John Lennon at 80: John Meagher hears from Irish fans
On what would have been The Beatle’s birthday, John Meagher hears from Irish fans who were forever changed after seeing the legendary songwriter
Terrie Colman-Black remembers it like it was yesterday. On Thursday, November 7, 1963, she went to school as normal, but she could hardly keep her mind on the lessons. She was going to have a life-changing experience that night. She just sensed it. Her favourite band, The Beatles, were making their Irish concert debut.
A few weeks before, her mother had got the bus from Rathgar into Dublin city centre to join the hordes queueing for tickets outside the Adelphi Theatre on Middle Abbey Street. Much to Terrie’s joy, Mrs Colman managed to get two.
And so it was that 14-year-old Terrie and her older brother, Bill, got to see the band that had grabbed their attention for more than a year. It would be an occasion to forever cement both The Beatles and John Lennon in Terrie’s life. Now 71, she says she listens to the music he made every single day and never gets bored.
She recalls the sense of excitement that evening 57 years ago. “When the curtain went up, the screaming really started and it stayed that way for as long as they played,” she says. “But what I remember most was that they looked exactly like their photos — and when I could actually hear them play, they sounded just as they did on the records.”
Terrie and Bill stood on the side of the stage where John Lennon was standing. She was hardly to know it at the time, but the then 23-year-old would be a part of her life for ever more. “That love of The Beatles never left me,” she says. “I listen to them all the time and I never get bored. The music was so great — as was John’s solo albums. I love Double Fantasy.”
That was the album Lennon and his wife, fellow musician Yoko Ono, released towards the end of 1980. It was his first album in five years and it would turn out to be his swansong too. On December 8, he was shot dead outside the lobby of his New York apartment building.
“I was working in Belfast at the time,” Terrie says. “It was the most awful news you could get. I just couldn’t believe it. I was devastated. It still breaks my heart just to think of it — a killing as senseless as that.”
Today, she will listen to several of Lennon’s best songs. It would have been his 80th birthday. “You’re always left with the what-ifs,” she says. “What music would he have made? Would The Beatles have got back together?”
For Kildare native Richard Hall (80), news of Lennon’s killing was nothing short of devastating. “I’m not exaggerating when I say this, but I was never the same after,” he says.
“I’ve always loved The Beatles and John Lennon. I just couldn’t get over it.” Dick — as he is better known — first heard the band’s music in i a 1962 day since and was when transfixed. he hasn’t He reckons there hasn’t been played their songs, or that of John Lennon — whom he still looks up to. “If you ask [wife] Maureen who I love most, she’ll say s Dick it’s and John Maureen Lennon,” have been says. married for 61 years. Maureen does not share her husband’s obsession with the band. He plays them every day and wants one of Lennon’s greatest songwriting achievements, All You Need Is Love’, to soundtrack his funeral.
The couple now live in Clare and, remarkably, they can thank the Beatle for their retirement home. In 1968, while attending a wedding in the south of England, Dick had the idea of driving up to Lennon’s then home in Weymouth, Surrey, on the off-chance they might be able to meet their hero.
“The gates were open and we were able to drive through,” he says. “I knocked on the door and the housekeeper answered. I asked if we might speak with Mr Lennon if he was at home.” The Beatle — then at the peak of his fame — materialised with his then five-yearold son, Julian, by his side.
“We spoke to him for about 45 minutes,” says Richard. “He was very friendly. He asked us if The Beatles really were as good as the papers said they were and I said: ‘The Beatles are not as good as they say, they’re better.’”
When they were leaving, Maureen asked if they could have a souvenir to say they really had met him. Seemingly tickled by her cheeky request, the musician went into the house. “We thought he might bring out a cup or an ashtray.” Instead, Lennon handed her his Ivor Novello songwriting award for She’s Leaving Home. A shocked Dick said they couldn’t possibly take something as precious. Lennon insisted, telling them the gong had been collecting dust on his shelf.
Years later, amid concerns they might be robbed for the precious artefact, the Halls sold the award at Sotheby’s. Partly thanks to the proceeds, they were able to purchase their home in Clare. “Meeting John Lennon really was one of the greatest days of my life,” Dick says.
Pete Brennan never got to met Lennon, but the majority of his life has been soundtracked by the music the Liverpudlian made. He was a young boy when The Beatles had their first number one, but was completely smitten as a teenager when they called it a day in 1970.
“He had an extraordinary songwriting
‘He said: “Do you know who I am?” I responded with two words and the last one was “off ”. He said: “I could get you fired”’
partnership with Paul McCartney,” Pete says, “and the songs they recorded all those years ago will stand the test of time. I listen to a song like In My Life now and it means even more to me now — if that’s possible — than it did when I first heard it.”
Brennan is the founder of The Beatles Ireland fan club and now, retired, he devotes his time and energies to the task. He is especially keen to highlight The Beatles’ strong Irish connections, particularly those of John Lennon.
“And it’s not just his Irish ancestry that interests me, but the time he spent here — and would have spent here had he not been killed. Did you know that he stayed in Dromoland Castle in 1964 or that he bought his own private island, Dorinish?” The latter, in the Clew Bay archipelago, was purchased by Lennon for £1,700 and sold by Yoko Ono four years after his death.
Thanks to the fan club, Pete has met scores of people who either knew Lennon or encountered him at some stage in their life. One of those is retired lighting engineer Tommy Nolan (82), who was working at the Adelphi on the night The Beatles came to town.
“I was in the toilet backstage and there was a loud banging at the door,” he recalls. “I opened the door and it was John Lennon. He was annoyed. He said: ‘Do you know who I am?’ I responded with two words and the last one was ‘off ’. He said: ‘I could get you fired.’”
Tommy informed him that he was part of the crew for that night’s performance and if he was kicked out, there would be no show. During the gig, Lennon — on stage below — caught Tommy’s eye and a smile was exchanged. “There were no hard feelings,” he says. “They just got on with it. I had worked on lots of shows there — including Johnny Cash — and, at the time, it was hard to know if The Beatles were a flash in the pan or would become really big.”
But Terrie Colman-Black had no doubts. “I’m just so happy to have been there to witness a bit of history,” she says. “It was the only time they played this country, but the memory of it — and of John Lennon — will stay with me for the rest of my life.
“I know this might sound like a strange thing to say, but to me, he never really died — when I listen to his music, everything is all right with the world.”