1
- [John] OK, I'll try it, OK.
As soon as you're born,
they make you feel small
By giving you no time
instead of it all
Til' the pain is so big,
you feel nothing at all
A working class hero
is something to be
A working class hero
is something to be
(interference scrambling)
- [John] A state of war
when you're just a kid.
Well, the missing element
was the reality, you know.
The fact that I wasn't wanted,
and then my worst
fears had come true.
("Help" by The Beatles)
When I was younger, so
much younger than today
I never needed anybody's
help in any way
But now
- [Narrator] John Lennon,
one of the most widely
recognized faces in the world
from the most successful
pop group of all time.
- [Man] To me, John Lennon means
imagine, freedom, and love.
- [Woman] A visionary,
activist, pro-mankind.
- [Man] Well, he was
always the edgy one,
gave a little bit of spice.
- [Woman] John is the
one who started it all.
- [Narrator] But how many people
know the real John Lennon,
the personality formed through
his childhood experiences
and the things that happened
to him before he became famous?
(crowd screaming)
Won't you please,
please help me
(plaintive bagpipe music)
- [Narrator] During the 1800s,
Liverpool's importance
as a seaport
had already attracted large
Welsh and Irish communities.
But when Ireland's staple
food crops were destroyed
by potato blights in the 1840s,
thousands of starving
families fled to Liverpool.
Among them was John's
great-grandfather, James Lennon.
- When James Lennon arrived
in Liverpool in the 1840s,
he turned up in a place which
really was a city of plague,
known as the hospital
and cemetery of Ireland,
as hundreds of thousands of
people escaped the horrors
of poverty and
the potato famine.
(folk fiddle music)
We refer to Liverpudlians
as scousers,
and we know scouse actually
comes from Lobscouse,
a Scandinavian thing,
but scouse is clearly Irish
stew by any other name.
And that really is the key bit
of the Liverpool melting pot.
It's the Irish who gives
so much to making sure
that Liverpool is sort of
in the north of England
but not really of it.
It's somewhere
completely different.
Well, for me, Lennon
is the classic sort
of hyphenated identity that
not many, many migrants
within the United Kingdom get,
but you do have this genuine
Liverpool-Irish thing.
And I think that
Liverpool-Irish thing
is at the heart of the
fact that we're living
in the People's
Republic of Merseyside,
and it's that sort of
irreverence towards
the establishment,
which I think Lennon epitomizes.
- [John] We were a port, the
second biggest port in England,
also between Manchester
and Liverpool.
That's where all the,
the north was where
the money was made in the
1800s or whenever it was.
That was when all the brass
and the heavy people were,
and that's where the
despised people were.
We were the ones that
were looked down upon
by the southerners as animals,
and also a great amount
of Irish descent,
and blacks and Chinamen
and all sorts there.
It's like San
Francisco, you know.
And it was a very
poor city and tough.
But people have a sense of humor
because they're in so
much pain, you know?
So they're always cracking
these jokes, they're very witty.
And it's an Irish
place, you know?
It's where the Irish came
when they ran out of potatoes.
And it's where black
people were left
or workers, slaves or whatever,
and created communities.
It's cosmopolitan, and
it's where the sailors
would come home with
the blues records
from America on the ships!
(fiddle music)
- [Narrator]
Liverpool's dominance
as Britain's second
city of empire,
created thousands of jobs
in shipping and dock working.
It was in this busy world
that John's parents,
Alfred Lennon and Julia Stanley,
met before marrying in 1938.
The Stanleys were
a close knit family
from Welsh and
Irish backgrounds,
with free-spirited Julia
being one of five sisters.
- [Announcer] This is London.
You will now hear a statement
by the prime minister.
- [Prime Minister] This
country is at war with Germany.
- [Narrator] The
outbreak of World War II
in 1939, turned Alf
Lennon's life upside down.
From his peacetime role
as a ship's steward,
Alf became one of
10,000 Liverpool seamen
keeping Britain's supplies
flowing across the Atlantic.
Dangerous work indeed,
but danger was coming
closer to home.
Hitler's Luftwaffe was planning
to destroy the vital port
at all costs.
(bomb whistles)
(explosion blasts)
(glass shatters)
(explosion thunders)
- Liverpool suffered
tremendously in the blitz,
I think it was the second
in terms of casualties
after London.
Nearly 4000 people were killed.
The actual damage to
houses was extensive.
Huge places were blown up,
so there was a real
fear of bombing.
("Run Rabbit Run" by
Flanagan and Allen)
Run, rabbit, run,
rabbit, run, run, run
Run, rabbit, run,
rabbit, run, run, run
- [Narrator] On
October the 9th, 1940,
Julia Lennon gave birth
to her first child,
John Winston Lennon.
(baby crys)
- [Frank] The day
that Lennon was born,
we do have a record of
the Luftwaffe bombings.
There was no bombing raid
over Liverpool that night.
I would think at the end
of the Battle of Britain,
you could say that
Churchill was at the height
of his popularity at that point.
So, there are people
who named their children
after Winston Churchill, not
that many, it has to be said.
So run, rabbit, run,
rabbit, run, run, run
- [Narrator] The early
wartime years saw
John and Julia living
with her parents
in a small house
in Newcastle Road.
But although John's
father Alf paid the rent,
he was rarely home.
He was destined to be at
sea for months at a time.
- [Frank] Here we have
another kind of myth,
that John Lennon's father ran
away to the Merchant Navy,
but of course he was
an indentured member
of the Merchant Navy,
and the Merchant Navy was a
key part of the war effort.
We needed to keep those
merchant ships going,
bringing those
goods from America,
bringing those armaments
from America as well.
So he didn't have a choice here.
So really, he didn't run
away from John Lennon.
He just went back to doing
what he'd always done,
which was to be a member
of the Merchant Navy.
- [Narrator] During
a voyage in 1943,
Alf's luck ran out when he
left his ship in New York,
hoping to join another
and improve his prospects.
Without the right documents,
he was left high and dry
and held as an illegal
alien on Ellis Island.
His pay was stopped, and
Julia feared the worst.
Suddenly without money,
Julia was forced to seek
part time work in two pubs,
and it was here she
began a casual affair
with a soldier,
Vernon Taffy Williams.
Ever-changing
domestic arrangements
and different father figures
during John's early years
were to leave their
lasting scars.
His real father, Alf Lennon,
came home to find Julia
pregnant by another man.
Then, amid the arguments,
Julia surprised everyone
by spurning both men.
With his marriage over,
Alf took John to stay
with his brother Sydney
before returning him to
his Julia's oldest sister,
Mimi Smith, and
her husband George.
- I think what's interesting
about Lennon's
wartime experience is
that he's not evacuated.
So he doesn't go to North Wales
as many children
from Liverpool went.
("With My Ukulele in
Hand" by George Formby)
I think if we look at
Lennon's early life,
we can see that it was an
era of great austerity.
Rationing, of course,
had been brought in.
The culture of Britain
is completely different
from the culture that
comes in the 1950s.
Mostly, people
listen to the radio.
Joking is very important.
A lot of the comedians
that Lennon would've heard
in his early life,
Ted Ray, Arthur Askey,
and Tommy Handley, all
come from Liverpool.
The biggest musical
star is George Formby,
the lad from Wigan.
It would've been impossible
to envisage a figure
like Elvis Presley.
He had a ukulele
in his hands
("Don't Sit Under the Apple
Tree" by The Andrews Sisters)
Don't sit under
the apple tree
With anyone else but me
Anyone else but me
Anyone else but
me, no, no, no
- [Narrator] In June 1945,
Julia Lennon gave birth
to her illegitimate child.
But following disapproval
from her own father,
the girl was given
up for adoption.
Despite Alf Lennon
refusing to divorce Julia,
she embarked on a
new relationship with
John Bobby Dykins,
a sometimes salesman and waiter.
He was just as unpopular as
Alf in the Stanley family
and was often
referred to as Spiv.
I just got word
from a guy who heard
From the guy next door to me
- He were are in Newcastle Road,
which is in the
suburbs of Liverpool.
We normally associate
suburbs with respectability,
but in this street, there
were many comings and goings,
which were less
than respectable.
The fact that Julia
Lennon was living in sin
but also in an adulterous
relationship is significant.
- [Narrator] Julia and
new partner, Bobby Dykins,
took John Lennon to
live in a small flat
where their living arrangements
soon fueled another crisis.
News had reached Julia's
father, Pop Stanley,
that John was not only
sharing a bed with Julia,
but with Dykins, too.
Liverpool Child Welfare
Service stepped in,
and John was quickly
sent to live with Mimi
and her husband
George in Woolton.
- In 1933, protection of
children legislation ensured
that local authorities
were able to step in.
Priority was maintaining
a child's relationship
with his mother.
But the mother may
well be considered
fit to rear the child,
however, the environment
the child is being reared in
could be deemed unsuitable.
John Lennon's effective
sleeping arrangements,
would be with Bobby
and his mother.
What happened was that
he was transferred
from one Liverpool to another.
In many ways, of course,
Lennon was a migrant
within Liverpool.
His early years,
even though he maybe not
remember many of them,
were probably very formative.
