John back at Mimi's... more photos!

Einstein said the more he learned the more he realised how much he didn't know, so that puts us all in good company.

I came across these photos recently. They were taken in 1966 and show John Lennon at Harbour's Edge, the waterside home he bought for his Aunt Mimi in Sandbanks the year before. Clearly the photos pre-date the iron railings John bought for Mimi so she could sit outside on that ledge and watch the birds.

With John are his half-sister Jackie, his cousin David Birch and Derek Layder, a family friend.

John with David Birch

David's mum Harriett was the youngest of the five Stanley sisters - Mary (Mimi), Elizabeth, Anne and John's mother Julia were the others. Years later John said the sisters were: "...five fantastic, strong, beautiful and intelligent women..."

After Julia's death in 1958, John lived with Mimi and his half sisters Jackie and Julia went to live with their Aunt Harriett, Uncle Norman and David, their cousin.

The photos suggest a close family unit and it seems John and David were in regular contact. 

A year or so later when David was living with Mimi at Sandbanks he visited John and Cynthia at home at Kenwood in Weybridge where Lennon gave him the 1963 Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins Nashville model guitar he used on the Paperback Writer sessions.

According to the auction description when the guitar failed to meet its £400,000 reserve last year, David has asked John is he had a spare guitar he didn't want as he was planning to get a band together with some mates.

"I had my eye on a blue Fender Stratocaster that was lying in the studio but John suggested and gave me the Gretsch while we were talking," he said.

David also asked to borrow John's Mini Cooper and obtained the necessary cover note (below), which has since turned up in a collector's hands and (inevitably) on to teh internet.In 1991 David Birch was awarded the MBE for his services to the information technology industry. 

Whether or not he has since been moved to follow his famous cousin and return it for any reason is not known!

:: You might have noticed but we've been away for a while and there hasn't been a great deal of activity on the blog. Apologies for that. The plan is to resume whatever passed for normal service forthwith!

The book, Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth is still available at www.natula.co.uk. 

John, Mimi and family and Sandbanks

I stumbled on the excellent Tumblr page CynthiaLennonLove recently and found a post dedicated to John and Mimi at Sandbanks, complete with photos of various family members.

The text recounts the story told in the book Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth, of John and Cynthia taking Mimi house hunting for a property by the sea after the premiere of Help! They settled on a bungalow called Harbour's Edge, at 126 Panorama Road, Sandbanks, which John bought for £65,000. Mimi moved in during October 1965 after which John and Cynthia and baby Julian became fairly regular visitors, particularly in the summer of 1966, as 
seen in these photos.

The first shot (above) shows Mimi sat outside at Harbour's Edge. Pictured right is Cynthia on a family visit with John's aunt Harriet and halfsister Jacqui Dykins (taken from Julia Baird's book John Lennon My Brother) and below that from the same book is a snap of John relaxing with his cousin.

The story goes that John called Harbour's Edge "The most beautiful place I know" and loved visiting because people would leave him alone.

Cynthia recalled one trip to the seaside at Sandbanks where they frolicked on the beach, built sandcastles, swam and enjoyed a picnic with Julian.

Much later Mimi remembered one instance when a photographer tried to snap John and the family on the beach. She was horrified but her nephew must have been in a forgiving mood, telling her not to worry and that he hoped whoever tipped off Fleet Street's finest had 
managed to make a couple of bob!

John also managed a visit with Julian in April 1967, in the run-up to the release of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on 1 June.
On that occasion he and Mimi were photographed with Julian by the Sandbanks Ferry. This image of Julian appears in Andrew Solt's book Imagine.

Mimi lived at Harbour's Edge until her death in 1991, at which point John's widow Yoko sold it. Other than a few squatters and some rave parties the house remained empty until it was demolished in 1994 to make way for two luxury homes. Sandbanks now boasts the fourth most expensive land prices in the world behind Belgravia, Upper Manhattan and Moscow, but ahead of Tokyo and Paris.

Read the full post here. Former milkman Tony O'Hara shared more memories of Mimi at Harbour's Edge and an account of what Sandbanks was like in the 1960s and 1970s, in this article from Dorset Life. 

Beatles talk in Hardy country

What would Thomas Hardy have made of The Beatles? Or Enid Blyton for that matter? Both literary giants have a strong association with the Isle of Purbeck and both will be well represented in the programme of events that make up the inaugual Purbeck Literary Festival, from 17 February to 2 March.
Blyton's Famous Five were, of course, described as 'The Beatles of children's literature' by one breathless commentator in 1970, around the time the Fab Four split. The reasons are convoluted, the reasoning decidedly tenuous, but the association is put up for discussion at the Enid Blyton: Greatest Publishing Phenomenon blog.

