Interesting/Cool George Harrison stories?

This was posted on tumblr and made me laugh:

"Perhaps a post that will resonate more with the British/Australian readers, but in a recent TV travel documentary about Australia, the much beloved Harold Bishop (aka Ian Smith) from the charmingly awful soap-opera Neighbours, who has been something of an adopted national institution and UK panto regular since the 1980s, made a surprise appearance.

Upon being asked who was the strangest person (of thousands) who had excitedly run up to him with 'Oh my god, I don’t believe it’s you!', his response was":

 

Sorry, that was quite a lot!

 

Happy Birthday George!

Hey man I still have the platinum Cloud Nine promo pin you gifted me with in 1988 & its SS in the package...

Tell Vishnu & Rama hello , 'right then, later

 

I know what you mean, man. I was just starting high school when George died and I remember thinking it was particularly sad that he died at a time when the world was in such crisis. He didn't get to see any of it get better (not that it's gotten much better, but you remember how dark things where at that particular point).

Anyway, I love all these stories! I sadly never got to meet George, but I do feel like sort of a kindred spirit to him. I also have found solace in eastern religions and am a fellow guitar fanatic. I think it would've been fun to just hang out with him. He just seems like he was so much fun.

 

At the time of Georges passing i was co running an art school. That day i got in and my colleague told me. He was older than me, a contemporary of the beatles in age but both of us were huge Beatles fans. Being a small campus, just an old victorian house converted in the 1970s, we had full control over pretty much all that went on, so we decided that today was Beatle day, all the music played would be Beatle music (easy cos we had a stash of CDs anyway) and all the art made that day would be , in some way, Beatle related. The kids, post 16, mostly A level students, loved it. What a day.

 

i got to know george through some pals that he signed to dark horse. kootch, keltner, foster and stallworth. they were called "attitude"

i got to hangout with him more than a few times and we got very high in the studio and in this rented manse in bel air with keef and woodie and all manner of folks we all know. you shoulda seen the look on van dyke parks face when i wandered into the old record plant on 3rd st in la for some sessions. since i'd known him as a family friend since age of 10 or so. i ended up singing impromptu jams with foster playing piano and me and george harmonizing. it was a gas.

i had nowhere to go but "down" from there. HA

 

This one is a combination of sources:

The Beatles supported Pink Floyd in concert - sort-of.

Musical history has not been rewritten, instead, Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour used tribute band The Bootleg Beatles to make a room full of rock stars laugh.

Andre Barreau, aka George Harrison in the Bootleg Beatles, remembers being invited to play by Gilmour as part of his elaborate joke.

“I won’t even go into the rock royalty that was there,” Barreau says.

“It was his (Gilmour’s) gag really because he also hired the Australian Pink Floyd and his gag was that The Beatles would support Pink Floyd, which of course never happened in history.”

“And so we did the first part of the evening’s entertainment and then the Australian Pink Floyd performed, with three members of the real Pink Floyd playing with them,” Barreau says.

One of the guests at the party was George Harrison himself.

“That was his joke: The Beatles supported Pink Floyd and it happened in front of George Harrison.”

- MaitlandMercury (2014)

And an interview with Andre Barreau I found on an old George fansite:

You were fortunate enough to meet and converse at some length with George himself ~ please can you share how this came about…
When, where, who was he with etc…

It was back in February ’96 and the Bootleg Beatles were booked to play Dave Gilmour’s (Pink Floyd) fiftieth birthday party. He’d booked the Fulham Town Hall and the place was done up like a Turkish brothel! We were there in the afternoon, soundchecking and the like, and someone showed us the guest list…and it was an unbelievable who’s who of British rock. Jagger, Kate Bush, Queen, Procul Harum. Bryan Ferry, Bob Geldof and so on…but also on it were George and Olivia Harrison.

How long did you talk for and how did he make you feel?

Well, we all looked at each other and said ‘he’ll never show up’.

So just before the gig we were getting ready to go on stage and the agent came in and marched over to me and said grimly ‘He’s here.’ And I thought to myself ‘Oh, blimey, the moment of truth has arrived!’ I have to admit that I was really nervous; I think we all were, but I guess the onus was on me more – just a little bit! Anyway, I decided not to be coy about it and definitely not to act ‘cool’ while we were performing – I said to myself do ‘George’ 100% and whatever will be will be.