And that old Liverpool,
which he returned
to through music,
through gangs, through the
youth culture of the time,
it's almost as if John Lennon
carried the old
Liverpool with him,
in his DNA, or in his early
environmental experiences.
("Mother" by John Lennon)
Mother, you had me
I never had you
I wanted you
You didn't want me
- [Narrator] With John
now living at Mendips,
Aunt Mimi contacted Alf Lennon
for financial assistance.
Alf was happy to help,
and even happier to take
John on holiday to Blackpool.
It seemed innocent enough,
but Alf had bigger plans.
- So I went to see
all the moms and dads,
I did Alf Lennon
you know, as well.
I tracked him down,
and he was working
as a washer up in a
roadhouse in Chiswick.
Alf had contact with Mimi,
Mimi allowed him to
come and see John,
and they went off to Blackpool
to stay with some friends.
And it was in Blackpool
that Alf got this idea
that he would do a runner,
and go off with John,
just the two of them,
to New Zealand.
And he told John this,
and John obviously,
that'll be fun,
going to New Zealand.
He stays away longer
than he should've done,
they all get worried
back in Liverpool,
back in Woolton, and
Julia tracks them down,
Julia arrives at the door,
and Alf said no, he's coming
with me to New Zealand,
and Julia said no,
he's coming back.
So this is a tug of
war on the doorstep,
and in the end John chooses,
and he chooses to
go back with Julia,
and then Alf disappears.
Father, you left me
I never left you
- When I was doing
The Beatles biography
during those two years,
as I was doing
interviewing one to one,
I would everything down
in a little red notebook.
John, there we are, John once,
that's the first John.
And my dad looking after me,
took me to Blackpool
to his uncle's house.
Mother going with another bloke.
Which do you want to go to?
Father or mother?
And the first one he
decided his father,
and then he decided
to go with his mother.
Then Mimi not allowed me...
Oh yeah.
So he chose to go with Julia,
but Mimi wouldn't allow
him to go with the Dykins.
Ended up with Mimi.
So that's it.
- [Narrator] Once back
in Liverpool with John,
Julia was embroiled
in another heated row
with her sister Mimi.
Goodbye
- [Narrator] The scene
took place in front of John
and his cousin Leila.
- [Leila] Mimi said to
her, and I was in the room
and Mimi will not deny it,
you are not fit to
have this child.
She wanted to take John
to live with Bobby there,
and she said, Mimi wanted him,
he was a very sweet
little boy, now very cute.
And she wanted him.
Mimi didn't have
children, she wanted,
she said you're not
fit to have this boy.
Mama don't go
- [Narrator] Julia once again,
gave John over to Mimi,
and returned to live
with Bobby Dykins.
- [John] No real
impression that my mother
actually wanted me,
because she wasn't
there, or father,
but still, one of
the hardest things is
to realize that actually
they didn't want you.
Oh, they didn't want
me, that is a fact.
I was not wanted, no
wonder I feel shitty.
Cause I couldn't explain it,
as a child, you just know that
something's not right,
something is not there.
And that is the big
trauma to experience that.
Mama don't go
Daddy come home
Mama don't go
Daddy come home
- [Narrator] After
years of upheaval
with different homes,
and different people,
John finally had some
stability in his life.
And while he still
occasionally saw his mother,
his home appeared to be settled,
in leafy Woolton,
with Aunt Mimi,
and Uncle George in Mendips.
- So Menlove Avenue
back in the 50s,
would've been tramlines
going down the middle,
a little hedgy at
the side of that.
Obviously there would
be some traffic,
but not as much
as there is today.
- [Man] It's really
busy, isn't it?
Well, it's a major
thoroughfare in Liverpool,
Menlove Avenue.
- This is Mendips.
This is where John lived
from the age of five,
mostly all the way
through to 1963,
when The Beatles
went down to London.
Most importantly for
John, was his bedroom,
and his bedroom is
the small window
above the front door,
that's where he'd
be at his thinking,
his writing, his drawing.
So, what sort of
things do you think
he would've been reading?
- Well, I know you'd
of definitely found
some of Richard Compton's
Just William books in there.
I always find it's
weird imagining him
reading these kind of books,
I've got a couple here,
William the Rebel,
maybe not so unusually.
William the Outlaw.
But in another way, it
just reinforces an idea
that we might have of Lennon
as a kind of gang leader,
cause one thing you know
about the Just William books,
is he has his own little clique,
a bunch of people
he runs around with.
And I think he had that
when he lived here,
and he ended up having it
in The Beatles as well,
you could argue.
You know, The
Beatles were a gang.
So he read stuff like this,
but also, I mean, I
guess it's well known
he loved the Lewis
Carroll books,
Alice in Wonderland and Alice
Through the Looking Glass.
So I guess that's
the kind of thing
he'd be reading.
Just think about him in
that room up there though,
I love the idea of him
listening to Radio Luxembourg,
and the thing I love
about Radio Luxembourg
is it was a stronger
signal at night.
It's almost like
this organic thing,
or a thing that's
tuned into the planet,
so when it goes dark,
the signal gets louder.
So that little room is like
a self facilitating
multimedia Center.
He's plugged into the world,
or to Europe at least,
via Radio Luxembourg,
he's reading books,
he's got a typewriter
so he's kind of
producing text as well.
And also it's a room.
It's a kind of refuge,
it's his childhood
and adolescent space, I guess.
- Well this is Vale
Road of course,
we're standing outside my house.
Just further down
the road on the left
is where Ivan Vaughan lived,
and he was the guy that
introduced Paul McCartney
to John Lennon.
Further up the road on the left
is Pete Shotton's house,
and behind me, at the back here,
Menlove Avenue, is
where John lived.
It was very much like
my own house, really.
You weren't allowed to go
in through the front door,
you had to go round the back.
Mimi was a sort of,
she was a bit of
a disciplinarian.
She was, you know,
bloody keen on John
doing the right thing.
Uncle George was a
very affable chap,
very pleasant,
quiet, good old boy.
(old jazzy music)
- [Narrator] John's
life at Mendips
was made easier knowing
he still had love
and support from
his extended family.
His Aunt Mayta, Uncle
Robert, and Cousin Stan
lived in Scotland where
he visited regularly.
While across the River Mersey,
lived Aunt Nanny, Uncle
Sidney, and Cousin Michael.
And Harry lived even
closer with Uncle Norman,
and cousins Leila
and David and Wilson.
And of course, John
still saw his mother,
and new half-sisters,
Julia, and Jackie.
("Don't Fence Me
In" by Bing Crosby)
Oh, give me land,
lots of land
Under starry skies above
Don't fence me in
- The world that
John grew up in,
and that I grew up in,
when the war finished,
we were brought it in the
way of our parents lives
which were in the 20s and 30s.
And it was a gentle,
quiet, cozy way of life.
- When the Second
World War ended,
everybody thought that
rationing would end,
but of course, because we
hadn't rebuilt our trade,
because we were still
pretty impoverished,
rationing actually went on.
So, really, the
austerity of the war
kinda continued until
the sort of early 1950s.
- We had no
television, of course.
We did have a radio.
- My big early memory
is of children.
The children coming out
into the streets again
after the war, because
they'd been locked away,
for safety reasons.
And dozens of them in
the streets playing.
- We used to go up to the
Saturday morning matinees,
the cinema, that
was really a riot.
- We had freedom.
Freedom to run.
- Well, there was four
of us in the gang.
It would be Pete
Shotton, Ivan Vaughan,
John, and myself.
I always felt that
John as the leader.
But this is the tip.
It used to be called the tip,
and it was part
of our playground.
We used to play soccer
on here, and cricket,
and it was also a shortcut
to Menlove Avenue.
- And this was the
stretch of land
they went between, Menlove
Avenue, and Vale Road.
So this is where John and
his young friends would play.
And it was just like
derelict waste ground.
See, on this photo here,
John's on his bike, obviously
having a lot of fun,
and it is just open land.
Quite different obviously
to what it's like now.
- But this is part of the
landscape of Lennon's childhood,
just as much as
Strawberry Fields was
gonna be later on.
This kind of, and
I guess at the time
looking at this photograph,
so it would've
been a very shabby,
very post-war, very
derelict sort of edge-land
between the suburbs, you know,
this kind of little
green corridor.
I mean, it's been
really tidied up now,
it's a lot greener anyway.
But this would've
been important to him.
- Oh yeah, absolutely, I mean,
one of the great things
for John in a way was,
coming from Menlove Avenue,
then he'd walk across
the tip this way,
because right over here
is Pete Shotton's house,
and that's close to
Nigel Walley's house,
and Ivan Vaughan's
house as well.
And this is where,
John must've been
five, six years old, not
long moved into the area.
And he's almost integrating
into this little gang,
but Pete is
obviously the leader,
and John wanted to get
that leadership from Peter.
So they end up here somewhere,
having a little scrap.
And at Sunday school,
Pete Shotton had realized
that John's middle
name was Winston.
And so Pete decides to
start taunting John,
and calling him "Winnie",
and that used to drive him mad.
So John ends up on top
of Pete on the floor,
but you know, it's not fists,
not punching him or anything,
but it's verbals, it's don't
you ever call me that again.
