Double Fantasy

you and me both.

But I believe the first UK Beatles convention was actually in Norwich in 1976, which a lot of that came about because all of the beatles uk singles were reissued in march 76 and then you had the rock and roll album compilation released and the beatles monthly magazine was being reprinted for the first time and so there was a bit of a buzz about the beatles and this convention happened i never went to the one in norwich But I believe it was around about 1980 that they started the Liverpool one.

And it has just grown and grown and grown.

And as I said, while we were there on bank holiday this year, we spoke to Beatles fans from the United States, Canada, Belgium, Holland, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil.

There were stands there with the most incredible rarities which people were looking at and they were buying them.

However, if you did a scan round and just observed quickly what people were buying.

It's the core albums that people want.

Yeah.

John Lennon in New York at approximately 5 p.m. on December 8, 1980.

Lennon autographed a copy of Double Fantasy from Mark David Chapman before leaving the Dakota with Yoko Ono for a recording session at the record plant.

After the session, Lennon and Yoko returned to the Dakota in a limousine.

At around 10.50 p.m., they left the vehicle and walked through the archway of the building.

Ono scattered his ashes in New York Central Park, where the Strawberry Fields Memorial was later created.

Chapman avoided going to trial when he ignored his lawyer's advice and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life.

In the weeks following the murder, Just Like Starting Over and Double Fantasy topped the charts in the UK and the US.

Imagine hit number one in the UK in January 1981 and Happy Xmas peaked at number two.

One is from Liverpool, one's from Japan.

But in every way, to me, it is a New York album, so I am going to go there, and I am talking about Double Fantasy by John and Yoko.

Oh, okay.

The lore is well known it's subtitled a heart play so it really does serve as some sort of musical dialogue between the couple who I think by 1980 were definitely in different places in their life but will always be inextricably linked by their love.

All right.

And I had number five was Willie Niles self-titled.

Number four would have been John and Yoko Double Fantasy.

Number three was Madonna self-titled.

That's nice.

In the same way that they've stripped down the Double Fantasy album or the various different mixes of Mind Games.

We should get Sean Lennon involved in the Beatles remix story.

He is nominally, I think, but again, new baby, he's busy.

My guest today is Roger Farrington, who is here to discuss the book he co-wrote with Ken Womack, Starting Over with John and Yoko.

On August 7th, 1980, John and Yoko were making a return to the recording studio to begin what would become their double fantasy album.

Roger Farrington was an up-and-coming photographer hired to capture the shot that would announce their comeback to the world.

Roger tells me the story of that hot New York day and how we photographed, in extraordinary circumstances, John and Yoko starting over.

And, you know, it was just just a nightmare for well, especially for him, I think.

I had heard that, you know, from Earl Slick, who was playing on those sessions, that after they had finished Double Fantasy, they were going to go on tour.

But he wanted to get that other record done.

So when they came off the tour, it would have been out and they could have like kind of milked that whole thing for a few years.

They do.

So, yeah, from, you know, early Beatles to all the way up to Double Fantasy.

Hmm.

I wonder how they pull that off.

We have the acoustic shots.

of him playing an acoustic guitar during the Double Fantasy sessions.

But it's just such an unusual instrument.

He was enthralled with it.

So he shared some of those kind of outtake moments.

And there are a number of them that have circulated.

There's a great one where you can hear the Double Fantasy band cajoling John into playing She's a Woman with them, even though it's a Paul song, right? You know, things like that are out there.

There are a lot of outtakes, many, many takes of the Double Fantasy tracks.