Once we’d got back into civvies I said to Paul (Cooper – BB former Macca) let’s go and see if George is still out there. And there he was - chatting with Terry Doran (the man from the motor trade) and we introduced ourselves and straight away he came out with the great line, ‘Who’s the Bootleg Brian Epstein, ‘cos he’s got all the money.’ And that was it – we spoke to George on and off for an incredible four or five hours. He was so friendly and so easy to talk to – they say never meet your heroes because you’ll be disappointed but the reverse was true with George – but he was just great. I read in Patti Boyd’s autobiography some years later that the only people George ever trusted without question were musicians – maybe that had something to do with his openness with us.

Please will you share some of these wonderful moments with us

So we started talking and then George said, ‘So you’re supposed to [be] me are you? Well you’ve got my eyes,’ (no one ever believes that he said that - but it’s true!) and then he introduced me to Tim Rice, who was getting a beer and said, ‘Here he is, the new singing sensation, Bootleg George, singing all my hits from ‘Don’t Bother Me’ to the present day.’ He was very happy that I did the ‘Liverpool leg’ in my mimic! He mentioned Monty Python and Bob Dylan, just free flowing conversation. I told him that I loved the ukulele on the coda of Free As A Bird and he said ironically, ‘That wasn’t just me, that was me and Paul.’ Then George turned round and said, ‘One of you played a wrong chord on Free As A Bird,’ and he proceeded to tell us the whole chord sequence…’A Major, F sharp minor, F major seventh,’ then he left a gap and smiled as if he were telling us some long lost secret, ‘E suspended seventh!’ You could tell he really loved John’s composition. We still play it at the end of our shows as the audience is leaving - the slide playing on that number is mind blowing.

What struck you most about George during this meeting (eg was he at ease with you, did he seem happy and relaxed)

He was so relaxed with us - our ‘John’ cheekily asked if we could have a picture with him and he said, ‘Sure, when we know each other a little better.’ He said ‘You probably know the chords better than I do – I only played most of these songs once and then that was it.’ At one point he wryly commented to us that, ‘This dressing up like us – it’s all a bit silly!’

Then we left George, just so happy to have met him, thinking how fantastic he was and that that was it. About an hour or so later I was going to go and I thought I’d say goodbye to George and just say ‘thanks’ for not just going ‘hi, bye – see you later,’ so I went over to him and he was with Olivia, Patti Boyd and her partner and Terry Doran.

And then, out of the blue, he invited me into his circle, asked my name and introduced me to everyone, ‘This is the real Andre, here’s Bootleg Olivia, Bootleg Patti…we’re all living in a Bootleg world.’ It was incredible and the conversation just started up again – for about another two hours!! One piece of trivia I remember through the haze was that he said that he thought Extra Texture was ‘a bit toppy’!!

(i know his parting shot was very special already so i want to make a feature of it…) What did George say to you as he left?

It was a long, long night and at about four in the morning we were still talking away and then Olivia Harrison came over and said it was time to go and George hugged Paul (“Bootleg Paul Cooper”) and me and turned to us and said, ’Never forget - we’re just molecules and water -here for a visit…tara…’ and off they went.

Is there anything you wish you had said or done in retrospect.

We were very aware not to be Beatle bores because that would have been a right royal drag, but at one point I said to George, ‘The Beatles are our inspiration – who’s yours?’ And instead of getting the answer that I was kind of was expecting, Eddie Cochran or Carl Perkins or someone, he reeled off a list of swamis and yogis and that was mightily impressive. He said to us, ‘You’re obviously good people who love their God.’

The one musical question I wished I’d have asked him was exactly how he played the guitar solo in Something and how it was recorded to get that wonderful sound. I think I’ve sussed it now, years later, (slide with a change of tuning) but back then I couldn’t get the exact sound I wanted.

Where were you when you heard the news of his passing and how did you pay your own personal Tribute to him

The Bootleg Beatles were already on our December tour in 2001 preparing for a concert in Essex when the news came through. It was was not such a shock as it had been with John because we’d all heard that George’s health had been failing for a while, but for any who loved George the pain just was as dreadful.

I thought back to those parting words he said to us five years earlier and just reflected on that. I was in a position to share my feelings with the audience as we were on tour, so I did a solo version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps – everybody was crying every night for twenty dates. It was just so sad.

 

Interview with Grateful Dead engineer Betty Cantor-Jackson from 2010:

BETTY CANTOR-JACKSON: And there’s another story at Trident Studios where George Harrison was upstairs working on All Things Must Pass.

