People often say they remember exactly where they were when they heard that Kennedy or Elvis had died. Can you remember where you were and what you were doing when you first heard the news about John's Death?

I was at home and heard it on the radio.  My family and I then saw footage on T.V.  I remember nearly all of the local radio stations played John Lennon Songs for days.  A lot of the Double Fantasy album was played (since it was just released).  I remember all those who gathered at the Decota to pay tribute.  Such a sad day.

I have no idea where I was. I was two years old at the time.

I can't answer that because I wasn't even born yet!

I was in my mom's stomach, and was so distraught I was born 3 days later.

Quoted from Beatle_Ed, posted March 2, 2004, 1:23am at here

I was in my mom's stomach, and was so distraught I was born 3 days later.

Wow - short pregnancy!

I had been really, really ill with measles, and had been off school for about 2 weeks. This was to be my first day back.

I heard my Mum turn on the radio and was lying in bed thinking how great it was that so much John Lennon music was being played, when an announcer came on and said that John Lennon had been murdered in New York. I just layed there in complete shock.

Then the phone didn't stop ringing - apparently all my family were asking how I was, not because becuase I'd been ill, but because of the news about John. Everyone knew how much I loved The Beatles - especially John.

Then my Mum and Dad came into my room where I was still in bed - my Mum was in tears and my Dad's face was drained of all colour - I was so upset.

I still went to school that day though and I'd like to say all the other kids were sympathetic... but they weren't - you know how kids can be sometimes.

When I got home that evening I taped every single news and radio broadcast with my little cassette recorder using a microphone pointed at the TV. They showed the Help! film that night - it was pointless really, in fact it just made me feel worse.

Because John was killed so late at night (British time), the newspapers didn't carry the story till the 10th December... I bought every single newspaper that morning. And then every magazine. Books I'd been after for ages, suddenly filled the bookshelves - In His Own Write and A Spaniard In The Works.

Ten years later I went to Liverpool for the first time, it was for a tribute concert celebrating John's 50th birthday. At the end of the show Yoko came on stage and the whole crowd started singing Give Peace A Chance - Yoko just broke down in tears, as did everyone else in the audience. She couldn't even speak and eventually just left the stage with Sean.

I wont ever forget that moment when Yoko was trying to thank us and couldn't say the words - we were united. It really is amazing just how much John Lennon touched us all.

I was in my mom's stomach too, so I don't remember. (I was born only in May, '81)
My family remember travelling in the car and hearing the bad news next day, on the 9th of December. After this, my sister kept asking everyone "Have you heard the bad news, John Lennon died!!" , when she was only 6 and didn't even know who John was.

Hats off to "The End". Touching story.

I was in my parents living room watching football with my mom and dad when the news broke. My mother and father didnt care about the beatles personally, but they knew they meant the world to me. When the event was announced my mother just kind of gasped. My dad looked at me as I got up and proceeded to my bedroom. I'm not sure what I did afterwards, but my mother came in a little later and asked me if I wanted to talk about it. I must have been angry because she told me that i looked at her and said, "I hope the guy who did this dies!" I was only 10.

My cousin who is the same age as me apparently went to school and found out about it (I didnt go) and he was so worked up over the news that my aunt had to go pick him up. Again, he was also 10. Yes it had an impact on everybody.

I was just getting up early in the morning on December 9th eating breakfast & getting ready to go to school when I heard the news about the tragic death of John Lennon which was a shock to me like a hit to the stomach like it was for most Beatles fans.  I just listened to John's music on the radio most of the day after I got back home from school even though I think it's ridiculous the way some fans are trying to turn him into a holier than thou figure after his death instead of the rock legend that he is & always will be.

Nowhere.

I was negative 7 years and some-odd months old

I had just gotten into the Beatles not too long before, and I was eating breakfast the morning after when I heard.  They played "Imagine" on WLS radio in Chicago, and I remember thinking "Cool! You don't hear this on the radio everyday..."  A few minutes later, the DJ came on and announced the sad news.  I remember being in shock, my mom and I had one of those movie moments where we literally both froze and looked at each other...for some reason, I remember she was pouring milk into my brother's cereal (good thing she snapped out of it before the bowl overflowed...)  It was doubly sad, as she introduced me to the Beatles at an early age, playing "Abbey Road" and "Let it Be" for me when they first came out; I was but a toddler at the time.  It was sad for both of us to lose him, but I'm glad we were together for it...

