It has taken me a little while to catch up with the Beatles. When they breezed through Adelaide in June 1964, I was newly married and caring for my five week old firstborn. With a baby, a Chinese student as a boarder and a young husband, my hands were full and John, Paul, George and Ringo didn’t really impact me at the time.
Robbie’s brother, Aubrey, was one of their leading cinema photographers and he was the cameraman that flew to Nice with Paul McCartney to film the sequence for “The Fool on the Hill”. Robbie never was impressed with their “hippie” lifestyle – so, until he died, the Beatles still remained off my radar.
It’s funny how things catch up with you, though! Last December, I went to a “Tux & Tiara” Ball and in return for a charitable donation, I acquired a poster of the “fab four” that now hangs in my office. This was especially in celebration of my 64th year.
When I was in Las Vegas in March I went off with some friends to see “The Fab Four” and came home, hooked on the Beatles! I stuck my ticket to the poster and thought about trying to find out a bit about Aubrey and his friends.
The Christmas after Robbie died, I spent most of the holidays in eBay – buying collectible cats. My Christmas lasted for months as little parcels kept being delivered and for Beatlemania, where else to go but eBay?
My first “auction” turned out to be a two edged sword –there is an old adage “if it seems too good to be true……… it probably is” and so it proved to be. My autographed Abbey Road album is not what it purports to be – and the three thousand dollars it cost me was a short, sharp lesson in the risks of buying online. It took three or four weeks to bring the matter to a close and to tell the truth, the seller and his supplier (eventually) were prepared to give me my money back – but I decided to keep it out of circulation rather than see someone else scammed as I had been.
I bought books, posters and cards. I spent hours in websites and forums. I started learning how to collect and now I am looking forward to collating the bits and pieces into my theme and getting them framed and hung. I have met great people on line – who have helped me, cried with me, laughed with me and given me excellent advice.
While Warren & Lisa were on holidays in Vietnam, I house sat for them and Amber and I spent many hours trawling the net for information, bargains and learning the joys of sniping. Weekends are spent on the net and I surface for coffee. Records, mugs and coasters arrive, with exotic stamps and labels that say “Do Not Bend”. The postman brings photos, signed records, lithographs and old Rolling Stone magazines.
I thought very carefully before buying the original Rolling Stone issue of January 81, with John and Yoko on the cover. It will be a great display along with some original photographs of John & Yoko together. I declined to buy the photograph on its own but Annie’s book, autographed by her, is in transit – from somewhere. The tragedy is that the photograph was taken only the day before John Lennon was murdered and the magazine issue is a tribute to his life.
George Harrison was an accomplished F1 driver – and I thought I was to “have” his tickets to the Grand Prix in Adelaide in 1986. But they turned out to be a scam – and luckily this time, I got my money back because I had paid with PayPal.
Ringo has autographed a photograph of himself, promoting his single record “Photograph” and from an old UK radio station that closed down after the heady days of pirate radio, I have the record itself and the cover, both signed. I bought it along with an autographed copy of “Sacrifice” by Elton John, for a song! The Bootleg Beatles have signed their flyer and a matching one is signed by Paul – with concert tickets to boot. Paul’s own autographed photo is matched by a concert ticket, too.
Funny thing is, I can spend endless hours in cyberspace but I am much too idle to become a paperback writer.
