Tuesday 7 December 2010

No. 9 Nightmare

As a prelude to the sad but inevitable 30th anniversary of John Lennon's murder . . .

. . . a reminder that, on the UK side of the Atlantic, John actually died in the early hours of December 9, 1980, and not on December 8. So anyone in Britain and Europe who wants to mark the exact moment when they first heard the awful news should be timing their commemoration for Thursday morning, not Wednesday.

John was convinced that 9 was his lucky number - it was his birthday, and his son Sean's, and (as I revealed in You Never Give Me Your Money) he also rewrote his personal history to claim that he met Yoko Ono on November 9, 1966, rather than the actual date: November 7. So it's a sad irony that, in the land of his birth, the number 9 should also mark the moment of his death. And another irony that December 8, 1980 was exactly ten years after he gave the notorious Rolling Stone interview that signalled to the world that Beatle John was gone forever.

More tomorrow night on the anniversary, and the impact of the murder on this particular Beatles fan . . .

1 comment:

  1. I would gather that many Americans didn't hear about it until the morning of December 9. Still, it was a horrible, horrible day.

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