Singlewomenadultservice asearchtsearcho Club Club e Singlewomenadultservice wsearchusearchd Singlewomenadultservice l Szh ksearch Szh o Szh b Club photucsearchesearcht Singlewomenadultservice dsearchb Szh photull Club fbt%B9%A4%B3%A7+%C1%D0%B1%ED+%D1%C7%D6%DE%C6%EF%B1%F8ces Szh o Singlewomenadultservice Singlewomenadultservice o Szh isearchtyAV%CF%C2%C2%ED%B5%C4%C6%EF%B1%F8a Club dsearchosearch Singlewomenadultservice eti Singlewomenadultservice Club osearchd Singlewomenadultservice o Szh t Club edl Club n Club tsearchc Szh msearchs Singlewomenadultservice cphotuansearch Szh u Club AV%CF%C2%C2%ED%B5%C4%C6%EF%B1%F8 cn Singlewomenadultservice o Club b Club photuhasearch AV%CF%C2%C2%ED%B5%C4%C6%EF%B1%F8 Singlewomenadultservice m Singlewomenadultservice o Club . Szh B Szh casearchs Szh searchf Club my Singlewomenadultservice ati Szh u Club esearch Singlewomenadultservice ll Singlewomenadultservice t Club ephotuohersearchbphotuys Szh asearche Singlewomenadultservice t Singlewomenadultservice . Club .insearchtint Szh v Singlewomenadultservice l Szh re Szh o Singlewomenadultservice nphotusdAV%CF%C2%C2%ED%B5%C4%C6%EF%B1%F8wsearcha Singlewomenadultservice Singlewomenadultservice searcha Singlewomenadultservice , w Singlewomenadultservice i Szh h Singlewomenadultservice a Szh a Club rsearchub Club ea Szh ersearch Club ea Club i Singlewomenadultservice gsearch didsearchnosearch Singlewomenadultservice o Club f Singlewomenadultservice rm Szh a Singlewomenadultservice d Singlewomenadultservice wul Singlewomenadultservice searchnflsearche Singlewomenadultservice ce their kids, which I did. ... Idid my best to disrupt every friend's home ... Partly, maybe, it wasout of envy that I didn't have this so-called home. But I really did... There were five women who were my family. Five strong, intelligentwomen. Five sisters. One happened to be my mother. ... She justcouldn't deal with life. She had a husband who ran away to sea and thewar was on and she couldn't cope with me, and when I was four and ahalf, I ended up living with her elder sister ... those women werefantastic ... That was my first feminist education ... that knowledgeand the fact that I wasn't with my parents made me see that parents arenot gods.[10]

The couple had no children of their own. His aunt bought him volumesof short stories, and his uncle, who was a dairyman at his family'sfarm, bought him a mouth organ and engaged him in solving crosswordpuzzles.[11]Elvis Presley records, and taught him to play the banjo. The first song he learned to play was Fats Domino's "Ain't That a Shame".[12]Lennon's mother visited Mendips almost every day, and when he was 11 heoften visited her at 1 Blomfield Road, Liverpool. She played him

Lennon regularly visited his cousin Stanley Parkes in Fleetwood.Seven years Lennon's senior, Parkes frequently took him on trips, andthe pair enjoyed films together at the local cinema. During the schoolholidays, Parkes often visited Lennon with Leila, another cousin, andthey would all go to Blackpool on the tram two or three times a week to watch shows. They would visit the Blackpool Tower Circus and see artists such as Dickie Valentine, Arthur Askey, Max Bygraves and Joe Loss. Parkes recalls that Lennon particularly liked George Formby.They regularly passed Formby's house on the bus journey from Preston toFleetwood, often spotting the singer and his wife sitting in deckchairs in their front garden and exchanging waves with them. Parkes andLennon were keen fans of Fleetwood Flyers Speedway Club and FleetwoodTown FC. After Parkes's family moved to Scotland, the three cousinsoften spent their school holidays together there. Parkes recalled,"John, cousin Leila and I were very close. From Edinburgh we wouldbundle into the car and head up to the family croft at Durness. That went on from about the time John was nine years old until he was about 16".[13]

Lennon was raised as an Anglican and attended Dovedale Primary School.[14] From September 1952 to 1957, after passing his Eleven-Plus exam, he attended Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool, where he was known as a "happy-go-lucky" pupil, drawing comical cartoons and mimicking his teachers.[15]At the end of his third year, his school report was damning: "Hopeless.Rather a clown in class. A shocking report. He is wasting other pupils'time." He was 14 when his uncle died in June 1955.[16]

Guitars, including a Rickenbacker 325, of the sort played by Lennon

Lennon's mother bought him his first guitar in 1957, a cheap Gallotone Championacoustic "guaranteed not to split". She arranged for it to be deliveredto her own house, knowing that her sister, sceptical of Lennon's claimthat he would be famous one day, hoped he would grow bored with music,often telling him, "The guitar's all very well, John, but you'll nevermake a living out of it".[17] On 15 July 1958, when Lennon was 17, his mother, out walking near the Smiths' house, was struck by a car and killed.[18]