INT: Were you an insane Beatle freak like everybody else?

BETTY: Oh, I used to draw pictures when I was a little kid. I drew pictures of George. [He] was my favourite.

INT: [laughs]

BETTY: It was funny because I forgot all about that when I was actually hanging out with him in the studio. I completely forgot about the fact that I was – I was a groupie – or er y’know, a teeny bopper that used to draw pictures of George, y’know? But he invited – Bob [Matthews] ran into him into the bathroom there, and he invited us up when he got done mixing. Bob and me…uh with him and his engineer, and he just sat there, and he played this whole album for us.

INT: All Things Must Pass?

BETTY: Yeah, All Things Must Pass.

INT: Oh my god, so you got to meet George.

BETTY: Oh yeah. He was coming over to the flat and hanging out with us.

INT: Aww.

BETTY: Which was fun. He was a really nice guy, George. I liked him, y’know?

INT: Aww.

BETTY: And uh…but he played it for us and then he said, “Well and I got this third tape. It’s a jam with Clapton and all these different people jamming and stuff.” I said, “Well put it on let me hear it. I wanna hear it.” Y’know? “Oh I wanna hear it!” So he puts it on, and he plays it.

Not being very tactful I say, “That’s the best stuff you got!” – Oh! [quietly] Did I just say that about your tune? [laughs] “That’s the best stuff you got. Why don’t you put that out?!” And he said, “Well I wanted to, but the record company won’t let me put out three records – a three disc set.”

I said, “Well why?” “They said it’ll cost too much. The price will be too high. People won’t buy it.” I looked at him, and I said, “Well…Jesus you’ve got enough money. Why don’t you put out three and charge for two then? What the hell. You can afford it.” [whispering] It came out with three! I was like “Ah!” [laughs] I was so proud of myself. I was like, Yeah! I talked him into it! [claps] That was some good talking! [laughs]

INT: That’s such a great story. I love that story.

BETTY: It was a great story, and Jerry [Garcia] got such a kick out of it. He said George showed up at one of the [Grateful Dead] gigs in New York and came in and introduced himself as knowing me and Bob. He said, “I met your engineers,” [laughs] Jer says, “He says he..” I said, “It’s all who you know, Jer! My god,” y’know? [laughs] He loved that. He was like, “He introduced himself as knowing you! Ha Ha Ha!” Yeah. Well. Yeah I know him, haha.

 

That Jazz guy name is Don Ellis and I know at one point he had Indian musicians in his Band,he was into Indian musician and also played different time signatures like 5/4,6/4,19/8 and so on.The Band Chicago was into Don when they first started out.

 

These are some really cool stories posted lately, thank you for sharing them all!

 

I recently found this article about George's love of Formula 1 from 1979. I don't know much of anything about F1, but I thought it was refreshing reading about a part of his life which doesn't get a lot of attention.


George in the Lotus 18 at the Gunnar Nilsson Memorial Trophy (1979)


George with Lotus founder Colin Chapman, Graham Hill, and Keith Greene at the Monaco Grand Prix (1966 - shortly after the promotional films for Paperback Writer and Rain were filmed)

A Beatle’s new mania

George Harrison, former lead guitarist with the legendary Beatles pop music group, talks to Chris Hockley about his passion for Formula 1, fast cars and a private life

IT’S PUZZLING in a way why George Harrison has such a fervent passion for fast cars and motor racing. For since the mind-boggling days of the Swinging ‘Sixties, when as one of The Beatles he was swept towards super-stardom and super-richness on a tidal wave of hysteria, the pace of his life has slowed to a virtual crawl.

Gone are the days when he had to make a run for it through thousands of screaming pop fans. Today, you are more likely to find him in his wellies, gently pushing a wheelbarrow towards carefully-tended flower beds in the vast grounds of his palatial country mansion.

Gone are the days when he lived out of a suitcase and wasn’t sure if he was in London, New York, Tokyo or Cloud Cuckoo Land. Today, he meditates silently for hours in his own temple.

Gone are the days when girls scratched each other’s eyes out as they fought to touch a fragment of his clothing. Today, he is happier to stay at home with his wife Olivia and their 10 month-old son, Dhani.

Yet there is still one public side to the private Mr. Harrison. For as well as being one of the world’s most famous pop stars, he has gradually become the world’s most famous motor racing fan.

