00:12:01,513
that local authorities
were able to step in.
214
00:12:01,763 --> 00:12:04,015
Priority was maintaining
a child's relationship
215
00:12:04,266 --> 00:12:05,726
with his mother.
216
00:12:05,976 --> 00:12:08,937
But the mother may well be considered fit to rear the child,
217
00:12:09,187 --> 00:12:11,857
however, the environment
the child is being reared in
218
00:12:12,107 --> 00:12:14,651
could be deemed unsuitable.
219
00:12:14,901 --> 00:12:16,737
John Lennon's effective
sleeping arrangements,
220
00:12:16,987 --> 00:12:18,405
would be with Bobby
and his mother.
221
00:12:18,655 --> 00:12:19,966
What happened was that
he was transferred
222
00:12:19,990 --> 00:12:22,200
from one Liverpool to another.
223
00:12:22,451 --> 00:12:23,493
In many ways, of course,
224
00:12:23,744 --> 00:12:26,538
Lennon was a migrant
within Liverpool.
225
00:12:26,788 --> 00:12:27,831
His early years,
226
00:12:28,081 --> 00:12:29,600
even though he maybe not
remember many of them,
227
00:12:29,624 --> 00:12:30,917
were probably very formative.
228
00:12:31,168 --> 00:12:32,544
And that old Liverpool,
229
00:12:32,794 --> 00:12:35,422
which he returned
to through music,
230
00:12:35,672 --> 00:12:38,258
through gangs, through the
youth culture of the time,
231
00:12:38,508 --> 00:12:40,427
it's almost as if John Lennon
232
00:12:40,677 --> 00:12:42,220
carried the old
Liverpool with him,
233
00:12:42,471 --> 00:12:46,016
in his DNA, or in his early
environmental experiences.
234
00:12:50,020 --> 00:12:54,941
♪ Mother, you had me ♪
235
00:12:55,734 --> 00:13:00,572
♪ I never had you ♪
236
00:13:04,534 --> 00:13:09,498
♪ I wanted you ♪
237
00:13:11,458 --> 00:13:13,251
♪ You didn't want me ♪
238
00:13:13,502 --> 00:13:15,420
With John
now living at Mendips,
239
00:13:15,670 --> 00:13:17,297
Aunt Mimi contacted Alf Lennon
240
00:13:17,547 --> 00:13:19,132
for financial assistance.
241
00:13:19,382 --> 00:13:20,634
Alf was happy to help,
242
00:13:20,884 --> 00:13:23,345
and even happier to take
John on holiday to Blackpool.
243
00:13:23,595 --> 00:13:25,388
It seemed innocent enough,
244
00:13:25,639 --> 00:13:27,307
but Alf had bigger plans.
245
00:13:27,557 --> 00:13:30,644
- So I went to see
all the moms and dads,
246
00:13:30,894 --> 00:13:32,395
I did Alf Lennon
you know, as well.
247
00:13:32,646 --> 00:13:35,065
I tracked him down,
and he was working
248
00:13:35,315 --> 00:13:39,653
as a washer up in a
roadhouse in Chiswick.
249
00:13:39,903 --> 00:13:41,780
Alf had contact with Mimi,
250
00:13:42,030 --> 00:13:46,243
Mimi allowed him to
come and see John,
251
00:13:46,493 --> 00:13:48,286
and they went off to Blackpool
252
00:13:48,537 --> 00:13:50,080
to stay with some friends.
253
00:13:50,330 --> 00:13:53,166
And it was in Blackpool
that Alf got this idea
254
00:13:53,416 --> 00:13:54,918
that he would do a runner,
255
00:13:55,168 --> 00:13:57,003
and go off with John,
just the two of them,
256
00:13:57,254 --> 00:13:58,254
to New Zealand.
257
00:13:58,463 --> 00:13:59,631
And he told John this,
258
00:13:59,881 --> 00:14:01,675
and John obviously,
that'll be fun,
259
00:14:01,925 --> 00:14:02,968
going to New Zealand.
260
00:14:03,218 --> 00:14:05,512
He stays away longer
than he should've done,
261
00:14:05,762 --> 00:14:07,281
they all get worried
back in Liverpool,
262
00:14:07,305 --> 00:14:10,183
back in Woolton, and
Julia tracks them down,
263
00:14:10,433 --> 00:14:11,685
Julia arrives at the door,
264
00:14:11,935 --> 00:14:15,355
and Alf said no, he's coming
with me to New Zealand,
265
00:14:15,605 --> 00:14:17,232
and Julia said no,
he's coming back.
266
00:14:17,482 --> 00:14:21,611
So this is a tug of
war on the doorstep,
267
00:14:21,862 --> 00:14:23,363
and in the end John chooses,
268
00:14:23,613 --> 00:14:25,365
and he chooses to
go back with Julia,
269
00:14:25,615 --> 00:14:27,450
and then Alf disappears.
270
00:14:27,701 --> 00:14:32,664
♪ Father, you left me ♪
271
00:14:34,624 --> 00:14:37,460
♪ I never left you ♪
272
00:14:39,754 --> 00:14:41,314
- When I was doing
The Beatles biography
273
00:14:41,506 --> 00:14:42,757
during those two years,
274
00:14:44,634 --> 00:14:46,154
as I was doing
interviewing one to one,
275
00:14:46,261 --> 00:14:49,347
I would everything down
in a little red notebook.
276
00:14:49,598 --> 00:14:50,181
John, there we are, John once,
277
00:14:50,432 --> 00:14:51,892
that's the first John.
278
00:14:52,142 --> 00:14:53,310
And my dad looking after me,
279
00:14:53,560 --> 00:14:55,645
took me to Blackpool
to his uncle's house.
280
00:14:56,813 --> 00:14:58,440
Mother going with another bloke.
281
00:14:58,690 --> 00:15:00,150
Which do you want to go to?
282
00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:01,526
Father or mother?
283
00:15:01,776 --> 00:15:04,654
And the first one he
decided his father,
284
00:15:05,822 --> 00:15:07,908
and then he decided
to go with his mother.
285
00:15:10,327 --> 00:15:12,287
Then Mimi not allowed me...
286
00:15:12,537 --> 00:15:13,246
Oh yeah.
287
00:15:13,496 --> 00:15:15,081
So he chose to go with Julia,
288
00:15:15,332 --> 00:15:17,667
but Mimi wouldn't allow
him to go with the Dykins.
289
00:15:19,753 --> 00:15:20,753
Ended up with Mimi.
290
00:15:20,921 --> 00:15:22,464
So that's it.
291
00:15:22,714 --> 00:15:24,716
Once back
in Liverpool with John,
292
00:15:24,966 --> 00:15:26,968
Julia was embroiled
in another heated row
293
00:15:27,218 --> 00:15:28,386
with her sister Mimi.
294
00:15:29,346 --> 00:15:31,514
♪ Goodbye ♪
295
00:15:34,726 --> 00:15:36,037
The scene
took place in front of John
296
00:15:36,061 --> 00:15:37,270
and his cousin Leila.
297
00:15:38,813 --> 00:15:41,066
Mimi said to
her, and I was in the room
298
00:15:41,316 --> 00:15:42,567
and Mimi will not deny it,
299
00:15:42,817 --> 00:15:44,194
you are not fit to
have this child.
300
00:15:44,444 --> 00:15:47,280
She wanted to take John
to live with Bobby there,
301
00:15:47,530 --> 00:15:49,115
and she said, Mimi wanted him,
302
00:15:49,366 --> 00:15:51,743
he was a very sweet
little boy, now very cute.
303
00:15:51,993 --> 00:15:53,453
And she wanted him.
304
00:15:53,703 --> 00:15:54,889
Mimi didn't have
children, she wanted,
305
00:15:54,913 --> 00:15:57,290
she said you're not
fit to have this boy.
306
00:15:58,833 --> 00:16:01,544
♪ Mama don't go ♪
307
00:16:03,713 --> 00:16:04,913
Julia once again,
308
00:16:04,965 --> 00:16:06,424
gave John over to Mimi,
309
00:16:06,675 --> 00:16:08,802
and returned to live
with Bobby Dykins.
310
00:16:09,970 --> 00:16:11,846
No real
impression that my mother
311
00:16:12,097 --> 00:16:13,181
actually wanted me,
312
00:16:13,431 --> 00:16:14,659
because she wasn't
there, or father,
313
00:16:14,683 --> 00:16:16,160
but still, one of
the hardest things is
314
00:16:16,184 --> 00:16:19,020
to realize that actually
they didn't want you.
315
00:16:19,270 --> 00:16:21,898
Oh, they didn't want
me, that is a fact.
316
00:16:22,148 --> 00:16:24,776
I was not wanted, no
wonder I feel shitty.
317
00:16:25,026 --> 00:16:26,146
Cause I couldn't explain it,
318
00:16:26,277 --> 00:16:27,477
as a child, you just know that
319
00:16:27,570 --> 00:16:29,048
something's not right,
something is not there.
320
00:16:29,072 --> 00:16:32,951
And that is the big
trauma to experience that.
321
00:16:33,201 --> 00:16:38,164
♪ Mama don't go ♪
322
00:16:40,250 --> 00:16:45,213
♪ Daddy come home ♪
323
00:16:48,091 --> 00:16:53,054
♪ Mama don't go ♪
324
00:16:55,223 --> 00:16:57,976
♪ Daddy come home ♪
325
00:17:06,901 --> 00:17:08,129
After
years of upheaval
326
00:17:08,153 --> 00:17:10,697
with different homes,
and different people,
327
00:17:10,947 --> 00:17:13,158
John finally had some
stability in his life.
328
00:17:13,408 --> 00:17:15,952
And while he still
occasionally saw his mother,
329
00:17:16,202 --> 00:17:18,038
his home appeared to be settled,
330
00:17:18,288 --> 00:17:20,749
in leafy Woolton,
with Aunt Mimi,
331
00:17:20,999 --> 00:17:23,043
and Uncle George in Mendips.
332
00:17:23,293 --> 00:17:25,295
- So Menlove Avenue
back in the 50s,
333
00:17:25,545 --> 00:17:26,731
would've been tramlines
going down the middle,
334
00:17:26,755 --> 00:17:28,715
a little hedgy at
the side of that.
335
00:17:28,965 --> 00:17:30,067
Obviously there would
be some traffic,
336
00:17:30,091 --> 00:17:31,634
but not as much
as there is today.
337
00:17:31,885 --> 00:17:33,970
It's really
busy, isn't it?
338
00:17:34,220 --> 00:17:36,264
Well, it's a major
thoroughfare in Liverpool,
339
00:17:36,514 --> 00:17:37,057
Menlove Avenue.
340
00:17:37,307 --> 00:17:38,349
- This is Mendips.
341
00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:40,244
This is where John lived
from the age of five,
342
00:17:40,268 --> 00:17:42,020
mostly all the way
through to 1963,
343
00:17:42,270 --> 00:17:45,065
when The Beatles
went down to London.
344
00:17:45,315 --> 00:17:47,567
Most importantly for
John, was his bedroom,
345
00:17:47,817 --> 00:17:49,527
and his bedroom is
the small window
346
00:17:49,778 --> 00:17:50,820
above the front door,
347
00:17:51,071 --> 00:17:53,156
that's where he'd
be at his thinking,
348
00:17:53,406 --> 00:17:54,699
his writing, his drawing.
349
00:17:55,909 --> 00:17:56,618
So, what sort of
things do you think
350
00:17:56,868 --> 00:17:58,703
he would've been reading?
351
00:17:58,953 --> 00:18:00,431
- Well, I know you'd
of definitely found
352
00:18:00,455 --> 00:18:02,575
some of Richard Compton's
Just William books in there.
353
00:18:02,624 --> 00:18:06,127
I always find it's
weird imagining him
354
00:18:06,377 --> 00:18:06,920
reading these kind of books,
355
00:18:07,170 --> 00:18:08,170
I've got a couple here,
356
00:18:08,379 --> 00:18:11,091
William the Rebel,
maybe not so unusually.
357
00:18:12,467 --> 00:18:13,718
William the Outlaw.
358
00:18:13,968 --> 00:18:16,763
But in another way, it
just reinforces an idea
359
00:18:17,013 --> 00:18:17,680
that we might have of Lennon
360
00:18:17,931 --> 00:18:19,516
as a kind of gang leader,
361
00:18:19,766 --> 00:18:21,285
cause one thing you know
about the Just William books,
362
00:18:21,309 --> 00:18:22,589
is he has his own little clique,
363
00:18:22,811 --> 00:18:24,521
a bunch of people
he runs around with.
364
00:18:24,771 --> 00:18:26,648
And I think he had that
when he lived here,
365
00:18:26,898 --> 00:18:28,459
and he ended up having it
in The Beatles as well,
366
00:18:28,483 --> 00:18:29,483
you could argue.
367
00:18:29,692 --> 00:18:31,012
You know, The
Beatles were a gang.
368
00:18:31,736 --> 00:18:32,816
So he read stuff like this,
369
00:18:33,029 --> 00:18:35,031
but also, I mean, I
guess it's well known
370
00:18:35,281 --> 00:18:37,367
he loved the Lewis
Carroll books,
371
00:18:37,617 --> 00:18:40,161
Alice in Wonderland and Alice
Through the Looking Glass.
372
00:18:40,411 --> 00:18:41,771
So I guess that's
the kind of thing
373
00:18:41,913 --> 00:18:43,289
he'd be reading.
374
00:18:43,540 --> 00:18:45,017
Just think about him in
that room up there though,
375
00:18:45,041 --> 00:18:47,061
I love the idea of him
listening to Radio Luxembourg,
376
00:18:47,085 --> 00:18:48,765
and the thing I love
about Radio Luxembourg
377
00:18:48,795 --> 00:18:51,422
is it was a stronger
signal at night.
378
00:18:51,673 --> 00:18:52,942
It's almost like
this organic thing,
379
00:18:52,966 --> 00:18:54,676
or a thing that's
tuned into the planet,
380
00:18:54,926 --> 00:18:57,011
so when it goes dark,
the signal gets louder.
381
00:18:57,262 --> 00:18:58,805
So that little room is like
382
00:18:59,055 --> 00:19:01,808
a self facilitating
multimedia Center.
383
00:19:02,058 --> 00:19:03,178
He's plugged into the world,
384
00:19:03,309 --> 00:19:05,228
or to Europe at least,
via Radio Luxembourg,
385
00:19:05,478 --> 00:19:07,397
he's reading books,
he's got a typewriter
386
00:19:07,647 --> 00:19:10,984
so he's kind of
producing text as well.
387
00:19:11,234 --> 00:19:12,527
And also it's a room.
388
00:19:12,777 --> 00:19:14,654
It's a kind of refuge,
it's his childhood
389
00:19:14,904 --> 00:19:16,489
and adolescent space, I guess.
390
00:19:16,739 --> 00:19:19,075
- Well this is Vale
Road of course,
391
00:19:19,325 --> 00:19:21,870
we're standing outside my house.
392
00:19:22,120 --> 00:19:24,706
Just further down
the road on the left
393
00:19:24,956 --> 00:19:27,125
is where Ivan Vaughan lived,
394
00:19:27,375 --> 00:19:30,879
and he was the guy that
introduced Paul McCartney
395
00:19:31,129 --> 00:19:32,672
to John Lennon.
396
00:19:32,922 --> 00:19:34,883
Further up the road on the left
397
00:19:35,133 --> 00:19:37,010
is Pete Shotton's house,
398
00:19:37,260 --> 00:19:41,097
and behind me, at the back here,
399
00:19:41,347 --> 00:19:44,017
Menlove Avenue, is
where John lived.
400
00:19:45,268 --> 00:19:49,314
It was very much like
my own house, really.
401
00:19:49,564 --> 00:19:51,900
You weren't allowed to go
in through the front door,
402
00:19:52,150 --> 00:19:54,319
you had to go round the back.
403
00:19:55,486 --> 00:19:57,280
Mimi was a sort of,
404
00:19:57,530 --> 00:19:59,199
she was a bit of
a disciplinarian.
405
00:19:59,449 --> 00:20:02,827
She was, you know,
bloody keen on John
406
00:20:03,077 --> 00:20:04,787
doing the right thing.
407
00:20:05,038 --> 00:20:08,625
Uncle George was a
very affable chap,
408
00:20:08,875 --> 00:20:12,754
very pleasant,
quiet, good old boy.
409
00:20:21,012 --> 00:20:22,198
John's
life at Mendips
410
00:20:22,222 --> 00:20:24,140
was made easier knowing
he still had love
411
00:20:24,390 --> 00:20:26,809
and support from
his extended family.
412
00:20:27,060 --> 00:20:29,812
His Aunt Mayta, Uncle
Robert, and Cousin Stan
413
00:20:30,063 --> 00:20:32,315
lived in Scotland where
he visited regularly.
414
00:20:33,608 --> 00:20:35,360
While across the River Mersey,
415
00:20:35,610 --> 00:20:39,614
lived Aunt Nanny, Uncle
Sidney, and Cousin Michael.
416
00:20:41,157 --> 00:20:43,493
And Harry lived even
closer with Uncle Norman,
417
00:20:43,743 --> 00:20:45,703
and cousins Leila
and David and Wilson.
418
00:20:47,080 --> 00:20:48,748
And of course, John
still saw his mother,
419
00:20:48,998 --> 00:20:51,125
and new half-sisters,
Julia, and Jackie.
420
00:20:55,255 --> 00:20:58,925
♪ Oh, give me land,
lots of land ♪
421
00:20:59,175 --> 00:21:02,178
♪ Under starry skies above ♪
422
00:21:02,428 --> 00:21:05,390
♪ Don't fence me in ♪
423
00:21:06,349 --> 00:21:07,629
- The world that
John grew up in,
424
00:21:07,809 --> 00:21:08,809
and that I grew up in,
425
00:21:08,977 --> 00:21:10,270
when the war finished,
426
00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:14,524
we were brought it in the
way of our parents lives
427
00:21:14,774 --> 00:21:16,943
which were in the 20s and 30s.
428
00:21:17,193 --> 00:21:20,780
And it was a gentle,
quiet, cozy way of life.
429
00:21:21,030 --> 00:21:22,532
- When the Second
World War ended,
430
00:21:22,782 --> 00:21:24,659
everybody thought that
rationing would end,
431
00:21:24,909 --> 00:21:27,787
but of course, because we
hadn't rebuilt our trade,
432
00:21:28,037 --> 00:21:29,831
because we were still
pretty impoverished,
433
00:21:30,081 --> 00:21:31,749
rationing actually went on.
434
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:33,960
So, really, the
austerity of the war
435
00:21:34,210 --> 00:21:37,755
kinda continued until
the sort of early 1950s.
436
00:21:38,006 --> 00:21:40,800
- We had no
television, of course.
437
00:21:41,050 --> 00:21:42,050
We did have a radio.
438
00:21:43,177 --> 00:21:45,638
- My big early memory
is of children.
439
00:21:45,888 --> 00:21:48,516
The children coming out
into the streets again
440
00:21:48,766 --> 00:21:51,311
after the war, because
they'd been locked away,
441
00:21:51,561 --> 00:21:52,854
for safety reasons.
442
00:21:53,104 --> 00:21:56,316
And dozens of them in
the streets playing.
443
00:21:56,566 --> 00:21:59,902
- We used to go up to the
Saturday morning matinees,
444
00:22:00,153 --> 00:22:02,864
the cinema, that
was really a riot.
445
00:22:03,114 --> 00:22:05,074
- We had freedom.
446
00:22:05,325 --> 00:22:06,326
Freedom to run.
447
00:22:06,576 --> 00:22:08,494
- Well, there was four
of us in the gang.
448
00:22:09,662 --> 00:22:11,998
It would be Pete
Shotton, Ivan Vaughan,
449
00:22:12,248 --> 00:22:14,000
John, and myself.
450
00:22:14,250 --> 00:22:16,836
I always felt that
John as the leader.
451
00:22:17,086 --> 00:22:19,005
But this is the tip.
452
00:22:19,255 --> 00:22:20,965
It used to be called the tip,
453
00:22:21,215 --> 00:22:23,968
and it was part
of our playground.
454
00:22:24,218 --> 00:22:26,721
We used to play soccer
on here, and cricket,
455
00:22:28,181 --> 00:22:30,058
and it was also a shortcut
to Menlove Avenue.
456
00:22:32,226 --> 00:22:33,561
- And this was the
stretch of land
457
00:22:33,811 --> 00:22:35,772
they went between, Menlove
Avenue, and Vale Road.
458
00:22:36,022 --> 00:22:38,816
So this is where John and
his young friends would play.
459
00:22:39,067 --> 00:22:41,319
And it was just like
derelict waste ground.