And again, we're looking
at the outlaws, aren't we?
With that Just William.
- Just William books, yeah.
And that's where they
would've reinforced
the sense of their
kind of outsiderness,
and their gang
mentality in this space
away form the adult world.
I think it would've been
reinforced in a place like this.
I'm also interested that
Winnie upset him so much.
Names will never hurt me,
but on the same effect as
sticks and stones for Lennon,
and it's interesting
it became such a gobby,
and in many ways, a
kind of unpleasant guy,
because he could
lacerate with his mouth,
he could really do a
lot of damage with it.
That's my sense of
the young John Lennon.
- But being out here in Woolton,
which is very English,
it's a very village-y feel.
There wasn't a strong accent,
John didn't have a
strong Liverpool accent.
- No, this is the thing,
Mimi wouldn't have liked that.
They called it talking
broad, didn't they?
But the accents, as so often
happened in those days,
was tidied up and
removed from young kids
a little bit like the wildness
has been knocked
out of this space
that we're in now.
(old jazzy music)
- [Narrator] After six
months at Mosspits Lane
Primary School, Mimi's
aspirations for John
saw him enrolled
in another school,
Dovedale Primary School.
- I was very lucky to go
to Dovedale Road School.
Dovedale Road County
Primaries it was called then.
It was probably one of the,
if not the best school.
One of the best schools in
Liverpool, South Liverpool.
When you're talking
about John Lennon,
although I was the year below,
and I didn't mix with him,
I was aware of him.
You knew who he was.
- It didn't take too long to
discover that he was different,
and apart from anything else,
he didn't live with
a mother and father,
and he lived with
an auntie and uncle.
That of itself is
pretty strange.
- As I remember seeing
as a wee kiddie,
being stuck up against the
wall for dinner tickets.
Now, John didn't do these
things often himself,
it was others, it was others
that did these things for him.
And he just had a charisma
as well, you know,
that not everybody, tons
of people wouldn't like it,
but there were lots of
people that were drawn to it.
- I mean, that's one class.
42, I think, boys in one class.
It would take quite
a lot of handling.
Now mostly I remember
John not so much
in the classroom in those days,
but more in the playground.
You know, John was tough,
but mostly verbally,
not physically.
He only ever would
get in a fight
if he knew he could win,
but he was very good,
I mean he had a
choice of language,
and all my best swear words
would've come from John.
- And I lost my mom,
at nine and a half, 10.
And my Aunt Mina in
Pittsburgh, America,
felt so sorry for me,
she sent me a big package
of candy, a cowboy outfit.
This business of cowboys
was into our culture,
we were all possessed
with cowboys.
And I'd got this wonderful,
wonderful Colt.45
from my Aunt Mina in America,
but foolishly took it
to Dovedale Road School.
And I must've been
galloping around, you know,
jumping around the playground,
and firing this off,
and he'd see that, John.
And he sent these two guys
who I knew were
part of his group,
and they got hold of me,
kicked me in the balls.
I didn't take the gun off
me, by God, I was ill.
I was ill for days afterwards.
And I know it was Lennon,
because these two guys
were part of his group.
("Life Is But A Dream"
by The Harptones)
Life is but a dream
Is what you make it
Always try to give
Don't ever take it
- This was a photo, the
existence of which was
unknown for about 50 years,
and it suddenly appeared and
when the teacher who had
taken the photograph,
Fred Bolt, finally died,
Fred used to lead
the school camp
from Dovedale Road
Primary School
every year to the Isle of Man.
But I think for all of us,
it was the first time
we'd been away from
home without our parents,
and you can see John
Lennon right at the front,
standing next to him
is Jimmy Tarbuck.
And the body language in the
photograph is interesting,
just behind that's me,
Michael Hill behind,
and here is Ivan Vaughan,
who was to play such
a significant part
in Beatles history
by introducing John
Lennon to Paul McCartney.
John's very much pushing
with his arms out,
he's sort of I'm the
leader, you keep back,
and I'm just happy,
the biggest grin,
and you could see me standing,
I was the tallest
boy in the school
when we left about a year later.
- Dovedale Road was
quite a sporty school.
I don't know how he came to me
to begin this boxing match,
and I don't know how John
came to be in the
same boxing match,
but he and I were
thrown together.
And John and I donned
our boxing gloves,
and into the ring we went,
intending to knock
it out of each other.
John's eyesight wasn't
particularly good,
and somehow he managed a
lucky punch on my nose,
and the minute your
nose gets punched,
your eyes water.
So there's John Lennon
with not much sight,
me, couldn't see two
feet in front of me,
running around this rope ring.
As you got near the ring,
they would push you
back into the Center.
It was the longest two
minutes of my life.
That memory stays
in my mind forever,
it's never gone away
all these years,
it still stands out.
I was in the boxing
ring with John Lennon.
("Strawberry Fields
Forever" by The Beatles)
Let me take you down
Cause I'm going to
Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real
And nothing to
get hung about
Strawberry Fields Forever
- [Paul] So, I mean we're
right around the corner
from Mendips, aren't we?
How far away are we, what?
100, 200 yards?
- Exactly, this is Vale Road,
Vale Road goes, and arches
right behind Mendips
where John lived.
And he spent a lot of time here,
cause this is where his
outlaws, his friends,
this is where he lives.
The Ivan Vaughan, Nigel
Walley, and Pete Shotton.
They all lived here,
and of course, this is
where they would come to,
because this was the rear
boundary of Strawberry Fields.
Not the gates that
we all think of.
This is where John would
come with his friends.
Most importantly was the mansion
that used to stand in the
grounds of Strawberry Field.
Now this was up on
top of the hill,
and John could actually see
from the back of
Mendips this house,
and it looked like a castle.
So he got a vivid imagination,
as we know John had.
This was a fabulous
place to come,
and to explore.
- And he would've used
the unofficial entrance,
that's why there's a
ladder here, you noticed?
- I hadn't even
noticed that one.
- They would've
bunked over the wall,
him and his mates.
- Oh, of course, cause
you've got a group
of teenage lads, a big
wall, private property.
You know, they're gonna
climb over, aren't they?
Go and see what's
there and of course,
out here, everything's real,
over there, nothing is real.
- I'm thinking, you know,
the 50s, the 60s, and the 70s
were a golden age of den
building in this country
after the war, I mean kids
had to find that space
away from the adult world,
whether they were just
children or adolescence,
they liked to find a space
that was outside of
all the ordinary rules,
and I think this must've been
that kind of space for them.
If you think about the
Just William books as well,
it's all a gang, isn't it?
And a gang mentality.
And this is where he
would've gone over the wall
with his mates.
Do you know what though?
I'm also thinking of one of
his other favorite books,
Alice in Wonderland.
And if you look
at the title page,
it's possibly the
most famous scene
in the entire book.
Which is where Alice
follows the white rabbit,
and finds herself going
down the rabbit hole
into a kind of very
inverted world.
And I guess that's
the same kind of thing
as what he's up to
here, the young Lennon,
he's finding another space
where nothing is real.
Can I just say as well,
we're in the middle of
Sandstoneopolis here.
This part of South Liverpool,
it might come as a
surprise to people
who think of Liverpool
as a kind of,
or thought of Liverpool
and The Beatles
when John was here
as a kind of grimy,
industrial, port city.
And it was that, but it's also
got its sandstone suburbs,
and I think of this
part of Liverpool
as a kind of giant
walled garden,
it reminds me of The Secret
Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett,
the Victorian sense of this
space out of the ordinary
where the children go.
Listen, I can't resist,
I think I'm gonna
climb the ladder.
- And can we see what
John would've seen
in Strawberry Field?
- I'm afraid it's gone
from nothing is real,
to real estate.
It's all been built over.
- [David] So it's all gone.
I wonder what John
would've made of that.
- [Paul] I mean it's lovely,
but it's not otherworldly.
- [David] No.
(catchy psychedelic music)
("Blueberry Hill"
by Fats Domino)
I've found my thrill
On Blueberry Hill
On Blueberry Hill
When I found you
- [Narrator] Like every other
child in primary school,
John sat the all
important eleven-plus exam
to determine which senior
school he would go to.
- [John] There's an exam
they have in England
that they hang over your head,
there's a couple of them,
but one of them is
called the eleven-plus...
And they hang it over
you from age five,
you know, if you don't
pass the eleven-plus,
which you take at 11 obviously,
then you're finished in life.
So that was the only
exam that I ever passed,
cause I was terrified.
- [Narrator] John's success
led to the next big step.
A prize place at Quarry Bank,
a boys only grammar school
close to Calderstones Park.
He also took another big step
by renewing his relationship
with his mother.
Quarry men old
before our birth
Straining each
muscle and sinew
Toiling together
Mother Earth
Conquered the rock
that was in you
Same in the Quarry
and all is done
Readily will refute him
We are the Quarry
and school our stone
Hoc Ex Metallo Virtutem
- [Don] The Quarry
Bank school motto
is Ex Hoc Metallo Virtutem.
- I recall it as out of
this quarry comes manhood.
