We conclude our look at John Lennon as an actor, starting from 1965’s ‘Help!’ and with particular emphasis on what was arguably his only ‘serious’ role, albeit in an anti-war satire ‘How I Won The War’. He also voices a famously sprawling Beatles TV film about a bus, and there’s a film cameo and brief comedy sketch in amongst it all as well. Antony…

The show keeps rolling with a look at John Lennon as an actor, both in films and TV sketches and also in his persona as Beatle John with the press and on stage. Antony is joined in this endeavour by professional actor Ross Marshall, and the conversation also looks at the craft of acting itself in terms of styles and John Lennon’s (un)suitability fo…

For our latest bonus episode, we offer a diversion and a trip back to the past as your humble host is interviewed about his and other people’s music by a friend in Madrid in 2016. Topics touched upon include songwriting, creativity, performance, recording and (no surprise) The Beatles and John Lennon. Preceding the interview are Antony's thoughts a…

We complete our 2-part look at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert of September 1969 and the ‘white-suited apostle’ John Lennon’s involvement in it with the highly flexible Plastic Ono Band. Following ‘Revival ‘69’, Antony and Dave Thurmaier turn their attention to a 1971 film that should be in every Lennon fan’s video collection, namely D.A.…

And so the next century of Glass Onion begins. We’ve got another fine 2-parter for you, with Antony joined by Dave Thurmaier, the co-host of the ‘I’ve Got A Beatles Podcast’ and former guest of the show way back in 2019 and 2020. The Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert of September 1969 yielded a live album for John & Yoko plus D.A. Pennebaker’s …

Over 4 years on from our original episode about ‘Revolution 9’ (episode 25, in the show notes), we return to the topic with an audio version (including multiple sound clips) of a discussion that originally went out on video on Matt Williamson’s excellent you tube channel ‘Pop Goes The 60s’ back in March. We discuss our origin stories with the track…

And so we complete the milestone! Scott Phipps once again joins Antony to complete their whistle-stop, greatest hits tour through John Lennon and the 1960s. Scott gives us a brief sketch of each year through a few news events (some extremely random but no less interesting) before our two intrepid heroes each pick a Beatles/Lennon talking point, thi…

What better way to mark Glass Onion’s century than with a traditional multi-parter? In the first of two shows to celebrate our milestone, Antony is joined again by Scott Phipps to take a whistle-stop, greatest hits tour through John Lennon and the decade that made him and which he helped propel into history. Scott puts on his ‘Rainbow Valley’ trous…

We felt it in poor taste to add show notes at such a sad time for the world...

In the last episode before we notch up our century, Antony flies solo to muse on and discuss various items of Lennon interest. In order, these are the 40th anniversary of the ‘Milk And Honey’ album, the cancelling and virtues of the Lennon-penned Beatles song ‘Run For Your Life’, May Pang’s 2022 documentary ‘The Lost Weekend: A Love Story’, the wor…

We round off Glass Onion’s 5th year with a personal episode. Antony explores further his origin story with John Lennon and the ongoing relationship and fascination with the subject of our show (yes, it’s our show). You will also hear some writing that didn’t quite culminate in a book this year, and there’s some discussion of childhood, both Antony’…

We conclude our 1967 odyssey by picking up from mid-June and detailing all the main Lennon and Beatles events for the rest of 1967. The Beatles are linked by satellite to hundreds of millions, they almost buy a Greek island, the Maharishi enters their lives and they make their own TV special just in time for it to be shown in black-and-white among …

In this episode we start to work our merry way through the Lennon/Beatles events events of this most swinging of Beatleyears, reaching mid-June. The Fabs start off by releasing what could be their greatest single ever and then turn their full attention to creating what is surely at least their most famous album, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band…

1967 is a year that has gone into legend for various reasons. Was it the year of peace and love? Was there any real love in it at all? Or was it just like any other year, a heady mix of everything good and bad about the human race and society? Before looking at what was undoubtedly a ground-breaking and life-changing year for John Lennon and The Be…

Ken McNab and I complete our discussion about his new book 'Shake It Up Baby!: The Rise of Beatlemania And The Mayhem of 1963' and the general atmosphere and events of that breathless year. This time round, we cover the second half of the year as our four intrepid musical explorers continue their furious work rate and have their first proper brushe…

Following the shows on 1962, we seamlessly move to 1963 with the welcome return of Ken McNab to talk about his new book 'Shake It Up Baby!: The Rise of Beatlemania And The Mayhem of 1963'. After Ken gives some thoughts on Peter Jackson’s ‘Get Back’ (his previous appearances on Glass Onion were prior to its release), we cover the events of the first…

We complete our deep dive into 1962 in the outer world and in the Beatles family psychodrama, picking up from late July with Beatles events including a historic change of drummer, John Lennon’s marriage, the group’s first radio interview, their more than troublesome experience recording the simplest song in the world (Love Me Do), gigs with one of …