460
00:22:41,569 --> 00:22:43,071
See, on this photo here,
461
00:22:44,238 --> 00:22:46,133
John's on his bike, obviously
having a lot of fun,
462
00:22:46,157 --> 00:22:47,700
and it is just open land.
463
00:22:49,285 --> 00:22:51,165
Quite different obviously
to what it's like now.
464
00:22:51,245 --> 00:22:54,582
- But this is part of the
landscape of Lennon's childhood,
465
00:22:54,832 --> 00:22:56,501
just as much as
Strawberry Fields was
466
00:22:56,751 --> 00:22:57,960
gonna be later on.
467
00:22:59,253 --> 00:23:00,314
This kind of, and
I guess at the time
468
00:23:00,338 --> 00:23:01,418
looking at this photograph,
469
00:23:01,547 --> 00:23:02,867
so it would've
been a very shabby,
470
00:23:03,091 --> 00:23:05,760
very post-war, very
derelict sort of edge-land
471
00:23:06,969 --> 00:23:08,169
between the suburbs, you know,
472
00:23:08,262 --> 00:23:09,622
this kind of little
green corridor.
473
00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:11,200
I mean, it's been
really tidied up now,
474
00:23:11,391 --> 00:23:12,934
it's a lot greener anyway.
475
00:23:13,184 --> 00:23:14,977
But this would've
been important to him.
476
00:23:15,228 --> 00:23:16,896
- Oh yeah, absolutely, I mean,
477
00:23:17,146 --> 00:23:18,981
one of the great things
for John in a way was,
478
00:23:19,232 --> 00:23:20,312
coming from Menlove Avenue,
479
00:23:20,483 --> 00:23:22,235
then he'd walk across
the tip this way,
480
00:23:22,485 --> 00:23:25,071
because right over here
is Pete Shotton's house,
481
00:23:25,321 --> 00:23:26,465
and that's close to
Nigel Walley's house,
482
00:23:26,489 --> 00:23:28,449
and Ivan Vaughan's
house as well.
483
00:23:28,699 --> 00:23:30,099
And this is where,
John must've been
484
00:23:30,326 --> 00:23:32,620
five, six years old, not
long moved into the area.
485
00:23:34,122 --> 00:23:36,082
And he's almost integrating
into this little gang,
486
00:23:36,332 --> 00:23:37,875
but Pete is
obviously the leader,
487
00:23:38,126 --> 00:23:40,753
and John wanted to get
that leadership from Peter.
488
00:23:41,003 --> 00:23:43,464
So they end up here somewhere,
489
00:23:43,714 --> 00:23:45,007
having a little scrap.
490
00:23:45,258 --> 00:23:48,052
And at Sunday school,
Pete Shotton had realized
491
00:23:48,302 --> 00:23:50,012
that John's middle
name was Winston.
492
00:23:51,264 --> 00:23:52,533
And so Pete decides to
start taunting John,
493
00:23:52,557 --> 00:23:53,683
and calling him "Winnie",
494
00:23:53,933 --> 00:23:55,643
and that used to drive him mad.
495
00:23:55,893 --> 00:23:58,855
So John ends up on top
of Pete on the floor,
496
00:23:59,105 --> 00:24:00,273
but you know, it's not fists,
497
00:24:00,523 --> 00:24:01,941
not punching him or anything,
498
00:24:02,191 --> 00:24:05,111
but it's verbals, it's don't
you ever call me that again.
499
00:24:05,361 --> 00:24:07,297
And again, we're looking
at the outlaws, aren't we?
500
00:24:07,321 --> 00:24:08,321
With that Just William.
501
00:24:08,448 --> 00:24:10,032
- Just William books, yeah.
502
00:24:10,283 --> 00:24:11,718
And that's where they
would've reinforced
503
00:24:11,742 --> 00:24:13,302
the sense of their
kind of outsiderness,
504
00:24:13,369 --> 00:24:15,830
and their gang
mentality in this space
505
00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:17,457
away form the adult world.
506
00:24:17,707 --> 00:24:20,376
I think it would've been
reinforced in a place like this.
507
00:24:20,626 --> 00:24:23,296
I'm also interested that
Winnie upset him so much.
508
00:24:25,965 --> 00:24:27,216
Names will never hurt me,
509
00:24:27,467 --> 00:24:30,470
but on the same effect as
sticks and stones for Lennon,
510
00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:32,722
and it's interesting
it became such a gobby,
511
00:24:32,972 --> 00:24:34,533
and in many ways, a
kind of unpleasant guy,
512
00:24:34,557 --> 00:24:36,559
because he could
lacerate with his mouth,
513
00:24:36,809 --> 00:24:38,162
he could really do a
lot of damage with it.
514
00:24:38,186 --> 00:24:40,855
That's my sense of
the young John Lennon.
515
00:24:41,105 --> 00:24:42,374
- But being out here in Woolton,
516
00:24:42,398 --> 00:24:43,566
which is very English,
517
00:24:43,816 --> 00:24:46,402
it's a very village-y feel.
518
00:24:46,652 --> 00:24:47,812
There wasn't a strong accent,
519
00:24:47,862 --> 00:24:49,542
John didn't have a
strong Liverpool accent.
520
00:24:49,614 --> 00:24:50,281
- No, this is the thing,
521
00:24:50,531 --> 00:24:51,731
Mimi wouldn't have liked that.
522
00:24:51,824 --> 00:24:53,493
They called it talking
broad, didn't they?
523
00:24:53,743 --> 00:24:56,287
But the accents, as so often
happened in those days,
524
00:24:56,537 --> 00:25:00,208
was tidied up and
removed from young kids
525
00:25:00,458 --> 00:25:01,658
a little bit like the wildness
526
00:25:01,751 --> 00:25:03,878
has been knocked
out of this space
527
00:25:04,128 --> 00:25:05,296
that we're in now.
528
00:25:18,809 --> 00:25:20,537
After six
months at Mosspits Lane
529
00:25:20,561 --> 00:25:23,773
Primary School, Mimi's
aspirations for John
530
00:25:24,023 --> 00:25:25,775
saw him enrolled
in another school,
531
00:25:26,776 --> 00:25:28,402
Dovedale Primary School.
532
00:25:28,653 --> 00:25:30,696
- I was very lucky to go
to Dovedale Road School.
533
00:25:30,947 --> 00:25:32,990
Dovedale Road County
Primaries it was called then.
534
00:25:33,241 --> 00:25:35,868
It was probably one of the,
if not the best school.
535
00:25:36,118 --> 00:25:38,238
One of the best schools in
Liverpool, South Liverpool.
536
00:25:38,329 --> 00:25:40,081
When you're talking
about John Lennon,
537
00:25:40,331 --> 00:25:41,791
although I was the year below,
538
00:25:42,041 --> 00:25:43,668
and I didn't mix with him,
539
00:25:43,918 --> 00:25:44,502
I was aware of him.
540
00:25:44,752 --> 00:25:46,504
You knew who he was.
541
00:25:46,754 --> 00:25:50,049
- It didn't take too long to
discover that he was different,
542
00:25:50,299 --> 00:25:51,842
and apart from anything else,
543
00:25:52,093 --> 00:25:54,053
he didn't live with
a mother and father,
544
00:25:55,304 --> 00:25:57,682
and he lived with
an auntie and uncle.
545
00:25:57,932 --> 00:26:00,184
That of itself is
pretty strange.
546
00:26:00,434 --> 00:26:02,270
- As I remember seeing
as a wee kiddie,
547
00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:05,022
being stuck up against the
wall for dinner tickets.
548
00:26:05,273 --> 00:26:07,525
Now, John didn't do these
things often himself,
549
00:26:07,775 --> 00:26:11,904
it was others, it was others
that did these things for him.
550
00:26:13,364 --> 00:26:17,034
And he just had a charisma
as well, you know,
551
00:26:17,285 --> 00:26:20,538
that not everybody, tons
of people wouldn't like it,
552
00:26:20,788 --> 00:26:24,250
but there were lots of
people that were drawn to it.
553
00:26:25,167 --> 00:26:27,545
- I mean, that's one class.
554
00:26:27,795 --> 00:26:30,298
42, I think, boys in one class.
555
00:26:31,299 --> 00:26:33,551
It would take quite
a lot of handling.
556
00:26:33,801 --> 00:26:36,137
Now mostly I remember
John not so much
557
00:26:36,387 --> 00:26:37,680
in the classroom in those days,
558
00:26:37,930 --> 00:26:39,515
but more in the playground.
559
00:26:39,765 --> 00:26:42,059
You know, John was tough,
but mostly verbally,
560
00:26:42,310 --> 00:26:43,311
not physically.
561
00:26:43,561 --> 00:26:44,663
He only ever would
get in a fight
562
00:26:44,687 --> 00:26:45,688
if he knew he could win,
563
00:26:45,938 --> 00:26:46,939
but he was very good,
564
00:26:47,189 --> 00:26:48,549
I mean he had a
choice of language,
565
00:26:48,649 --> 00:26:51,277
and all my best swear words
would've come from John.
566
00:26:52,570 --> 00:26:56,574
- And I lost my mom,
at nine and a half, 10.
567
00:26:58,117 --> 00:27:01,037
And my Aunt Mina in
Pittsburgh, America,
568
00:27:01,287 --> 00:27:02,538
felt so sorry for me,
569
00:27:02,788 --> 00:27:06,584
she sent me a big package
of candy, a cowboy outfit.
570
00:27:08,210 --> 00:27:11,172
This business of cowboys
was into our culture,
571
00:27:11,422 --> 00:27:13,215
we were all possessed
with cowboys.
572
00:27:13,466 --> 00:27:16,427
And I'd got this wonderful,
wonderful Colt.45
573
00:27:17,637 --> 00:27:18,971
from my Aunt Mina in America,
574
00:27:19,221 --> 00:27:21,307
but foolishly took it
to Dovedale Road School.
575
00:27:22,725 --> 00:27:24,411
And I must've been
galloping around, you know,
576
00:27:24,435 --> 00:27:26,437
jumping around the playground,
577
00:27:26,687 --> 00:27:29,190
and firing this off,
and he'd see that, John.
578
00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:31,942
And he sent these two guys
579
00:27:32,193 --> 00:27:34,153
who I knew were
part of his group,
580
00:27:34,403 --> 00:27:37,156
and they got hold of me,
kicked me in the balls.
581
00:27:37,406 --> 00:27:39,286
I didn't take the gun off
me, by God, I was ill.
582
00:27:39,325 --> 00:27:41,285
I was ill for days afterwards.
583
00:27:41,535 --> 00:27:42,536
And I know it was Lennon,
584
00:27:42,787 --> 00:27:45,748
because these two guys
were part of his group.
585
00:27:47,124 --> 00:27:50,836
♪ Life is but a dream ♪
586
00:27:51,087 --> 00:27:54,340
♪ Is what you make it ♪
587
00:27:54,590 --> 00:27:58,886
♪ Always try to give ♪
588
00:27:59,136 --> 00:28:02,264
♪ Don't ever take it ♪
589
00:28:02,515 --> 00:28:06,352
- This was a photo, the
existence of which was
590
00:28:06,602 --> 00:28:08,062
unknown for about 50 years,
591
00:28:08,312 --> 00:28:11,107
and it suddenly appeared and
592
00:28:11,357 --> 00:28:14,235
when the teacher who had
taken the photograph,
593
00:28:14,485 --> 00:28:16,612
Fred Bolt, finally died,
594
00:28:16,862 --> 00:28:18,948
Fred used to lead
the school camp
595
00:28:19,198 --> 00:28:22,535
from Dovedale Road
Primary School
596
00:28:22,785 --> 00:28:24,578
every year to the Isle of Man.
597
00:28:25,538 --> 00:28:26,578
But I think for all of us,
598
00:28:26,747 --> 00:28:28,958
it was the first time
we'd been away from
599
00:28:29,208 --> 00:28:31,377
home without our parents,
600
00:28:31,627 --> 00:28:33,921
and you can see John
Lennon right at the front,
601
00:28:34,171 --> 00:28:37,007
standing next to him
is Jimmy Tarbuck.
602
00:28:38,592 --> 00:28:40,928
And the body language in the
photograph is interesting,
603
00:28:41,178 --> 00:28:45,057
just behind that's me,
Michael Hill behind,
604
00:28:45,307 --> 00:28:47,560
and here is Ivan Vaughan,
605
00:28:47,810 --> 00:28:52,231
who was to play such a significant part in Beatles history
606
00:28:52,481 --> 00:28:56,652
by introducing John
Lennon to Paul McCartney.
607
00:28:56,902 --> 00:29:00,740
John's very much pushing
with his arms out,
608
00:29:00,990 --> 00:29:03,367
he's sort of I'm the
leader, you keep back,
609
00:29:03,617 --> 00:29:06,328
and I'm just happy,
the biggest grin,
610
00:29:06,579 --> 00:29:08,247
and you could see me standing,
611
00:29:08,497 --> 00:29:10,124
I was the tallest
boy in the school
612
00:29:10,374 --> 00:29:11,959
when we left about a year later.
613
00:29:15,421 --> 00:29:18,048
- Dovedale Road was
quite a sporty school.
614
00:29:18,299 --> 00:29:20,843
I don't know how he came to me
615
00:29:21,093 --> 00:29:22,173
to begin this boxing match,
616
00:29:22,386 --> 00:29:23,386
and I don't know how John
617
00:29:23,554 --> 00:29:25,222
came to be in the
same boxing match,
618
00:29:25,473 --> 00:29:27,600
but he and I were
thrown together.
619
00:29:28,559 --> 00:29:30,311
And John and I donned
our boxing gloves,
620
00:29:30,561 --> 00:29:32,271
and into the ring we went,
621
00:29:32,521 --> 00:29:34,607
intending to knock
it out of each other.
622
00:29:34,857 --> 00:29:38,110
John's eyesight wasn't
particularly good,
623
00:29:38,360 --> 00:29:42,364
and somehow he managed a
lucky punch on my nose,
624
00:29:42,615 --> 00:29:44,366
and the minute your
nose gets punched,
625
00:29:44,617 --> 00:29:45,618
your eyes water.
626
00:29:45,868 --> 00:29:48,037
So there's John Lennon
with not much sight,
627
00:29:48,287 --> 00:29:50,498
me, couldn't see two
feet in front of me,
628
00:29:50,748 --> 00:29:53,250
running around this rope ring.
629
00:29:53,501 --> 00:29:54,501
As you got near the ring,
630
00:29:54,710 --> 00:29:56,188
they would push you
back into the Center.
631
00:29:56,212 --> 00:29:59,340
It was the longest two
minutes of my life.
632
00:29:59,590 --> 00:30:02,259
That memory stays
in my mind forever,
633
00:30:02,510 --> 00:30:03,950
it's never gone away
all these years,
634
00:30:04,094 --> 00:30:05,513
it still stands out.
635
00:30:05,763 --> 00:30:07,848
I was in the boxing
ring with John Lennon.
636
00:30:20,611 --> 00:30:22,780
♪ Let me take you down ♪
637
00:30:23,030 --> 00:30:27,993
♪ Cause I'm going to
Strawberry Fields ♪
638
00:30:31,747 --> 00:30:35,084
♪ Nothing is real ♪
639
00:30:35,334 --> 00:30:39,171
♪ And nothing to
get hung about ♪
640
00:30:39,421 --> 00:30:42,675
♪ Strawberry Fields Forever ♪
641
00:30:42,925 --> 00:30:44,820
So, I mean we're
right around the corner
642
00:30:44,844 --> 00:30:45,553
from Mendips, aren't we?
643
00:30:45,803 --> 00:30:46,929
How far away are we, what?
644
00:30:47,179 --> 00:30:48,179
100, 200 yards?
645
00:30:48,347 --> 00:30:49,507
- Exactly, this is Vale Road,
646
00:30:49,723 --> 00:30:51,976
Vale Road goes, and arches
right behind Mendips
647
00:30:52,226 --> 00:30:53,727
where John lived.
648
00:30:53,978 --> 00:30:55,258
And he spent a lot of time here,
649
00:30:55,312 --> 00:30:57,189
cause this is where his
outlaws, his friends,
650
00:30:57,439 --> 00:30:58,649
this is where he lives.
651
00:30:58,899 --> 00:31:00,819
The Ivan Vaughan, Nigel
Walley, and Pete Shotton.
652
00:31:01,861 --> 00:31:03,195
They all lived here,
653
00:31:03,445 --> 00:31:04,923
and of course, this is
where they would come to,
654
00:31:04,947 --> 00:31:08,742
because this was the rear
boundary of Strawberry Fields.
655
00:31:08,993 --> 00:31:11,412
Not the gates that
we all think of.
656
00:31:11,662 --> 00:31:13,789
This is where John would
come with his friends.
657
00:31:14,039 --> 00:31:16,166
Most importantly was the mansion
658
00:31:16,417 --> 00:31:18,794
that used to stand in the
grounds of Strawberry Field.
659
00:31:19,044 --> 00:31:20,462
Now this was up on
top of the hill,
660
00:31:20,713 --> 00:31:22,089
and John could actually see
661
00:31:22,339 --> 00:31:25,050
from the back of
Mendips this house,
662
00:31:25,301 --> 00:31:27,386
and it looked like a castle.
663
00:31:27,636 --> 00:31:28,780
So he got a vivid imagination,
664
00:31:28,804 --> 00:31:30,556
as we know John had.
665
00:31:30,806 --> 00:31:33,017
This was a fabulous
place to come,
666
00:31:33,267 --> 00:31:34,267
and to explore.
667
00:31:35,436 --> 00:31:37,276
- And he would've used
the unofficial entrance,
668
00:31:37,521 --> 00:31:39,321
that's why there's a
ladder here, you noticed?
669
00:31:39,356 --> 00:31:40,636
- I hadn't even
noticed that one.
670
00:31:40,858 --> 00:31:41,877
- They would've
bunked over the wall,
671
00:31:41,901 --> 00:31:42,943
him and his mates.
672
00:31:43,193 --> 00:31:44,504
- Oh, of course, cause
you've got a group
673
00:31:44,528 --> 00:31:47,406
of teenage lads, a big
wall, private property.
674
00:31:47,656 --> 00:31:48,800
You know, they're gonna
climb over, aren't they?
675
00:31:48,824 --> 00:31:50,451
Go and see what's
there and of course,
676
00:31:50,701 --> 00:31:52,411
out here, everything's real,
677
00:31:52,661 --> 00:31:54,455
over there, nothing is real.
678
00:31:54,705 --> 00:31:57,541
- I'm thinking, you know,
the 50s, the 60s, and the 70s
679
00:31:57,791 --> 00:32:00,753
were a golden age of den
building in this country
680
00:32:01,003 --> 00:32:04,214
after the war, I mean kids
had to find that space
681
00:32:04,465 --> 00:32:05,505
away from the adult world,
682
00:32:05,716 --> 00:32:08,218
whether they were just
children or adolescence,
683
00:32:08,469 --> 00:32:10,387
they liked to find a space
684
00:32:10,638 --> 00:32:13,140
that was outside of
all the ordinary rules,
685
00:32:13,390 --> 00:32:14,058
and I think this must've been
686
00:32:14,308 --> 00:32:15,601
that kind of space for them.
687
00:32:15,851 --> 00:32:17,245
If you think about the
Just William books as well,
688
00:32:17,269 --> 00:32:18,309
it's all a gang, isn't it?
689
00:32:18,395 --> 00:32:19,772
And a gang mentality.
690
00:32:20,981 --> 00:32:22,500
And this is where he
would've gone over the wall
691
00:32:22,524 --> 00:32:23,067
with his mates.
692
00:32:23,317 --> 00:32:24,526
Do you know what though?
693
00:32:24,777 --> 00:32:27,529
I'm also thinking of one of
his other favorite books,
694
00:32:27,780 --> 00:32:28,780
Alice in Wonderland.
695
00:32:28,906 --> 00:32:30,491
And if you look
at the title page,
696
00:32:30,741 --> 00:32:32,576
it's possibly the
most famous scene
697
00:32:32,826 --> 00:32:34,328
in the entire book.
698
00:32:34,578 --> 00:32:37,122
Which is where Alice
follows the white rabbit,
699
00:32:37,373 --> 00:32:40,334
and finds herself going
down the rabbit hole
700
00:32:40,584 --> 00:32:43,212
into a kind of very
inverted world.
701
00:32:43,462 --> 00:32:44,648
And I guess that's
the same kind of thing
702
00:32:44,672 --> 00:32:46,590
as what he's up to
here, the young Lennon,
703
00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:49,051
he's finding another space
where nothing is real.
704
00:32:49,301 --> 00:32:50,427
Can I just say as well,
705
00:32:50,678 --> 00:32:53,347
we're in the middle of
Sandstoneopolis here.
