Beatles FAQ

Ingrid Pedersen (1945 -) the half sister John Lennon never knew he had. John Lennon was brought up as an only child in practical terms, famously living with his Aunt Mimi and her husband, George Smith. After a few years of estrangement between Mimi and John's biological mother (Julia) relations were repaired and John was allowed regular contact with two (half) sisters - Julia and Jackie Dykins - named after their father 'Bobby' Dykins.  Two half brothers on the paternal side were born much later: David in 1969 and Robin in 1973 - see here .   Throughout his life, John suspected he might be have another sibling on the maternal side. In 1964, he even hired a private detective to investigate The source of John's hunch appears to be vague memories of the final years of the war, when he still lived with his mother and his father was (mostly) away at sea  Confirmation of that hunch came out of the blue, nearly two decades after his death. After Alf but before Bobby In 1998 In...

John Lennon never lived with other children, but he had a total five half siblings. Two of these he never met while a third he only saw on one occasion.  

Beatles go 'capo-crazy' on Rubber Soul What does a capo do? A capo raises the pitch of stringed instruments including guitars and ukuleles. They are generally used to either make a chord progression easier to play or to match the vocal range of a singer.  Did The Beatles use capos effectively? For themselves, yes. But they were not experienced in accommodating the vocal ranges of guest singers. Famously, Cilla Black failed her first audition for Brian Epstein because the The Beatles backed her in a lower key than she could manage. Who showed them how to use them? Musically they learned through instinct and imitation rather than the application of theory. They would effectively reverse engineer songs and then experiment. Buddy Holly was an early model and he often played with one.  Lennon's capo use on 'You've Got to Hide Your Love Away' on Beatles For Sale is an example of the influence of Bob Dylan. In an era without YouTube tutorials to encourage accurate copy...

The Beatles learned some very basic, functional German while in Hamburg. They were resolutely English in their approach to pronunciation, intonation and attempting to mimic accent. 

Three female songwriters have co-credits on songs covered by The Beatles

We didn’t sing our own songs in the early days — they weren’t good enough John Lennon We started as a little covers band Paul McCartney

Lennon and McCartney frequently named women in song titles - some real, some disguised, several invented. Lennon tried a generic shoutout with Girl, while the cautious George steered clear of naming and/or shaming/celebrating

On July 4th 1966 The Beatle played two concerts in the Philippines as part of what would be their final world tour. These took place over a single afternoon and evening  at the Rizal Stadium, Manila. 

The Beatles started by playing coffee bars, church halls and small family homes. By the time of their second US tour no standard music venue was large enough to meet the demand for tickets. So promoters like the legendary Sid Bernstein hired sports stadia.

Julia Lennon  (née Stanley) gave birth to her first child, John Winston Lennon at Liverpool Maternity Hospital during the early hours of 9 October, 1940.