All of which brings us to Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth author Nick Churchill (right) who has been invited by the Festival to introduced a screening of A Hard Day's Night at Swanage Legion on 22 February. 
Nick will present an hour-long talk with images (hopefully) on The Beatles' Dorset Story and answer questions about the book and the various links The Beatles had with the area, including John Lennon's trips up the River Frome to Wareham and, of course, the photo of him with young Julian and Aunt Mimi coming off Sandbanks Ferry in April 1967.

John signs for Mimi's furniture

John Lennon's signature on a receipt for the delivery of some furniture to Mimi's house at Sandbanks in what looks like March 1967.
It would certainly tie in with John's visit to see Mimi when the two of them were photographed with Julian at Sandbanks ferry, as seen in this Dorset magazine cover.

John is wearing the Afghan he wore at the press launch of Sgt Pepper at Brian Epstein's house on May 19, but everyone in the photo appears to be dressed for March rather than May.
It seems the boys had a few days off following the session at Abbey Road on 23 March to record more vocals for Getting Better and a session on 28 March at which John had his first crack at the lead vocal for Good Morning Good Morning.
Mimi obviously had an account at Beales and Bealesons - the receipt indicates it has been made up to 24 February 1967, still further evidence that the almost entirely illegible delivery stamps indicate March rather than May.
And, of course, it's impossible to resist the obvious similarities between the Beales name and that of the group in which her nephew had earned the money to buy her home. (Bealesons was previously a draper's store in Commercial Road, Bournemouth that Beales' founder, John Elmes Beale bought from a Mr Okey after World War One. It's now The Avenue shopping centre.)

We can only wonder at the reaction of the delivery driver when he called to deliver an old lady's chairs, blankets and came face to face with a Beatle.
:: The complete version of the photo of John and Mimi with Julian at Sandbanks ferry can be found in Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth, available to order at a special price here.
:: A permanent exhibition of memorabilia relating to The Beatles and their connection to Bournemouth can be seen at the Beacon Hotel.

The Ballad of John and Sandbanks

This week in 1969, John and Paul recorded what was to be The Beatles' final number one single, The Ballad of John and Yoko.
The song chronicles the events of 16 March to 1 April and covers John's marriage to Yoko, an episode that began in the car en route to Aunt Mimi's home at Sandbanks that John had bought for her four years earlier.
He called it "the most beautiful place I know" and had visited many times, initially with Cynthia and baby Julian, but also on his own and with Yoko.
Stories continue to circulate locally that John made a couple of clandestine visits to see Mimi after his departure for New York with Yoko in 1971. If he did return to the UK during that time he managed to keep it very quite. It seems impossible to imagine that, even when he was keeping a low profile following Sean's birth in 1975, he could have flown into the country and not been reported or photographed anywhere.
It could be possible that be arrived by boat, perhaps at Poole, or even Southampton - in a reverse of the events related in The Ballad of John and Yoko - but, again, could John Lennon, famous ex-Beatle, have enjoyed a quick visit by the shores of Poole Harbour without being noticed?
It's an on-going inquiry...
What is known about John and Mimi at Sandbanks - and some photos - is contained in Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth, which can be ordered here.
As for the recording session itself, that is extensively catalogued by The Beatles Rarity by the ever-thorough Happy Nat.

Tea and biscuits with Mimi

Above: Mimi at Harbour's Edge; and (below) in the lounge with John

Retired policeman Clive Garland was on duty the night Beatlemania gripped Bournemouth like a vice – 16 November 1963.

He was part of the squad detailed to escort The Beatles from Madeira Road police station to the Winter Gardens in a Black Maria police van.

Clive was simply doing his duty amid the mayhem that night - rubbing shoulders with hysterical teenagers and bewildered pop stars was all in a night’s work.

Events moved fast and as soon as the tidal wave of Beatlemania had broken on Bournemouth, the next morning it was gone.

However, Clive had not long joined the Bournemouth Borough Police Life Saving Team – and before long he was to again enter the orbit of The Beatles.

“We trained at Stokewood Road swimming baths every week and taught life saving in Schools throughout the Borough,” he remembers.

“We would train in the River Stour, at what was then Pontins holiday camp, and Bryanston School for competitions all over the south of England.

“On a couple of occasions in 1966 we were taken to Harbour’s Edge, the bungalow that John Lennon bought for his aunt Mimi in Panorama Road. We swam off the steps in Poole Harbour, which meant swimming constantly against the out-going tide, so as not to be washed out to sea.

