‘Last Ever’ Photos Of John Lennon Put Up For Auction


John Lennon interviewed on December 6th, 1980. Photo: BNPS

John Lennon interview on December 6th, 1980. Photo: BNPS




Photographs of John Lennon taken during a radio interview in New York (above) just days before his death are expected to cost thousands of pounds when they go on sale next month.

The rare shots, said to be the last taken of Lennon before his murder on December 8th, 1980, are part of a collection amassed by British music historian Mark Hayward who is now putting the negatives and their copyrights up for sale.

The photographs are taken from Lennon’s interview with Radio 1’s Andy Peebles, which became known as ‘The Last Lennon Tapes‘, and gained infamy due to one of Lennon’s closing comments in which he describes feeling ‘safe and comfortable’ in New York when quizzed on his security.

Speaking about his collection, Mark Hayward described how he began purchasing negatives back in the Eighties. “I found an auction that was selling the negatives along with the copyright and I started buying them,” he said. “Not just ones of Beatles but of many bands and musicians. It was something that I started doing in about 1986 and I just carried on and I amassed 11,000 different images.

I was paying about 200 pounds a time to use a photograph in a book, but when I saw they were available for sale along with copyright I decided it would be better to own them. It was during this time that I bought the ones of John Lennon. They are the last ones of him ever taken. He had been doing an interview for Radio One and obviously when staff knew John Lennon was coming they were keen to be photographed with him.”

The photographs are due for auction on November 3rd.


Learn More




One Response

  1. Jay 14 November, 2011