Photo credit JONATHAN UTZ/AFP/Getty Images The guitar, which was auctioned the first time together with the trunk it sat in for years, now sports a brass plaque Mimi had mounted on the headstock memorializing her advice to the young, guitar-happy Lennon: “Remember, you’ll never earn your living by it.”
I hope that through you, John’s possessions can bring pleasure.
The poor old guitar was in such a state when I found it I had it professionally repaired. “With regards to the request for items in support of your Liverpool handicapped musicians appeal, most requests I have to refuse, however, in this case I feel able to make an exception. Her typewritten and signed letter, sent from her home in Sandbanks, Poole, states: ” Interestingly, it also includes excerpts of an undated document accompanying Mimi Smith’s donation. The Sotheby’s catalogue adds that “a percentage of the proceeds from the sale of this lot will be donated to the Olive Mount Learning Disabilities Directorate, Liverpool. So where has it been all these years? In its auction coverage, the Time of London reported that “when the Beatles became successful, Lennon left the guitar in the care of his guardian, Aunt Mimi. It was Jim who sold a guitar to Mimi Smith when she dropped in one day in 1957 with her nephew John Lennon. So Hessy rented another shop and each Monday Jim would spend an hour and a half teaching a group of 30 to 40 youngsters.
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He obtained the initial job as demonstrator at Hessy’s after he suggested to owner Frank Hessy that a good way of selling guitars would be for him to give free lessons to anyone who bought a guitar. Jim had worked as a local entertainer on Liverpool’s Clubland circuit since the 1930s. Peter’s Parish Fete in Woolton, Liverpool on 6 July 1957 when McCartney entered the picture.Ĭonflicting reports on who bought this guitar for John but it seems it may have been Jim Gretty who sold Mimi the guitar for John. With the addition of a few more members he rechristened the group the Quarry Men, and it was that outfit that played the St. His mother had shown him a few five-string banjo chords, so Lennon played the guitar with the sixth string left slack. The lad started a band, the Black Jacks, with his mate Pete Shotton.
At that time John did not have the money to purchase guitars, so this could make sense). (Another report says that John’s mother Julia purchased the guitar for him in 1957. Made by the Gallo company of South Africa, it was “Guaranteed Not to Split.” Banjo player and sympathetic spirit Julia Lennon allowed her son’s new guitar to be delivered to her house, rather than that of disapproving Aunt Mimi. Lennon bought this by mail for about £10 after seeing an advertisement in Reveille magazine. Photo from “The Beatles Story” in Liverpool Thanks to those pages and writers for sharing this with us all! I gathered these pictures and descriptions from other web pages on the internet. I have always been fascina ted by John Lennon, The Beatles and the guitars they played that changed musical history forever, for those of us who were there.
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