Marrakesh: New Year 1967.

Sotheby's is currently selling a few candid snaps at a ludicrous price. Still, one or two interesting ones including this; almost certainly taken in Marrakesh during John, Cyn and Victor Spinetti's post-Chrimbo holiday in 1967. If I had to wager on a location, I'd put my offal infested plastic fiver down against Talitha Getty's Palais de Zahir.

John Hopkins (that's John Hopkins the American writer and friend to the Beats, not to be confused with John Hopkins the British counter-cultural figure and friend to the etc.), who attended the end of year party at the Palace in '67, described it thusly in his Tangier Diaries: "Last night Paul and Talitha Getty threw a New Year's Eve party at their palace in the Medina. Paul McCartney and John Lennon were there, flat on their backs. They couldn't get off the floor let alone talk. I've never seen so many people out of control."

Now, Macca certainly wasn't there; he was flat on his back in another location. But to someone who wasn't really paying attention (fill in your own reasons), I suppose from a distance Victor Spinetti might have been mistaken for Paul (and indeed, in this instance, probably was). If you examine the picture above, that's almost certainly Victor to Cynthia's right.

Incidentally, a quick search on-line reveals a few interior images taken in le Palais, which is full of similar alcoves:

Thanks to Lizzie Bravo for forwarding the pic.
Also, further apologies for the lack of activity round these parts. Can't be helped at the moment, but there will be occasional posts as and when...

Liverpool: Falkner Street, 36 thereof.

Chosen, no doubt, for its chippy proximity, number 36 Falkner Street was Brian's paddy pad pad for his dillying, and, lest we forget, dallying, a pad subsequently gifted to John and Cyn as a wedding pressie pad. Or was it? Mr Lewisohn posits the following intriguing footnote: "It was probably number 36, but no one remembers this with any certainty and no document has surfaced - from Brian's time there or John and Cyn's - to prove it."
Hmmm. In 1995, Cyn returned (or did she?) in order to promote her version of Those Were The Days My Friend We Thought They Would Never End We Would Laugh And Laugh And Laugh And Weep Uncontrollably And Laugh Etc.. The above shows her entering for the first time in over 30 years (or was it?).
She seems fairly sure this was the place in the footage, but does say (suspiciously), "It's all changed, obviously". At any rate, this is the living room/kitchen:

As is this:

As is this:

As, ye guessed it, is this:

But was it? I dunno! Funny if it wasn't though!
Ye can view the footage HERE.
Regulah readahs will know the high regard in which I hold the trade edition of Mr Lewisohn's bewk. But having waded into the extended edition over the last couple of days, I have to say it is of a completely different order to any Beatles book I have ever read. It's a masterpiece, an astonishing werk of social history, and anyone with sufficient nous needs to read it. I can say no more (though I will when I've actually finished it).

Kenwood: hall action.

More errr... "action". Cynthia, plus ever present "snout", outside the hall. 1967. Or 1968.

Let's hope something more interesting happens sometime soon.

Kenwood: bloody pests.

A fan photo of Cynthia at the front door, sometime in 1967 (shamelessly filched from Meet The Beatles For Real - link under Friends & Neighbours). Probably the best illustration yet of John & Terry Doran's handiwork with the spray paint - and fairly repulsive it is too.
This pic reminds me of Chris Tanner's recollections in a MOJO feature from a while back, on a theme of "Have Ye Met The Fabs?":
"Richard & I were in the 5th form at St James' Secondary School in Weybridge. This was Beatle territory in 1966. John, Paul, George & Ringo all had properties in this comfortable stockbroker belt. Richard had collected autographs from all but the "gifted" one - John Lennon. Together, on our bikes we peddled through St Georges Hills estate to the Lennon's property Kenwood. No guards on the gate (two huge oak doors carved with the names of a thousand fans). We tread the gravel driveway that sweeps through the gardens past Beatle sculptures (remember "Beatle Boots"), to the front door. Amazingly our nervous knock on the door is answered by Cynthia Lennon complete with tinted glasses. We ask if John is home and Cynthia sweetly tells us to try on Tuesday. Is this lady dumb? Allowing two non-descript schoolboys to sally forth again! Tuesday arrived and once again we knocked on the door. This time there was a protracted, nervous wait on the step. The door opened and blue jeans, t-shirt and shock of Beatle's locks greeted us. "Hi John. Err wondered if you could autograph this album" "Give it 'ere, bloody pests". John signed the album and two school chums went home very happy.
Great story but here's the crack. Me, not really into the Beatles...more a Stones man, didn't bother with John's autograph. So now I can only look back and reflect on our meeting and the fact that Richard (wherever he is) is considerably richer than me!"

Kenwood: a map with bottles in etc.