“I’m getting too well known at motor races now,” he grins – as he is beseiged by a swarm of autograph hunters who have just rushed past Mario Andretti. “It was my hobby, now it’s getting like work again.”

George’s lean and craggy features are a frequent sight at Grand Prix meetings around the globe. His name is enough to ensure him VIP treatment, but he reckons he repays all the behind-the-scenes privileges he enjoys by attracting publicity for the sport.

Though he is often to be seen in the midst of a cluster of photographers, he does not go out of his way to court glamour. Harrison goes motor racing to see and not be seen.

He has been a genuine enthusiast since the days when he was just another poor kid from the streets of Liverpool, digging deep into his pocket to get into the city’s Aintree circuit during its heydey in the ‘Fifties.

He loves talking about racing. To him it represents a refuge from never-ending questions like: “Are the Beatles ever going to get together again, George?” Or, “Is it true that Paul McCartney once had a bunion on his right foot?”

In his slow, deliberate – and knowledgeable – Scouse drawl, George will tell you about oversteer, understeer, gear ratios and why he hopes Jody Scheckter will be world champion this year.

And he will rave about Fangio with the same 12-year-old’s wide eyes that watched the great Argentinian dominate the 1955 British Grand Prix at Aintree with Mercedes team-mate Stirling Moss.

“I can’t remember why I started going to Aintree – I think I just saw a poster advertising a race,” he says. “Anyway, I used to go there whether it was a big or small meeting, take my butties and sit on the Railway Straight embankment to watch the race. I went to a lot of bike meetings as well – I was a big fan of Geoff Duke!

“I had a box camera and went round taking pictures of all the cars. If I could find an address I wrote away to the car factories, and somewhere at home I’ve got pictures of all the old Vanwalls, Connaughts and BRMS. All that stuff got lost when I went on the road with The Beatles, but I’m sure it’s still in my dad’s attic.”

Such was his enthusiasm that it was a question of whether cars or guitars would dominate his life. He couldn’t afford both…he couldn’t afford either, really. because he had to borrow the £2 10 shillings he needed to buy his first guitar. Luckily for him, he opted for pop.

“By the time I got any money at all I was 17 or 18, getting a couple of quid a week from a few concerts in Liverpool. But I got so involved with rock ‘n’ roll and The Beatles – we were on our way to making records and all that – that to tell you the truth I completely lost touch with motor racing apart from watching the odd bit on TV or reading magazines.”

As the Fab Four became the world’s top pop stars, so they were able to call the tune and ease up on their stamina-sapping schedule. George found himself free to head back to the tracks once more…and in true showbiz style aimed straight for Monaco.

It was there that he met the man who helped him to step backstage of big-time motor racing – Jackie Stewart. George found an instant affinity with Stewart, not least because Jackie wore his hair long and was an outspoken critic of the established order, two keystones of the “rock revolution” of the late ‘Sixties and early ‘Seventies of which Harrison was so much a part.

George said: “Jackie did such a lot for the sport and was criticised for it. People moaned and groaned when he wore fireproof suits and talked about safety – things which are so obvious and practical now but at that time were being put down.

“Another thing was that he always projected the sport beyond just the racing enthusiasts which I think is very important.”

It is Stewart, always a big Beatles fan, who has given George an appreciation of the finer points of the racing art, often driving him around circuits – he scared the pants off Harrison at Interlagos this year – or showing him the best places to watch from “inside” of the track.

“I always enjoy the last session of the qualifying best,” says George. “Jackie taught me how to get the most from it by wandering around the circuit to watch from different places. That way you really get into how cars are handling gear ratios, the whole thing.”

The rapport between the two was vividly illustrated at the recent Gunnar Nilsson Campaign meeting at Donington, where both took part in a demonstration of classic Grand Prix cars. Afterwards, Harrison changed into jeans and sweater, while Stewart stayed in his racing overalls plus the mandatory black corduroy cap. As they walked into the royal enclosure to watch the afternoon’s racing, Stewart turned to Harrison and said: “I don’t know why I am dressed like this.” “Because you’re a twit,” came the reply.

Friends say that of the four ex-Beatles, Harrison is the one who has kept his feet closest to the ground. He seems to have retained the “love and peace” message of the flower power era and has refused to be swayed by the cynicism of the ‘Seventies.

His easy-going manner has made him a popular figure among the Formula One drivers, and he has become friendly with many of them.

