Tony Sheridan

Tony Sheridan was born on May 21st 1940 in Norwich (Norfolk), England. This English guitarist and composer is best known for his collaborations with the Beatles.

Tony's real name is Anthony Esmond Sheridan McGinnity and he made his first successes when he toured with Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent in early 1960. By luck or fate he was not on the tour bus on April 17, 1960 when Cochrane was killed and Vincent badly injured.

Between 1960 & 1963 he frequently appeared in the Kaiserkeller and Indra Club in Hamburg, and it is there that he met the Beatles (John, Paul, George, Pete Best and Stu Sutcliffe). Together they also recorded an LP (Tony Sheridan & the Beat Brothers) and it was the single "My Bonnie" that first attracted the attention of Brian Epstein to the Beatles.

1980 NME Awards

It was 30 years ago today (at the end of 1980) that New Musical Express published its annual music awards

1980

Best Group: The Jam
Best New Act: UB40
Best Male Singer: Paul Weller
Best Guitarist: Paul Weller
Best Drummer: Rick Buckler
Best Songwriter: Paul Weller
Best Bassist: Bruce Foxton
Best Keyboardist: Dave Greenfield
Best Other Instrumentalist: Saxa
Best Single: The Jam - 'Going Underground'
Best Album: The Jam - 'Sound Affects'
Best Dressed Sleeve: The Jam - 'Sound Affects'
Best Disc Jockey: John Peel
Best Dressed Person: Adam Ant
Haircut Of The Year: Eugene Reynolds
Most Wonderful Human Being: Paul Weller
Creep Of The Year: Margaret Thatcher
Event Of The Year: Death Of John Lennon
TV Programme: 'Not The Nine O'Clock News'
Movie Of The Year: 'The Elephant Man'

John Lennon's first record and guitar

According to many historians, John Lennon bought his first record in April or May 1956 at the age of 15. It was "Rock Island Line", a skiffle-hit for Lonnie Donegan. Other records that he bought around that time were "the Ying-tong Song" by comedy group The Goons, and Elvis Presley's Hound Dog.

John was so captivated by the music that he dragged his aunt mimi to the shops to buy him a guitar. When she refused, he bought a mail-order Gallotone Champion which can be seen on the famous picture of The Quarrymen playing at Saint Peter's church (the first time Paul saw John playing and probably the most important day in their lives). According to the magazine (Reveille) it was "guaranteed not to split". John had the guitar delivered at his mum's house whereJulia Lennon thought him a couple of 5-string chords (the reason why John didn't use the sixth string and left it intentionally slack.  It was this guitar that John used in his first band (The Black Jacks) with his friend Pete Shotton. 

There is a really nice story about what happened to the guitar. It broke at some point in 1958 and ended up in Aunt Mimi's house after John moved out. When John was murdered in 1980 Mimi gave it to a family friend who had a disabled son. After the boy died, the guitar ended up with another disabled friend and was sold at an auction by Sotheby.

How do we know the guitar is indeed the real deal? Well, interestingly Sotheby's asked fellow Quarrymen member Rod Davis to identify the guitar. He remembered that there was a spot of blood inside the guitar from where John cut the skin of his finger...and sure, the spot was still there!

Eventually the guitar sold for 250,000 dollar, with part of the proceedings going to a school for Liverpool disabled musicians. And the current owner displayed it at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts during the winter of 2000/2001 for the "Dangerous Curves" exhibition

Sentimental Journey

On 27 March 1970 Ringo Starr released his first solo album that he had already been preparing since 1969, around the same time that Paul McCartney is recording his first solo album (McCartney).

The press was not amused with the record, because it did not contain rock 'n' roll but standards from the 1930's. Ringo had however a lot of help from his friends, notably Paul McCartney, Klaus Voorman, George Martin, Quincy Jones, Elmer Bernstein and Maurice Gibb).

The album didn't do bad in the charts, but mostly because of the association with the Beatles.

