Family reflections on the Liverpool Lennons



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An Interview With Julia Baird

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(page 3 of 6)

Let's talk a bit about Cynthia, about John's feelings for her and Julian ...

When John met Cynthia we knew that something had happened; we knew that some great thing had happened although we didn't quite know what. John was totally on edge and disappearing and then eventually, I do remember him hanging out of the window at 'Mendips' in his bedroom waiting for the bus, and I was there with Mimi that day, and he was waiting for Cynthia to get off the bus from Penny Lane.

She came in and I thought she was absolutely beautiful and of course she is. She's got that sort of bone structure that if she's a hundred she'll be beautiful. She's just a beautiful woman isn't she? She's beautiful inside and out, she's a lovely lady. I don't think anyone who knows her would disagree with that.

She did get blonder and blonder, but she was being Brigitte Bardot. I think Paul had Dot go blonder and blonder cause Paul's girlfriend was a friend of Cynthia's.

Cynthia has explained about her relationship with John and how it got off the ground. They'd met at art college, mainly it seems by John borrowing her things all the time, and I can see that happening, and the sort of well known by now, asking Cynthia to go out and she said 'I've got a boyfriend' and he said ' I didn't ask to marry you did I?' I can see that too.

They were instantly fast and furious. It was all love and lust wasn't it? All lust and love, whichever way you care to put it, Cynthia didn't have an earthly chance. John was going to have her good style - and he did. And before long of course, she was pregnant.

I do remember John being told you don't have to marry her John; you don't have to do this. I know that Mrs Powell, that's Cynthia's mother, also told Cynthia, you don't have to get married. So they didn't get married because it was a shotgun wedding. They got married because they wanted to, because I remember John saying: "I want to marry her, what's the matter with you all?"

And then another memory is of Julian being brought home to 'Mendips' for the first time - this tiny, tiny, tiny baby. Cynthia did actually come back to live in 'Mendips' for a time. I was in the kitchen peeling apples for Mimi and she said: "I'm going to see John in his flat this afternoon. (John and Cynthia's flat in Penny Lane) He wants to come home." I said: "What are you going to do Mimi?" I was only a child and she said: "Well I'm just thinking how I can divide the house up." And that's what she did.

Mimi went upstairs with the Baby Belling cooker, which she put into John's bedroom. There were two other big bedrooms up there so the front bedroom became her sitting room; the back bedroom where she always slept was her bedroom. John and Cynthia moved in downstairs and the back sitting room with French windows on to the back garden became John and Cynthia's bedroom and the front living room became their living room.

Everybody in that house lived in the morning room, which was right next to the kitchen so that's where they mainly were. So they stayed there for, I don't know, I could be guessing, nine months I'd say, but I could be wrong.

John was touring and he was doing Hamburg and we often had Julian then. We would come home from school and just see the pram in the hall. We were round the corner remember, and we'd know that we had Julian because Cynthia had actually gone with John on one of these trips.

If you look on the Internet you'll find letters that John was writing to Cynthia from Hamburg and from Los Angeles talking about his love for Cynthia and the fact that he missed Julian. He wanted to be a better father - remember they were still together; - wanted to see more of him. "I must stop reading the papers when he's about and he's awake. I must give him more attention" what any young father might say when he's away and he's missing them and I have actually sent those to Julian, I hope he's got them.

What about when the whole Beatles thing exploded? What was it like for everybody back home, for all you kids for a start?

If I can just talk about the cousins first I can put it in place. Because the five sisters spanned ten years in age - there had been seven and one brother and one sister had died - the children, us cousins, had a big span in age as well. There was Stan who was born in 1933, Liela was born in 1937, John was born in 1940, I was in 1947 and Jackie was 1949. The two younger boys - David was born in 1948 and Michael was born in 1947. I was in March, he was in November. As you can see there were three older ones and that was Stan, Liela and John and they were very, very close; they were like brothers and sisters. Then there was David, Michael, Jackie and I, also like brothers and sisters. We were the four next so there was seven of us and occasionally we'd all be together. I'm talking about holiday-type all together because John was our brother wasn't he?

For us you see, it was a gradual process. As I'd said before everyone who had a brother, that brother was in a group. Everyone's brother was playing somewhere in some club in Liverpool whether it was a British Legion local club or a club in town and John had graduated to going off to Hamburg.

My school actually kept a record on the school notice board of what John was doing and what he was up to and of course he gradually overtook the others because they were becoming big. So it wasn't such an explosion to us as it was to other people. We didn't realise he was so big I'm sure.

I remember him coming upstairs in the cottage where we lived with Harrie and David and Jackie and I. We had the record player in our bedroom upstairs and I remember him coming up with a demo disc, which we'd never seen before of 'Love Me Do'. It was smooth on one side and had the track on the other. And we played it.

John went downstairs and said: "Here's the record, here's the record". I have to say I'd never liked it and I could never see what anyone saw in it. I thought 'Well they're never going to make it if that's the record'. Of course I was wrong, I liked 'Please Please Me' when that came out.

Then Jimmy Saville said at that time he played 'Please Please Me' on either Radio Caroline/ Radio Luxembourg - we were tuning into all the crackling at ten at night - he said: "Well this is from the Beatles, it's got to be better than 'Love Me Do' but I sure hope it pleases somebody". But he was wrong on that one. I bet he wishes he could eat those words.