For You Blue

Ella. Argentina. Nothing is Beatle-proof.

[way-beyond-compare]

😱 07/20/26

[harrisonarchive]

On July 17, 1964, George purchased Kinfauns, a bungalow in Esher, home until early 1970, when Friar Park was purchased. Pictured here are, in photos 1-7, scans from the at home photo session by Leslie Bryce for The Beatles Monthly (on October 7, 1965); photos 8 & 9 show the home turning colorful (photos by Robert Whitaker, scanned from The Apple Years booklet).

Kinfauns also became something of a refuge for other musicians: “In the mid-Sixties [Brian Jones] used to come out to my house — particularly when he’d got ‘the fear,’ when he’d mixed too many weird things together. I’d hear his voice shouting to me from out in the garden: 'George, George…’ I’d let him in — he was a good mate.” - George Harrison, The Beatles Anthology “Another session found [David] Redfern at George Harrison’s house in Esher, photographing Donovan to tie in with the release of his single Mellow Yellow [1967]. ‘I think Donovan was going off the rails, and George had taken him in to try and help straighten him out. They were friends. So I took these photos of Donovan in a white suit against a white wall in George’s house. And then after they’d been processed, his people decided that they wanted them to be yellow to tie in with the single, so I had to go back to the lab and dye them…’” - The Beatles: Classic, Rare & Unseen The poolside mosaic at Kinfauns — featuring artwork by John Lennon — may have been moved to Friar Park: “[Derek Mann] recalls seeing Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr at Friar Park, 'They always seemed to get on extremely well,’ he said. […] ‘John Lennon built a mosaic of what looked like an alien in the garden which was surrounded by roses named after Paul McCartney. George had a pet Yorkshire terrier called Winston, John Lennon’s middle name.’” - Henley Standard (December 2001) Soon, Kinfauns turned colorful: “During autumn George asked Simon and me to paint a mural around the fireplace in the living room at the ‘Kinfauns’ bungalow in Esher. The mural portrayed George and Pattie as ‘Music Boy’ and ‘Flower Girl,’ as they lovingly called each other then, attended by a Yogi surrounded with an Aura of Light as the focal point to express their interest in Hinduism. We stayed at their lovely place about ten days to complete it.  Inspired, George started decorating the exterior of the house, graffiti style with spray cans […]. George was kind and funny but would also be quiet and pensive at times. […] George also turned us on to Paramahansa Yogananda’s book; ‘Autobiography of a Yogi,’ whose large portrait was watching us from the wall while we were painting the mural.” - Marijke Koger, marijkekogerart dot com (August 11, 2021) (You can find a photo of the mural in the book Living In The Material World.) “George grabbed a paintbrush as well, and [we all] set to work on George’s fireplace.” - Klaus Voormann, translated from Warum spielst du Imagine nicht auf dem weißen Klavier, John? (2003)

[beatlesonline]

Blackpool rehearsals, July 19, 1964.

[lope-lane]

Backstage at the District of Columbia Stadium, Washington D.C. - August 15, 1966

[fo-xfiles]

[harrisonarchive]

Happy birthday to former Official Beatles Fan Club secretary Freda Kelly! (Don’t miss the documentary “Good Ol’ Freda” if you haven’t watched it yet.)

Pictured are George Harrison and Freda at the Beatles Fan Club screening of Magical Mystery Tour on December 17, 1967 (bottom right of the first slide), plus screenshots of personalized autographs from each Beatle to Freda; Freda with George’s parents, Harold and Louise; and Freda in recent years (photo by Felicitas Lachmayr). Also included is an article about Freda by Pete Goodman, from Beat Instrumental (October 1967).

“The How I Won the War premiere after party was quite fun because, God, I was so drunk. I was 22, and because it was a premiere, I was all dolled up and thought I was the bee’s knees. [...] I’m not very good with makeup, so I bought false eyelashes and put them on. You always forget, and I’m always rubbing my eyes, so I’m dancing with George, and he’s oiled up more than I am, and he’s holding me up and says, ‘You’ve got a spider on your face!’ And I go, ‘What are you talking about? Oh, it’s me eyelash!’ [laughs]” - Freda Kelly, The Daily Beast (March 14, 2013) “Before they moved to London, I wanted to get their autographs. So George was in [the office] this day, and I had like autograph book upon autograph book for him to sign, and mine — I slipped mine in the middle. So he’s signing them, and I’m saying, you know, ‘That’s to Rita, that’s to Barbara’ […] and it gets to mine, and, ‘Who’s this to?’ And I said, ‘Well, just — just sign that,’ because I just wanted it out of the way. And he went, ‘Well, no, who’s it to?’ And I think it was because I was going, ‘It doesn’t matter, just sign this.’ I remember saying to him, ‘Just sign the book, just sign the book!’ And he flipped it to the front, and he went, ‘It’s yours!’ And I went, ‘Yeah, I haven’t got your autograph, I just want your autograph before you go to London.’ So he signed it, and he pocketed it. He took it. And I went, ‘What are you doing with my book?’ And he went, ‘I’ll get the others for you.’ And then next time he came in, he just threw it on the table and he went, ‘There you go.’ And they’d all put little comments.” - Freda Kelly, Good Ol’ Freda' Ryan White, director [of the highly recommended documentary, Good Ol’ Freda]: “George [Harrison] is Freda’s favorite Beatle too. She would never admit it, but from years of being around her, that’s what I think.” [Freda laughs and shrugs, but her lips are sealed] Q: “I liked your observation in the film that George wasn’t necessarily the quiet one.” Freda Kelly: “He wasn’t quiet with any of us in — I hate that word, ‘The Inner Circle.’ But with us, he was his most natural self. I don’t think he liked Beatlemania.” - Film School Rejects, SXSW 2013 (March 2013)