“It’s obviously an advantage for me to be sort of independent,” he says. “I’m not like a spy from Ferrari or Lotus or anything like that. It’s a very nice position to be in – I am no threat to anyone so they are friendly towards me.”

His close contact with the drivers has also changed his attitude to them. Like most race fans, he has had his idols – Fangio because he was top dog in his childhood. Graham Hill because he was “a very English gentleman,” Jackie because he was Jackie and so on.

Now, there are no more heroes. “It’s difficult to single anyone out because I’m much closer to them. I mean, there’s people like Jochen Mass who might never be world champion but is such a nice person.

“But I want Jody Scheckter to be world champion this year. It would be good if Grand Prix racing was like the music business, where you can have a No. 1 hit and then get knocked off by your mate for his turn at No. 1. But unfortunately it isn’t like that. There is a point where you are just ‘ready’ to be a world champion, and if it doesn’t happen, it could be all downhill from there.

“Jody is ready – he’s got the car and the team, and mentally he’s right there. To get in the right team at the right time is almost impossible. It happens, like Mario last year – he was very fortunate in having that car.

Take Villeneuve. He’s very good but he’s still a bit young and more prone to making mistakes than Jody. He’s got a lot of years ahead of him, though. That’s why I’d like to see Jody get it now.

“Alan Jones is another one who’s ready. He’s great, he’s mature and he’s ready to win. And now he has got a really good competitive car. Maybe next year Alan Jones will be right at the head of the championship.”

Harrison is no sluggard himself. He drives a Porsche Turbo and what he calls an “old” Ferrari Dino Spyder. There are whispers about 140 mph tyre-squealing burn-ups on a 10-mile “circuit” around his incredible home – Friar Park, near Henley-on-Thames.

Certainly it is not difficult to imagine a glorious road circuit winding through the 33-acre wooded grounds. Nothing would come as a surprise after the mansion itself – a £2 million fairy palace that would do credit to Disneyland – and other amazing features of the grounds like three lakes built on different levels, a series of caves filled with distorting mirrors, model skeletons, glass grapes and hundreds of the proverbial garden gnomes…and an Alpine rock garden including a 100ft high replica of the Matterhorn!

But George though he admits he sometimes has “a spin through the woods,” insists that the burn-up stories are exaggerated: “It’s all very slow speed around the garden – you know tractors and wheelbarrows and things like that…”

He has, however, had a go at the real thing. He took his turn at the wheel of a Porsche 924 in a 24-hour run for the Nilsson campaign at Silverstone, organised by his local sports car specialists, Maltin’s of Henley.

He drove Stirling Moss’s famous Rob Walker Lotus 18 at the Nilsson’s day at Donington, where Jackie Stewart managed to frighten him yet again by blasting his Tyrrell around at full pelt at the same time.

And he has even managed to get his hands on a modern generation Formula One car. It was at Brands Hatch two years ago, the time when former world motorbike champ Barry Sheene, another good friend, was thinking of moving into car racing. Sheene took George with him when he tried out a Surtees TS19 with a view to having a crack at the British Aurora Formula One series.

It was an occasion which George remembers with more than a slight grin…

“Barry persuaded John Surtees to let me have a go. But John said: ‘He’s got no gear.’ So Barry rips off his fireproof vest and says to me ‘Here y’are, you can wear this.’ I just slipped on this sweaty old thing and borrowed John Surtee’s crash helmet. I got in the car and said: ‘I’m not going to go fast because I haven’t even walked around Brands Hatch, let alone driven round.’ So he said: ‘Oh ****, you had better get in my road car.’

“Well, we went bombing off round the track in his Mercedes and he was saying things like: ‘Keep it over to the left here, make sure the tail doesn’t flick out too much here, and so on. I was just hanging on for dear life.

“I got in the F1 car and thought ‘Now, what did he say?’ Then, while I was pulling away in the pit lane, trying not to stall it, I was thinking ‘God, it’s windy in this car.’ I hadn’t even remembered to close my visor!

“Still, it was a great feeling. Although some people have told me it wasn’t a very good Grand Prix car, believe me if you hadn’t driven one before it was fantastic. It was like, wow…those wheels just dig in round the corners.

“I didn’t go very fast. I just signed the chitty saying that if I killed myself it wasn’t John’s fault!”

George, now 36 years old, is unlikely to do a Paul Newman and turn his hand to serious racing. He is honest enough to admit he is apprehensive of the dangers.

