John Lennon: The Life

I was asked at the weekend what my favourite period of Beatles music was. In truth that is an almost impossible question to answer, or at least a question that is impossible to provide a consistent answer to.  My answer will vary almost day to day depending on what kind of mood I’m in at the time and what album I’ve most recently listened to.

If it is almost impossible to pin point a period in the development of The Beatles as my favourite then it is actually impossible to provide an answer to the equally oft asked question; who is my favourite Beatle.

The chemistry that existed between the four of them was what made The Beatles so special. It may, initially, have been John’s band, growing as it did from the skiffle days of the Quarrymen, and the song writing partnership he had with Paul was nothing short of musical alchemy, but to dismiss the massive contributions of George and Ringo is to make a big mistake.  

That was the unspoken, but clear all the same, assessment of Philip Norman’s ‘Shout’, which is considered by many as being the definitive book on The Beatles.

It was then with more than a hint of trepidation that I recently purchased a copy of Norman’s biography of Lennon, ‘John Lennon – The Life’.

In ‘Shout’ Norman’s preference for John, no need to ask him who his favourite Beatle is, came through on almost every page.  It was inevitable, therefore, that he would deal with the subject of John Lennon in more detail at some point.

And detail is one thing that this entertaining book of over 800 pages doesn’t lack.

The problem is in where that detail lies, or perhaps more accurately, where it doesn’t.

Much of the detail provided on John’s formative years any Beatle fan is likely to have read elsewhere, maybe even in the pages of the aforementioned ‘Shout’.

There is little shortage of source material when it comes to The Beatles with the result that it is possible to provide a detailed account of them without the tedious task of actually doing the leg work and interviews yourself.

It would be wrong to suggest that this is what Norman did, but as an example his account of Lennon’s first marriage to Cynthia looked to be simply lifted from each of her two autobiographies, the second of which provided an altogether harsher assessment of her marriage.

The weakness in this book comes when there is less easily accessible information on Lennon’s life, in particular the later years of his, tragically short life, in New York. This was a period in his life that I was looking forward to reading about but felt disappointed with the scarcity of information after such a detailed account of the years prior.

Despite the misgivings above this is an essential addition to any Beatles fans’ library. It explores all facets of John’s personality, the good and the bad. He was in many ways a man of contradictions. Aren’t we all too some degree?

This book doesn’t gloss over his flaws. It shows John as a man of great talent and intellect but also impaired by his own insecurities. A man prone to acts of cruelty, yet also a man capable of displaying a generous heart.

In short, the success of this book is in its’ portrayal of John Lennon the man and not merely John Lennon the Beatle. 

Glasgow Comedy Festival 2012

The curtain came down last night on the 2012 Glasgow Comedy Festival, the 10^th such event, and as usual across the three week festival there was a wide variety of comedy on offer.

The Glasgow Comedy Festival has come a long way since its inception back in 2002, and is one of the biggest comedy festivals around. Rather bizarrely though many Glasweigans remain unaware of its existence even though there were around 300 shows at 40 different venues within the city.

Those 300 or so shows include the high profile, big venue, gigs from the likes of Dara O’Briain, who played two nights at The Armadilo, Sarah Millican and Rory Bremner, but also provides local acts to showcase their talents.

It’s not all Stand Up either. The first event that we popped along to was a recording of the soon to air on Radio Scotland ‘The Guessing Game’, a comedy panel show hosted by Clive Anderson, who seems to have slipped off the radar a little since upsetting The Bee Gees on TV a number of years ago.

As is the nature with this kind of thing ‘The Guessing Game’ was a bit hit and miss and to be honest I’ll not be tuning the dial on by wireless to Radio Scotland when it airs. It was though a pleasant enough way to spend an evening and thanks to the splendid Rob Rouse we were left with the equally splendid image of a drum kit made out of cats.  

We also took the opportunity to take in one of Arnold Brown’s Comedy Interviews at The Tron Theatre. It was a strange night, not least due to an injury to a member of the audience when a camera fell on them.

I’m far from convinced that Brown’s laconic delivery, which is a bit of a slow burner, is best suited to an interview format. We left feeling a bit short changed for our £14.50 (tickets booked too late to take advantage of the two for one offer), quite keen to try and catch Phil Differ’s stand up and altogether unimpressed with the world view of Dorothy Paul. A more skilful interviewer would have steered her away from the subject of Ireland and Scottish Independence.

Returning to Stand Up, the Blackfriars Basement is one of the best comedy venues in Glasgow and we took in a couple of shows, at either end of the festival, there.

First up was Jarred Christmas. The New Zealander gave a high energy performance, the pace of which simply never let up.  Jarred takes audience participation to new levels and a fantastic evening finished with Jarred stripped to the waist dancing to ‘Back in the USSR’ while we fired foam bullets at him.

Jarred Christmas

Although he is now based in Manchester, Scott Agnew has for some time been one of our favourite Glasweigans on the comedy circuit and it was his ‘Project: Couldn’t Give a Fuck’ that rounded the festival off for us.

Scott Agnew

Scott’s material, and much of this was making its debut at Blackfriars, may be close to the bone at times but one of his strengths is his engaging personality. He is an excellent, self deprecating, storyteller and while you do find yourself laughing at his stories (how could you not?) you feel real empathy with him at the same time.

Another favourite from the Glasgow/Scotland circuit is Mark Nelson and he didn’t disappoint at the Oran Mor.

Mark Nelson

A confusion with the start time meant a mad dash across Glasgow for us and if truth be told the news that there was a support act wasn’t greeted, by us, with much relish.

Kai Humphries was, therefore, an unexpected delight. It is almost impossible not to like Kai who established a tremendous rapport with the audience and more than nicely warmed things up for Mark Nelson.

A tweet from Mark earlier in the day revealed that he had been violently sick. If he was nervous, or in any way suffers from stage fright, it certainly wasn’t in evidence when he took to the stage. His performance, as always, was polished and perfectly timed. He is one of the few comedians that can have me sore with laughter simply with a well timed pause. Why Mark, a former Scottish Comedian of the Year, isn’t huge and playing multiple sell out nights at the SECC is a mystery to me.

Why Dara O’Briain is playing to sell out crowds in big venues is less of a mystery. Like Mark Nelson the night before he had me sore with laughter at times. I’m sure that it’s not, but his act seems so effortless and almost as if he has just rolled up to have a blether with people.

That almost brings me to an end in my round up of the Glasgow Comedy Festival of 2012 but I’m going to finish with one moan. In previous years a staple of our Comedy Festival menu has been the Lunchtime Comedy Chat Show hosted by the previously mentioned Scott Agnew and another excellent local talent, Des Clarke.

This year we made it a long to just one. No Scott and Des this year, instead the one we made it along to was more than capably hosted by Charlie Ross.

When I say we made it a long to just one, we did in fact head to The Corinthian on the final Sunday for one more round of sandwiches and comedy before the end of the festival only to find, after we had climbed about 8 flights of stairs, that the show had been cancelled. No mention of this on the Comedy Festival website or on their twitter feed. We at least hadn’t paid in advance but the punter in front of us had. It was a slightly disappointing note at the end of another highly successful Glasgow Comedy Festival. The countdown to next year’s starts now.