Foreword

by Miles

One of the more predictable questions at Beatles press conferences was, “What will you do when the bubble bursts?” They always answered, just as predictably, “We’ll burst with it! Ha! Ha!” But it was not the case. Twenty-five years after the group broke up, The Beatles were once more the biggest earning entity in show business, more than the Stones, more than Michael Jackson, more than Bill Cosby or Oprah Winfrey. This was of course because of the Anthology television series, the video set and the three double CDs. But in the intervening years The Beatles had never really gone away: they and their fans behaved as if they still existed. There were none of the usual signs of a long disbanded group: all of their catalogue was always readily available, almost always at full price, and only rarely did their songs appear on Sixties compilations.

When the band broke up there were only one or two books available about them. Now there are more than 400 and new ones are published on an average of one every two weeks. On the Internet there are more Beatles sites than any other music group with over 40,000 pages devoted to them. There are annual Beatles weekends in London, Liverpool, San Diego, Orlando, Los Angeles and other cities. The Beatlefests in Liverpool, New York and Chicago attract more than 10,000 people to watch film clips, hear pundits pontificate and to buy Beatles memorabilia, most of which has been produced since the group broke up. Beatles merchandising has become an industry in itself, with hundreds of dealers doing nothing else but buy and sell the detritus of marketing campaigns, old copies of Radio Times and the occasional rare picture sleeve. Blue chip Beatles memorabilia, especially handwritten lyrics and items relating directly to John, always fetches the highest prices at auction sales.

In America there are a number of 24-hour Beatles stations, playing nothing but songs by the collective and solo Beatles, endlessly, month after month. Hundreds of stations have weekly Beatles shows or Beatles request shows. ‘Yesterday’ is the world’s most popular song: in 1993, it passed the six million airplay mark in the USA, followed at second most popular by ‘Michelle’ at four million. ‘Yesterday’ has also been covered by more than 2,300 other artists. Just one copy of each version would fill a wall of shelves. How can anyone compete with that? Well, Paul McCartney can, of course. At the height of the punk movement, McCartney calmly released ‘Mull Of Kintyre’, a sentimental ballad which immediately became the biggest selling single in Britain up to that time – selling more than any Beatles’ record.

There was a time when they hated to be called “ex-Beatles;” usually stressing the fact that The Beatles was just a band they were once in, and now they were doing something else. Time passed and now they are just ‘The Beatles’ again. They may have had enormous success with solo careers, but they are Beatles and always will be as long as they live. At Apple and in Beatles circles there was a saying: “Nothing is safe from Beatlification” and it turns out that The Beatles themselves aren’t immune from it either.

In the Seventies, the image of The Beatles was frozen in time: the long-haired bickering Beatles of Let It Be and the Saville Row rooftop concert. This gradually changed, as images from all periods of The Beatles’ career, from the Fab Four, the Four Mop Tops, the Lords of Psychedelia and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band all intermingled to a composite Beatles, like a collage image of the Sixties from the Kennedy Assassination through Christine Keeler to Man landing on the Moon and a Technicolor Jimi Hendrix playing the guitar with his teeth. The Beatles are a passage from black and white to glorious colour; from the cheeky Northern lads of A Hard Day’s Night to the sublime psychedelic John Lennon singing ‘I Am The Walrus’ in Magical Mystery Tour. Not surprising then that they had a bit of an influence over the music scene.

The Beatles sit like a monolith in the middle of popular music history, you can’t avoid them. In the early days of pop music there was only one hit parade and they dominated it, year in, year out. These days with the hip-hop charts, the house music and techno charts, charts for rappers and charts for sensitive Canadian lady folksingers it is hard to imagine any one group ever having that dominance again. These days someone can be number one for months and half the record buying public will never have even heard of them because they buy a different type of record.

The Beatles introduced the singer-songwriter, they did the first “concept album,” they were the first to print their lyrics on the sleeve, they invented stadium rock, they not only had the John Lennon-Paul McCartney songwriting team on board but, astonishingly, had George Harrison as well. George’s ‘Something’ was described by Frank Sinatra as “the greatest love song of the past fifty years” and has been covered by such greats as Ray Charles, James Brown and Smoky Robinson. In The Beatles George had to fight to even get a B-side.

They broke up and all went solo. George’s career was the first to take off with the release of his box set All Things Must Pass, the first triple album in rock’n’roll. Unfortunately for him, in 1976 the big hit single from the set, ‘My Sweet Lord’, was deemed (unfairly) by the courts to have more than a passing similarity to The Chiffons’ ‘He’s So Fine’ and he forfeited the royalties on that song. In the early Seventies, however, George was riding high, he was the coolest man in rock. He even brought Bob Dylan out on stage for the first time in several years at a benefit concert for the refugees of Bangladesh which George organised at Madison Square Garden. The problem was that George is a slow writer and with his triple album set, he had put all his eggs in one basket. There wasn’t much left for the next album – or the one after that – and his recording career never reached such heights again. George turned instead to films – not acting, but producing. His company Handmade Films put £2,000,000 into the Monty Python team’s Life Of Brian and made a massive profit. Suddenly George had another career.

