Was this the inspiration for Yellow Submarine?

Feb 17 2006

By Sam Lister, Daily Post Staff

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.c.....ne%2d-name_page.html



A rare drawing discovered by a close friend of John Lennon, who is certain it sparked the idea for the pop ditty and film.



WHEN Wally the whale inadvertently swam up the River Thames it became the centre of an international media storm and hundreds of people turned up for a glimpse.

But more than 50 years ago Merseyside had two stranded whales that people took to their hearts.

Now, it seems, one of them may have been the inspiration for the Beatles' hit the Yellow Submarine and film.

A rare drawing has been discovered by a close childhood friend of John Lennon and he is certain it sparked the idea for the pop ditty.

David Ashton remembers clearly the day the pair sneaked off to look at the whale, which was stranded in the River Mersey near Hale lighthouse.


The agricultural journalist, who grew up in Woolton but moved to Denmark in the 1960s, vividly remembers the day.


He said: "I was always aware there was some connection between the whale and Yellow Submarine but when I found the picture it really confirmed it. You only have to look at it to see.


"John and I used to go to Hale Lighthouse and when the whale was stranded we went down to see it.


"It was going rotten and was yellow. There were crows and seagulls eating it.

  


"We started to draw it in a drawing book my mum had given me, but most of it was actually done by John.

"She kept it until about 10 years ago when she gave me the book, but I didn't look at it. It was only when I sorted through it recently that I discovered it. I couldn't believe it."

The whales were washed up in the River Mersey in September 1953 and the one Lennon based his drawing on was 21ft long and weighed four tons.

The port authorities could not save it so it was eventually shot to stop it suffocating.

Mr Ashton has now written down the story behind the picture for his family and has no intention of parting with it.

He added: "I feel as though the picture belongs to John.


"It's not mine. "I have no intention of ever selling it, although it is probably quite valuable. John and I were very close.


"We were friends from about the age of seven. We knocked around together and went to youth club, scouts and the church choir. The drawing was done when I was about 12 and he was 13. People forget that he was just a normal human being before all the fame happened."


David Ashton will be a special guest on Spencer Leigh's Radio Merseyside programme On The Beat tomorrow evening starting at 6.30pm.

Very interesting! It was Paul that wrote Yellow Submarine though!