Teatime

 June 21, 1971 

Yoko Is Beautiful (Says John) - (1971)

 Yoko is Beautiful (Says John)

By Chris Pritchard

The Sydney Morning Herald

July 24, 1971

    John Lennon and Yoko Ono are in London this week to launch the paperback edition of Grapefruit, Yoko's book. They granted their first long interviews for nearly a year. Here is the report of a one-hour private conversation. 

    Yoko Ono is beautiful, well, not really, but John Lennon more or less made me promise to say she is, and, in a funny sort of way, she is rather attractive. "It's peculiar, you know, the way people say she's ugly," John reflected this week. "I mean, the papers say the most hideous women are attractive, but with Yoko, they say she's ugly. They've never done that about anybody else." Through all this, Yoko smiled a big, toothy smile at me, and said she agreed. 

    "We're still a very loving couple, the two of us," she interrupted. "I used to dread the future and think that all the passion was a passing thing. I would think forward and predict to myself that marriage to one person would become a bore after three years, but it hasn't. We're closer and busier than ever."

     The ex-Beatle and his wife were relaxing at Apple, the Savile Row headquarters of the Beatles' organization. Despite the group's demise, the four individuals are still hot properties. Down the road are London's most conservative men's tailors, but outside the white-painted Apple building, more than 100 groupies, half of them young summer trippers from other countries, wait expectantly for a glimpse of even one of the four. 

    Inside, the luckier groupies, those on the Apple payroll, are opening fan mail or making coffee for the stripe-suited city gents, who, following the much-publicized Beatles court battle, keep Apple's finances on the straight and narrow. John and Yoko receive their guests in a big front room. They sit at a white-and-purple desk, with Yoko eating boiled sweets from a brown paper bag and John scurrying about like a messenger on a never-ending search for "this press handout we've got somewhere that gives a bit of background on your last question."

     He's beginning to get a bit of an establishment manner. 30-year-old John is. He talks about his seven-year-old son by his former marriage as "the lad, my boy Julian", who is in the habit of coming down for the weekends. 

    John's face is clean-shaven, his hair shortish, and his wife is very much the adoring companion, slightly in the background, despite the fact that it is the launching of her paperback, Grapefruit, that the two of them are promoting. The book was published in hardback last year (although limited extracts were circulated a decade ago). But at the time, the twosome were undergoing therapy at a hideout in the United States. So, according to John, "The only publicity the book received was a statement by the publisher that he was annoyed we were not around to promote it." Grapefruit is a collection of Yoko Ono's thoughts and observations. "A code for living," she calls it.

 Sample:  "Have a dance party. Let people dance with chairs."  And again, "Draw a line with yourself. Go on drawing until you disappear."

     Yoko says reactions to her work are good in the United States, but shocking in Britain. "They don't understand it in England. They say it's rubbish, but in the United States, we are treated as serious artists."

     John interposed, "I think the trouble, Yoko, is this: in my own country, I'm regarded as the lad who won the pools and went off to marry his Japanese princess. You're the Japanese princess, not to be taken too seriously."

     Despite their preference for the United States as a working base, they prefer living in England, where they have an impressive house at Ascot. "It's a wonderful place to return to, the gardens and the lake," John told me. "I like my house."

     They both believe their lives are more hectic now than they were while the Beatles, as an entity, were still alive. "Yoko has the American paperback edition of her book coming out in a few months," John said, "As well as an off-Broadway show; she's got an exhibition of her art lined up for the Guggenheim Museum in New York early next year, and right now we're finishing the mixing of her record Fly, which should be released soon. 

    "I've got the possibility of an off-Broadway show too. Then there's my album Imagine, that we're busy on. It's almost finished. We've never been busier, or I feel, as popular. Our stuff still sells, and that proves people like us."

