He didn’t know how I would play those rock ‘n’ roll songs. I think he just realized that I was a good bass player. They phoned Ringo and I, and then we started in on a new album.ĭid you get a sense of why Lennon chose you for the Plastic Ono Band? When they got back to England, their hair was long, and they were ready to go again. I wound up going with George and recording “All Things Must Pass.” John and Yoko had cut all their hair off before they left for America. We recorded “Instant Karma” and “Cold Turkey,” and then, when John and Yoko went off to America. The first time I played with John was that wild rehearsal on the plane to Canada, and then on the stage in Toronto. When Manfred Mann disbanded, for some reason, John called me, and asked, “Hey,” would I join his new Plastic Ono Band? Which was crazy. When you left Manfred Mann however, things changed, at least for you playing with the solo Beatles. I liked them, but never really played with them – which is good. My relationship to them was not about music, really, ever. There was another time, maybe this is important, when the Beatles played at the Top Ten Club in Hamburg in 1962, and they asked me to play the bass. He played it, while I manipulated the foot pedals so he could play better I wasn’t playing. Before that, when I was in Manfred Mann and living in Range Park, George came over to my house where I had an harmonium. So that was the only time he even suggested me playing with them. I said, “No no no.” I mean, c’mon, with Paul there? That was just silly. I remember one situation: When I was in the Manfred Mann band, I came down to their studio when they were recording – was it “The Long and Winding Road”? – where Paul asked me to play bass. How and when did that translate with the Beatles? You mentioned that you only “became musical” through Paddy, Klaus & Gibson. Bit by bit, Brian turned stranger by taking lots of pills and such. Thinking of it now, it was strange of Brian to try to make something out of us, getting us on a label and such. He decided to sign us to his Enterprises, to manage us. The singing wasn’t good, and we didn’t write any songs - we were just a crummy little rock n’ roll band - but he liked us. The boys came down when we were playing in London at the Pickwick Club, liked us, and the next night came back, and brought Brian along. The next thing I knew I got together with a band first called the Eyes, which was Paddy (Chambers) and Gibson (Kemp). When I came to England for the first time, and lived with George and Ringo, I was looking for a job as a graphic designer. He was just looking after the Beatles, getting them deals and talking about those deals. Meeting with Brian, that was on quite a different level. So how did you fall into Brian Epstein’s field of vision? But they embraced me, even though I still had nothing to do with music. Their lives became different, more difficult, having to film “A Hard Day’s Night.” Get up early to shoot – I would travel with them on the train. I was scared, actually, that they would have changed. They hadn’t changed much since getting to know them in Hamburg they were still these lovely little guys. I talked to George on the phone, and he told me to come stay with him, which is how I got to Greene Street, their apartment. Eventually I made a decision to come to England. They were happy to have us, and we took them around. They were happy to become friends with us in Hamburg as they had no one else - no mom or dads or uncles, nothing. Paul wrote a letter and would send a record. When I was still there, we got letters from them in England. We stayed in close contact after Hamburg. VARIETY: We could talk forever about a million things, but having you as we do for the 1969-1970 Lennon/Ono period, let’s start with the trajectory of how your relationship with the Beatles and Brian Epstein moved from the days in Hamburg to when you got to London.
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