The night John died
Dec 8 2005
PETER GRANT meets two women in Lennon's life . . .
Liverpool Echo
http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0800beatles/0050news/tm_objectid=16462973%26method=full%26siteid=50061%26page=3%26headline=the%2dnight%2djohn%2ddied-name_page.html IT WAS a sight that made many people at the Cavern Club do a double take.
Two beautiful women that John Lennon had loved sitting there together.
In the world-famous club, Cynthia was promoting her great biography called simply John, while May was promoting her new Feng Shui jewellery and planning an exhibition of her photos of her and John's brief life together.
Both likeable and caring women knew John well, of course, and will never forget where they were when the world was told the Beatle had been murdered.
Cynthia was staying with Maureen, Ringo's first wife, and it was the grief-stricken drummer who phoned her with the bad news.
As for record industry producer May Pang - she was phoned by David Bowie's secretary. Bowie and May shared many fond memories of John, as did Mick Jagger.
But now many fans and friends want to wipe away the stark memories of that night 25 years ago.
Says Cynthia: "My most fond memories of John are of when we first got together.
"To watch his metamorphosis was fascinating: student, father, Beatle and creative genius.
"He never stopped creating." Cynthia says the last time she saw John was in Los Angeles in 1974 after John had left Yoko and gone off with May .
"Previously it had been virtually impossible to get in touch with him, but May was wonderful - we are still friends to this day.
May Pang was John's personal assistant and his girlfriend from 1973 to 1975.
She smiles: "In New York John loved walking around signing autographs.
"Later we had a little one-bedroomed flat with a terrace that faced the water.
"He loved it: It reminded him of Liverpool.
"He would sit there with a cigarette and think."
Like Cynthia, May believes John would still be creating - possibly in a studio at his home.
"He would have a pen and pad everywhere. I recall it was yellow and he would sit down and write all sorts of ideas - things he heard on television; things people would say."
For John Lennon there was also the possibility that he would one day have written with Paul again.
Says May: "He did talk about it but somehow it never materialised."
Indeed, John loved a piece of advice given to him in New York by astrologer Patric Walker.
The star man told John: "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans."
He was thinking of touring again and maybe returning to England on a cruise-liner.
Who would have imagined these plans would be taken away from John by his assassination on that cold December night in 1980?