Wow, touching stories. The one about Yoko made me tear up! I remember it so well. I was getting ready for school when my cousin came over bursting to tell me the news. She knew I was a Beatle nut. At first I didn't believe her! I'm like, yeah right, it was SO unbelievable!! My best friend was so upset she didn't get to tell me first. Funny how concerned they were. I can't remember much after that other than being at school and seeing my music teacher crying. The rest of the week was so sad. I remember watching people on tv all over the world during the 10 minutes of silence. What an amazing person he was to have touched so many people.

I was negative 7 years, 3 months, and 10 days old.  I remember it well...lol

I asked my mom what she remembers about it...she was never really a "hardcore" fan, even though she DID like the Beatles a lot.  She said she doesn't really remember what she was doing at the time, only that she felt a little bad after hearing the news.  But then again, my mom has never really been a hardcore fan of anybody.  She just doesn't get all googly-eyed about celebrities the way I do.

I was negative 6 years, 11 months, and 1 day so I can't really tell you, I wasn't even a figment in my mom's imagination at that time.

Quoted from Maccalvr, posted June 11, 2004, 1:20am at here

Wow, touching stories. The one about Yoko made me tear up!

The funny thing was, as we were leaving the concert and crossing over the road, Yoko's limo came tearing round the corner and nearly run us over!

It's weird, your story of that horrible morning is so similar to what I experienced - the world truly united on that day.

I must have collected every newspaper that week. He was on the cover everywhere. I would still have them if my mother didn't throw them out!!! She just didn't get it.  I can't believe it's going to be 25 years this December. Does that mean Sean is 30?? Wow!

I was sleeping.  My wife watched TV and saw the news, she didn't want to wake me up.  The phone rang, it was my best bud, and he told me.  I was still half asleep and it just didn't sink in...I even made some lame jokes.

People started calling me to offer sympathy as if it was a family member.  That's how well known it was that I was Mr Beatle fan.

What can one say?  It was amazing to see the world come together in grief.  For many of my generation, the first-gen's, it was the slamming of the sarcophagus lid on our own mortality.

We were young when the Beatles were young and their whole thrust was YOUTH.  Much of the 60's was the same thing, so when the event occured not only was it abundantly clear that there would never be a reunion, it also took our YOUTH away once and for all, and pushed us forward into the rest of our lives.

Quoted from Maccalvr, posted June 22, 2004, 3:08am at here

I must have collected every newspaper that week. He was on the cover everywhere. I would still have them if my mother didn't throw them out!!! She just didn't get it.  I can't believe it's going to be 25 years this December. Does that mean Sean is 30?? Wow!

I bought every single newspaper too! I still have mine, but they are very yellow and faded now. I can't believe Sean is going to be 30! God, that makes me feel old!

I lived in Long Island, New York (just an hour from New York City). I was 18 at the time and a Beatles/Solo Beatles collector. John was my idol, and I was thrilled that he was back in the music scene again.

I had just graduated high school and had gotten my first job that year. It was around 11pm and I  was getting ready for bed, sitting on the edge of the mattress to go to sleep and get ready for work the next day,  when a longtime friend called me and said John had been shot.

This friend and I always liked to pull jokes on one another, but he told me to turn the TV on and see for myself. It was a bizarre gradual set of developments ... first they weren't sure it was Lennon, then they said it was but they didn't know the extent of the injuries.
My friend and I were on the phone together and he kept saying, "don't worry - maybe he was only shot in the leg or something". Shortly thereafter, I heard he was shot "several times in his chest," and I feared the worst.

Crazy as it sounds, I was such a collector that I grabbed a tape recorder (no VCR then) and recorded the radio. I still have it on tape as a newscaster sounded depressed and shaken when I turned the radio on to hear:

" ---- where he and his wife, Yoko Ono, had a permanent residence."  And then again: "Repeating -- former Beatle, John Lennon, was shot - and KILLED ...errr...errr... critically at this home tonight".

It was my mom's 40th Birthday and I told her I'm sorry, but December 8th will always have a different meaning for me.

Next morning I walked to the bus stop to go to work. These days I would have called in sick, but back then I didn't know what to do. The morning sky was still dark, and as I walked past a candy store, the newspapers were already on a bundle on the sidewalk:

"JOHN LENNON SLAIN HERE. FORMER BEATLE SHOT; NAB SUSPECT".

