What do you remember of the summer of 1969, when John had a car accident in the Highlands of Scotland?

John, Julian, Kyoko & Yoko © MirrorPix.com

Well of course he was so fond of the Highlands he was determined that he would show Yoko where he spent his childhood holidays. He drove himself up in a bog standard Maxi car, meaning to be normal tourists. But as you know Yoko had long hair down to her knees and he had this long hair and the beard, and I said "John you can't go thinking you're not going to be recognised. You're mad doing 'bed and breakfast' like an ordinary couple. What are you doing in an old Maxi like that? You've got Rolls Royces, chauffeurs, Ferraris and Porches and you come up in an old rubbishy car like that?" "Oh I just want to be ordinary," he said. So I said "Remember John, when you go up into the highlands the single-track roads start above Inverness. Be very careful and remember the rule of the single-track road." He wasn't a good driver. He was very short-sighted and didn't do much driving anyway and so he was always chauffeured about everywhere. So I was surprised to see him driving there, but he insisted that he drive up. I couldn't go up with him. I had to go down to Scarborough on business but I said "I'll join you later."

So when I was in Scarborough I was having to go to this business premises and I heard two people say, "I hear John Lennon's been in a car crash and he's been taken to hospital," and I thought "Oh my God what's he done now?" So I couldn't wait to get back home to my own house to find out what the devil's happened.

Loch Erobil

They were all taken to hospital - John, Yoko, Kyoko and Julian. He'd been driving from our croft right round Loch Erobil which is a beautiful run right round to Tongue, and the weather had got a bit dull and dim. He forgot about the rule of the road - at lay-bys you always go into the left hand side one and the oncoming traffic go into their left hand side one. But the foreigners don't understand this and he met a foreign tourist coming along and they didn't go into their by-pass and came straight on towards him. He hadn't gone into his by-pass and they were meeting head on! I asked him "What happened?" He said "Oh I panicked. I let go of the steering wheel and the car just went in the ditch." And of course he was smashed up and had to have stitches in the forehead, chin, cheeks and what have you and taken to the hospital. They were stitched up and they had a lovely time in the hospital. John sent for his LP, it might have been 'Help' or 'Walls and Bridges',and gave the LP to all the nurses for looking after him so well. And he was helicoptered off down to London, but my mother took Julian back to the croft because Cynthia was worried about Julian and she came up and took him home herself. So that was that escapade.

Tell us a little bit about the gardening project in Durness.

Stanley in 'The Beechgrove Garden'

A Scottish gardening programme (shown only on Scottish TV) called 'The Beechgrove Garden' helps people design and build their own garden areas around their homes or business, or whatever. They get about 12,000 applicants for them to go and do this. So anyway the old village hall in Durness became dangerous and it was raised to the ground. The villagers had a brand new village hall built not far behind our croft, and it was suggested by someone in the village that they apply to 'The Beechgrove Garden' to help them design a brand-new landscaped garden. The villagers also decided they'd like to make a small portion of the garden in memory of John Lennon because of his connection and love of Durness and the Highlands in particular.

So they applied and the programme sent somebody to go and scout around and see what it was all about. And they said "John Lennon up in Durness? What was he doing up here? He was never up here." "Oh yes he was. He was up here for a great part of his young life." said Graham Bruce who's the headmaster and organiser. The researcher happened to be a Beatles fanatic and a John Lennon fan so when she was shown the original family croft, she said "Oh stop the car, I must get out." And she went over to kiss the wall of the croft. Graham said, "Stan I think the fact that there's a connection with John swayed them to come and do the programme." So Jan (Stan's wife) and I have been invited up to be part of it and to be there on the last day of filming and be interviewed and it's going out on Scottish television on the 22nd August, 2002, which should be quite nice.

John had a favourite mouth organ which has a nice story attached to it…

John originally had a very cheap little mouth organ. I don't know whether he got it at Woolworths or what. Anyway he was keen on learning the mouth organ and he would play this little mouth organ on the bus coming up to Scotland, probably driving everyone scatty on the bus. Anyway the conductor who was on the bus had been listening to him and when he got to Edinburgh he said "You're quite good on that mouth organ. Would you like a real professional one with side buttons and everything?" "Oh yes!" he said. "Well there was a passenger left one on the bus months ago and it's never been played." He said "If you come back to the bus station tomorrow, I'll give it to you." So I took John there the next morning and he was given this mouth organ. It was one of these semi-professional ones, and he had it for years and in fact he played it on some of his records. Eventually he took it to America and had it in the Dakota building in New York I believe.

Music was in the family, and John inherited this talent…

The musical side of the family goes way back really, because our great-grandfather, although his main occupation was a lawyer/solicitor's clerk, was a part time musician so he must have passed on some musical talent to his daughter who was Annie Jane Milward - Annie Jane Stanley - because she played the piano and her father John Ernest Stanley, he played the banjo and the ukulele. In the old days as you know, in Victorian times, the home entertainment was to stand around the piano, sing songs and do your own entertaining which they did with their five daughters. So it was passed on to John through Julia, his mother, because she taught John the basic cords of the banjo and the ukulele and a bit of the piano too, and that is how his musical talent erupted.

There was one point when I lived at Fleetwood (Lancashire) with my mother during the war, I actually learned to play the piano at my school and I remember struggling through a thing like 'The Skaters' Waltz' and I had to do a lot of practising. Well while I was in this room practising and all my pals were out playing in the playground I said "Oh to heck with this" and gave it up. But when I was at Fleetwood I got a half-sized piano accordion and I couldn't master this thing. It was like playing the piano sideways and I said "Would you like this John?" He took it, strapped it on his shoulder and just took to it like a duck takes to water and played it. I said "How the heck did you do that?" "Oh I don't know." he said "I just do it." He took it home and he had it for quite a while.

While I was staying with him in Weybridge he'd be working on some of his songs and I'd sit next to him at an upright piano. He had long fingers and his long fingers stretched right out over the keys and he would play away and I said "John you're not playing with your thumbs." "Oh" he said "I can only play with four fingers." I said "How the heck can you play this music and you can't even read music? (sheet music)" He said "I don't know it just happened." It was amazing you know? It was a gift.

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