What was John's relationship like with Julia? She sounds more like a sister than a mother.

Well he was very, very close to his mother. The idea that he never saw his mother is not true at all. Mimi was a sort of guardian and he slept at Mendips, but his mother's home - No1 Blomfield Road - was not 10-15 minutes walk from Aunt Mimi's house and he'd actually go from his school in Penny Lane straight to his mother's home because he had the freedom there to do what he liked. And she was very encouraging on his musical career. She was just like a sister to him. She was vivacious, young and full of verve and up to all kinds of tricks, you know, and she would muck in with him. The bathroom was a terrific echo chamber so even Paul and George and John would go around to Julia's house and they'd practise on their guitars in the bathroom because they got a terrific sound effect. In the early days they did go to Aunt Mimi's but she wouldn't let them play in the house, she'd only let them play in the front porch. She wasn't very keen on John going into this music line, playing guitars and so on.

And of course Mimi's words have entered Beatles folklore, "It's all very well playing the guitar John, but you'll never make a living at it." A plaque was engraved with those words, what ever happened to it?

The Americans made a platinum plaque with those very words on it and in the end Mary displayed it on the wall of her house down in Poole in Dorset.

I believe when Aunt Mimi died she gave it to one of the nurses. She had full time nursing when she was very ill before she died, and she gave one or two items to the nurses who looked after her.

Do you have any memories of the Cavern and the boys playing down there? Didn't you take Mimi down there one time?

Yes, John had started playing down at the Cavern and Mimi had got word of this and she said "I hear he's playing in this Cavern in the city of Liverpool. I believe it's in the cellar somewhere. Take me down I want to see this place. I believe it's a terrible place." I thought "Oh hello, here we go!" So I said "Oh alright I'll take you along." I took her along. Well when she went down into this deep cavern - I mean it was just a dark cavern - the stage was only lit up, and the walls were literally running with water from perspiration from the crowds of teenagers trying to watch the local bands, she hit the roof, "Get him out. Get him out. Tell him to come off the stage. He can't stay here." I said, "It's alright Mimi. Leave him alone, he's enjoying himself. He's not doing any harm." "Oh this can't be right. We'll have to stop this." Anyway I managed to get her out and back home, but of course the Cavern went on and he eventually went off to Hamburg.

Did you enjoy going to see them at the Cavern - were they any good?

Oh yes - they were great. It was a real thumping pop group. It was a skiffle group then - The Quarry Men.

But you had seen John play many times before, weren't you at Roseberry Street?

No I wasn't at Roseberry Street, but I was at the Woolton Fete and Julia - John's mother got word to my mother, "John's going to play professionally for the first time in front of a public audience at the Woolton Church Hall. Tell Stan to try and get down." Which I did. I went with a nephew of Uncle George named Clifford, who lived three or four doors along from Aunt Mimi.

Do you remember John's reaction to his mother's death?

It was a traumatic time. He was shaken to the core and did tend to go into himself a bit, but fortunately he had Paul as a great stay because Paul had lost his mother at more or less the same period, and they had one another's shoulders to literally cry on and they could commiserate with one another.

Do you remember what the relationship was like between John and Paul in those early days?

Well Paul and George went on the same bus together to their school. John joined the bus a bit later on at a different stop, but they were very pally. Paul and George used to write their little songs on bits of paper on the top of the bus going into school. Of course after they became famous with their hit record the producers wanted more and more and more. "God, they want more songs. They want more tunes." So they went back to their little ditties that they'd written and enlarged on them and improved them and that kept them going with more new songs and hits.

Paul and John were very, very close because they worked off one another composing these songs.

And then came the Beatles explosion!

We had no idea that this phenomenon would happen. John brought up his demo record of 'Love Me Do' to Edinburgh and we thought "Oh this is great." And then 'Please, Please Me' went up the chart, I thought, "This is going to be a bit of a success here. We've got a fine musician in the family." And then of course the concerts started and the film career started and we, as the family, were invited to these, the likes of the film premiere of 'A Hard Day's Night' in Liverpool. We all went to that and the civic reception afterwards in Liverpool Town Hall. He's up on the balcony with the rest of them waving to the crowds and of course half of Liverpool was inside the Town Hall and one of the family got lost in the crowd and John said "Where's my family? I can't see my relatives" and we're saying "We're over here, we're over here." "Oh" he said "come up to the front." So we were very excited.

We went down to the film premiere of 'Help' and to the reception at the Dorchester Hotel after. As you know Princess Margaret was at that and she had her own private room. So it was sent through that she would like to have a dance with John Lennon and he said "I'm not going to have a dance with Princess Margaret. I can't dance." I said, "John that's a royal command, if you don't go she'll have you locked up in the Tower of London and beheaded." "She wouldn't would she?" I said, "Yes". "Oh I'd better go" and he did go and have a dance with Princess Margaret.

Paul had his family. George had his family. I was with Aunt Mimi and some of our family and Ringo had his family and all the cast of the film 'Help', you know? Yes it was great, great time.

Well the drugs thing started when he was down in London and I'm told, I believe, I don't know whether it's true or not, they'd gone to this top dentist in London and he introduced them to marijuana. I can't categorically say that, we think that's how it started. One time I was down visiting John, and Paul had come over to see John about something and both were what I would call a bit high, but I thought they'd been knocking back whiskey, something like that, but it seemed to be quite obvious that they were quite high. They started castigating me, looking down upon me, "You're middle class, living in these middle class homes and we're here in this big palatial house in Weybridge." I said "Hey John just remember you were in the middle class home yourself before you were famous." Again he backed down. He said "Oh I remember." That's how it started and it went on to the heavy stuff, which I didn't like at all. I couldn't understand why intelligent people can go down to the depths of having to rely on drugs, but they were leading a completely artificial life, weren't they? They were trapped in - even when they were touring - they were trapped in little dressing rooms which you couldn't turn a cat in and they couldn't go out. They couldn't go to the cinema. They couldn't go out in the public so they were literally left to their own devices, entertaining themselves with their own clique of friends. And they got into the drug scene.

I'm happy to say that before he died he had come out his old self again. He was the good old, clean living John and did write home and say, "Look I'm a housemother now. Baking cakes. I'm the housemother looking after Sean and I'm not into drugs anymore."

© 2004 Lennon by Lennon Ltd. All rights reserved