Neither is he likely to become involved in large-scale sponsorship, despite a reputation for generosity (it is said that he once gave the landlady of his local pub three rubies for her birthday).

He has dabbled in a small way with bike racing – last year he backed Steve Parrish, who he knew through Barry Sheene, when Steve lost his works Suzuki ride. But this year he has turned down an approach for £185,000 to run a BMW M1 in the Procar series – and has no intention of following in the footsteps of Walter Wolf or Lord Hesketh by setting up his own Grand Prix team.

“What with living in England and the tax I pay, it takes a long time to get some cash anyway, and the last thing you need is just to give it away. You need too much money to do the job properly in Formula One. If I had £3 million to give away, which I haven’t, there’s probably better things to give it to than motor racing. Like the starving, for example.”

The last comment reflects Harrison’s continued commitment to the impoverished parts of countries like Bangladesh and India. All the royalties from one of his albums go into a foundation, and from there the cash is handed out to various charities.

There is a chance that in the years to come, George’s enthusiasm may rub off on his son, and we may yet see a Harrison out there on the track. After the usual parental head-scratching, George concedes that he would not stand in the way if Harrison Junior opted for cars instead of guitars – “though by that time they’ll probably be driving missiles or something.”

But for the time being at least, George will stay on the outside looking in. A weekend at the races will go on being the noisy, urgent, smelly and exciting contrast to the gardening and the meditation.

And a brief glimpse of the one public side to the private Mr. Harrison.

- MOTOR magazine (28 July 1979)

 

In the George Album by Album thread I said you could winding up talking to him in the pub all night, and I wasn't kidding. haha




Sculptor’s tribute to Beatle who was old drinking buddy

SCULPTOR Clive Duncan has often featured in the pages of the Henley Standard for his artwork.

Now the Shiplake artist has created a piece of work celebrating another of the area’s creative types — an old drinking acquaintance, George Harrison.

The Beatles guitarist, who died in 2001, aged 58, lived in Friar Park, off Gravel Hill, Henley, and sometimes shared a beer and a conversation with Mr Duncan at the Baskerville pub in Shiplake.

The portrait sculpture, made of bronze, shows the musician with the long hair he sported for much of his later life. It took Mr Duncan four months to complete.

The piece will be on display at the annual exhibition of the Society of Portrait Sculptors at La Galleria in Pall Mall in June.

Mr Duncan, 74, has lived in Shiplake for almost 50 years and first met Harrison at the village pub in the late Eighties when the star judged a talent contest.

He said: “He used the pubs in Henley and had a few favourites and he came to the Baskerville here in Shiplake several times.

“The pub was packed solid — it was not far off Christmas — and we got chatting over a beer. We went on and on until throwing out time, all about things like his spiritual beliefs and understanding of different faiths. He had a very good mind for that sort of thing.

“After a couple of hours we got into what I did and that’s when he made a wry comment that I should come and work for him. He gave me his personal phone number.”

Despite being invited to view the Friar Park estate, Mr Duncan opted not to go in case it appeared that he was trying to “hang on” to the star.

He said: “I was suddenly aware that I didn’t want to seem like a sycophant to get work so I didn’t go. This was my fault and I did later explain to his wife that I was reticent because a lot of people hang on the coat-tails of these superstars.

“It was my loss — he wanted to show me around. It does seem perverse to break off what could have been a much stronger friendship.

“I saw him a few other times in different places and always said hello and had a chat.”

Mr Duncan, whose late wife Janet was also an artist, has previously made casts of other famous people including author and screenwriter Sir John Mortimer, who lived in Turville, and Myfanwy Piper, the opera librettist and wife of Fawley artist John Piper.

After deciding that he wanted to immortalise the Beatle in bronze, his plans were put on hold after Harrison was attacked at home in 1999 and his subsequent battle with cancer.

Mr Duncan said: “He spent masses of time abroad and then this awful business at his house happened.

“After that I didn’t feel I had any business to bother them. He was very nearly murdered. He got ill after that and I didn’t think it appropriate at all.”

It wasn’t until almost 17 years after Harrison’s death that Mr Duncan revisited the idea and found the memories of his friend were still fresh.

Mr Duncan said: “It was a kneejerk. I thought, ‘I’ll do this now, it’s the right time’ and I sent a photo to Olivia [Harrison’s widow]. I had previously written to them and got a nice letter back when George died.

