Montagu Mews West: Nel unt Mal action.

The area around Montagu Square saw a great deal of the aforementioned "action", no more so than in the mid-60s, when Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans shared a terraced house in one of the mews behind said Square, at number 16.
Them Fabs were photographed here on 1st December 1965, supposedly "rehearsing" for their forthcoming (and final) British tour. A likely story.
Still, the house has seen no major renovation since then; note the fireplace:

John and George were captured on the other side of this room, beside the staircase:

Said staircase:

Heading up said staircase, one comes to what would have been Neil's bedroom (or Mal's):

And up another floor to what would have been Mal's bedroom (or Neil's):

They weren't here long, but while they were here, this is where they were. Or something.

Luggala: Tara Browne.

Twenty eight miles south-west of Dublin lies Luggala, site of the Guinness Estate, and last resting place of Tara Browne (about whom, readahs need no etc.). His grave is one of three situated on the shore of Lough Tay, next to a structure known as the Temple:

Tara's brother, Garech Browne, still lives on the estate, in the house which served as the venue for Tara's 21st birthday party, a bash apparently attended by Macca, amongst others.
Here 'tis, the house, the graves, Garech, another bash, and some magikal goings on:



Thanks to Julian Carr.

Errr...: Errr...

Halloween hoves into view once more, does it not, and thus, at this spookiest time o' the year, there is no better time to unveil the following jibber-jabber. So draw the curtains, put another (oh get on with it, for f*ck's sake)...
The Beatles, as any fule no, spawned (and occasionally did their best to encourage) a ludicrous amount of over-interpretation. In this regard, precisely what the proportion of accident to design was in their latter oeuvre remains a matter of conjecture; but there is little doubt that at least some of the time they chucked material in purely to see what sort of ridiculous response they'd get from lumpen "fannage"/critical mass. Ian Macdonald, one of the latter, regarded this as a very bad thing, tending to see it as tantamount to lighting fuses that trailed off into darkness with unforseeable consequences (viz, for example, certain alleged aspects of Mansonism, etc.).
Well, perhaps. That period of popular culture was, for many reasons, wide open to symbolism, real or imagined, and it's certain that whatever the Beatles did would have been scrutinised for "meaning". So they couldn't really win.
What's also certain is that the scamps were still up to their old tricks (if that they be) on Free As A Bird. Lizzie Bravo recently sent a link to a little seen interview with Macca, circa Anthology, in which, tongue firmly in cheek, he points out that the backwards message towards the end of "Burd" can be "interpreted" as John saying "Ha ha - made for John Lennon", and thus expressing post-mortem approval for the whole project. Palpable nonsense.
At which point, as chance would have it, an odd blue flare rises on camera:

The director stops proceedings, and Paul laughs, as you would, joking to the effect that this is John once again making his presence felt.
Yet should ye choose to freeze the interview, and zoom in on the bottom left hand corner, you might "see" something a little odd:

This, it doesn't need to be said, is akin to seeing Ringo's fizzog in a potato, and is drivel, though perhaps amusing, at a push slightly uncanny, but undoubtedly typical, in its way, of Beatle-ish accident... or design.
And I'm sure there are better things I could be doing with my evening.
(Should ye wish to see the interview, it can be viewed HERE. And thanks, as ever, to Lizzie for the original link.)

EMI Studios canteen: 24th June, 1967.

On June 24, 1967 (a Saturday, fact fans), ver lads assembled before the equally assembled press in order to proclaim the "message" du jour, via the medium of...errr...sandwich board: Love Is You Need (errr..someone clearly hasn't thought this through).
Thus manfully boarded did they strut, both in studio 1, where preparations for the following day's Our World broadcast continued apace, and just outside.
A Beatle eye view of the grunters:

At some point, they de-sandwiched and headed downstairs to the canteen; here are 3 lesser seen photos (lesser seen by me, at any rate):

  

Hard evidence of tea drinking:

 

 

This, possibly, the high water mark of their cultural reach and group gestalt (not the tea drinking in the canteen, but Our World), just post-Pepper, Brian still alive, and the four seeming very together, for the time being, at least:

 

 

 

To change the subject, the new Blogger interface is bloody awful. Anyone know how to get the old one back (or even how to manage the new one)?

3 Savile Row: then & now, part 3.

A final helping of Apple, for now at least.
Heading up a floor, we come to the press room...or what's left of it, which isn't much. In fact, this whole room has been reconstructed, with only the window wall intact from the Deggs-era. Then unt now above, and a couple of '69 shots below:


Just outside is a small windowless room which, I'd guess, was once the "black room", infamous dumping ground for the thousands of demos, scripts, etc. sent in following the following:


And that "infamous" room:


Ever upwards to the top floor, and the head of the stairs circa 1914; this rather ornate staircase was pulled out in the 1960s, pre-Apple, and the whole area was demolished in the 1970s:


Top floor, back and front, or north and south, as you prefer, circa now/1914. In Apple days, home to Apple Films and the kitchen. John and Yoko's caviar bill was, apparently, on the indulgent side:


Finally, the roof, which requires no description:


Other than to say that it too has been completely rebuilt - but note how everything around it remains unchanged; the chimney pots, or lack of them, make a good reference point:


And there we have it.