     Discussion of the other ex-Beatles is minimal. In fact, it's confined to a few dropped remarks about arch enemy Paul McCartney, who John believes tried to make the group his personal vehicle. "The trouble in Britain," John told me, "is that some people treat us as more friends of Paul's rather than as artists in our own right."

     But one of John's chief interests now is politics. "I suppose you could call me rather left-wing." He admitted.

     That he was seriously interested in self-stylized revolutionary politics first became apparent about five months ago when he allowed himself to be interviewed by Red Mole, a British Trotskyist journal with a tiny circulation. Red Mole is run by Tariq Ali, one-time Trafalgar Square firebrand, and Robin Blackburn, a long-haired economist who lost his lecturing job following rowdy demonstrations in the London School for Economics in 1969. The pair interviewed Lennon and his wife for an issue which sold many times the usual print order.

     Everyone wanted to see what John Lennon was saying. He was declaring himself to be a working-class lad, praising Mao and people's war and offering strong verbal support to the ultra left; had he done any harm to his reputation? "No, I don't think so," he told me. "People who don't like it, I'm better off without. It's not as if I'm a communist or anything. The leftists hadn't really asked for my views before, so when they did, I just told them how I felt. That's all. I believe it is in the Australians to keep the British underground spirit alive. Richard Neville and Jermaine Greer are Aussies, right?" he asks, turning to Yoko, who nods.

     John and Yoko have just finished composing "God Save Oz", a song which hit the record shops this week, performed by an impromptu Oz Elastic Band (not featuring John and Yoko). Proceeds from the record will go toward paying the lawyers in the Oz magazine obscenity trial, now on at the Old Bailey.

     I mentioned that last year he had been scheduled to visit Australia several times, and each time the plans were shelved. "Yeah, I know, but when we were in the Beatles, we got our best reception in Australia. I've always wanted to go back there and take Yoko along." Yoko was standing at the window and looking down at the street, where by now about 300 groupies were gathered. "You'd think it was some kind of occasion." She observed, dipping her hand back into the bag of sweets.

My Love Does It Good Part 1 (1975)

 

Photo by George Tebbins

My Love Does It Good

By Cindy Rosenthal

The Write Thing

Jan/Feb 1976

    When I found myself in Southampton, I had the excitement of 11 years of waiting inside me. I had seen Paul a couple times and been to England once before, but I had never been to a concert, be it Beatles or Wings. Seeing Paul in concert had been my only dream since the Beatles broke up, and so it came to be. 

    MaryAnn Dolphin went along for the thrill of it all. I had also met George Tebbins by phone two days before I heard about the tour, and since I liked the lad, I offered to write for tickets for him too. We were all determined to see Macca in concert, even if it meant giving up our jobs. 

    We were to meet George in Southampton. When we went to the theater to get our tickets, the ticket lady told me George had already been there looking for us, and that he was by the stage door. I had a sneaky suspicion he was inside when we didn't find him. I was right, but we didn't have the nerve to go in and look for him. We went and searched hotels and guest homes for him. We did find out which hotel Paul was going to stay at by accident. Off to a good start.

     After a change of clothes, we went back to the hotel Paul would arrive at. George was already waiting there, and I was glad we finally found him. We decided to get flowers for the Maccas at a flower shop a few blocks away. I was afraid we'd miss their arrival while we were gone. 

    On the way back, we ran across a busy street in front of a bus. George yelled, "That's Paul in that bus!" I looked up and saw Mary Mac in the bus, which was being followed by two Rolls-Royces. We ran to the hotel and got there as the band appeared. Paul looked so damn good. He was in a gray suit with a matching vest and a black shirt. Linda was in a maroon dress. I was in shock. I told MaryAnn to give them the flowers while I started taking photos. I was shaking so badly. I'm surprised any of them came out. 

    When MaryAnn gave Paul the flowers, he handed them to Linda, but he kept our card and read the names. Suddenly he asked, "Who's Cindy?" I almost fell over, but instead I raised my hand. He looked at me and said, "We get letters from you from America." What could I say? I think I shook my head yes and smiled. I couldn't believe he remembered my name!  Then I started trying to take photos. If wasn't shaking before; I was shaking now. 

