Student had the famously sarcastic Lennon taped
Never-broadcast interview given by the Beatle in 1964 reveals he did not view the group as good musicians
AS Sir Paul Mccartney prepares to take to the pyramid stage at Glastonbury this weekend, he might mull over how far he’s come since John Lennon said The Beatles barely qualified as musicians.
Lennon made the surprising claim in a recording being sold at an auction tomorrow.
The recording, which has never been broadcast, was made by John Hill, an art student who interviewed the Beatles before they played at the ABC Cinema in Hull in November 1964.
It was the height of the group’s early fame and came a few months after their first visit to the US triggered the first bouts of Beatlemania there.
In the recording, Lennon equivocates over whether the band are truly musicians, denying that they are good, and also claims he’d rather be rich than have a normal life.
Asked by Mr Hill whether the band were musicians or simply entertainers, the singer said: “I’ve never thought about it really but I suppose… we don’t count ourselves as good musicians, so I suppose we’re entertainers. But we don’t entertain much ’cos we just stand there, so I suppose we must be musicians.
We’re in the union anyway.”
Mr Hill, who was not studying journalism and did not use shorthand, happened to have access to one of the earliest portable recorders available in Britain.
Lennon was known for his spikey, sarcastic and often nonsensical responses to interviewers. However, something about Mr Hill appeared to disarm the global superstar and he believes it may have been the recorder itself, which Lennon found captivating.
“I managed to hive John Lennon off [from the group] because he was fascinated with the tape recorder, because he was quite keen, in many ways, on the technology,” he said.
The pair sat in a corner chatting while the rest of the band were playing the piano on the other side of the room. At one point, Lennon held his microphone while Mr Hill arranged his equipment.
The eight-and-a-half-minute recording reveals a remarkably candid and chatty Lennon. “Somebody told me it sounds like two old mates having a chat,” said Mr Hill.
As well as dismissing the band’s musicianship, Lennon also said he preferred the trappings of fame to ordinary life.
Asked by Mr Hill if, were he to be reincarnated he would choose to be a Beatle again or an ordinary person, Lennon responded: “Whatever I’d be, I’d choose to be rich.”
When Mr Hill responded by asking “if he didn’t find all this Beatles business rather tiring? You can’t walk out on the street. You can’t go and have a drink,” Lennon replied: “Who
‘We don’t entertain much because we just stand there, so I suppose we must be musicians’
wants to walk down the street? I can have a drink whenever I like.”
Lennon then adds he could mix with ordinary people “because all the ordinary people I knew before are mainly the Beatles and a few other people”.
The interview happened entirely by chance, explained Mr Hill. “I bought tickets for the show. And then Mike, the college principal, said if I was going to the show I should write a story about it.
He secured a press pass for Mr Hill, who borrowed the recorder and a handful of blank tapes from a friend. He was later able to stand in the orchestra pit alone, with burly bouncers “holding back screaming girls”, to record the Beatles performing.
Mr Hill, a retired teacher of 75, sold the recording and the equipment he used in 2014, to little fanfare. It is now being sold again. Mr Hill said he would avoid finding out how much it sells for, for fear that it might be many times what he received.
The estimated sale price is £3,000£4,000. The copyrighted recording, a transcript and the portable recorder are being auctioned as a single lot by David Duggleby auctioneers in Scarborough.