On May 4, 1969 John and Yoko closed on the purchase of Tittenhurst Park. The cost was £145,000 ($2,543,039 in 2022 dollars).
They did not move in until August because of renovations that included a lake. The renovations reportedly cost twice the price paid for the 72-acre estate.
John and Yoko bought it from Peter Cadbury, the same Cadbury family famous for Cadbury chocolates, though Peter was not involved in the business.
By late 1969, the Beatles were a band nearly in name only. On the cusp of a final break-up, what turned out to be the last pictures taken of the four together were taken at Tittenhurst Park on on 22 August 1969. The photos, by Ethan Russell and Monte Fresco, were used for the front and back covers of their Hey Jude album.
Ascot Sound Studios
John and Yoko built a recording studio in Tittenhurst called Ascot Sound Studios. Lennon and Ono recorded their next several albums in it. The cover of Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band album was taken at Tittenhurst Park.
photo by John Lennon and Yoko Ono
And the famous video recording of Lennon’s Imagine was done at Tittenhurst Park.
Homeless intrusion
And it was on the 22 May 1971 that John and Yoko spoke to a homeless man who had been hiding on the estate. After speaking with him, they invited him in for something to eat.
John Yoko Tittenhurst Park
Left never to return
John and Yoko moved to New York City in August 1971. Lennon never returned to England.
On 18 September 1973 John and Yoko sold Tittenhurst Park to Ringo , who renamed the recording facilities Startling Studios.
According to the Beatles Bible site, “He [Ringo] made it [Startling Studios] available to other musicians, including T.Rex who filmed Born To Boogie there. Starr sold Tittenhurst in 1988…to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu Dhabi.
Tittenhurst Park may not be the best known words, even among Beatles fans, but one can see from the above that it played an important part in the Beatles’ final days as a group John Lennon’s final days in his native land, and Ringo recording life.
Less than year before the tragic shootings at Kent State, the SAC [Special Agent in Charge] of the Cincinnati Bureau [FBI] sent [FBI Director] Hoover a memo detailing Rhodes’ attitude towards civil unrest: “He personally feels that the Director is the outstanding American and that he is the only person who has consistently opposed those persons who would subvert our government. He feels that the Director’s stated position of dealing firmly with these groups is the only sensible method.”
“He [Rhodes] commented on the riots and unrest which have occurred repeatedly and said that some of this might well have been avoided if the Director’s warnings and advice had been followed. In Ohio, he has not hesitated to use the National Guard to deal with these situations and has instructed the Guard to act quickly and firmly. He feels that this is the only way to maintain law and order, and that the maintenance of law and order is the only way our government can survive,” the memo records. [my emphasis]
Ohio Governor James Rhodes
Cambodian Invasion
Keep in mind the days preceding May 4.
As promised by the newly-elect President Nixon, the Vietnam War seemed to be winding down. Then in late April of 1970, Nixon ordered the US invasion of Cambodia and widened the Vietnam War. Nixon announced the invasion on April 30, l970.
The next day student protests erupted on many college campuses. Kent State University was one of those place and announced plans for a second rally noon Monday 4 May.
Saturday 2 May. Kent Mayor Leroy Satrom asked Governor Rhodes to send in the Ohio National Guard. Stationed close by, the Guard arrived that evening to the burning of the University’s ROTC building.
Ohio Governor James Rhodes
Sunday 3 May
Sunday 3 May. About 1000 Ohio National Guardsmen occupied the campus, While tense, the mood was not threatening. Student quietly conversed with Guard members. It was on this day at a press conference that Ohio Governor James A Rhodes called the anti-war protesters “the worst type of people we harbor in America, worse than the brown shirts and the communist element.”
That evening confrontations between protesters and guardsmen occurred and once again rocks, tear gas, and arrests characterized a tense campus.
Ohio Governor James Rhodes
May 4, 1970
May 4 was simply another day in most ways. People awoke. Ate breakfast. Began their day.
