October the Ninth

9th October, 1909 - Gwendoline Maud Brinkworth (my paternal grandmother) was born in Cardiff.

9th October, 1940 - John Winston Lennon was born in Liverpool. Gwen was 30.

9th October, 1962 - Marc Owen Harry was born in Wrexham. Gwen was 52 and John was 22.

9th October, 1975 - Sean Ono Lennon was born in New York. Gwen had died earlier that year, John was 35, Marc became a teenager.

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Thus is my own family and the Lennon family forever linked. I so much wanted one of my own children to have been born on 9th October...but was not even close! Is it too late? It's my turn, after all! Maybe my (soon to be ex) wife and I never had enough early nights in January...

Nevertheless, the 9/10 date each year, having imposed itself four times in sixty-five years (against odds of 'goodness knows how many' to 1*) it is little wonder the number 9 held such a fascination for either John or I, is it? (#9 Dream, One After 909, "Revolution 9/Number Nine" etc.)

In fact, the number 9 crops up very often throughout the world of music - look at the number of composers who stopped (for one reason or another!) at 9 symphonies? 9/8 time (compound triple), nonet, the interval, several pop and rock band names (e.g. Nine Inch Nails, 999) and album titles (e.g. Public Image Ltd, Fairport Convention)...even John's fellow Beatle had an album called 'Cloud Nine'...

John would have been 69 today, my Nana Harry 'one after 99' - telegram from the Queen time...alas she has been returned to her Maker for some 34 years. But John is forever 40.

My mum woke me on that Tuesday morning in December 1980 with the words 'prepare yourself for a shock'...but nothing could have prepared me for her news...I sat on my bedroom floor tuning my radio from station to station trying to find one that would tell me John Lennon was NOT dead - but they all did the opposite! I made a 'shrine' in my bedroom window with album covers and my guitar before heading off to school. At school, my friend Colin Nicholson and I asked permission to hold a gathering during the next day's General Study period to play John's music...

...Permission was granted - on condition that for every record we played we performed 2 songs live! So, the next day, we prepared our little concert - expecting two or three others to attend. So many wanted to pay their respects to the murdered ex-Beatle we had to move out of the room into a bigger hall and Colin and I performed in front of rows of crying girls wearing glassless, round spectacles, Beatles scarves and wigs. It was the first time I ever sang while accompanying myself on guitar!

A few weeks before I had taken my place in the queue for one of the first ever 'midnight openings' in Newcastle City centre...to purchase the first new LP by John Lennon since 1975. 'Double Fantasy' had sat on my turntable ever since. The album has been unfairly criticised since its release but, for me, it's a gem of a record! I think much of the negativity is connected with the tired and ridiculous Yoko-bashing that still goes on in Beatles forums today. I've always found Yoko an intriguing, innovative artist - both in the musical and 'art' sense: one of the things that led John back to recording in 1980 was hearing female 'new-wave' singers like Lene Lovich whose 'new' sound was an old one to people who'd heard Yoko's output for the last ten years!

Yoko shared 'Double Fantasy' with John, alternating tracks (almost) throughout. Her first song on the album, 'Kiss, Kiss, Kiss', was one of those that, while living at home, I had to turn the volume down or quickly plug headphones in (along with tracks like 'You're Breaking My Heart' by Nilsson) for Yoko loudly and enthusiastically fakes a prolonged multiple orgasm as part of it...I wonder if that had ever been done on record before???

John's songs on the record I grew to love very quickly - '(Just Like) Starting Over', 'Woman', 'Watching The Wheels' and 'Beautiful Boy' in particular. The last of these became even more poignant in the weeks ahead - a wonderful love song to his 5 year-old son, Sean. "I can hardly wait to see you come of age," John sang. Of course, he never saw that day...

...But it does bring us round to where we started, doesn't it. 'Little' Sean, John's 'beautiful boy' is 34 today...just 6 years younger than his dad was when his life was stolen. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Sean...and John...and Nana Harry...oh and me too!

*I have several friends who are Maths fiends - none of whom I've been able to contact in the last 24 hours to calculate this one for me...if anyone comes up with a figure I'll re-edit the post!!!!