Had this amazing find yesterday. Just near where I work there’s a discount bookshop that sells lots of remainders. Over the years I’ve picked up quite a few things here (see: The Beatles Second Album; “The Beatles” book; Beatles Books Abound; etc.)
Yesterday I went in for the first time in weeks and saw about five copies of this sitting on a shelf:
I’ve seen this book around the traps but never purchased a copy, but at just A$14.99 how could I refuse?
John Lennon’s son Julian has turned his Beatles memorabilia, previously sitting in storage, into a travelling exhibition and a book – all to raise funds for his charity The White Feather Foundation.
There are lots of gold record awards – all of them from the US and all of them genuine (that is, the actual records that were presented by the RIAA – the Recording Industry of America – to the Beatles). In fact Julian says that his is the only full collection of the American gold discs. How can you tell they are all original? Well the book explains that official presentations are identifiable by the “…white-matte style, so named because of the white linen background used in the construction of the award. These types of awards were produced from 1963 to 1974 and were strictly limited to the artists only.”
Interestingly, Julian says in the text that despite being the only person to own a complete set of Beatles US gold records, he doesn’t own any of the Beatles vinyl albums at all. Extraordinary.
There are a couple of great guitars pictured in the book – some of which were given to him by his father and others acquired later (like this one):
Julian says that nearly everything he now owns he had to buy at auction. When his father passed away in 1980 he didn’t inherit any mementoes or keepsakes. Which is incredibly sad for himself and for his family.
If you want to have a peek inside just click here, and here’s a video of Julian Lennon talking about the book and exhibition.
Beatles Blog 
Hi
I came across this great article on the Beatles performance on top of their old recording studio ‘Apple Studio’. Thought you might be interested. Here’s the link:
http://www.timetv.com.au/index.php/beatles-rooftop-concert
Cheers
LikeLike
This is undoubtedly an unusual piece of Beatle-ish memorabilia, but it means something to me. I possess a white ceramic orange juice squeezer that I retrieved from the trash of Cynthia Lennon’s former home in Ruthin, Wales. I went to England and Europe the summer of 1980 or 1981 when Princess Diana was married. Somehow, in the days before the internet, I found out that Cynthia Lennon lived in Ruthin and owned a restaurant which must have been Oliver’s Bistro. So I decided to go there. Unfortunately Cynthia had closed the restaurant and left only about 2 or 3 weeks before I arrived. Naturally I wanted to look around at the place, so I looked inside the windows and then walked to the backyard. Abandonded on the lawn, was a wooden sign painted white with black lettering advertising the place, which I took a photo of. I thought of taking the sign with me, but it was too large to lug around. There was an open trash can and in it I found the orange squeezer. I figured since it was in the trash and Cynthia had moved that I would not be stealing, so I took it with me. My friends and I were real Beatle fans as kids and they were very envious of my find. So sorry to hear of Cynthia Lennon’s passing. She seemed like a very nice lady and deserved better than she got in life.
LikeLike