706
00:32:53,597 --> 00:32:54,741
This part of South Liverpool,
707
00:32:54,765 --> 00:32:55,909
it might come as a
surprise to people
708
00:32:55,933 --> 00:32:57,851
who think of Liverpool
as a kind of,
709
00:32:58,102 --> 00:32:59,622
or thought of Liverpool
and The Beatles
710
00:32:59,812 --> 00:33:01,438
when John was here
as a kind of grimy,
711
00:33:01,689 --> 00:33:05,317
industrial, port city.
712
00:33:05,567 --> 00:33:10,280
And it was that, but it's also
got its sandstone suburbs,
713
00:33:10,531 --> 00:33:11,841
and I think of this
part of Liverpool
714
00:33:11,865 --> 00:33:13,701
as a kind of giant
walled garden,
715
00:33:13,951 --> 00:33:16,912
it reminds me of The Secret
Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett,
716
00:33:17,162 --> 00:33:20,374
the Victorian sense of this
space out of the ordinary
717
00:33:20,624 --> 00:33:21,875
where the children go.
718
00:33:23,335 --> 00:33:24,795
Listen, I can't resist,
719
00:33:25,045 --> 00:33:26,405
I think I'm gonna
climb the ladder.
720
00:33:26,547 --> 00:33:28,674
- And can we see what
John would've seen
721
00:33:29,842 --> 00:33:30,842
in Strawberry Field?
722
00:33:38,726 --> 00:33:40,446
- I'm afraid it's gone
from nothing is real,
723
00:33:40,644 --> 00:33:42,396
to real estate.
724
00:33:42,646 --> 00:33:44,523
It's all been built over.
725
00:33:44,773 --> 00:33:46,358
So it's all gone.
726
00:33:46,608 --> 00:33:48,208
I wonder what John
would've made of that.
727
00:33:49,653 --> 00:33:51,172
I mean it's lovely,
but it's not otherworldly.
728
00:33:51,196 --> 00:33:52,196
No.
729
00:34:25,439 --> 00:34:30,402
♪ I've found my thrill ♪
730
00:34:31,153 --> 00:34:35,449
♪ On Blueberry Hill ♪
731
00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:40,746
♪ On Blueberry Hill ♪
732
00:34:41,747 --> 00:34:44,500
♪ When I found you ♪
733
00:34:44,750 --> 00:34:47,002
Like every other
child in primary school,
734
00:34:47,252 --> 00:34:50,506
John sat the all
important eleven-plus exam
735
00:34:50,756 --> 00:34:52,966
to determine which senior
school he would go to.
736
00:34:54,176 --> 00:34:55,779
There's an exam
they have in England
737
00:34:55,803 --> 00:34:56,988
that they hang over your head,
738
00:34:57,012 --> 00:34:58,263
there's a couple of them,
739
00:34:58,514 --> 00:34:59,908
but one of them is
called the eleven-plus...
740
00:34:59,932 --> 00:35:03,310
And they hang it over
you from age five,
741
00:35:03,560 --> 00:35:05,038
you know, if you don't
pass the eleven-plus,
742
00:35:05,062 --> 00:35:06,522
which you take at 11 obviously,
743
00:35:06,772 --> 00:35:07,932
then you're finished in life.
744
00:35:08,065 --> 00:35:10,192
So that was the only
exam that I ever passed,
745
00:35:10,442 --> 00:35:12,277
cause I was terrified.
746
00:35:12,528 --> 00:35:15,155
John's success
led to the next big step.
747
00:35:15,405 --> 00:35:17,491
A prize place at Quarry Bank,
748
00:35:17,741 --> 00:35:21,036
a boys only grammar school
close to Calderstones Park.
749
00:35:21,286 --> 00:35:22,579
He also took another big step
750
00:35:22,830 --> 00:35:25,207
by renewing his relationship
with his mother.
751
00:35:29,128 --> 00:35:31,713
♪ Quarry men old
before our birth ♪
752
00:35:31,964 --> 00:35:34,424
♪ Straining each
muscle and sinew ♪
753
00:35:34,675 --> 00:35:36,969
♪ Toiling together
Mother Earth ♪
754
00:35:37,219 --> 00:35:39,596
♪ Conquered the rock
that was in you ♪
755
00:35:39,847 --> 00:35:42,558
♪ Same in the Quarry
and all is done ♪
756
00:35:42,808 --> 00:35:45,018
♪ Readily will refute him ♪
757
00:35:45,269 --> 00:35:47,896
♪ We are the Quarry
and school our stone ♪
758
00:35:48,147 --> 00:35:51,024
♪ Hoc Ex Metallo Virtutem ♪
759
00:35:51,275 --> 00:35:52,502
The Quarry
Bank school motto
760
00:35:52,526 --> 00:35:55,070
is Ex Hoc Metallo Virtutem.
761
00:35:55,320 --> 00:35:58,699
- I recall it as out of
this quarry comes manhood.
762
00:35:58,949 --> 00:36:00,993
- I mean, I look
back on five years
763
00:36:01,243 --> 00:36:04,621
at a really good state
grammar school at Quarry Bank,
764
00:36:04,872 --> 00:36:06,632
and that you could go
on to go to university,
765
00:36:06,874 --> 00:36:09,376
and become a doctor, or
dentist, or whatever.
766
00:36:09,626 --> 00:36:12,129
Well, the school,
and first arriving here,
767
00:36:12,379 --> 00:36:13,755
you're sort of in awe of it.
768
00:36:14,006 --> 00:36:17,885
A beautiful building, it was
a school to aspire to get to.
769
00:36:18,135 --> 00:36:20,721
- I mean, when we went from
Dovedale to Quarry Bank,
770
00:36:20,971 --> 00:36:23,640
John was respectable, I
think he was quite angelic.
771
00:36:23,891 --> 00:36:25,893
This was his angelic period.
772
00:36:26,143 --> 00:36:28,520
But at Quarry Bank, he did
quite well in his first year,
773
00:36:28,770 --> 00:36:29,770
even in the top half,
774
00:36:29,897 --> 00:36:33,150
and kind of did a
progressive decline
775
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:35,360
almost accelerating decline.
776
00:36:35,611 --> 00:36:37,571
And by the end of five years,
777
00:36:37,821 --> 00:36:39,740
they were in the bottom form.
778
00:36:39,990 --> 00:36:41,110
Had there been a form below,
779
00:36:41,241 --> 00:36:42,886
they would've been in
the bottom of that one.
780
00:36:42,910 --> 00:36:44,179
They were
sort of assassin,
781
00:36:44,203 --> 00:36:45,579
whether you went
into the A stream,
782
00:36:45,829 --> 00:36:47,748
the B stream, or the C stream.
783
00:36:47,998 --> 00:36:49,374
And both John and I,
784
00:36:49,625 --> 00:36:52,961
and a few others went
into the B stream,
785
00:36:53,212 --> 00:36:55,422
and sort of held our
own for a year or two,
786
00:36:55,672 --> 00:36:58,675
and then we were
going down to floor C,
787
00:36:58,926 --> 00:37:00,093
the rot was setting in,
788
00:37:00,344 --> 00:37:02,721
and we were having more
fun than education.
789
00:37:02,971 --> 00:37:04,651
John's
mother Julia had always
790
00:37:04,806 --> 00:37:06,600
come to visit him at Mendips.
791
00:37:06,850 --> 00:37:08,060
But now John is older.
792
00:37:08,310 --> 00:37:11,230
He starts to go around
by himself to her house.
793
00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:12,940
Their relationship
becomes closer
794
00:37:13,190 --> 00:37:15,359
thanks to their
shared love of music.
795
00:37:15,609 --> 00:37:17,049
- He talked about
going to her house,
796
00:37:17,110 --> 00:37:18,278
wearing these funny clothes,
797
00:37:18,528 --> 00:37:20,864
putting knickers on her
head and doing silly things.
798
00:37:21,114 --> 00:37:22,114
And he told me about,
799
00:37:22,241 --> 00:37:23,784
as he told everybody since about
800
00:37:24,034 --> 00:37:26,912
teaching him to play the
guitar with banjo chords
801
00:37:27,162 --> 00:37:28,580
which didn't really work.
802
00:37:28,830 --> 00:37:30,624
And the song she sang.
803
00:37:30,874 --> 00:37:32,084
So he thought she was a gas.
804
00:37:39,132 --> 00:37:40,217
♪ Keep that up, keep up ♪
805
00:37:40,467 --> 00:37:42,070
Everybody
listened to The Goon Show,
806
00:37:42,094 --> 00:37:42,761
it was fabulous.
807
00:37:43,011 --> 00:37:44,131
- And the following morning,
808
00:37:44,263 --> 00:37:46,181
you could get the whole
script regurgitated
809
00:37:46,431 --> 00:37:47,641
with all the funny voices.
810
00:37:47,891 --> 00:37:49,601
Do you remember
their funny voices?
811
00:37:53,438 --> 00:37:54,666
We all
followed the Goons,
812
00:37:54,690 --> 00:37:55,959
he thrived on that
sort of humor,
813
00:37:55,983 --> 00:37:58,568
and probably took
it a stage further.
814
00:37:58,819 --> 00:38:01,321
- The Daily Howl,
written by John Lennon,
815
00:38:01,571 --> 00:38:04,199
was just his stories about life
816
00:38:04,449 --> 00:38:06,118
as it was happening all around.
817
00:38:06,368 --> 00:38:09,037
His home life, the
life at school,
818
00:38:09,288 --> 00:38:11,248
his imagination
running a bit wild.
819
00:38:22,509 --> 00:38:24,761
If you look
at his caricatures,
820
00:38:25,012 --> 00:38:29,975
they were absolutely
brilliant at age 14, 15, 16.
821
00:38:31,310 --> 00:38:34,479
And he would've been
another Gerald Scarfe.
822
00:38:34,730 --> 00:38:35,957
- I think the one who
could particularly
823
00:38:35,981 --> 00:38:38,692
recognize his talent
with the words and pen,
824
00:38:38,942 --> 00:38:40,861
and his cartoons, was Burnett,
825
00:38:41,111 --> 00:38:42,612
a sort of relatively new teacher
826
00:38:42,863 --> 00:38:43,864
who came to the school,
827
00:38:44,114 --> 00:38:45,466
possibly when we were
in the third year,
828
00:38:45,490 --> 00:38:47,200
or something like that.
829
00:38:47,451 --> 00:38:48,910
He sort of encouraged John
830
00:38:49,161 --> 00:38:52,664
to write more of
his humorous stuff,
831
00:38:52,914 --> 00:38:54,082
and draw his cartoons.
832
00:38:54,333 --> 00:38:56,960
But, you know, not in
the school time, John.
833
00:38:57,210 --> 00:38:58,712
Not in the middle of the lesson.
834
00:38:58,962 --> 00:39:00,523
- There was always one
teacher in each school
835
00:39:00,547 --> 00:39:02,799
that would usually
be an art teacher,
836
00:39:03,050 --> 00:39:05,050
or an English language or
literature kind of thing,
837
00:39:05,218 --> 00:39:06,928
if it's anything to do
with writing or art,
838
00:39:07,179 --> 00:39:08,179
I was okay at it.
839
00:39:08,305 --> 00:39:09,574
Anything to do with
science or maths,
840
00:39:09,598 --> 00:39:11,725
I couldn't get it in, you know?
841
00:39:11,975 --> 00:39:13,643
But most subjects were
science and maths,
842
00:39:13,894 --> 00:39:16,688
because they supposedly
don't want artists.
843
00:39:16,938 --> 00:39:18,166
Even at art school they tried to
844
00:39:18,190 --> 00:39:19,483
turn me into a teacher,
845
00:39:19,733 --> 00:39:21,294
they tried to discourage
you from painting,
846
00:39:21,318 --> 00:39:22,986
and why not be a teacher
847
00:39:23,236 --> 00:39:25,447
because then you
can paint on Sunday.
848
00:39:25,697 --> 00:39:27,866
Idling his
way through adolescence,
849
00:39:28,116 --> 00:39:30,827
and tragedy struck
John once again.
850
00:39:31,078 --> 00:39:34,831
Uncle George, the man he
grown to love as his father,
851
00:39:35,082 --> 00:39:37,167
died suddenly in 1955.
852
00:39:38,919 --> 00:39:41,546
I think with John,
there's an underlying anger
853
00:39:41,797 --> 00:39:43,131
at the world,
854
00:39:43,382 --> 00:39:45,634
it became more evident as he
went through grammar school.
855
00:39:45,884 --> 00:39:47,552
I think particularly
it came to a head
856
00:39:47,803 --> 00:39:50,013
when his uncle died
at quite a young age,
857
00:39:50,263 --> 00:39:51,473
John was about 14.
858
00:39:51,723 --> 00:39:53,242
And that really tipped
him over the edge,
859
00:39:53,266 --> 00:39:55,268
he just lost all interest.
860
00:39:56,269 --> 00:39:58,438
Yeah, he just was
doing his own thing,
861
00:39:58,688 --> 00:40:01,733
and I think part of
the anger was turned
862
00:40:01,983 --> 00:40:03,902
against the school system.
863
00:40:04,152 --> 00:40:06,863
You'll never make
it, that's what they told me.
864
00:40:07,114 --> 00:40:08,549
If you
didn't finish school?
865
00:40:08,573 --> 00:40:09,991
- One maths master wrote...
866
00:40:10,242 --> 00:40:10,992
You're on the road to failure
867
00:40:11,243 --> 00:40:12,953
if he carries on this way.
868
00:40:14,746 --> 00:40:16,099
- The real problem
with John was that
869
00:40:16,123 --> 00:40:18,708
he had a dislike of authority.
870
00:40:18,959 --> 00:40:21,044
If he was told he
had to do something,
871
00:40:21,294 --> 00:40:23,922
then he automatically
went into smart reverse.
872
00:40:24,172 --> 00:40:25,882
In our house he was
known as "That Lennon",
873
00:40:26,133 --> 00:40:28,176
as in keep away
from that Lennon.
874
00:40:28,427 --> 00:40:30,345
If anybody was gonna
take anything too far,
875
00:40:30,595 --> 00:40:31,595
it was John.
876
00:40:31,763 --> 00:40:33,241
So he was an interesting
guy to be around
877
00:40:33,265 --> 00:40:33,807
from that point of view.
878
00:40:34,057 --> 00:40:35,058
- Sure.
879
00:40:35,308 --> 00:40:37,727
- Behavior, I think he
was considered to be,
880
00:40:38,979 --> 00:40:41,398
you know, working
against serious study.
881
00:40:41,648 --> 00:40:43,084
- Very bad behavior,
I mean goodness,
882
00:40:43,108 --> 00:40:45,277
that was what, that
was chewing in glass?
883
00:40:45,527 --> 00:40:48,238
That wouldn't be just
one occasion at all, no.
884
00:40:49,239 --> 00:40:51,741
Misbehavior again, yes.
885
00:40:51,992 --> 00:40:54,953
Talking in class,
talking in class.
886
00:40:55,203 --> 00:40:57,289
Yes, he always was
talking in class.
887
00:40:57,539 --> 00:40:59,416
But he was
actually getting detentions
888
00:40:59,666 --> 00:41:01,018
while he was on detention
for mucking about.
889
00:41:01,042 --> 00:41:02,085
Yeah, he would.
890
00:41:02,335 --> 00:41:03,003
Some of
these teachers...
891
00:41:03,253 --> 00:41:04,293
Do you remember Fred Yule?
892
00:41:04,379 --> 00:41:04,921
Yeah.
893
00:41:05,172 --> 00:41:05,922
He was a...
894
00:41:06,173 --> 00:41:07,173
Big, fat fella.
895
00:41:07,299 --> 00:41:07,924
With one leg.
896
00:41:08,175 --> 00:41:09,259
That's right.
897
00:41:09,509 --> 00:41:11,720
He'd been a navigator
in Wellington bombers.
898
00:41:11,970 --> 00:41:13,180
Was he?
899
00:41:13,430 --> 00:41:15,324
- Well, he was telling us
about how he got shot up
900
00:41:15,348 --> 00:41:17,601
and lost his leg, I
think they were doing
901
00:41:17,851 --> 00:41:18,977
a bombing run over Algiers,
902
00:41:19,227 --> 00:41:20,227
or something like that.
903
00:41:20,395 --> 00:41:21,396
Oh, right.
904
00:41:21,646 --> 00:41:23,166
- So, he wasn't gonna
stand any messing about
905
00:41:23,190 --> 00:41:24,190
with John Lennon.
906
00:41:24,232 --> 00:41:25,233
- No, no.
907
00:41:25,484 --> 00:41:28,487
- At one time, he picked
John up by the lapels,
908
00:41:28,737 --> 00:41:30,155
and held him up there,
909
00:41:30,405 --> 00:41:32,616
because he was a
hugely strong bloke,
910
00:41:32,866 --> 00:41:34,701
and because all the
strength from his tin leg
911
00:41:34,951 --> 00:41:36,271
went into the rest
him.
912
00:41:36,328 --> 00:41:37,328
- Yeah.
913
00:41:37,537 --> 00:41:38,639
- And he just picked
John up and...
914
00:41:38,663 --> 00:41:40,081
Any more of that Lennon?
915
00:41:41,875 --> 00:41:43,394
- Once again, he's put
on his writer's hat
916
00:41:43,418 --> 00:41:45,212
to follow up the success
of his first book
917
00:41:45,462 --> 00:41:46,588
in his own right,
918
00:41:46,838 --> 00:41:48,198
with another epic
of inconsequence,
919
00:41:48,298 --> 00:41:49,674
A Spaniard in the Works,
920
00:41:49,925 --> 00:41:51,805
a little work full of
pieces of political wisdom
921
00:41:51,927 --> 00:41:53,053
such as you've just heard,
922
00:41:53,303 --> 00:41:54,930
and moving poems like
923
00:41:55,180 --> 00:41:57,724
The Wumberlog, or the Magic Dog.
924
00:41:57,974 --> 00:41:59,267
- Whilst all the tow was sleepy,
925
00:41:59,518 --> 00:42:01,186
crept a little boy from bed,
926
00:42:01,436 --> 00:42:02,646
to fained the wondrous peoble
927
00:42:02,896 --> 00:42:04,356
what lived what they were dead.
928
00:42:04,606 --> 00:42:05,646
He packed a little voucher
929
00:42:05,732 --> 00:42:07,067
for his dinner 'neath the tree,
930
00:42:07,317 --> 00:42:08,610
'Perhumps a tiny dwarf or two
931
00:42:08,860 --> 00:42:10,278
would share a bite with me?
932
00:42:11,238 --> 00:42:12,381
'Perchamp I'll
see the Wumberlog,
933
00:42:12,405 --> 00:42:13,114
the highly feathered crow,
934
00:42:13,365 --> 00:42:14,991
the larfing leaping Harristweed,
935
00:42:15,242 --> 00:42:16,701
and good old Uncle Joe.
936
00:42:16,952 --> 00:42:18,161
He packed he very trunkase,
937
00:42:18,411 --> 00:42:19,746
clean sockers for a week.
938
00:42:19,996 --> 00:42:21,316
His book and denzil
for his notes,
939
00:42:21,498 --> 00:42:23,083
then out the windy creep.
940
00:42:23,333 --> 00:42:24,533
He met him friendly magic dog,
941
00:42:24,668 --> 00:42:26,211
all black and curlew too.
942
00:42:26,461 --> 00:42:28,088
Wot flew him fast
in second class
943
00:42:28,338 --> 00:42:29,923
to do wot he must do.
944
00:42:30,173 --> 00:42:31,692
And what
did people think of him?
945
00:42:31,716 --> 00:42:34,511
I mean a lot of the other
people didn't like him
946
00:42:34,761 --> 00:42:38,181
because he never owned
up to doing anything,
947
00:42:38,431 --> 00:42:40,016
so it would be the whole class
948
00:42:40,267 --> 00:42:43,770
that would be given a
detention, or held back, so.
949
00:42:45,105 --> 00:42:48,817
So not everybody was a
fan of John Lennon's.
950
00:42:49,067 --> 00:42:50,987
Do you ever
see your old schoolmates?
951
00:42:51,027 --> 00:42:52,588
- No, actually only a
few old school friends,
952
00:42:52,612 --> 00:42:53,613
not teachers, no.
953
00:42:53,863 --> 00:42:54,573
- Yeah.
954
00:42:54,823 --> 00:42:55,863
- Most of them dislike me,
955
00:42:55,907 --> 00:42:57,492
except for one or two, yeah.
956
00:42:57,742 --> 00:43:01,037
So I am always glad
to remind them.
957
00:43:01,288 --> 00:43:02,807
Was there
ever a teacher that...
958
00:43:02,831 --> 00:43:04,591
- Of their own incredible
awareness they had.
