When John Lennon stepped into Lady Mitchell Hall
In 1969, Lennon and Yoko Ono delivered a highly unusual concert in a venue better known for droning lecturers than droning guitars
The year 1969 was predisposed to notoriety. Yet, it was before man made his first (and grammatically incorrect) step on the moon that John Lennon stepped foot into Lady Mitchell Hall. Complimenting the (less than musical) yelps of his new partner and collaborator, Yoko Ono, Lennon delivered nearly half an hour of improvised feedback generated using an amplifier and electric guitar to an audience that had no idea what he was going to perform. As The Beatles – and the 60s – imploded around him, John Lennon was certainly making an interesting career move …
“That was the big difficulty – how do you follow the Beatles?”
The Beatles played Cambridge before in 1963 as part of their near-endless tour of British theatres and art venues. Back then, Lennon and McCartney were on the cusp of their fame as songwriters and only just replacing rock and roll standards like ‘Twist and Shout’ with their own compositions like ‘All My Loving’ and ‘I Saw Her Standing There’. There would be a rapid development from these short and sharp songs to the experimentation of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and the White Album.
Source: David Quinn/varsity.co.uk
