I tried to work out where one of the quotes in ‘The Beatles Anthology’ book comes from. It’s a more complicated story than you might think:

Beatles fan? Want to hear about new research from brilliant Beatles historian Obadiah Jones? You're in luck! 5 seasons his excellent podcast are available now covering everything from the Hard Day's Night chord to Greece '67, the 10,000 hours myth to the Sgt. Pepper medals. Enjoy!

This is a great read - highly recommended.

Thank you!

John Lennon's father had an eventful war in the merchant navy – but it’s been hard to know how much of his extraordinary tales to believe. Based on ships’ records, I’ve now pieced together the full story of how Alf jumped ship in New York, was imprisoned in Algeria and then hospitalised in Italy:

The story of five-year-old John Lennon being forced to choose between his father and mother in Blackpool is almost certainly exaggerated. But Billy Hall, the friend John and his dad were staying with, did emigrate to New Zealand. Did Alf Lennon plan to follow him? I look at the events in this post:

Exactly 58 years ago, the Beatles were in Greece searching for an island to buy.

For my Substack, I've recapped everything I've learned about this story - including phantom islands, financial strategies, cold war propaganda - and a bit more clarity about the mysterious 'Magic Alex':

In this post, I look at why the Greek island the Beatles wanted is often referred to as ‘Leslo’ - despite there being no known island called this. It's included in Barry Miles’ Paul McCartney biography – but the author didn’t add it until a later draft: open.substack.com/pub/followth...

I wrote about John Lennon's enduring fascination with islands, and what that might tell us about him: www.beatlesingreece.com/p/john-lenno...

I spoke to @gimmesometruthpod.bsky.social for this episode on the Beatles in Greece - discussing where they went, which island(s) they wanted to buy, and what we know about the mysterious 'Magic Alex': gimmesometruth.podbean.com/e/greece-1967/

I looked at the evidence that the father of the Beatles' friend ‘Magic Alex’ may have worked for KYP, Greece’s Central Intelligence Service: followthesun.substack.com/p/a-secret-s...

For Erin Torkelson Weber’s website, I looked at the evidence for the Beatles’ abandoned plans to buy a Greek island: beatlebioreview.wordpress.com/2024/04/06/t...

'How Britain got on board with Greece's dictators' - my article for Declassified UK www.declassifieduk.org/how-britain-...

In 1967, tax rates of around 90% presented a major conundrum to the Beatles’ accountants. The group’s friend Alexis Mardas is said to have suggested that he could help them ‘resettle and pay a lot less tax in Greece’. New Substack post: