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In His Own Words
About his time in art school, John said: "My whole school
life was a case of 'I couldn't care less'. It was just a joke
as far as I was concerned. Art was the only thing I could
do, and my headmaster told me that if I didn't go to art school
I might as well give up life. I wasn't really keen. I thought
it would be a crowd of old men, but I should make the effort
and make something of myself. I stayed for five years doing
commercial art. Frankly, I found it all as bad as maths and
science. And I loathed those. The funny thing was I didn't
even pass art in the GCE. I spent the exam time doing daft
cartoons. I got into art school by doing some decent stuff
and taking it along to show them."
On musical differences:
"From our earliest days in Liverpool, George and I on the
one hand and Paul on the other had different musical tastes.
Paul preferred 'pop type' music and we preferred what is now
called 'underground'. This may have led to arguments, particularly
between Paul and George, but the contrast in tastes, I'm sure,
did more good than harm, musically speaking, and contributed
to our success."
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John was born in Liverpool on October 9, 1940, during the height
of WWII, his father, Fred Lennon, off at sea. His father didn't
turn up again until five years later, and when he did he tried
to take John away from his mother, Julia, when she refused
to restart her life with him.
Instead, he grew up in the Liverpool suburb of Woolton, with
his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George, at 251 Menlove Ave, which
became nicknamed Mendips. Julia died in 1958, in an automobile
accident practically in front of Mendips. Aunt Mimi ran a
very strict household.
John very quickly became bored at school, preferring drawing
and writing about his classmates and teachers rather than
his studies. Rebellious at an early age, he had a very rough
school history, sagging off from school (going AWOL from classes)
and petty stealing. His future looked bleak until Mimi got
the headmaster of the Quarrybank school to write a letter
of recommendation for John to the Liverpool Art College, because
of his drawings.
Heartbreak Hotel, and John's musical interest was piqued.
Then he heard Lonnie Donegan's Rock Island Line on Radio Luxembourg,
and became part of the new Skiffle craze by begging his Aunt
Mimi until she broke down and bought him a guitar, although
she forever told him he would never get anywhere with it.
He started his own band, the Quarrymen, with his long time
pal and fellow troublemaker Pete Shotton, singing all the
popular songs, sometimes making up the words when he couldn't
get them all off the radio. Also in the Quarrymen were Nigel
Walley and Ivan Vaughan, the rest of John's gang. It was Ivan
Vaughan who introduced John to his friend, Paul McCartney,
in 1957.
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