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THE FACTS BEHIND THE FICTION

A few years ago I attended a Beatles Convention with Allan Williams, the group’s first
manager, infamously known as ‘The Man Who Gave The Beatles Away’. Throughout the
day I watched as Beatles memorabilia changed hands for huge amounts and commented
how amazed I was by the relentless interest in a band that twanged its last chord over
four decades ago. The subject soon got around to pop memorabilia, in particular, a piano
formerly owned by John Lennon which fetched a cool one and a half million pounds at a
Sotheby’s auction. As Allan and I argued about the morality of spending such an insane
amount on a piano, a dealer listening in to our conversation perked up:

“That’s nothing compared to what Julia’s banjo would fetch!”

The dealer went on to tell me how Lennon’s mother, Julia, introduced her son to the world
of music by teaching him to play Buddy Holly’s classic, ‘That’ll Be The Day’ on her banjo.

“So where is the first instrument the greatest rock ‘n’ roll legend ever learned to play - the
catalyst that changed the world?” I asked. “Missing”, the dealer replied, “and has been for
60 years”.

That should have been the end of the story, but a couple of weeks later my interest in Julia’s
banjo was re-kindled when a news report told how a lucky bargain hunter had bought
an old suitcase at a car-boot sale for fifteen pounds. When it was opened it was found to
contain a priceless collection of Beatles memorabilia. How it ended up in a car-boot sale
nobody knows. Then, within days of this discovery, a Hofner guitar was found in the loft of
John’s old home in Menlove Avenue, Liverpool. This prompted the six million dollar ques-
tion: Is it possible Julia’s banjo could still be out there too, just waiting to be found?

After interviewing several Beatles experts on the subject, including Lennon’s half-sister,
Julia Baird, I was amazed to hear that everything the dealer had told me at the Beatles Con-
vention was true. The banjo went missing shortly after Julia Lennon was killed in a car ac-
cident; an event that haunted John for the rest of his life. In later years he immortalised her
in his songs, ‘Julia’ and ‘Mother’. I think it’s fair to assume that the banjo she left behind, the
only physical link John had left of her, must have been close to his heart. Indeed, further
research revealed that Lennon not only talked about Julia’s banjo many times during inter-
views, it was also the subject matter of his opening statement in The Beatles Anthology.

“So, where would one start looking for the holy grail of pop memorabilia?” I asked Julia
Baird jokingly, adding that; “perhaps John hid it somewhere?” Julia pondered over what I’d
said for a moment, looked me straight in the eye and replied: “Do you know something;
after our mum died, that’s just the sort of thing John would have done”.

“Wow!” I thought, “What a great idea for a novel!” - Rob Fennah
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