Where Were You When You First Heard John Lennon Had Died?

[????]

I was on my way to stack shelves at Tescos, wondering why my girlfriend hadn't been returing my calls later that day I got my very own "Dear John" which, for me personally was far more traumatic than JL's death.

[Ridgley]

I was in my first year; at secondary school it was announced on the school tannoy there was not really a great response in my class. I always thought he was a better song writer than Paul McCartney he came across to me has a very complex man I am not sure if that was to do with his childhood but I suppose a lot of geniuses are.

[Tarot]

All the rockers had a party.

[Manda]

I was 8 and really excited about Christmas, my Mum was getting me and my little brother ready for school when the Capitol Radio news bulletin came on (no breakfast TV in those days). I remember my Mum stopped helping me and stood absolutely still as she listened to the report.

We were all very shocked because we couldn't understand why anyone would do that, gun crime was also not a familiar topic in the UK back then and it was shockingly violent. As a family, we all loved the Beatles' songs and still do. That day it felt as though something really important had been taken away for ever. Everyone we met on the way to school was talking about how shocking and senseless it was. I'll never forget it.

They played "Imagine" constantly after that, but the first time we saw the video on Top of the Pops, I think everyone cried a little, he looked as though he was in heaven.

[SimonM]

I was lying on a bed in Dulwich Hospital Haemodialysis Unit, and the nurse about to stick the needles in me told me. The shock and dismay was almost as bad as hearing about JFK 17 years earlier.

[????]

I vaguely remeber Jon Peel just said something like "this is a terrible day with terrible news, I'm not going to do anything other than play this* and then it's a normal show"

*All you need is Love

[SeanMacGabhann]

I would have been 12, in my mum?s kitchen, eating cereal. I remember it vividly

I don?t recall her being a Beatles fan in any way (irish showband woman that she was/is) but she was very shocked and something in me felt something I never had before. I didn?t know much about lennon or the Beatles prior to the shooting but I became obsessed with lennon for about a year. Never the Beatles (didn?t and still don?t like them)

After that year, and long before I was aware of his ?difficult? reputation I was over him. I tried a couple of albums again years later but they just manage to annoy me, even the songs I used to love

[ratty]

A friend of mine told me in the school playground. I am named after this man and was quite surprised that me mum and dad had held it from me. I was 10!

[Kingy]

I were living in a cardboard box (actually a prefab) in the Old Kent Rd - pretty much opposite the Thomas A Becket pub, where The Comet is now - pretty apt really as I was always a fan of the Prefab Four

[oilworker]

I was having a geology lecture but in all honesty I wasnt that bothered because I was hungry and looking forward to a lorne sausage sandwich and half pint of irn bru from the cafe - funny when I hear the name john lennon I always associate it with savory meat products of doubtful provenance...

[Captain Scarlet]

I was aged 5 and having a dump in the crapper.

[Jah Lush]

That's how Elvis died.

[Kingy]

Not ! surely he's dead as well ? nobody tells me anything - always the last to know

[Sue]

In bed in South Norwood, about to get up to go to work, heard it on the news :-S

Went to work and repeated a sick joke about it and my boss nearly killed me .....