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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:27,862 --> 00:00:30,072 OK, I'll try it, OK. 2 00:00:46,130 --> 00:00:51,052 ♪ As soon as you're born, they make you feel small ♪ 3 00:00:53,846 --> 00:00:58,768 ♪ By giving you no time instead of it all ♪ 4 00:01:01,312 --> 00:01:06,275 ♪ Til' the pain is so big, you feel nothing at all ♪ 5 00:01:09,487 --> 00:01:14,450 ♪ A working class hero is something to be ♪ 6 00:01:17,328 --> 00:01:22,291 ♪ A working class hero is something to be ♪ 7 00:01:25,419 --> 00:01:29,715 A state of war when you're just a kid. 8 00:01:29,965 --> 00:01:32,343 Well, the missing element was the reality, you know. 9 00:01:32,593 --> 00:01:33,793 The fact that I wasn't wanted, 10 00:01:33,844 --> 00:01:38,808 and then my worst fears had come true. 11 00:01:42,937 --> 00:01:47,650 ♪ When I was younger, so much younger than today ♪ 12 00:01:47,900 --> 00:01:52,571 ♪ I never needed anybody's help in any way ♪ 13 00:01:52,822 --> 00:01:53,531 ♪ But now ♪ 14 00:01:53,781 --> 00:01:54,949 John Lennon, 15 00:01:55,199 --> 00:01:57,618 one of the most widely recognized faces in the world 16 00:01:57,868 --> 00:02:00,871 from the most successful pop group of all time. 17 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. 19 00:02:08,295 --> 00:02:09,689 Well, he was always the edgy one, 20 00:02:09,713 --> 00:02:11,298 gave a little bit of spice. 21 00:02:11,549 --> 00:02:14,051 John is the one who started it all. 22 00:02:14,301 --> 00:02:16,971 But how many people know the real John Lennon, 23 00:02:17,221 --> 00:02:20,224 the personality formed through his childhood experiences 24 00:02:20,474 --> 00:02:22,834 and the things that happened to him before he became famous? 25 00:02:24,270 --> 00:02:28,149 ♪ Won't you please, please help me ♪ 26 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, 31 00:03:13,944 --> 00:03:16,655 thousands of starving families fled to Liverpool. 32 00:03:18,073 --> 00:03:21,952 Among them was John's great-grandfather, James Lennon. 33 00:03:26,123 --> 00:03:28,751 - When James Lennon arrived in Liverpool in the 1840s, 34 00:03:29,001 --> 00:03:32,463 he turned up in a place which really was a city of plague, 35 00:03:32,713 --> 00:03:35,007 known as the hospital and cemetery of Ireland, 36 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. 38 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. 42 00:04:05,371 --> 00:04:08,958 And that really is the key bit of the Liverpool melting pot. 43 00:04:09,208 --> 00:04:11,877 It's the Irish who gives so much to making sure 44 00:04:12,127 --> 00:04:14,880 that Liverpool is sort of in the north of England 45 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. 47 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. 51 00:04:31,981 --> 00:04:33,461 And I think that Liverpool-Irish thing 52 00:04:33,691 --> 00:04:35,451 is at the heart of the fact that we're living 53 00:04:35,526 --> 00:04:37,069 in the People's Republic of Merseyside, 54 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. 56 00:04:43,993 --> 00:04:46,137 We were a port, the second biggest port in England, 57 00:04:46,161 --> 00:04:47,955 also between Manchester and Liverpool. 58 00:04:48,205 --> 00:04:49,683 That's where all the, the north was where 59 00:04:49,707 --> 00:04:51,709 the money was made in the 1800s or whenever it was. 60 00:04:51,959 --> 00:04:54,079 That was when all the brass and the heavy people were, 61 00:04:54,211 --> 00:04:56,672 and that's where the despised people were. 62 00:04:56,922 --> 00:04:58,275 We were the ones that were looked down upon 63 00:04:58,299 --> 00:04:59,717 by the southerners as animals, 64 00:04:59,967 --> 00:05:01,844 and also a great amount of Irish descent, 65 00:05:02,094 --> 00:05:04,555 and blacks and Chinamen and all sorts there. 