I’ve recently been sent an interesting piece of detailed research done by my friend Rod Davis, one of the original Quarrymen. He knew, as we all do, that John Lennon, his school friend, was born in Liverpool at 6.30 pm on 9 October 1940, during an air raid. The air raid bit gets repeated in every book, but Rod had begun to wonder if it was really true.
So he set himself the task of going to the British Library newspaper archive in Colindale, North London and reading every copy of the Liverpool Echo for October 1940, looking for air raids. He found a report of ‘30 or 40 aircraft’ attacking the city on 10 October — but no raid reported for 9 October. Rod therefore concludes that while it is true to say that John was born during a period of air raids, there were no reported attacks on the night he was actually born. I hope that clears it up.
So who began this story, displaying a disgraceful lack of proper research? Me, probably. When you come to the chapter on John in the original part of this book, you’ll read, ‘He was born during a heavy air raid.’ That’s what John himself told me, ditto his Aunt Mimi and his father, Fred. It was the family legend, still going strong in 1968. I’m not changing it now.
If I had to keep up with all the subsequent revelations, some major but most of them minor, all the theories and opinions, I’d need to reprint this book every year. That’s another reason why I’ve left the 1968 book untouched. It was an accurate record, more or less, of what they believed at that time.
All the same, there are some events which have to be mentioned, in order to keep the Beatles saga roughly up to date. While we are mainly concerned with What Happened Then, when the Beatles were still at their height, creating and performing, the story has continued. The tragic death in November 2001 of George Harrison, the youngest of the Beatles, meant that we were then left with only two Beatles. George was aged 58 and had been suffering from cancer for some time. His death made front-page headlines and tributes poured in from people of all kinds, prime ministers to pop stars.
Yet George had been seen as the quiet one, the one who avoided publicity, who was not interested in the media, in meeting fans or giving thumbs up to the crowds. He had been a semi-recluse for some time, as far as the public was concerned, producing nothing between 1982 and 1987. Then came his album Cloud Nine in 1989, which was well received. In 1991 and 1992 he did some appearances and tours, after which followed another period of public silence. Early in 2001, his classic album All Things Must Pass was re-released.
But most of the time George was busy with his homes, his gardens, his thoughts, living a contemplative life, making music only for his own purposes.
It was a cruel, terrible irony that someone who had withdrawn from public life, wanting to be left alone, should have suffered a near-death experience when an intruder burst into his house, and into his life, and stabbed him. This happened in 1999, at his home near Henley. He did eventually recover.
George had a spiritual life, right to the end, retaining his interest in Indian music and religion long after the others had moved on. But he also retained his sense of humour. The last song he was working on before he died in 2001, ‘Horse to the Water’, was given the copyright line ‘RIP Ltd 2001’.
My own memory of him is of deep seriousness combined with self-awareness. He could go on and on about theories of incarnation till I was about to yawn or scream, then suddenly he’d stop and mock himself, putting on a funny voice. I was with him once at his house in Esher when he was in the middle of some long explanation of his spiritual feelings. The phone rang, he picked it up at once and in broad cockney said, ‘Esher Wine Store.’
He was survived by his wife Olivia, born in Mexico in 1948, brought up in the USA, whom he married in 1978, and their son Dhani, George’s only child, who was born in 1978. ‘Dhani’ in Sanskrit means wealthy.
Another recent dramatic event that received wide media coverage was Paul’s divorce from Heather Mills in 2008. This kept the newspapers and TV news filled for months and months, as had their stormy relationship from almost its first day.
Linda, Paul’s first wife, had died in 1998 from breast cancer, which was what had caused the death of Paul’s own mother, Mary. Linda had given Paul so much and their marriage had been long, successful and fulfilling. They had almost never been apart, so he was shocked, shattered, distraught, displaced and very lonely. ‘Is there anything left for me?’ is what he wondered to himself. For two years, he hadn’t been able to write a thing.
In 1999, a year after Linda’s death, he met Heather Mills for the very first time. It was at an awards ceremony and he was impressed by her personality, her work for charity and her determination to overcome the handicap of having had part of one leg amputated. She was 25 years younger than him, and had once done some modelling, so her looks were clearly part of the attraction, as well as her strong character. On Paul’s part, it does seem to have been love, not just infatuation, at first sight.
The media were not quite as struck. Paul had become an icon, a public treasure, so they wondered about Heather’s motives, suggesting she could be a gold-digger. They looked into her background, revealing that her modelling career had not been as successful or as respectable as she had maintained, and questioned her honesty, showing that she had tended to take liberties with the truth. Paul stoutly defended her. He said the media were just being nasty and malicious, as ever, without any foundation. There were several gossip column stories alleging that Paul’s own children were not keen on Heather — claims that were denied by both Heather and Paul.
When I read these stories, without knowing anything about the facts, it did make me think history might be repeating itself. When Jim, Paul’s father, had remarried, both Paul and his brother Michael were not exactly thrilled by their new stepmother. I personally thought they were being unfair. Jim seemed to me to be so happy and content with his new wife, having been alone for so long, bringing up his two sons single-handed after his wife had died.
A lot of the stories about Heather and Paul, and what was or was not happening between them, grew nastier when it emerged that their marriage really was in difficulties. As soon as they announced they were getting divorced, various allegations about their personal behaviour leaked out, supposedly from both sides. All of this might have remained as gossip, i.e. unsubstantiated and unreliable, had not the judge in the case, to the astonishment of most people, decided to go public.
In March 2008 the Hon Mr Justice Bennett allowed the details of the divorce settlement, all 58 pages of it, to be published and available to all. The reason given was that it was to quell press speculation. It did the opposite — providing private and intimate details of the couple’s lives, which we would otherwise not have known, and thus leading to further speculation and gossip.
In his statement, the judge said the couple had first met in 1999, got engaged on 22 July 2001, married on 11 July 2002 and separated on 29 April 2006. The marriage, as far as he was concerned, had therefore lasted just four years, as the couple had not properly cohabited until their actual marriage. It was revealed that Paul had been using contraception until they got married, as he had not wanted to have a child until then. Their only child, Beatrice, had been born on 28 October 2003.
The bulk of the 58 pages concerns financial matters. Heather had originally claimed £125 million as a divorce settlement. Paul had originally offered £16 million. Heather maintained that Paul was worth £800 million — a figure that had appeared in many papers for some years. Paul denied this, his accountants confirming that he was in fact worth only £400 million.