“If you look at pictures of George Harrison, there are so many aspects of his face and hair that make people think of him in different ways. Sometimes he had long hair and beard, other times his hair was very short. My period is the late Eighties and early Nineties. That was the only period where I could say I had a real memory of him, not only of his features but the attitude and character.

“He did have quite a serious expression for most of the time I remember. He knitted his eyebrows and had very strong, powerful dark eyes.

“The piece made itself in a way, the memories were so fresh.”

Mr Duncan first made the design in clay before making a plaster of Paris cast which he coloured. It then went to the Arch Bronze Foundry in Putney, where further moulds and casts were made before the final version was cast in bronze.

The sculpture was completed in December and is now being held in storage in London ahead of the exhibition.

Mr Duncan says he is happy with the final result of the long-lived project.

He said: “I’m pleased with it. I’m a pretty ruthless self-critic but in this case it has worked quite well.

“A sculptor can feel in their work a kind of dialogue. If it feels as dead as a dodo it has not worked but at other times you get a sort of electric shock off it and you know you’re on the ball.”

- Henley Standard (14 April 2019)

 

Yesterday I came across a blog for The Gardens Trust and found a recent series of posts about Friar Park written by Dr. David Marsh, including the history of how it came to be and what happened after Sir Frank Crisp died. There are also maps, photos, and detailed descriptions of what can be found on the grounds. I think anyone interested in Friar Park, Sir Frank Crisp, George Harrison, gardening, and/or history in general would find these a really enjoyable read. I was honestly rather moved by the end. Here are the links:

Sir Frank Crisp and Friar Park

The Henley Matterhorn

Crackerbox Palace

I also recommend following or keeping an eye on Olivia Harrison's instagram page as she's posted a lot of photos from Friar Park, including various items she's found such as this and this.

 

A couple of years ago I went to see one of my favourite bands, Kula Shaker.

In the 90s they released a B Side called Gokula, which features the guitar riff from George's "Ski-ing" on the Wonderwall Music album.

They played the song at the concert, but singer Crispian Mills (son of actress Hayley, grandson of Sir John) introduced the song by saying that he had contacted George in the mid 90s to get his approval to use the riff. George's reply was "That's Eric's riff, do what you want with it!"

They then played the song, with this backdrop, which was nice....

 

I don’t know if this story has already been posted but I’ve always loved this one:
George and Patti were going over to a friend’s place for Thanksgiving. The friend had a wife who was seriously ill from cancer but had cooked this huge turkey dinner. What she didn’t know was that George and Patti were vegetarians. But George and Patti, knowing how hard she had worked and that she would likely not see another Thanksgiving, accepted the dinner without hesitation.

 

I'm listening to a new Pattie Boyd interview for the BBC, and she tells a story of when she, George and Mal Evans were in the control room when Frank Sinatra recorded My Way.

About 22 minutes in - Radio 2 Beatles - I Was There: Pattie Boyd - BBC Sounds

I've never heard this story before, is this a well known fact!?

 

It’s a well-known fact that George and Pattie were in the studio during one of Sinatra’s recording sessions, as they’re on a back cover photo and mentioned in the liner notes of his album Cycles. However, she may have confused the song or date in her retelling for that interview. The “My Way” session was December 30, 1968 (and it was captured in a single take as she relates), but the Cycles LP, with that famous back cover photo, was released more than a month earlier.



See also: MPTV Images

 

Not sure if it’s been mentioned but there is this awesome video of George playing with Eric Clapton in Delaney and Bonnie’s band in Copenhagen December 1969 (so after Abbey Road, before the final Let It Be overdub sessions in early 1970).

Delaney is playing the rosewood Telecaster George famously played on the rooftop concert earlier that year. Supposedly gave it away because he found it “too heavy”. George’s widow later bought it back from Delaney near the end of his life when he was hard up for cash.

Absolutely incredible concert and band. George, Eric, Carl Radle, Jim Gordon, Bobby Whitlock, Billy Preston, Jim Price, Bobby Keys and Rita Coolidge. Best line up ever?

 

Thanks for posting some more great George stories!

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I have a clear memory of reading this in a guitar magazine near the time it happened. Would love to find the original citation to see how accurate my memory is, but this is close to what was said.