- I mean, I look
back on five years
at a really good state
grammar school at Quarry Bank,
and that you could go
on to go to university,
and become a doctor, or
dentist, or whatever.
- [Don] Well, the school,
and first arriving here,
you're sort of in awe of it.
A beautiful building, it was
a school to aspire to get to.
- I mean, when we went from
Dovedale to Quarry Bank,
John was respectable, I
think he was quite angelic.
This was his angelic period.
But at Quarry Bank, he did
quite well in his first year,
even in the top half,
and kind of did a
progressive decline
almost accelerating decline.
And by the end of five years,
they were in the bottom form.
Had there been a form below,
they would've been in
the bottom of that one.
- [Don] They were
sort of assassin,
whether you went
into the A stream,
the B stream, or the C stream.
And both John and I,
and a few others went
into the B stream,
and sort of held our
own for a year or two,
and then we were
going down to floor C,
the rot was setting in,
and we were having more
fun than education.
- [Narrator] John's
mother Julia had always
come to visit him at Mendips.
But now John is older.
He starts to go around
by himself to her house.
Their relationship
becomes closer
thanks to their
shared love of music.
- He talked about
going to her house,
wearing these funny clothes,
putting knickers on her
head and doing silly things.
And he told me about,
as he told everybody since about
teaching him to play the
guitar with banjo chords
which didn't really work.
And the song she sang.
So he thought she was a gas.
(strange music)
Keep that up, keep up
- [Don] Everybody
listened to The Goon Show,
it was fabulous.
- And the following morning,
you could get the whole
script regurgitated
with all the funny voices.
Do you remember
their funny voices?
(funny music)
- [Michael] We all
followed the Goons,
he thrived on that
sort of humor,
and probably took
it a stage further.
- The Daily Howl,
written by John Lennon,
was just his stories about life
as it was happening all around.
His home life, the
life at school,
his imagination
running a bit wild.
(strange music)
- [Rod] If you look
at his caricatures,
they were absolutely
brilliant at age 14, 15, 16.
And he would've been
another Gerald Scarfe.
- I think the one who
could particularly
recognize his talent
with the words and pen,
and his cartoons, was Burnett,
a sort of relatively new teacher
who came to the school,
possibly when we were
in the third year,
or something like that.
He sort of encouraged John
to write more of
his humorous stuff,
and draw his cartoons.
But, you know, not in
the school time, John.
Not in the middle of the lesson.
- There was always one
teacher in each school
that would usually
be an art teacher,
or an English language or
literature kind of thing,
if it's anything to do
with writing or art,
I was okay at it.
Anything to do with
science or maths,
I couldn't get it in, you know?
But most subjects were
science and maths,
because they supposedly
don't want artists.
Even at art school they tried to
turn me into a teacher,
they tried to discourage
you from painting,
and why not be a teacher
because then you
can paint on Sunday.
- [Narrator] Idling his
way through adolescence,
and tragedy struck
John once again.
Uncle George, the man he
grown to love as his father,
died suddenly in 1955.
- [Michael] I think with John,
there's an underlying anger
at the world,
it became more evident as he
went through grammar school.
I think particularly
it came to a head
when his uncle died
at quite a young age,
John was about 14.
And that really tipped
him over the edge,
he just lost all interest.
Yeah, he just was
doing his own thing,
and I think part of
the anger was turned
against the school system.
- [John] You'll never make
it, that's what they told me.
- [TV Host] If you
didn't finish school?
- One maths master wrote...
You're on the road to failure
if he carries on this way.
(laughing)
- The real problem
with John was that
he had a dislike of authority.
If he was told he
had to do something,
then he automatically
went into smart reverse.
In our house he was
known as "That Lennon",
as in keep away
from that Lennon.
If anybody was gonna
take anything too far,
it was John.
So he was an interesting
guy to be around
from that point of view.
- Sure.
- Behavior, I think he
was considered to be,
you know, working
against serious study.
- Very bad behavior,
I mean goodness,
that was what, that
was chewing in glass?
That wouldn't be just
one occasion at all, no.
Misbehavior again, yes.
Talking in class,
talking in class.
Yes, he always was
talking in class.
- [Rod] But he was
actually getting detentions
while he was on detention
for mucking about.
- [Don] Yeah, he would.
- [Rod] Some of
these teachers...
Do you remember Fred Yule?
- [Don] Yeah.
- [Rod] He was a...
- [Don] Big, fat fella.
With one leg.
- [Rod] That's right.
He'd been a navigator
in Wellington bombers.
- [Don] Was he?
- Well, he was telling us
about how he got shot up
and lost his leg, I
think they were doing
a bombing run over Algiers,
or something like that.
- [Don] Oh, right.
- So, he wasn't gonna
stand any messing about
with John Lennon.
- No, no.
- At one time, he picked
John up by the lapels,
and held him up there,
because he was a
hugely strong bloke,
and because all the
strength from his tin leg
went into the rest
him. (chuckles)
- Yeah.
- And he just picked
John up and...
Any more of that Lennon?
- Once again, he's put
on his writer's hat
to follow up the success
of his first book
in his own right,
with another epic
of inconsequence,
A Spaniard in the Works,
a little work full of
pieces of political wisdom
such as you've just heard,
and moving poems like
The Wumberlog, or the Magic Dog.
- Whilst all the tow was sleepy,
crept a little boy from bed,
to fained the wondrous peoble
what lived what they were dead.
He packed a little voucher
for his dinner 'neath the tree,
'Perhumps a tiny dwarf or two
would share a bite with me?
'Perchamp I'll
see the Wumberlog,
the highly feathered crow,
the larfing leaping Harristweed,
and good old Uncle Joe.
He packed he very trunkase,
clean sockers for a week.
His book and denzil
for his notes,
then out the windy creep.
He met him friendly magic dog,
all black and curlew too.
Wot flew him fast
in second class
to do wot he must do.
- [Michael] And what
did people think of him?
I mean a lot of the other
people didn't like him
because he never owned
up to doing anything,
so it would be the whole class
that would be given a
detention, or held back, so.
So not everybody was a
fan of John Lennon's.
- [TV Host] Do you ever
see your old schoolmates?
- No, actually only a
few old school friends,
not teachers, no.
- Yeah.
- Most of them dislike me,
except for one or two, yeah.
So I am always glad
to remind them.
- [TV Host] Was there
ever a teacher that...
- Of their own incredible
awareness they had.
("Lost Highway"
by Hank Williams)
I'm a rolling stone
All alone and lost
For a life of sin
I have paid the cost
- And we were not
supposed to leave
the school premises
at lunchtime,
but we got in the
habit of leaving,
and going down to my house,
which was about a 10
minute bike ride away.
Down in Dovedale Road,
just along the road
from the primary school.
John's best friend,
my best friend,
so that was John
and Pete Shotton,
that's with my best
friend, Don Beatty,
the four of us were the...
The regular routine
was that they'd come by
the fish and chips,
and I'd peel off and go home,
and I was very domesticated.
I'd warm the plates up, and
make some bread and butter.
My mother was at work,
that's how we could do that.
It was innocent enough,
I mean, the most we'd do
is smoke one cigarette.
We'd eat some fish and chips,
we might have a few
hands of shoot pontoon,
but we'd listen to records,
and from 14 I did a paper round,
and John never had any money,
and never did any
work to get any.
But he was always
short of money.
But I was the one who
was buying records,
and initially jazz following
my brother's interest,
and then through things
like Hank Williams,
and John got really
hooked on Hank Williams.
And now I'm lost,
too late to pray
Lord, I've paid the cost
On the lost highway
- Now this was Easter, 1956.
We had the
opportunity to go on a
school exchange
program to Amsterdam,
and of the four
friends, as we were then
pretty close at Quarry Bank,
only three of us
went to Amsterdam.
John Lennon didn't go,
and I wish I could tell
you why he didn't go.
I discovered this
record which had only
just been released,
and I discovered
later it was like
been released about
two days before.
This record wasn't
released in the UK
for about another
six or nine months,
and it was Long Tall
Sally, Little Richard.
Just amazing.
And the young guy
in the shop told us
about the record, replayed
it, and I said wow.
And I remember thinking
wait 'til John Lennon
hears this record.
I put this on, I
told John, I said...
I've got a record here,
that immediately got
John's attention.
So they're all quiet,
I put the record on,
and this was on
a good radiogram,
with a very good bass,
and it was thumping out,
nobody at home, so
I had it on loud.
("Long Tall Sally"
by Little Richard)
Gonna tell Aunt Mary
'bout Uncle John
He claim he has the misery
but he's havin' a lot of fun
Oh baby
Yes, baby
Woo, baby
Havin' me some fun tonight
- You know, when it stopped,
the silence was defeaning.
So we all look at John, waiting
for him to say something,
and really, it's keen
to have his reaction.
No reaction, just
absolutely stunned.
He didn't know what to say,
and it was only a matter
of weeks after that
that he went out to
London, bought a guitar.
Have me some fun
Havin' me some fun tonight
(strums string)
- I don't know
what the date was,
but it must've been
earlier in 1956.
John Lennon, Pete
Shotton and myself
had a little meeting
outside the woodwork room
with the idea of forming
this skiffle group.
