It took four of them to make the magic, but The Beatles were John Lennon’s band. He formed The Quarrymen and invited Paul McCartney and George Harrison to the group before they morphed into the Fab Four. John had a way with a song, but he didn’t have the best people skills (he cut his son Julian out of his will, which cost him millions of dollars). After he left a guitar god in the lurch, John complained about playing his first non-Beatles concert to a close friend and band insider.
John Lennon formed a supergroup to play a 1969 concert
The gears were churning, but The Beatles hadn’t officially broken up when John played the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival. The one-off festival took place on Sept. 13, 1969. It included a murderer’s row of superstar musicians, such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis, who were instrumental in John’s rock ‘n’ roll education.
John and Yoko Ono performed as the Plastic Ono Band. Future Yes drummer Alan White, bassist and longtime Beatles friend Klaus Voormann, and guitar legend Eric Clapton rounded out the band.
Though a world-class guitarist, Clapton wasn’t treated like one by John. Lennon left Slowhand standing in the rain at the airport in Toronto, writes Peter Doggett in You Never Give Me Your Money:
“It was raining, and we were standing around waiting for the luggage when a huge limo rolled up, and John and Yoko jumped into it and drove away, leaving the rest of us standing in the rain without a clue as to what to do next. ‘Well, that’s nice,’ I thought.”
Things didn’t get any better before the concert, and John complained to Voorman about playing his first non-Beatles concert just before they stepped on stage.
John complained to Voormann about playing his first non-Beatles concert: ‘What am I doing here?’
Playing the Toronto festival attacked John’s nerves from several angles:
- He was playing his first non-Beatles concert and his first live show for a paying audience in several years.
- He was doing it in front of rock legends he looked up to.
- It was going to be one of his final acts as a member of the Fab Four since the Toronto concert soon led to the unofficial end of The Beatles (he quit the band soon after returning from North America)
John consumed endless piles of cocaine to deal with his nerves, Doggett writes. The mixture of nerves and narcotics led to him throwing up for hours before the show.
Voormann, whose friendship with The Beatles dated back to their Hamburg, Germany, residencies before they hit the big time, became a confidant at the concert. As Voorman recalled to Doggett, John regretted committing to playing the festival in the first place:
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“John stood in the dressing room, which was admittedly rather tatty, saying, ‘What am I doing here? I could have gone to Brighton.’”
Klaus Voormann
Luckily for John, it was all over in a flash. The Plastic Ono Band ran through a short set of rock ‘n’ roll standards (“Blue Suede Shoes,” “Money (That’s What I Want)”), The Beatles’ “Yer Blues,” and new John songs, including “Cold Turkey” and “Give Peace a Chance.”
A week after playing a non-Beatles concert he complained about, John told the rest of his band he was quitting.
Lennon was the last Beatle to put out a solo record after the split
He performed a couple of signature solo songs during the Toronto festival (“Imagine” and the banned in America “Cold Turkey”), but John was the last Beatle to release a solo album after the split.
Ringo Starr’s cover album of big band-era standards landed first, followed by Paul’s debut and Goerge’s triple-disc effort All Things Must Pass in November 1970. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band came out in December 1970, more than a year after he told his Beatles bandmates he was quitting.
Among the three songwriters, John was the last Beatle to have a solo album hit No. 1 when Imagine reached the Billboard 200 apex in September 1971.
John Lennon complained about his first non-Beatles concert to close friend Klaus Voormann. He would rather have stayed in England than venture to Toronto to front a supergroup and play in front of his heroes. John left The Beatles soon after his regret-filled show and started his solo career in earnest roughly a year later.
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