John was also fast off the mark. Whereas Paul got married in the full glare of publicity, but honeymooned in private, John had a secret wedding but invited the world press to attend the honeymoon, first at the Amsterdam Hilton then, as he was unable to enter the States, in Montreal where he wrote the memorable peace anthem ‘Give Peace A Chance’. John made his private life public, just as in his songs he expressed his most intimate private feelings. He recorded Imagine, an album which is in part hauntingly beautiful – John had a fantastic voice – and also deeply flawed with its vicious attack on McCartney, ‘How Do You Sleep?’. Then in 1971 John moved to New York City, never to set foot in England again. (Even when he obtained a green card and was able to travel again, Yoko was opposed to him returning to Britain.) In New York he fell in with media hucksters and self-styled revolutionaries Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman which resulted in the terrible Some Time ln New York City. For the first time John was writing about things people told him, rather than writing from personal experience, and it showed. His career in the UK effectively ended with that album until his work was reassessed at his death. The album also attracted the attention of Richard Nixon and John soon found himself under FBI surveillance as a dangerous revolutionary when all he really wanted was his green card so he could stay in the country.

Ringo also started well; ‘It Don’t Come Easy’ in 1971 was followed a year later with ‘Back Off Boogaloo’, both fine singles which indicated a solid solo career. In addition, his acting improved with each film he appeared in, beginning with the dismal Candy (now a cult movie, so bad it’s good), faring much better in The Magic Christian and peaking with That’ll Be The Day where he was finally given the right role. His album Ringo in 1973 was better than any the other ex-Beatles had made in years and his singles ‘Photograph’ and ‘You’re Sixteen’ both reached number one in the States. Ringo joined the jet set and became a tax exile in Monte Carlo with houses in Amsterdam and Los Angeles. A generation of children grew up thinking of him as the voice of Thomas The Tank Engine and as the narrator on Nilsson’s animated cartoon The Point.

Paul, the most likely Beatle to succeed as a solo artist, got off to a very slow start. He had been badly affected by the break-up of the group and the subsequent legal wrangles. McCartney and Ram were slated by the critics, as were the early efforts by Wings. Then in 1973 he had his own TV special, wrote the theme to Live And Let Die and released Band On The Run. This was followed by a massive 1975-76 world tour and from then on he never looked back.

Perhaps goaded by Paul’s success, John returned to the recording studio. He took his famous eighteen-month long weekend with May Pang in Los Angeles and recorded ‘Whatever Gets You Through The Night’, his first solo number one in America. Then he returned to Yoko and in 1975, Sean was born, John got his green card and became a “house husband,” bringing up their son while Yoko got on with making money.

The Beatles, meanwhile, were not forgotten. In 1976 EMI re-promoted all The Beatles’ singles – these were not re-issues because they were never off the catalogue – and they immediately charted. All of them; taking up about a quarter of the Top 100. There was a new Beatles single among them. ‘Yesterday’ had never been issued as a single in the UK, though it had been a huge hit in the USA. Now it had its own turn at the top of the UK charts.

1980 was a bad year. First Paul was busted at Narita airport, Tokyo, trying to take pot into Japan and spent ten anxious days in jail before being released. Then on December 8, 1980, John was senselessly murdered outside his home at the Dakota in New York, and nothing was ever the same again. The remaining Beatles hunkered down, surrounded by bodyguards and security systems, and effectively disappeared from sight. Records continued to appear from them all but it was not until the late Eighties that they took on a public presence again. In 1989 both Paul and Ringo planned tours: Ringo put together his All-Starr Band and Paul went for something rather more ambitious: a world tour of stadiums lasting 11 months to promote his Flowers In The Dirt CD and, much to the audiences’ delight, play Beatles songs again. George popped up in The Traveling Wilburys and toured in Japan.

Then came the Anthology series: a worldwide multi-part television series, eight videos, three double CDs, two new Beatles singles (there would have been three but George didn’t like John’s tape). All that was missing at the time was the book, which eventually surfaced in the autumn of 2000, followed by 1, the first single CD of Beatles greats which music industry insiders predict will become the best-selling album ever. The Beatles were back and it seemed that Paul, George and Ringo didn’t mind at all being Beatles again. They had never really been away.

