Kenwood: pool, ca '66/ '67.

Julian hingin' aboot the pool at Kenwood, as above. Gratings o' the season to all, if one must... and thanks to Joe Baiardi for sending this in.

Royal Albert Hall: box number 12.

The Beatles, being big fans of Bob Dylan, attended his concerts at the Ralbert in 1965 and 1966. The latter was marred (or enhanced) by a general fracas involving outraged members of the audience attempting to upstage El Zim, due to his adoption of this newfangled "electricity". The Beatles joined in too, apparently; on the side of Bob, obviously.
In particularly idle moments, I've infrequently wondered where they were sitting on this and other RAH evenings. I have no idea - but the Beatles' London mentions another occasion in 1965 when they watched proceedings at a Daily Mirror Golden Ball event from a private box, number 12. Being at the Albert for a Bootlegs show the other night, I couldn't resist getting a couple of photos, as seen above and below:


Might it be that this was their regular seat, and that the following photo of Zimmy on stage at the Ralb at one of the 1966 shows also captures the shadowy forms of the Fabs?


Almost certainly not. But many thanks to Andre of the Bootleg Beatles for a splendid time, and I'd recommend going along next time they are in your neck of the bottle.

Kenwood: expenses, May 1968.

The imminent Bonhams auction of entertainment memorabilia has a few Kenwood related goodies. It's possible that the vendor is none other than our old friend Pete Shotton, as the items include the scribbled lyric for I'm Only Sleeping as featured in his book, together with a table that, it is claimed, sat in Kenwood, and around which John and Yoko muttered at each other on the Two Virgins night (the only other person there being Mr Shotton), plus, most interestingly, the above; a detailed breakdown of John's household expenses for the month of May, 1968. At that time, John's live in "P.A." was none other than...you know who. Whatever, whether or not these items do come from Pete, the sheet provides another (in this case literally) valuable insight into life at Kenwood.
Given that you can multiply these figures by around 13 to gain a rough modern equivalent, it's clear that John ran a fairly profligate household - in modern terms, the expenses come to around 31,600 pounds! The garden alone was costing just over 1,000 a month (assuming this was a typical month), presumably most of which went on the gardener's wages: so he was probably on around 250 per week. The combined upkeep of Mimi, Cynthia's mother and the ignoble Alf was costing John around 4,600 per month. (Lil got a third of what Mimi and Alf got - with Alf getting most of all. One assumes this fact was not conveyed to Mimi.) John himself made do with around 3,250 in cash for "expenses" (and Lord only knows what they were).
(Also note around 1,600 for Cyn and her mother to go to Rimini on the Adriatic. Again, this may prove useful in attempting to pin down the Two Virgins chronology, something which thus far hasn't been done to anyone's satisfaction.)