“PC George Ferneyhough was our trainer. The team members included David Bradley, Bill Stevenson, Peter Owen, Tom Morgan, Richard Thomas, Charlie Case, John Howes and myself.

“Aunt Mimi would bring out tea and biscuits after we had finished.”

:: For the full story of The Beatles at the Winter Gardens in Bournemouth and more about how Aunt Mimi came to live by the sea at Sandbanks, see Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth. Copies available to order here at the special price of £14.95.

The Beatles, Bournemouth: Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

August 1963: The Beatles on the balcony at the Palace Court Hotel, Bournemouth. 

Photo by Harry Taylor ©  Dave Robinson

Incredible as it may seem for a small resort town on the south coast, The Beatles played 18 gigs – two shows a night – in Bournemouth in just 14 months.

Kicking off with a six-day summer season run at the Gaumont cinema in August 1963 as She Loves You went to number one; they returned on 16 November 1963 at the much bigger Winter Gardens; and twice more at the Gaumont in 1964 – on 2 August and 30 October.

What’s more, at least one photographer was there to record them at every step.

Harry Taylor was among the first paparazzi.

A larger than life figure, Flash Harry as he was affectionately known to the Bournemouth social scene by the early 1960s, had moved from his native London to the south coast of England during World War Two and built landing craft in a factory on Poole Harbour. After the War he started to promote his photographic abilities towards the local press, finding a ready home at the weekly Bournemouth Times.

During their first stay in Bournemouth, on 23 August 1963, The Beatles’ third single She Loves You was released. Written earlier that year in Newcastle while on tour with Roy Orbison, the song remains the biggest selling Beatles single in Britain today. Having gone into the charts at number one, it stayed there for 31 consecutive weeks – and charted again the following April – returning to number one the week The Beatles arrived back in Bournemouth to play the Winter Gardens in November. 

But during the landmark week in Bournemouth in August 1963, not only did The Beatles land their biggest hit to date, they also sowed the seeds from which would spring the phenomenon of Beatlemania.

While staying at the Palace Court Hotel, the first of the band’s most iconic photo shoots took place. Easily ranking along Peter Blake’s Sgt Pepper sessions and Iain Macmillan’s cover shot for Abbey Road, the half-shadow photos by the band’s then official photographer Robert Freeman number among the most instantly recognisable symbols of the Swinging Sixties.

Freeman was paid £75 – three times the normal rate.

Also at the Palace Court during that week George Harrison wrote Don’t Bother Me, his first song for The Beatles, holed up in his hotel room suffering a heavy cold.

Having left Bournemouth, happily swapping their rock ‘n’ roll credentials for the trappings of international stardom The Beatles embarked upon the path that was to bring them far more then they could ever have dreamed of.

By the time they came back to Bournemouth, to play the Winter Gardens in November, the die was well and truly cast.

The screaming audiences that night were beset by the demands of American television as reporter Alexander Kendrick directed camera crews that lead to the three major networks – CBS, NBC and ABC – showing footage of The Beatles live at the Winter Gardens. It was the first time America had seen The Beatles.

Having subsequently toured the States and watched the spark of Beatlemania turn into a raging fireball, nine months later The Beatles were major international stars and back in Bournemouth for a one-off show at the Gaumont in preparation for a European tour.

The two shows of 2 August 1964 were fairly typical of Beatles shows of that time. A couple of breaking acts were named as support and the compere would wind up the audience of expectant Beatlemaniacs so that by the time the boys hit the stage expectation was at fever pitch.

It was into this hotbed of old fashioned variety show tactics that one of the young support bands that night was thrown. The Kinks had a couple of failed singles behind them, but their third release – You Really Got Me – had started to make an impression on the charts. Billed to open the second half of the show, directly before The Beatles came on, Kinks singer Ray Davies has recounted how John and Paul, but particularly John, appeared backstage behind the Gaumont curtain to irritate the nervous upstarts, resplendent in their new stage gear of bright red riding jackets.

The Beatles’ final Bournemouth shows, in October 1964, were part of a UK tour that saw them fly the flag for the music of black America that had influenced the songwriting of Lennon and McCartney from the earliest days.
Principal support act Mary Wells became the first Motown act to perform in the UK and the first female singer to open for The Beatles. Red hot from her biggest hit, My Guy, Mary Wells was named as The Beatles’ favourite American singer. Ironically though she was in major dispute with Motown, affording her time to tour with The Beatles, but effectively ending her Motown career.

And that was the last Bournemouth was see of The Beatles as a performing band for although there was to be one more UK tour, in December 1965, before they quit playing live altogether the following year, they stuck to major cities only.

But the south coast continued to play its part in Beatles history.