As the world moves into the third millennium, the enormous celebrity of The Beatles remains firmly intact. Their status as the greatest pop group ever remains unchallenged as each new generation of bands acknowledges their influence. Paul is now firmly established as a sort of elder statesman of British pop, its senior figure who is invariably invited to top the bill at prestigious charity events, much as he did at Live Aid. He is now Sir Paul McCartney, an accolade that was long overdue considering those knighthoods bestowed upon other, lesser, figures from the world of entertainment. No matter how you measure success in the entertainment world, Paul is on top: the most number one records, the most air-plays, the fastest selling tickets, the biggest paying audience, and of course, the most money. He is unquestionably the wealthiest of British rock stars, his fortune generally estimated to be in the region of £500 million whenever broadsheet newspapers and music magazines discuss such matters. A great wave of public sympathy was extended towards Paul when Linda died, and for some time afterwards he maintained an uncharacteristically low profile. He’s since re-emerged in the company of the handicapped model Heather Mills, a relationship the Great British Public seems to have gladly countenanced. Paul is a grandfather now, daughter Mary having presented him with a grandson, while his youngest daughter Stella has found fame in her own right as a fashion designer.

Low profiles come naturally to George. The quiet Beatle has become ever more silent over the years, dry of wit and content to potter around in his garden and indulge his love of automobiles and Formula One racing. He remains a deeply private and quietly religious man. The break-in at Friar Park over Christmas 1999, with its eerie echoes of John’s murder, will likely push him yet further away from the limelight. As a Beatle he never much liked having his photo taken and he probably never will. Relations between George and Paul fluctuate with the tides. They haven’t performed together since the Apple rooftop show in January 1969, and it’s unlikely they ever will again.

Ringo remains, indubitably, Ringo, the all-smiling, all-singing, all-dancing ex-Beatle whose run of luck goes on forever. He was never taken very seriously when he was a member of The Beatles and he’s never been taken very seriously since, although his problems with alcohol and drugs put a dent in the lovable image created by his deadpan rendering of Thomas The Tank Engine. Ringo presents no threat to anyone and as such he remains the bridge between Paul and George, and probably also Yoko, John’s widow and the fourth, ever-intriguing factor in the ongoing saga of the greatest pop group the world has ever known.

Miles, April 1999 & November 2000.

Author’s Notes

After The Break-Up is an attempt to list chronologically all the facts relating to the lives of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr after they ceased to be a working group in the early months of 1970. They were still Beatles, of course, and will always remain so, but this book lists all those events, crucial and otherwise, that occurred in their lives once they ceased to make music together on a regular basis.

A compilation of this kind has not been attempted before and I am the first to admit that no matter how hard I try I cannot hope to list absolutely everything that happened in the lives of these four remarkable men from 1970 to the present day. By far the most interesting events are those that involve a combination of two or more former Beatles, be it recording sessions, live performances, business meetings or casual get-togethers. Meetings between the two principal former Beatles, John and Paul, virtually stopped at the beginning of the Seventies but became more common around the middle of the decade, only to cease completely thereafter. I believe that every such meeting is logged here, including a few unreported elsewhere. John’s final meetings with George, Ringo and, most importantly, Paul are confirmed here for the first time.

Naturally the book hinges upon their professional lives. I believe it contains the most comprehensive accounts ever published of John’s activities during his final decade and Paul’s adventures with Wings. For the sake of space and time, I have included only those records released in the UK and USA, unless releases elsewhere in the world are especially noteworthy, as in the case of Paul’s Russian rock’n’roll album. I have included every known public performance, every film appearance, every recording session, almost every TV and radio appearance and every substantial magazine and newspaper interview that has come to my attention in the 20 years or more that I have taken a close interest in The Beatles. The text is therefore liberally enhanced by extracts from those interviews that I felt contained illuminating opinions from the former Fabs.

Also in amongst these pages are details of every known court case involving The Beatles, be they civil cases involving disputes over millions of pounds in royalties, Paul’s heavily reported drug busts or George getting yet another rap on the knuckles for speeding. And I have included as many social occasions as I know about, including births, marriages and deaths, as well as holidays, parties and nights out on the town.

All the thousands of entries that I have listed herein pale into insignificance compared with the tragic events of December 8, 1980. John Lennon’s murder remains the single most tragic event in the history of popular music.

That a book of this kind can find a publisher 37 years after the release of their first record is a remarkable tribute to the group which John assembled and led. Long live The Beatles!

1970

“I woke up and didn’t have a job anymore! Oh Jesus! No band. What do I do? I’ve got to work out something for myself now.”

– Paul

“Big bastards, that’s what The Beatles were. You have to be a bastard to make it, that’s a fact, and The Beatles are the biggest bastards on earth!”