66 00:05:04,805 --> 00:05:06,515 It's like San Francisco, you know. 67 00:05:06,765 --> 00:05:08,434 And it was a very poor city and tough. 68 00:05:08,684 --> 00:05:10,227 But people have a sense of humor 69 00:05:10,477 --> 00:05:12,980 because they're in so much pain, you know? 70 00:05:13,230 --> 00:05:15,542 So they're always cracking these jokes, they're very witty. 71 00:05:15,566 --> 00:05:18,402 And it's an Irish place, you know? 72 00:05:18,652 --> 00:05:20,863 It's where the Irish came when they ran out of potatoes. 73 00:05:21,113 --> 00:05:22,990 And it's where black people were left 74 00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:26,201 or workers, slaves or whatever, and created communities. 75 00:05:26,452 --> 00:05:28,212 It's cosmopolitan, and it's where the sailors 76 00:05:28,329 --> 00:05:29,347 would come home with the blues records 77 00:05:29,371 --> 00:05:31,832 from America on the ships! 78 00:05:35,127 --> 00:05:36,438 Liverpool's dominance 79 00:05:36,462 --> 00:05:38,464 as Britain's second city of empire, 80 00:05:38,714 --> 00:05:39,840 created thousands of jobs 81 00:05:40,090 --> 00:05:41,967 in shipping and dock working. 82 00:05:42,217 --> 00:05:44,511 It was in this busy world that John's parents, 83 00:05:44,762 --> 00:05:46,472 Alfred Lennon and Julia Stanley, 84 00:05:46,722 --> 00:05:48,849 met before marrying in 1938. 85 00:05:49,099 --> 00:05:51,018 The Stanleys were a close knit family 86 00:05:51,268 --> 00:05:53,062 from Welsh and Irish backgrounds, 87 00:05:53,312 --> 00:05:56,106 with free-spirited Julia being one of five sisters. 88 00:05:57,816 --> 00:05:59,651 This is London. 89 00:05:59,902 --> 00:06:02,946 You will now hear a statement by the prime minister. 90 00:06:03,197 --> 00:06:06,742 This country is at war with Germany. 91 00:06:07,868 --> 00:06:09,304 The outbreak of World War II 92 00:06:09,328 --> 00:06:12,915 in 1939, turned Alf Lennon's life upside down. 93 00:06:13,165 --> 00:06:15,501 From his peacetime role as a ship's steward, 94 00:06:15,751 --> 00:06:17,961 Alf became one of 10,000 Liverpool seamen 95 00:06:18,212 --> 00:06:21,006 keeping Britain's supplies flowing across the Atlantic. 96 00:06:21,256 --> 00:06:24,968 Dangerous work indeed, but danger was coming closer to home. 97 00:06:25,219 --> 00:06:27,971 Hitler's Luftwaffe was planning to destroy the vital port 98 00:06:28,222 --> 00:06:28,931 at all costs. 99 00:06:47,199 --> 00:06:49,039 - Liverpool suffered tremendously in the blitz, 100 00:06:49,159 --> 00:06:50,994 I think it was the second 101 00:06:51,245 --> 00:06:53,997 in terms of casualties after London. 102 00:06:54,248 --> 00:06:56,250 Nearly 4000 people were killed. 103 00:06:56,500 --> 00:06:59,253 The actual damage to houses was extensive. 104 00:06:59,503 --> 00:07:01,046 Huge places were blown up, 105 00:07:01,296 --> 00:07:03,090 so there was a real fear of bombing. 106 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 ♪ 108 00:07:10,180 --> 00:07:12,558 On October the 9th, 1940, 109 00:07:12,808 --> 00:07:15,519 Julia Lennon gave birth to her first child, 110 00:07:15,769 --> 00:07:16,979 John Winston Lennon. 111 00:07:18,939 --> 00:07:20,417 The day that Lennon was born, 112 00:07:20,441 --> 00:07:23,193 we do have a record of the Luftwaffe bombings. 113 00:07:23,444 --> 00:07:26,321 There was no bombing raid over Liverpool that night. 114 00:07:27,281 --> 00:07:27,948 I would think at the end 115 00:07:28,198 --> 00:07:29,408 of the Battle of Britain, 116 00:07:29,658 --> 00:07:31,219 you could say that Churchill was at the height 117 00:07:31,243 --> 00:07:32,911 of his popularity at that point. 