Frieda Kelly: My life with the Beatles

“It was probably my Irish upbringing too. We’re don’t get over-awed. These are four human beings, they’re not gods. They tried to have normal lives. I kept that in mind.

“And when they were getting slaughtered over John’s ‘We’re bigger than Jesus’ remark and people started burning their records and the KKK threatened to kill them, we couldn’t believe the way the Americans reacted to that. It was taken out of context, but the comment was true.

“You weren’t getting kids going to Mass on Sunday, but they were in love with The Beatles and writing to them, and that was the way John meant it. He was wondering what was wrong with the world.”

To keep her father happy Kelly remained in Liverpool where she ran the Beatles fan club, traveling to London every six weeks for meetings at their headquarters, Apple.

One of the amazing perks of the job was hearing The Beatles record and getting to listen to the albums long before the public.

“I got them all before they were released. Even the demo discs. I took in my stride because I was in it from the beginning and they understood that,” Kelly says.

Being a good Catholic girl, she found a good use for all of the foreign stamps that arrived with the fan mail.

“I used to collect all the foreign stamps and pack them off to The Irish Messenger (a Catholic publication, who recycled them for cash). They were located in Cumberland Street in Marble Arch in London. How’s about that for devotion?”

Kelly was one of the few people who got close to John Lennon’s aunt and guardian, (and the subject of the recent film Nowhere Boy) Mimi because, she says, she understood her.

“Mimi was like my father, she was old school and strict. John needed controlling. He was rebellious and she was a widow who was trying to do her best to bring him up right. She was a lovely person but didn’t suffer fools gladly,” recalls Kelly.

“You wouldn’t get around Mimi. She wasn’t warm in that way. He was always looking for something wasn’t he? Having no mother affects people.

“Paul’s mother died when he was 14. My mother died when I was 18 months and I was shipped around backwards and forwards between Ireland and England. It affects your character. It made me more independent. I could understand John because you develop a shell around you to protect yourself.”

When the cast of Rain traveled to Liverpool to visit Lennon’s old house they were thrilled when Kelly pulled some strings to give them a private tour. But what she didn’t tell them was that she hadn’t been in Lennon’s house, a place she knew intimately, since 1965.

“It was quite an experience for me, walking into John’s house after so long. I just stood in one of the rooms and it all flowed back – John and Mimi, it was good and bad.

​
Nster.com