Where Were You?

[KEROUAC]

As it's the 34th anniversary I thought I'd post something.

I remember coming home from school as a fifteen year old for lunch and hearing the news on the afternoon radio here in the UK. I remember my mum saying she thought it was probably carried out by gangsters.

I didn't know much about John Lennon or The Beatles at the time. I remember Beatles and Lennon music being constantly played on the radio and tv till well past Christmas it had a major impact on me. It was on the covers of most magazines in the newsagents. I felt the shock waves even though as i said I didn't really know much about John Lennon. That's how I became a massive fan ironically.

[oldbrownshoe]

The strange thing is that, in the U.K. at least, the news and reaction was absolutely unavoidable in a way it wouldn't be now.

Every radio station had a news bulletin, daily newspapers sold in millions not thousands, and there were only three TV channels.

John's material got re-released and so his songs were everywhere, omnipresent in the chart (now no-one listens to it), in record shops (they no longer exist) and on 'Top Of the Pops' (now it too doesn't exist) for about six months afterwards.

Cue to 2014 and, if you wanted to avoid a celebrity's death, you could do so with ease.
I completely, after hearing about it at a bus-stop in Penzance, avoided all the Michael Jackson stuff.
It would have been impossible in 1980.

[Kaleidoscope_Eyes]

The strange thing is that, in the U.K. at least, the news and reaction was absolutely unavoidable in a way it wouldn't be now.

Every radio station had a news bulletin, daily newspapers sold in millions not thousands, and there were only three TV channels.

John's material got re-released and so his songs were everywhere, omnipresent in the chart (now no-one listens to it), in record shops (they no longer exist) and on 'Top Of the Pops' (now it too doesn't exist) for about six months afterwards.

Cue to 2014 and, if you wanted to avoid a celebrity's death, you could do so with ease.
I completely, after hearing about it at a bus-stop in Penzance, avoided all the Michael Jackson stuff.
It would have been impossible in 1980.

The grim-ful truth, oldbrownshoe.

[Bobber]

As it's the 34th anniversary I thought I'd post something.

I remember coming home from school as a fifteen year old for lunch and hearing the news on the afternoon radio here in the UK. I remember my mum saying she thought it was probably carried out by gangsters.

I didn't know much about John Lennon or The Beatles at the time. I remember Beatles and Lennon music being constantly played on the radio and tv till well past Christmas it had a major impact on me. It was on the covers of most magazines in the newsagents. I felt the shock waves even though as i said I didn't really know much about John Lennon. That's how I became a massive fan ironically.

That is exactly my story! Including the age! I remember how Starting Over -till that moment not doing very much in the charts- suddenly skyrocketed to #1, followed by Happy Xmas. It was a strange mixed emotion. I was just getting into The Beatles and their music was play a lot on the radio. I taped it all and I loved it. The reason why it was played however was pure horror.

[KEROUAC]

Wow that's strange Bobber. Were you in the UK too? The irony was that I was an ELO fan and hadn't really taken notice of The Beatles (even though the previous Christmas they had a Beatles film season on UK TV). Just hearing those songs 24/7 though turned me into an obsessive fan and I started collecting press cuttings around that time. I put Beatles records on my Christmas list and remember getting Rock n Roll Music Vol 2 and Double Fantasy on Christmas Day. I also seem to remember the film "Birth of The Beatles" being on Boxing Day.

[Bobber]

No, I was and am in The Netherlands.

[Bulldog]

Was at home. Getting ready for school. It came on the radio. My mother shouted upstairs to my father 'John Lennon has been shot dead'.

I was 11 & had never heard of John Lennon. A few people spoke about it at school. In the evening 'Help', the film was on television & he was all over the news.

Started listening to The Beatles a couple of years later.

[Hello Goodbye]

I was doing my residency at a New York City Hospital.  I just returned to my on-call room and turned on the radio and heard the news.  All of us went to the physicians' lounge and stayed up all night watching the TV coverage.

We used to take lunch in Central Park.  It was not uncommon to see John and Yoko walking through the park.  John would always acknowledge our waves with a friendly "Hi doctors!"

I posted this on 18 April 2006. 

Yes, that's what I was doing 44 years ago.  I'll never forget that awful day.

[Normandie]

Someone on a different forum (not a Beatles one) posted this clip of Howard Cosell announcing John's murder during Monday Night Football. I'd never seen this. For some reason, I assumed that the footage switched to the game announcers and viewers saw Cosell announce this.

[In My Life]

Someone on a different forum (not a Beatles one) posted this clip of Howard Cosell announcing John's murder during Monday Night Football. I'd never seen this. For some reason, I assumed that the footage switched to the game announcers and viewers saw Cosell announce this.

Wow Kathy; seeing that was like a time machine. I was in my bedroom and my parents had the game on just down the hall in the living room. I wasn't really paying attention, but I could tell that something had happened. I got to the TV just in time to hear the second announcement. Of course, it's hard to relive that moment but there's another aspect to that evening that I'm just remembering now. What brought me out of my room was hearing my mom explain to Dad what was going on. Almost two years earlier he suffered a stroke that left him with expressive aphasia. Sometimes he needed help processing television. That was just life at the time, but thinking about it now adds another layer to the sadness. On a different note, did you know that the surgical resident who tried to save John went on to have a practice in Syracuse? He is still does. His name is Dr. David Halleran.

[Normandie]

Wow Kathy; seeing that was like a time machine. I was in my bedroom and my parents had the game on just down the hall in the living room. I wasn't really paying attention, but I could tell that something had happened. I got to the TV just in time to hear the second announcement. Of course, it's hard to relive that moment but there's another aspect to that evening that I'm just remembering now. What brought me out of my room was hearing my mom explain to Dad what was going on. Almost two years earlier he suffered a stroke that left him with expressive aphasia. Sometimes he needed help processing television. That was just life at the time, but thinking about it now adds another layer to the sadness.

What a poignant memory, Kelley, on so many levels.

On a different note, did you know that the surgical resident who tried to save John went on to have a practice in Syracuse? He is still does. His name is Dr. David Halleran.

I did not know that; interesting!

[zipp]

The news hit here in the morning. My wife heard it on the radio.

I had to go to work and every single person I met, including my boss, mentioned the awful news and how sad they were.

The strange thing is that all of those people were French. None of them had mentioned the Beatles to me before.

So I imagine this kind of reaction was happening all over the world.

Then the news was in all the French newspapers and on all the French TV channels.

That's when I realised that the Beatles were an unspoken part of the entire world's collective memory.

[In My Life]

What a poignant memory, Kelley, on so many levels.

Thanks for listening, Kathy. 

[Moogmodule]

I was actually living in NJ at the time. My parents were on a trip back to Oz so it was just me and my older brother. I'd been hanging with my music friends and got back probably around 10:00.

My brother was a bit grumpy that I'd been out late but then told me that John had been shot. I think even at that stage he was known to have died. Needless to say as a huge Beatle fan and Lennon fan it was a huge shock.

I recall there was a minutes silence or something on the following Saturday at 11:00 or the like.