– John

Wednesday April 1

Ringo becomes the last Beatle to play at a Beatles recording session at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios in London when, working with Phil Spector in studio one, he overdubs his drum parts on the tracks ‘Across The Universe’, ‘The Long And Winding Road’ and ‘I Me Mine’.

John and Yoko issue a hoax press release announcing that: “They have both entered the London clinic for a dual sex-change operation.” In truth, the couple enrol themselves in a four-week course of Primal Therapy with the American psychologist Dr. Arthur Janov at his private London hospital at 20 Devonshire Place. At John’s invitation Janov met John and Yoko at the Lennon’s Tittenhurst Park mansion in Ascot the previous day. John was greatly impressed by Janov’s book The Primal Scream – Primal Therapy: The Cure Of Neurosis, which had been sent to him in an unsolicited package in the middle of March. The Lennons decide to attend treatment in his clinic because their Ascot mansion is full of builders who are currently renovating the place. Meanwhile, the John Lennon Lithographs, seized by police at the London Arts Gallery in New Bond Street on January 16, are produced at Marlborough Street Magistrates’ Court where they are compared to similar works by Picasso. Mr David Napley, defending Mr Eugene Shuster, a director of London Arts Incorporated who ran the exhibition, hands over a set of John’s lithographs to the court and says: “I hope the officer will not mark them because, no doubt, by the end of the case they will be worth more than £550!” When Mr Napley said that the prints appear to depict the marriage and honeymoon of John Lennon and his wife, Inspector Cliff of Scotland Yard replies: “Only if they were described and introduced that way!”

Thursday April 2

Phil Spector’s final task on the Let It Be album is to mix the tracks into stereo and edit those recordings on which Ringo overdubbed his drum tracks yesterday.

In an interview with the Evening Standard, Paul states: “We all have to ask each other’s permission before any of us does anything without the other three. My own record (McCartney) nearly didn’t come out because Klein and some of the others thought it would be too near to the date of the next Beatles album … I had to get George, who’s a director of Apple, to authorise its release for me. We’re all talking about peace and love but really, we’re not feeling peaceful at all.”

Sunday April 5

Ringo appears live on the BBC Radio One programme Scene And Heard broadcast between 3:01 and 3:59pm where he is interviewed by the host Johnny Moran.

Monday April 6

Allen Klein arrives in London to conclude the business deals for the United Artists film Let It Be.

Thursday April 9

The Beatles’ Apple organisation denies that Paul McCartney has left the group. Mrs Mavis Smith, Derek Taylor’s assistant and head of Apple’s public relations office, states, “This is just not true. Although it is true that there are no plans at the moment for more Beatles recordings, this is quite normal. Next month, their new LP will be issued. It has already been recorded so, consequently, as there is already material available, there are no plans for more recordings. I hope that The Beatles will get together for another recording session after the summer.” Mavis reveals that Paul has not been seen at Apple’s HQ in Saville Row since before Christmas, but adds, “He communicates by telephone and, as he has got recording studios at his home, it is not necessary for him to come in. Paul will issue a statement today with the release of his new album, but any critical statements do not mean a real break-up of the group!”

Meanwhile, aware of the contents of the interview enclosed within advance copies of his McCartney album due for release tomorrow, Paul phones John at Janov’s clinic to inform him of its release but shies away from telling John he is leaving The Beatles. As John recalls, “Paul said to me, ‘I’m now doing what you and Yoko were doing last year. I understand what you were doing’, all that shit. So I said to him, ‘Good luck to yer.’” The first that John hears of Paul’s split from the group is when news breaks in the media the following morning.

The Daily Mirror newspaper receives an advance copy of Paul’s statement and uses this to form the basis of tomorrow’s world-shattering front-page story.

Friday April 10

The Daily Mirror’s front-page story is headlined: Paul Is Quitting The Beatles.

Paul publicly announces the break-up of The Beatles and says that the band will never work together again. His announcement takes the form of a printed “self-interview” sent out to the national press, various broadcasting organisations and included within advance promotional copies of his McCartney album. In it, he explains why he has broken with The Beatles, claiming it is down to “Business and musical differences, but most of all, because I have a better time with my family.” He adds, “I do not know whether the break will be temporary or permanent” and in conclusion states, “I do not foresee a time when the Lennon & McCartney partnership will be active again in songwriting.”

Later, Paul admits that he didn’t really consider this “self-interview” to be an official announcement of The Beatles split; instead he claims that he simply filled in the answers to questions that had been prepared by the Apple assistant Peter Brown. Apple’s press officer Derek Taylor announces from his Saville Row office: “They do not want to split up, but the present rift seems to be part of their growing up … at the moment they seem to cramp each other’s styles. Paul has called a halt to The Beatles’ activities. They could be dormant for years.” He also explains Klein’s business relationship with Paul: “It is no secret that Klein and Paul have never hit it off. Paul has been into this building just twice since Klein came here. He opposed the appointment of Klein and wanted to make his father-in-law John Eastman, a New York lawyer, manager.”

