15 Facts About John Lennon
The new Beatles documentary is out soon! Here are some well-known and some little-known facts about Dr Winston O'Boogie.
-
1. John Lennon's childhood
John Lennon was born on 9 October 1940, during an air raid on Liverpool. His parents gave him the middle name Winston as a patriotic move!
-
2. John Lennon had many pseudonyms
Lennon has also recorded under the name Dr Winston O'Boogie, the Reverend Fred Ghurkin, Fred Zimmerman, Johnny Rhythm and Mel Torment.
-
3. The young John Lennon
After his father went missing, John was raised by his Aunt Mimi at 251 Menlove Avenue, Liverpool. His mother died after being hit by a car in 1958.
-
4. The early Lennon works
John's first published his writing in a home made magazine called The Daily Howl. Lennon wrote two books of poetry and stories: In His Own Write and A Spaniard In The Works.
-
5. Lennon's first band
His first band was The Quarrymen, who started life as a skiffle group at Quarry Bank School in Liverpool. He's also been in The Silver Beetles, Johnny And The Moondogs, The Plastic Ono Band and The Dirty Mac (with Keith Richards).
-
-
6. John Lennon was a rubbish driver
Lennon didn't pass his driving test until he was 25. He didn't drive much even after that, most famously crashing his white Mini on a trip to Scotland in 1969.
-
7. John Lennon and Paul McCartney
John met Paul McCartney at a church fete in Woolton on 6 July 1957. Following the Beatles' split, he referred to Paul as "an old estranged fiance of mine".
-
8. John Lennon and his spectacle phobia
Lennon was very short sighted, but embarrassed to wear his glasses. He wore contact lenses during most of his time in The Beatles.
-
9. John Lennon liked to make "arty" films
The avant garde film Self Portrait was a 15-minute time lapse of Lennon's erect penis. What a lad. Ironically, the Lennon/Ono movie Erection was actually a time lapse of a tower block being built.
-
10. The famous Lennon glasses
When he was filming the movie How I Won The War at the end of 1966, John was given a pair of round "granny glasses" for his character, Private Gripweed - the specs stayed and became part of the Lennon image.
-
-
11. The Beatles split
Although Paul "announced" the split of The Beatles publicly in April 1970, Lennon called time on the group in September '69, claiming he wanted "a divorce". Business dealings meant he couldn't tell the world that the group were over.
-
12. The ballad of John and Yoko
John met his second wife Yoko Ono at an exhibition by the Japanese artist at the Indica art gallery in London on 9 November 1966. He divorced from his first wife, Cynthia, two years later and married Yoko soon after.
-
13. The REAL mystery of Sgt Pepper
On the cover of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, John is holding a French horn.
-
14. Lennon was investigated by the FBI
Following his arrival in New York in 1971, the FBI opened a file on Lennon, suspecting him of trying to influence the nation's youth with radical politics. The extent of their surveillance wasn't discovered until the 1990s.
-
15. The John Lennon tour
At the time of his death in December 1980, Lennon was planning on a return to the live stage. The success of the Double Fantasy album could have seen him play live in 1981, nine years after his last gig appearance.