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Am Bratach No. 207
Bookends “The Beatles in Scotland” by Ken McNab, Polygon, 2008. £20. I was twelve when the Beatles had their first big hit, and the band — along with Bob Dylan — provided the soundtrack to my teenage years. Each record was bought as it came out. The singles and EPs have long since gone, and the LPs replaced by CDs, but I still regularly listen to their music. This beautifully written and illustrated book will be a welcome addition to the shelves of all Beatles’ fans. The first chapter looks at John Lennon’s connections to Durness, and includes interviews with Lennon’s cousin, Stan Parkes, local businesswoman Iris Mackay who remembers some of the pranks the young John got up to, and primary school headteacher, Graham Bruce, who through his interest in local history and his work on the John Lennon Memorial Garden helped to make more people aware of the Beatles’ connection to one of the most remote areas of Scotland. McNab also looks at John’s later visit to Durness in 1969 with Yoko and their children. During this visit they had an accident on the single track road near Tongue, which resulted in them spending a week in the Lawson Memorial Hospital, Golspie. It was during this time that one of the more intriguing moments in Lennon’s history occurred: the meeting between the firmly atheist liberal thinking Beatle and Reverend David Paterson, then the minister of the local Free Church. It is a testament to the personalities of both men that they apparently got on well and enjoyed their conversations. McNab wonders why John and Yoko spent so long in hospital, given their injuries were minor, and speculates that it might have had something to do with the couple’s attempts to kick their heroin addiction (something that Lennon described graphically in his song “Cold Turkey”). Sadly, John was never to return to Sutherland. In his last letter to his cousin Stan, before he was murdered, he expressed his love of Scotland. The last chapter deals with Paul McCartney’s love of the Kintyre peninsula — several hundred miles south of Durness, but also remote. Just as Durness provided an escape for John, so Kintyre allowed Paul to leave behind the pressures of his life as a musician. Many of Paul’s post-Beatles songs (including of course the massive hit “Mull of Kintyre”) were written at High Park Farm — the property he bought in 1966, and where he and his second wife Linda spent so much time. It was also in Kintyre that Paul was convicted of cultivating cannabis in a greenhouse at the farm. After Linda’s death from breast cancer in 1998, Paul spent less time at High Park, probably because the memories were so painful. In between these two chapters, McNab looks at the various tours the Beatles did north of the border, interviewing fans, journalists, photographers, bouncers and even members of St John’s Ambulance. There is also a chapter devoted to Stuart Sutcliffe — the Scottish born artist who for a while played bass with the band. He was generally considered to be a much better artist than he was musician, and was eventually sidelined. Shortly after, in April 1962 he died of a cerebral haemorrhage. One of the most interesting chapters
in a fascinating book looks at the relationship between the Beatles
and various Scottish musicians and celebrities. Many famous Scots
were given a helping hand by members of the band, including Lulu,
Jack Bruce and Marmalade. There is the session musician Andy
White, who played drums on the Beatles’ first singe “Love
Me Do”; comedian and poet Ivor Cutler, who was in “The
Magical Mystery Tour”; Jimmy McCulloch, who was recruited
for Paul’s band Wings and who died of a drugs overdose at
the tragically young age of 26; and Elton John’s guitarist
Davey Johnstone who played with Lennon on his return to the stage
in 1974. Two of the Beatles are no longer
with us, but their songs — both collectively and individually
— will live on for as long as people listen to music. |