959
00:43:11,506 --> 00:43:14,718
♪ I'm a rolling stone ♪
960
00:43:14,968 --> 00:43:18,263
♪ All alone and lost ♪
961
00:43:18,513 --> 00:43:21,975
♪ For a life of sin ♪
962
00:43:22,225 --> 00:43:23,225
♪ I have paid the cost ♪
963
00:43:23,393 --> 00:43:25,061
- And we were not
supposed to leave
964
00:43:25,312 --> 00:43:26,592
the school premises
at lunchtime,
965
00:43:26,730 --> 00:43:28,690
but we got in the
habit of leaving,
966
00:43:28,940 --> 00:43:30,984
and going down to my house,
967
00:43:31,234 --> 00:43:33,320
which was about a 10
minute bike ride away.
968
00:43:33,570 --> 00:43:35,739
Down in Dovedale Road,
just along the road
969
00:43:35,989 --> 00:43:38,158
from the primary school.
970
00:43:38,408 --> 00:43:40,076
John's best friend,
my best friend,
971
00:43:40,327 --> 00:43:43,121
so that was John
and Pete Shotton,
972
00:43:43,371 --> 00:43:45,206
that's with my best
friend, Don Beatty,
973
00:43:45,457 --> 00:43:47,208
the four of us were the...
974
00:43:47,459 --> 00:43:49,139
The regular routine
was that they'd come by
975
00:43:49,336 --> 00:43:50,336
the fish and chips,
976
00:43:50,545 --> 00:43:52,005
and I'd peel off and go home,
977
00:43:52,255 --> 00:43:54,257
and I was very domesticated.
978
00:43:54,507 --> 00:43:56,667
I'd warm the plates up, and
make some bread and butter.
979
00:43:56,843 --> 00:43:59,721
My mother was at work,
that's how we could do that.
980
00:43:59,971 --> 00:44:01,056
It was innocent enough,
981
00:44:01,306 --> 00:44:03,516
I mean, the most we'd do
is smoke one cigarette.
982
00:44:03,767 --> 00:44:04,976
We'd eat some fish and chips,
983
00:44:05,226 --> 00:44:08,146
we might have a few
hands of shoot pontoon,
984
00:44:08,396 --> 00:44:09,522
but we'd listen to records,
985
00:44:09,773 --> 00:44:11,858
and from 14 I did a paper round,
986
00:44:12,108 --> 00:44:13,860
and John never had any money,
987
00:44:14,110 --> 00:44:15,487
and never did any
work to get any.
988
00:44:15,737 --> 00:44:17,006
But he was always
short of money.
989
00:44:17,030 --> 00:44:18,630
But I was the one who
was buying records,
990
00:44:18,657 --> 00:44:21,368
and initially jazz following
my brother's interest,
991
00:44:21,618 --> 00:44:24,162
and then through things
like Hank Williams,
992
00:44:24,412 --> 00:44:26,373
and John got really
hooked on Hank Williams.
993
00:44:28,541 --> 00:44:33,505
♪ And now I'm lost,
too late to pray ♪
994
00:44:35,590 --> 00:44:38,885
♪ Lord, I've paid the cost ♪
995
00:44:39,135 --> 00:44:40,428
♪ On the lost highway ♪
996
00:44:40,679 --> 00:44:43,306
- Now this was Easter, 1956.
997
00:44:43,556 --> 00:44:44,974
We had the
opportunity to go on a
998
00:44:45,225 --> 00:44:48,144
school exchange
program to Amsterdam,
999
00:44:48,395 --> 00:44:50,230
and of the four
friends, as we were then
1000
00:44:50,480 --> 00:44:51,648
pretty close at Quarry Bank,
1001
00:44:51,898 --> 00:44:54,067
only three of us
went to Amsterdam.
1002
00:44:54,317 --> 00:44:55,360
John Lennon didn't go,
1003
00:44:55,610 --> 00:44:57,862
and I wish I could tell
you why he didn't go.
1004
00:44:58,113 --> 00:45:00,448
I discovered this
record which had only
1005
00:45:00,699 --> 00:45:01,741
just been released,
1006
00:45:01,991 --> 00:45:03,311
and I discovered
later it was like
1007
00:45:03,493 --> 00:45:05,328
been released about
two days before.
1008
00:45:05,578 --> 00:45:08,289
This record wasn't
released in the UK
1009
00:45:08,540 --> 00:45:10,166
for about another
six or nine months,
1010
00:45:10,417 --> 00:45:12,293
and it was Long Tall
Sally, Little Richard.
1011
00:45:12,544 --> 00:45:13,712
Just amazing.
1012
00:45:13,962 --> 00:45:15,547
And the young guy
in the shop told us
1013
00:45:15,797 --> 00:45:17,597
about the record, replayed
it, and I said wow.
1014
00:45:17,841 --> 00:45:19,676
And I remember thinking
wait 'til John Lennon
1015
00:45:19,926 --> 00:45:20,927
hears this record.
1016
00:45:21,177 --> 00:45:23,012
I put this on, I
told John, I said...
1017
00:45:23,263 --> 00:45:24,305
I've got a record here,
1018
00:45:24,556 --> 00:45:26,036
that immediately got
John's attention.
1019
00:45:26,224 --> 00:45:28,560
So they're all quiet,
I put the record on,
1020
00:45:28,810 --> 00:45:31,438
and this was on
a good radiogram,
1021
00:45:31,688 --> 00:45:34,315
with a very good bass,
and it was thumping out,
1022
00:45:34,566 --> 00:45:36,276
nobody at home, so
I had it on loud.
1023
00:45:37,861 --> 00:45:39,461
♪ Gonna tell Aunt Mary
'bout Uncle John ♪
1024
00:45:39,487 --> 00:45:41,799
♪ He claim he has the misery
but he's havin' a lot of fun ♪
1025
00:45:41,823 --> 00:45:43,408
♪ Oh baby ♪
1026
00:45:43,658 --> 00:45:45,744
♪ Yes, baby ♪
1027
00:45:45,994 --> 00:45:48,371
♪ Woo, baby ♪
1028
00:45:48,621 --> 00:45:51,332
♪ Havin' me some fun tonight ♪
1029
00:45:51,583 --> 00:45:55,712
- You know, when it stopped,
the silence was defeaning.
1030
00:45:55,962 --> 00:45:59,424
So we all look at John, waiting
for him to say something,
1031
00:45:59,674 --> 00:46:01,593
and really, it's keen
to have his reaction.
1032
00:46:02,844 --> 00:46:06,890
No reaction, just
absolutely stunned.
1033
00:46:07,140 --> 00:46:08,220
He didn't know what to say,
1034
00:46:08,391 --> 00:46:10,077
and it was only a matter
of weeks after that
1035
00:46:10,101 --> 00:46:13,480
that he went out to
London, bought a guitar.
1036
00:46:13,730 --> 00:46:14,731
♪ Have me some fun ♪
1037
00:46:14,981 --> 00:46:18,651
♪ Havin' me some fun tonight ♪
1038
00:46:26,618 --> 00:46:27,720
- I don't know
what the date was,
1039
00:46:27,744 --> 00:46:29,954
but it must've been
earlier in 1956.
1040
00:46:31,247 --> 00:46:32,600
John Lennon, Pete
Shotton and myself
1041
00:46:32,624 --> 00:46:35,043
had a little meeting
outside the woodwork room
1042
00:46:35,293 --> 00:46:37,462
with the idea of forming
this skiffle group.
1043
00:46:38,755 --> 00:46:40,256
John Lennon had the guitar
1044
00:46:40,507 --> 00:46:42,175
that he didn't know
much about playing,
1045
00:46:42,425 --> 00:46:43,551
Pete Shotton had nothing.
1046
00:46:43,802 --> 00:46:46,304
So he said okay, well,
the washboard will do you.
1047
00:46:46,554 --> 00:46:49,349
I said I'll supply the bass,
1048
00:46:49,599 --> 00:46:52,769
because I'd been to the
jazz clubs in town and
1049
00:46:54,229 --> 00:46:55,480
knew all about Lonnie Donegan
1050
00:46:55,730 --> 00:46:56,730
and the skiffle group
1051
00:46:56,856 --> 00:46:58,775
using a tea chest for a bass.
1052
00:46:59,025 --> 00:47:01,069
And I said right, I
will get the bass.
1053
00:47:01,319 --> 00:47:03,279
Because there was
plenty in the school.
1054
00:47:03,530 --> 00:47:04,280
What are they gonna call us?
1055
00:47:04,531 --> 00:47:06,199
I said the Quarrymen,
1056
00:47:06,449 --> 00:47:08,368
cause that's here,
Quarry Bank High School.
1057
00:47:08,618 --> 00:47:11,079
John Lennon said no, he
didn't like the idea.
1058
00:47:11,329 --> 00:47:14,207
Pete Shotton said no, you
know John, sounds okay.
1059
00:47:15,208 --> 00:47:16,459
So he says, ah, all right.
1060
00:47:16,709 --> 00:47:18,294
So that was the Quarrymen.
1061
00:47:18,545 --> 00:47:21,172
So later that afternoon
when it was all quiet,
1062
00:47:21,422 --> 00:47:23,383
I zipped into the woodwork room,
1063
00:47:23,633 --> 00:47:26,344
looked around, nobody,
yep, grabbed the tea chest,
1064
00:47:26,594 --> 00:47:28,513
and away down this
little back lane.
1065
00:47:28,763 --> 00:47:32,225
John Lennon, Pete
Shotton, Eric Griffiths,
1066
00:47:32,475 --> 00:47:34,394
and myself, Bill Smith.
1067
00:47:34,644 --> 00:47:38,189
And that was the
original four Quarrymen.
1068
00:47:39,691 --> 00:47:41,251
♪ Now I'll tell you
where I'm goin boy ♪
1069
00:47:41,276 --> 00:47:42,670
♪ Down the rock island line,
she's a mighty good road ♪
1070
00:47:42,694 --> 00:47:44,505
♪ Oh, the rock island
line is the road to ride ♪
1071
00:47:44,529 --> 00:47:46,489
♪ Yes, the rock island line
is a mighty good road ♪
1072
00:47:46,656 --> 00:47:48,456
♪ Well if you want to
ride you gotta ride it ♪
1073
00:47:48,533 --> 00:47:49,826
♪ Like you find it ♪
1074
00:47:50,076 --> 00:47:51,303
♪ Get your ticket at the station
on the rock island line ♪
1075
00:47:51,327 --> 00:47:52,638
- I was sitting in the
back of my dad's car
1076
00:47:52,662 --> 00:47:54,372
outside St. Helen's Market,
1077
00:47:54,622 --> 00:47:55,641
there was a record shop there,
1078
00:47:55,665 --> 00:47:56,958
and the door was open.
1079
00:47:57,208 --> 00:47:59,419
And this fantastic sound
came out of this record shop,
1080
00:47:59,669 --> 00:48:03,298
and that was Lonnie
Donegan's Rock Island Line.
1081
00:48:03,548 --> 00:48:04,549
And it changed my life,
1082
00:48:04,799 --> 00:48:07,176
as it did thousands of
other people's lives.
1083
00:48:07,427 --> 00:48:09,554
I came into school on
the Monday morning,
1084
00:48:09,804 --> 00:48:10,930
and said to Eric Griffiths,
1085
00:48:11,180 --> 00:48:12,891
I bought a banjo yesterday Eric,
1086
00:48:13,141 --> 00:48:14,743
oh yes he said, do you
want to be in the group?
1087
00:48:14,767 --> 00:48:15,435
He knew I couldn't
play because I only
1088
00:48:15,685 --> 00:48:17,270
bought it the day before.
1089
00:48:17,520 --> 00:48:18,855
Eric showed me the chords,
1090
00:48:19,105 --> 00:48:20,398
we only played three chords,
1091
00:48:20,648 --> 00:48:23,067
so it wasn't exactly
rocket science.
1092
00:48:26,946 --> 00:48:28,656
♪ Sweet sixteen goes to church ♪
1093
00:48:28,907 --> 00:48:30,950
♪ Just to see the boys ♪
1094
00:48:31,200 --> 00:48:32,952
♪ Laughs and screams
and giggles ♪
1095
00:48:33,202 --> 00:48:35,121
♪ At every little noise ♪
1096
00:48:35,371 --> 00:48:37,332
♪ She turns her head a little ♪
1097
00:48:37,582 --> 00:48:39,667
♪ And turns her head a while ♪
1098
00:48:39,918 --> 00:48:41,753
♪ But you know she told me ♪
1099
00:48:42,003 --> 00:48:43,838
♪ She's putting on the style ♪
1100
00:48:44,088 --> 00:48:46,424
♪ She's putting on the agony ♪
1101
00:48:46,674 --> 00:48:48,718
♪ Putting on the style ♪
1102
00:48:48,968 --> 00:48:51,346
Our tea chess
bass player, Bill Smith,
1103
00:48:51,596 --> 00:48:53,556
for some reason, never
turned up to rehearsal,
1104
00:48:53,806 --> 00:48:55,224
so we needed
another bass player,
1105
00:48:55,475 --> 00:48:59,979
so I asked Len, who
was one of John's mates
1106
00:49:00,229 --> 00:49:02,482
to take over, and
about the same time,
1107
00:49:02,732 --> 00:49:06,527
Eric Griffiths was
coming to work on school
1108
00:49:06,778 --> 00:49:08,458
on the same bus as
Colin was going to work,
1109
00:49:08,529 --> 00:49:10,531
and found Colin
had a set of drums,
1110
00:49:10,782 --> 00:49:12,784
so very quickly we
acquired a drummer
1111
00:49:13,034 --> 00:49:14,535
and another bass player.
1112
00:49:14,786 --> 00:49:17,622
Anyone who had an
instrument could join the band.
1113
00:49:17,872 --> 00:49:20,667
John and Eric then
went to some guitar lessons,
1114
00:49:20,917 --> 00:49:22,502
and after lesson two,
1115
00:49:22,752 --> 00:49:24,271
they realized they
were getting no work,
1116
00:49:24,295 --> 00:49:26,172
cause all they wanted
was a few chords.
1117
00:49:26,422 --> 00:49:28,841
So they went and complained
to John's mother Julia,
1118
00:49:29,092 --> 00:49:30,510
who could play the banjo,
1119
00:49:30,760 --> 00:49:32,738
and she said well, if you
tune the top four strings
1120
00:49:32,762 --> 00:49:33,888
of the guitar like a banjo,
1121
00:49:34,138 --> 00:49:35,848
the banjo chords I will
show you will work,
1122
00:49:36,099 --> 00:49:37,433
and that's what we did.
1123
00:49:37,684 --> 00:49:39,102
And until Paul
McCartney came along,
1124
00:49:39,352 --> 00:49:42,063
John and Eric played
banjo chords all the time.
1125
00:49:42,313 --> 00:49:43,707
Once we had
two or three numbers
1126
00:49:43,731 --> 00:49:45,251
under our belt, or
maybe a couple more,
1127
00:49:45,483 --> 00:49:47,068
I mean just, where
are we gonna play?
1128
00:49:47,318 --> 00:49:48,878
This is Quarry
Bank school hall,
1129
00:49:49,112 --> 00:49:51,155
and I used to come in
here every morning.
1130
00:49:51,406 --> 00:49:53,741
The school dances were
started around '56,
1131
00:49:53,992 --> 00:49:56,828
there was certainly a school
dance in November '56.
1132
00:49:57,078 --> 00:49:59,288
What we used to do was
play the interval spot,
1133
00:49:59,539 --> 00:50:01,457
because you used to
have a dance band
1134
00:50:01,708 --> 00:50:03,876
for waltzes, quick
steps, etcetera.
1135
00:50:04,127 --> 00:50:05,461
And then in the interval,
1136
00:50:05,712 --> 00:50:07,592
then you'd have a skiffle
group in the interval,
1137
00:50:07,714 --> 00:50:09,215
who would play for
about half an hour,
1138
00:50:09,465 --> 00:50:10,675
and that was what we did.
1139
00:50:13,636 --> 00:50:17,515
♪ She's putting on the
agony, putting on the style ♪
1140
00:50:17,765 --> 00:50:19,600
♪ That's what all
the young folks ♪
1141
00:50:19,851 --> 00:50:21,519
♪ Are doing all the while ♪
1142
00:50:21,769 --> 00:50:23,604
♪ And as I look around me ♪
1143
00:50:23,855 --> 00:50:26,024
♪ I sometimes have to smile ♪
1144
00:50:26,274 --> 00:50:28,151
♪ Seeing all them young folks ♪
1145
00:50:28,401 --> 00:50:31,696
♪ Putting on the style ♪
1146
00:50:37,493 --> 00:50:38,804
- I remember rehearsing
in Rod's house,
1147
00:50:38,828 --> 00:50:41,998
and then mostly I think
it was Eric's house.
1148
00:50:42,248 --> 00:50:43,541
Did a bit in Julia's house.
1149
00:50:43,791 --> 00:50:45,334
I forgot mum's house, yeah.
1150
00:50:45,585 --> 00:50:47,545
- Yeah, when we were
at Julia's house,
1151
00:50:48,921 --> 00:50:51,841
she used to let us stand in
the bathroom to practice,
1152
00:50:52,091 --> 00:50:54,093
because it was all tiles,
1153
00:50:54,343 --> 00:50:57,388
and you get a fantastic
reverb sound, you know>
1154
00:50:57,638 --> 00:50:58,638
- But John was a singer,
1155
00:50:58,806 --> 00:50:59,825
so if he didn't know a song,
1156
00:50:59,849 --> 00:51:01,142
he wasn't gonna sing it.
1157
00:51:01,392 --> 00:51:02,911
So, there was no point
suggesting something to him
1158
00:51:02,935 --> 00:51:03,478
that he didn't know.
1159
00:51:03,728 --> 00:51:04,728
Or didn't like.
1160
00:51:04,812 --> 00:51:05,812
- Or didn't like, yeah.
1161
00:51:05,938 --> 00:51:07,774
So, I mean he didn't sort of
1162
00:51:08,816 --> 00:51:11,069
say I'm the boss, or
anything like that.
1163
00:51:11,319 --> 00:51:12,599
But I think we just accepted it.
1164
00:51:12,820 --> 00:51:13,446
- We just took it for granted
that he was the singer
1165
00:51:13,696 --> 00:51:14,739
- Well he's a singer.
1166
00:51:14,989 --> 00:51:16,216
- But he's only just
part of the group,
1167
00:51:16,240 --> 00:51:17,801
he wasn't even called
the leader of the group.
1168
00:51:17,825 --> 00:51:20,661
He had his role to play, and
we all had our role to play.
1169
00:51:20,912 --> 00:51:23,414
- Yeah, it was all very casual.
1170
00:51:24,624 --> 00:51:25,166
♪ Well, it's one for the money ♪
1171
00:51:25,416 --> 00:51:26,416
♪ Two for the show ♪
1172
00:51:26,626 --> 00:51:27,626
♪ Three to get ready ♪
1173
00:51:27,752 --> 00:51:28,753
♪ Now go, cat, go ♪
1174
00:51:29,003 --> 00:51:32,590
♪ But don't you step on
my blue suede shoes ♪
1175
00:51:32,840 --> 00:51:34,342
- But then of course
Elvis came along.
1176
00:51:34,592 --> 00:51:35,952
John wanted to be
Elvis, didn't he?
1177
00:51:36,135 --> 00:51:37,512
- As a role model, he outshone
1178
00:51:37,762 --> 00:51:39,555
Lonnie Donegan by a
million miles, Elvis.
1179
00:51:39,806 --> 00:51:41,974
Rock and roll was a lot
sexier than skiffle,
1180
00:51:42,225 --> 00:51:44,560
so when rock and
roll came along,
1181
00:51:44,811 --> 00:51:46,604
people realized that
the same three chords
1182
00:51:46,854 --> 00:51:48,397
they'd learned to play skiffle
1183
00:51:48,648 --> 00:51:49,774
worked for rock and roll.
1184
00:51:51,859 --> 00:51:54,737
In 1957,
Liverpool held street parties
1185
00:51:54,987 --> 00:51:56,197
to celebrate the anniversary
1186
00:51:56,447 --> 00:51:57,887
of the granting of
the city's charter
1187
00:51:57,990 --> 00:51:59,742
by King John in 1207.
1188
00:52:00,618 --> 00:52:01,869
In Rosebery Street, Toxteth,
1189
00:52:03,121 --> 00:52:04,747
the Quarrymen were
booked to play.
1190
00:52:07,166 --> 00:52:08,685
Well, Toxteth was
different in those days
1191
00:52:08,709 --> 00:52:10,962
because of the
multicultural aspect.
1192
00:52:11,212 --> 00:52:12,713
Lots of black, lots
of white people,
1193
00:52:12,964 --> 00:52:14,340
you had Chinese.
1194
00:52:14,590 --> 00:52:16,568
The party was to celebrate
the granting of the charter
1195
00:52:16,592 --> 00:52:17,802
by King John.