[motherlennon]

PAUL MCCARTNEY + fatherhood

[ceofjohnlennon]

New release of contact sheets of John Lennon photographed by Leslie Bryce for The Beatles Monthly Book, June 29, 1967. The photoshoot was in Kenwood. Scans © beatlesresearchsociety on Instagram.

[harrisonarchive]

Meeting the press to promote the movie Yellow Submarine, July 8, 1968. This ITV footage is courtesy of Getty Images.

“After the pictures, I was able to corner George, who told me that the ‘Yellow Submarine’ cartoon depiction of the Beatles ‘isn’t us.’ ‘There’s no true image of us. You Press people have given us an image which isn’t us either.’ George, in dark suit and yellow frilled shirt, said they had changed a lot (I noticed all three were much more sober and quiet and to the point now) and were half businessmen, half recording artists. ‘It appears we are doing less, but we’re doing more, but the public don’t see it. When we toured we were seen on stage and getting on and off aeroplanes. Now we do our work in private, in offices and studios. ‘I have written ten songs for the new LP. We have about 40 in all and we don’t know yet which ones we’ll use. We hope to do the LP quicker.’ I remarked that now that George was clean shaven, we saw more of his face than we had for a long time. He looked younger. How did it feel to be so bare? ‘Great. If I cut my hair off more I’d look younger still and maybe I could join The Small Faces,’ joked George.” - article by Andy Gray, New Musical Express (July 13, 1968) Q: “[The movie Yellow Submarine is] a spectacular, Dante’s ‘Inferno’-type tale of good vs. evil. And that ‘flying glove’ character is scary!” George Harrison: “[Laughs] It is, it is! And all those Apple Bonkers! The fact is, with the way the culture and the government are now, it’s all still happening now as it was in ‘Yellow Submarine.’ Except the Blue Meanies have got a bigger stranglehold on the planet right now than they even had back in ’67!” - Billboard (1999)

[michonnegrimes]

Lennon-McCartney in (some of) the Beatles dramas

[ceofjohnlennon]

John Lennon and Paul McCartney first and last known photo together.

[sgt-paul]

PAUL MCCARTNEY after the Philippines leg of the Beatles’ final world tour; July 5th, 1966. (?)

© Robert Whitaker

[elvisqueso]

Paul McCartney and George Martin at EMI studios (Blackbird Rehearsal Session, June 11, 1968)

[harrisonarchive]

Kimi Aida, Tetsusaburo Shimoyama and The Beatles in Japan, 1966; and Kimi with her George autograph in 2016. Photos © Steve McClure, via The Japan Times and © Kimi Aida.

"During their stay at the hotel [Tokyo Hilton], the Beatles received all sorts of visitors. They included merchants (Lennon reportedly bought a chess set), representatives of the media and Tetsusaburo Shimoyama, manager of the Shochiku Central movie theater and head of the Beatles Fan Club of Japan. The club wasn’t an ‘official’ fan club, and Shimoyama wanted to get the Beatles’ imprimatur for the club while they were in Japan. Kimi Aida was his interpreter. She was working at the Tokyo office of an American film-distribution company at the time. […] 'I was asked suddenly — maybe the day before — to go to the Tokyo Hilton,’ Aida says as she embarks on her own sentimental journey into the past. 'When I met them I was nervous. I wasn’t so crazy a fan.’ Aida says she liked Harrison best. 'He was so sensitive. He gave me his autograph,’ she says, proudly displaying the framed keepsake. Shimoyama’s interview with the Beatles lasted two hours. Aida says it was mainly about business. The atmosphere was hardly one of decadent rock 'n’ roll excess. Aida says tea, cookies and sandwiches were served. The Beatles, she recalls, 'were all happy and handsome and kind gentlemen. They were stylish.'" - Article by Steve McClure, special to The Japan Times

[irisasis]

Paul McCartney, Stuart Sutcliffe (1961) Photographer: Mike McCartney

[motherlennon]

PAUL MCCARTNEY during the Our World rehearsals and broadcast. June 1967.

[winstonpaul]