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...

Attic Recording Studio: demos, 1966/1967.

I should have done this one a long time ago. The authentic sound of the attic - John's demos, and non-demos. There is no doubt John was a properly (in the parlance) heavy dude, who took his art extremely seriously. And yet, there is also no doubt that he liked nothing more than pissing about. The Kenwood attic demos show all, every and neither side o' the man. Any taped compilation of John's "greatest hits", would, in my book, have Pedro The Fisherman as a minimum requirement. In any case, these demos, and the accompanying photos by Leslie Bryce (God bless him)(insert your own God) are another weird example of technology's ability to put you in a time and place where you have no right to be. Chris Sileo (in particular) and I (not particularly) are working to take this concept to extremes...watch this space. By the way, latterly Ringo creeps in, in case you were wondering. A good thing.