John Lennon had the guitar
that he didn't know
much about playing,
Pete Shotton had nothing.
So he said okay, well,
the washboard will do you.
I said I'll supply the bass,
because I'd been to the
jazz clubs in town and
knew all about Lonnie Donegan
and the skiffle group
using a tea chest for a bass.
And I said right, I
will get the bass.
Because there was
plenty in the school.
What are they gonna call us?
I said the Quarrymen,
cause that's here,
Quarry Bank High School.
John Lennon said no, he
didn't like the idea.
Pete Shotton said no, you
know John, sounds okay.
So he says, ah, all right.
So that was the Quarrymen.
So later that afternoon
when it was all quiet,
I zipped into the woodwork room,
looked around, nobody,
yep, grabbed the tea chest,
and away down this
little back lane.
John Lennon, Pete
Shotton, Eric Griffiths,
and myself, Bill Smith.
And that was the
original four Quarrymen.
("Rock Island Line"
by Lonnie Donegan)
Now I'll tell you
where I'm goin boy
Down the rock island line,
she's a mighty good road
Oh, the rock island
line is the road to ride
Yes, the rock island line
is a mighty good road
Well if you want to
ride you gotta ride it
Like you find it
Get your ticket at the station
on the rock island line
- I was sitting in the
back of my dad's car
outside St. Helen's Market,
there was a record shop there,
and the door was open.
And this fantastic sound
came out of this record shop,
and that was Lonnie
Donegan's Rock Island Line.
And it changed my life,
as it did thousands of
other people's lives.
I came into school on
the Monday morning,
and said to Eric Griffiths,
I bought a banjo yesterday Eric,
oh yes he said, do you
want to be in the group?
He knew I couldn't
play because I only
bought it the day before.
Eric showed me the chords,
we only played three chords,
so it wasn't exactly
rocket science.
("Putting On The Style"
by The Quarrymen)
Sweet sixteen goes to church
Just to see the boys
Laughs and screams
and giggles
At every little noise
She turns her head a little
And turns her head a while
But you know she told me
She's putting on the style
She's putting on the agony
Putting on the style
- [Rod] Our tea chess
bass player, Bill Smith,
for some reason, never
turned up to rehearsal,
so we needed
another bass player,
so I asked Len, who
was one of John's mates
to take over, and
about the same time,
Eric Griffiths was
coming to work on school
on the same bus as
Colin was going to work,
and found Colin
had a set of drums,
so very quickly we
acquired a drummer
and another bass player.
- [Colin] Anyone who had an
instrument could join the band.
- [Rod] John and Eric then
went to some guitar lessons,
and after lesson two,
they realized they
were getting no work,
cause all they wanted
was a few chords.
So they went and complained
to John's mother Julia,
who could play the banjo,
and she said well, if you
tune the top four strings
of the guitar like a banjo,
the banjo chords I will
show you will work,
and that's what we did.
And until Paul
McCartney came along,
John and Eric played
banjo chords all the time.
- [Colin] Once we had
two or three numbers
under our belt, or
maybe a couple more,
I mean just, where
are we gonna play?
- [Rod] This is Quarry
Bank school hall,
and I used to come in
here every morning.
The school dances were
started around '56,
there was certainly a school
dance in November '56.
What we used to do was
play the interval spot,
because you used to
have a dance band
for waltzes, quick
steps, etcetera.
And then in the interval,
then you'd have a skiffle
group in the interval,
who would play for
about half an hour,
and that was what we did.
She's putting on the
agony, putting on the style
That's what all
the young folks
Are doing all the while
And as I look around me
I sometimes have to smile
Seeing all them young folks
Putting on the style
- I remember rehearsing
in Rod's house,
and then mostly I think
it was Eric's house.
Did a bit in Julia's house.
I forgot mum's house, yeah.
- Yeah, when we were
at Julia's house,
she used to let us stand in
the bathroom to practice,
because it was all tiles,
and you get a fantastic
reverb sound, you know
- But John was a singer,
so if he didn't know a song,
he wasn't gonna sing it.
So, there was no point
suggesting something to him
that he didn't know.
- [Rod] Or didn't like.
- Or didn't like, yeah.
So, I mean he didn't sort of
say I'm the boss, or
anything like that.
But I think we just accepted it.
- We just took it for granted
that he was the singer
- Well he's a singer.
- But he's only just
part of the group,
he wasn't even called
the leader of the group.
He had his role to play, and
we all had our role to play.
- Yeah, it was all very casual.
("Blue Suede Shoes"
by Elvis Presley)
Well, it's one for the money
Two for the show
Three to get ready
Now go, cat, go
But don't you step on
my blue suede shoes
- But then of course
Elvis came along.
John wanted to be
Elvis, didn't he?
- As a role model, he outshone
Lonnie Donegan by a
million miles, Elvis.
Rock and roll was a lot
sexier than skiffle,
so when rock and
roll came along,
people realized that
the same three chords
they'd learned to play skiffle
worked for rock and roll.
- [Narrator] In 1957,
Liverpool held street parties
to celebrate the anniversary
of the granting of
the city's charter
by King John in 1207.
In Rosebery Street, Toxteth,
the Quarrymen were
booked to play.
(catchy guitar music)
- [Man] Well, Toxteth was
different in those days
because of the
multicultural aspect.
Lots of black, lots
of white people,
you had Chinese.
The party was to celebrate
the granting of the charter
by King John.
You know, we
decorated the street,
and all the kids
who are excited,
the parents were excited.
And especially when they knew
there's a band coming, the
likes of the Quarrymen.
- Charlie Roberts who
asked me to do it,
because his mom was
one of the organizers.
I'd known Charlie for some time,
and he was a drinking buddy, so.
Well we all met
up in the village,
and jumped on a bus down here,
and arrived about
mid-day, didn't we?
I think we set up in your house,
and then I was
right out the door,
around the corner
to the nearest pub.
(laughing)
Back from the pub,
and then I think
it's time to get back on the
back of the wagon, wasn't it?
- It was a nice day like today,
there was sun shining.
("Maggie Mae" by The
Vipers Skiffle Group)
Oh, Maggie, Maggie Mae
They have taken her away
And she never walked
down Lime Street anymore
Oh that judge, he
guilty found ya
For robbing a
homeward bounder
You dirty no good
robbin' Maggie Mae
- It was all acoustic.
That's why I'm the
back of the wagon,
sort of quite a distant away
from the rest of the lads.
Lennon's voice was amplified
through a small amplifier,
which I think was hanging
out the bedroom window
from what I could remember.
John never wore glasses,
and he was extremely
short-sighted,
so there was probably
a certain amount
of squinting going on.
But it wasn't
necessarily that John
was looking at the girls,
I think the girls
would pretend to
sort of look at John,
and either way, it made
the boyfriends jealous.
So, and I saw a lot of
heads going together,
and a lot of mumbling.
I leaned down, I said
to one of the guys,
what's going on there?
And he said, they're
going to get Lennon.
But John wasn't hanging
around to get got. (chuckles)
So we just all
abandoned the wagon,
and the nearest safe-haven
was Charlie's house.
So we all piled into
Charlie's house.
- It took quite a while
for it to quiet them down,
eventually Bobby
came, a policeman,
put them on the bus home.
(laughing)
Well, somebody gave me a camera.
At the time, they're just snaps.
And as you say, the
very first photos
of John playing live.
So I'm always happy to
show them to people.
Technically, they're not
good photographs maybe,
but they're a piece of
history just the same.
That dirty no
good Maggie Mae
("Come Go With Me"
by The Del-Vikings)
Dom-Dom Dom-Dom
Dom-de-doo-be
Dom Dom Dom Dom
Dom Dom-de-doo-be
Dom Dom Dom Dom
Dom Dom-be-doo-be
Dom woa-woa-woa-whoa
- [Narrator] The end of
John's long school years
came in June, 1957,
with a lengthy summer break
in the tree lined suburbs
of South Liverpool.
And the chance for the Quarrymen
to perform once more.
This time, at a fete
at St. Peter's Church
at Woolton Village.
Well I love,
love you darlin'
Come and go with me
Come home with me
- [Colin] If anybody invited
us to get up and play,
that was fairly exciting.
But you know, this was
really a big day in Woolton.
- [Len] St. Peter's Rose Queen,
there were two things.
Bonfire night, and
the Rose Queen.
It was like Carnival
in Rio for us.
- [Colin] The fact
that the church
took a chance on that, really,
I mean we were doing like
devil's music, weren't we?
Skiffle and a bit
of rock and roll.
So the fact that they
had us on the fete
in the first place,
I think was a huge
leap of faith.
We will never part
I need you darlin'
So come go with me
Whoa-woa-woa-woa
- So, Ivan Vaughan
was one year behind.
He also took the
eleven-plus and passed,
and he wanted to join up
with the rest of his friends,
so they're all at Quarry Bank.
His parents vetoed this
because they didn't want him
to be in the same
school as John Lennon.
So, he was put down to
the Liverpool Institute.
He became friends
with another boy
who was one year
younger than us,
who none of us knew, and
this was Paul McCartney.