In this episode, Antony and Ghosty start discussing the Beatles/Lennon events of 1962, covering January to June. Particular focus is put on the Pete Best issue and the death of Stuart Sutcliffe, not to mention John Lennon’s contentious and highly unique reaction to that death. Every year in the Beatles story from around 1960 was packed with activit…

Our latest Lennon odyssey starts with a review of the events of 1962, a tangential conversation in which Antony and guest David ‘Ghosty’ Wills freewheel into all kinds of other territory before setting the listeners up with some pre-1962 context on the Beatles’ progress on their own journey to musical and cultural world domination. 1962 was marked …

We complete our latest Lennon journey with the conclusion of my analysis of some of the more telling quotes from the series of interviews conducted in September 1980 for Playboy magazine by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. This episode contains a lot of clips from the original audio of the interviews and focuses mainly on John's comments about who wrote w…

This episode starts with a ‘short intro’ of around 45 minutes, with yet more Coleman vs Goldman material, before continuing our in-depth look at John Lennon’s series of interviews for Playboy magazine in September 1980, which also included Yoko Ono. The interviews offer a fascinating and multi-layered study of a highly eccentric artist and also for…

John Lennon’s series of interviews for Playboy magazine in September 1980, which also included Yoko Ono, are not only a fascinating and multi-layered study of a highly eccentric artist but also form an integral part of the official narrative of John and Yoko’s relationship in 1980 before his death and of the genesis of the songs for their joint alb…

Compilation albums come in many shapes and sizes and some can be justified while others rely on good marketing and glossy packaging to persuade consumers to part with their hard-earned money for the same material. This is an appearance by your humble host on the ‘When they Was Fab’ podcast back in December 2020 discussing the mind-boggling number o…

John Lennon and Paul McCartney are inextricably linked, and what more is there to say at this point? Well, I give it a shot in a podcast of 3 sections, looking at common Lennon/McCartney tropes and assumptions, giving a guitar & vocal lesson on the song 'Two Of Us' and then walking you through the highly entertaining 2000 TV film 'Two Of Us', direc…

The completion of Luke and Antony's discussion of John Lennon, originally recorded for ‘Luke’s English Podcast’ last year. We complete our description of John using adjectives of personality, and then discuss his lyrics, including his lyrical progression, and offer numerous examples courtesy of Antony’s voice and guitar and Luke’s deep knowledge of…

Luke Thompson, a fellow English teacher and podcaster, hosted Antony on his podcast back in June 2021, and this is the Glass Onion version of that talk, split into two parts. This part of the discussion centres on trying to describe John Lennon using adjectives of personality, so this episode is especially recommended for students of English and no…

Jon Stewart, author of 'Dylan, Lennon, Marx & God', makes a quick and very welcome return to the podcast to further discuss Lennon themes from his book. We talk Lennon origin stories, Freudian analysis, Aunt Mimi, Liverpool and the Dylan/Lennon superduo that never was. The last third of the show has host Antony reading a couple of stories about his…

Turning our attention from 1968 itself to the Lennon/Beatles events of the year, what emerges is an epic Glass Onion journey into a year that weighed heavily on John Lennon's psyche and the world-famous group that he'd originally formed. The main events include the trip to India, the Apple launch, the recording of the White Album and John and Paul'…

1968 was among the most turbulent years in living memory. As a forerunner to our look at the Beatles/John Lennon events, Matt Williamson joins the show to dissect the year itself in terms of major events, films and (non-Beatles) singles and albums. This is prefaced by host Antony doing a brief comparison of The Beatles and Monty Python's Flying Cir…

Chris Purcell and I complete our 2-part look at John Lennon's live career and also some of the films and video clips surrounding his performances This part takes us from 1966 to 1975 as we look at such events as the Our World broadcast, Hey Jude & Revolution on the David Frost show, the rooftop gig and John's two most high-profile and substantial s…

John Lennon was a unique live performer, both with The Beatles and in his solo career, though following his split with the Fabs he showed a reluctance to play full concerts and so we should cherish what little we have in that regard. This 2-parter on John’s live career sees documentarian Chris Purcell make a welcome return to the show. In this part…

Jon Stewart, former and current guitarist with 'Sleeper', is the author of a fantastic new book that offers a unique new take on the fascinating John Lennon/Bob Dylan relationship, and this is the conclusion of Antony's talk with him and returning guest, radio DJ and Bob Dylan podcaster extraordinaire Ben Burrell. In this part, we touch on the role…

This time around, Antony is joined by Jon Stewart, the author of a fantastic new book that offers a unique new take on the fascinating John Lennon/Bob Dylan relationship, and also welcomes a returning guest, radio DJ and Bob Dylan podcaster extraordinaire Ben Burrell. Before diving into the main topic, we talk a little about Jon's previous (and cur…

Having set the scene of 1969 in the first part of this 2-parter, Scott and I go through the John Lennon-related events of the year, one dominated by John & Yoko's sincere quest for world peace. Join us for bed-ins, bags, billboards, Give Peace A Chance, Live Peace in Toronto, Abbey Road and more... The conversation is complemented by a smorgasbord …

