Fans celebrate Lennon's 64th birthday
John Lennon’s memory was alive and well in Madrid today as fans from all over Spain gathered to celebrate what would have been the singer’s 64th birthday.
Spain’s fifth national convention of Beatles fans exhibited slide projections and drew crowds to conferences and collectors hunting for Beatles memorabilia at the Sergeant Pepper’s club in the Getafe suburb of the Spanish capital.
“We are trying to convey the legacy of the Beatles – a timeless band – to new generations,” the event’s organiser, Jordi Pau, told the Spanish news agency Efe.
On what would have been Lennon’s 64th birthday, many remembered the song When I’m 64, a track from the best-selling Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album in the 1960s.
Pau said this was the first time Madrid had hosted a major Beatles commemoration.
Previously the southern city of Valencia, on the Mediterranean coast, had been the centre of such celebrations, going back 20 years. Next year’s event will be held in Barcelona, Pau said.
Lennon was murdered in 1980 outside the New York City apartment building where he lived with his wife Yoko Ono.
