![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/22The-worst-thing-in-the-world22-What-the-hell-was-John-Lennons-problem-with-my-beloved-Bradford-Far.jpeg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Bradford Timeline)<\/p>\n
Thu 2 October 2025 15:30, UK <\/p>\n
Once the wool capital of the world and the current cultural capital of the United Kingdom, Bradford is a city I feel privileged to call home; for all its flaws and negative portrayal in the press, this \u2018city of dreams\u2019 certainly has a lot to offer. <\/p>\n
So why, then, did John Lennon<\/a> seem to have such a vendetta against it?<\/p>\n Perhaps more so than any of his Beatles comrades, Lennon was always unapologetically outspoken. From his apparently outrageous claim that the Merseyside \u2018Mop Tops\u2019 were \u201cmore popular than Jesus\u201d during the height of Beatlemania, to his subsequent years spent lying in bed in New York City advocating for peace and love. Seemingly, though, that hippie-ish attitude did not extend to the songwriter\u2019s view of proud northern industrial cities, like Bradford. <\/p>\n Growing up in the City of Culture, I fondly remember driving past the then-derelict Gaumont Theatre (now newly refurbished as Bradford Live) to be regaled with stories from my grandmother, about how she had seen The Beatles perform there back in the 1960s, when they were third on to the bill to Helen Shapiro<\/a>. <\/p>\n Imagining my own grandmother as one of the many screaming teenagers standing outside the grandiose domes of the Gaumont is a story that holds a very special place in my heart, but it seems Lennon never shared the same fondness for that 1963 gig as Margaret. <\/p>\n In total, The Beatles performed at the Gaumont in Bradford on three occasions, all of which formed landmark nights in the history of the world\u2019s biggest band. In addition to playing with Helen Shapiro in 1963 \u2013 the opening night of the band\u2019s first nationwide tour \u2013 they also played the inaugural show of their 1964 tour at the theatre (on Lennon\u2019s 24th birthday, no less), as well as a preview of \u2018Christmas Show\u2019<\/a> later that year. <\/p>\n Even today, if you talk to Bradfordians of a certain generation, it doesn\u2019t take long before the exclamation, \u201cThe Beatles played here, you know\u201d, presents itself. In fact, Gail Moss, the daughter of the hotel owners who put the band up on Lennon\u2019s birthday back in 1964 once told local rag, Telegraph and Argus<\/a>, that he \u201cdespite his toothache, was still the life and soul of the party, told endless jokes and did a brilliant imitation of a pompous Yorkshire mill owner \u2013 he was a great mimic\u201d.<\/p>\n Yet, despite this city of boars and bantams welcoming the Fab Four with open arms during the early days of their path to world domination, Lennon had nothing but disparaging things to say about Bradford in the years that followed. <\/p>\n For instance, when Paul McCartney visited Bradford University with Wings back in 1972, although their scheduled show never ended up taking place, Lennon dismissed his former bandmates\u2019 new horizons. \u201cI couldn\u2019t do what Paul did with Wings and just turn up at Bradford University and play. It\u2019d have to be something more organised than that,\u201d he declared. <\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t stop there, either. During one interview with Ray Connolly, from Lennon\u2019s country estate in Berkshire, he once again cast scorn upon the north of England. \u201cI don\u2019t want Ringo to end up poor, having to play the northern nightclubs,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause the worst thing in the world for an ex-pop star in England is to end up playing Bradford or Darlington, the northern nightclubs, because they are really awful places.\u201d Really, John, the worst thing in the world?<\/p>\n It is worth remembering, at this point, that during The Beatles\u2019 world tour of 1966, the band were subject to riots at virtually every turn. They were sent death threats in Japan, and were chased out of the Philippines by a marauding dictator and his military goons. Yet, the absolute worst thing \u2018working class hero\u2019 John Lennon can imagine is playing to, what, adoring fans filling the seats of a beautiful, historic theatre in Bradford? Give your head a shake. <\/p>\n![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Paul-McCartney-John-Lennon-Ringo-Starr-George-Harrison-1963-The-Beatles-Far-Out-Magazine-1024x768.jp.jpeg\")
<\/a>The Beatles in 1963, around the time of their first visit to Bradford. (Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n
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<\/a>(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy \/ YouTube Still)<\/p>\n