CLICK TO VISIT OUR SHOP LATEST NEWS DISCOGRAPHY MEMBERS CLUB BLOG CONTACT US HOME

Nick Leese ran the wonderful Heyday Mail Order service for many years, and he's been part of the music business for far longer than that.
In 'Recollection Box', Nick shares a few of his favourite stories, bands, albums and more with followers of Fruits de Mer....

IN THE YEAR 2024 / REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE 8TH DECEMBER

REMEMBER REMEMBER THE 8TH DECEMBER

It's nearly 44 years since the shooting of John Lennon in New York. One of those events, if you're old enough to remember, where you know where you were and what you were doing when you first heard the news. At that time I was a Beatles fan and John Lennon my favourite artist.

I had an interview in Manchester on the 8th December for a college course. I arrived in the city in an ill-fitting new jacket, thin shirt and a tie. The weather was also freezing cold, to complete my general discomfort! The interview was in the early afternoon and after it I decided to zip into the centre to check out the record shops. I suppose I was hoping that by being accepted on the college course and moving to Manchester, I’d be able to expand my music collection. Yes, life to me then was really that simple! Taking a short digression here, the following week I also had a similar interview arranged in Liverpool. When that was over I again decided to wander around the city, this time to explore Beatle related sites before taking the train home. To be walking around a very cold and grey Liverpool shortly after Lennon's murder was eerie. The place seemed in a state of shock, but back now to the 8th December. Before turning in for the night I put ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ on the deck of my white Fidelity UA4 record player. Impressive eh? That was my first record player, it had matching little white speakers too! The last song I listened to was ‘I Am The Walrus’. I doubt I’d be able to remember what I played on any other evening 44 years ago quite so vividly!

I was woken by my mother the following morning with the news that John Lennon had been killed. At first I thought it was a ploy to get me out of bed, but she was serious. A strange numbness then came over me. The news was by now all over the radio and it seemed the only music being played was either Beatles or solo Lennon. At college, my friends and I grouped together in the common room and just sat there, mostly in silence. I don’t think we managed to attend a single lecture that day at all. My sister, who had seen The Beatles in 1963, told me she had cried all day. Only three years earlier there had been a huge outpouring of grief over the passing of Elvis, but this seemed to hit people even harder.

By 1980, I’d been listening seriously to The Beatles and the solo work of John Lennon for about three years, but it already felt like all my life. One of the first pre-recorded cassette tapes I bought when I had my first cassette player in 1973 was 'The Top Of The Poppers Sing And Play The Beatles Golden Hits'. I didn't realise at the time that it wasn't actually The Beatles, but this didn't matter then. I was more taken with the music. When I started buying Beatles vinyl, it was always the songs by Lennon that struck me most. I bought ‘Strawberry Fields’ as a single and had the record player set to autoplay. Over and over it played, I couldn't hear enough of it. Nothing I’d ever heard before sounded like it. It remains my favourite song. ‘Rubber Soul’ was another favourite, cool cover too. ’Norwegian Wood’, ‘In My Life’, ‘The Word’ - Lennon was on a roll! By ‘Revolver’ the songwriting really began to change - ’She Said She Said’ and of course ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ - psychedelia begins here folks! These, and others soon to follow, were songs unique in style and I suppose that was what set the Beatles apart from the rest, they created new musical genres as they continually progressed, and then moved quickly on to another. There have been artists and bands since that have quite happily made a whole career out of just one Beatles song.

For me, what was it then about Lennon? That voice and those words. They could at times rip right through you or sooth a sometimes troubled mind. His humour. When I saw Peter Jackson's 'Get Back – The Rooftop Concert' documentary at my local cinema, it was Lennon's quips throughout that brought a smile to my face and livened up a pretty miserable period for the band. I really miss not having someone like him around in music now. It's all too serious. He was fallible and maybe said and did some things he probably wished that later he hadn’t, but he always came across as being honest about how he felt at a particular time. He used his fame to highlight social injustice, the futility of war, and in doing so managed to reach people outside of just music. It's a pity, that like Gandhi & MLK before him, he met such a violent end, and perhaps not a lot seems to have changed with the world since either, but as long as the spirit of these people still remains out there, and I believe it does, then one day perhaps...