Never-published John Lennon interview with unreleased song to be auctioned

The 33-minute taped conversation from 1970 includes Lennon playing the never-released song "Radio Peace"

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      A never-published John Lennon interview conducted by four high-school students a half-century ago in Denmark will be put up for auction at the end of the month.

      The cassette from the January 5, 1970, taped 33-minute interview in North Jutland near the town of Vust is estimated by Danish auctioneers Bruun Rasmussen to be worth DKK200,000 to 300,000 (Danish krone, about C$40,000 to $60,000).

      Included with the tape in the package that will be auctioned on September 28 in Copenhagen are 29 colour and black-and-white photographs taken by the quartet of teenage boys who travelled through a blizzard to see the world-famous member of the Beatles just months before the musical group's breakup. (To view the photos, go here.)

      The interview took place in a facility associated with the nearby New Experimental College, which featured a decorated Christmas tree in the background.

      With Lennon during his month-long Christmas retreat at a farm outside Vust was partner Yoko Ono. The couple had travelled there to meet with Ono's ex-husband, filmmaker Anthony Cox, to work out custody arrangements for Ono and Cox's five-year-old duaghter, Kyoko. Ono and Cox were divorced in early 1969. (In 1980, Lennon was murdered outside his apartment building in New York by a gunman who remains in prison.)

      "This is the first time ever that an interview by John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono is up for live auction, and we expect a great interest in the collector’s item," Alexandra Nilsson, a valuation specialist at Bruun Rasmussen, said in a September 6 news release. "For me, personally, it has been surprisingly moving to hear Lennon’s voice. It feels incredibly present and not as if it was recorded 50 years ago."

      According to the auction house's release, the taped interview has Lennon playing guitar and singing "Give Peace a Chance" and the unreleased song "Peace Radio" near the end of the interview.

      John Lennon playing guitar and singing during the Denmark Christmas interview.

      "Give Peace a Chance" was Lennon'e first solo single release and was recorded earlier in 1969 during his and Ono's famous weeklong "Bed-in" while in a Montreal hotel for their honeymoon.

      Lennon and Ono's presence in the isolated Danish town remained a secret for about a week, then the couple agreed to do an interview for journalists from around the world after a local paper broke the news of the famous couple's hideaway.

      That was when four 16-year-old classmates from a public school near Brovst convinced their principle to let them skip classes to interview Lennon for a school magazine.

      The cassette tape containing the John Lennon interview.
      Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers

      With borrowed recording equipment, they travelled to the site of the scheduled interview but found that it had been moved to a place 70 kilometres away, to where they finally arrived after being driven through a blizzard.

      According to the auctioneer's release, by the time they got there, the news conference was finished.

      "They tried their luck and knocked on the door," the release stated, "and luckily, they managed to get in and meet their idols together with a handful of journalists who, due to the rough weather, had also arrived too late."

      "The unique recording on the tape makes it clear that there was a good chemistry from the start between the schoolboys and the famous couple—the conversation is surprisingly informal and relaxed, and everything from hair length and friendships to visions of peace and generational divides is discussed."

      After writing their story for the school publication (a copy of which is included in the auction lot), the auction house noted, the cassette was forgotten about until the students were made aware in 2002 that it could have value, whereupon they secured it in a bank safety deposit box.

      One of the four schoolboys, now 68-year-old Karsten Højen, revealed in the news release why the tape and related memorabilia is up for auction.

      "The whole session on 5 January 1970 was a great experience for all four of us and became a fond memory," Højen said. "But at that age, a lot happens in one's life—all four of us split up after completing our education at Skovsgårdskolen, and our shared experience slipped a little into the background of our memories. Now we are all quite a bit older—and tapes and pictures do not have as great a value for our children and grandchildren. Therefore, we decided that it should be sold at auction to someone else who will appreciate it."

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