Travel Report: Double Fantasy Exhibition, Liverpool.

Double Fantasy – John & Yoko Exhibition, Liverpool.

May 2019. No matter what time of year you come to Liverpool there’s virtually always a Beatles exhibition or three to compliment the city’s established Fab Four sites.

During my stay in the city, The Museum of Liverpool was hosting the outstanding Double Fantasy – John and Yoko Exhibition. It was the world’s first art space dedicated to the story of John Lennon and Yoko Ono in their own words, music, art and film.

The exhibition took up a whopping three quarters of the museum’s second floor. Having entered the building’s cavernous main hall, my friend Steppers and I took the stairs up to level two, full of anticipation. After all, we were both lifelong Beatles fans, while John had always been my favourite of the four. 

At the entrance arch to the exhibition itself, we stopped for a moment to take in a collection of Yoko Ono’s Wish Trees, an art installation she began back in 1981. The idea is simple: make a wish, write it down on a piece of paper and tie it to a branch of the wish tree.

These simple but pretty trees have travelled all over the world, from London, Dublin and Paris, to New York, San Francisco, Venice, Tokyo and Buenos Aires. According to Yoko, she’s never actually read any of the wishes. It’s a sign of respect, she says, for those who dare to bare their souls on her trees.

Double Fantasy – John & Yoko Exhibition, Liverpool.

I on the other hand certainly had no such qualms. In fact, I found it quite moving to leaf through the various messages. It was a gentle reminder that everyone has their troubles, hopes, wishes, dreams and regrets.

The Double Fantasy – John And Yoko Exhibition takes visitors through a chronological journey of their story. The narrative plays out in a beautifully presented space of archive photos, paintings, handwritten notes, sketches, video, replica rooms and personal items.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono met at London’s Indica Gallery on the 7^th of November 1966. One of the first things we saw was a mockup of how it looked when John, the world famous rock star, came to see Unfinished Paintings and Objects, an exhibition by Yoko, a little known avant-garde artist.

Faced with a series of abstract (and very expensive) conceptual items, such as a ladder, some apples and a bag of nails, Lennon was initially unimpressed. So much so that he was heard whispering to a friend that the whole thing was “a con”.

Museum of Liverpool.

However, John’s mood greatly improved when he climbed a ladder to read a tiny message that simply said “yes”. Lennon found this uplifting and felt moved to approach Yoko directly.

After a brief chat she offered him the opportunity to hammer a nail into her interactive piece, Painting to Hammer a Nail. It was an act that would cost The Beatle five shillings. But John wasn’t carrying cash, hence the two eventually agreed that he could “pay imaginary money to hammer an imaginary nail” into the painting.

“And that’s when we locked eyes. And she got it and I got it, and that was it” explained Lennon, speaking to Rolling Stone Magazine.

Although they had kept in touch, it wasn’t until May 1968 that Lennon and Ono’s relationship deepened. With John’s wife Cynthia out of town, Yoko visited John’s Kenwood mansion in Surrey. Fuelled by a mutual fascination and (cough) certain stimulants, the two worked feverishly through the night to create their first album of music together.

The result was the highly experimental soundscapes of Unfinished Music Number 1: Two Virgins. After completing the recording, John and Yoko made love at dawn, cementing the relationship that would soon lead to Lennon’s divorce from his wife.

Double Fantasy – John & Yoko Exhibition, Liverpool.

Even as huge of a Lennon fan, I have to admit that Two Virgins is a really tough listen. A thirty-minute onslaught of whistling, fragmented conversations and out-of-tune-piano bashing. Furthermore, Lennon screams on and off and Yoko throws in some of her trademark howling.

Standing there in the Double Fantasy Exhibition that day and for some reason I found myself remembering Cynthia Lennon’s account of walking in on her husband and Yoko the next morning. Detailed in her engaging autobiography John, she said she knew her marriage was over when she returned home to find them sitting on the floor wearing nothing but dressing gowns.