Fans distressed by the news of the split begin to converge outside the offices at 3 Saville Row. Among those present are the Apple Scruffs, a small group of girls who, for years, have been regularly hanging around the Apple offices and Abbey Road studios just to get a brief meeting with a Beatle. A reporter asks Carol Bedford, a member of the Scruffs, “Will anyone ever replace The Beatles for you?” She replies, “No! It’s just one Beatles group. That’s it! We don’t want there to be another. We grew up with them. When they started, they were younger when we were younger, and all through the years we’ve just developed!”

A news team from CBS in America has arrived and proclaims on its evening news broadcasts, “The small gathering in Saville Row is only the beginning. The event is so momentous that historians may, one day, view it as a landmark in the decline of the British Empire … The Beatles are breaking up!”

Meanwhile, as news of Paul’s split from the group spreads like wildfire round the world’s media, top-level business meetings involving the various factions of The Beatles, are being held in the Apple offices. Asked about Paul’s now obvious dislike of him, Klein remarks to journalists, “It’s never pleasant when someone appears not to like you!”

George is also to be found in Saville Row, away from the bedlam, being interviewed for the religious programme Fact Or Fantasy? subtitled Prayer And Meditation. This filmed appearance will be first transmitted on BBCI on Sunday April 26 and then repeated the following day. He ends the day alone in his Saville Row office watching an early version of The Long And Winding Road, the official history of The Beatles’ career. A close friend of George remarks, “George doesn’t want to talk about it (the split). He just wants to be left alone.”

John, still with Arthur Janov, is preparing more lithographic artwork displays. When asked about Paul’s departure, he says enigmatically, “You can say I said jokingly, he didn’t quit, he was fired.”

Ringo, staying aloof, remarks, “This is all news to me.”

Paul, Linda, Heather and Mary leave their home in Cavendish Avenue for Scotland. A close friend of the family tells reporters outside the house: “He’s not giving any interviews at the moment. In fact, fans and other people have been making his life a bit of a misery lately by picketing his pad. I wish they’d leave him alone to live his life now.”

Saturday April 11

“I woke up and didn’t have a job anymore! Oh Jesus! No band. What do I do? I’ve got to work out something for myself now.” – Paul

Respected Times columnist William Mann writes on Paul’s decision to leave The Beatles. “If The Beatles were just another pop group there would be no cause for alarm in Paul McCartney’s suggestion, announced yesterday, that he may never work with them again. The others would simply find another bass guitarist and lead singer and go on roughly as before. But The Beatles’ image, and influence on pop culture in the last ten years has depended on four distinctive personalities working well together.” Mann concludes: “They would not be the same without Paul.”

As The Beatles single ‘Let It Be’ reaches number one in the American charts, John and Yoko, even though they are in London, partake in the two-month Fluxus Group Arts Festival in New York. Subtitled Fluxfest, the event takes place at the Greenwich Village store in Canal Street owned by the Fluxus member Joe Jones, the founder of the Tone Deaf Music Company. The first week of the festival, which runs until April 17, features Do-It-Yourself By John And Yoko. Also on display is Two Eggs By John Lennon.

Meanwhile in England, Paul’s first duty after leaving The Beatles is to purchase the film rights to the cartoon character Rupert The Bear. The transaction is handled by his new company, McCartney Productions Ltd (originally Adagrove Limited, formed on February 12, 1969).

Friday April 17

The album McCartney is released in the UK. (The American release takes place on April 20.) The track listing is: side one: ‘The Lovely Linda’, ‘That Would Be Something’, ‘Valentine Day’, ‘Every Night’, medley: ‘Hot As Sun – Glasses – Suicide’, ‘Junk’, ‘Man We Was Lonely’; side two: ‘Oo You’, ‘Momma Miss America’, ‘Teddy Boy’, ‘Singalong Junk’, ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ and ‘Kreen-Akrore’. (Recordings begin in December 1969, utilising several locations which include Paul’s home, EMI’s Abbey Road Studio 2 and at Morgan Studios in Willesden, London.)

Sir Lew Grade, the head of Associated Television (ATV), the company which in 1969 acquired the publishing rights to The Beatles’ songs, describes Paul’s album as “absolutely brilliant”.

