George Harrison photographed by Carinthia West in Australia, early 1980s.
“He likes nothing better than pottering about in the garden and a bit of peace and quiet with the family. […] The Liverpudlian accent is still surprisingly strong. Certain words — especially on tape — are pure Scouse. ‘There’ becomes ‘thur’ and ‘lot of’ is ‘lorrov.’ […] The ‘cheeky chappie’ humor which eventually charmed the mums and dads of early Beatles fans is intact, as is Harrison’s air of modest understatement. But he is sharper than one had imagine, despite his self-effacing cracks to the contrary. […] Harrison was first introduced to Australia through his father’s photos of Bondi Beach from the late 1930s. ‘My dad was a merchant seaman and he used to talk about it. And I remember in his photograph album there’d be these old, faded black and white photos of him at the beach at Bomdi. And he’d tell stories about how they’d have these shark nets and how one day a shark took a fellow swimmer’s let off.’” - article by Ginny Dougary, The Sydney Morning Herald (November 22, 1986) About the photo — "I was at a loose end in Sydney, when George and Olivia Harrison very kindly invited me on a private week-long cruise round the islands of the Great Barrier Reef. One of the stops was a place called Hamilton Island, and George became fascinated by this beautifully plumaged parrot. I am fond of pictures where there is some sort of amusing juxtaposition. In this case, the parrot seems of match the galloping kangaroos pasted across the front of George's T-shirt, and also, of course, he played 'Long John Silver' in one of Eric Idle's 'Rutland Weekend' sketches, complete with a fake parrot on his shoulder. It was very rare that George was able to get right away from the pressures of his life and completely relax with his wife, Olivia, and his young son Dhani, so needless to say, I felt incredibly touched that they invited me." - Carinthia West, San Francisco Art Exchange In August 2007, Architectural Digest featured an article about the Harrison family's Australian home; you can read more in an older post.