So it was Ivan Vaughan
who on that fateful day
at Woolton, and fate
brought his friend,
his school friend,
Paul McCartney,
to St. Peter's
Church in Woolton,
and introduced him to
his other best friend
who was John Lennon.
- This is where John
Lennon met Paul McCartney
for the first time.
6th of July, 1957.
And it was a garden fete.
Now, what to you
is a garden fete?
- I'm thinking crowning
of the maid queen,
coconut shies, flower
displays maybe.
That kind of thing.
Very English.
- Yeah, an English garden party.
The Quarrymen themselves
were actually on the float.
- I love this photograph.
It's so unadorned,
so basic, so Spartan.
It's the plainest float
I think I've ever seen.
I love the details, Chadwick,
a Hollier based in Halewood.
And then you've got this kind of
tiny little attempt
at adornments,
which is just a couple
of strings of bunton
coming down the
back, it's fantastic.
- And of course,
they were at the back
of the parade, at the front
you've got a marching band,
you've got the scouts,
and the brownies,
and the youth club.
And they've got the poor
Quarrymen sat there.
You can actually see from John,
he's actually singing.
- It is so English though,
and so kind of
nostalgic as well.
I mean, even these chairs,
these kind of
cloth-backed chairs,
I remember from
school assemblies
in rooms not unlike
this one actually.
The other weird
thing about this,
it's almost like they're
sneaking something
into something very English.
You know, this is rock and roll,
this is at the cutting
edge of pop culture
for the time, not
just Americana.
It's edgy, it's unstable,
people hadn't quite figured out
what rock and roll is yet.
- Absolutely.
- And they're bringing it
on the back of a lorry,
a flatbed truck to a
village fete in Woolton.
It's an incredible kind
of clash, don't you think?
- Yeah, and the
fact that they're
bringing it to a church event.
So a church in 1957.
- Let's get the
chronology right,
it always kinds of defeats me,
the order of which
things happened.
The Quarrymen play just
over the way in a field,
that's their first gig,
but they're doing
two gigs that day,
and in the break,
in between the two,
they come over here for a
"sound check" I suppose,
and Paul McCartney
meets John Lennon,
and he's introduced
by a mutual friend.
Is that the order of events?
- That's basically it, yeah.
And this was the famous photo
that was taking on the day.
All acoustic, apart
from the microphone.
So John's at the
front, he's singing,
and staring right at the camera.
He knows his
picture's being taken.
So then before the
evening performance,
they come into this hall,
and you can see round there,
that's where the
stage used to be,
and in that corner,
there were the steps
going up to the stage,
just by that radiator.
And then Ivan brings Paul
and John and the Quarrymen
are all standing, or
sat all around here,
and they're tuning up.
Ivan brings Paul over,
and there you've got
this great meeting
of teenage lads.
Ivan again, is probably
the one who says,
well go on John, let Paul
show you what he can do.
So Paul gets John's guitar.
So the first thing he does,
is he tunes all six strings.
Now that's more than anybody
in the Quarrymen can do.
So already he's a
superior musician.
But the most impressive
thing that Paul could do,
was that he'd learned to play
a right handed
guitar upside down.
So he flips the
guitar upside down,
and starts playing and
singing 20 Flight Rock,
by Eddie Cochran.
And in a way, when
we go back to looking
at this group of friends,
and that's what they were,
a group of friends,
having a bit of a laugh.
Suddenly from this
point, from this meeting,
the group becomes more serious.
And within five months of this,
most of the members of
the Quarrymen are gone,
and George Harrison's
in the group.
So by the end of 1957,
you've got John, Paul,
and George together
in a group, and that is
your genesis of The Beatles.
- Well, good word.
I was thinking of a
kind of creation myth,
because we've got to recognize
this is a sight of pop
cultural pilgrimage,
people beat a path to
this church hall door.
And you Wold
definitely subscribe
to this kind of idea of
The Beatles beginning here.
I mean, there's something
wonderfully neat about,
there often is with The Beatles,
but there's something
wonderfully neat
about an audition here being
the genesis of The Beatles,
and then an audition
which Lennon
hope they'd passed
on the rooftop
of Appleland Quarters
at the end of the 60s,
and that kind of
bookends their career,
that's the beginning
and the end.
I mean, that's why
people come here,
because they want to
be where the two met,
and where the group began.
- [David] This is where
The Beatles started.
- And we're standing right
on ground zero of Beatles.
("20 Flight Rock"
by Eddie Cochran)
Up on the twelfth
I'm ready to drag
Fifteenth floor
I'm startin' to sag
Get to the top, I'm
too tired to rock
(catchy jazzy music)
- [Narrator] With
more than a little
assistance from Mimi,
John was enrolled at
Liverpool College of Arts,
in September 1957.
Situated in Hope Street, next
to the Liverpool Institute,
the college opened
up a rich source
of new friends and experiences.
- Yes, a lot of poets, artists,
this was, I suppose as far
as Liverpool is concerned,
a sort of bohemian area.
- I love the place, the
building is so beautiful,
this lovely classical
old sandstone building.
Fabulous high ceiling
rooms to work in,
it was just fabulous,
I loved everything about it.
- [Rod] It was full of students,
virtually every day,
doing something,
whether they were
doing dress design,
or lithography or pottery.
- [Helen] Oh, this is June.
She was the resident
model for the art school.
But she's worked
for donkeys, yes.
She was first at
the Slade in London,
and then she came up to
Liverpool in the 50s.
- I spent 50 years here.
9:30 in the morning
'til nine at night.
Oh yeah, these were
the academic days
when you had to draw.
That was the end of the 50s,
and when John Lennon
arrived, I was sitting there,
and he looked at me,
and then he went out.
Came and put a coat
on and came back,
and introduced himself.
Said he was John Lennon
and he enrolled to do...
An art course, and
he'd be drawing me,
and would that be all right?
- It was the first
day in college,
and he came over
to me and said...
Are you the one that painted
Lonnie Donegan? (laughs)
And I said yeah!
And so we were friends
evermore after that.
That was the stamp of
our friendship (laughs).
These are two sketches that
I did of John, 1958-ish.
A bit scruffy, I
think he was wearing
checked shirts in those days,
tight trousers, pulled in.
Either old chords or something.
Tony Curtis in the
front, D.A. at the back.
Buddy Holly glasses, he was
very spotty at the time.
He certainly wasn't a scouser.
No, he wasn't.
And obviously he'd had quite
an informed home education
from Mimi because he
was quite eloquent
in his language,
and he was bright.
But he was lazy.
- He was never quiet
when he came in.
He'd come into the
room and start,
he'd say anything that
came into his head,
and he'd tell you
everything of what happened
the night before, or,
he never came in as I know,
and sat down quietly with
his easel and his drawing,
and got on with things, you see.
If the teacher was
there, you know,
he was told to leave or get on
with his drawing, you see.
- Yes, well, okay.
Life class was always
starting off quite seriously,
and the master would
be in the corner
smoking his pipe,
and we just got on
with drawing June,
or painting June,
whichever it was.
And when it got really silent,
all of a sudden John's
head would pop up
behind his easel.
The nostrils would
start flaring,
and I knew, you
just knew something
was going to happen then.
So he'd sort of start
laughing like a hyena,
or leaping about, and
then we were just in
total hysteria, and it was
like this every single time.
One way or another.
And the teachers,
the profs got a bit
fed up with him, and then
just ignored him really.
Most of them ignored him.
But he did disrupt
the class quite a bit.
Well, these drawings
came into my hands,
and he gave me this
book of drawings,
and a few loose sheets as well.
And I couldn't believe it,
but I've treasured
them ever since.
Until I sort of had to sell them
to somebody in the end.
These are just prints,
so I could remember
them for myself.
So, it was an exercise book
when he was still
at Quarry Bank,
and these were characters
who were either
tutors at the school,
or they were friends.
And this was the Latin
teacher in the school,
I think his name was Mr. Corbin,
or something like that.
Nicotine, the Irish Madman.
They're so funny,
they're so humorous.
- Well, John Lennon
never did much art here,
you know, he was always
interested in the theater,
he was always interested
in going to these places
like the Pavilion, and
the Empire Theater,
and all that.
And then the next day,
actually very funny,
he'd come in and do
these impersonations
of these stars he liked.
- The drawings, I
mean they were miles,
and miles of them
all over the place.
He never stopped drawing.
He'd make up a song as
well about any subject.
People walking past,
he'd make a song up about them.
If there's something
wrong with them.
Especially when Paul and
George came in for lunch,
we'd creep up to Arthur
Ballard's painting room,
and they would play all
sorts of ongoing music,
Buddy Holly stuff,
and Chuck Berry,
and all these things.
And singing American
stuff, really.
And then they'd play some
of their own little songs
and funny songs.
Oh, yes.
He used to sing
George Formby a lot.
(laughs)
Believe it or not.
That was always the finale,
I'm Leaning On A Lamp Post.
(laughs)
And we'd just sit
there doing our work,
preparation, whatever we'd do,
we never just sat
there and gobbed,
but we just listened to them.
And they'd sing, and
it was just wonderful.
- Well, he was
loud, he was noisy.
And he'd decide who
he wanted to talk to,
and who he would
leave strictly alone,
which is really a
Liverpoolian characteristic.