George is asked about the album: “‘That Would Be Something’ and ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ I think are great and everything else I think is fair, you know. It’s quite good, but a little disappointing, but maybe I shouldn’t be disappointed, it’s best not to expect anything, then everything’s a bonus. I think those two tracks are very good and the others just don’t do anything for me. The arrangements for ‘Teddy Boy’ and ‘Junk’, with a little bit more arrangement could have sounded better. Me, Ringo and John, not only do we see each other, but we see so many musicians and other bands, maybe Paul does too. But I just get the impression that he doesn’t. That he’s so isolated from it, he’s out on a limb. The only person he’s got to tell him if the song’s good or bad is Linda. In the Beatle days, if someone came in with a song that had a corny line and some of the others got a bit embarrassed by it, we’d say it!”

Today, in the American Rolling Stone magazine, John announces: “I’m telling you what’s going on. It’s John, George and Ringo as individuals. We’re not even communicating with or making plans about Paul. We’re just reacting to everything he does. It’s a simple fact that he couldn’t have his own way, so he’s causing chaos … Paul was the same with Brian (Epstein), at the beginning. He used to sulk and God knows what. It’s always been the same, only now it’s bigger because we’re all bigger.”

Saturday April 18

Arthur Janov suggests to John that he should pay a visit to his first wife Cynthia and their son Julian. But the family get-together is halted when Cynthia’s housekeeper informs the party that, “Yoko has just called and is threatening to commit suicide unless John returns home immediately!” Meanwhile in America, Fluxfest continues, where this week, until the 24, John and Yoko offer two New York bus tickets to the show Tickets By John And Yoko.

Today’s Melody Maker prints an article entitled “Paul – The Truth,” in which they describe his decision to leave The Beatles as “possibly the non-event of the year”. Alongside it is Richard Williams’ review of McCartney. He describes it as containing … “the best and worst of an extraordinary talent … ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ would have been a classic had it been included on say, Abbey Road … ‘Man We Was Lonely’ is sheer banality. If it had been sung by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, I (and you) would’ve sneered and turned it off. It’s the worst example of his music-hall side.”

Sunday April 19

In an unprecedented move for a pop-promotional film, the London area of ITV, London Weekend Television, screen in its own 6:00-6:04pm slot, Paul’s promotional clip for ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’, produced by the film director David Putnam. It features a montage of still photographs of Paul, Linda, and her daughter Heather. A further screening occurs in America, on CBS Television’s The Ed Sullivan Show, between 8:00 and 9:00 EST.

Tuesday April 21 & Wednesday April 22

London’s Evening Standard newspaper publishes a two-part interview with Paul, where he goes to great lengths to explain his problems with the Phil Spector arrangement of ‘The Long And Winding Road’: “A few weeks ago I was sent a re-mixed version of my song ‘The Long And Winding Road’ with harps, horns, an orchestra and women’s choir added. No one had asked me what I thought. I couldn’t believe it. I would never have female voices on a Beatles record … anyway, I’ve sent a letter asking for some of the things to be altered, but I haven’t received an answer yet.”

Thursday April 23

Taking advantage of his recently acquired brief US visitor’s visa, George, along with Patti and Derek Taylor, depart from London’s Heathrow Airport en route to New York where George starts work on producing Billy Preston’s Apple album Encouraging Words and spends time checking out Apple’s new New York offices at 1700 Broadway.

Apple Corps in London release the following press statement: “The film Let It Be will, in Britain, be simultaneously premiered in both London and Liverpool on May 20, and, under the distribution agreement with United Artists, the film will open in New York on May 13 and will be shown in 100 cities all over the world! Let It Be is described by United Artists as a ‘Bioscopic Experience’.”

Friday April 24

Ringo’s album Sentimental Journey is released in America and within two weeks will sell over half a million copies. (The album was released in the UK on March 27.)

Saturday April 25

The Fluxfest festival continues with the exhibition of Measure By John And Yoko, in which the vital statistics of the viewing public are the centre of attraction. Further Fluxfest fun and games take place between May 2 & 8, with an exhibition called Blue Room By John And Yoko, which features Three Spoons By John Lennon and Needle By John Lennon. Between May 9 & 15 Fluxfest features Weight And Water By John And Yoko, which involves the flooding of the Canal Street exhibition room. Between May 16 & 22 the festival features Capsule By John And Yoko, and between May 23 & 29 Portrait Of John Lennon As A Young Cloud, where the exhibition room is filled with 100 drawers, 99 of which are empty. The other contains John’s smile. Between May 30 & June 5 it focuses on a collection of New York ticket machines, which are presented as The Store By John And Yoko, and during the final week, June 6-12, patrons are tested on what they have learnt over the previous nine weeks, in a piece entitled Exam By John And Yoko.

