Those were the days. Cynthia Lennon's thoughts matched the words of her debut single as she met Beatle fans and shoppers in Liverpool's Clayton Square. Cynthia, Beatle John Lennon's first wife, is hoping her cover of Mary Hopkin's 1968 hit, Those Were The Days, will bring fame as a singer, and not just a singer's wife. Just a handful turned up to have their CD singles, priced at 3.99, signed by the singer. But thrice married Cynthia she had already been mobbed enough to last a life time. She said the recording, issued yesterday, started life as an "accident". One night the telephone rang in her Isle of Man home, where she lives with partner Jim Christie.
"It was a German record company trying to poach my son Julian for their label. I was just telling them I couldn't help when Jim told them I would be willing to make a record." "At first it all seemed a bit of a joke. I had only sung once before, and that was just in the backing vocals for Yellow Submarine." Then the former Liverpool art student contacted the Isle of Man based, Dice Records. They suggested a tune to fit her voice - a choice which please Cynthia since the original was produced by Apple records, the Beatles own label. Cynthia, 54, said she was delighted to shoot the video for the single in Liverpool. She returned to Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields, which she remembered well from her marriage to Lennon. "The song is all about nostalgia," she said.
Sutcliffe had already entered paintings for the John Moores Exhibition and won a £60 prize. He decided to stay on in Hamburg after the Beatles returned to Liverpool in July 1961 and enroled at a prestigious art college there. He fell ill and died of a brain haemorrhage in 1962.
The sale will be held in London on March the 7th.