TODAY would have been John Lennon’s 70th birthday, and his widow will mark the occasion with a concert by the Yoko Ono Plastic One Band at a ceremony in Iceland for the Lennon Ono Grant for Peace.

In his native Liverpool, a |two-month celebration of his life and music starts this weekend and will run until December 9 – 30 years and a day since he was murdered.

With their week-long season of two shows a night at the Gaumont Cinema in August 1963 – as well as dates at the Winter Gardens and a return to the Gaumont the following year – The Beatles played more often in Bournemouth than anywhere else in the UK outside Liverpool and London.

Lennon also bought a seafront bungalow home at Sandbanks in 1965 for his beloved Aunt Mimi, who brought him up following the death of his mother.

The Beatle famously phoned her every day and made regular visits to Dorset to visit her.

He and Yoko left for Southampton from Mimi’s home before getting married in Gibraltar in 1969, as chronicled in The Beatles’ hit The Ballad of John and Yoko.

To mark Lennon’s birthday and celebrate his links to the area, Mr Kyps in Ashley Cross, Poole, is hosting a special Lennon at 70 party on Sunday (October 10) headlined by leading Beatles tribute act, Sgt Pepper’s Only Dart Board Band; 90s indie rockers Dodgy (whose drummer Mathew Priest is studying at Bournemouth University); James Warren, of 70s rock legends Stackridge; Quebec band Mosquito-B; and The Oz, from St Petersburg, Russia, who have released an album of punk covers of John Lennon’s more political songs.

Here, we speak to some people from our area with first hand experience of Lennon...

Musician Graham Dee, above, from Bere Regis, was playing sessions with various bands in London in the 60s and regularly saw The Beatles … “I was in a band called The Bobcats. We were house band at the Scotch of St James club and, like all the bands, The Beatles were always in there, in one of the alcoves.

“I spoke with John more than the others, and always found him very easy to talk to – easier than a lot of people who weren’t as big as he was.

“The last time I saw Lennon was at Heathrow. I think it was 1968, because he had grown his hair very long.

“I was coming back from playing the Montreux Festival in Switzerland and he was behind me walking down the steps from the plane. He said hi and we chatted; he introduced me to Yoko.

“When we got inside he just waved his passport, but I had to queue up to have mine checked.

“All he had with him was a Polaroid camera, but he got held up in baggage reclaim. It looked like some customs guy was taking his camera apart whereas once I’d got my guitar and bag I was able to just walk straight out. He just said, ‘Bye, see you later’. I’ve often thought that while fame can bring freedom, it’s also a trap. He had a face that everyone knows so he was waved through passport control, but then he was trapped, maybe because someone felt they had to search his personal stuff more closely than the rest of us. Who knows?”

Musician Howie Casey, from Branksome, Poole, knew Lennon from the very beginning of The Beatles. Howie’s band, The Seniors, was the first Liverpool band to play Hamburg and met up with The Beatles when they arrived a few months later.

“I was closer with the others than with John. He had his own agenda. Whereas the others were more sociable, John was always a bit stand-offish.

“Then there’s that story about me trying to stop them being sent out to Hamburg. I was asked about it at a Beatles festival in Liverpool recently and I just said: ‘I never said that.’ Then there was a cry from the back of the hall, ‘Yes you did!’ It was Allan Williams, the agent who booked us and The Beatles. Some things you just can’t escape!”

As the McKinley Sisters, Howie’s wife Sheila and her sister Jeanette supported The Beatles on tour in 1964. It was the McKinleys’ first UK tour and paved the way for their big hit single, Sweet and Tender Romance.

Sheila says: “We were always a bit wary of John. It wasn’t that he was unfriendly, but he certainly had a sharp tongue and could be very caustic. I think he did it to build a fence around himself. He had a difficult childhood and the things that happen to you then make you the adult you are, so he had one or two issues, I’d say. But we had a great time on tour with them. Their dressing room was right next to ours and they were always borrowing our make-up, mainly an eyebrow pencil!

“I found my diary from that time, and on April 2 I’d written ‘Working with The Beatles (fabulous)’. A few weeks later I wrote ‘Working with The Rolling Stones (murder)’!

“We were just two young, naïve girls from Scotland having a great adventure.”

Jeanette adds: “You never knew if John was going to be sweet or sarcastic, but we had a great time. I remember our wee mum coming to see us in Glasgow and she met The Beatles. I found her teaching them how to say, ‘It’s a braw, bricht, moonlicht nicht the nicht’ in a Liverpool accent!

“Our fan club chap asked them to join and got a shilling out of each of them to become the first McKinley Sisters fan club members outside Scotland.

“We watched them from the side of the stage; they were great. But they watched us as well and were very complimentary about our harmony singing.

“We found out later that Brian Epstein wanted to sign us but our agent turned him down – if only we’d been a bit wiser we would have approached him ourselves.”

Eileen Denton (above) from Westbourne, Bournemouth, was the Beatles fan club secretary for Dorset in the 1960s until the band split up in 1970. She saw them in concert several times and met them in person.

“I liked John a lot, though he could be outspoken. We chatted about all sorts of things at fan club meetings and he seemed very interested in meeting the young ladies that were helping make his band so successful.

“I remember Cynthia being there one time. She seemed very shy and didn’t fit in at all.

“At one of the Bournemouth shows they ushered in all these disabled children to meet The Beatles, much to John’s annoyance. I think his anger had to do with his own childhood. He used to play with children from one of these homes – it was called Strawberry Field.

“He knew he wasn’t going to make their lives better and he thought it was because the adults with them wanted to meet The Beatles… no wonder he was so angry.”

Lifelong music fan Jon Kremer, who used to run Bus Stop Records in Bournemouth, met Lennon after The Beatles’ first show at the Gaumont, on August 19, 1963. Jon and friend Al Stewart charmed their way backstage, pretending to be from the makers of Rickenbacker guitars, as played by John Lennon.

“We’d found our way backstage and knocked on the door. John said he couldn’t really ask us in, as it was a bit crowded, but told us to hang on and then came back with his guitar, and handed it over to me.

“Al has made a stage riff out of this for years, that John handed him the guitar. But he didn’t. He gave it to me and I can only slightly play guitar so I was in this narrow corridor, standing on one leg like a flamingo trying to play it. Finally, I handed it Al, who luckily could, and still can, play guitar!

“We told him we’d seen the show and that it was difficult to hear him, although we heard George much more clearly. Funnily enough in the Echo review of the second show that day it mentioned Lennon’s guitar was much too loud!

“We met up again later in the week where they were staying at the Palace Court Hotel and chatted some more, but what struck me about him was how kind he was putting up with these two 16-year-olds babbling on.

“He was laconic, quite laid back and very easy to talk to – not at all like the acerbic, angry man he’s often portrayed as.”