Extreme trivia this may be, but many of the fixtures and fittings from the Lennon-era Kenwood have appeared on the open market - largely as a result of Cynthia's "car boot sale" in the early '90s. Above can be seen the Asprey's globe cocktail cabinet (or, in John's words, the "map of the world that has bottles in it") that sat from 1965-1968 in the den; in-situ in Cathy Kelleher Sarver's snapshot from '68, then, below that, over Tony Wilson's shoulder as he interviewed Cynthia at home in the mid-1980s, and finally at auction in 1991, where its estimate was £600-800.
Cynthia also interviewed Julian chez...err...Penrith around this time, and one or two bits of Kenwood detritus can be seen floating about (not literally). For example, the lithograph after Basilus Besler, which used to hang in the dining room at Kenwood; for a second time, to the rear of Julian:


At one point, the pair are pictured going through some old scrap-books of family snaps, some of which are instantly recognisable to anyone who follows this guff:


...and some of which, intriguingly enough, aren't.
Cynthia's Kenwood residue was sold over three auctions at Christie's, and included one or two other very familiar bits and pieces, such as the Persian rug from the sunroom, as pictured on June 29, 1967:


Julian has been re-buying a lot of these items, and a book is soon to appear on this very subject.

Cynthia Lennon: interview (& John's response).

An interview from the mid-1970s (click on it for a readable view), covering the Kenwood years. What's of most interest, however, is that not only did John happen to read this article, but he also wrote a riposte to Cynthia (which can be found in Keith Badman's book, Beatles After The Breakup):
"Dear Cynthia,
As you and I well know, our marriage was long over before the advent of LSD or Yoko Ono, and that's the reality! Your memory is impaired, to say the least. Your version of our first LSD trip is rather vague. And you seem to have forgotten subsequent trips altogether. You also seem to have forgotten that, only two years ago, while I was separated from Yoko Ono, you suddenly brought Julian to see me after three years of silence. During this visit, you didn't allow me to be alone with him for one moment. You even asked me to remarry you and or give you another child for Julian's sake. I politely told you no, and that anyway I was still in love with Yoko (which I thought was very down to earth). There were no detectives sent to Italy. Our mutual friend Alex Mardas went to Bassanini's hotel to see how you were, as you said you were too ill to come home. Finally, I don't blame you for wanting to get away from your Beatles past, but if you are serious about it, you should try to avoid talking to and posing for magazines and newspapers. We did have some good years, so dwell on them for a change, and as Dylan says, it was "a simple twist of fate."
Love and good luck to you from the three of us,
John."
Of course, it's impossible not to feel some sympathy for Cynthia. But it's also interesting to see John get a right of reply, and challenge one or two of her oft-repeated gripes. Quite a good little pun there at the end, too.

Kenwood: recollections.

As part of the current 09/09/09 frenzy, there have been some more or less interesting programmes on tv and radio here recently. One such, concerning the "Jesus" furore, featured recollections of Kenwood from Cynthia Lennon and journalist Maureen Cleave. (Thanks to Joe Baiardi for the great new shots of the sunroom/dining room and west sides, and to Sara for the Julian pic).

CL: The house was at the top of the hill, and John was thrilled to bits that it was at the top of a hill so we would have a little bit of protection, because at that point the fans were going mad & camping out etc etc. Actually we lived in the top flat - the servants' quarters, as it were, for one year virtually when we moved in while the rest of the place was being totally gutted & changed & redesigned & everything else. We couldn't believe it - we'd sit and look at everything: I mean, it was dead posh, in our terms. Once the builders had gone, and the great gates had been put up, the electric gates, then we had some peace & tranquility.


MC: (St George's Hill) is very woody, and inhabited by rich stockbrokers & the Beatles - a very odd place for them to end up, really. They used to call in on each other all the time, at any hour of the day or night, & they would listen to music, or play tapes & then they'd go off again. And then at about 2.30 in the morning they might decide to go to a nightclub in London, & they'd all get in the car & off they'd go. They were having quite a nice time. They had swimming pools & that kind of thing. And then John bought this gorilla suit, and he was really keen that they should all have gorilla suits and travel round behind the steering wheels of these various cars & visit each other. If you rang him up, he'd always ask what day of the week it was - he was genuinely interested to know...if you're completely marooned in Weybridge, it's quite nice to to have a bit of news of the outside world.



MC(cont.): His sitting room had yellow, tartan wallpaper. It had been done over by somebody, & it was panelled & very mock absolutely everything you can think of, & filled with the most extraordinary objects, like there was a suit of armour called Sydney, there were little boxes of flashing lights, and there was a huge compendium of games from Asprey's that John could open but not shut, & endless recording equipment & lots of books in costly leather covers. The possessions had sort of got the better of him. You just felt somehow that he was being smothered in all these purchases that he couldn't really understand the point of himself.

CL: When he was home (after a big tour) it usually took him about 2 or 3 days to actually come down to earth. It was very hard for all of us, really, because I was on one wavelength and he was on another. I was running a home, taking Julian to school and bringing him home and feeding him - I was doing the normal motherly things, let's put it that way.


(Julian leaving Heath House Infant's School in Weybridge ca. 1967).

CL(cont.): I know that (John) was feeling trapped after the Jesus Christ comments, & he needed to find space in his own mind & imagination. After having LSD put in our coffee when we went out for dinner, John tried it & found it fascinating, so he started taking it virtually daily. It's like living with an alcoholic - when they're sober they're great, but when they're drunk it's very hard to communicate with them.

Sunroom: Pete Shotton, Julian Lennon, Cynthia Lennon.

A pair of tantalising views. Indeed.