Happy new year everyone - let's hope it's a good one, without any fear!
And how better to mark the new year than by heading off to the West End, there to embark on a tour of the #BeatlesLondon?
And how better to mark the new year than by heading off to the West End, there to embark on a tour of the #BeatlesLondon?
4 Duke of York Street – now the fabulously louche Gaslight of St James’s – was once the site of Brad’s Club, where (according to an interview she gave in 1964, at any rate) Pattie Boyd was brought by George on their first date. #BeatlesLondon
6 Masons Yard - just behind @TheLondonLib - is where Peter Asher, Barry Miles & John Dunbar opened the Indica Gallery, with the help of £5000 from Paul. John met Yoko here for the 1st time, at a private view of her show Unfinished Paintings & Objects. #BeatlesLondon
3 Savile Row will be familiar to all who have watched Get Back: the HQ of Apple Corps, home of Apple Studios, haunt of the Apple Scruffs, & site – up on the roof – of the Beatles’ last live show: lasting 42 minutes, it could be heard but not seen from the streets below.
When @James1940 & I came here as children, workmen were demolishing the interior. We took a bit of plaster & kept it in a little portable safe as our most precious possession. The safe was subsequently stolen by burglars. I like to imagine their disappointment when they opened it
Another Savile Row address with a Beatles link is 35: once home to The House of Nutter, which made Paul’s wedding suit, and the suits that Paul, John & Ringo wore on the cover of Abbey Road. #BeatlesLondon
Hille House on Stafford St (now home to Thai Airways) was where Brian Epstein rented a private office in 1965. In April 1968 – a year after Brian’s death – the Beatles agreed to set up Apple Records at a meeting held here. #BeatlesLondon
Bob Dylan stayed in the May Fair Hotel in May 1966, & was visited there by all 4 Beatles. John & Paul played him an acetate of “Tomorrow Never Knows”. “Oh, I get it,” was Dylan’s comment, “you don’t want to be cute anymore.” #BeatlesLondon
The May Fair Hotel is also where – in May 1968 - John Lennon finally met his teenage crush, Brigitte Bardot. He was so nervous that he dropped acid before going, & could only say ‘Hello’. “It was a terrible night – worse than meeting Elvis.”
Annabel’s, where on 31 December 1966 George was refused entrance for wearing a sweater. He & his party – which included Pattie, Brian Epstein & Eric Clapton – saw in the new year instead at a Lyon’s Corner House round the corner in Soho. #BeatlesLondon
The US embassy (as was) in Grosvenor Square is where @sadieholland67, as a 3 year old girl, waited in a queue for a visa next to Paul. He picked her up & cuddled her. #BeatlesLondon
69 Duke St: once the Robert Fraser Gallery, where John & Yoko met for the 2nd time, & where John staged his 1st solo art exhibition. He opened it by releasing 365 white balloons. He sent hand-written thank you notes to all who returned them. (@jamiembrixton was there for it!)
Sacrilege
Flat L on 57 Green Street was the one and only place where all 4 Beatles lived together. They rented it for a few months in the autumn of 1963, before Paul moved out to stay with the Ashers, & John with Cynthia & Julian.
The staircase is still in situ… #BeatlesLondon
The staircase is still in situ… #BeatlesLondon
95 Wigmore Street was where Apple had its first HQ, before moving across Oxford Street to Savile Row. The major problem: other tenants in the building objected to records being played during office hours.
Between 1960 & 1995 this was EMI House, where the Beatles regularly performed, and & where, in 1963 & 1969, Angus McBean took the famous photos that appeared on the covers of the Red & Blue Albums respectively: from mop-tops to “very hairy indeed”. #BeatlesLondon
34 Montagu St: leased by Ringo in early 1965, then sub-let by him as a studio to Paul, who recorded Eleanor Rigby there. Ringo also let it as a flat to Jimi Hendrix, & then, after their affair had become public knowledge, to John & Yoko. #BeatlesLondon
This ground-floor & basement flat was where the cover photo of 2 Virgins was taken. It is also where John & Yoko were arrested after a police raid had uncovered a tiny quantity of cannabis resin – WITH FATEFUL CONSEQUENCES FOR JOHN’S IMMIGRATION STATUS IN THE US. #BeatlesLondon
One day after their arrest, on 19 October 1968, John & Yoko made their first appearance at Marylebone Magistrates’ Court (a photo of which provided the cover for their 2nd album). On 28 November John pleaded guilty here to possession of cannabis: he was fined £150 plus costs.
Marylebone Station, where the Beatles are pursued by hordes of screaming girls in A Hard Day’s Night, and make their escape on a train from Platform One. #BeatlesLondon
34 Boston Place, just next door to Marylebone Station, was the site of Apple Electronics, where for 3 years ‘Magic Alex’ blew vast quantities of the Beatles’ cash on assorted terrible inventions, none of which ever worked. #BeatlesLondon
Flat 25, Hanover Gate Mansions is where Yoko came to live with her second husband, Tony Cox, in early 1967. This was the address she gave on the marriage certificate when she married John. #BeatlesLondon
St John’s Wood Church. Paul’s local church, where he and Linda had their marriage blessed. #BeatlesLondon
Lord’s Cricket Ground, where Paul goes to the gym #BeatlesLondon
The studios known to the Beatles as EMI, but now – thanks to the Beatles naming their last-recorded album ‘Abbey Road’ – as Abbey Road. #BeatlesLondon
Paul bought his house on Cavendish Avenue - right next to Lord’s - in March 1965, & moved in a year later. The photo of him inside the White Album, & the US sleeve of The Ballad Of John & Yoko (shot during the last session of the Mad Day) were both taken here. #BeatlesLondon
Marylebone Register Office: where Paul married Linda Eastman on 12 March 1969, & where Ringo married Barbara Bach on 27 April 1981. (Paul & George were both guests at Ringo’s wedding: the 1st time all 3 had met since John’s murder.) #BeatlesLondon
Site of the Apple Shop, famous for its psychedelic mural, & for losing money hand over fist. It lasted for 8 months. The original building was demolished in 1974.
The Asher family home on Wimpole Street. Paul went out with Jane Asher for five years, between 1963 & 1968, & for three of them lived in a spare bedroom in the attic. John & Paul wrote I Want To Hold Your Hand at the family piano.
Sutherland House, next door to the London Palladium on Argyll St, was where Brian Epstein had his headquarters, & provided his charges with – in his own words – “the finest & most efficient management/direction of artistes in the world.” #BeatlesLondon
Site of the Bag O’ Nails, a club on Kingly St Soho where Paul had his own table, watched Jimi Hendrix perform, & - on 15 May 1967 – met Linda Eastman for the first time
The toilets on Broadwick Street, Soho. Peter Cook & Dudley Moore featured them in a TV sketch as an exclusive gentleman’s nightclub; John Lennon appeared as the doorman.
Trident Studios on St Anne’s Court, where the Beatles recorded Hey Jude. (The Beatles were not alone in recording here…)
The fourth floor of this building at Leicester Place, off Leicester Sq, hosted the Ad Lib club, where Ringo proposed to Maureen. The LSD with which John, Cynthia, George & Patti had been spiked by celebrity dentist John Riley kicked in as they were going up in the lift.
The Prince of Wales Theatre is where the Beatles appeared before the Queen Mother & Princess Margaret at the 1963 Royal Variety Show, & John told them to rattle their jewellery.
And so ends our long & winding road - we hope you have enjoyed it!
And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love you make…
HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!
The love you take
Is equal to the love you make…
HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!
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