1969 was, even by the standards of the tumultuous decade of the 60s, a remarkably eventful year both for John Lennon and the world at large. Scott Phipps makes a welcome return to the podcast for a 2-parter about John in this year. I should come clean and say that there is very little John Lennon/Beatles in this part, so call it a build-up to the m…

James Corbett joins the show to discuss the 2006 documentary about John's political activism and his fight against the Nixon administration to stay in the U.S. We also take some time to look at the political landscape of the time and the difference between then and now in terms of how much the public is shown about what is really happening in the w…

For this episode, we take you back to a couple of my proto-podcast adventures in Beatleland way back in November 2013. Firstly, I answer a few questions from friends and then I'm joined by schoolfriend and (then budding) musicologist Edmund Holliday as we take a casual look at the tracks from Revolver and discuss other Beatle/Lennon matters Enjoy! …

Another guest appearance by your humble host, this time back in October on the wonderful podcast 'The Mindbuzz'. The host Gill and I get into some Lennon/Beatles topics, such as John's progressive attitude to drugs, him as a victim of 'cancel culture' on social media, 'Paul Is Dead' and a few other things... Enjoy! Please (x many) like, follow, sha…

An appearance by your humble host on Matt Williamson's 'Pop Goes The 60s' you tube channel. We discuss the perils of finding truths about the Beatles, Glass Onion's Goldman revisionism, some of the classic performers' relationships with the fans and a few other things... Enjoy! Please (x many) like, follow, share, subscribe, rate, review etc… Feedb…

Gaz Keenan, a John Lennon tribute artist, joins the show to discuss the finer points of playing John in terms of the voice, the music and everything in between. There are numerous audio clips, tangents in all the right places and a musical treat at the end. All the links for Gaz and his band 'John Lennon Tribute UK' can be found below Enjoy! Please…

Writer and journalist Eoghan Lyng joins the show once again to discuss John Lennon's remarkable 3 books of writing and drawing, namely 'In His Own Write', 'A Spaniard In The Works' and 'Skywriting By Word of Mouth'. We also discuss Eoghan's reading habits, who may have influenced John's books and how they give us a glimpse into the thin veneer that…

Chris Purcell and Simon Weitzman join me to discuss some key Beatles documentaries, predominantly the Maysles brothers' 'What's Happening! The Beatles In The U.S.A.' (aka The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit), 'The Beatles Anthology' and 'Timewatch: Beatlemania'. Chris and Simon also discuss their own fan-related films (links below)and we discuss the …

David 'Ghosty' Wills and I complete our answering of the wonderful questions sent in audio form by Glass Onion listeners. Topics covered in this part include the 1968 Beatles psychodrama, Bernard Purdey, Lennon's bad behaviour, Beatles influencers and fictional reunion set lists. Thanks once again to all those who sent in questions Enjoy! Please (x…

In the first of a traditional Glass Onion 2-parter, I'm joined by radio D.J. David Wills a.k.a. Ghosty, to answer questions from the listeners in audio form. Topics covered include (in no particular order) guitar technique, weed pseudonyms, White Album reimaginings, the ever-changing Lennon, political fad-hopping, future Beatles books and tubas! Pa…

Therapist, musician and Liverpudlian Alun Parry joins me as we pool our shared psychological knowledge to discuss John and The Beatles from a variety of angles, all the while taking pains not to offer speculative diagnoses of our wildly contradictory hero and his ex-bandmates Enjoy! Please (x many) like, follow, share, subscribe, rate, review etc… …

Erin Weber, author of 'The Beatles And The Historians', joins me to discuss various aspects of John Lennon and the Beatles using her historiographical skills. We also discuss history and propaganda in a general way and the challenge of achieving objectivity and finding the elusive truth among ever-changing narratives. Links to Erin's work can be fo…

Your host Antony recently appeared on the 'Classic Film Jerks' podcast to take a comedic but still analytical look at the Beatles’ first film ‘A Hard Day’s Night’. Is it a classic? You can probably guess what I thought but what did Michael and Andrew from CFJ conclude after their first watch? The intro to the show contains more information on the u…

Journalist and Glass Onion listener Spencer Cox joins me for a wide-ranging deep dive into John Lennon 1980, psychology, drugs and even the British royal family (just briefly...) Enjoy! Please (x many) like, follow, share, subscribe, rate, review etc… Feedback and voluntary Paypal donations to glassonionpod@yahoo.com OR Support the show at https://…

The second half of a double swapcast with Sam from the 'Paul or Nothing' podcast looking at Lennon and McCartney's covers album adventures is a review of Paul's 'Russian album', CHOBA B CCCP. Links to Sam's show can be found below Enjoy! Please (x many) like, follow, share, subscribe, rate, review etc… Feedback and voluntary Paypal donations to gla…

Sam Whiles of 'Paul or Nothing' guest hosts the first part of a double swapcast looking at Lennon and McCartney's covers album adventures. First up is John's 'Rock And Roll' album from 1975. Links to Sam's show can be found below Enjoy! Please (x many) like, follow, share, subscribe, rate, review etc… Feedback and voluntary Paypal donations to glas…