Even if it was not perceived as such at the time

in 1966/67, these first steps as solo artists

were dramatic events. For the first time in four

years, John, Paul, George and Ringo were no

longer a unity, the Beatles had no record deal,

McCartney ­ after all, half of the songwriters

duo, as perceived by the public ­ now wrote

movie soundtracks without the help of his

partner who starred in a movie without his

three Beatle friends. Visually, the Beatles had

changed. John's long hair was trimmed for his

role in How I Won The War (done on

September 6, 1966, at 8:30 am at the Onkel

Nickel pub in Essel), he now wore his now

famous National Health glasses and all four

Beatles had begun to grow moustaches. The

Mop Tops were now definitely passé and the

Beatles themselves would soon be too, as John

Lennon realized during the filming: "I was

always waiting for a reason to get out of The

Beatles from the day I made How I Won The

War in 1966.10“ A reason, but not the reason

(we have grown past that, haven't we?),

Lennon finally met on 7 November 1966 at the

Indica Gallery. In September 1965, John

Dunbar, Peter Asher and Barry Miles had

opened the Indica Bookshop in Mason's Yard.

In the basement of the building there was a

gallery where counter culture exhibitions were

regularly held. Peter Asher, part of the pop duo

Peter and Gordon, was McCartney's then

girlfriend Jane’s brother. From the beginning,

Paul had helped the company, donated a box

office to the store and both designed a flyer for

the opening of the shop and the wrapping

paper. Basically it was McCartney, not Lennon,

who was active at this time in London's

cultural scene. That Lennon visited the Indica

Gallery at all had less to do with his interest in

art, but more with the boredom of his

suburban existence. On 8 November 1966 an

exhibition was due at the Indica by a Japanese

artist named Yoko Ono. Dunbar invited Lennon

to watch the displayed exhibits the night

before, as the latter recalled three years later:

"Yoko had been invited to London by some

group of artists called Destruction in Art

Symposium. They had some big thing going on

in London. She had an exhibition put on by

Indica Gallery, by John Dunbar ­ Marianne

Faithfull's ex­husband. I use to go down

occasionally to see things like Takis, who'd

make flashing lights and sold them for a

fortune. It would be garbage. But they sent me

this pamphlet, or he called me ­ I don't know

which ­ about this Japanese girl from New

York, who was going to be in a bag, doing this

event or happening in a bag. I thought, 'Hmm,'

you know, 'sex'. So I went down.11“ Finally,

John Lennon and Yoko Ono met and while

John struck an imaginary nail "we locked eyes

and she got it and I got it and that was it,12" as

the two told time and again over the years.

They did not make their relationship public

10 Beatles, page 231

11 Beatles, page 235

12 Ibd.

An advertisement for Yoko Ono's

Unfinished Paintings exhibition at

Indica Gallery

until May 1968. Until then, this may seem a

little timid, but not as much as John and Yoko

claimed afterwards. Even before Lennon Brian

Epstein made acquaintance with Ono as she

appeared with artists such as Gustav Metzger

in the Destruction in Art Symposium in London

in September and at the Edinburgh Festival of

that year.14 Although he found her appearance

boring, according to his assistant Tony

Bramwell, he booked her for a performance at

his Saville Theatre.15 McCartney also knew

Ono already after she had asked him for a

music score as a birthday present for John

Cage on 5 September 1966. Paul explained

that John and he did not write scores and

instead gave her the most beautifully executed

manuscript of the song The Word.

On 24 November 1966 (interestingly, still

without a record deal), together for the first

time in five months, the Beatles returned to the

EMI studios in Abbey Road to start recording a

song John had written during the filming of

How I Won The War in Spain: Strawberry Fields

Forever. Three days later, John Lennon again

appeared in front of a camera as an actor. In

the comedy show Not Only ... But Also he

played a bouncer outside a nightclub toilet.

Of course, it had not escaped the media that

there had been no new Beatles record in

months (instead a retrospective called A

Collection Of Beatles Oldies had been issued in

time for Christmas), that Lennon and

McCartney had solo projects going and that no

concerts had been scheduled. In a report with

the significant title "Reporting '66: End of

Beatlemania" on 20 December 1966, ITV

reporter John Edwards raised the question

whether the Beatles had split up. Edwards

interviewed each Fab on the stairs of the EMI

studios where a session for When I'm Sixty­Four

was about to take place. Lennon said there

would be no more concerts and that he and

Paul would be writing songs forever, but also

that there would possibly be other solo projects

in 1967. Ringo also spoke of solo projects.

However, all four Beatles agreed that they

would not split up.16 On the contrary, they had

two new songs ready, intended for a new

album, which had not yet been given any great

thought, but which were very innovative (even

if McCartney’s When I'm Sixty­Four had been

written ten years earlier17) and ­ once again –

were so different from what the Beatles had

recorded until then. Even if no one outside

Abbey Road had heard the songs, they pointed

to greater things. Besides plans for a new

album that would ultimately become Sgt

Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Beatles

13 see www.christies.com/lotfinder/LotDetailsPrintable.aspx?intObjectID=3734572 (as per 18 August 2013)

14 Interestingly also Jane Asher appeared at that festival for a theatre production called A Winter's Tale

15 see Bramwell, Tony & Kingsland, Rosemary, Magical Mystery Tours – My Life With The Beatles, New York City 2005, page 172f

16 Rediffusion­TV, 29 December 1966

17 see Lewisohn, Mark, All These Years Volume 1: Tune In Extended Special Edition, London 213, page 262

UK: Mono A Collection Of Beatles Oldies (Parlophone PMC 7016) signed by Paul on 29 July

2011 and a cover proof for the same album. A Collection marked the first time the Beatles

had an outside artist design one of their album covers (discounting Klaus Voormann who

belonged to the "family"). David Christian not only did that artwork but also a draft for

their 1966 Christmas message which was utilised as an advertisement instead.13