Monday April 27

In a dramatic London High Court ruling, summonses against the London Art Gallery of Bond Street, and its director Eugene Schuster, over John’s Bag One lithographs, are dismissed and ruled not to be obscene by Marlborough Street Magistrates’ court. Mr Schuster, who was forced to make two journeys from America for the case, says after the hearing, “We shall try to get the prints on view again tomorrow morning. We shall hang the prints in the gallery as soon as we get them back. They are still in police custody. Mr Lennon, who is working in London now on his second set of prints, will be immediately told about the case.” Schuster adds, “The first set of John’s prints are on view in America. I think they have already sold out in New York.”

Tuesday April 28

During his visit to the Apple offices at 1700 Broadway, George gives an interview to the WPLJ Radio reporter Howard Smith.

Wednesday April 29

Following twenty-eight straight days of shouting, screaming, sketching and eating 28 different colours of ice cream, John and Yoko’s therapy sessions with Arthur Janov at his London offices are concluded. He recommends that the Lennons fly out to Los Angeles and resume their treatment at his Primal Institute clinic in California.

George and Derek meet Bob Dylan at his MacDougal Street townhouse in Greenwich Village, New York.

Thursday April 30

John and Yoko depart from London’s Heathrow Airport en route to Janov’s Primal Institute in Los Angeles. They will stay in California for four months at a rented accommodation in Bel Air.

Paul appears on the front page of Rolling Stone magazine in America. Inside is an in-depth interview with the former Beatle, carried out by Jann Wenner. The issue also features a report on George acquiring his Friar Park mansion.

George, meanwhile, joins Bob Dylan for an informal jam session in Dylan’s MacDougal Street townhouse. They perform the tracks ‘When Everybody Comes To Town’ and ‘I’d Have You Anytime’, which are recorded by Dylan on his home recording equipment. (Columbia acetates cut from the tape of this session are later sold by the auctioneers Galston & Co. and subsequently find their way, in the late Seventies, on to various bootleg records incorrectly dated as May 1.) George and Derek are invited by Bob to attend his recording sessions tomorrow.

May

Mr. Richard Dunn of the Linguaphone Group reveals that John has recently taken out an audiocassette course on “How to speak Japanese”.

Friday May 1

In Studio B at the Columbia Recording Studios in New York City, George joins Bob Dylan in a recording session for his album New Morning. George picks up a guitar and jams with Bob, Charlie E. Daniels (on bass), Russ Kunkel (drums) and Bob Johnston (piano), who also serves as producer, on the following tracks: ‘Sign On The Window’, ‘If Not For You’, ‘Time Passes Slowly’, ‘Working On The Guru’, ‘Went To See The Gypsies’, ‘Song To Woody’, ‘Mama, You’ve Been On My Mind’, ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright’, a cover of The Beatles’ ‘Yesterday’, ‘Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues’, ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’, ‘One Too Many Mornings’, ‘Ghost Riders In The Sky’, ‘Cupid’, ‘All I Have To Do Is Dream’, ‘Gates Of Eden’, ‘I Threw It All Away’, ‘I Don’t Believe In You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)’, ‘Matchbox’, ‘Your True Love’, ‘Las Vegas Blues’, ‘Fishin’ Blues’, ‘Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance’, ‘Rainy Day Women Nos. 12 & 35’, ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’ and ‘Tomorrow Is A Long Time’. Some of the songs, in true Get Back sessions style, are only 17 seconds in duration. The recordings, which include overdub sessions, take place between 2:30-5:50pm, 6:30-9:30pm and 10:30pm-1:30am on the morning of May 2. (Note: A take of ‘If Not for You’ with George on slide guitar is released in 1991 on Dylan’s The Bootleg Series Volume 1-3 (Rare and Unreleased) 1961-1991. (In order not to upset Apple, George’s appearance at this session is not logged in the CBS recording contracts.)

Saturday May 2

Melody Maker’s Mailbag section publishes a letter under the headline: “Who Does Paul McCartney Think He Is?” It reads: “Who does Paul McCartney think he is? We don’t see anything of him for a year, and then out he pops from his mysterious hermit like existence, advertising his new record in a publicity-crazed manner. Does he really think we’ll believe that he played all the instruments? Let’s face it, Mailbag, we’re not suckers. It’s obvious George Martin had a lot to do with it. In fact if you listen carefully to the end of the third track played backwards, you can almost hear him whistling.” The letter is signed Paul McCartney.

Tuesday May 5

George and Derek Taylor return home to England.

Friday May 8

The album Let It Be is released in the UK as a deluxe box set, which also contains the book Get Back, a wonderful photographic record of the January 1969 Get Back/Let It Be sessions. The album will be re-released in the UK on November 6 in a regular sleeve and without the book. (A standard version of the Let It Be album, this time in a gatefold sleeve, is released in America on May 18.)

