All For Charity

 

End of The Beatles

"In our time together, he got a chance to reconnect with Paul, George and Ringo. I was there when he played with Paul, I was there when he signed the break-up of The Beatles at Disneyworld, and I helped him be with his son again. When people see my photos of John, they like the fact he’s always smiling. That was a side people had never seen before. All this, and we had to deal with Phil Spector as well…”

May Pang, 2023

John Eastman, Paul and Linda McCartney (wearing wigs) at George Harrison's concert st Madison Square Garden on December 19, 1974. Julian Lennon was also at the concert.

George Harrison was on his first solo tour in America, called the Dark Horse tour during the end of 1974 (October - December). During that time period, John, Paul, George, and Ringo were to sign legal papers to end The Beatles once and for all, officially breaking up. Ringo signed his part in London. Paul and George met at a hotel room to sign. John was supposed to join them, but didn't. He claimed it wasn't "in the stars" or some horoscope thing, I don't know, but the due date was December 19th at the Plaza Hotel (where The Beatles stayed during their first visit). I think the real reason was John chickened out - it would've been the final nail to The Beatles coffin and I don't think John was ready (subconsciously) to let go as it was HIS band that he created from scratch. John was also planning to join George on stage during his Dark Horse tour at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Julian was visiting John and May Pang at the time and planned to visit Walt Disney World during the Christmas holidays. On December 19th, the due date and George's concert came: John bulked at appearing on stage with George - which pissed George off. John also didn't meet the deadline to sign the dissolution of The Beatles. Instead, Julian went to see George in concert, chaperone with Hilary Gerrard (who was Ringo's business manager). Paul and Linda McCartney were also at the concert with Linda's brother John - Paul and Linda wore wigs so they wouldn't get recognized. I'm not sure if Julian went backstage to see George (and his new girlfriend Olivia Arias) but he certainly did the following night, on December 20th. Once again, Julian was with Hilary Gerrard (who sadly passed away on January 11, 2023) while John and May went over to Lee Eastman's home (Lee was Linda's father) to discuss 'the famous Beatles agreement'. Julian called Lee's home while backstage with George to tell his father that all is forgiven. There was an after party at the Hippopotamus Club where John and George reunited along with May, Olivia, and Yoko came as well ... I don't know if Julian stayed for the party but I highly doubt that. 

"People don't realize she called us every day, like up to 15 times a day... for a year and a half. We saw her for her birthday that year. It wasn’t like there was no communication. … So, it is a myth that the whole ball started rolling then. If that was the case, why would we be thinking about taking Julian down to Florida for a holiday in December of 1974? John and I went to see George Harrison on his Dark Horse tour. Paul and Linda were over. We were thinking of buying a house in January of ‘75."

May Pang, 2023

May, Julian, and John celebrating Christmas in Orlando, Florida, around the same time John finally signed the legal papers to end The Beatles, December of 1974

“I lived from birthdays to Christmas, just to be with him.” 

Julian, 1985

"We wanted to give Julian a good time for the Christmas holiday, somewhere warm."

John

Afterwards, John, May, and Julian went to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. He basically ran away and tried to hide. But The Beatles/Apple lawyers managed to track John to sign the dissolution papers to end The Beatles, because on December 29, 1974, John finally signed the papers to end his band at the Polynesian Village Hotel. The lawyer left and John and May took Julian to Walt Disney World and celebrated the Christmas holidays, throwing firecrackers underneath the palm trees.

Apple Boutique

Deià

 

Busta John

 

Cynthia's Birthday

Photographed by May Pang

Cynthia celebrating her birthday in New York City with Julian in 2010.
 

The Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus

Julian and John watching the circus act from the audience.

During the week of December 9th, John had Julian visiting (I don't know how long exactly) during John's final weeks living at Weybridge that was now on the market. Anyway, The Rolling Stones invited John and Yoko to their special Rock and Roll Circus, with music and circus acts for the BBC, written and directed by Michael Lindsey-Hogg (who later directed The Beatles Let It Be). It was being recorded at Intertel Studio in  Wembley - where Ready, Steady, Go! was filmed - on December 11, 1968. John and Yoko took Julian along. Performances started at 2 PM, and taping continued until 5 AM the following day. I think Mick, Michael, etc. underestimated the time it takes to set up music equipment from each performance set, circus acts, and reloading cameras with film. Yet Mick was enthusiastic and carried on despite people being tired. 

The music acts were The Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull, The Who, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull, The Dirty Mac, Yoko Ono, Sir Robert Fossett's Circus, and The Nurses. The Dirty Mac featured John, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, and Mitch Mitchell with Yoko and Ivry Gitlis; it was the first time John performed without The Beatles. They played Yer Blues (The Beatles) and Whole Lotta Yoko. I'm not sure who exactly looked after Julian but I suppose it was a group effort, maybe Marianne (as there's photos of them together). Another thing to note was this was the last time Brian Jones played in the Rolling Stones. Tensions were high and Brian was the odd man out due to his aggressive drug addiction (he would later die some months later the following year, drowned in his pool. Only Charlie Watts from the band attended his funeral.) Not surprisingly, drugs were around, most particular marijuana. I don't think many children were around the set other than Julian, come to think of it.

“In fact, recently I got given a tape from someone who filmed me. It’s me with Dad, Jagger and Yoko. I had a look at it the other day — and it was so bizarre, seeing me sitting there chatting away. I shouldn’t bring this up, but I was sitting in the middle of everybody, smoking a joint. At five years old; four or five years old! I don’t know, but it looked like I was passing it on. It did. I guess I decided to discover what it was, at five. I went, ‘What is this?,’ and then said: ‘Who wants this?'” 

Julian, 2015

Julian and Marianne Faithfull 

Julian, John, and Keith Richards

BBC was to air the special, but, legend says, Mick was unhappy with it as The Who seemed to upstaged the star act: Rolling Stones. It didn't see the light of day until 1996 - I remember it being aired on VH1. 

In Between

 

Short Time with Brian Jones

John, Julian, and Yoko with Brian Jones from The Rolling Stones. This was the last time Brian was with The Rolling Stones and would die about 7 months later, on July 3, 1969. Fun fact: Brian also has a son named Julian (born in October of 1961).