Where were you when you heard the news.....
Posted by: Redmires on 08 December 2010
Hyde, Cheshire. 19 years old. Still living with parents. Mum was up early for work and came bursting into the bedroom. Turned on the radio, "Rain" was playing. The song that always takes me right back when I hear it now. Went to work, shocked, stunned. A colleague said "he was only a pop star". What did he know, he was an old man (must have been 40 at least).
I phoned my girlfriend from work. She hadn't heard about it. She had bought me Double Fantasy just a couple of days earlier. I have the album in front of me now. It's playing on the turntable. "Remember me always, Love Pauline" is in faded pen on the cover. I tried to rub it out when we split up but it's still legible, which I'm glad about. £3.99 from Woolworths, the sticker informs me.
The following Sunday we went down to Liverpool. A cold, windy day. Thousands like us, just walking round like zombies. St Georges Hall, the 7pm vigil and then home on the train.
Thirty years on. Where did all the time go ?
John Lennon - I raise my glass to you.
Posted on: 08 December 2010 by TomK
It was a dark cold Tuesday morning at 7am and I was getting ready for work with a nasty hangover when I heard the news. It didn't sink in at the time but when I got to work the whole place was buzzing with the news. Little was done that day and when I got home it all came home to me. The Beatles were no more.
I'd grown up with the Beatles. They were like my big brothers. Beatlemania was a major part of my life. Every childhood memory was accompanied by a Beatles song. We danced to Beatles songs at our Qually dance, a bunch of eleven and twelve year olds, the girls so much more mature than the boys who were apparently more interested in playing football. A girl I really fancied tried to get me under mistletoe and I ran. I remember hearing Strawberry Fields for the first time and wondering what the feck it was but I knew I loved it.
I remember playing A Day In The Life twenty times on the trot. It worried my wife but it's still the most amazing song ever written.
I'll join you in raising a glass. I think of my lost big brother every day.
Posted on: 09 December 2010 by Chris Kelly
I was on the A23 driving to Crawley for a sales call to my customer at Redifon. Driving and crying is not a good combination.
Posted on: 09 December 2010 by BigH47
I can't remember, but I do know it didn't have as much an effect on me as the loss of Jimi H, Buddy H or Jim M.
It was a shock and a senseless crime. You may gather I'm not a fan, especially of his work with her.
Redifon has gone too Chris.
Posted on: 09 December 2010 by Steve O
Heard it on the radio getting ready for school. Had never been a Beatles fan but I knew this was huge.
Posted on: 09 December 2010 by Chris Kelly
quote:
Redifon has gone too Chris.
Long gone though I think flight simulators are still built on the site.
Posted on: 09 December 2010 by anderson.council
Similar to Howard in that the person involved wasn't and isn't to this day someone whose music I'm a fan of - although I was shocked that someone like that was shot down in cold blood. Earlier that year two of my musical inspirations had gone - Bon Scott & John Bonham.
However to return the original subject matter I was on the way to do a Physics exam as part of my Electronic Engineering course when the news came on the car radio.
Cheers
Scott
Posted on: 09 December 2010 by JamieL_v2
quote:
Originally posted by Steve O:
Heard it on the radio getting ready for school. Had never been a Beatles fan but I knew this was huge.
The same here, 'The Today Programme' on BBC Radio 4, but in retrospect the greatest loss for me that year was John Bonham I remember one of the girls in the year above who was a great Led Zeppelin fan being in tears on the way to school when Bonzo died. Had I been a year or two older I might have cried too over Bonzo.
Bonzo's loss was self inflicted, as was Bonn Scott's, Lennon's was sadder though it being premeditated.
Posted on: 09 December 2010 by Bananahead
He was only a pop star.
Posted on: 10 December 2010 by Alamanka
Only a pop
Star he was.
Posted on: 10 December 2010 by megholm
TomK, what a wonderful way of describing loss and life. Thank you.
Posted on: 11 December 2010 by mudwolf
yeah I was a huge fan, John could do angry and he could do sweet. Revolution at the time was amazing because the guitar was so distorted and the title inflammatory but the message was "if you want money for people who hate, you'll have to wait" There were always great lyrics and messages. I think it was afternoon news here in west coast. I was dumbfounded and 27. Lost a hero
