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"Yoko
dines with old friends"
icLiverpool (March 27th
2003): "Yoko Ono thanked the Liverpool people who have helped keep John Lennon's
memory alive at a civic lunch in the city yesterday. She met with members of the
former Beatle's family and some of his old friends for the meal in the Town Hall's
grand dining room. Dressed all in black, with a bustier top and trademark sunglasses,
the Japanese artist spoke of her joy at seeing Lennon's childhood home ready to
be visited by the public. "Mendips", where the musician lived with his
Aunt Mimi from the age of five, will throw open its doors on Saturday. Alan Williams,
the Beatles original manager, was among the special guests. He said: "We
had a nice chat and she made some genuinely sincere comments about being here.
"I first got to know Yoko when I discovered someone had stolen some of John's
belongings and was selling them on the black market. "I helped her put an
end to it. Ms Ono, sat between Lord Mayor Coun Jack Spriggs
and Coun Mike Storey, leader of the city council. Apple managing director and
former Beatles road manager Neil Aspinall, Liverpool City Council chief executive
David Henshaw and Coun Warren Bradley also sat on her table. Coun Bradley, executive
member for leisure and tourism, said: "I was surprised by how down to earth
Yoko Ono was. "We talked about how much she loves Liverpool and how happy
she is that Lennon's family worked hard to realise the dream of restoring his
house." After the lunch, Ms Ono and her entourage visited Lennon's childhood
home on Menlove Avenue, Woolton."
"Yoko Ono
opens Lennon's childhood home"
Reuters (March
27th 2003): "Yoko Ono opened John Lennon's childhood home in Liverpool on
Thursday, expecting it to draw thousands of visitors every year. "This is
so important and so meaningful for all the fans around the world and people who
might become fans," she told BBC radio. Mendips, the modest suburban semi-detached
house Lennon grew up in with his Aunt Mimi, was donated to the National Trust
by Yoko Ono Lennon with the wish it be kept as a testimony to her late husband.
Ono Lennon said she had bought the house to stop it being sold to a commercial
concern. "When John's house came up for sale I wanted to preserve it for
the people of Liverpool, and John Lennon and Beatles fans all over the world,"
she said in a statement. "The house resonates with a special atmosphere.
It was after all, where some of John's songs that we now hold so dear were born,"
she said. John Lennon lived at Mendips, 251 Menlove Avenue,
in Woolton, Liverpool from the age of five to 23, when he left to enjoy the fame
and fortune derived from the astounding success of the Beatles."
"Lennon
'would have told off Blair'"
ITV (March 27th
2003): "Tony Blair would have been "told off" by John Lennon over
the war in Iraq, according to his widow, Yoko Ono. She said if Lennon was still
alive he would have expressed his anger to Mr Blair, a fan of the Beatles, and
President George Bush.
Ono, who lives in New York
and like her husband is an ardent campaigner for peace, said although the September
11 terrorist attacks were sad, they did not warrant retaliation. She said: "I'm
sure John would have been terribly upset about the war. "And I'm sure that
he would have expressed his anger and told them off about how stupid it is to
go through this. "And I feel the same way. I really think that this is not
a time that we should solve anything with violence. "As Gandhi said, 'Eye
for an eye will make us all blind'. And we just can't solve problems that way.
It was a very very sad thing that happened that day, September 11, so we should
not repeat that."
More information
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Yoko
Ono visiting Mendips in 2003 |