    Mary and Stella were running around and playing with the revolving door. Darling kids. MaryAnn went to get his autograph, and I said, "Let me take a picture of you two together." He looked up after I took the photo. Blimey! Linda smiled at me and seemed nice enough. A bellhop was trying to ask me questions while all this was going on. Couldn't he see I was going crazy?

     Finally, they went inside after Paul looked at some of George's photos. As Paul was going in, Mary ran back outside. He said, "Come this way, Mary." She answered, "I don't want to come your way." He pointed a finger at her and said, "Trouble!" in the cutest way. Mary ran back inside. 

    Needless to say, I was shaking very badly, and we went back to our guest house to see Crossroads. The now famous theme came on at the end and sounded great.

Photo by George Tebbins - taken at the Southampton concert 

     Off to the theater for the first concert. We missed the band arriving, but we got to listen to their sound check. All that was between us was the door. This was the first time I'd heard Paul live, and I was loving it. Got inside, and they told us we couldn't take photos during the concert. I was so upset. I had to check my camera. The management told us it was Paul's orders, but that was a lie. George snuck his in, though. 

    When the curtain rose, I felt a lot of emotions. There was Paul on stage with guitar in hand, just like in so many pictures and films I'd seen. It took a while for me to grasp that I was seeing him for real. Finally, a bit later, when he started singing, Maybe I'm Amazed," the tears came to my eyes. He sounded so damn good. I wanted to cry, and all my emotions were hitting me hard. This first old song was "Long and Winding Road." Well, that song really made the tears flow. I was in heaven. I was watching Paul now, and I could see him in Let It Be as well. I could remember all the good years I've had with him. It was a beautiful feeling. 

    I was quite mad at this British audience for acting so bored. I wanted to get up and bop when he did the rockers. The whole band was so tight and sounded so good. The sound system was perfect, and the show never got boring. I loved seeing them sitting in chairs with acoustic guitars and singing songs like "Blue Bird" and "I've Just Seen a Face."

     When Paul started "Junior's Farm", I couldn't take it anymore. I was standing up with MaryAnn, dancing and clapping to the music. We were the only two standing, but Paul couldn't see us. I don't know how anyone can sit calmly through songs like this one. They didn't even clap their hands. Anyway, when the end came, and fast numbers started, the fans finally ran down front. This was the most fun because you could bop to the music, or just stare at his perfect face or his body, or watch the sweat fly off his face. He seemed to love having the fans come down, digging his music. He always looked happiest then.

     At the end, the band came and threw flowers to the crowd. Then they were gone. You would be left in a daze, hot and exhausted. 

McGear Interivew (1974)

 McGear Interview

The Write Thing

January/February 1975

    You shouldn't buy Mike McGear's new album McGear because it was done by Paul's brother, or produced by Paul, or half-written by Paul, or even played on by Paul. You should get it because it's a damn good album, maybe one of three bests of the year. 

    Mike's voice is very deep, very British, and very, very good. The production is tight with beautiful background instrumentation and the kind of songs that stay in your mind. It was supposed to be promoted heavily by Warner Brothers, but I haven't seen any publicity on it around here, where most stores have only one copy hidden under M in the rock section, not exactly overexposing him.

     Mike was on a coast-to-coast American promotional stint to plug the album. John Awarski from Cleveland, Ohio, took photographs of him there and sent us this interview by Janet Macoska.

 Q:  The "Liverpool Lou" record was that Scaffold or was that you?

 Mike:  That was Scaffold. Yes, I did the lead on it, just the lead singing.

 Q: On the other side, "Ten Years After on Strawberry Jam" (written by Paul and Linda), it's sorta like the Beatles... 

Mike:  It's not. That comes from my heritage, you see. It comes from all our heritage.

