Fantasy Island

July 22 - July 31, 1967

John and Cynthia sightseeing in Athens 

One day, John decided he wanted to buy an island for privacy. I'm not sure what brought the idea, but it was something that was on John's mind. I'm sure it started on drugs, and fans coming to his Weybridge home. But once he shared this idea to Cynthia, she was sold! 

The idea of paradise where Julian could run around, John and Cynthia could be alone, with no strangers coming to the door... it does sound fantastic! I also find the idea a lovely gesture of John wanting to be with Cynthia, alone and away from the craziness. Eventually, the idea of the Lennons having their private island extended to the other three: Paul, George, and Ringo. 

"Mind you, when it came to odd requests, John gave me the biggest shock. We were at Abbey Road after a recording session and John laid down his guitar, turned to me and said, 'Alistair, I want you to buy me an island.' I thought this was just another example of the customary Lennon banter and responded: 'Fine, John. What'll it be? The Isle of Wright? The Isle of Man? A Caribbean island?' He said, 'No, man. I'm absolutely serious. I need to have a place entirely of my own. I want an island with a fresh water supply and green grass'. And he handed me a piece of paper with an island, fresh water, and grass written on it. This was clearly a plan he had devoted several seconds to preparing. 'I want to build a house on it to get some peace and privacy. Somewhere Cyn and I can go to get away.  Oh, and it mustn't be more than two hours from London,' said John...My instant reaction was that this was yet another Lennon wind-up. The sequence of events was a little too coincidental so I rang Cynthia to see if this was an elaborate John joke. She swore John was not messing around this time. He really did want an island and she liked the sound of their own little Emerald Isle... The Beatles wanted to take a look for themselves and have a holiday into the bargain and I sprang into action to organise it. Alex (Madras) went off to Greece to prepare his father's house in Athens for us and to hire a large enough yacht to accommodate Paul and Jane, John, Cynthia and Julian, George and Pattie, Ringo and Maureen*, Big Mal Evans and his wife, Neil Aspinall, and me."

Alistair Taylor

*Maureen didn't go - she was heavily pregnant with Jason.

"The most magical moment came at dawn. As the sky turned pink and sunlight flooded in, Pink Floyd took to the stage, for the first time wearing velvet flares and tight satin shirts. John was so overwhelmed that in a stoned way he had a vision of his future idyllic life. He came over and said, 'I'm taking Cyn away. We're going to live in Paradise.' He was referring to the island he had bought by auction in remote Clew Bay the previous month, but hadn't yet seen.The next day, John, Dunbar, and Magic Alex flew to Dublin and got into a large black limousine that was waiting for them at the airport, and drove to the lonely West Coast. A local boatman took them from the mainland to John's island. He strode out a few hundred yards of damp heather and spiky sea grass he owned, before huddling out of the wind in the lee of a rock, to make a handful of nonsensical sketches of his future home, with an eye that saw only fantastic pyschedelic visions. He wanted a place where he, Cynthia and Julian would find themselves, be happy and where there would be no deeply intense woman like Yoko to possess his mind. A place from which he would emerge occasionally to make a record or attend other psychedelic happenings. It was a dream that the exposed outlook and the cold winds from the sea blew away. The three intrepid adventurers returned to the madness of London and the island went back to sleep."

Tony Bramwell 

John, Cynthia, Julian, Paul McCartney, Jane Asher, and Alistair Taylor departing London to Athens on July 22, 1967

I don't know the process of buying an Island but I can safely guess that it isn't cheap... but John, and The Beatles, could afford it. Plus, they would have to pay for other amenities, like buildings, renovations, furniture, and care for the island (lawn maintenance, electricity, fresh water supply, food). 

Well, anyway, John and Cynthia decided make a trip to check out potential spots with Paul, George, Ringo Jane, Pattie, and Julian. Plus, Alistair Taylor, Mal Evans, probably his wife Lil, Neil Aspinall, Paula Boyd, and Magic Alex Madras, who was from Greece. I can really picture Alex working his 'magic' on John here - convincing him that Greece is the way to go. I believe this was really the first time John and Julian had a vacation together, and going out of the country. I honestly can't think of any other time John and Julian traveled together beforehand. On July 22, 1967, they set off to Greece and stayed with Alex's family. The following day, the 23rd, there was a storm so their boat trip was delayed. Instead, they went sightseeing and participated in a traditional Greek folk dance in Araxos. They also enjoyed the beach, swimming in the sea. I don't know exactly where they were mainly based- probably Athens, where they were also spotted sightseeing. I bet Alex was their tour guide. They were supposed to see a play Agamemnon hosted by Oxford University Dramatic Society; except Alex alerted news media that The Beatles were in town... why would he do that? Alex should've known that The Beatles didn't want attention while in town. They weren't there to be famous. Sure enough, The Beatles were greeted by the press and weren't able to see the play. This should've been a red flag on trusting Alex. July 24th, the weather was still delaying the boat trip, so, sightseeing they go. The next day, their yacht arrived but the ride was planned to set sail on the 26th; Paul and George decided to stay at "home" while John and Ringo went out to check out musical instruments. I don't know what the others did. On the day of (the 26th), Ringo left before getting on the boat to be with his heavily pregnant wife Maureen with Neil Aspinall accompanying him.  