1196
00:52:18,052 --> 00:52:19,372
You know, we
decorated the street,
1197
00:52:19,512 --> 00:52:20,792
and all the kids
who are excited,
1198
00:52:20,888 --> 00:52:21,888
the parents were excited.
1199
00:52:22,932 --> 00:52:24,142
And especially when they knew
1200
00:52:24,392 --> 00:52:26,435
there's a band coming, the
likes of the Quarrymen.
1201
00:52:26,686 --> 00:52:28,122
- Charlie Roberts who
asked me to do it,
1202
00:52:28,146 --> 00:52:31,065
because his mom was
one of the organizers.
1203
00:52:31,315 --> 00:52:32,775
I'd known Charlie for some time,
1204
00:52:33,025 --> 00:52:35,278
and he was a drinking buddy, so.
1205
00:52:35,528 --> 00:52:37,321
Well we all met
up in the village,
1206
00:52:37,572 --> 00:52:39,157
and jumped on a bus down here,
1207
00:52:39,407 --> 00:52:40,717
and arrived about
mid-day, didn't we?
1208
00:52:40,741 --> 00:52:42,326
I think we set up in your house,
1209
00:52:42,577 --> 00:52:43,897
and then I was
right out the door,
1210
00:52:44,078 --> 00:52:45,663
around the corner
to the nearest pub.
1211
00:52:47,206 --> 00:52:49,083
Back from the pub,
and then I think
1212
00:52:49,333 --> 00:52:50,894
it's time to get back on the
back of the wagon, wasn't it?
1213
00:52:50,918 --> 00:52:52,062
- It was a nice day like today,
1214
00:52:52,086 --> 00:52:53,462
there was sun shining.
1215
00:52:54,714 --> 00:52:55,754
♪ Oh, Maggie, Maggie Mae ♪
1216
00:52:55,965 --> 00:52:58,050
♪ They have taken her away ♪
1217
00:52:58,301 --> 00:53:01,846
♪ And she never walked
down Lime Street anymore ♪
1218
00:53:02,096 --> 00:53:04,140
♪ Oh that judge, he
guilty found ya ♪
1219
00:53:04,390 --> 00:53:06,184
♪ For robbing a
homeward bounder ♪
1220
00:53:06,434 --> 00:53:09,687
♪ You dirty no good
robbin' Maggie Mae ♪
1221
00:53:09,937 --> 00:53:11,647
- It was all acoustic.
1222
00:53:11,898 --> 00:53:13,566
That's why I'm the
back of the wagon,
1223
00:53:13,816 --> 00:53:14,936
sort of quite a distant away
1224
00:53:15,026 --> 00:53:16,194
from the rest of the lads.
1225
00:53:16,444 --> 00:53:17,570
Lennon's voice was amplified
1226
00:53:17,820 --> 00:53:18,946
through a small amplifier,
1227
00:53:19,197 --> 00:53:20,883
which I think was hanging
out the bedroom window
1228
00:53:20,907 --> 00:53:21,657
from what I could remember.
1229
00:53:21,908 --> 00:53:23,117
John never wore glasses,
1230
00:53:23,367 --> 00:53:25,912
and he was extremely
short-sighted,
1231
00:53:26,162 --> 00:53:27,642
so there was probably
a certain amount
1232
00:53:27,705 --> 00:53:28,705
of squinting going on.
1233
00:53:28,915 --> 00:53:30,291
But it wasn't
necessarily that John
1234
00:53:30,541 --> 00:53:31,584
was looking at the girls,
1235
00:53:31,834 --> 00:53:33,154
I think the girls
would pretend to
1236
00:53:33,294 --> 00:53:34,754
sort of look at John,
1237
00:53:35,004 --> 00:53:37,256
and either way, it made
the boyfriends jealous.
1238
00:53:37,506 --> 00:53:39,842
So, and I saw a lot of
heads going together,
1239
00:53:40,092 --> 00:53:41,135
and a lot of mumbling.
1240
00:53:41,385 --> 00:53:42,779
I leaned down, I said
to one of the guys,
1241
00:53:42,803 --> 00:53:43,888
what's going on there?
1242
00:53:44,138 --> 00:53:45,532
And he said, they're
going to get Lennon.
1243
00:53:45,556 --> 00:53:47,850
But John wasn't hanging
around to get got.
1244
00:53:48,100 --> 00:53:49,460
So we just all
abandoned the wagon,
1245
00:53:49,560 --> 00:53:53,606
and the nearest safe-haven
was Charlie's house.
1246
00:53:53,856 --> 00:53:55,566
So we all piled into
Charlie's house.
1247
00:53:55,816 --> 00:53:57,544
- It took quite a while
for it to quiet them down,
1248
00:53:57,568 --> 00:54:00,238
eventually Bobby
came, a policeman,
1249
00:54:00,488 --> 00:54:01,489
put them on the bus home.
1250
00:54:02,865 --> 00:54:03,926
Well, somebody gave me a camera.
1251
00:54:03,950 --> 00:54:05,993
At the time, they're just snaps.
1252
00:54:06,244 --> 00:54:07,684
And as you say, the
very first photos
1253
00:54:07,912 --> 00:54:08,913
of John playing live.
1254
00:54:09,163 --> 00:54:10,843
So I'm always happy to
show them to people.
1255
00:54:10,998 --> 00:54:13,042
Technically, they're not
good photographs maybe,
1256
00:54:13,292 --> 00:54:15,052
but they're a piece of
history just the same.
1257
00:54:15,169 --> 00:54:19,131
♪ That dirty no
good Maggie Mae ♪
1258
00:54:24,762 --> 00:54:27,848
♪ Dom-Dom Dom-Dom
Dom-de-doo-be ♪
1259
00:54:28,099 --> 00:54:31,644
♪ Dom Dom Dom Dom
Dom Dom-de-doo-be ♪
1260
00:54:31,894 --> 00:54:35,356
♪ Dom Dom Dom Dom
Dom Dom-be-doo-be ♪
1261
00:54:35,606 --> 00:54:38,985
♪ Dom woa-woa-woa-whoa ♪
1262
00:54:39,235 --> 00:54:41,115
The end of
John's long school years
1263
00:54:41,153 --> 00:54:43,239
came in June, 1957,
1264
00:54:43,489 --> 00:54:44,782
with a lengthy summer break
1265
00:54:45,032 --> 00:54:46,792
in the tree lined suburbs
of South Liverpool.
1266
00:54:47,034 --> 00:54:48,786
And the chance for the Quarrymen
1267
00:54:49,036 --> 00:54:50,329
to perform once more.
1268
00:54:50,579 --> 00:54:52,707
This time, at a fete
at St. Peter's Church
1269
00:54:52,957 --> 00:54:53,957
at Woolton Village.
1270
00:54:54,083 --> 00:54:55,876
♪ Well I love,
love you darlin' ♪
1271
00:54:56,127 --> 00:54:57,670
♪ Come and go with me ♪
1272
00:54:57,920 --> 00:54:59,088
♪ Come home with me ♪
1273
00:54:59,338 --> 00:55:01,340
If anybody invited
us to get up and play,
1274
00:55:01,590 --> 00:55:02,883
that was fairly exciting.
1275
00:55:03,134 --> 00:55:05,219
But you know, this was
really a big day in Woolton.
1276
00:55:05,469 --> 00:55:07,596
St. Peter's Rose Queen,
1277
00:55:07,847 --> 00:55:09,056
there were two things.
1278
00:55:09,307 --> 00:55:10,766
Bonfire night, and
the Rose Queen.
1279
00:55:11,017 --> 00:55:13,227
It was like Carnival
in Rio for us.
1280
00:55:13,477 --> 00:55:14,145
The fact
that the church
1281
00:55:14,395 --> 00:55:16,272
took a chance on that, really,
1282
00:55:16,522 --> 00:55:18,983
I mean we were doing like
devil's music, weren't we?
1283
00:55:19,233 --> 00:55:20,901
Skiffle and a bit
of rock and roll.
1284
00:55:21,152 --> 00:55:23,070
So the fact that they
had us on the fete
1285
00:55:23,321 --> 00:55:24,322
in the first place,
1286
00:55:24,572 --> 00:55:27,033
I think was a huge
leap of faith.
1287
00:55:27,283 --> 00:55:28,283
♪ We will never part ♪
1288
00:55:28,451 --> 00:55:30,619
♪ I need you darlin' ♪
1289
00:55:30,870 --> 00:55:32,997
♪ So come go with me ♪
1290
00:55:33,247 --> 00:55:36,751
♪ Whoa-woa-woa-woa ♪
1291
00:55:37,001 --> 00:55:38,919
- So, Ivan Vaughan
was one year behind.
1292
00:55:39,170 --> 00:55:41,213
He also took the
eleven-plus and passed,
1293
00:55:41,464 --> 00:55:42,464
and he wanted to join up
1294
00:55:42,548 --> 00:55:43,966
with the rest of his friends,
1295
00:55:44,216 --> 00:55:45,416
so they're all at Quarry Bank.
1296
00:55:45,634 --> 00:55:48,012
His parents vetoed this
because they didn't want him
1297
00:55:48,262 --> 00:55:50,931
to be in the same
school as John Lennon.
1298
00:55:51,182 --> 00:55:54,894
So, he was put down to
the Liverpool Institute.
1299
00:55:55,144 --> 00:55:56,771
He became friends
with another boy
1300
00:55:57,021 --> 00:55:58,606
who was one year
younger than us,
1301
00:55:58,856 --> 00:56:01,025
who none of us knew, and
this was Paul McCartney.
1302
00:56:01,275 --> 00:56:03,903
So it was Ivan Vaughan
who on that fateful day
1303
00:56:04,153 --> 00:56:06,822
at Woolton, and fate
brought his friend,
1304
00:56:07,073 --> 00:56:08,532
his school friend,
Paul McCartney,
1305
00:56:08,783 --> 00:56:10,159
to St. Peter's
Church in Woolton,
1306
00:56:10,409 --> 00:56:13,371
and introduced him to
his other best friend
1307
00:56:13,621 --> 00:56:14,914
who was John Lennon.
1308
00:56:15,164 --> 00:56:16,266
- This is where John
Lennon met Paul McCartney
1309
00:56:16,290 --> 00:56:17,041
for the first time.
1310
00:56:17,291 --> 00:56:19,001
6th of July, 1957.
1311
00:56:19,251 --> 00:56:21,045
And it was a garden fete.
1312
00:56:21,295 --> 00:56:23,631
Now, what to you
is a garden fete?
1313
00:56:23,881 --> 00:56:26,050
- I'm thinking crowning
of the maid queen,
1314
00:56:26,300 --> 00:56:29,178
coconut shies, flower
displays maybe.
1315
00:56:29,428 --> 00:56:30,428
That kind of thing.
1316
00:56:30,471 --> 00:56:31,138
Very English.
1317
00:56:31,389 --> 00:56:33,140
- Yeah, an English garden party.
1318
00:56:33,391 --> 00:56:35,935
The Quarrymen themselves
were actually on the float.
1319
00:56:36,185 --> 00:56:37,937
- I love this photograph.
1320
00:56:38,187 --> 00:56:42,024
It's so unadorned,
so basic, so Spartan.
1321
00:56:43,317 --> 00:56:46,195
It's the plainest float
I think I've ever seen.
1322
00:56:46,445 --> 00:56:48,489
I love the details, Chadwick,
1323
00:56:48,739 --> 00:56:51,867
a Hollier based in Halewood.
1324
00:56:52,118 --> 00:56:53,619
And then you've got this kind of
1325
00:56:53,869 --> 00:56:56,956
tiny little attempt
at adornments,
1326
00:56:57,206 --> 00:56:59,291
which is just a couple
of strings of bunton
1327
00:56:59,542 --> 00:57:01,168
coming down the
back, it's fantastic.
1328
00:57:01,419 --> 00:57:02,521
- And of course,
they were at the back
1329
00:57:02,545 --> 00:57:03,212
of the parade, at the front
1330
00:57:03,462 --> 00:57:04,922
you've got a marching band,
1331
00:57:05,172 --> 00:57:06,274
you've got the scouts,
and the brownies,
1332
00:57:06,298 --> 00:57:07,299
and the youth club.
1333
00:57:07,550 --> 00:57:09,152
And they've got the poor
Quarrymen sat there.
1334
00:57:09,176 --> 00:57:11,262
You can actually see from John,
1335
00:57:11,512 --> 00:57:12,512
he's actually singing.
1336
00:57:12,721 --> 00:57:13,761
- It is so English though,
1337
00:57:13,973 --> 00:57:15,253
and so kind of
nostalgic as well.
1338
00:57:15,474 --> 00:57:16,514
I mean, even these chairs,
1339
00:57:16,725 --> 00:57:18,686
these kind of
cloth-backed chairs,
1340
00:57:18,936 --> 00:57:20,229
I remember from
school assemblies
1341
00:57:20,479 --> 00:57:22,898
in rooms not unlike
this one actually.
1342
00:57:23,149 --> 00:57:24,334
The other weird
thing about this,
1343
00:57:24,358 --> 00:57:25,961
it's almost like they're
sneaking something
1344
00:57:25,985 --> 00:57:27,903
into something very English.
1345
00:57:28,154 --> 00:57:30,322
You know, this is rock and roll,
1346
00:57:30,573 --> 00:57:32,533
this is at the cutting
edge of pop culture
1347
00:57:32,783 --> 00:57:35,035
for the time, not
just Americana.
1348
00:57:35,286 --> 00:57:36,662
It's edgy, it's unstable,
1349
00:57:36,912 --> 00:57:38,152
people hadn't quite figured out
1350
00:57:38,205 --> 00:57:39,290
what rock and roll is yet.
1351
00:57:39,540 --> 00:57:40,916
- Absolutely.
1352
00:57:41,167 --> 00:57:42,519
- And they're bringing it
on the back of a lorry,
1353
00:57:42,543 --> 00:57:46,213
a flatbed truck to a
village fete in Woolton.
1354
00:57:46,464 --> 00:57:49,175
It's an incredible kind
of clash, don't you think?
1355
00:57:49,425 --> 00:57:50,092
- Yeah, and the
fact that they're
1356
00:57:50,342 --> 00:57:51,802
bringing it to a church event.
1357
00:57:52,052 --> 00:57:53,888
So a church in 1957.
1358
00:57:54,138 --> 00:57:55,198
- Let's get the
chronology right,
1359
00:57:55,222 --> 00:57:56,891
it always kinds of defeats me,
1360
00:57:57,141 --> 00:57:58,893
the order of which
things happened.
1361
00:57:59,143 --> 00:58:02,855
The Quarrymen play just
over the way in a field,
1362
00:58:03,105 --> 00:58:04,105
that's their first gig,
1363
00:58:04,273 --> 00:58:05,459
but they're doing
two gigs that day,
1364
00:58:05,483 --> 00:58:06,923
and in the break,
in between the two,
1365
00:58:07,151 --> 00:58:10,112
they come over here for a
"sound check" I suppose,
1366
00:58:10,362 --> 00:58:12,948
and Paul McCartney
meets John Lennon,
1367
00:58:13,199 --> 00:58:14,719
and he's introduced
by a mutual friend.
1368
00:58:14,783 --> 00:58:15,493
Is that the order of events?
1369
00:58:15,743 --> 00:58:16,410
- That's basically it, yeah.
1370
00:58:16,660 --> 00:58:17,328
And this was the famous photo
1371
00:58:17,578 --> 00:58:18,662
that was taking on the day.
1372
00:58:18,913 --> 00:58:21,040
All acoustic, apart
from the microphone.
1373
00:58:21,290 --> 00:58:23,042
So John's at the
front, he's singing,
1374
00:58:23,292 --> 00:58:25,085
and staring right at the camera.
1375
00:58:25,336 --> 00:58:26,696
He knows his
picture's being taken.
1376
00:58:26,879 --> 00:58:28,399
So then before the
evening performance,
1377
00:58:28,631 --> 00:58:30,007
they come into this hall,
1378
00:58:31,091 --> 00:58:32,760
and you can see round there,
1379
00:58:33,010 --> 00:58:34,970
that's where the
stage used to be,
1380
00:58:35,221 --> 00:58:36,805
and in that corner,
there were the steps
1381
00:58:37,056 --> 00:58:38,056
going up to the stage,
1382
00:58:38,182 --> 00:58:39,808
just by that radiator.
1383
00:58:40,059 --> 00:58:44,813
And then Ivan brings Paul
and John and the Quarrymen
1384
00:58:46,106 --> 00:58:48,901
are all standing, or
sat all around here,
1385
00:58:49,151 --> 00:58:50,319
and they're tuning up.
1386
00:58:50,569 --> 00:58:52,404
Ivan brings Paul over,
1387
00:58:52,655 --> 00:58:54,175
and there you've got
this great meeting
1388
00:58:54,240 --> 00:58:55,574
of teenage lads.
1389
00:58:55,824 --> 00:58:57,344
Ivan again, is probably
the one who says,
1390
00:58:57,368 --> 00:59:00,329
well go on John, let Paul
show you what he can do.
1391
00:59:00,579 --> 00:59:03,082
So Paul gets John's guitar.
1392
00:59:03,332 --> 00:59:04,083
So the first thing he does,
1393
00:59:04,333 --> 00:59:05,668
is he tunes all six strings.
1394
00:59:05,918 --> 00:59:07,038
Now that's more than anybody
1395
00:59:07,086 --> 00:59:08,170
in the Quarrymen can do.
1396
00:59:08,420 --> 00:59:10,297
So already he's a
superior musician.
1397
00:59:10,548 --> 00:59:12,633
But the most impressive
thing that Paul could do,
1398
00:59:12,883 --> 00:59:14,043
was that he'd learned to play
1399
00:59:14,093 --> 00:59:16,011
a right handed
guitar upside down.
1400
00:59:16,262 --> 00:59:18,681
So he flips the
guitar upside down,
1401
00:59:18,931 --> 00:59:21,058
and starts playing and
singing 20 Flight Rock,
1402
00:59:21,308 --> 00:59:22,308
by Eddie Cochran.
1403
00:59:22,518 --> 00:59:25,396
And in a way, when
we go back to looking
1404
00:59:25,646 --> 00:59:26,855
at this group of friends,
1405
00:59:27,106 --> 00:59:28,232
and that's what they were,
1406
00:59:28,482 --> 00:59:30,202
a group of friends,
having a bit of a laugh.
1407
00:59:30,359 --> 00:59:32,570
Suddenly from this
point, from this meeting,
1408
00:59:33,612 --> 00:59:35,531
the group becomes more serious.
1409
00:59:35,781 --> 00:59:37,116
And within five months of this,
1410
00:59:37,366 --> 00:59:39,910
most of the members of
the Quarrymen are gone,
1411
00:59:40,160 --> 00:59:41,745
and George Harrison's
in the group.
1412
00:59:41,996 --> 00:59:43,330
So by the end of 1957,
1413
00:59:43,581 --> 00:59:45,221
you've got John, Paul,
and George together
1414
00:59:45,374 --> 00:59:47,585
in a group, and that is
your genesis of The Beatles.
1415
00:59:47,835 --> 00:59:49,461
- Well, good word.
1416
00:59:49,712 --> 00:59:51,380
I was thinking of a
kind of creation myth,
1417
00:59:51,630 --> 00:59:52,830
because we've got to recognize
1418
00:59:52,923 --> 00:59:55,426
this is a sight of pop
cultural pilgrimage,
1419
00:59:55,676 --> 00:59:57,928
people beat a path to
this church hall door.
1420
00:59:58,178 --> 01:00:00,139
And you Wold
definitely subscribe
1421
01:00:00,389 --> 01:00:03,517
to this kind of idea of
The Beatles beginning here.
1422
01:00:03,767 --> 01:00:05,687
I mean, there's something
wonderfully neat about,
1423
01:00:05,853 --> 01:00:07,038
there often is with The Beatles,
1424
01:00:07,062 --> 01:00:08,415
but there's something
wonderfully neat
1425
01:00:08,439 --> 01:00:10,232
about an audition here being
1426
01:00:10,482 --> 01:00:12,192
the genesis of The Beatles,
1427
01:00:12,443 --> 01:00:14,320
and then an audition
which Lennon
1428
01:00:14,570 --> 01:00:16,280
hope they'd passed
on the rooftop
1429
01:00:16,530 --> 01:00:20,159
of Appleland Quarters
at the end of the 60s,
1430
01:00:20,409 --> 01:00:22,328
and that kind of
bookends their career,
1431
01:00:22,578 --> 01:00:23,858
that's the beginning
and the end.
1432
01:00:23,912 --> 01:00:25,181
I mean, that's why
people come here,
1433
01:00:25,205 --> 01:00:27,666
because they want to
be where the two met,
1434
01:00:27,916 --> 01:00:29,084
and where the group began.
