"That's What I Want" Wednesday!

Although I try to adhere to John's plea to 'imagine no possessions' sometimes there's just that item of memorabeatlia that I really really want! So "That's What I Want" Wednesday will be a chance for me to share the latest greatest fab gear to buy, sights to see, and places to go.

Come August this year it will be exactly 50 years since John, Paul, George, Pete and Stu first arrived in Hamburg to play a variety of seedy clubs in the notorious red light area of the Reeperbahn. So a must have for my wardrobe this summer has to be a Star Club t-shirt to go with my bag of the same design, which has been a fave accessory for a few years now.

Next up is an exhibition that I have no excuse for missing as it's just up the road in Dundee. "From Dundee To Abbey Road" is a celebration of the late scottish photographer Iain Macmillan (the Abbey Road cover shot is just a tiny portion of his long career) and runs till 3rd June at Dundee's Discovery Point Cafe. The lovely May Pang, John's girlfriend during his estrangement from Yoko in the early/mid 70s, was a recent visitor to the exhibition (nice wee interview about her attendance here). I just wish I had had a chance to meet her (she did make an appearance at Beatleweek in Liverpool once but it was only to introduce a band), as she is someone who has always upheld John's memory with respect and obviously loved him a great deal.

Last today is something I do already own, but fear I may have lost amongst the clutter of my home. It's a replica of a necklace John wore in the famous New York City t-shirt photos taken by Bob Gruen in 1974. The necklace consists of a silver cross and a tablet engraved with the astrological sign for Libra. I bought my copy of the necklace from The Beatles Shop in Mathew Street a few years ago now. It's probably a geeky step too far to wear it with the famous NYC t-shirt, which I also have in my wardrobe, but what the hell!

Gimme Some Truth

Twenty five years after first becoming a bona fide beatlemaniac, I'm still learning things about the Beatles that I didn't know, largely thanks to the vast amount of information available via the internet.

For instance this morning I innocently googled 'John Lennon Hamburg' as I was looking for a pic to add as my mobile phone's wallpaper. I found the one I had in mind two hours later as I was diverted by this wonderful website www.jimvallance.com on the way. Although I hadn't heard of him before, Jim has been a musician and songwriter for over 40 years (he co-wrote some of Bryan Adams' most famous songs, 'Run To You', 'Summer of '69', 'Heaven', as well as songs for Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper to name but a few).

The reason his website was one of the first returns to come up on the google search screen is because he owns the original work permit documents for John when the Beatles went to Hamburg in 1960-1962. Jim has lovingly posted up every single page of the permits on his website, and what caught my eye is a great photo booth shot of John stapled to one of the pages (which is the extract I have posted above). As usual, his expression is hilarious, and so out of keeping with the solemn, serious shot that would have been required for official West German work papers at the time (remember we are talking only 15 years since the Nazi regime had been toppled!).

Jim's website is a mine of information from the various projects that he takes an interest in, plus he's an interesting fella on his own anyway. Also of note to Beatle fans is the page he dedicates to shooting down the claims of a reknowned jazz drummer called Bernard Purdie who has said for the past 30 years that his drumming appears on at least 21 Beatles recordings. And not satisfied with that he also states that Ringo didn't drum on anything the Beatles ever released. Although I would never have believed Bernard's story for a second, for ye of little faith Jim patiently refutes the outlandish claim bit by evidential bit.

It's fans like Jim who take the time, money, and love to preserve such precious data about the Beatles who gain a world of respect from me. Even within my lifetime (I wasn't around when the Beatles were) it's becoming more clear as time passes that they are becoming significant historical figures. And for every book, article, documentary released about the Beatles, there is such a wealth of inaccuracy that can so easily become labelled as fact as it gets misunderstood, repeated, taken out of context, whether unintentionally or not.

I'm not going to go crying into my coffee at the delusions of Bernard Purdie, cos it's as clear as day to me that there isn't a word of truth in it, but information passed on enough times can drift from the realms of fiction to fact. And as John sang, "all i want is the truth, just gimme some truth".

PS here's the pic I had been originally looking for, which, if memory serves, Mimi labelled his 'come hither' look, sarcastically of course!

A suitable beginning...

How I first met The Beatles?

My Dad's copy of the Red Album LP. I don't think he had the Blue Album, or if he did I never saw it.

When?

When was Beatles music never a part of global society after 1962? But I guess I remember being about 7 or 8 and putting the Red Album on the record player all by myself, plugging in the headphones with the giant-sized ear pads (which were so tight on your head they would squash your face up till you were one big pair of lips) then sitting on our Seventies couch with the inner record sleeve on my lap and reading along to the lyrics as each song played.

First favourite song?

Besides the obvious rugrat-oriented Yellow Submarine, I was particularly fond of She Loves You because as a wee kid I liked the story element of it. I could clearly picture the four beatles standing talking to some heartbroken lassie who was telling them about how upset she was and asking them to pass on a message to her boyfriend, and the fab four trotting off, finding the guy, and telling him if he didn't pull his finger out he was basically going to f*ck up the best thing to ever happen to him.

First favourite beatle?

Don't think I had one till much later (about 12 years old) when I read the Hunter Davies authorised biography. Not much contest really, the walrus was always John as far as I'm concerned! Though I suppose with his tragic death having taken place while I was a child he was probably more in my consciousness than any of the other three, particularly post-Dec 1980.

Somehow I don't remember his murder, though my old school friends have since told me that the day it was on the news we talked about it all the way to primary school (a 20 minute walk, longer if you doddled, but no family car school runs in those days). I have no memory of that, but I do recall Imagine being in the charts, which was immediately re-released after he died, and really liking the song (the simplicity of the lyrics and ideas within are tailor made for children as much as for adults who know better about the complexities of human nature) and the video even more so (for some reason the all white room and piano seemed to appeal to me).

I'm away now to put on my Red Album CD (forgive me, oh gods of vinyl), the track listing of which, in my humble, though let's face it correct on this occasion, opinion contains more perfect expressions of genius than any other artistic collection in the history of the world (maybe excepting the collected works of Shakespeare but the Red Album only has 26 of the 200+ songs the Beatles ever recorded, so not really a fair fight eh Will?).