Interesting side-note: the album cover shows the Empress pub which is located in front of Madryn street (where Ringo was born) and on the corner of Albert Grove where Ringo lived from the age of 3. If you look carefully you can even see the house on Albert Grove 10.
I included a picture I took in May 2012 which shows the terrible state the Empress is in.

18 February 1933: Yoko Ono is born

Yoko Ono, artist, author, peace activist and of course widow of John Lennon was born on 18 February 1933 in Tokyo. Her parents come from a line of bankers and she is a descendant of a Japanese Emperor.

According to most musical historians, Yoko Ono first met John Lennon at the Indica Gallery in London, where she was preparing her conceptual art exhibit. John was still married to Cynthia at that time, but while she was on holiday in Greece he invited Yoko to stay with him.

They got married in Gibraltar (for the whole story just listen to "The Ballad of John & Yoko" on 20 March 1969 and spent their honeymoon in the Amsterdam Hilton where the whole world press was invited to grow their hair for peace :)

Yoko Ono has always been treated unfairly by both public and press. She was blamed for the breakup of the Beatles and for influencing John Lennon too much.

the picture is by Marcela Cataldi Cipolla and is published here under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

3 January 1926

George Martin, the famous British composer, conductor, musician and of course Beatles procucer was born in Holloway, London on January 3rd 1926. He went to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and began working for EMI in 1950. At that time he worked with comedy artists like Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan, recording novelty records.

On 13 February 1962 George Martin met up with Brian Epstein for the first time to listen to the Decca audition tapes. Martin was not impressed by the recording, but thought John and Paul had promising vocals. On 9 May 1962 George Martin agreed to a recording contract and audition, to take place later on 6 June 1962.

It is often said that George Martin brought the best out of the Beatles (musically) and he arranged and even composed many of their orchestrated songs. Best examples are Yesterday (it was G.M's idea to add the strings), Strawberry Fields and Eleanor Rigby (for which he composed a string arrangement based on Bernard Herrmann's score for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

Number 9

On 9 September 2009, EMI released the remastered  Beatles back catalogue.

09-09-09 might seem like a cool date to do anything, but in the case of The Beatles (and especially John Lennon) the number 9 has a big significance.

here is a list of some number 9-related facts...please feel free to write your own number 9 stories here below in the comments.

- John Lennon was born on 9 October 1940
- He first lived on Newcastle (9 letters) Road, in Wavertree (9 letters), Liverpool (9 letters)
- John Lennon wrote songs named "One After 909", "Revolution #9" and "#9 Dream"
- Revolution #9 appears on the 9th Studio Album of The Beatles
- The Beatles broke up after 9 years together
- His best friends were Stu Sutcliffe (9 letters) and Paul McCartney (9 letters)
- He took the 72 bus to school (7+2 = 9)
- The Beatles first played the Cavern on February 9th, 1961
- Brian Epstein first saw The Beatles on November 9th, 1961
- The Beatles' contract with Parlophone/Emi was on May 9th, 1962
- Cynthia Lennon's birthday is 10/9 and John's is 9/10
- The Beatles first single has catalogue number R4949
- The Beatles finally made it big during their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February 1964
- John Lennon met Yoko Ono on 9 November 1966
- After changing his name to John Ono Lennon, there were 9 'o' 's in his and Yoko Ono Lennon's name

Walls & Bridges (his 9th solo album) contains many references to 9


- On the sleeve of the record you can see a footballer wear a number 9 shirt
-  The record contains " #9 dream". It peaked at number 9 in the Billboard charts
- There are 9 syllables in the chorus: Ah! Böwakawa poussé, poussé
- It was released in November (9th month)
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- Mind Games contains 9 letters
- Rock 'n' Roll contains 9 letters
- John & Yoko lived on West 72 (7+2 = 9) Street
- Sean Lennon was born on 9 October 1975
- The first Dakota Building flat that John & Yoko lived in was number 72 (7+2 = 9) 
- John was shot on 8 October (9 October Liverpool Time)
- John died at Roosevelt Hospital (9 letters) in Manhattan (9 letters)

do you know any others? Let us know!