A rather dishevelled John in the first pic - what has he been up to? (Enormous quantities of acid). Big thanks to Bruno Dupont for these - I have included the text, which relates to a fan visit to Kenwood in August, 1967. If anyone can be bothered translating it, I'll put it up in English. UPDATE - translation now in comments, thanks to sakari.
Hello, here's the story roughly translated (neither French nor English is my first language but hope you get the picture). Fascinating story by the way!
ReplyDelete"It was in London, at about 7 am, the 7th of August this year. A friend said to the little group formed by us: Lennon? You’re crazy, let me sleep, you’ll never get near him.” So it was without him that we arrived to Weybridge one hour later. Weybridge is a charming little village in which we strolled part of the morning (the weather was for once sunny). The time came to search the habitat of one of the four most famous guys in the world. We passed many times around these luxurious estates, paradises of Rolls-Royces, Bentleys or Jaguars. We went four times by a road worker who, without even asking us, pointed his finger at a hill saying: “Beatles, over there!”.
On Cavendish Road, young Americans were sitting in front of a heavy gate covered in graffitis – we had arrived. They were bored and decided to go see Ringo who lived at the bottom of the hill. Ringo who seemed to be the most social, would seem to be less so upon seeing the intruders. One hour of waiting, alone! Then we were saved when a mail van gave us a free entrance, the driver letting the gate open. From this moment on, everything became as if in a dream… First vision: a caravan of a thousand colours whose existence had been revealed to us by French journals one month earlier, so it was true! And then, up there, in a yoga position, like a God ruling the Olympia, “JOHN”! We didn’t dare to advance the flowered alleys. It was him who made a sign for us to come closer.
He was there, retouching a picture of his drawing, the canvas resting on his feet. He had on a white sweater and white pants with blue and pink stripes, and a hindu talisman around his neck. Our meeting was brief, we didn’t understand English well anymore under the rush of the emotion. John, who was very nice, asked us some questions to which we exerted to respond well and not well. He said to me: “you, Frenchman, you like Ravi Shankar? It’s fabulous!” After having immortalized this moment with the cameras with had with us, we said goodbye to this guy who just shook our hands.
After having returned to London in the evening, I met a friend in front of the Marquee at Wardour Street. She had bought a French monthly in which one happened to read an article saying: “those privileged persons who can approach John Lennon are rare!” Would we be among these persons?
But yes, Alain, you mustn’t doubt it. If you knew the amount of both male and female readers who have just finished reading your simple and sincere story and who, like I, think that you must have experienced some unforgettable moments."
Sakari
So I guess of the two photos traveling with the article the tache-less one is related to the visit, while the other one isn`t? So when was that tache one taken? (I`m a bit of a fanatic when it comes to dating taches - in fact I used to run a website about Pepper-era photos that ran out of space while I ran out of time, remains are here: http://www.weybridge.de/pepper/index_ken.htm .)
ReplyDeleteAnd guess what? Ken Wood is my Beatles moniker - I just love this blog!
Hi Ken,
ReplyDeleteGlad you like it. Yes, the tache-less one is from his "open day" as I've referred to it elsewhere, when it seems lots of fans got in to meet him. As for the other one, I would guess around the time they first started working on All You Need Is Love ie shortly before he shaved it off, but you would know better than me! (Your page is great, by the way, you should keep it going). Any tache-related conversation is a pretty ridiculous conversation - but that's fine by me! :)
Thanks for the compliment - I will pick it up some day, I plan to get a server on my own, then I won`t be running out of space all the time. I`ve been into this matter (Pepper/taches) much deeper at the time when I did that site but now barely can recall it all. Anyway, as far as we know Paul`s tache went in Mai (some source says 5th), while John`s stayed longer, the first dated tache-less being the AYNIL photos.
ReplyDeleteI could be wrong, but I thought there were photos of them at Olympic (the first AYNIL session) which show him still tached up, but then it is gone by the time they are back at Abbey Road a few days later - which would date the demise of the tache to June. Perhaps a new blog is called for! ("Perhaps not" - the world).
ReplyDeleteA few day later is not quite right I think.
ReplyDeleteThis session you refer to is probably this one on May 17:
http://beatlesdaybyday.freeforums.org/17-may-1967-emi-studios-t616.html
However this is neither Olympia nor the first session for AYNIL - though these photos were labelled as such. What IS intriguing about these photos is the lenght of John`s moustache: the chinese styled ends are gone.
On 29 April, when John was at London Happening they still were there, though already shorter than the longest lenght he has achieved before. So my guess is that this photo has been taken before 29 April, as the ends are even longer there.
John has gotten rid of his moustache completly by 24 June (AYNIL TV session).
OOPS - wrong thread! I thought I was posting on the one that shows John and Julian! So in this case - judging from the length of the ends of John`s moustache the photo should be taken before May 17!
ReplyDeleteI bow to your superior tache expertise! The photos I am thinking of may well have been mis-labelled. I think they were from the Beatles Book monthly. I'll maybe have a look later.
ReplyDeleteYes, they are from Beatles Book - and I think this is where the wrong information comes from too!
ReplyDeletei just read my diary: paul shaved his moustache on may 5, 1967.
ReplyDeleteand john shaved his on june 8, 1967.
ReplyDelete