 Q Is that you doing the voices?

 Mike:  We were all doing it, but it may be that I had the strongest influence on it because we were talking about the old days. We had had a few drinks. I must admit, I'm sorry about that, and we were feeling a bit relaxed, and we started to talk, talking about this character, a very old, amazing man named Tommy Houston, who came out of Liverpool. He was back before the big pop evolution and the Beatles and all those groups. He was well before that. That "Strawberry Jam" was just talking about his experience in life and how he started it all. One of the bits was back to Hamburg. 

Q: A lot of people did think that was about the Beatles.

 Mike:  Sure. But what I could do in that context with a few drinks down me... I know all of that backwards, you see, because I had a brother that went there. So I could say all these things, and they could all be based on facts. That's why it was a bit more interesting. 

Q: Okay, I want to talk about your album too. Could you tell us a little bit about what we should expect?

 Mike:  Well, what to expect is insanity-complete insanity for a start. It's sort of straight pop, and my first sort of straight pop album. There's one track on it called "Norton", which I've allowed my heritage to creep through. It's sort of a comedy one. It's got a little sketch in the middle. That's the only one on it, though. The rest is straight pop. (Corrects himself.) Sorry. In that very statement, it's wrong because straight pop would have one song done in different ways. That's all groups do. It's the same feeling on every track. And I, because I like variety, this is exactly what life is about now. We'll go out of this posh hotel and we'll fall over a dustbin because that's down there too. That's what life's about. You can walk through a door and there can be somebody who hits you in the face. I like life to change, so my album has a lot of changes on it. Suddenly, you go from a very Andy Williams ballad, as it were, into a heavy Lou Reed rocker.

 Q: Did you have this idea in your head before you went into the studio to do it? I mean, you must have talked it over.

 Mike:  Yes, we did, but I mean, no, that evolved. We originally were going to do a lot of songs. The only one that's been captured of another person's is Bryan Ferry's one, "Sea Breezes", and that in concept is completely different from Bryan's version. His one was on a Roxy Music album. It was quite mad. 

Q:  He probably would enjoy that too, because he has a knack for taking other people's things and doing them in his own style.

 Mike:  Oh yes, well, when he heard mine, the first thing he said when I met him was, "Let us shake hands, and I love your version of my song." He's a friend now.

 Q. How did you and Paul work together? Was this the first time that you ever wrote songs together?

 Mike:  No, we wrote other things together before, but not seriously. We've always done things sort of lightheartedly with no structure, just like fooling around, mockin' around. So we haven't worked seriously together. 

Q: Were you happy with the finished product?

Mike:  Very. Amazingly, I haven't even heard it in a while, cause I've been talking too much about it on the radio and to people. I'm very proud of it. It goes on. That's my only criteria in life of a record, is if it goes on a turntable, then that'll do. There are only a few records that go on my turntable, and that, (McGear), thank God, is one of them. 

Q:  Do you have plans to come back and do some kind of tour, either with Scaffold or by yourself?

 Mike: Now I am. When I came to this country, I was just going to do a promo tour and go home, thank you. I've been listening and being drawn into America, and you sort of, (in an Irish brogue) get in me heart. You shock me. It's quite amazing. And so with that reaction, I can come back. Anybody who talks to me, I'll talk to them. Now, people have come in saying, "How do you do?" and talking instead of the things they were doing last time. They certainly weren't talking to me. They were talking at me.

 Q:  Is your children's book that you wrote and illustrated, Roger Bear available over here?

 Mike:  It's not been released over here. They were thinking of releasing it in my album, but they suddenly thought, "Oh God, it's going to confuse and take away from the album". It's going to be an awkward thing to relate to both of them at the same time, whereas the lovely thing about it is that I'm relating to both of them anyway. The only problem is the people can't get the product over here. (He pulls out a copy of Roger Bear to show us) Spike Milligan, John Lennon, and Bowie-three different people who have read that thing and got off on it. It takes a lot of time to color it in. Look at those colorings there.