In mid-1965 John’s aunt Mimi sold Mendips, her house in Menlove Avenue, Liverpool – just up the road from Penny Lane – and John spent £25,000 on 126 Panorama Road, a waterside bungalow at Sandbanks, between Bournemouth and Poole. John, his first wife Cynthia and their son Julian visited Mimi frequently at the house.

Lennon remained close to Mimi, phoning her every week and visiting as often as he could – being spotted by locals in either a Mini Cooper or, later, in his famous psychedelic Rolls Royce. He even visited during the hectic run up to the release of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967 when he was photographed with Mimi and Julian close to the nearby Sandbanks chain ferry.

It was on one such visit, on 14 March 1969, just after Paul McCartney had married Linda Eastman, that John and Yoko announced they were to get married. John asked his chauffeur, Les Anthony, to drive to Southampton and ask if he and Yoko could marry at sea. Having been told that would not be possible they chartered a private jet to take them to Paris, but were unable arrange a wedding at short notice so opted for Gibraltar near Spain, as related in The Beatles’ final number one single, The Ballad Of John and Yoko.

And it was to Aunt Mimi in Poole, as well as to Cynthia in Liverpool and Yoko in New York, that the world reached out its hand in sympathy when John Lennon was murdered. Then, in 1992, Lennon’s two wives were seen together with their sons Julian and Sean at Poole Crematorium for Mimi’s funeral service – Paul, George and Ringo all sent wreaths.

:: The full versions of these and many other stories are included in Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth, along with more than 200 rare and previously unpublished photographs. Copies can be ordered at www.beatlesandbournemouth.com.

To Mimi, from John

This remarkable piece of John Lennon memorabilia belongs to Mike Lines of Mister M's Barber Shop in Old Christchurch Road, Bournemouth.

Not content with owning a barber chair from Horne Brothers in Liverpool where Dezo Hoffman photographed the boys having their hair cut as Ringo said farewell to his Tony Curtis quiff forever, Mike also has this book, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Vol V, which John gave to Mimi in 1969.

"It came out of Aunt Mimi's home at Sandbanks," says Mike. "Apparently she wanted the books out of the bungalow - I was told she didnlt like the idea of John getting into the subject matter.
"She either gave or sold them to a local gardener who later sold them to a collector he became friends with. The collector is now deceased, but his widow sold some of his collection. I gather that one of the books went Stateside and another was bought by a musician who had a number one hit in the 1970s. I have been asked not to say who it is, so I have to respect that."
Intriguing, but you can't help but be impressed that Mike has kept the book so carefully that he has even preserved the dust and fluff in the well of the signed page.
"There are bits that will fall out of the book if I were to turn it upside down and whilst they're most likely to be insect excrement as opposed to John's hash or toast crumbs, I would like to leave them in."
Mike, we salute you sir!
- Visit the marvellous Mister M's Barber Shop at www.bournemouthbarbers.co.uk
- Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth can be ordered here.
- An exhibition of photos from the book and other Bournemouth-related Beatles memorabilia continues at the Bournemouth International Centre until 5 September.

The Word

In case there was any doubt which of the UK's glossy music-related entertainment mags to buy this month, it has to be The Word. Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and their crew of peerless scribes have not only noticed Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth they have gone all nostalgic for their boyhood holidays at Sandbanks, where the famous ferry photo they've used was taken, and Studland, where John, Julian and Mimi may well have been visiting to make sand castles the day this great photo was taken.

Anyway, you can find more about The Word and download an excellent podcast at the magazine's website.

The full story behind this amazing photo is told in Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth which can be ordered here, along with art prints of a selection of the 200 rare and previously unpublished images featured in the book.

Aunt Mimi at Sandbanks

Those lovely folks over at the mine of Merseybeat information that is Liverpool Beat have kindly agreed to host an article about John Lennon's aunt Mimi and how she came to live by the sea.
Ever keen to oblige we've supplied an extract from Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth.
Read it here.
The photo was taken at Harbour's Edge, the home John bought for Mimi at Sandbanks, by press photographer Tom Hanley on assignment for the Daily Sketch at John's insistence in 1971 around the time he left for New York with Yoko.
Tom, who had been a confidant of The Beatles since finding himself holed up in a hotel room with them in Paris in 1964, visited Mimi with reporter Mike Hennessey.
"We spent the best part of a day with Mimi and found her to be very nice, very generous old lady, not at all how she has been portrayed since," remembers Tom.
The full story of Tom's day by the sea with Mimi is told in Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth, which can be ordered from the official website.
More of Tom's photos of The Beatles and others can be seen at tommyhanley.com.