14 Hour etc.: 29th April, 1967.

The two Johns, so goes the story, had been up for days at Kenwood, fuelled by contemporary substances, when John spotted a TV news story concerning that evening's 14 Hour Technicolour Dream at the Ally Pally. Psychedelic Roller duly commandeered, off they did trot.
This pic shows the pair there, and lest there be any doubt about the chemical element...the eyes have it.

Kenwood: December, 1968.

Foot-holding "action" in the master bedroom at Kenwood.
Note the bedside literature in the picture below; John, in common with the rest of them (and with the possible exception of Ringo), always was an autodidact.
Apparently in later years, and in Joycean fashion, he would read seven pages of seven books before sleep, covering such subjects as ancient history, anthropology and mysticism, amongst many others.
But back to feet:


Many thanks to Robert Dietrich.
ADDENDUM: More bewks:


Lizzie just sent this 'un. Thanks Lizzie.

3 Savile Row: then & now, part 2.

As good an illustration as one might "hope" for of the manifold problems that "then unt now-ing" presents; one corner of what once was the ground floor office of John & Yoko, circa 1914 and 2006. Note how the room has been reduced in size, and the entrance has moved walls. The bottom of the grand staircase (itself subsequently replaced) is visible through the 1914 door.
Other aspects have survived, notably the fireplace:


Much of the detail of the room has gone, however. There seems a general tendency in renovation to favour the bland, possibly connected with prevailing notions vis-a-vis "property" that anything too individual or characterful will cause "potential next-buyer" problems. Whatever, they can't (or at least haven't) moved the windows. (Yet.):


Dragging "usselves" upstairs to the first floor, the long room overlooking Savile Row was the main board-room, ie the Beatles' collective office, not over-used by the four for reasons of business (and personal) dissonance. Co-incidentally, it is also probably the space to have been least abused. 1914 v. 1968:


1968 v. 2011. The fireplace is behind chipboard, and note how the spaces adjacent to the windows have been boxed in:


A close look reveals radiation:


The large wooden fireplace surround, an echo of grandeurs past, unmasked:


The other end of this room has seen some tinkering. Compare, again, if ye will, 1914 with 2011: the door is the same, but hidden behind the screen in 1914. Decoration still in-situ, though an arch has been inserted:


Thus, despite the odd cosmetic flim-flam, it's pretty much as was:


See here, again '68 versus '11:


Next up, upper floors (including what has become of the former press room), and the roof.

3 Savile Row: then & now, part 1.

At the time of writing, visitors to number 3 will find the ground floor and basement hidden behind a builder's wooden facade. Once again, the house is being remoulded, this time as part of a retail-related endeavour, planning permission having been granted to turn the basement, ground and first floors into a branch of Abercrombie & Fitch, with the upper floors earmarked for offices. In traditional fashion, work is currently at a standstill, as there is wrangling over the design of an external access lift.
However, once that has been resolved, it should be possible to get in for a shufti, though be warned - little remains of the Apple-era structure beyond part of the external frontage, the basement roof beams, the reception room and adjoining office, the stairs and the front first floor office. Pretty much everything else is new; even the roof is completely different from that familiar to viewers of valedictory concerts.
At some point during the 1970s, and again in the early '80s, massive renovation occurred, such that most of the building was demolished and rebuilt. Why this happened is unclear, though persistant rumour has it that structural studio related alterations during the Apple era caused foundational instability, thus necessitating the radical rehaul.
So, (and so) little remains, but let's take a look.
Today we'll examine the basement and ground floor reception room (as circled above). Starting at the bottom, here's another circa 1914 shot of the front portion of the basement:


The roof beams are the only remaining original feature - the fireplace (see previous post), and, o' course, any traces of the Apple Studio are long gone. At the moment, in common with much else inside, it's just a shell:


This is a room at the basement rear, constructed during the 1980s:


Moving upstairs to the ground floor reception, bits of which may be glimpsed in a hundred fan photos of Les Fabs entering and exiting:


This room, despite having undergone substantial renovation itself, remains recognisable. Note the wall arches, still there albeit reduced in length (the black & white shots date circa 1969, the colour circa 2005):


A reception desk eye view, again black & white '69, but this time versus 2011:


The eagle-eyed will have spotted the sudden appearance of a fireplace in the contemporary shot (note the different coloured wood at the top of the surround - a modern replacement for the original section):


This fireplace (or at least the wooden surround) was moved to the reception in the 1980s when the back room where it originally sat was demolished. Compare back room (1914) with reception (2011):


Here's what replaced that back room - not particularly inspiring, and sad to say, it's the same story all over the house. The characterful original rooms have been supplanted by the blandest of functional modernity:


Returning to reception, another glimpse was afforded during LIB when the rozzers rolled up. The '69 pic shows how the other side of the room looked then:


Note the front door. Again during the '80s, for some reason a small pre-entrance space was installed. I'm glad to say this is being removed during the current work, thus restoring the room to its original dimensions:


To the left of the front door is the entrance to what was once Bag Productions, familiar from a million Peace-era J&Y interviews:


The door to the right of the reception desk leads to the rear of the building, and the main staircase:


Lovers of trivia may note: this is, in fact, number 3's third staircase, and replaced a much grander example installed in the early 20th century. The current one was there during the Apple era, having been put in circa mid-1960s, and is itself now being replaced:


We'll go up it as and when I can be arsed... Part 2 to follow.