Imaginary Tales

Obituary  Len Pickles The mysterious man on the Abbey Road Album Sleeve As most Beatles fans will know, the mysterious man in the middle distance on the Abbey Road album cover was in fact Len Pickles. It is folklore amongst followers of The Fab Four.  The story goes...  One sunny late summer day at the tail end of the swinging 60s, Londoner Len Pickles was walking to The Clifton Pub to meet a friend, when he saw lads on the crossing having their photo taken. He quickly realised that this was The Beatles and that this must be the photoshoot for the cover for their new album, provisionally titled EVEREST. Len sensing opportunity, walked up and down that stretch of Abbey Road no less than 48 times making sure he got in the final picture.  "People think it was just good fortune to be snapped looking innocently toward the camera, but I knew what I was doing." Len said in 2012 to MOJO magazine. LEFT: Len in 1969 photographed shortly before leaving for The Clifton Pub.....

Step aside Francis Bourgeois, there's a new TikTok star in town.  GORSE MAN  Who's that you say?  Well, if you're asking that, then Ok Boomer, you can find out all you need to know about Gorse Man here and now. Put down your Pink Floyd 25 CD box set for just one moment and read this... Gorse Man first emerged on TikTok in early 2022, when most younglings were spending 12 hours a day staring at their smartphones and chuckling to Francis B's rail antics (and also snapping their fingers and shouting 'sick'). Much like young Francis making the terminally uncool hobby of trainspotting fashionable, Gorse Man hopes to do the same for lovers of the evergreen shrub. He has been a lover of all things Gorse since childhood and believes that there are many closet Gorse fanatics out there just looking for someone cool to champion their cause.   At first he had just a few followers (less than 3) but within a month he had 12 and within 6 weeks somewhere between 99 and 112 (the...

The Beatles Get Back Part Three AKA Downstairs Upstairs For this third and final instalment of the Disney Plus presentation of 'GET BACK' I am joined by two of my best friends, Steve and Ben who are both Beatle Lovers. Between the three of us, sometimes together, sometimes apart, we have had many Beatle moments; some highlights being the BFI screening of Magical Mystery Tour some years back, spending a day in Abbey Road for Lennon Live, singing backing vocals on the film Yesterday, seeing McCartney live in Cardiff and a trip to Chiswick House grounds (the Paperback Writer promotional film location.)  Ben even got to spend a little time with Paul backstage at a gig they both played and he still hasn't washed his hands. Now we have gathered to watch part 3 in January 2022. Almost exactly 53 years to the day that The Beatles stepped out on to that freezing cold Savile Row roof, treating passers by to a never to be repeated free Beatles concert. Steve and Ben haven't seen e...

  The Beatles: Get Back - Part Two So, I saw and wrote my thoughts on part one what seems like ages ago at my friend Ben's house. Now he has come to my house to watch part two. I have been to Ben's favourite Guildford takeaway, stopped off for gin supplies and within two minutes of his arrival we have started the show. Part one ended on a cliffhanger to rival the TV series of the 50s like Flash Gordon, with George walking out on the band and on-screen text informing us that a subsequent meeting at George's house did not go well. Things seem to have improved and George is back on board and soon all the lads have the fresh glow of the make up after an argument with a lover, and it is beautiful to behold. Clearly tension had been building up for a long time and having a barney cleared the decks. Whilst still at Twickenham we see Peter Sellers arrive to film a scene for 'The Magic Christian' (one of my favourite 60s films, though I can't find anyone else who likes i...

  The Beatles: Get Back - Part One   I just got back from a freezing windy trip to Sainsburys to buy a packet of Digestives.  These days there is a much wider variety of biscuit and cake offerings than there was in the 70s England of my childhood, when I first savoured a McVities, but somehow today after watching ‘Get Back’ part one with a good friend and fellow Beatles fan, the humble digestive seems more appropriate accompaniment to my afternoon tea, seeing as such basic fayre was clearly a staple part of the diet of the Fab Four, along with copious cups of tea, what looks like orange squash in wine glasses and fish ‘n’ chips. It seemed almost wrong to indulge in a packet of Jules Destrooper Almond Thins, lost as I currently am mentally,  somewhere in 1969.  On the way back from Sains I ducked into the Record Shop to have a chat about the documentary. The shop was very busy and it seemed half of the people in there had seen part one sometime over the last two ...

  Just thought I would share this special moment. So, as a vintage / record dealer / collector, you spend a lot of time looking through piles of disappointment such as Russ Conway's greatest musical treacheries; Russ Conway may have sold hundreds of millions of records, but I don’t want them. Nobody does. Sometimes fate smiles upon you. Yesterday in a charity shop and town that will remain secret until 2055 when I will release details, I found a pile of fresh pleasure (I’m not sure what the opposite of disappointment is strictly.) I was in a hurry to get somewhere so I didn’t have time to check every record on the phone, looking at Matrix numbers etc. So I had to go on my own semi-expertise. I made a really big offer on all 220 ish lps. It was a bit dry mouth and heart pounding time because it was 4x more than I paid the dentist last week (She gave me no LPS but did play stirring classical music as she worked) but as soon as I saw THE ZOMBIES Odeyssey (sic) and Oracle in there in ...