1435
01:00:29,335 --> 01:00:31,086
This is where
The Beatles started.
1436
01:00:31,337 --> 01:00:36,300
- And we're standing right
on ground zero of Beatles.
1437
01:00:38,761 --> 01:00:40,030
♪ Up on the twelfth
I'm ready to drag ♪
1438
01:00:40,054 --> 01:00:41,364
♪ Fifteenth floor
I'm startin' to sag ♪
1439
01:00:41,388 --> 01:00:45,809
♪ Get to the top, I'm
too tired to rock ♪
1440
01:01:03,410 --> 01:01:04,429
With
more than a little
1441
01:01:04,453 --> 01:01:05,579
assistance from Mimi,
1442
01:01:05,829 --> 01:01:07,915
John was enrolled at
Liverpool College of Arts,
1443
01:01:08,165 --> 01:01:10,250
in September 1957.
1444
01:01:10,501 --> 01:01:13,212
Situated in Hope Street, next
to the Liverpool Institute,
1445
01:01:13,462 --> 01:01:14,963
the college opened
up a rich source
1446
01:01:15,214 --> 01:01:17,508
of new friends and experiences.
1447
01:01:17,758 --> 01:01:20,344
- Yes, a lot of poets, artists,
1448
01:01:21,970 --> 01:01:24,139
this was, I suppose as far
as Liverpool is concerned,
1449
01:01:24,390 --> 01:01:26,058
a sort of bohemian area.
1450
01:01:26,308 --> 01:01:28,228
- I love the place, the
building is so beautiful,
1451
01:01:28,477 --> 01:01:32,356
this lovely classical
old sandstone building.
1452
01:01:32,606 --> 01:01:34,650
Fabulous high ceiling
rooms to work in,
1453
01:01:34,900 --> 01:01:36,485
it was just fabulous,
1454
01:01:36,735 --> 01:01:38,654
I loved everything about it.
1455
01:01:38,904 --> 01:01:40,184
It was full of students,
1456
01:01:40,406 --> 01:01:42,282
virtually every day,
doing something,
1457
01:01:42,533 --> 01:01:43,973
whether they were
doing dress design,
1458
01:01:44,034 --> 01:01:47,204
or lithography or pottery.
1459
01:01:47,454 --> 01:01:48,789
Oh, this is June.
1460
01:01:49,039 --> 01:01:51,625
She was the resident
model for the art school.
1461
01:01:51,875 --> 01:01:53,752
But she's worked
for donkeys, yes.
1462
01:01:54,002 --> 01:01:56,880
She was first at
the Slade in London,
1463
01:01:57,131 --> 01:01:59,508
and then she came up to
Liverpool in the 50s.
1464
01:01:59,758 --> 01:02:02,219
- I spent 50 years here.
1465
01:02:02,469 --> 01:02:04,555
9:30 in the morning
'til nine at night.
1466
01:02:04,805 --> 01:02:06,348
Oh yeah, these were
the academic days
1467
01:02:06,598 --> 01:02:07,641
when you had to draw.
1468
01:02:07,891 --> 01:02:09,101
That was the end of the 50s,
1469
01:02:09,351 --> 01:02:13,731
and when John Lennon
arrived, I was sitting there,
1470
01:02:13,981 --> 01:02:16,233
and he looked at me,
and then he went out.
1471
01:02:16,483 --> 01:02:19,737
Came and put a coat
on and came back,
1472
01:02:19,987 --> 01:02:21,697
and introduced himself.
1473
01:02:21,947 --> 01:02:22,656
Said he was John Lennon
1474
01:02:22,906 --> 01:02:24,867
and he enrolled to do...
1475
01:02:27,244 --> 01:02:29,288
An art course, and
he'd be drawing me,
1476
01:02:29,538 --> 01:02:31,415
and would that be all right?
1477
01:02:31,665 --> 01:02:33,208
- It was the first
day in college,
1478
01:02:33,459 --> 01:02:34,793
and he came over
to me and said...
1479
01:02:35,043 --> 01:02:38,672
Are you the one that painted
Lonnie Donegan?
1480
01:02:38,922 --> 01:02:41,633
And I said yeah!
1481
01:02:41,884 --> 01:02:43,927
And so we were friends
evermore after that.
1482
01:02:44,178 --> 01:02:46,555
That was the stamp of
our friendship.
1483
01:02:48,599 --> 01:02:53,061
These are two sketches that
I did of John, 1958-ish.
1484
01:02:53,312 --> 01:02:55,230
A bit scruffy, I
think he was wearing
1485
01:02:55,481 --> 01:02:57,357
checked shirts in those days,
1486
01:02:57,608 --> 01:02:59,151
tight trousers, pulled in.
1487
01:02:59,401 --> 01:03:02,279
Either old chords or something.
1488
01:03:02,529 --> 01:03:05,407
Tony Curtis in the
front, D.A. at the back.
1489
01:03:05,657 --> 01:03:09,578
Buddy Holly glasses, he was
very spotty at the time.
1490
01:03:09,828 --> 01:03:12,122
He certainly wasn't a scouser.
1491
01:03:12,372 --> 01:03:13,665
No, he wasn't.
1492
01:03:13,916 --> 01:03:18,504
And obviously he'd had quite
an informed home education
1493
01:03:19,505 --> 01:03:21,673
from Mimi because he
was quite eloquent
1494
01:03:21,924 --> 01:03:25,803
in his language,
and he was bright.
1495
01:03:26,053 --> 01:03:27,721
But he was lazy.
1496
01:03:27,971 --> 01:03:30,307
- He was never quiet
when he came in.
1497
01:03:30,557 --> 01:03:32,226
He'd come into the
room and start,
1498
01:03:32,476 --> 01:03:34,311
he'd say anything that
came into his head,
1499
01:03:34,561 --> 01:03:36,164
and he'd tell you
everything of what happened
1500
01:03:36,188 --> 01:03:37,397
the night before, or,
1501
01:03:37,648 --> 01:03:39,608
he never came in as I know,
1502
01:03:39,858 --> 01:03:43,362
and sat down quietly with
his easel and his drawing,
1503
01:03:43,612 --> 01:03:46,365
and got on with things, you see.
1504
01:03:46,615 --> 01:03:48,826
If the teacher was
there, you know,
1505
01:03:49,076 --> 01:03:50,285
he was told to leave or get on
1506
01:03:50,536 --> 01:03:51,954
with his drawing, you see.
1507
01:03:52,204 --> 01:03:53,455
- Yes, well, okay.
1508
01:03:53,705 --> 01:03:56,750
Life class was always
starting off quite seriously,
1509
01:03:57,000 --> 01:03:58,394
and the master would
be in the corner
1510
01:03:58,418 --> 01:03:59,418
smoking his pipe,
1511
01:03:59,586 --> 01:04:01,129
and we just got on
with drawing June,
1512
01:04:01,380 --> 01:04:03,507
or painting June,
whichever it was.
1513
01:04:03,757 --> 01:04:06,176
And when it got really silent,
1514
01:04:07,386 --> 01:04:08,863
all of a sudden John's
head would pop up
1515
01:04:08,887 --> 01:04:10,097
behind his easel.
1516
01:04:10,347 --> 01:04:12,182
The nostrils would
start flaring,
1517
01:04:12,432 --> 01:04:14,434
and I knew, you
just knew something
1518
01:04:14,685 --> 01:04:15,686
was going to happen then.
1519
01:04:15,936 --> 01:04:18,772
So he'd sort of start
laughing like a hyena,
1520
01:04:19,022 --> 01:04:21,567
or leaping about, and
then we were just in
1521
01:04:21,817 --> 01:04:25,028
total hysteria, and it was
like this every single time.
1522
01:04:25,279 --> 01:04:26,363
One way or another.
1523
01:04:26,613 --> 01:04:30,242
And the teachers,
the profs got a bit
1524
01:04:30,492 --> 01:04:32,828
fed up with him, and then
just ignored him really.
1525
01:04:33,704 --> 01:04:34,913
Most of them ignored him.
1526
01:04:35,163 --> 01:04:37,416
But he did disrupt
the class quite a bit.
1527
01:04:37,666 --> 01:04:40,043
Well, these drawings
came into my hands,
1528
01:04:40,294 --> 01:04:41,646
and he gave me this
book of drawings,
1529
01:04:41,670 --> 01:04:43,630
and a few loose sheets as well.
1530
01:04:43,881 --> 01:04:45,591
And I couldn't believe it,
1531
01:04:45,841 --> 01:04:47,968
but I've treasured
them ever since.
1532
01:04:48,218 --> 01:04:50,262
Until I sort of had to sell them
1533
01:04:50,512 --> 01:04:51,722
to somebody in the end.
1534
01:04:51,972 --> 01:04:53,557
These are just prints,
1535
01:04:53,807 --> 01:04:56,101
so I could remember
them for myself.
1536
01:04:56,351 --> 01:04:58,103
So, it was an exercise book
1537
01:04:58,353 --> 01:04:59,897
when he was still
at Quarry Bank,
1538
01:05:00,147 --> 01:05:01,273
and these were characters
1539
01:05:01,523 --> 01:05:04,484
who were either
tutors at the school,
1540
01:05:04,735 --> 01:05:05,736
or they were friends.
1541
01:05:05,986 --> 01:05:09,948
And this was the Latin
teacher in the school,
1542
01:05:10,198 --> 01:05:12,284
I think his name was Mr. Corbin,
1543
01:05:12,534 --> 01:05:13,534
or something like that.
1544
01:05:13,744 --> 01:05:16,204
Nicotine, the Irish Madman.
1545
01:05:16,455 --> 01:05:18,498
They're so funny,
they're so humorous.
1546
01:05:18,749 --> 01:05:20,709
- Well, John Lennon
never did much art here,
1547
01:05:22,294 --> 01:05:24,880
you know, he was always
interested in the theater,
1548
01:05:25,130 --> 01:05:27,925
he was always interested
in going to these places
1549
01:05:28,175 --> 01:05:31,428
like the Pavilion, and
the Empire Theater,
1550
01:05:31,678 --> 01:05:32,678
and all that.
1551
01:05:33,805 --> 01:05:36,350
And then the next day,
actually very funny,
1552
01:05:36,600 --> 01:05:38,936
he'd come in and do
these impersonations
1553
01:05:39,186 --> 01:05:40,896
of these stars he liked.
1554
01:05:41,146 --> 01:05:42,666
- The drawings, I
mean they were miles,
1555
01:05:42,856 --> 01:05:44,296
and miles of them
all over the place.
1556
01:05:44,399 --> 01:05:45,984
He never stopped drawing.
1557
01:05:46,234 --> 01:05:48,946
He'd make up a song as
well about any subject.
1558
01:05:49,196 --> 01:05:50,196
People walking past,
1559
01:05:50,280 --> 01:05:51,573
he'd make a song up about them.
1560
01:05:51,823 --> 01:05:53,263
If there's something
wrong with them.
1561
01:05:53,408 --> 01:05:55,744
Especially when Paul and
George came in for lunch,
1562
01:05:55,994 --> 01:05:58,789
we'd creep up to Arthur
Ballard's painting room,
1563
01:05:59,039 --> 01:06:03,919
and they would play all
sorts of ongoing music,
1564
01:06:05,170 --> 01:06:06,530
Buddy Holly stuff,
and Chuck Berry,
1565
01:06:06,588 --> 01:06:07,588
and all these things.
1566
01:06:07,798 --> 01:06:10,092
And singing American
stuff, really.
1567
01:06:10,342 --> 01:06:13,220
And then they'd play some
of their own little songs
1568
01:06:13,470 --> 01:06:14,470
and funny songs.
1569
01:06:14,680 --> 01:06:15,680
Oh, yes.
1570
01:06:15,764 --> 01:06:17,557
He used to sing
George Formby a lot.
1571
01:06:19,184 --> 01:06:20,184
Believe it or not.
1572
01:06:20,268 --> 01:06:20,936
That was always the finale,
1573
01:06:21,186 --> 01:06:22,938
I'm Leaning On A Lamp Post.
1574
01:06:24,940 --> 01:06:27,609
And we'd just sit
there doing our work,
1575
01:06:27,859 --> 01:06:29,611
preparation, whatever we'd do,
1576
01:06:29,861 --> 01:06:31,221
we never just sat
there and gobbed,
1577
01:06:31,405 --> 01:06:32,990
but we just listened to them.
1578
01:06:33,240 --> 01:06:35,742
And they'd sing, and
it was just wonderful.
1579
01:06:37,077 --> 01:06:39,454
- Well, he was
loud, he was noisy.
1580
01:06:40,706 --> 01:06:45,168
And he'd decide who
he wanted to talk to,
1581
01:06:45,419 --> 01:06:47,921
and who he would
leave strictly alone,
1582
01:06:48,171 --> 01:06:51,633
which is really a
Liverpoolian characteristic.
1583
01:06:51,883 --> 01:06:53,802
People loved
him or they hated him.
1584
01:06:54,052 --> 01:06:57,472
And the ones that liked
him, loved him, yeah.
1585
01:06:57,723 --> 01:07:00,684
- I'm sure that his
bombastic attitude
1586
01:07:00,934 --> 01:07:02,644
a lot of the time
was to cover up
1587
01:07:02,894 --> 01:07:05,605
something vulnerable in himself.
1588
01:07:05,856 --> 01:07:08,817
Because, you know, he
played the hard man.
1589
01:07:11,278 --> 01:07:15,699
♪ Half of what I
say is meaningless ♪
1590
01:07:17,325 --> 01:07:22,289
♪ But I say it just
to reach you Julia ♪
1591
01:07:24,583 --> 01:07:25,751
♪ Julia ♪
1592
01:07:26,001 --> 01:07:27,812
John's carefree
time as an art student
1593
01:07:27,836 --> 01:07:31,423
was cut short when fate
knocked on the door once again.
1594
01:07:31,673 --> 01:07:35,052
With news that his mother
Julia had been knocked down,
1595
01:07:35,302 --> 01:07:37,095
killed by an off duty policeman
1596
01:07:37,345 --> 01:07:39,097
near John's home
on Menlove avenue.
1597
01:07:39,973 --> 01:07:41,767
It was a shattering blow.
1598
01:07:42,017 --> 01:07:45,937
- John's mother, Julia,
was a very happy person.
1599
01:07:46,980 --> 01:07:49,232
Always laughing, joking,
1600
01:07:49,483 --> 01:07:52,110
she was really a
terrific person.
1601
01:07:52,360 --> 01:07:54,029
I was going around
to John's house,
1602
01:07:54,279 --> 01:07:55,947
this was in the summertime,
1603
01:07:56,948 --> 01:08:00,368
like we often did, you
know, on a daily basis.
1604
01:08:00,619 --> 01:08:02,829
And when I reached the gate,
1605
01:08:03,997 --> 01:08:06,625
Aunt Mimi was at the gate,
1606
01:08:06,875 --> 01:08:09,127
with Julia at the side.
1607
01:08:09,377 --> 01:08:13,090
And Julia said oh
John's not here,
1608
01:08:13,340 --> 01:08:15,717
but you can have the pleasure
1609
01:08:15,967 --> 01:08:18,595
of walking me down
to the bus stop.
1610
01:08:18,845 --> 01:08:20,764
I said yep, that would be great.
1611
01:08:21,014 --> 01:08:23,767
Well, we got to the
end of Menlove Avenue,
1612
01:08:24,017 --> 01:08:26,186
and we said our goodbyes,
1613
01:08:26,436 --> 01:08:28,647
and I peeled off to the right,
1614
01:08:28,897 --> 01:08:31,399
she crossed over the first half,
1615
01:08:32,651 --> 01:08:36,071
and at that point
I heard a thump,
1616
01:08:36,321 --> 01:08:39,658
and I just saw Julia
flying through the air,
1617
01:08:39,908 --> 01:08:41,618
and I thought Jesus Christ.
1618
01:08:41,868 --> 01:08:45,914
I rushed over, and she
was laying there, I mean,
1619
01:08:46,164 --> 01:08:48,792
it was obvious she was dead.
1620
01:08:50,127 --> 01:08:53,255
I could see her hair
fluttering over her face
1621
01:08:53,505 --> 01:08:58,468
in the breeze, and I
was just devastated.
1622
01:09:00,053 --> 01:09:01,930
♪ Julia ♪
1623
01:09:07,686 --> 01:09:08,806
- Somebody rushed over to us
1624
01:09:08,979 --> 01:09:11,189
and said John's mom's died.
1625
01:09:11,439 --> 01:09:12,983
And he was very, very silent.
1626
01:09:13,233 --> 01:09:14,985
He never spoke, he
never spoke to me.
1627
01:09:15,235 --> 01:09:17,612
And he never
mentioned his mother.
1628
01:09:17,863 --> 01:09:20,949
And I think he bottled
everything inside,
1629
01:09:21,199 --> 01:09:23,618
it was very sad, we were
all very sorry for him
1630
01:09:23,869 --> 01:09:25,829
when we heard the
circumstances of it.
1631
01:09:27,038 --> 01:09:29,749
- And he was going along
all these corridors,
1632
01:09:30,000 --> 01:09:31,835
saying his mother
had been killed,
1633
01:09:32,085 --> 01:09:34,796
I mean, he was in
a terrible state.
1634
01:09:35,046 --> 01:09:39,467
Terribly upset, nobody
could calm him down,
1635
01:09:39,718 --> 01:09:41,720
and I remember him
standing, looking
1636
01:09:41,970 --> 01:09:43,138
down that lift shaft.
1637
01:09:43,388 --> 01:09:45,724
I came out, and I was
looking down that lift shaft,
1638
01:09:45,974 --> 01:09:48,852
and I thought what the
hell is he gonna do?
1639
01:09:49,102 --> 01:09:51,396
- And I always said
to myself afterwards,
1640
01:09:51,646 --> 01:09:54,900
well, you know, if I
would've stayed with her
1641
01:09:55,150 --> 01:09:58,778
50 seconds more, it would
never have happened.
1642
01:09:59,029 --> 01:10:01,698
And John was upset about it.
1643
01:10:02,574 --> 01:10:03,992
He was never the same with me
1644
01:10:04,242 --> 01:10:07,037
for quite some time afterwards.
1645
01:10:07,287 --> 01:10:08,914
You know, he went into a shell.
1646
01:10:09,164 --> 01:10:10,957
It really hit him hard.
1647
01:10:12,459 --> 01:10:14,794
- I didn't notice any
change in him at all.
1648
01:10:15,045 --> 01:10:17,005
He either hid it very well,
1649
01:10:17,255 --> 01:10:19,132
or I just didn't see.
1650
01:10:20,967 --> 01:10:23,136
- But I can't remember
him going into
1651
01:10:23,386 --> 01:10:25,889
a mourning sort of mode.
1652
01:10:27,182 --> 01:10:31,478
Just being rather quiet for
a few weeks, that's all.
1653
01:10:31,728 --> 01:10:34,064
I mean he was still
pranking and jumping about,
1654
01:10:34,314 --> 01:10:36,816
and making everybody laugh.
1655
01:10:37,984 --> 01:10:39,819
He never stopped.
1656
01:10:40,070 --> 01:10:43,323
♪ Julia ♪
1657
01:10:43,573 --> 01:10:45,492
♪ Julia ♪
1658
01:10:54,459 --> 01:10:56,711
♪ We-a-he-a-hell, the little
things you say and do ♪
1659
01:10:56,962 --> 01:11:00,006
♪ Make me want to
be with you-ah-ou ♪
1660
01:11:00,257 --> 01:11:02,342
♪ Rave on, it's
a crazy feeling ♪
1661
01:11:02,592 --> 01:11:05,303
♪ And I know it's
got me reeling ♪
1662
01:11:05,553 --> 01:11:08,765
♪ When you say I love you ♪
1663
01:11:09,015 --> 01:11:10,684
♪ Rave on ♪
1664
01:11:10,934 --> 01:11:13,812
- Cynthia was a very,
very serious worker.
1665
01:11:14,062 --> 01:11:15,272
She was very talented,
1666
01:11:15,522 --> 01:11:19,109
and she would've made also
a great graphic artist.
1667
01:11:19,359 --> 01:11:21,778
And then one day,
1668
01:11:22,028 --> 01:11:24,028
she said to me, do you know
who I'm going out with?
1669
01:11:24,072 --> 01:11:25,448
But don't tell anybody.
1670
01:11:26,700 --> 01:11:28,493
I said who, she said
John, John Lennon.
1671
01:11:29,744 --> 01:11:31,538
I said Cyn, what
do you see in him?
1672
01:11:35,208 --> 01:11:36,668
She said oh, I see a lot in him.
1673
01:11:38,003 --> 01:11:39,003
And that was it.
