In a lot of Harrison Alliance fanzines I was elated to find an interview with Jimmy Lyford, one of the boys who was always said to have been one of the Apple Scruffs. I was especially excited about finding this interview because I had read that he sadly had passed away in the 1980s. From what I understand Jimmy was one of the last people to join the Apple Scruffs and he joined after the Beatles had broken up. He was sort of more on the tail-end of it all and that is why he isn't as heard of as the girls.
This interview was given by Zig Montgomery (I always love his photos and I am so thankful that he did this interview). You can find it in the May 1978 issue of the Harrison Alliance.
This interview with former Apple Scruff Jimmy Lyford took
place in his apartment, and in the penthouse suites of a well-established law
firm in San Francisco.
On the walls of his livingroom are some photos of himself
and one of Paul and Linda McCartney, all taken by photographer Annie Leibovitz.
Behind me is a beautiful 3x5 black and white painting of
McCartney that Jimmy painted in college.
Besides “Beatling” as Jimmy calls it, he is a managing
assistant in a law firm. His past
adventures include being an extra in the film, “The Towering Inferno,” and he
has an art degree in Ceramic Sculpture.
His hobbies now are photography, collecting ugly postcards, “famie
hunting,” and rising Venus flytrap plants.
Zig: What exactly was
the Apple Scruffs Unlimited club?
Jimmy: It was a group
of mostly English Beatle fans that apparently had lots of spare time to sit it
out eight days a week on Apple’s steps.
Part of the Apple Scruff duties were to stop other fans from
photographing the Beatles whenever the Beatles didn’t want their photo
taken. We were a self-appointed security
force. We protected the Beatles from
everyone except ourselves! (laughter)
Zig: how
club-oriented were the Apple Scruffs, and how many members weren’t English?
Jimmy: First of all,
we weren’t club-oriented at all. We did
make buttons and membership cards but really it was just an inside joke of
sorts. Later on when the Beatle
Monthlies stopped being created, Apple Scruff monthlies surfaced to fill the
void. Most of the Scruffs were English
as I said before, but besides myself, there was a girl from Texas and another
from Italy…perhaps one or two from another galaxy.
Zig: how long were
you an Apple Scruff?
Jimmy: I became a
member in 1970 and stopped scruffing in 1973.
Like Lennon said, “the circus has left town, but we still own the site.”
Zig: Did all the
Scruffs become good friends?
Jimmy: Within the
group of us, we all had special friendships.
I’m still in contact with two.
One is presently working for Elton John, although she worked for Apple
up until the day it closed on May 2, 1975.
Zig: You actually got
to work inside Apple, didn’t you?
Jimmy: yeah, we were
cheap labor! Whenever Apple needed help,
they’d always pull a Scruff in from the steps to help out. Even once inside, chances of seeing one of
the Beatles was less than being outside, but you know that yourself, Zig, after
working at MPL. That was you, wasn’t
it? I sometimes get scrambled with which
fans did what.
Zig: Yeah, Madeleine
S, Jim W., and I did some mail work for Sue at the Fun Club when it was in Soho
Square. It was a fabulous experience.
Jimmy: That reminds
me of the Scruff’s work. We were
compensated by presents of unreleased albums, food, and first crack at the
garbage cans.
Zig: Where did the
name Apple Scruffs come from?
Jimmy: Well, in
England, casual dress is considered scruffy.
Since we were always at Apple, we were Apple Scruffs.
Zig: When did you all
first hear that George wrote a song about the group?
Jimmy: I wasn’t there
unfortunately, but one night George at EMI on Abbey Road recording all night
long and he kept peeking out of the letter slot in the door until most of the
fans gave up the wait. The remaining
lucky ones (the Scruffs) were invited in to hear the final mix of the
song. Everyone cried.
Zig: did you see much
of the other Apple artists?
Jimmy: Yes, of
course, all of them. George H. and
Jackie L., and Badfinger’s Pete Ham were there a lot. Pete Ham was really nice to us. We generally ignored the other artists
because after all, we were there to see the fab four. We were curious of Paul’s brother because he
too came to Apple a lot. We didn’t
really car about Mary Hopkin at all.
After sitting day after day, one gets to not caring about anything
except food and sleep.
Zig: What were the
Beatles’ attitude about the Scruffs?
Jimmy: It changed
from day to day. We had George and Ringo
wearing Apple Scruff badges and later
made them pay up their dues to the club (Laughter as Jimmy breaks into a flat
version of “It don’t come easy).