- [Helen] People loved
him or they hated him.
And the ones that liked
him, loved him, yeah.
- I'm sure that his
bombastic attitude
a lot of the time
was to cover up
something vulnerable in himself.
Because, you know, he
played the hard man.
("Julia" by The Beatles)
Half of what I
say is meaningless
But I say it just
to reach you Julia
Julia
- [Narrator] John's carefree
time as an art student
was cut short when fate
knocked on the door once again.
With news that his mother
Julia had been knocked down,
killed by an off duty policeman
near John's home
on Menlove avenue.
It was a shattering blow.
- John's mother, Julia,
was a very happy person.
Always laughing, joking,
she was really a
terrific person.
I was going around
to John's house,
this was in the summertime,
like we often did, you
know, on a daily basis.
And when I reached the gate,
Aunt Mimi was at the gate,
with Julia at the side.
And Julia said oh
John's not here,
but you can have the pleasure
of walking me down
to the bus stop.
I said yep, that would be great.
Well, we got to the
end of Menlove Avenue,
and we said our goodbyes,
and I peeled off to the right,
she crossed over the first half,
and at that point
I heard a thump,
and I just saw Julia
flying through the air,
and I thought Jesus Christ.
I rushed over, and she
was laying there, I mean,
it was obvious she was dead.
I could see her hair
fluttering over her face
in the breeze, and I
was just devastated.
Julia
- Somebody rushed over to us
and said John's mom's died.
And he was very, very silent.
He never spoke, he
never spoke to me.
And he never
mentioned his mother.
And I think he bottled
everything inside,
it was very sad, we were
all very sorry for him
when we heard the
circumstances of it.
- And he was going along
all these corridors,
saying his mother
had been killed,
I mean, he was in
a terrible state.
Terribly upset, nobody
could calm him down,
and I remember him
standing, looking
down that lift shaft.
I came out, and I was
looking down that lift shaft,
and I thought what the
hell is he gonna do?
- And I always said
to myself afterwards,
well, you know, if I
would've stayed with her
50 seconds more, it would
never have happened.
And John was upset about it.
He was never the same with me
for quite some time afterwards.
You know, he went into a shell.
It really hit him hard.
- I didn't notice any
change in him at all.
He either hid it very well,
or I just didn't see.
- But I can't remember
him going into
a mourning sort of mode.
Just being rather quiet for
a few weeks, that's all.
I mean he was still
pranking and jumping about,
and making everybody laugh.
He never stopped. (laughs)
Julia
Julia
("Rave On" by Buddy Holly)
We-a-he-a-hell, the little
things you say and do
Make me want to
be with you-ah-ou
Rave on, it's
a crazy feeling
And I know it's
got me reeling
When you say I love you
Rave on
- Cynthia was a very,
very serious worker.
She was very talented,
and she would've made also
a great graphic artist.
And then one day,
she said to me, do you know
who I'm going out with?
But don't tell anybody.
I said who, she said
John, John Lennon.
I said Cyn, what
do you see in him?
(laughing)
She said oh, I see a lot in him.
And that was it.
And I said well, I
think he's fabulous,
but I wouldn't of
thought he's your type.
- [Cynthia] It's
his vulnerability,
it's his chic, it's the
fact that he bared his soul.
Foolishly, stupidly,
but he bared his soul
for everybody else to see.
- [Narrator] Cynthia Powell
later became John's first wife,
but they had a
troubled relationship.
- John was controlling,
he's a controlling person
if you got half the chance,
and was a bully if he
got half the chance.
And, you know, he
beat up Cynthia,
and there's other girls he
was physically cruel to.
So John in their
marriage was doing that,
and was not very kind
or nice to Cynthia.
I used to be cruel to
my woman I beat her
- It's in his songs.
What's that one, about
I was cruel to my woman.
John wrote those lines in about
I'm cruel to my woman,
and he's cruel to lots of women.
- [Narrator] Later,
in The Beatles years,
John's attitude toward women
would surface again
at Paul McCartney's
21st birthday party.
Come on baby, let me
buy the wedding ring
- This house belongs
to Paul's auntie.
Just up over the way from me,
it was Billie J. Cramer,
and this girl called Rose.
So Lennon walks down
and he sees her,
and he's shouting at her,
and she goes blah, blah,
and he goes like nah,
straight on the girl's bosoms.
So she just gives
him a backhander,
I saw it, a backhander.
She had every right to.
She smacked him, get
off me, you know.
And he goes like that,
and he gives her
a full right hand.
Bang.
And then she fell on the floor.
People had led him off.
(guitar music)
- [Narrator] As well
as Cynthia Powell,
another art student became
a significant figure
in John Lennon's life.
Stuart Sutcliffe.
- While Stuart
wasn't in my group,
he was a year above
with Rod Murray.
And he was always in
the painting department,
because he was a
very good painter.
And he was a very quiet fellow,
a lovely person, very,
very good painter
and took his work
very seriously.
And all the masters thought
he was going to be great.
I think some of them
were a bit upset
when he became a musician.
- Stuart and John
got on very well.
A lot of it because of,
not just their
interest in fine art,
but in music, they had the
same sort of taste in music.
- [Helen] You know,
I think John admired
the talent of Stuart,
and he liked people that had
a calming influence over
him, I think at times.
Like Cynthia, and Stuart maybe,
and various other friends.
- I mean, John Lennon
was told to leave here
because he didn't
do the art history.
- [Helen] I mean, usually
people that weren't
that interested left,
or were told to move on
after the first year
and a half or so.
And I think John
was told to move on,
because he just
didn't do anything.
- [Narrator] At college,
it was fast becoming clear
that John's real
passion was for music.
While John still
had no clear vision
of how to make music pay,
he was desperate enough
to do laboring work
to buy his first
electric guitar.
Clubs like the Casbah
Coffee Club in West Derby
were opening all over the city.
- I was here on the
night it opened.
As we came in, the
band that would play
were called the Quarrymen.
They'd moved on from
the skiffle music,
these guys were playing
electric guitars.
Of the original members
of the Quarrymen,
there was only John
Lennon who was here.
Paul McCartney joined,
Paul had brought in George.
I mean George could play
both of them off the stage.
He was tolerated as a youngster
simply because he was so good.
Let her go boy, go, go
(catchy guitar music)
- The move to
Gambier Terrace here,
the flat was really too big
just for Stuart and myself,
and Stuart said to John,
would he like to
share the bedroom?
In the kitchen, we had a
shelf each for our food.
Including John.
There was hardly anything
ever in John's shelf,
but things used to
disappear from our shelves.
Like, your tin of
beans was missing.
But it would turn up again
a couple of days later
when he'd done a
bit of shoplifting.
I can't remember then
whether they were called
The Silver Beatles, The
Beatles, or something else.
They were going through
a flux of names,
and they practiced
in the back room.
("Boppin' The Blues"
by Carl Perkins)
All my friends are
boppin' the blues
It must be goin' round
All my friends are
boppin' the blues
It must be going round
- They were bums.
That's all they were, bums.
You know, we all were.
- But the Beatles,
they weren't like
ordinary rock bands.
They were a sort
of a bit more arty,
a bit more arty
like studenty types,
bohemian, you know.
- [Rod] John and Stuart
got closer and closer.
John insisted on Stuart
being bass guitarist.
- They didn't have a drummer,
and they offered Johnny the job,
he turned them down.
They were better
then, weren't they?
They weren't a band until
Pete Best joined up.
- And then they were
offered this job,
Hamburg, on condition that
they had a permanent drummer.
Peter got the job,
and a few days later,
he was on the boat.
(catchy music)
- [Narrator] In August 1960,
John and his fellow
Beatles squeezed into a van
alongside their
manager, Allan Williams,
and his business
partner, Lord Woodbine,
for a date with
destiny in Hamburg.
("Real Wild Child"
by Buddy Holly)
Well, I'm just out of school
Like I'm real, real cool
Gotta dance like a fool
Got the message that
I've gotta be a wild
I'm a wild one, oh
yay, I'm a wild one
Gonna break loose
Gonna keep a-movin' wild
Gonna keep a-swingin'
Baby, I'm a real wild child
- [Narrator] Pitching
up three days later
at the seedy club in
Hamburg's notorious
Red Light area, the five Beatles
hit the ground running,
with a unique sound that
soon pulled in the punters.
Including a group of
German art students.
- When I came in
there, in that place,
I walked down the stairs,
it was full of those leather
jacketed clad rockers,
with those Elvis...
And then those rock
and roll music,
The Beatles on stage are
the first guy I noticed
who was really
the quintessential
rocker at the time,
because they also
played at the theater
in black leather jackets.
The Beatles looked
exactly like the audience,
you know, with the
Elvis do and all that,
and it was John Lennon.
I mean really, like, Jesus,
he looked like Marlon Brando
in the wide run at the time.
Well I'm a real wild one
And I like wild fun
In a world gone crazy
Everything seems hazy
I'm a wild one
Wild, wild child
- We went every
day, every evening,
because everything else
was boring in Hamburg.
I never went to a
Jets concert again,
I only went to this
rock and roll club,
and right away the
very first night
we met The Beatles because
we looked so different.