1674
01:11:39,212 --> 01:11:41,006
And I said well, I
think he's fabulous,
1675
01:11:41,256 --> 01:11:43,591
but I wouldn't of
thought he's your type.
1676
01:11:43,842 --> 01:11:45,202
It's
his vulnerability,
1677
01:11:45,260 --> 01:11:49,723
it's his chic, it's the
fact that he bared his soul.
1678
01:11:51,016 --> 01:11:54,269
Foolishly, stupidly,
but he bared his soul
1679
01:11:54,519 --> 01:11:56,521
for everybody else to see.
1680
01:11:56,771 --> 01:11:59,941
Cynthia Powell
later became John's first wife,
1681
01:12:00,191 --> 01:12:01,901
but they had a
troubled relationship.
1682
01:12:03,236 --> 01:12:05,006
- John was controlling,
he's a controlling person
1683
01:12:05,030 --> 01:12:06,239
if you got half the chance,
1684
01:12:06,489 --> 01:12:08,908
and was a bully if he
got half the chance.
1685
01:12:09,159 --> 01:12:13,038
And, you know, he
beat up Cynthia,
1686
01:12:13,288 --> 01:12:16,499
and there's other girls he
was physically cruel to.
1687
01:12:16,750 --> 01:12:19,669
So John in their
marriage was doing that,
1688
01:12:19,919 --> 01:12:22,964
and was not very kind
or nice to Cynthia.
1689
01:12:23,214 --> 01:12:25,884
♪ I used to be cruel to
my woman I beat her ♪
1690
01:12:26,134 --> 01:12:28,428
- It's in his songs.
1691
01:12:28,678 --> 01:12:31,097
What's that one, about
I was cruel to my woman.
1692
01:12:31,348 --> 01:12:32,891
John wrote those lines in about
1693
01:12:33,141 --> 01:12:34,141
I'm cruel to my woman,
1694
01:12:34,267 --> 01:12:35,727
and he's cruel to lots of women.
1695
01:12:36,978 --> 01:12:38,646
Later,
in The Beatles years,
1696
01:12:38,897 --> 01:12:40,273
John's attitude toward women
1697
01:12:40,523 --> 01:12:42,192
would surface again
at Paul McCartney's
1698
01:12:42,442 --> 01:12:44,110
21st birthday party.
1699
01:12:44,361 --> 01:12:46,946
♪ Come on baby, let me
buy the wedding ring ♪
1700
01:12:47,197 --> 01:12:49,491
- This house belongs
to Paul's auntie.
1701
01:12:49,741 --> 01:12:51,076
Just up over the way from me,
1702
01:12:51,326 --> 01:12:52,035
it was Billie J. Cramer,
1703
01:12:52,285 --> 01:12:54,871
and this girl called Rose.
1704
01:12:55,121 --> 01:12:57,957
So Lennon walks down
and he sees her,
1705
01:12:58,208 --> 01:12:58,958
and he's shouting at her,
1706
01:12:59,209 --> 01:13:00,377
and she goes blah, blah,
1707
01:13:00,627 --> 01:13:03,546
and he goes like nah,
straight on the girl's bosoms.
1708
01:13:04,839 --> 01:13:05,340
So she just gives
him a backhander,
1709
01:13:05,590 --> 01:13:06,925
I saw it, a backhander.
1710
01:13:07,175 --> 01:13:08,551
She had every right to.
1711
01:13:08,802 --> 01:13:10,887
She smacked him, get
off me, you know.
1712
01:13:11,137 --> 01:13:12,137
And he goes like that,
1713
01:13:12,263 --> 01:13:14,599
and he gives her
a full right hand.
1714
01:13:14,849 --> 01:13:15,849
Bang.
1715
01:13:16,726 --> 01:13:18,853
And then she fell on the floor.
1716
01:13:19,104 --> 01:13:20,897
People had led him off.
1717
01:13:29,656 --> 01:13:31,491
As well
as Cynthia Powell,
1718
01:13:31,741 --> 01:13:33,993
another art student became
a significant figure
1719
01:13:34,244 --> 01:13:35,578
in John Lennon's life.
1720
01:13:36,579 --> 01:13:37,747
Stuart Sutcliffe.
1721
01:13:42,377 --> 01:13:44,003
- While Stuart
wasn't in my group,
1722
01:13:44,254 --> 01:13:46,423
he was a year above
with Rod Murray.
1723
01:13:46,673 --> 01:13:49,050
And he was always in
the painting department,
1724
01:13:49,300 --> 01:13:51,261
because he was a
very good painter.
1725
01:13:51,511 --> 01:13:53,388
And he was a very quiet fellow,
1726
01:13:53,638 --> 01:13:55,974
a lovely person, very,
very good painter
1727
01:13:56,224 --> 01:13:58,017
and took his work
very seriously.
1728
01:13:58,268 --> 01:14:00,348
And all the masters thought
he was going to be great.
1729
01:14:00,478 --> 01:14:01,918
I think some of them
were a bit upset
1730
01:14:02,063 --> 01:14:03,815
when he became a musician.
1731
01:14:04,065 --> 01:14:06,526
- Stuart and John
got on very well.
1732
01:14:06,776 --> 01:14:07,944
A lot of it because of,
1733
01:14:08,194 --> 01:14:09,821
not just their
interest in fine art,
1734
01:14:10,071 --> 01:14:13,783
but in music, they had the
same sort of taste in music.
1735
01:14:15,285 --> 01:14:16,345
You know,
I think John admired
1736
01:14:16,369 --> 01:14:17,369
the talent of Stuart,
1737
01:14:20,290 --> 01:14:22,292
and he liked people that had
1738
01:14:22,542 --> 01:14:25,086
a calming influence over
him, I think at times.
1739
01:14:25,336 --> 01:14:27,338
Like Cynthia, and Stuart maybe,
1740
01:14:28,673 --> 01:14:30,550
and various other friends.
1741
01:14:30,800 --> 01:14:32,802
- I mean, John Lennon
was told to leave here
1742
01:14:33,052 --> 01:14:36,306
because he didn't
do the art history.
1743
01:14:36,556 --> 01:14:38,316
I mean, usually
people that weren't
1744
01:14:38,433 --> 01:14:41,895
that interested left,
or were told to move on
1745
01:14:42,145 --> 01:14:44,647
after the first year
and a half or so.
1746
01:14:44,898 --> 01:14:48,193
And I think John
was told to move on,
1747
01:14:48,443 --> 01:14:51,154
because he just
didn't do anything.
1748
01:14:51,404 --> 01:14:53,740
At college,
it was fast becoming clear
1749
01:14:53,990 --> 01:14:56,034
that John's real
passion was for music.
1750
01:14:56,284 --> 01:14:58,161
While John still
had no clear vision
1751
01:14:58,411 --> 01:15:00,163
of how to make music pay,
1752
01:15:00,413 --> 01:15:02,165
he was desperate enough
to do laboring work
1753
01:15:02,415 --> 01:15:04,792
to buy his first
electric guitar.
1754
01:15:05,043 --> 01:15:07,170
Clubs like the Casbah
Coffee Club in West Derby
1755
01:15:07,420 --> 01:15:09,130
were opening all over the city.
1756
01:15:10,590 --> 01:15:12,675
- I was here on the
night it opened.
1757
01:15:12,926 --> 01:15:16,054
As we came in, the
band that would play
1758
01:15:16,304 --> 01:15:18,014
were called the Quarrymen.
1759
01:15:18,264 --> 01:15:20,141
They'd moved on from
the skiffle music,
1760
01:15:20,391 --> 01:15:21,577
these guys were playing
electric guitars.
1761
01:15:21,601 --> 01:15:25,021
Of the original members
of the Quarrymen,
1762
01:15:25,271 --> 01:15:27,190
there was only John
Lennon who was here.
1763
01:15:27,440 --> 01:15:30,902
Paul McCartney joined,
Paul had brought in George.
1764
01:15:31,152 --> 01:15:33,196
I mean George could play
both of them off the stage.
1765
01:15:33,446 --> 01:15:35,448
He was tolerated as a youngster
1766
01:15:35,698 --> 01:15:37,283
simply because he was so good.
1767
01:15:38,284 --> 01:15:40,286
♪ Let her go boy, go, go ♪
1768
01:15:47,001 --> 01:15:49,420
- The move to
Gambier Terrace here,
1769
01:15:49,671 --> 01:15:50,797
the flat was really too big
1770
01:15:51,047 --> 01:15:52,340
just for Stuart and myself,
1771
01:15:52,590 --> 01:15:54,384
and Stuart said to John,
1772
01:15:54,634 --> 01:15:56,219
would he like to
share the bedroom?
1773
01:15:56,469 --> 01:15:59,639
In the kitchen, we had a
shelf each for our food.
1774
01:15:59,889 --> 01:16:01,182
Including John.
1775
01:16:01,432 --> 01:16:03,434
There was hardly anything
ever in John's shelf,
1776
01:16:03,685 --> 01:16:06,062
but things used to
disappear from our shelves.
1777
01:16:06,312 --> 01:16:08,898
Like, your tin of
beans was missing.
1778
01:16:09,148 --> 01:16:11,068
But it would turn up again
a couple of days later
1779
01:16:11,150 --> 01:16:12,819
when he'd done a
bit of shoplifting.
1780
01:16:13,069 --> 01:16:14,588
I can't remember then
whether they were called
1781
01:16:14,612 --> 01:16:17,115
The Silver Beatles, The
Beatles, or something else.
1782
01:16:17,365 --> 01:16:18,925
They were going through
a flux of names,
1783
01:16:19,075 --> 01:16:21,661
and they practiced
in the back room.
1784
01:16:23,288 --> 01:16:24,998
♪ All my friends are
boppin' the blues ♪
1785
01:16:25,248 --> 01:16:27,875
♪ It must be goin' round ♪
1786
01:16:28,126 --> 01:16:30,378
♪ All my friends are
boppin' the blues ♪
1787
01:16:30,628 --> 01:16:34,132
♪ It must be going round ♪
1788
01:16:35,425 --> 01:16:36,092
- They were bums.
1789
01:16:36,342 --> 01:16:37,361
That's all they were, bums.
1790
01:16:37,385 --> 01:16:38,678
You know, we all were.
1791
01:16:40,096 --> 01:16:43,099
- But the Beatles,
they weren't like
1792
01:16:43,349 --> 01:16:45,101
ordinary rock bands.
1793
01:16:45,351 --> 01:16:47,145
They were a sort
of a bit more arty,
1794
01:16:47,395 --> 01:16:48,896
a bit more arty
like studenty types,
1795
01:16:49,147 --> 01:16:50,231
bohemian, you know.
1796
01:16:51,524 --> 01:16:53,324
John and Stuart
got closer and closer.
1797
01:16:53,568 --> 01:16:57,071
John insisted on Stuart
being bass guitarist.
1798
01:16:57,322 --> 01:16:57,989
- They didn't have a drummer,
1799
01:16:58,239 --> 01:16:59,425
and they offered Johnny the job,
1800
01:16:59,449 --> 01:17:01,492
he turned them down.
1801
01:17:01,743 --> 01:17:03,143
They were better
then, weren't they?
1802
01:17:03,328 --> 01:17:05,747
They weren't a band until
Pete Best joined up.
1803
01:17:06,998 --> 01:17:09,125
- And then they were
offered this job,
1804
01:17:09,375 --> 01:17:14,088
Hamburg, on condition that
they had a permanent drummer.
1805
01:17:14,339 --> 01:17:16,174
Peter got the job,
and a few days later,
1806
01:17:16,424 --> 01:17:18,092
he was on the boat.
1807
01:17:22,096 --> 01:17:23,640
In August 1960,
1808
01:17:23,890 --> 01:17:26,309
John and his fellow
Beatles squeezed into a van
1809
01:17:26,559 --> 01:17:28,561
alongside their
manager, Allan Williams,
1810
01:17:28,811 --> 01:17:31,105
and his business
partner, Lord Woodbine,
1811
01:17:31,356 --> 01:17:34,400
for a date with
destiny in Hamburg.
1812
01:17:39,238 --> 01:17:40,424
♪ Well, I'm just out of school ♪
1813
01:17:40,448 --> 01:17:41,699
♪ Like I'm real, real cool ♪
1814
01:17:41,949 --> 01:17:43,242
♪ Gotta dance like a fool ♪
1815
01:17:43,493 --> 01:17:45,286
♪ Got the message that
I've gotta be a wild ♪
1816
01:17:45,536 --> 01:17:50,500
♪ I'm a wild one, oh
yay, I'm a wild one ♪
1817
01:17:51,250 --> 01:17:51,959
♪ Gonna break loose ♪
1818
01:17:52,210 --> 01:17:52,919
♪ Gonna keep a-movin' wild ♪
1819
01:17:53,169 --> 01:17:54,169
♪ Gonna keep a-swingin' ♪
1820
01:17:54,253 --> 01:17:56,339
♪ Baby, I'm a real wild child ♪
1821
01:17:56,589 --> 01:17:57,983
Pitching
up three days later
1822
01:17:58,007 --> 01:18:00,051
at the seedy club in
Hamburg's notorious
1823
01:18:00,301 --> 01:18:02,720
Red Light area, the five Beatles
1824
01:18:02,970 --> 01:18:04,347
hit the ground running,
1825
01:18:04,597 --> 01:18:07,725
with a unique sound that
soon pulled in the punters.
1826
01:18:07,975 --> 01:18:10,353
Including a group of
German art students.
1827
01:18:12,772 --> 01:18:16,484
- When I came in
there, in that place,
1828
01:18:16,734 --> 01:18:18,027
I walked down the stairs,
1829
01:18:18,277 --> 01:18:21,322
it was full of those leather
jacketed clad rockers,
1830
01:18:21,572 --> 01:18:23,032
with those Elvis...
1831
01:18:23,282 --> 01:18:24,867
And then those rock
and roll music,
1832
01:18:25,118 --> 01:18:28,746
The Beatles on stage are
the first guy I noticed
1833
01:18:28,996 --> 01:18:31,624
who was really the quintessential rocker at the time,
1834
01:18:31,874 --> 01:18:33,543
because they also
played at the theater
1835
01:18:33,793 --> 01:18:36,421
in black leather jackets.
1836
01:18:36,671 --> 01:18:38,431
The Beatles looked
exactly like the audience,
1837
01:18:38,506 --> 01:18:40,106
you know, with the
Elvis do and all that,
1838
01:18:40,174 --> 01:18:41,676
and it was John Lennon.
1839
01:18:41,926 --> 01:18:43,970
I mean really, like, Jesus,
1840
01:18:44,220 --> 01:18:46,931
he looked like Marlon Brando
in the wide run at the time.
1841
01:18:47,181 --> 01:18:48,307
♪ Well I'm a real wild one ♪
1842
01:18:48,558 --> 01:18:49,642
♪ And I like wild fun ♪
1843
01:18:49,892 --> 01:18:51,227
♪ In a world gone crazy ♪
1844
01:18:51,477 --> 01:18:52,520
♪ Everything seems hazy ♪
1845
01:18:52,770 --> 01:18:53,770
♪ I'm a wild one ♪
1846
01:18:53,980 --> 01:18:56,691
♪ Wild, wild child ♪
1847
01:18:56,941 --> 01:18:58,693
- We went every
day, every evening,
1848
01:18:58,943 --> 01:19:02,196
because everything else
was boring in Hamburg.
1849
01:19:02,447 --> 01:19:04,365
I never went to a
Jets concert again,
1850
01:19:04,615 --> 01:19:06,135
I only went to this
rock and roll club,
1851
01:19:06,325 --> 01:19:09,620
and right away the
very first night
1852
01:19:10,955 --> 01:19:12,999
we met The Beatles because
we looked so different.
1853
01:19:13,249 --> 01:19:14,435
I know that Stuart was the first
1854
01:19:14,459 --> 01:19:15,459
who came to our table,
1855
01:19:15,626 --> 01:19:17,378
and letter John and Paul came.
1856
01:19:17,628 --> 01:19:20,173
Now Paul was obviously
very nice, and kind.
1857
01:19:20,423 --> 01:19:23,301
I wasn't at all uncomfortable
in Paul's presence,
1858
01:19:23,551 --> 01:19:24,844
because he was a charmer,
1859
01:19:25,094 --> 01:19:26,654
and he was, all the
time I had knew him,
1860
01:19:26,721 --> 01:19:28,097
he was like that.
1861
01:19:28,347 --> 01:19:32,310
But of John, I felt
very uncomfortable.
1862
01:19:32,560 --> 01:19:36,105
Because he made
sarcastic remarks.
1863
01:19:36,355 --> 01:19:38,357
At first he said something
about my clothes,
1864
01:19:38,608 --> 01:19:40,276
but it was clothing
he had never seen
1865
01:19:40,526 --> 01:19:42,862
the green jacket or whatever,
1866
01:19:43,112 --> 01:19:44,238
or sweaters I had.
1867
01:19:46,073 --> 01:19:48,159
And I said well I
bought everything I wear
1868
01:19:50,495 --> 01:19:52,163
in Paris, you know?
1869
01:19:52,413 --> 01:19:54,332
And then I said to soften it,
1870
01:19:54,582 --> 01:19:56,459
well, it's on the flea market.
1871
01:19:56,709 --> 01:19:59,462
And I remember then he
made immediately fun
1872
01:19:59,712 --> 01:20:03,966
as if he put a flea
from my jacket to Paul,
1873
01:20:04,217 --> 01:20:05,676
and Paul made this.
1874
01:20:05,927 --> 01:20:07,637
They had those
kind of reactions.
1875
01:20:07,887 --> 01:20:09,406
I didn't know the Marx
Brothers at the time,
1876
01:20:09,430 --> 01:20:12,016
I had never seen the
Marx Brothers then,
1877
01:20:12,266 --> 01:20:15,436
they had this kind of make
fun of everything, you know?
1878
01:20:21,692 --> 01:20:23,861
I've been on
pills since I was 17.
1879
01:20:24,111 --> 01:20:26,322
Since I became a musician.
1880
01:20:26,572 --> 01:20:27,932
The only way to
survive in Hamburg,
1881
01:20:28,157 --> 01:20:29,277
to play eight hours a night,
1882
01:20:29,492 --> 01:20:31,303
was to take pills, like
the waiters gave you it.
1883
01:20:31,327 --> 01:20:32,453
Pills and a drink.
1884
01:20:32,703 --> 01:20:35,665
I was a fuckin' drop
down drunk in art school,
1885
01:20:35,915 --> 01:20:37,583
I was a pill addict,
1886
01:20:39,669 --> 01:20:41,429
just before help where
we turned out to park,
1887
01:20:41,671 --> 01:20:43,339
and we'd drop drink,
simple as that.
1888
01:20:43,589 --> 01:20:45,675
I've always needed
a drug to survive.
1889
01:20:46,551 --> 01:20:47,677
- When he got stoned,
1890
01:20:49,262 --> 01:20:50,680
he used to foam at the mouth.
1891
01:20:50,930 --> 01:20:52,050
And he was sitting on stage,
1892
01:20:52,181 --> 01:20:54,225
and he'd sit on his amp,
1893
01:20:55,560 --> 01:20:57,520
you know, and he'd just
have it full blasted on.
1894
01:20:57,770 --> 01:20:59,647
Going doing, doing, doing,
1895
01:21:00,523 --> 01:21:02,233
hitting the strings, you know.
1896
01:21:02,483 --> 01:21:05,695
And Horst Fascher was
a odd lad in Germany,
1897
01:21:05,945 --> 01:21:06,487
he called, he said...
1898
01:21:06,737 --> 01:21:07,947
Hey John, do me a favor.
1899
01:21:08,197 --> 01:21:09,699
Can you turn that up?
1900
01:21:09,949 --> 01:21:10,533
And John goes...
1901
01:21:11,701 --> 01:21:13,077
He said you touch that again,
1902
01:21:13,327 --> 01:21:15,447
he said and I'll cut you to
bleed in tin, you bastard.
1903
01:21:15,663 --> 01:21:16,831
He said get off the stage.
1904
01:21:18,124 --> 01:21:20,918
- And I remember the
day there was John,
1905
01:21:21,168 --> 01:21:22,920
Paul, and George, and I,
1906
01:21:23,170 --> 01:21:24,589
we four were sitting there.
1907
01:21:24,839 --> 01:21:27,466
And he was specifically
talking about my haircut.
1908
01:21:27,717 --> 01:21:29,719
But then he did it like this,
1909
01:21:29,969 --> 01:21:33,931
oh no like this, in
front of Paul's hair,
1910
01:21:35,099 --> 01:21:36,559
and then he had a comb,
1911
01:21:36,809 --> 01:21:40,438
and put it like that
in front of Paul.
1912
01:21:40,688 --> 01:21:43,441
And Paul immediately
played the act,
1913
01:21:43,691 --> 01:21:46,444
like Marx Brothers, and did
the Nazi salute, you know?
