A totally unauthorised and 100 % unofficial tribute to John Lennon celebrating (believe it or not) his 80th birthday is to take place at London’s Stash Gallery. Curator Harry Pye has selected 80 artists (some very well known) and asked them to make a work to mark the life and career of this great artist and cultural legend.
I still turn to John Lennon when I need cheering up or feel in need of inspiration – Harry Pye Curator
“COVID 19 won’t stop our show. We’ve accepted we can’t have one big opening party but we can have 4 small-ish ones on each of the first 4 Fridays in October. The venue we’ve picked is located near Aldgate East tube and is part of the club Vout-O-Reene’s. John Lennon’s Not Dead will feature; drawings, paintings, photography, and collage. There will also be some specially made music and animation and some surprise performances.
Artists include: Magda Archer, Julie Bennett, Gordon Beswick, Kirsty Buchanan, Louise Camras, Bula Chakravarty Agbo, Jackie Clark, Emma Coleman, Jerry Dammers, Chalkie Davies, Benn Dickson, Sarah Doyle, Tinsel Edwards, Kevin Eldon, Hunt Emerson, Nat Foreman, Tine Frellesen, Christian Furr, Mikey Georgeson, Peter Harris, Kyle Hawkins, Georgia Hayes, Dan Hedley, Sadie Hennessey, Alice Herrick, Russell Herron, Marguerite Horner, Tony Husband, Kim James-Willaims, Fabienne Jacquet, Jasper Joffe, Corin Johnson, James Johnston, Dominic Kennedy, Phil King, James Lawson, David Lock, Peter Lloyd, Cathy Lomax, Bob London, Lee Maelzer, Jo Mama, Jules Mann, Josie McCoy, Mark McGowan, Hugh Mendes, Mattia Milan, Richard Arthur Mittens, John Moore, Kate Murdoch, Klarita Pandolfi Carr, Molly Parkin, Sophie Parkin, Raksha Patel, Harry Pye, Clare Price, Liz Purchase, Max Reeves, Micheal Restrick, Alli Sharma, Adrian R. Shaw, Rowland Smith, Duglas T. Stewart, Uzma Sultan, Liesel Thomas, Kath Thompson, Chris Tosic, John Turnbull & Sandra Turnbull, Twinkle Troughton, Francis Upritchard, Natasha Vassiliou, Jessica Voorsanger, Julian Wakeling, Loretta Wall, Edward Ward, Vanessa Winch, Leonie Woods, Bonnie Wong, Rose Wylie, Agnieszka Zapala
Born on October the 9th 1940 John Winston Ono Lennon MBE was an English singer, songwriter, and peace activist[2] who gained worldwide fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist, and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. His songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in musical history. In 1969, he started the Plastic Ono Band with his second wife, Yoko Ono. After the Beatles disbanded in 1970, Lennon continued as a solo artist and as Ono’s collaborator.
Born in Liverpool, Lennon became involved in the skiffle craze as a teenager. In 1956, he formed his first band, the Quarrymen, which evolved into the Beatles in 1960. He was initially the group’s de facto leader, a role gradually ceded to McCartney. Lennon was characterised for the rebellious nature and acerbic wit in his music, writing, drawings, on film and in interviews. In the mid-1960s, he had two books published: In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works, both collections of nonsensical writings and line drawings. Starting with 1967’s “All You Need Is Love”, his songs were adopted as anthems by the anti-war movement and the larger counterculture.
From 1968 to 1972, Lennon produced more than a dozen records with Ono, including a trilogy of avant-garde albums, his first solo LP John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, and the international top 10 singles “Give Peace a Chance”, “Instant Karma!”, “Imagine” and “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”. In 1969, he held the two-week-long anti-war demonstration Bed-Ins for Peace. After moving to New York City in 1971, his criticism of the Vietnam War resulted in a three-year attempt by the Nixon administration to deport him. In 1975, Lennon disengaged from the music business to raise his infant son Sean, and in 1980, returned with the Ono collaboration Double Fantasy. He was shot and killed in the archway of his Manhattan apartment building by a Beatles fan, Mark David Chapman, three weeks after the album’s release.
As a performer, writer or co-writer, Lennon had 25 number-one singles in the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Double Fantasy, his best-selling solo album, won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year following his death. In 1982, the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music was posthumously honoured to him. In 2002, Lennon was voted eighth in a BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth-greatest singer of all time and included him as a solo artist in their list of the 100 greatest artists of all time. In 1987, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Lennon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, as a member of the Beatles in 1988 and as a solo artist in 1994.
Top Photo: Chalkie Davies Front elevation and gated entrance to the Dakota Building, NYC
John Lennon is Not Dead – he’s 80! 3-9.30pm socially distanced celebration – The Stash Gallery Fri 02 Oct 2020 15:00 – Mon 26 Oct 2020 21:50