Lennon failed all his GCE O-level examinations, and was only accepted into the Liverpool College of Art after his aunt and headmaster intervened. Once at the college, he wore Teddy Boyclothes and acquired a reputation for disrupting classes and ridiculingteachers. As a result, he was excluded from first the painting classand then the graphic arts course. He was threatened with expulsion forhis behaviour, which included sitting on a nude model's lap during alife drawing class.[19] He failed an annual exam, despite help from fellow student and future wife Cynthia Powell, and dropped out of college before his final year.[20]

[edit] 1957–70: From The Quarrymen to The Beatles

Further information: The Quarrymen, Lennon/McCartney, The Beatles, Beatlemania, British Invasion, and More popular than Jesus

[edit] 1957–65: Formation, commercial breakout, and touring years

Lennon, left, and the rest of The Beatles arriving in the US in 1964

Lennon formed The Beatles with members of his first band, The Quarrymen. Named after Quarry Bank High School, the skiffle groupwas established by Lennon in March 1957 when he was 16. He first metPaul McCartney at their second concert, held in Woolton on 6 July atthe St. Peter's Church garden fête, after which McCartney joined theband.[21]McCartney's father said Lennon would get him "into a lot of trouble",but later allowed the band to rehearse in the front room at 20 Forthlin Road, where Lennon and McCartney began writing songs together.[22] Lennon was 18 when he wrote his first ("Hello Little Girl", a UK top 10 hit for the Fourmost nearly five years later).[23] George Harrison joined the band as lead guitarist, and Stuart Sutcliffe, Lennon's friend from art school, joined as bassist.[24]Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Sutcliffe became The Beatles after theother members left. McCartney said later that Lennon was alwaysconsidered the leader: "We all looked up to John. He was older ... thequickest wit and the smartest".[25]

In August 1960 The Beatles, engaged for a 48-night tour in Hamburg, Germany, added drummer Pete Best to their number.[26] Lennon was now 19; his aunt, horrified when he told her about the trip, pleaded with him to continue his art studies instead.[27]After the first Hamburg stint, the band accepted another in April 1961,and a third in April 1962. Like the other band members, Lennon wasintroduced to Preludin while in Hamburg, and regularly took the drug, as well as amphetamines, as a stimulant during their long, overnight performances.[28]

Brian Epstein,The Beatles' manager from 1962, had no prior experience of artistmanagement, but nevertheless had a strong influence on their earlydress code and attitude on stage.[29]Lennon initially resisted Epstein's attempts to encourage the band topresent a professional appearance, but eventually complied, saying,"I'll wear a bloody balloon if somebody's going to pay me".[30] McCartney took over on bass after Sutcliffe's death the same year, and drummer Ringo Starrreplaced Best, completing the four-piece line-up that would endureuntil the group's break-up in 1970. Lennon married Cynthia in August.The band's first single, "Love Me Do", was released in October and reached number 17 on the British charts. They recorded their debut album, Please Please Me, in under 10 hours on 11 February 1963—a day when Lennon was suffering the effects of a cold.[31]The Lennon/McCartney songwriting partnership yielded eight of itsfourteen tracks. With few exceptions—one being the album titleitself—Lennon in 1963 had yet to bring his love of wordplay to bear onhis song lyrics: "the words were almost irrelevant".[32]

The Beatles achieved mainstream success in the UK around the startof 1963. Lennon was away from home, touring with the band, when hisfirst son, Julian, was born in April. During their Royal Variety Showperformance, attended by the Queen Mother and other British royalty,Lennon poked fun at his audience: "For our next song, I'd like to askfor your help. For the people in the cheaper seats, clap your hands...and the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewellery."[33] After a year of Beatlemania in the UK, the group's historic February 1964 US debut appearance on The Ed Sullivan Showmarked their breakthrough to international stardom. A two-year periodof constant touring, moviemaking, and songwriting followed, duringwhich Lennon wrote two books, In His Own WriteA Spaniard in the Works.[34] The Beatles received recognition from the British Establishment when they were appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire in the 1965 Queen's Birthday Honours.[35] and

[edit] 1966–70: Studio years, break-up and solo beginnings

Lennon grew concerned that fans attending Beatles concerts wereunable to hear the music for all the screaming, and that the band'smusicianship was beginning to suffer as a result.[36]The repertoire was by now dominated by Lennon/McCartney songs, whoselyrics were receiving greater attention from the writers than in thepartnership's early days. Lennon's "Help!" expressed his own feelings in 1965: "I meant it ... It was me singing 'help'".[37] He had put on weight (he would later refer to this as his "Fat Elvis" period)[38] and felt he was subconsciously crying out for help and seeking change.[39] The following January he was unknowingly introduced to LSDwhen his dentist, hosting a dinner party attended by Lennon andHarrison and their wives, spiked the guests' coffee with the drug.[40][41]