John, Cynthia, Julian, Pattie Boyd, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, Jane Asher, and their entourage party enjoying food and tradition Greek dance in Araxos on July 23, 1967

Now, I heard two different versions on how The Beatles got on a yacht to island-shop: 

1) they rented a boat

2) the boat belonged to Alex's family

What is definitely true is that the yacht was named MV Arvi. The boat had 24 berths and a crew of eight, including the captain, a chef and two stewards. On July 26th, everyone got on board and set sail. The island of interest was Agia Triada. During the boat ride, John, Paul, and George took acid (I don't know about Ringo, he could've and he also left early to go home to his very pregnant wife).

"We rented a boat and sailed it up and down the coast from Athens, looking at islands. Somebody had said we should invest some money, so we thought: ‘Well, let’s buy an island. We’ll just go there and drop out.’ It was a great trip. John and I were on acid all the time, sitting on the front of the ship playing ukuleles. Greece was on the left; a big island on the right. The sun was shining and we sang ‘Hare Krishna’ for hours and hours. Eventually we landed on a little beach with a village, but as soon as we stepped off the boat it started pouring with rain. There were storms and lightning, and the only building on the island was a little fisherman’s cottage – so we all piled in: ”Scuse us, squire. You don’t mind if we come and shelter in your cottage, do you?’ The island was covered in big pebbles, but Alex said, ‘It doesn’t matter. We’ll have the military come and lift them all off and carry them away.’ But we got back on the boat and sailed away, and never thought about the island again." 

George Harrison

"We went on the boat and sat around and took acid. It was good fun being with everyone, with nippier moments. For me the pace was a bit wearing. I probably could have done with some straight windows occasionally, I’d have enjoyed it a bit more. But nothing came of that, because we went out there and thought, We’ve done it now. That was it for a couple of weeks. Great, wasn’t it? Now we don’t need it. Having been out there, I don’t think we needed to go back. Probably the best way to not buy a Greek island is to go out there for a bit. It’s a good job we didn’t do it, because anyone who tried those ideas realised eventually there would always be arguments, there would always be who has to do the washing-up and whose turn it is to clean out the latrines. I don’t think any of us were thinking of that."

Paul McCartney

Paul and Julian in Araxos, Greece on July 23, 1967

Julian and Paul building sand castle while in Greece 

One thing really noticeable during the trip to Greece: Paul and Julian. With John standing there, watching his band mate, co-songwriter, and best friend Paul McCartney playing with his son. Paul played with Julian, always took the time to fool around, giggling, shrieking, swimming, running around, playing Cowboys & Indians, and building sand castles. John definitely took notice, he often did acknowledged the tight bond between 'Uncle' Paul and Julian. I think it's a mix of complimentary and jealousy from John. 

"Paul had a much more tender way with people, and therefore had a greater understanding of handling children. That's how his association with me was tightened. When I was a kid, Dad wasn't necessarily the playing-around type, whereas Paul was, so there was cowboys and Indians and all that kind of stuff."

Julian, 1998

“Paul was definitely the more gentle sort of playing cowboys and indians all the time while Dad was off doing something else. So, he tended to be around a bit more.”

Julian 

“We were once on a Greek island on holiday, and we were on a boat. It was George and Pattie, John and Cynthia, me and Jane Asher, I think. And Julian was along. I played with Julian most of the trip. We’d run around the deck playing cowboys and Indians— ‘bang, bang, you’re dead’, or whatever— and Julian loved it. And I remember John coming up to me… In fact, it was one of the most poignant moments of our relationship. He took me aside and said, ‘How do you do that?’ And I couldn’t tell him. You either know how to do that stuff or you don’t.”

Paul McCartney, 1995

“We’d gone on this Greek holiday once to buy an island and Julian and I spent a lot time playing around on the boat. I used to play cowboys and Indians with him, and he’d love it: a grown-up who would go, ‘Now you chase me, and I’ll chase you, but after you’ve caught me, not before, okay?’ And you were totally in this mad magic game. I remember John coming up to me once and he took me aside and said, ‘How do you do it?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?' He said, ‘With Julian. How do you play with kids like that?’ I remember feeling a wave of sorrow coming over me, like uhh, I’d love to be able to tell you. Then I tried to give like the potted version, you know, ‘Play, pretend you’re a kid. Play with him.’ But John never got it. Never got the hang of it. John was always a man.”

Paul McCartney, 1999

There's footage from The Beatles Anthology of Paul hanging out with Julian and Jane in the sea, Julian sliding on a railing of the yacht with Jane watching over him, and with John smiling at Julian having their own moment. 

I don't know the deep details of the trip for John and Cynthia. In my mind, John and Cynthia were working on their marriage despite the problems... for major example: John was taking acid during the vacation and island-shopping. That must have pissed off Cynthia. She must have dreaded the idea of an Island getaway and John taking acid, like she would never escape from. Other than that, I never heard of any bad tension between them. Cynthia didn't write about the Greece trip in her books or HELLO! magazine installments or spoke about it in interviews, that I'm aware of. 

 

John, Cynthia, Julian, Paul McCartney, Jane Asher, Paula Boyd, and Alex Madras arriving at Heathrow Airport from Athens on July 31, 1967

On July 29th, George, Pattie, and Mal Evans left as George and Pattie were due to travel to Los Angeles on August 1st. On July 31st, the remaining Beatles party departed from Athens to London. The idea of buying an island was pretty much forgotten. Although, I think the idea of having a commune stuck around as Cynthia (and maybe Maureen, Pattie, and Jane) saw Tittenhurst Park while commune house shopping. Unfortunately, as we now know, the commune living never happened. There is something weird that I recently noticed: John and Cynthia were both wearing the same clothes when they left London and when they left Athens.