“ABC” by the Jackson 5 was Billboard’s #1 single. Ironically, Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” was the #1 album.
The tragedy of May 4 would leave us perplexed, shocked, and with many questions.
Did the National Guard need to shoot? Were their lives in danger? Why were between 61 and 67 shots were fired in a 13 second period? Should the Guard have been on campus to begin with?
The 418 page Scranton Committee Report on the event determined that “The indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable.”
No legal proceedings ever found the Guard culpable and the January 1979 monetary settlement paid out of court by the State of Ohio was termed an apology, not an admission of guilt.
Regardless of any possibilities, for Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Knox life ended suddenly and horribly on May 4, 1970.
…was easy. And of course, the band has a video presence on YouTube…
Hoboken Division Nancy France
Hoboken Division
Who is Hoboken Division? The duo of Marie Rieffly and Mathieu Cazanave is from Nancy, France (Non inultus premor) and, like bands from all over Europe have done for decades, fell in love with American Delta blues. And like good bands everywhere, they’ve taken that sound, added their own fine musical sensibilities, and created something that sounds both now and then.
This is straightforward music. No gimmicks. Cazanave’s guitar can slide and growl. Rieffly’s voice does either as well. She’ll boost in harmonica, too. The music can be thick, but not lumpy; smooth, not slick.
Mix a taste of RL Burnside, a splash of Left Lane Cruiser, a dollop of Iggy Pop, a teaspoon or two of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and a bucket of unbleached organic Hoboken Division. Don’t be shy.
Hoboken Division formed in 2011 and have played gigs throughout France and the rest of Europe since then. Fingers crossed that they’ll get across the pond to American shores someday soon.
Until then, check out their music on YouTube or, better yet, support their music through their site. And the next time someone clichés that “they don’t make music like that anymore,” tell them that you have two words for them:
Hoboken Division Nancy France
Non inultus premor
BTW…The motto Non inultus premor is Latin for “I’m not touched with impunity”—a reference to the thistle. Perhaps we can describe Hoboken Division’s music the same way.
Hoboken Division Nancy France
How Hoboken
In a 2014 interview with the It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine Marie explained the origin of the band’s name: When we decided to get serious with this band affair we wrote dozens of random cool words and names on a piece of paper. It was covered with words that we liked for their sound, or with places that could refer to something… In the middle there was “Hoboken Railroad Division”, which we both loved. ‘Railroad’ only lasted a few weeks before we realized nobody here in France, ourselves included, was able to pronounce it correctly! The name is a reference to the Hoboken terminal in New Jersey, where through out history thousands of people have met and mixed, people from the south running away from the Dustball in the early century were put in there when they arrived, people coming from Europe… It was also was a port of departure for he GI’s during both World Wars. They had this maxim: “Heaven, Hell or Hoboken for Christmas”. We like to think that they brought the blues to Europe! We really like the history of the place and it’s a powerful symbolic place for the music we love.
Hoboken Division Nancy France
Mesmerizing
Their second album release was the The Mesmerizing Mix Up of The Diligent John Henry. Les Disques de la Face Cachée released it on on November 10th, 2017.
Check out “All Them Black Crows.”
A review from the Rock Made In France site said (google-translated): …it breathes the hot breath of the Delta and the grease of the funds of garage. The bottleneck wipes the handle in long, rough come and go beaten by a tribal rhythm and enhanced by a female voice never vulgar, always inhabited.
Psycholove
Their second album release was the The Mesmerizing Mix Up of The Diligent John Henry. Les Disques de la Face Cachée released it on November 10th, 2017.
A review from the Rock Made In France site said (google-translated): …it breathes the hot breath of the Delta and the grease of the funds of garage. The bottleneck wipes the handle in long, rough come and go beaten by a tribal rhythm and enhanced by a female voice never vulgar, always inhabited.
And in February 2024 they released the album, Psycholove:
What's so funny about peace, love, art, and activism?
Peter Cadbury