1914
01:21:46,694 --> 01:21:48,154
Immediately like
Hitler, you know?
1915
01:21:48,404 --> 01:21:52,199
And so that was typically
John, you know?
1916
01:21:52,450 --> 01:21:53,993
- They were actually
a very poor band
1917
01:21:54,243 --> 01:21:56,162
compared to the rest of them.
1918
01:21:56,412 --> 01:21:58,581
But when they went to Hamburg,
1919
01:21:58,831 --> 01:22:01,334
six hours a night,
six days a week,
1920
01:22:01,584 --> 01:22:03,419
they honed their act together,
1921
01:22:03,669 --> 01:22:04,670
and they came back...
1922
01:22:04,921 --> 01:22:06,231
That's what
made us all, you know.
1923
01:22:06,255 --> 01:22:07,632
- Absolutely fantastic.
1924
01:22:07,882 --> 01:22:09,467
- If you can already see,
1925
01:22:09,717 --> 01:22:12,553
most of my photos
are all showing John.
1926
01:22:12,803 --> 01:22:15,890
And that means that I was
most fascinated by him
1927
01:22:16,140 --> 01:22:17,140
as a photographer.
1928
01:22:17,224 --> 01:22:18,476
You know, you see how he looks,
1929
01:22:18,726 --> 01:22:20,126
he's like the cool
rocker, you know?
1930
01:22:20,227 --> 01:22:21,270
20th century.
1931
01:22:21,520 --> 01:22:22,748
- When he held his
guitar up here,
1932
01:22:22,772 --> 01:22:23,898
almost like a Ted.
1933
01:22:25,149 --> 01:22:26,817
He was like a teddy
boy on the stage.
1934
01:22:27,777 --> 01:22:28,977
And he always fancied himself,
1935
01:22:29,028 --> 01:22:31,072
and he couldn't knock
a hole in a wet echo.
1936
01:22:31,322 --> 01:22:31,989
- Say that again.
1937
01:22:32,239 --> 01:22:33,866
- But he also fancied himself.
1938
01:22:34,867 --> 01:22:36,494
A bit of a hard case, you know.
1939
01:22:36,744 --> 01:22:39,747
- John Lennon was
more aggressive
1940
01:22:41,666 --> 01:22:43,542
than any of the other
Beatles in any way,
1941
01:22:43,793 --> 01:22:48,005
without being in your face
or threatening in any way.
1942
01:22:48,255 --> 01:22:50,591
It was just the way
that he dealt with,
1943
01:22:50,841 --> 01:22:52,843
and his authority.
1944
01:22:53,094 --> 01:22:54,720
- Like sometimes,
you couldn't avoid
1945
01:22:54,971 --> 01:22:56,430
the fact that he was there.
1946
01:22:56,681 --> 01:22:57,932
And then other times,
1947
01:22:58,182 --> 01:23:00,726
he'd go into his quiet moods.
1948
01:23:00,977 --> 01:23:03,938
- They decided when they
were 16, 17, 18 I think,
1949
01:23:04,188 --> 01:23:06,691
that they were gonna be
professional musicians.
1950
01:23:06,941 --> 01:23:08,859
And when they came
back from Germany,
1951
01:23:09,110 --> 01:23:11,487
I think they were
further along that road.
1952
01:23:12,989 --> 01:23:16,117
They'd experienced a lot
of success in Germany.
1953
01:23:16,367 --> 01:23:18,202
They'd come together
both musically,
1954
01:23:18,452 --> 01:23:19,996
I would think as
a group of people,
1955
01:23:20,246 --> 01:23:22,373
they were tighter
together as well.
1956
01:23:22,623 --> 01:23:26,627
♪ You ♪
1957
01:23:26,877 --> 01:23:28,004
♪ Are the one ♪
1958
01:23:28,254 --> 01:23:29,606
Now within
touching distance
1959
01:23:29,630 --> 01:23:31,257
of fame and fortune,
1960
01:23:31,507 --> 01:23:34,510
The Beatles and their new
manager, Brian Epstein,
1961
01:23:34,760 --> 01:23:36,554
met up at Hamburg Airport.
1962
01:23:36,804 --> 01:23:39,181
But something was
terribly wrong.
1963
01:23:39,432 --> 01:23:41,600
Stuart Sutcliffe was missing.
1964
01:23:41,851 --> 01:23:43,477
Astrid broke the news.
1965
01:23:43,728 --> 01:23:46,981
Stuart, barely 21 years old,
1966
01:23:47,231 --> 01:23:49,608
had died from a
brain haemorrhage.
1967
01:23:49,859 --> 01:23:54,238
The specter of death had returned to haunt John once again.
1968
01:23:54,488 --> 01:23:56,282
- John just freaked out.
1969
01:23:56,532 --> 01:23:57,616
He completely freaked out,
1970
01:23:57,867 --> 01:24:00,119
he freaked out as far as
1971
01:24:00,369 --> 01:24:02,955
just laughing until tears came.
1972
01:24:04,123 --> 01:24:09,086
♪ You are my life ♪
1973
01:24:10,004 --> 01:24:12,923
♪ Cause, cause, cause you ♪
1974
01:24:14,050 --> 01:24:14,800
- The fact that all of us,
1975
01:24:15,051 --> 01:24:16,594
I liked Stuart as well.
1976
01:24:16,844 --> 01:24:17,844
It was horrible.
1977
01:24:18,888 --> 01:24:20,890
It was really bad, you know.
1978
01:24:21,140 --> 01:24:22,850
He was the James
Dean of the band.
1979
01:24:23,934 --> 01:24:24,934
You talk about looks,
1980
01:24:25,019 --> 01:24:26,419
he was the best
looking of the band.
1981
01:24:26,520 --> 01:24:27,813
But he was with them.
1982
01:24:28,731 --> 01:24:30,066
He wasn't with them long,
1983
01:24:31,317 --> 01:24:32,985
but what he did
do was important.
1984
01:24:36,781 --> 01:24:37,841
With Brian Epstein,
1985
01:24:37,865 --> 01:24:39,825
came another rapid change.
1986
01:24:40,076 --> 01:24:41,786
Out went Pete Best,
and The Beatles
1987
01:24:42,036 --> 01:24:44,205
wild, leather clad image,
1988
01:24:44,455 --> 01:24:48,084
and then came Ringo, and
clean cut boys in suits.
1989
01:24:48,334 --> 01:24:52,505
Lennon's days as a rock
and roll punk were oven.
1990
01:24:52,755 --> 01:24:57,718
- You know, I moved to
Paris in September '61.
1991
01:24:58,594 --> 01:25:00,638
John and Paul came to visit me
1992
01:25:00,888 --> 01:25:03,432
just after I had
been there one month.
1993
01:25:03,682 --> 01:25:05,267
Among other things,
they wanted to have
1994
01:25:05,518 --> 01:25:06,518
the same kind of clothes,
1995
01:25:06,644 --> 01:25:07,764
take me to your flea market,
1996
01:25:07,895 --> 01:25:10,439
it was one of their
biggest desires.
1997
01:25:10,689 --> 01:25:14,485
They asked me to cut their
hair like I had mine.
1998
01:25:14,735 --> 01:25:15,778
So The Beatles, typically,
1999
01:25:16,028 --> 01:25:18,489
what was then known as
a mop top, you know?
2000
01:25:18,739 --> 01:25:22,993
- Personally speaking, the
leather jacket era, '61,
2001
01:25:24,870 --> 01:25:28,415
that was when
Liverpool and the fans
2002
01:25:28,666 --> 01:25:31,669
saw The Beatles as
nobody else in the world
2003
01:25:31,919 --> 01:25:32,919
ever saw them.
2004
01:25:33,796 --> 01:25:35,548
They were pure rock and roll.
2005
01:25:36,841 --> 01:25:39,009
And the leather jackets
made them look even better.
2006
01:25:39,927 --> 01:25:41,971
And it was when
Epstein changed them,
2007
01:25:42,221 --> 01:25:44,181
and he groomed it out of them,
2008
01:25:44,431 --> 01:25:47,059
I just think they lost
a bit of earthiness,
2009
01:25:47,309 --> 01:25:48,869
a little bit of the
rock and roll stuff,
2010
01:25:48,978 --> 01:25:50,521
I've always felt that.
2011
01:25:50,771 --> 01:25:52,982
But the point is, you
can't argue with the fact,
2012
01:25:53,232 --> 01:25:54,232
it worked.
2013
01:25:55,234 --> 01:25:56,819
We were four guys that,
2014
01:25:57,069 --> 01:25:58,964
I met Paul, and said do
you want to join my band?
2015
01:25:58,988 --> 01:26:02,116
You know, and then
George joined,
2016
01:26:02,366 --> 01:26:03,927
and then Ringo joined,
we were just a band
2017
01:26:03,951 --> 01:26:06,662
who made it very,
very big, that's all.
2018
01:26:06,912 --> 01:26:09,248
Our best work was never
recorded, you know.
2019
01:26:09,498 --> 01:26:11,834
In Liverpool, Hamburg,
and around the dance halls, you know?
2020
01:26:12,084 --> 01:26:15,129
And what we generated
was fantastic,
2021
01:26:15,379 --> 01:26:17,298
where we played straight rock,
2022
01:26:17,548 --> 01:26:19,884
and there was nobody
to touch us in Britain.
2023
01:26:20,134 --> 01:26:22,428
But as soon as we
made it, we made it.
2024
01:26:22,678 --> 01:26:25,055
The edges were knocked off.
2025
01:26:25,306 --> 01:26:26,724
Brian put us in
suits and all that,
2026
01:26:26,974 --> 01:26:28,174
and we made it very, very big,
2027
01:26:28,392 --> 01:26:29,518
but we sold out.
2028
01:26:29,768 --> 01:26:31,478
And the music was
dead before we even
2029
01:26:31,729 --> 01:26:33,439
went on the theater
tour of Britain.
2030
01:26:35,566 --> 01:26:37,026
We were feeling shit already.
2031
01:26:38,402 --> 01:26:39,588
The Beatles made it
2032
01:26:39,612 --> 01:26:40,946
as Lennon promised they would.
2033
01:26:42,198 --> 01:26:44,033
Their music changed the world,
2034
01:26:44,283 --> 01:26:47,411
changed our society, and
entertained millions.
2035
01:26:48,787 --> 01:26:50,539
But even at the
height of their fame,
2036
01:26:50,789 --> 01:26:53,292
John's troubled childhood
was never far behind.
2037
01:26:54,293 --> 01:26:56,128
He became a father in 1963,
2038
01:26:56,378 --> 01:26:57,755
when his first wife, Cynthia,
2039
01:26:58,005 --> 01:27:00,216
gave birth a son, Julian.
2040
01:27:00,466 --> 01:27:02,843
But in a repeat of
his own upbringing,
2041
01:27:03,093 --> 01:27:04,762
John was an absent father.
2042
01:27:06,055 --> 01:27:07,240
He also struggled
with the pressures
2043
01:27:07,264 --> 01:27:08,682
of being a Beatle,
2044
01:27:08,933 --> 01:27:10,976
and what became one of
his most famous songs,
2045
01:27:11,227 --> 01:27:13,103
was originally
written as a ballad,
2046
01:27:13,354 --> 01:27:14,897
a cry from the heart.
2047
01:27:16,607 --> 01:27:18,859
♪ When I was younger ♪
2048
01:27:19,109 --> 01:27:24,073
♪ So much younger than today ♪
2049
01:27:25,199 --> 01:27:29,078
♪ I never needed
anybody's help ♪
2050
01:27:29,328 --> 01:27:33,415
♪ In any way ♪
2051
01:27:33,666 --> 01:27:36,585
♪ And now these days are gone ♪
2052
01:27:36,835 --> 01:27:41,799
♪ I'm not so self assured ♪
2053
01:27:43,092 --> 01:27:45,594
♪ Now I find I've
changed my mind ♪
2054
01:27:45,844 --> 01:27:50,099
♪ I've opened up the doors ♪
2055
01:27:50,349 --> 01:27:55,312
♪ Help me if you can,
I'm feeling down ♪
2056
01:27:58,148 --> 01:28:03,028
♪ And I do appreciate
you being round ♪
2057
01:28:07,241 --> 01:28:12,204
♪ Help me get my feet
back on the ground ♪
2058
01:28:14,915 --> 01:28:17,835
♪ Won't you please ♪
2059
01:28:18,085 --> 01:28:20,963
♪ Please help me ♪
2060
01:28:23,007 --> 01:28:26,176
- I would say he was
a very witty guy,
2061
01:28:27,136 --> 01:28:30,931
very friendly,
comical, artistic.
2062
01:28:31,181 --> 01:28:32,933
- If you didn't know him at all,
2063
01:28:33,183 --> 01:28:34,893
he looked like
somebody you probably
2064
01:28:35,144 --> 01:28:36,478
wouldn't want to know.
2065
01:28:36,729 --> 01:28:39,982
An aura of don't
come too close to me,
2066
01:28:40,232 --> 01:28:42,901
or I'll butt ya, or
something like that.
2067
01:28:43,152 --> 01:28:45,112
If he was a friend,
2068
01:28:45,362 --> 01:28:49,867
I think you could rely
on him wholeheartedly.
2069
01:28:50,117 --> 01:28:51,660
- But I look back on five years,
2070
01:28:51,910 --> 01:28:55,164
and it was just one laugh,
after laugh, after laugh.
2071
01:28:55,414 --> 01:28:57,309
It was great, we thoroughly
enjoyed our schooling,
2072
01:28:57,333 --> 01:28:59,126
we laughed our way through.
2073
01:28:59,376 --> 01:29:01,170
And this was mostly John Lennon,
2074
01:29:01,420 --> 01:29:02,420
who was at the bottom.
2075
01:29:02,546 --> 01:29:04,631
It was always good fun.
2076
01:29:04,882 --> 01:29:07,301
- Yeah, I mean, a
bit of a naughty boy.
2077
01:29:07,551 --> 01:29:09,345
But a lot of talent.
2078
01:29:09,595 --> 01:29:10,955
- Actually, one of
the reasons John
2079
01:29:11,096 --> 01:29:13,223
did so much charity
back later on,
2080
01:29:13,474 --> 01:29:15,035
is to make up for being
such a little bastard
2081
01:29:15,059 --> 01:29:16,059
when he was younger.
2082
01:29:17,478 --> 01:29:20,064
- I think he was
determined to succeed,
2083
01:29:20,314 --> 01:29:21,940
and I think he'd chosen,
2084
01:29:22,941 --> 01:29:24,818
inside, he'd chosen the route
2085
01:29:25,778 --> 01:29:26,818
that he was gonna succeed,
2086
01:29:26,904 --> 01:29:29,948
he was gonna be a star.
2087
01:29:30,199 --> 01:29:32,951
- He was the leader
of the best pop group
2088
01:29:33,202 --> 01:29:34,578
that Planet Earth has ever had,
2089
01:29:34,828 --> 01:29:36,747
and we'll be singing
Beatles songs
2090
01:29:36,997 --> 01:29:39,208
for as long as we've got
the breath in our body
2091
01:29:39,458 --> 01:29:40,876
to hum the tunes.
2092
01:29:41,126 --> 01:29:43,754
- The world knew there was
some greatness about him,
2093
01:29:44,004 --> 01:29:45,484
and he'd make it in
the world somehow,
2094
01:29:45,547 --> 01:29:48,300
because he was just so
unusual as a character.
2095
01:29:48,550 --> 01:29:50,302
He couldn't just go unnoticed,
2096
01:29:50,552 --> 01:29:51,970
he had a presence.
2097
01:29:52,221 --> 01:29:54,890
♪ But now these days are gone ♪
2098
01:29:55,140 --> 01:29:58,477
♪ I'm not so self assured ♪
2099
01:29:59,895 --> 01:30:01,055
For John Lennon,
2100
01:30:01,146 --> 01:30:03,982
life before fame was never easy.
2101
01:30:04,233 --> 01:30:06,735
Somehow, he lived through
most of World War II,
2102
01:30:06,985 --> 01:30:09,905
austerity, and
family difficulties.
2103
01:30:10,155 --> 01:30:11,990
He experience death
at first hand,
2104
01:30:12,241 --> 01:30:14,910
with the loss of his
father figure Uncle George,
2105
01:30:15,160 --> 01:30:17,788
and his great friend,
Stuart Sutcliffe.
2106
01:30:18,038 --> 01:30:21,500
But most of all, with the
loss of his mother, Julia.
2107
01:30:24,753 --> 01:30:26,713
It was his childhood
and adolescence
2108
01:30:26,964 --> 01:30:29,174
that shaped the man
the world came to know.
2109
01:30:31,093 --> 01:30:32,094
John Lennon.
2110
01:30:33,262 --> 01:30:37,599
♪ Won't you please, please ♪
2111
01:30:37,850 --> 01:30:40,018
♪ Help me ♪
2112
01:30:41,728 --> 01:30:43,688
I mean, it's just
a fact that that's what
2113
01:30:43,814 --> 01:30:45,691
makes you what you
are, childhood.
2114
01:30:47,192 --> 01:30:48,610
There's no getting away from It.
2115
01:30:50,988 --> 01:30:51,572
♪ Help ♪
2116
01:30:51,822 --> 01:30:52,822
♪ I need somebody ♪
2117
01:30:52,906 --> 01:30:53,574
♪ Help ♪
2118
01:30:53,824 --> 01:30:54,992
♪ Not just anybody ♪
2119
01:30:55,242 --> 01:30:56,242
♪ Help ♪
2120
01:30:56,285 --> 01:30:57,703
♪ You know I need someone ♪
2121
01:30:57,953 --> 01:31:00,372
♪ Help ♪
2122
01:31:00,622 --> 01:31:05,377
♪ When I was younger, so
much younger than today ♪
2123
01:31:05,627 --> 01:31:10,382
♪ I never needed anybody's
help in any way ♪
2124
01:31:10,632 --> 01:31:12,176
♪ But now these days are gone ♪
2125
01:31:12,426 --> 01:31:15,429
♪ And I'm not so self assured ♪
2126
01:31:15,679 --> 01:31:17,639
♪ Now I find I've
changed my mind ♪
2127
01:31:17,890 --> 01:31:20,017
♪ And opened up the doors ♪
2128
01:31:20,267 --> 01:31:24,521
♪ Help me if you can,
I'm feeling down ♪
2129
01:31:24,771 --> 01:31:29,735
♪ And I do appreciate
you being round ♪
2130
01:31:31,028 --> 01:31:34,656
♪ Help me get my feet
back on the ground ♪
2131
01:31:34,907 --> 01:31:39,870
♪ Won't you please,
please help me ♪
2132
01:31:40,996 --> 01:31:42,539
♪ And now my life is changed ♪
2133
01:31:42,789 --> 01:31:45,792
♪ In oh so many ways ♪
2134
01:31:46,043 --> 01:31:50,797
♪ My independence seems
to vanish in the haze ♪
2135
01:31:51,048 --> 01:31:55,969
♪ But every now and then
I feel so insecure ♪
2136
01:31:57,262 --> 01:31:58,406
♪ I know that I
just need you like ♪
2137
01:31:58,430 --> 01:32:00,474
♪ I've never done before ♪
2138
01:32:00,724 --> 01:32:05,062
♪ Help me if you can,
I'm feeling down ♪
2139
01:32:05,312 --> 01:32:10,275
♪ And I do appreciate
you being round ♪
2140
01:32:11,318 --> 01:32:15,072
♪ Help me get my feet
back on the ground ♪
2141
01:32:15,322 --> 01:32:20,285
♪ Won't you please,
please help me ♪
2142
01:32:21,620 --> 01:32:26,416
♪ When I was young, so
much younger than today ♪
2143
01:32:27,668 --> 01:32:31,213
♪ I never needed anybody's
help in any way ♪
2144
01:32:32,381 --> 01:32:33,441
♪ But now these days are gone ♪
2145
01:32:33,465 --> 01:32:36,176
♪ And I'm not so self assured ♪
2146
01:32:36,426 --> 01:32:38,595
♪ But now I find I've
changed my mind ♪
2147
01:32:38,845 --> 01:32:41,223
♪ And opened up the doors ♪
2148
01:32:41,473 --> 01:32:45,561
♪ Help me if you can,
I'm feeling down ♪
2149
01:32:45,811 --> 01:32:50,774
♪ And I do appreciate
you being round ♪
2150
01:32:52,109 --> 01:32:55,696
♪ Help me get my feet
back on the ground ♪
2151
01:32:55,946 --> 01:32:59,491
♪ Won't you please,
please help me ♪
2152
01:32:59,741 --> 01:33:02,786
♪ Help me, help me ♪
2153
01:33:03,036 --> 01:33:04,788
♪ Ooh ♪
163814
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