Johnny B. Good

Happy Birthday to everyone's favorite sideman

Happy Birthday, Klaus!

A Christmas Concert

Yoko does her thing

Yoko turns 85 today!

With Julian at the Rock n Roll Circus in late 1968

with her friend Andy Warhol in 1972

With Fred Astair in 1971

Performing in London in 1969

Yoko Ono is a woman that needs no introduction in the Beatles community.   People have strong feelings about her one way or another.   But no matter how you personally feel, she was John Lennon's wife and he loved her very much.   It is pretty amazing that she is now 85 years old and is still seen out protesting and demonstrating for causes that she believes in.   Happy birthday Yoko!

War is Over

Yoko does her thing

47 years ago

Temperature's risin'

I think this is one of the best photos of John from the concert at the Lyceum.   Something about the way he is holding his guitar and looking at the camera.   And to think that a fan took this photo?

Last time on stage together

I love the photos from the concert at the Lyceum show, but this one is especially awesome because it shows John and George playing on stage together.  

War is Over

The Sunset Strip in 1970

Times Square in 1978

New York City in 1969

I hope that each and every one of you had a wonderful day and if you spent your day Celebrating Christmas, I hope that you were able to spend quality time with your family and friends.   I hope that you had meaningful conversations, laughed, reminisced and ate delicious food.   While all of the Beatles things we enjoy doing is great fun and a wonderful hobby, nothing is better than spending time with those you love.  

I was blessed to spend the day with my ailing Grandmother (who is 89 years old!) and parents.  I made a special scrapbook for my mom of all of our Beatles adventures over the past 20 years.   I am very fortunate that I have such a great mom who loves the Beatles!   She isn't geeky strange like I am over them (in that she doesn't know all of the trivia and such), but she still is a pretty big fan who still remembers in great detail seeing them on Ed Sullivan in 1964.   And if Ringo Starr is reading this blog, please know that my mom is one of your biggest fans.  She buys every single one of your albums and listens to them on a daily basis.  I think we listened to "I wanna be Santa Claus twice today!"  

All of you readers of "Meet the Beatles...for Real" are friends of mine (well with the exception of the one German fellow who is very rude to me).   I thank you for your friendship and willingness to share your photos and stories and just your support to me as I continue on this adventure.    I started this blog in 2009 to help me cope with the aftermath of divorce.   I thought it would be something to keep  me occupied.  I honestly thought maybe a few people would visit, but not too many.  I had no idea that as a result of this blog, I would communicate with so many Beatle fans from around the world!   My idea of bringing a Beatles fanzine into the 21st century has really gone farther than I had imagined.  So I thank you all for everything you do, even if you are someone who just reads and lurks.  I know you are out there, because I see the number of hits and the countries.

As I have mentioned time and time again, I love the idea of "War is over (if you want it)."   I think it is a message that I personally need to hear right now more than ever before.   I want 2013 to be a year that I commit to spreading peace to others.   I want to stop the silly arguing that happens too much and be more peaceful and loving towards those online and in my day to day life.  Who is with me?

Guitar and drums

I LOVE these Lyceum concert photos.   It must have been amazing to have been there and actually see John performing again after three long years of not even knowing if he was going to ever be back live on stage.  

Lyceum

Some of the comments posted recently mentioned this show, which inspired me to locate this photo.   I love seeing the audience in the photo.

Rock and Roll

John and Yoko December 1969

This account of a meeting with John and Yoko was written by Robert Davis and originally appeared in the April/May 1985 issue of Beatlefan magazine.

I included a few fan photos of John and Yoko performing at the Lycem Ballroom in London just 2 days before the press conference in this article.

I remember standing on the balcony of my house looking up at a clear blue sky. A plane was skywriting a message. After a half hour, the cloudy letters collectively read: "War is over if you want it." It was December 17, 1969; John Lennon and Yoko Ono were in Toronto with their Bed-In for Peace.

At this time, my mother was the secretary to the Toronto correspondent for the New York Times.

Later that day, the Lennons were holding a press conference at the Ontario Science Centre. Like any 13 year old Beatlefan, I wanted to be there. But upon arriving with my mother, we -- and 500 other non-press fans -- were not allowed inside. My mother instinctively pulled out her press card and flashed it at the security guard. New York Times? No problem. And in she went. Not me, though. So I left my mother with these instructions: "Get an autograph."

Anyone who knows my mother will attest that one of her strongest attributes is she's fearless. No circling photographers, journalists or talking heads were going to stop her from fulfilling my request. She approached the main podium. She was stopped. She flashed her New York Times card. No problem. She ended up sitting less than two feet behind and directly in between Lennon and Ono. I've affectionately called my mom the Fifth Beatle ever since.

Now, at these moments in life it pays to be fearless. She approached Ono, handing her a sheet of paper.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Lennon, but would you mind signing this for my son?" She signed it Yoko Ono Lennon, then passed another sheet to Lennon, who just scribbled "John" on it.

The sheets used were the mini-posters of their peace campaign message, "War is Over if you want it - Happy Christmas from John and Yoko." They immediately became priceless treasures, the envy of all my friends and soon after, wrapped in plastic and stored away in my attic.

Mid-December 1980, for obvious reasons at this tragic moment in our lives, I started thinking about what had happened to my autographed posters. Eventually, after searching through a decade of accumulated stuff, I found them. Someone had ripped them both in half. Even more horrid, the monster had taped them back together placing the scotch tape used, not quite yellow and brittle, over the autographs!

They're still treasures, though, even more so in 1985. They say so much. Once just pieces of paper thrown into a crowd of fans back in 1969, today, autographed my Lennon and Ono, their meaning is even more powerful and the event still stands tall in my memory.

War was eventually over; just as we always wanted it to be. And the only happy Christmas we didn't have since then was Christmas 1980.