"John Lennon at 80"

 John Lennon at 80

Written by John Meagher

Irish Independent 

October 8, 2020

    Terrie Coleman-Black remembers it like it was yesterday. On Thursday, November 7, 1963, she went to school as normal, but she could hardly keep her mind on her lessons. She was going to have a life changing experience that night, she just sensed it.

     Her favorite band, The Beatles, were making their Irish concert debut. A few weeks before her mother had got the bus from Rathgar into Dublin City Center to join the hordes queuing for tickets outside the Adelphi Theater on Middle Abbey Street.

     Much to Terrie's joy, Mrs. Coleman managed to get two, and so it was that 14-year-old Terrie and her older brother Bill got to see the band that had grabbed her attention for more than a year. It would be an occasion to forever cement both the Beatles and John Lennon in Terrie's life.

     Now 71, she says, she listens to the music they made every single day, and never gets bored. She recalls the sense of excitement that evening  57 years ago.  "When the curtain went up, the screaming really started, and it stayed that way for as long as they played," she says, "But what I remember most was that they looked exactly like their photos, and when I could actually hear them play, they sounded just like they did on the records."

     Terrie and Bill stood on the side of the stage where John Lennon was standing. She hardly knew him at that time, but the then 23-year-old would be a part of her life forevermore. "That love of the Beatles never left me," She says," I listen to them all the time, and I never get bored. The music was so great, as was John solo albums. I love Double Fantasy."  That was an album Lennon and his wife, fellow musician Yoko Ono, released toward the end of 1980. It was his first album in five years that would turn out to be his swansong, too. 

    On December 8, he was shot dead outside the lobby of his New York apartment building. "I was working in Belfast at the time". Terrie says, "It was the most awful news you could get. I just couldn't believe it. I was devastated. It still breaks my heart to think of it. A killing as senseless as that."

     Today, she will listen to several of Lennon's best songs. It would have been his 80th birthday. "You're always left with the 'what ifs' she says, What music would he have made? Would the Beatles have gotten back together?

     For Kildare native Richard Hall, 80, news of  Lennon's killing was nothing short of devastating. "I'm not exaggerating when I say this, but I was never the same after," he says. "I always loved the Beatles. I just couldn't get over it."  Dick, as I better known, first heard the band's music in 1962 and was transfixed. He reckons there hasn't been a day since he hasn't played their songs, or those of John Lennon, whom he still looks up to. "If you ask my wife, Maureen, who I love the most, she'll say it's John Lennon, he says."

     Dick and Maureen have been married for 61 years. Maureen does not share her husband's obsession with the band. He plays him every day and wants one of Lennon's greatest songwriting achievements, "All You Need Is Love," to be the soundtrack for his funeral. The couple now lives in Clare, and remarkably, they can thank the Beatle for their retirement home.

     In 1968 while attending a wedding in the south of England, Dick had an idea of driving up to Lennon's, then home in Weybridge, Surrey on the off chance they might be able to meet their hero. The gates were open, and they were able to drive through. He says, "I knocked on the door and the housekeeper answered. I asked if we might speak to Mr. Lennon, if he was at home.  The Beatle, then at the peak of their fame, materialized with his then five-year-old son, Julian, by his side. 

    "We spoke to him for about 45 minutes," says Richard. "He was very friendly. He asked us if the Beatles really were as good as the paper said they were, and I said, 'The Beatles are not as good as they say they're better!'"

     When they were leaving, Maureen asked if they could have a souvenir to say they really had met him. Seemingly tickled by her cheeky request, the musician went into the house. "We thought he might bring out a cup or an ashtray. Instead, Lennon handed her this Ivor Novello songwriting award for "She's Leaving Home." A shocked Dick said they couldn't possibly take something as precious. Lennon insisted, telling them the gong had been collecting dust on his shelf. 

    Years later, amid concerns they might be robbed of the precious artifact, the Halls sold the award at Sotheby's.  Partly thanks to the proceeds, they were able to purchase their home in Clare. "Meeting John Lennon really was the greatest day of my life," Dick says.

    Pete Brennan never got to meet John Lennon, but the majority of his life has been soundtracked by the music the Liverpudlian made. He was a young boy when the Beatles had their first number one, but was completely smitten as a teenager when they called it a day in 1970.

     "He had an extraordinary songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney," Pete says, "and the songs they recorded all those years ago will stand the test of time. I listen to a song like "In My Life" now, and it means even more to me now, if that's possible, than it did when I first heard it."

     Brendan is the founder of the Beatles Ireland fan club and is now retired. He devotes his time and energy to the task. He's especially keen to highlight the Beatles' strong Irish connection, particularly those of John Lennon. "And it's not just his Irish ancestry that interests me, but the time he spent here and  he would have spent here had he not been killed."

     Did you know that he stayed at Dromoland Castle in 1964, or that he bought his own private island, Dorinish?"  The latter in the Clew Bay, archipelago was purchased by Lennon for £1700  and sold by Yoko Ono four years after his death.

     Thanks to the fan club, Pete has met scores of people who either knew Lennon or encountered him at some stage in their lives. One of those is retired lightning engineer Tommy Nolan, age 82, who was working at the Adelphi on the night the Beatles came to town. "I was in the toilet backstage, and there was a loud banging on the door," he recalls, "I opened the door, and it was John Lennon. He was annoyed. He said, 'Do you know who I am?' I responded with two words, and the last one was 'off'. He said, 'I could get you fired. "  Tommy informed him that he was part of the crew for that night's performance, and if he was kicked out, there would be no show.

     During the gig, Lennon, on stage below, caught Tommy's eye, and a smile was exchanged. "There were no hard feelings,"  He said, "They just got on with it. I had worked on lots of shows there, including Johnny Cash.  At the time, it was hard to know if the Beatles were a flash in the pan or would become really big. "

    But Terrie Coleman-Black had no doubts. "I was just so happy to have been there to witness a bit of history." She says it was the only time they played this country. "But my memory of it and of John Lennon will stay with me for the rest of my life. I know this might sound like a strange thing to say, but to me, he never really died when I listen to his music; everything is all right in this world."