After their Two Virgins night, Lennon and Ono became inseparable. A year later, on the 20th of March 1969, they tied the knot at The British Consulate in Gibraltar. Much to my delight, the exhibition showcases their original wedding outfits.

Pictured above is Yoko’s white crepe skirt, along with John’s creamy suit jacket. Unfortunately, the pair had a terrible time trying to arrange their wedding on British soil. John ended up writing a song about the ordeal, called The Ballad of John and Yoko.

Museum of Liverpool.

In what felt like a huge revelation, I was looking through the accompanying wedding photos when I suddenly realised that I’d once walked past the hotel John and Yoko stayed in on their wedding night. They bedded down at The Rock Hotel, which I’d photographed as I strolled through Alameda Botanic Gardens during my visit to Gibraltar in 2017.

John and Yoko followed up their low key wedding with an insanely high profile honeymoon period. Centre stage was their famous Bed-Ins for world peace, intended as non-violent protests against The Vietnam War. The first of these televised events took place at The Hilton Hotel, Amsterdam, between the 25th and 31st of March 1969.

The second bed-in played out in Montreal at The Queen Elizabeth Hotel between May the 26th and the 1st of June 1969. The exhibition displays the actual bedspread used during their stay. It also features John’s Gibson 1160-E acoustic guitar.

The duvet was specially designed for the occasion by the artist Christine Kemp. “There were we like two angels in bed, with flowers all around us. And peace and love in our heads. We were fully clothed, the bed was just an accessory”, said Lennon.

Double Fantasy – John & Yoko Exhibition, Liverpool.

Next, I came across a corner dealing with Lennon’s well-documented US green card struggles. It focuses on his work as a political activist and the era of bitterness and paranoia that set in under the Nixon administration.

There was also an entire section dedicated to the negative media coverage on the couple. In addition to newspaper clippings and press quotes, there’s archive video footage of John and Yoko’s 1971 interview with Michael Parkinson. The segment clearly shows Lennon’s disgust at his wife’s treatment from fans and journalists.

There’s even a part on John’s infamous Lost Weekend, a period of personal crisis. On the verge of splitting up, Yoko suggested that John take some time away. Bizarrely, she even insisted he have an affair with their personal assistant, May Pang. The results were disastrous, with John slipping into a prolonged period of depression and alcoholism.

He partied with L.A. musicians and movie stars. One evening, John found himself ejected from The Troubadour nightclub after an altercation in March 1974. Ultimately, it was a lifestyle Lennon couldn’t sustain and eighteen months later he was back with Yoko.

Museum of Liverpool.

Another highlight was the exhibition’s collection of handwritten lyrics. Yoko donated most of them personally, including the original scribblings for John’s 1980 hit single Woman.

I’ve never understood the hatred for Yoko. Not to mention the downright derision that most of her music receives. I’ve actually enjoyed several of Ono’s albums and thought she more than held her own on the duo’s final record, Double Fantasy. Of her songs from that album, my favourite has always been  Walking on Thin Ice. Thus it was cool to see those lyrics on display too.

The late 1970s were the happiest years of John’s life. For the first time in decades he took an extended break from music and stepped out of the limelight. For a while life was about nothing more than domestic bliss with Yoko and their son Sean. Indeed some of the home video footage of the Lennons from this period shows just how content he was.

I liked the way the exhibition didn’t cover the events of the 8th of December 1980. Rather, you’re left with an image of a naked John wrapped around Yoko on his final morning. Annie Leibovitz took the shot for Rolling Stone Magazine. Later that day, Dave Sholin from RKO Radio came to conduct what turned out to be John Lennon’s final interview.

Double Fantasy – John & Yoko Exhibition, Liverpool.

The Double Fantasy – John And Yoko Exhibition ran at The Museum of Liverpool from the 18th of May 2018 to the 3rd of November 2019. It recently showed in Tokyo from October 2020 to January 2021.

For more on the greatest rock band in history, check out my other articles from The Beatles In Liverpool. Alternatively, have a read about my visit to Abbey Road in London. Maybe even check out my review of The White Album.

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