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PODCAST

Glass Onion: On John Lennon

A deep dive into the music and complex psychology of John Lennon, featuring interviews with such noted authors and podcasters as David Bedford, Dan Richter, Jude Kessler, Kit O"Toole and Ken McNab, as well as ex-Quarrymen bandmates Rod Davis and Colin Hanton

music music commentary

All Episodes

02:09:28

Episode 115: John Lennon In 1975 (Part 2 of 2)

Glass Onion: On John Lennon ·

2025/12/15

And so we bring to an end Glass Onion's 7th year… John Lennon's 1975 is mostly remembered for being the year that he became a father for the second time and dropped out of the music biz for 5 years, apparently to become the most famous househusband in the world (the jury's still out on that one). Before he did that though, he front-loaded the year with the usual frenetic activity you'd expect from a year in the life of our hero. There were albums and singles of his own, musical collaborations with

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01:13:08

Episode 114: John Lennon In 1975 (Part 1 of 2)

Glass Onion: On John Lennon ·

2025/11/19

For our final offerings of the year, we present a 2-part look at 1975, the year of Antony's birth. As is traditional, we first cover the year itself in terms of world events, births & deaths, films and (non-Lennon) music, before turning to the John Lennon events of the year. The Vietnam War is finally winding down, and there are numerous other examples of progress and destruction in another memorable 12 months on our blue planet. Ali & Frazier fight the fight to end them all and there are great

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01:39:04

Episode 113: Lennon Naked with David 'Ghosty' Wills

Glass Onion: On John Lennon ·

2025/10/23

David ‘Ghosty’ Wills is back once more to look at another biopic that’s not really very good (we’ll do something classic next time, I promise!), though our levels of (non-)appreciation of 2010’s ‘Lennon Naked’ differ slightly Christoper Eccleston gives something of a powerhouse performance as a very brutal and cutting version of John Lennon, starting in 1964 but mostly focusing on the 1967-71 period. All the main events of that time in John’s life are covered here, with a soap-opera style

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01:25:21

Episode 112: Birth of the Beatles (Part 2 of 2)

Glass Onion: On John Lennon ·

2025/08/06

We complete our look at ‘Birth of the Beatles’, the 1979 biopic which holds a unique place as the only one of its kind made while all 4 Beatles were still alive. The timeline goes somewhat awry but we go from the boys having departed Hamburg in late-1960 to the tragic death of one of their band members and then the arrival in the story of their well-groomed, well-spoken but also fragile guardian angel. From there, destiny takes its course… Before this, Antony offers a short item on ‘The John Lennon

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01:13:40

Episode 111: Birth of the Beatles (Part 1 of 2)

Glass Onion: On John Lennon ·

2025/07/17

Following our last exploration of a biopic of dubious quality, Antony flies solo this time to explore another one which, despite having some sense of time and place, is also somewhat lacking and to some extent unintentionally comedic. ‘Birth of the Beatles’, which came out in 1979, will always hold a unique place as the only Beatles biopic made while John Lennon was still alive. Considering that he’d reacted negatively to Cynthia’s apparent rewriting of history in her book ‘A Twist of Lennon’ in

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01:29:49

Episode 110- John & Yoko: A Love Story and more......

Glass Onion: On John Lennon ·

2025/05/27

Ghosty joins Antony once again to wrap up our dissection of ‘John & Yoko: A Love Story’, and there is also some discussion of two other presentations from 1985. ‘John Lennon: A Journey In The Life’ is a ‘cheap and cheerful’ trawl through the Lennon story, with another Liverpudlian Bernard Hill portraying our hero in John’s own words, and ‘John Lennon Remembered’ is a short documentary featuring two of the other ‘frontline Beatles’ (sorry Ringo) plus other talking heads who knew Lennon at different

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01:22:57

Episode 109- John & Yoko: A Love Story with David...

Glass Onion: On John Lennon ·

2025/04/26

We’re happy to welcome back David ‘Ghosty’ Wills to discuss John & Yoko: A Love Story, a 1985 biopic starring Mark McGann and Kim Miyori that was very dear to our hearts, at least until we rewatched it! We discuss some of the better scenes and also the unintentional comedy and ‘TV movie tropes’ of others. We cover about two thirds of the film here, and next time round we’ll complete our review and also look at a couple of other presentations from the same year. The conversation is preceded by

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01:21:04

Episode 108: The Gospel According To John Lennon...

Glass Onion: On John Lennon ·

2025/03/13

Another podcast journey comes to an end as we conclude our look at John Lennon (and The Beatles’) religious, spiritual and philosophical journey by use of Steve Turner’s excellent book ‘The Gospel According To The Beatles’ After a brief recap of the previous episodes, Part 4 picks up from the formation of Apple in 1967, our four favourite rock gods soon discovering that utopian ideals, while often a good thing for the world, usually run into problems when they rub up against harsh reality. From

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01:31:49

Episode 107- The Gospel According To John Lennon...

Glass Onion: On John Lennon ·

2025/02/14

Continuing our lengthy exploration of John Lennon’s religious, spiritual and philosophical journey by use of Steve Turner’s excellent book ‘The Gospel According To The Beatles’, Part 3 covers some fascinating chapters spanning the years 1964 to 1968 in the book’s rough chronology. John starts to consider the limitations of fame, is influenced by Bob Dylan and starts to finally put some of the spirit of his books into his song lyrics. The lads are ‘turned on’ by Dylan and take a somewhat logical

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01:20:23

Episode 106- The Gospel According To John Lennon...