Zig: What do you
think of the Beatle fanzines/clubs that are out now?
Jimmy: Some are dead
and some are living, and what I mean by that is some are wrongly in it only for
the money; some are just prostituting the Beatles’ art. I like the Harrison Alliance a lot because
its newsletter booklets remind me of the Apple Scruff monthlies. I imagine that it would be very difficult to
operate a club on just one of the Beatles…and the most reclusive one at that.
Zig: What is one of
your fondest memories as a Scruff?
Jimmy: The private
showing of “Magical Mystery tour”
Zig: Where was that
held?
Jimmy: It was in the
screening room of Apple on the fourth floor, across from Ringo’s office. The room was filled with lots and lots of
film containers. I was told that every
little bit of Beatles on film from new reports to movies were in that room. The projectionist was one of the directors of
“Let it Be.” There I sat with one other
Scruff and a couple of Apple employees watching the original uncut version of
MMT, when Ringo came and peeked into the room to find out where all the loud
music was coming from. I think the
volume was beyond full blast. There were
four green chairs in the room meant from you know who and I sat in what was
Paul’s seat. Another thing I remember
was Ringo’s New Year’s Eve Party (1971).
There were a lot of famies coming into Apple looking for drivers to take
them to Ringo’s home. I remember seeing
Lulu, Laurence Harvey, the Who, Elizabeth Taylor, Charlie Watts, and other
various English entertainers arrive. We
Scruffs were having a part of our own, and when we were sufficiently
swanked-out, we decided that it was time to crash Ringo’s party, but we never got
our faces off the steps.
Zig: What is your
“Strawberry Beatles Forever” all about anyway?
Jimmy: It is the name
that I gave my Beatles memorabilia collection and a limited membership fanzine
that I send out free to certain friends and fans from time to time. Last year I had my first annual “Strawberry”
awards for various categories. The
Harrison Alliance received the award for “Best Beatle Club Newsletter for
Layout.”
Zig: How did Annie
Leibovitz get around to snapping a photograph of you, Jimmy?
Jimmy: Well, Rolling
Stone magazine used to use item from my collection from time to time to
illustrate various stories regarding the Beatles. During the session for the story “Strange
Rumblings in Pepperland RS September 1974), I sort of ended up modeling some of
the items. The photos were taken very
late at night, which is the reason that I look so burned out. Annie seems to like a certain realism in her
photographs. The shots of me with my
Apple watch were also taken that night to be later used in the Rolling Stone
article about the 260 million dollar reunion offer (RS November 1976). Oh yeah, those were my ankles in the Beatles
sneakers under the “Forty Questions your mother should know” in the “Strange
Rumblings” story. In case you were
wondering where the photo sessions took place, it was in Annie’s loft
studios. When I stop and think about it,
I guess that I consider myself to be very lucky to stand in the same place that
so many of the Rolling Stone cover story rock stars have stood to be photographed. I think the most impressive item that I saw
in Annie’s studio was a huge print of John Lennon that was taken by Annie
during Lennon’s primal therapy period.
At any rate, I am very proud of the huge print that I have of me by her
in my living room. I think the watch,
however, make the whole photograph worthwhile.
Zig: How would you
sum up your life so far as a Beatle fan?
Jimmy: So far, so
good. All in all I have settled down
quite a bit, but I certainly enjoy everything still. I have a good job and a home to maintain now,
so I don’t have the time that I used to and believe me, it took a great deal of
patience, time and stamina to be a Scruff.
I consider myself an adult Beatle fan now; I was a teenage Apple Scruff.
Fantastic, fascinating story, thanks for typing this up Sara! I love how the Magical Mystery Tour screening, and I love that Pete Ham (who I love) was nice to the scruffs! And also, I love how everyone cried when they heard "Apple Scruffs", it makes me cry, even now, not 'shamed to admit it!!
ReplyDeleteI played in beatlemania in 1979 at the orpheum theater.Jimmy gave me 9 photos of the beatles,featuring Paul,Ringo,George,sadly no john.I got the chance to be john,as an understudy with the show for 8 weeks! The group Rain has Joey and Ralph that I played with.It was alot of fun,and I still have Jimmys Beatle photos.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like Jimmy was a really fun person to be around. I am sure that playing John for 8 weeks in Beatlemania was an experience! Thanks for share with us. Peace and Love!
DeleteSara