The facts behind the drama

John Lennon in Blackpool

Blackpool in the 1940's

John Lennon in Blackpool. It almost sounds like a romantic title of an adventure book. Like Tintin in America. What was he doing there? And why? He performed several times in this North-English town with The Beatles like they did in every place in Britain. So not very exceptional. No, the reason to write about Blackpool in relation to John Lennon happens rather despite him than because of him.

By Dominique Verschuren

Every biographer gives attention to what happened to John Lennon in Blackpool. Some writers just a paragraph, some others two pages. But strangely enough no one ever seemed to come to Blackpool searching for the place where it all happens. Tony Sharkey, local history librarian of Blackpool: "As far as I can remember you're the first who asked about that address. It may have been cropped up previous years. But you're the first person who, to my knowledge, research it any depth."

Bill Harry, founder of the magazine Mersey Beat and good friend of John Lennon from College of Art, wrote about John in Blackpool. Sharkey: "I don't know about his research or where he got his information. His information is maybe based on interviews and verbal reports rather than records."

Harry is not the person calls the address, 25 Ivy Avenue, explicit. You can find that detail here: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/pob/pob40.html. But Harry certainly is the writer who shows up with the specific date: Saturday June 22, 1946. When I asked him about his information Harry wrote me: "I had the address, the people they stayed with, all the details. But my computer went kaput and 10 years research has disappeared, together with that information." Mail dated: 14 maart 2011. Harry website is: http://triumphpc.com/mersey-beat/beatles/johnlennon-blackpool3.shtml.

Unfortunately Harry was wrong. According to Tim Riley. He wrote Lennon. The Definitive Life. What has that supposed to be, the definitive life? As if there exists something like a provisional life when someone died? Anyway, Riley dated 4 days later: wednesday June 26. In other words, nothing is definitive in Lennon's life. About every details there's discussion. That makes it impossible to write about him on facts. Lennon adjudged historiography bankrupt.

If you've been a child to Blackpool, you'll be a fan for life

So let's tell a story. What happened exactly with John Lennon in Blackpool, somewhere in June 1946?



Alfred Lennon

Alfred Lennon spent his holiday in Blackpool with his son. Both enjoyed very much: donkey ride, leisure centre... They stayed for a period in the house of the parents of Freddie's friend, Billy Hall: 25 Ivy Avenue. These people just decided to migrate to New Zealand. A bloody good idea, Freddie must have thought and wanted to follow with the 5 years old John. But something happened. Julia showed up to get her child back. The parents argued about him. Fruitless. So Fred asked John: What do you want? Come with me to New Zealand or stay with your mother in Liverpool? John wanted his parents got back together. That was out of the question. So he preferred to join his father. Julia accepted the decision and walked away. At that moment the little John started to panic. He run to his mother, she took him with her and disappeared. Fred saw his son back when John was already a Beatle and had conquered the world.

 

Sharkey: "Blackpool was very popular in the years you're talking about. 7 to 10 million visitors a year. Blackpool didn't close down during the war, in the 1940's Blackpool was a very lively place. Britain recovered because the effects of the war, people filled in to Blackpool. Blackpool is a town to dance, to go to the theatre, to amuse, to have fun.  I always say: If you've been a child to Blackpool, you'll be a fan for life. To understand Blackpool you have to join in."

A history hole

Searching for the place is not easy. If you're looking in The Local and Family History Centre in the Central Library of Blackpool for the address where it all happened you walk up to a strange wall. It's the wall which hide moments in history. Sharkey: "The problem you have is the time, 1945-1946. The boundary of Blackpool excluded the area where Ivy Avenue was. The electoral register is entitled to vote instead of finding people in terms of their purpose. Ivy Avenue technically must be listed under the Fylde constituency and not the Blackpool constituency. We don't have that file, while it has to be in theory."

