My first term at Keele.
My first Hall Ball; Lindsay Christmas Ball.
The main act; The Bootleg Beatles.
Writing this up forty years after the event, I learn from Wikipedia that The Bootleg Beatles were relatively new in 1980 and/but are still going more than forty years since they started in some Beatle-oriented show.
Anyway, I clearly had a good evening. The diary reads:
Lindsay Ball in eve, brilliant. Went on from there to Karen’s for partyette // v good.
I really must apologise to Karen who I’m sure was and probably still is a lovely lass, but I really don’t remember you, nor do I remember what a “partyette” might have been. I’m guessing it was a small group of people in one student room continuing to enjoy the entertaining night. The // symbol in my diary tells me that cannabis was involved and my inability to remember anything much that occurred after seeing The Bootleg Beatles might be attributed to that.
Anway, a belated thank you to Karen for her hospitality after the Ball.
I was hungover the next morning and I recall staggering off to the campus store to buy some milk in an attempt to breakfast my way out of my stupor.
Before I had left the confines of Lindsay, I ran into Katie, a super girl I knew reasonably well, whose surname has now escaped me, but I do recall that she was from Leicester. Katie told me that John Lennon had been shot dead overnight.
I so clearly remember staggering on towards the campus store wondering whether I was sleepwalking or even still in bed having a nightmare based on the show I had seen the night before. It just didn’t seem possible that John Lennon was dead.
While we were watching The Bootleg Beatles, the soon-to-be killer, Mark Chapman, cadged an autograph from John Lennon in front of The Dakota Building. A few hours later, probably while I was still at “Karen’s partyette” (the early hours of 9 December GMT), Chapman returned to The Dakota and shot John Lennon dead.
Below is from the front page of The Guardian 10 December; the news broke too late for 9 December by the looks of it.
John Lennon shot Wed, Dec 10, 1980 – 1 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
The incident was a global phenomenon and it certainly was the talk of the Keele campus for the rest of that term…i.e. the next few days. I wonder how other people who were at Keele then remember that strange coincidence?
I (vaguely) remember the gig, but not the timing of the Lennon murder.
I learned about the death of John Lennon the following morning, which I think was a Friday. I saw the words John Lennon Shot Dead on one of those sandwich board thingies that newsvendors prop up. This was at Haringey Station. My first thought was that there must be another John Lennon because people don’t shoot pop stars. Only recently have I learned that that’s not true. Somebody had a go at shooting at Bob Marley a few years earlier. I guess nowadays, Mark Chapman would just go on Twitter.
Actually Lennon was shot on a Monday evening, so the following day was a Tuesday. Sadly there are still plenty of nutters with guns in the USA (and elsewhere), only partially suppressing their desire to use said guns through the use of social media.
Hello Ian, as a big Beatles fan I remember loving the gig in Lindsey but like you, in the days before 24 hour news, didn’t find out about John Lennon’s murder until I was on campus the following morning. A friend told me as we stood in front of the library, I found the dreadful news difficult to believe. A tough end to the term.