In Bed With Lennon & Yoko

Phil Hopkins, known to many readers as one of the YT's principal theatre reviewers, has written extensively about his international travels during a writing career spanning more than 35 years.

Today, we hope you enjoy the third of his Canadian articles on the famous JOHN LENNON HOTEL as he winds his way from Quebec City to Toronto, via Montreal, Ottawa and the famous Niagara Falls.

"It was all an accident 'ow it 'appened," said Monsieur Arruda, the Duty Manager at Montreal's prestigious Queen Elizabeth Hotel on Rene-Levesque West. "No one expected John Lennon to show up and certainly not with Yoko Ono."

But that's exactly what happened on May 26th 1969.

"A local music producer 'eard zat John Lennon and Yoko Ono were on their way to Canada," he continued in his Quebec French accent, "but wen ee realised zat no one was around from Sony Records to greet zem at zee airport, he went straight there and pretended to be from Sony."

And our would-be hero - certainly from the Queen Elizabeth Hotel's perspective - asked Mr Lennon if he had made a reservation in the city. Apparently the Beatles supremo had not so the producer - with little rhyme or reason - knew that the Queen Elizabeth was a prestigious hostelry and decided, on a whim, to take the unlikely duo Downtown and to the Queen's. The rest as they say, is history.

For not only did the hotel reserve an entire floor for the Lennon retinue, but little did they know that this chance 'stay' was about to change the very course of the hotel's history.

Because it was in suite 1742 that Lennon, as part of his 'Bed-In For Peace' tour, would pen the music and lyrics for his international anti-war theme, Give Peace a Chance.

Less than a week after their wedding John and Yoko undertook their first Bed-In for Peace in Holland at the Amsterdam Hilton.

Then, denied entry to the US - where Americans were in the thick of the Vietnam War - the controversial couple started their second Bed-In just off the US coast in the Bahamas. Within 36 hours they were on their way to Montreal, arriving on May 26th 1969.

Throughout their week long stay there hundreds of press, guests and fans from across the world descended on the 17th floor suite and, on June 1st, the final day, the room was packed for the recording of what has since become the global anthem for peace, "Give Peace A Chance."

Now, while it's just a piece of musical history, then, it was somewhere between controversial, radical and plain nuts; two oddballs in a bed proclaiming peace?

One of the many celebrities who sat on the bed with John and Yoko to discuss world peace and how to bring it about, was comedian / musician Tommy Smothers. His opposition to the Vietnam War, while it was still an unpopular cause in the US, cost him and his brother their prime time network TV show when the sponsor, a major US car company and defence contractor, withdrew funding.

Days into their stay, and just before the historic recording, John wrote the words to the verses of Give Peace a Chance on a poster board with a felt marker. Each verse began "Ev'rybody's talkin' about" and contained names of people who had visited, and events that had taken place in their hotel suite and in the world, during their week in that Montreal bed.

The chorus was, of course, "All we are saying is give Peace a Chance."

A few months after the Bed-In, half a million anti-Vietnam protesters sang Give Peace a Chance outside the White House. Lennon said it was "one of the biggest moments of my life."

Now, the events of that heady week in 1969 are thoroughly celebrated, and commercially capitalised upon, by the Queen Elizabeth Hotel.

There are posters in the reception and the Fairmont owned hotel even offers a 'Bed-in for Peace package which includes a CD of the song Give Peace a Chance, Souvenir white pyjamas and nightgown, a chance to stay in the 'Lennon/Yoko' suite and all sorts of other goodies!; a snip at $899 a night (£450)!

Needless to say when that eager music producer shot off to Montreal airport on May 26th 1969 and had the presence of mind to bring one of the biggest music stars in the world back to the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, someone in the management team must have been punching the air and shouting: "Yes, that's our booking schedule sorted for the next 50years!" He wasn't far wrong!



QUEBEC / MONTREAL FACT BOX

Visit: www.tourisme-montreal.org OR www.QuebecOriginal.com

Facebook - www.facebook.com/tourisme.quebec
Hotel - www.fairmont.com/queenelizabeth

Look out for Phil's next article on the 'Fusion City' of Montreal!