On John and Paul

The Music of Lennon and McCartney, Granada Television, Manchester 1965

"Sex appeal oozed from John's every pore. We obviously adored Paul, with that lovely baby face and everything. But what John didn't realise was that he had this incredible sexual power. It's a shame really, because he never really knew he had that."

(Cilla Black, Daily Mail interview, December 2002)

Memories of Lennon

With Paul and John on the set of The Music of Lennon and McCartney. Granada Television, Manchester, 1965.

It was thanks to John Lennon that I got my big break in music. I first met John when I was 15 years old and attending the Anfield Commercial College. Some time afterwards, I was at the Majestic Ballroom in Birkenhead, and Brian Epstein came up to me and said: "I've never heard you sing. I want you to sing with the boys tonight." So I sang "Summertime", with The Beatles playing behind me, but I was terribly, terribly nervous, and Brian was not at all impressed, and I thought: "Well, OK, that's that, I'll just be singing around the clubs in Liverpool." A few months later, I was singing in a club called the Blue Angel. After I finished my set, Brian came up to me and said: "Why didn't you sing like that at the Majestic?" I had no idea he was even in the club that night, but he loved what he heard and asked to manage me right then. I later asked Ringo if he had asked Brian to give me another listen, because Ringo and I were friends, but he just looked at me and said: "It wasn't me, it was John." I thank him to this day because, but for John, Brian never would have given me a second shot after that awful first audition. It truly changed my life.

(Cilla Black, extracted from 'Memories of John Lennon', edited by Yoko Ono Lennon, published by Sutton Publishing)