Robbie McIntosh joined Paul McCartney's touring band at just about the time Paul determined that he would begin playing Beatles songs for the first time in concert. In so many words, McIntosh said:

"Well, I figured I would come up with some snappy new solos of my own to dress up Paul's old Beatles tunes. But as I listened to the records, I realized that George Harrison had come up with the absolutely perfect solo for each and every one of them, and that there's was nothing I could have done to improve upon them. So I ended up just learning George's solos."

 

Jerry Garcia playing George's Telecaster in 1970 whilst on the Festival Express tour with Delaney Bramlett

 

Wow that thing got around!

 

I'm going to try and post a bunch of stories throughout November again as the 29th is coming up.

"We all went to Denny’s on Sunset that night after the [Roy Orbison] show. There were some Goths hanging out, and it was all we could do to keep George from jumping in that car with them. They looked like they were having fun. That’s where ‘Zombie Zoo’ came from. It was an amazing time, everything happened at once. George always missed that element, I think, of a band, a group dynamic. Whether he would admit that or not."

— Olivia Harrison on the night The Traveling Wilburys asked Roy Orbison to join them, Petty: The Biography

 

As an F1 fan that was an interesting article, thanks for posting it. George obviously knew his stuff - Jody Scheckter had won one race that season by the time of that interview in 79 and he was indeed 'ready', winning the championship that year. Likewise, he fancied Alan Jones for the title the following year and that happened too!

 

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I don't know much about F1, but I'm interested in that side of George's life as it's such a contrast to his other hobbies, so I was very pleased to have found that article.

There was also this from Jackie Stewart:

Jackie Stewart - The Greatest Party That Never Happened

"Imagine this: your greatest heroes and closest friends, both past and present, brought together around a dream dinner table letting the conversation – and stories – flow. Who would you chose? Well, for me, it’s a guest list of some of the most wonderful people I’ve known – and one I’d have liked to have known…”

GEORGE HARRISON So much more than just a Beatle…

One of the great enthusiasts, one of the nicest men. He also had one of the biggest brains that I’ve had the pleasure of being around. People might say ‘you can’t be serious, he was just a singer in The Beatles’. But with his worldly knowledge and his beliefs, he was very articulate. He was a great one for colouring pictures of life. He could really graphically describe something, it was like you were seeing a picture in front of you that someone like me could understand, perhaps outside of my normal ability.

The times we had together were… fantastic. I took him up to Hamilton Island, which is one of the Whitsunday islands off the Great Barrier Reef. We’d just go and sit by the water and watch the huge tides they get there. And we’d sit for hours talking, often about things in which I wouldn’t usually be interested with anybody else. He had a huge span of interest.

George was very religious, but he didn’t go to church. But of course he went to India. And when he found somebody he liked he really embraced them. The great sitar player Ravi Shankar, for example, was almost a god to him.

His love of cars was deep. Jody Scheckter was a good friend, Emerson Fittipaldi was a good friend, Damon Hill he helped financially to get a drive. He was an incredibly loyal person. When he had that dreadful thing happen to him in 1999, when he was stabbed in his own home, he was so emotional and was very vulnerable. He phoned me and said he couldn’t stay in the house, saying ‘Jackie, you know all the hotels in London, I thought the Grosvenor House would be good because I’ve been there with you’. I told him 'you can’t go there because that boxer who bit someone’s ear [Mike Tyson] is living there and there’s media around all the time. You can’t go there, George’. And he said, 'Oh, can I come to your house?’ So he, Olivia and Dhani came to live with us for a little while. He was a gentle man and to be violated in that way was a terrible thing for him.

His driving was not great! We did the Gunnar Nilsson tribute with Fangio at Donington in 1979 and I’ve got a picture that he drew of us with two speech bubbles. He was driving Stirling’s Rob Walker Lotus 18 and is ahead of me going down the Craner Curves. My bubble is saying, 'Jesus, I got him the drive and now he won’t let me past!’ He’s saying, 'well, I’ve got Jackie Stewart behind me — and he can’t pass!’

First and foremost he was a great friend, and I loved his music. I met him in 1966 at Monaco. The whole lot of them came. I got on really well with him, and with Ringo who is also a really nice man. Paul was very alive and physically active in his descriptions, and Lennon was obviously brilliant, but he was there but not really there, if you understand what I mean. But George was a big hard-core enthusiast.

George has a big place in our lives and not just mine and Helen’s: he taught my son Paul to play the guitar…

- MotorSport magazine (Dec. 2011)