In other words we cannot check if Mr. and Mrs. Hall really lived at 25 Ivy Avenue in June 1946. I found a proof that they were not living anymore late 1946. I have a look at the list of names with the voters based for Parliamentary Elections in 1946/1947. If I look at 25 Ivy  Avenue the names Pocock and Dootson showed up two times. Not the name Hall. Does that mean that the Halls effectively migrate to New Zealand? It seems so, but we can't be sure, according to a strict historical rule. But what about June 1946 or before? So that scene is not only a hole in Lennon's heart, but also a history hole.

It's how British sources work. Sharkey: "British society don't keep records of where people move to. A listing in an election registers somebody captures in time: here was where they were living. An election register hasn't the purpose to tell when somebody left the property and where he moved to."

Sharkey refers me to inform in the Lancashire Archives in Preston, next big town near Blackpool. Viv Berry, searchroom supervisor of the Lancashire Archives in Preston, passed the ball back to Blackpool...

Why is Blackpool so important?

Why do I want to know this? Why is it so important?

How longer the Beatles legend exist the larger and more exorbitant it becomes. In other words more and more rumours are replaced by other stories which can hardly been proved. Very often different points of view exist about one event or moment. And how more biography's are written the more stories are so-called confirmed. Stories which exclude each other. Then you still don't know what is the truth and what's just rubbish.

John Lennon, above in the middle

What happened there in Blackpool in the summer of 1946 influenced John's whole life. Of course not only this moment, there were more traumatic moments which effects on his personality and his music. You don't have to be Freud to conclude. So Blackpool is in some way symbolic for a dark part of his youth (not his complete youth by the way!). What happened there at 25 Ivy Avenue is important to Lennon's life. Of course a house doesn't change anything about the situation, but it is indispensable for making the picture complete. It just happened somewhere. The words were spoken in a room, the decisions were taken (or not) between those four walls. It was a moment in a place which had indirectly influences on millions of people all over the world. And that makes it worth to search for.

 

If you want to know more about the particular house, Mark Standing tells us. See the article on this blog: The secrets of Ivy Avenue 25, an ordinary house with an extraordinary history.

 

(Thanks to Helen Williams)

The secrets of Ivy Avenue 25, an ordinary house with an extraordinary history

"If John Lennon had chosen to go to New Zealand, there would never had been the Beatles."

Mark Standing at 25 Ivy Avenue

Some houses are holy. Only because a Beatle has lived there. Mendips, Forthlin Road, Dakota, Tittenhurst Park, Friar Park, Cavendish Avenue... But one house has been forgotton in this list. A house which is so important because it was the silent witness of a decision that changed the world. A decision from a 5 year old kid. His name was John Lennon. The house you can find in Ivy Avenue, Blackpool. Mark Standing (47), the owner: "What if John had chosen to go to New Zealand, there would never been the Beatles. Essentially it could be put in a very, very big historical turning point and it happened right here."

By Dominique Verschuren

In June 1946 Alfred Lennon spent holiday with his son in Blackpool. It was a lovely time, the two together. They stayed a while at 25 Ivy Avenue, in the house of Billy Hall, Fred's friend, and his wife. They decided to migrate to New Zealand. That was a good idea, Fred must have thought. So he decided to join, with the little John. One day, Julia, John's mother showed up to get her child back. The parents argued about him. Fruitless. So Fred asked John: What do you want? Come with me to New Zealand or stay with your mother in Liverpool? John wanted his parents got back together. That was out of the question. So he preferred to join his father. He gave the same answer when Fred asked him once again. Julia accepted the decision and walked away. At that moment the little John started to panic. He ran to his mother. She took him with her and disappeared. Fred saw his son back when John was already a Beatle and had conquered the world.

This scene, this dramatic story, should have happened at 25 Ivy Avenue in Blackpool. Mark Standing, the owner of the house, discovered that just a couple of years ago: "The way I found out was that a friend wanted to send me something in the mail. He wanted to find the postcode. So he googled this address and he came up with list's of John Lennon's houses. That was in 2005. I read the website, quite interesting and sent an e-mail to all my friends with the news: John Lennon lived in my house!"

