John Winston Lennon was born at 6:30 PM in the Oxford Street Maternity home in Liverpool on October 9, 1940, during the height of WWII. His father a merchant marine was away at sea and didn't turn up again until five years later, when Julia refused to restart her life with him and he then sailed away for good. Julia met another man and left her son in the care of her sister Mary, also known as "Mimi and her brother-in-law George in the Liverpool suburb of Woolton.
Throughout his childhood Lennon lived with his Aunt Mimi and her husband George Smith, who had no children of their own in a house called Mendips. John’s mother, Julia visited Mendips almost every day and Lennon often visited her at her home at #1 Blomfield Road, Liverpool. Julia taught Lennon how to play the banjo and played Elvis Presley records for him.
Lennon attended Dovedale County Primary School until he passed his Eleven Plus exam. From September 1952 to 1957, he attended the Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool, where he was known as a devil may care pupil, drawing comical cartoons and making fun of his teachers by mimicking their unusual characteristics.
Julia bought Lennon his first guitar in 1957. John’s aunt Mimi never believed that John would amount to anything as a musician and often told him, "The guitar's all very well, John, but you'll never make a living out of it." On 15 July 1958 Julia was killed on Menlove Avenue when struck by a car driven by an off duty police officer, Lennon was seventeen years old. Her death became a bond between Lennon and Paul McCartney, who also had lost his own mother to breast cancer on 31 October 1956.
Lennon failed all his GCE O level exams but was accepted into the Liverpool College of Art with help from his school's headmaster. Lennon would meet his future wife Cynthia Powell while attending school there. Lennon displayed a disruptive personality in class and ridiculed his teachers. As a result many of the staff refused to have John as a student. Lennon failed an annual Art College exam despite help from Cynthia and eventually dropped out before completing his last year of college.
Lennon started The Quarrymen in March of 1957. On July 6, 1957, Lennon met Paul McCartney at a Quarrymen concert at the St. Peter's Church Woolton Garden fête. McCartney's father was not pleased with his son’s choice of friends, but later agreed to let The Quarrymen rehearse in McCartney’s front room. Lennon and McCartney began writing almost immediately and penned their first song, Hello Little Girl.
McCartney introduced John to George Harrison. Lennon was not impressed with the much younger Harrison, but was convinced after hearing Harrison play Raunchy on the upper deck of a bus. Lennon acquiesced and Harrison joined the band as lead guitarist. Stuart Sutcliffe a close friend of Lennon's from art school later joined as bassist. After a series of name changes including Johnny and the Moondogs and The Silver Beatles, the group decided on The Beatles. McCartney remembers that Lennon was always considered the leader of the group, "We all looked up to John. He was older and he was very much the leader, he was the quickest wit and the smartest and all that kind of thing."
The Beatles became musical fixtures throughout the Liverpool area, but their first real taste of touring came with their first trip to Hamburg, Germany. It was in the infamous Reeperbahn that the Beatles first began to craft their skills as live performers. They appeared at the Jacaranda club and the Indra Club. At the end of their engagement Stewart Sutcliffe decided to leave the band in order to continue his artwork studies and to be with his girlfriend, Astrid Kirchherr. Paul took over duties as bass player for the group.
But the Hamburg trip was fated for disaster when McCartney and drummer Pete Best were reported for arson, after the two attached a condom to a nail and set it a blaze in the Bambi Cinema where the group was staying. They were deported along with George Harrison who was sited for working under age. Shortly there after Lennon's work permit was revoked and he returned to Liverpool by train.
Lennon was very disappointed, but The Beatles were not ready to give up yet. Soon after Harrison turned 18 and their immigration problem was solved. The Beatles returned to Hamburg for a second engagement in April 1961. While they were there the band recorded their first record "My Bonnie" with Tony Sheridan. News of the Sheridan release was published on the front page of Liverpool’s Mersey Beat music newspaper. In April 1962, The Beatles returned to Hamburg to perform at the Star Club, but the news of Stewart Sutcliffe’s death just two days earlier rocked Lennon.
John remembers, "I can't remember anything without a sadness, So deep that it hardly becomes known to me. So deep that its tears leave me a spectator of my own stupidity."
John Lennon