Saturday May 9

At the annual Cannes Film Festival in the South of France, Ringo and Maureen are guests of honour at the screening of Woodstock, the big-screen film record of the outdoor festival held in upstate New York in August 1969. Clips of their visit are featured in a report on the festival, included in the bi-weekly London Weekend Television arts show Aquarius, transmitted across the ITV network on Friday May 22 between 11:01 and 11:44pm.

Richard Williams ends his in-depth Melody Maker review of the Let It Be album by writing: “The Beatles are dead – Long live The Beatles.”

Monday May 11

In America, the single ‘The Long And Winding Road’/‘For You Blue’ is released. The single will sell 1,200,000 copies within two days.

Wednesday May 13

Contrary to the original intentions of both Apple and United Artists, the New York premiere of the film Let It Be does not take place today. The date for the film’s release has now been set for Thursday May 28.

Thursday May 14

In America, Rolling Stone magazine publishes a report on John and George’s brief US visas, stating that, although they can now enter America, they do so on the condition that they must leave the country within a short space of time, usually 30 days.

Friday May 15

Reports in America announce that Paul’s solo album McCartney has sold over 1,000,000 copies in its first four weeks of release.

Monday May 18

At 10:30am, two days before the UK premiere, Let It Be receives its first ever public screening, for the benefit of the press and close friends, at the London Pavilion in Piccadilly Circus. When asked about the film, George later admits that the film does not bear well with him. “There are scenes in it like the roof top concert that was good, but most of it makes me so aggravated … I can’t watch it, ’cos it was a particularly bad experience that we were having at that time and it’s bad enough having it, let alone having it filmed and recorded so you’ve got to watch it for the rest of your life. I don’t like it!”

Wednesday May 20

The Let It Be film opens today in Britain with special simultaneous Gala North–South premiere events. In the South, crowds surge upon the London Pavilion where guests include Spike Milligan, Mary Hopkin, Julie Felix, Sir Joseph Lockwood, Richard Lester, Simon Dee, Julie Edge and Lulu. Not to mention fifty dancing members of the Hare Krishna group and various members of The Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac pop groups. Most noticeable in the crowd are women no longer involved with The Beatles, John’s ex-wife Cynthia Lennon and, two years after her split from Paul, the actress Jane Asher. Before entering the cinema, Spike is playfully pictured by the press, alongside the police, trying to hold back the large excited crowds. At the conclusion of its first week at the 1,004-seat cinema, where Let It Be was screened a total of 41 times, the film nets approximately £6,229. Brian Millwood, on behalf of UA, announces: “We’re happy with the start made by the film. It’s by no means the biggest take for the house, but it’s nevertheless good.” Let It Be will run at the London Pavilion for five weeks until Tuesday June 23, when it is replaced by the Mick Jagger film Ned Kelly. Meanwhile in Liverpool, the northern premiere takes place with a comparatively quiet, invitation only, event at the Gaumont in Camden Street, London Road. (The screenings at both cinemas commence at 8:45pm.) Let It Be will eventually go on to be released in 100 major cities around the world.

Thursday May 21

The day after the official northern The day after the official northern premiere, Tom Hutchinson of the Liverpool Daily Post scathingly reviews Let It Be. He describes the film as: “An occasion for sadness.” He continues by writing: “Watching this 81-minute long U-certificated account of The Beatles making their latest LP, I felt that I was sitting at the deathbed of one of the greatest group talents ever to escape from the trivial treadmill of so much pop music.” He concludes: “So, I regret the passing of an institution: as I regret that this film should be judged as the most suitable hearse for that institution.” Even so, Let It Be opens to the general public today at the Gaumont in Liverpool where, alongside Yellow Submarine, it can be seen three times a day, at 2:45pm, 5:55pm and 9:05pm.

Friday May 22

Workmen renovating John and Yoko’s eighteenth century Georgian mansion in Ascot call out the bomb disposal squad when they discover an unexploded incendiary shell. The Lennons had purchased the estate from a football pools magnate for £150,000 during May 1969.

Saturday May 23

BBC Radio One in the UK transmits a 44-minute reflective programme on The Beatles. Suitably called Let It Be, the show (transmitted between 5:00 and 5:44pm) features the Scene And Heard presenter Johnny Moran talking individually (using pre-recorded tapes) to all four Beatles about their futures with particular reference to the possibilities of them ever working together again. Paul is asked about the Let It Be film: “It’s like a documentary, it’s like a film say of a painter who comes in and sets up a canvas, puts one brush mark on, then eventually you see him finish the painting. It’s all that he goes through to finish the painting. Well, with us, someone walks in, ‘Twang, G and C, this is how the song goes’ and eventually you see us finish the record. It’s the stages, it’s a good film though, it’s interesting.”