Happy 75th Birthday John Lennon

John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band 1970: John Lennon & Yoko Ono & Mal Evans & BP Fallon. Photography by Ron Howard/Redferns courtesy of Guitar World.

“So it’s John Lennon’s 75th Birthday, God bless him. I’m very sad he’s not here and I’m very glad that he was. Glad? John Lennon changed my life, he changed everything for so many people, he and The Beatles and beyond. The world will never be the same, thanks to John and his chums.

“And yet… Give Peace A Chance. Yes please. We need it now as much as ever – wars all over our battered yet still blessed planet, lunatics rushing around with guns, this uncertain globe melting from greed and stupidity.

“Did John Lennon save the world? No. But he gave it a try in his naive and magical way, Dr Winson O’Boogie from Liverpool, England, with his guitar and his music and his aspirational and inspirational thoughts.

“Was he perfect? No. Strangely strange but oddly normal, a fallible human being like all of us, not some deity but an enormously special and gifted rock’n’roller who reached out. John, thank you. We love you. Rest in peace”
– BP Fallon, October 9th 2015

John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band and the classic performance of Instant Karma on BBC TV’s Top Of The Pops Feb 12th 1970.

Left to right – John Lennon [vocals & piano], Yoko Ono [knitting & Kotex eyewear], the Beatles’ road manager Mal Evans [tambourine], BP Fallon [bass guitar & hat], the Apple Records official House Hippy Richard DiLello [camera], Klaus Voorman [bass guitar] and Alan White [drums].

The following week John Lennon was to be heard being interviewed on BBC radio by Emperor Rosko and telling his host “BP Fallon playing the bass guitar, that’s concept art”.

“I can’t play bass” says BP today, laughing, “but it’s better than whacking a tambourine into John’s left ear and almost putting him off his singing”. Which – as our next two pictures show – is what BP did the previous week on the Top Of The Pops of February 5th 1970…

‘Instant Karma’ produced by Phil Spector.

John Lennon, Phil Spector, members of Stevie Wonder’s band and BP Fallon, Madison Square Gardens, New York City 1972

John Lennon: October 9th 1940 – December 8th 1980 RIP
“I believe in Dr Winston”