Complete devastation.

6 more years till I clamped eyes on a rather depressing Hospital room.

i wasn't born until 9 yrs, 1 month and 8 days later, but my parents remember. they were about 20, and they were watching a football game when it was interuppted to say the sad news. they both are big beatles fans, but my dad especially loved them and mostly john...i think he said he cried. :[

I was negative 9 years and 9 months old, but my guitar teacher- a hardcore Beatles fsn told me that when she heard the news she was just waking up and she had a cup of coffee in her hand, and when she heard it on the radio she dropped her coffee and was just in shock. The big-time music school that she went to was closed that day, and people were in the streets just crying and playing old John/Beatles tunes.

I'm glad I wasn't around for that day.

A few people killed themselves after hearing of Johns Death..
I find this surreal..and scary

Quoted from Mairi, posted October 3, 2004, 8:14pm at here

I'm glad I wasn't around for that day.

I suppose. But then if I hadn't been around that day, I wouldn't have been around when he was alive.  But yeah, it's not a day I'd like to repeat. Or week. Or year for that matter.

a few years after that, i woulve been born

Well I guess I'll join in the tradition of saying something like...........

I was negative 7 years and 30 days and I am also glad that I was not around to remember it.

There is a news report on a BBC site about the event, when I watched it I cried and felt awful so I don't know what I'd have been like had I been alive.

I think it's amazing that there seems to be so many that weren't even born when he died that have been touched by his music and words, he was a really intelligent guy.

I was born 6 years later...after johns death ......for the other i wasn't even born....

Hmm... Maybe we should make a thread called 'Where Weren't You'. 

LOL!!!!! YEAH WE SHOULD!

Kennedy: I was in 1st grade. it came over the loudspeaker from der central scrutinizers office  (school principal )

John: I was at home listening to the radio in disbelief and a state of numb disaccociation, because I didn't want to believe it. that's somewhat redundant.

I was at home, listening to the radio. I'm still shellshocked that John has been gone as long as he has.

Elvis: I was onstage, playing at at some upholstered outhouse for 75 bucks or something close.  I was quite sad, but not surprised by the passing of Elvis.

it was in December ninth one Tuesday. I came from the school and heard in the radio, which would have been murdered John.

I was 11 Years Old.

I asked my cousin if she remembered. I didn't think she would cuz she wasn't a Beatles fan. But she remembers asking her parents if she could call me! She was like 8.

On the morning of December 9th, my sister woke me up for school. I was in 9th grade then. She said, 'You'll never guess who died last night.' I asked her who, and she said John Lennon. We're so close in age and she knew the Beatles were my life and I thought it was one of those bad sibling jokes, so I told her to shut up. I turned on WLUP in Chicago and I caught Steve Dahl mid sentence saying "The man was shot, it wasn't like an overdose like so many rock stars", and I was just in shock. I had been watching Monday Night Football that night and went to bed about 45 minutes before Howard Cosell broke the news, so I missed his announcement. I still have all my newspapers from all over the place about it.

Very similiar to my experience. Except it was my cousin I told to shut up. It felt like it could only have been a joke. There was just no way. I'm still mad at my mom for throwing away those newspapers. I remember the whole Paul reaction thing and that was like the first time ever that I hated him. For a second. But then you realize it wasn't what the media made it out to be. The poor guy was just in shock. You can see the sorrow in his face from the pics back then.

One weird thing I remember is when I was watching the coverage of the ten minutes of silence with my friends, we started to laugh. I have NO idea why. How stupid of me. Maybe we were to young to handle it or something. Or I didn't want to cry in front of them. They were never into the Beatles. But I sure cried a lot when I was alone. Still do whenever I see the Imagine video or hear certain songs. I can't really watch the Lennon Legend DVD that much. Too much.

Anyway, I've been asking people lately if they remember that day. Even people who are not remotely into them, and they ALL remember exactly where they were. Then I ask about Elvis and they have no idea. Just remember when it happened but not the specifics of where they were. I find that interesting. Maybe because John's death was so tragic.

If I remember correctly (I was only 3 at the time), I was watching the news with my parents and they were reporting it.

I was a little sperm waiting to reach an egg 12 years later