118 00:07:33,162 --> 00:07:36,290 So, there are people who named their children 119 00:07:36,540 --> 00:07:40,752 after Winston Churchill, not that many, it has to be said. 120 00:07:41,003 --> 00:07:45,966 ♪ So run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run, run, run ♪ 121 00:07:47,718 --> 00:07:48,903 The early wartime years saw 122 00:07:48,927 --> 00:07:51,013 John and Julia living with her parents 123 00:07:51,263 --> 00:07:53,348 in a small house in Newcastle Road. 124 00:07:54,600 --> 00:07:57,352 But although John's father Alf paid the rent, 125 00:07:57,603 --> 00:07:58,729 he was rarely home. 126 00:08:00,314 --> 00:08:02,274 He was destined to be at sea for months at a time. 127 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 130 00:08:11,325 --> 00:08:12,576 of the Merchant Navy, 131 00:08:12,826 --> 00:08:16,455 and the Merchant Navy was a key part of the war effort. 132 00:08:16,705 --> 00:08:18,957 We needed to keep those merchant ships going, 133 00:08:19,208 --> 00:08:20,792 bringing those goods from America, 134 00:08:21,043 --> 00:08:23,086 bringing those armaments from America as well. 135 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. 137 00:08:28,342 --> 00:08:30,511 He just went back to doing what he'd always done, 138 00:08:30,761 --> 00:08:33,180 which was to be a member of the Merchant Navy. 139 00:08:34,431 --> 00:08:36,433 During a voyage in 1943, 140 00:08:36,683 --> 00:08:39,186 Alf's luck ran out when he left his ship in New York, 141 00:08:39,436 --> 00:08:42,314 hoping to join another and improve his prospects. 142 00:08:42,564 --> 00:08:45,817 Without the right documents, he was left high and dry 143 00:08:46,068 --> 00:08:48,570 and held as an illegal alien on Ellis Island. 144 00:08:48,820 --> 00:08:52,616 His pay was stopped, and Julia feared the worst. 145 00:08:52,866 --> 00:08:54,201 Suddenly without money, 146 00:08:54,451 --> 00:08:57,162 Julia was forced to seek part time work in two pubs, 147 00:08:57,412 --> 00:08:59,122 and it was here she began a casual affair 148 00:08:59,373 --> 00:09:02,125 with a soldier, Vernon Taffy Williams. 149 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 152 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, 154 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:14,263 came home to find Julia pregnant by another man. 155 00:09:15,472 --> 00:09:17,015 Then, amid the arguments, 156 00:09:17,266 --> 00:09:20,477 Julia surprised everyone by spurning both men. 157 00:09:21,478 --> 00:09:22,896 With his marriage over, 158 00:09:23,146 --> 00:09:25,023 Alf took John to stay with his brother Sydney 159 00:09:25,274 --> 00:09:27,234 before returning him to his Julia's oldest sister, 160 00:09:27,401 --> 00:09:30,028 Mimi Smith, and her husband George. 161 00:09:30,279 --> 00:09:31,989 - I think what's interesting 162 00:09:32,239 --> 00:09:33,657 about Lennon's wartime experience is 163 00:09:33,907 --> 00:09:36,034 that he's not evacuated. 164 00:09:36,285 --> 00:09:37,578 So he doesn't go to North Wales 165 00:09:37,828 --> 00:09:40,664 as many children from Liverpool went. 166 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. 169 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. 171 00:10:01,059 --> 00:10:03,437 Mostly, people listen to the radio. 172 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 174 00:10:07,816 --> 00:10:10,068 in his early life, Ted Ray, Arthur Askey, 175 00:10:10,319 --> 00:10:12,487 and Tommy Handley, all come from Liverpool. 176 00:10:16,033 --> 00:10:18,285 The biggest musical star is George Formby, 177 00:10:18,535 --> 00:10:20,078 the lad from Wigan. 178 00:10:20,329 --> 00:10:22,080 It would've been impossible 179 00:10:22,331 --> 00:10:25,125 to envisage a figure like Elvis Presley. 180 00:10:25,375 --> 00:10:28,211 ♪ He had a ukulele in his hands ♪ 181 00:10:29,921 --> 00:10:31,107 ♪ Don't sit under the apple tree ♪ 182 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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