 Q:  Did you do that?

 Mike: Yes, I did. 

Q: you stayed in the lines and everything. 

Mike:  Oh God. Well, you wait till you start doing it. It's very hard, but it's great fun. 

The single "Leave It, written by Paul, is one of the album's best too, was supposed to receive a lot of airplay, but I haven't heard it on the radio here, and it hasn't made any of the charts yet. But it deserves to be a big hit. Be sure to look for it or the album.

Ringo Starr: Mojo Icon Award Winner

 July 21, 2011 -  Mojo Awards in London 

Rude Studio

 July 20, 1971 

By the way -- you can see the Rude Studio sign on display right now at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio 

Filming for Imagine

 July 20, 1971

I sort of think John and Yoko were ahead of  the times when they allowed a camera crew into their home in July 1971 to record their day to day life.   Today we consider that to be Reality TV.  And thanks to these recordings, we have so much footage of John during this time period that has been used in coutless documentaries over the years.  It is the gift that keeps giving. 

Envy of Every Wings Fan Today (1975)

 

Agatha Rametta, 15 (right in the picture), and Enrica Molinarc, 15, were among the lucky half dozen fans who talked to their idols Paul and Linda McCartney as they arrived at Festival Hall for a pre-concert rehearsal. 

Linda and Paul chatted to the fans, signed programs and asked if they were coming to the concert.  

When Agatha and Enrica said they tried to get tickets but found they were all sold, Linda came to their aid.

"I'll see what I can do," she said, as she and Paul hurried into the hall. 

Five minutes later, a man appeared with tickets for the girls. 

Close to tears of joy, Agatha and Enrica couldn't believe their luck. 

A Starr is Shorn (1976)

 

A Starr is Shorn

By Record Reporter

Daily Record

July 20, 1976

    To put it baldly, Ringo Starr is a skinhead. Even actress Vivien Ventura can't help staring, and she's seen it all in her time.

     For Ringo has been shorn from head to chin, gone are his floppy locks, his mustache and beard, even his eyebrows. The new image is the result of bare-faced indulgence and a sudden whim. 

    The 36-year-old former Beatle explained in Monte Carlo, "I got sick of looking at all the fuzz on my face in the mirror, and decided to try something different." Now there's a smooth answer. 

    Ringo went on. "I went down to the local barber and told him to take everything off. You should have seen his face." You should see yours, Ringo. 

    He added,  "At first he didn't believe me, and he tried desperately to persuade me not to do it. Finally, he gave in. It was a long, long operation, but it's a great feeling to be hairless."

     Ever since the Beatles first hit the headlines, Ringo has been a top member of the Hair Suite set. Now he's not even on the fringe

Who would have guessed? (1976)

 

Who Would Have Guessed?

By Regina Vogel

The Write Thing

Jan/Feb 1977

    Who would ever believe that an NBC TV employee would stop me on the street and ask if I wanted to see George Harrison tape a television program? Well, that's exactly what happened on November 18, 1976. NBC had just disclosed that afternoon that George would not be appearing live on November 20th's  Saturday Night Live, but on a pre-recorded segment to be taped that night to a private audience from seven to 10 p.m. 

    We decided to go to NBC Studios at the end of the taping, but we arrived early. We started walking around when an employee told us where George was taping. The private audience was on the ground floor, filled with NBC personnel and friends. People were being picked up off the street to fill the balcony, which consisted of about 75 people. 

    We had missed a good deal of the show, but saw Paul Simon do "Homeward Bound" and George do "Here Comes the Sun " for at least four tapings, along with seeing George smile after someone screamed out "Dark Horse", as a request. And also the time when Paul Simon introduced one of George's films as "Cracker Jack Palace."

     About two hours after the taping, George came out and met a small crowd before he left in his limo. Not bad for an ordinary Thursday night.