I know that Stuart was the first
who came to our table,
and letter John and Paul came.
Now Paul was obviously
very nice, and kind.
I wasn't at all uncomfortable
in Paul's presence,
because he was a charmer,
and he was, all the
time I had knew him,
he was like that.
But of John, I felt
very uncomfortable.
Because he made
sarcastic remarks.
At first he said something
about my clothes,
but it was clothing
he had never seen
the green jacket or whatever,
or sweaters I had.
And I said well I
bought everything I wear
in Paris, you know?
And then I said to soften it,
well, it's on the flea market.
And I remember then he
made immediately fun
as if he put a flea
from my jacket to Paul,
and Paul made this.
They had those
kind of reactions.
I didn't know the Marx
Brothers at the time,
I had never seen the
Marx Brothers then,
they had this kind of make
fun of everything, you know?
(catchy guitar music)
- [John] I've been on
pills since I was 17.
Since I became a musician.
The only way to
survive in Hamburg,
to play eight hours a night,
was to take pills, like
the waiters gave you it.
Pills and a drink.
I was a fuckin' drop
down drunk in art school,
I was a pill addict,
just before help where
we turned out to park,
and we'd drop drink,
simple as that.
I've always needed
a drug to survive.
- When he got stoned,
he used to foam at the mouth.
And he was sitting on stage,
and he'd sit on his amp,
you know, and he'd just
have it full blasted on.
Going doing, doing, doing,
hitting the strings, you know.
And Horst Fascher was
a odd lad in Germany,
he called, he said...
Hey John, do me a favor.
Can you turn that up?
And John goes...
(slurring words)
He said you touch that again,
he said and I'll cut you to
bleed in tin, you bastard.
He said get off the stage.
- And I remember the
day there was John,
Paul, and George, and I,
we four were sitting there.
And he was specifically
talking about my haircut.
But then he did it like this,
oh no like this, in
front of Paul's hair,
and then he had a comb,
and put it like that
in front of Paul.
And Paul immediately
played the act,
like Marx Brothers, and did
the Nazi salute, you know?
Immediately like
Hitler, you know?
And so that was typically
John, you know? (chuckles)
- They were actually
a very poor band
compared to the rest of them.
But when they went to Hamburg,
six hours a night,
six days a week,
they honed their act together,
and they came back...
- [Johnny] That's what
made us all, you know.
- Absolutely fantastic.
- If you can already see,
most of my photos
are all showing John.
And that means that I was
most fascinated by him
as a photographer.
You know, you see how he looks,
he's like the cool
rocker, you know?
20th century.
- When he held his
guitar up here,
almost like a Ted.
He was like a teddy
boy on the stage.
And he always fancied himself,
and he couldn't knock
a hole in a wet echo.
- Say that again.
- But he also fancied himself.
A bit of a hard case, you know.
- John Lennon was
more aggressive
than any of the other
Beatles in any way,
without being in your face
or threatening in any way.
It was just the way
that he dealt with,
and his authority.
- Like sometimes,
you couldn't avoid
the fact that he was there.
And then other times,
he'd go into his quiet moods.
- They decided when they
were 16, 17, 18 I think,
that they were gonna be
professional musicians.
And when they came
back from Germany,
I think they were
further along that road.
They'd experienced a lot
of success in Germany.
They'd come together
both musically,
I would think as
a group of people,
they were tighter
together as well.
You
Are the one
- [Narrator] Now within
touching distance
of fame and fortune,
The Beatles and their new
manager, Brian Epstein,
met up at Hamburg Airport.
But something was
terribly wrong.
Stuart Sutcliffe was missing.
Astrid broke the news.
Stuart, barely 21 years old,
had died from a
brain haemorrhage.
The specter of death
had returned to haunt
John once again.
- John just freaked out.
He completely freaked out,
he freaked out as far as
just laughing until tears came.
You are my life
Cause, cause, cause you
- The fact that all of us,
I liked Stuart as well.
It was horrible.
It was really bad, you know.
He was the James
Dean of the band.
You talk about looks,
he was the best
looking of the band.
But he was with them.
He wasn't with them long,
but what he did
do was important.
- [Narrator] With Brian Epstein,
came another rapid change.
Out went Pete Best,
and The Beatles
wild, leather clad image,
and then came Ringo, and
clean cut boys in suits.
Lennon's days as a rock
and roll punk were oven.
- You know, I moved to
Paris in September '61.
John and Paul came to visit me
just after I had
been there one month.
Among other things,
they wanted to have
the same kind of clothes,
take me to your flea market,
it was one of their
biggest desires.
They asked me to cut their
hair like I had mine.
So The Beatles, typically,
what was then known as
a mop top, you know?
- Personally speaking, the
leather jacket era, '61,
that was when
Liverpool and the fans
saw The Beatles as
nobody else in the world
ever saw them.
They were pure rock and roll.
And the leather jackets
made them look even better.
And it was when
Epstein changed them,
and he groomed it out of them,
I just think they lost
a bit of earthiness,
a little bit of the
rock and roll stuff,
I've always felt that.
But the point is, you
can't argue with the fact,
it worked.
- [John] We were four guys that,
I met Paul, and said do
you want to join my band?
You know, and then
George joined,
and then Ringo joined,
we were just a band
who made it very,
very big, that's all.
Our best work was never
recorded, you know.
In Liverpool, Hamburg,
and around the dance
halls, you know?
And what we generated
was fantastic,
where we played straight rock,
and there was nobody
to touch us in Britain.
But as soon as we
made it, we made it.
The edges were knocked off.
Brian put us in
suits and all that,
and we made it very, very big,
but we sold out.
And the music was
dead before we even
went on the theater
tour of Britain.
We were feeling shit already.
- [Narrator] The Beatles made it
as Lennon promised they would.
Their music changed the world,
changed our society, and
entertained millions.
But even at the
height of their fame,
John's troubled childhood
was never far behind.
He became a father in 1963,
when his first wife, Cynthia,
gave birth a son, Julian.
But in a repeat of
his own upbringing,
John was an absent father.
He also struggled
with the pressures
of being a Beatle,
and what became one of
his most famous songs,
was originally
written as a ballad,
a cry from the heart.
When I was younger
So much younger than today
I never needed
anybody's help
In any way
And now these days are gone
I'm not so self assured
Now I find I've
changed my mind
I've opened up the doors
Help me if you can,
I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate
you being round
Help me get my feet
back on the ground
Won't you please
Please help me
- I would say he was
a very witty guy,
very friendly,
comical, artistic.
- If you didn't know him at all,
he looked like
somebody you probably
wouldn't want to know.
An aura of don't
come too close to me,
or I'll butt ya, or
something like that.
If he was a friend,
I think you could rely
on him wholeheartedly.
- But I look back on five years,
and it was just one laugh,
after laugh, after laugh.
It was great, we thoroughly
enjoyed our schooling,
we laughed our way through.
And this was mostly John Lennon,
who was at the bottom.
It was always good fun.
- Yeah, I mean, a
bit of a naughty boy.
But a lot of talent.
- Actually, one of
the reasons John
did so much charity
back later on,
is to make up for being
such a little bastard
when he was younger.
- I think he was
determined to succeed,
and I think he'd chosen,
inside, he'd chosen the route
that he was gonna succeed,
he was gonna be a star.
- He was the leader
of the best pop group
that Planet Earth has ever had,
and we'll be singing
Beatles songs
for as long as we've got
the breath in our body
to hum the tunes.
- The world knew there was
some greatness about him,
and he'd make it in
the world somehow,
because he was just so
unusual as a character.
He couldn't just go unnoticed,
he had a presence.
But now these days are gone
I'm not so self assured
- [Narrator] For John Lennon,
life before fame was never easy.
Somehow, he lived through
most of World War II,
austerity, and
family difficulties.
He experience death
at first hand,
with the loss of his
father figure Uncle George,
and his great friend,
Stuart Sutcliffe.
But most of all, with the
loss of his mother, Julia.
It was his childhood
and adolescence
that shaped the man
the world came to know.
John Lennon.
Won't you please, please
Help me
- [John] I mean, it's just
a fact that that's what
makes you what you
are, childhood.
There's no getting away from It.
("Help!" by The Beatles)
Help
I need somebody
Help
Not just anybody
Help
You know I need someone
Help
When I was younger, so
much younger than today
I never needed anybody's
help in any way
But now these days are gone
And I'm not so self assured
Now I find I've
changed my mind
And opened up the doors
Help me if you can,
I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate
you being round
Help me get my feet
back on the ground
Won't you please,
please help me
And now my life is changed
In oh so many ways
My independence seems
to vanish in the haze
But every now and then
I feel so insecure
I know that I
just need you like
I've never done before
Help me if you can,
I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate
you being round
Help me get my feet
back on the ground
Won't you please,
please help me
When I was young, so
much younger than today
I never needed anybody's
help in any way
But now these days are gone
And I'm not so self assured
But now I find I've
changed my mind
And opened up the doors
Help me if you can,
I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate
you being round
Help me get my feet
back on the ground
Won't you please,
please help me
Help me, help me
Ooh