That sounds great: 'John Lennon lived in my house.' But how reliable is that? Standing: "On that website they put a note to a paper where they confirmed it. It's a bit of circular. The prove of the website is that I seen it on the website and it's now on the paper. So which comes first: the chicken or the egg? The website came first, I'm saying it now in the newspaper about the website. So they take me as a prove which is not totally true. I don't know anything else. I believe it, cause there is no prove to disprove it."

A colleague of John Lennon

Probably the room where 5 year old John
slept during the summer of 1946
(april 2012)

Like that other inhabitant of 25 Ivy Avenue Standing is a musician. He even performed for audiences of thousands of people through whole Europe. He played rock music in the 1980's. But his perspectives are much larger. Standing: "Starting as an bass- and six strings guitarist, last years I'm more in the drumming things: Brasilian, African style. I give workshops with youngsters to create music. We listen to each other during lessons and during playing we try to change and to develop. I can make a living of it. I am what they called the community artist. As a freelancer."

Standing is very artistic. His house is full of sculptures, made by himself. "I do some drama work as well,  acting and improvising. We made plays for youngsters about the dangers of alcohol, about aids, about stranger-a-danger." Just like Lennon Standing never followed guitar lessons and he has a free mind. Experimental music is his greatest love. "Making sound loops, little snips from the television, noises and sounds, put them together. Just like Revolution 9 from the White Album, but then with more rythm. My record company since 1983 called PUMF. I used to release cassettes from the bands I was in. Since 1983 I have 100 releases. Not too much. There was always a change that someone would hear my music and make a lot of money out of it. I want to stay free. It's so sell out these days."

Behind the fronts

Ivy Avenue is now a part of a neighborhood with the same kind of houses. That was different in the time Lennon stayed here. Standing: "I think the house is from the 1930's, so quite new when John stayed here with his father. At the backside there was a Greyhound stadium where they organized races. This street was very far from Blackpool centre, a bit isolated, but close to the beach." In these days Blackpool was a real family beach place. With the leisure parks and the donkey ride. Standing: "Last 20, 30 years it changed, people come for Stag-and-hen parties. Looking for fights and sex, and getting drunk. Blackpool is not a family place anymore."

All those same kind of houses, what happens behind the front? The drama between John and his parents is definitely not the only story of 25 Ivy Avenue. Standing bought the house from his ex-wife, Jenny. "I think she moved in here in 1983. She was here with her husband of the time. They split up and then we got together. We also split up. We had 12 years together. She had a little boy, Matthew. We married and I became his step dad. From his age of four till sixteen. He had difficulty, because he didn't saw his real father that much. He was very anger, shouting to me. She choose for her son. It was difficult... after twelve years. That was in 2003. I stayed here, Jenny wanted to move. Her job had changed. So I bought the house from her. I had already the studio and build the garage anyway. We have kept in touch for one, two years. I haven't seen her for a long time. She's married again. Well, life moves on. Since a year I have a new girlfriend, Emma. Also with kids, but now I'm more a friend than a father. We have both our own spaces and that's a good idea."

House with history

The Blackpool scene was crucial in John's youth. When he came back in Liverpool his mother and aunt Mimi were fighting for the little boy. Mimi took John over and he didn't see his mother for years. So in a short period he lost both his parents. It's one of those traumatic moments that build up a particular view of himself, dictated by demands. He shout it all out on his 1970 song Mother. "Mother, you had me but I never had you/I wanted you but you didn't want me/Father, you left me but I never left you/I needed you but you didn't need me.'

John, 5 years old

Even beside those emotional consequences, that what happened in this place, in this living room, was important in a more historical way. Standing is very aware of that fact: "If the conversation was: 'John, you can choose. You can come with me to New Zealand or you go back to Liverpool with your mum' and if John had chosen to go to New Zealand, there would never been the Beatles. He changed the world, would the world be the same if he'd gone with his dad? Essentially it could be put in a very, very big historical turning point and it happened right here. I can see the importance of what might have happened."

The website which Standing referred to is:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/pob/pob40.html

(Thanks to Helen Williams)