Glass Onion: On John Lennon ·

2025/01/07

We kick off 2025 with the continuation of our lengthy exploration of John Lennon’s religious, spiritual and philosophical journey. Part 2 starts with more of John and the Beatles’ general beliefs about the world before starting a chronology of the Beatle years from the particular perspective of Steve Turner’s book ‘The Gospel According To The Beatles’ We go back to John’s Sunday School grounding and his always ambivalent attitude to Jesus Christ and the religion he spawned, through the school years,

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01:21:30

Episode 105- The Gospel According To John Lennon...

Glass Onion: On John Lennon ·

2024/12/16

We end Glass Onion’s 6th year with the start of another multi-part series, the first 4-parter in the history of the podcast. Using (mostly) the John Lennon parts from Steve Turner’s excellent 2006 book ‘The Gospel According To The Beatles’, we trace our hero’s religious, spiritual and philosophical journey through its many twists and turns in his intense four-decade ride through life. Antony also comments on his own journey in these areas, some of which overlaps with that of John Lennon and The

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01:21:42

Episode 104- John Lennon The Actor with Ross Marshall...

Glass Onion: On John Lennon ·

2024/11/28

We conclude our look at John Lennon as an actor, starting from 1965’s ‘Help!’ and with particular emphasis on what was arguably his only ‘serious’ role, albeit in an anti-war satire ‘How I Won The War’. He also voices a famously sprawling Beatles TV film about a bus, and there’s a film cameo and brief comedy sketch in amongst it all as well. Antony is joined once again by professional actor Ross Marshall, and there are multiple audio clips to complement the conversation. Glass Onion will return in

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01:13:40

Episode 103: John Lennon The Actor with Ross Marshall...

Glass Onion: On John Lennon ·

2024/11/13

The show keeps rolling with a look at John Lennon as an actor, both in films and TV sketches and also in his persona as Beatle John with the press and on stage. Antony is joined in this endeavour by professional actor Ross Marshall, and the conversation also looks at the craft of acting itself in terms of styles and John Lennon’s (un)suitability for it. Part 1 reaches the end of 1964, including discussion of John’s performance in ‘A Hard Day’s Night’. Part 2 will be out in a few weeks Enjoy!

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01:24:04

Bonus Episode #15- Antony interviewed by James Jarman...

Glass Onion: On John Lennon ·

2024/10/09

For our latest bonus episode, we offer a diversion and a trip back to the past as your humble host is interviewed about his and other people’s music by a friend in Madrid in 2016. Topics touched upon include songwriting, creativity, performance, recording and (no surprise) The Beatles and John Lennon. Preceding the interview are Antony's thoughts after a reread of the Ray Coleman revised and updated 'Lennon' biography. The next regular episode will be out at the start of November Enjoy! Feedback

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01:36:24

Episode 102- Toronto 1969 Part 2: Sweet Toronto with...

Glass Onion: On John Lennon ·

2024/09/18

We complete our 2-part look at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert of September 1969 and the ‘white-suited apostle’ John Lennon’s involvement in it with the highly flexible Plastic Ono Band. Following ‘Revival ‘69’, Antony and Dave Thurmaier turn their attention to a 1971 film that should be in every Lennon fan’s video collection, namely D.A. Pennebaker’s film ‘Sweet Toronto’. Antony also reads some other articles and opinions about the event (Goldman despisers, please look away now) and gets

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01:36:10

Episode 101- Toronto 1969 Part 1: Revival '69 with...

Glass Onion: On John Lennon ·

2024/08/28

And so the next century of Glass Onion begins. We’ve got another fine 2-parter for you, with Antony joined by Dave Thurmaier, the co-host of the ‘I’ve Got A Beatles Podcast’ and former guest of the show way back in 2019 and 2020. The Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert of September 1969 yielded a live album for John & Yoko plus D.A. Pennebaker’s film ‘Sweet Toronto’ (which will be reviewed in the next episode) and most recently a fantastic 2022 documentary by Ron Chapman. This latter doc is the

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01:51:45

Bonus Episode # 14- Revolution 9 Revisited (Antony on...

Glass Onion: On John Lennon ·

2024/06/27

Over 4 years on from our original episode about ‘Revolution 9’ (episode 25, in the show notes), we return to the topic with an audio version (including multiple sound clips) of a discussion that originally went out on video on Matt Williamson’s excellent you tube channel ‘Pop Goes The 60s’ back in March. We discuss our origin stories with the track, it’s conception and recording, some of the ‘musique concrete’ works that influenced it, the other Beatles’ reaction to it and a few other things.

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01:34:35

Episode 100b- John Lennon In The 1960s (Part 2 of 2)

Glass Onion: On John Lennon ·

2024/06/05

And so we complete the milestone! Scott Phipps once again joins Antony to complete their whistle-stop, greatest hits tour through John Lennon and the 1960s. Scott gives us a brief sketch of each year through a few news events (some extremely random but no less interesting) before our two intrepid heroes each pick a Beatles/Lennon talking point, this time covering the years 1965 to 1969. Thanks once more to all those who’ve been on the Glass Onion journey. My heart has truly been touched by the

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01:15:52

Episode 100a- John Lennon In The 1960s (Part 1 of 2)

Glass Onion: On John Lennon ·

2024/05/12

What better way to mark Glass Onion’s century than with a traditional multi-parter? In the first of two shows to celebrate our milestone, Antony is joined again by Scott Phipps to take a whistle-stop, greatest hits tour through John Lennon and the decade that made him and which he helped propel into history. Scott puts on his ‘Rainbow Valley’ trousers (see show notes) to sketch out each year for us before we each pick a Beatles/Lennon talking point for discussion. This time we tackle 1960 to 1964 as

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32:13

Episode 99.5- Paul Is Dead

Glass Onion: On John Lennon ·

2024/04/01

We felt it in poor taste to add show notes at such a sad time for the world...

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