The following article appeared in New Musical Express on October 28, 1966, page 3.
That Hair Cut
I asked John the question many people want him to answer - how did he like having his hair cut?
Starts At Seven!
John's working day begins at 7am. He has to be on the set with the other actors at 7.30, and sometimes earlier. As soon as he wakes up he washes and dresses and is picked up by his driver, Anthony, a giant former Welsh Guardsman with an Adolf Hitler moustache. He drives John's Rolls-Royce with its black windows, and takes John to the set, about half an hour from where he lives.
Eats In Tent
When it comes to eating, John does this in a huge tent erected for the actors and technicians. Everything is self-service and he has to carry his own food to the table.
ALmeria, Spain: John Lennon is very aware that his days as a Beatle are numbered! In this little Spanish coastal town, where he is filming How I Won The War, he spoke sincerely about his future. "In two days I shall be 26," he said. "For the last six years I have been a Beatle. It's been a jolly good life and we've had a good many laughs, but it can't go on forever.
"I'm trying to do something else. I have tried and write, now I'm having a bash at a straight acting role. It's fun. It's hard. It's different. I haven't seen the results yet and until I do, I won't know if it is for me or not."
I asked John if he took the part because he was bord being a Beatle.
"Oh, no, not that, it's something else. It's like finishing school in a way. It's a problem for all of us. George is now in India, nosing around and taking sitar lessons. Paul has bought a new house in north London. He is so busy decorating it that he's finding little time for anything else. Ringo is spending a week watching me act.
"Each one of us has more or less the same delemma - what to do in the future. From time to time we gather and speak about it."
"I had to have it done for the picture. I'm Private Gripweed, an English soldier, and they have short hair.
"It felt very strange, but there were some good things about it, too. For instance, when I went out by myself nobody knew I was a Beatle any more. It was a new-found liberty going around unmolested.
"Then Paul came over and we went to Paris for a weekend and it started again. They saw him with his long hair, had a look at me and then figured out it was us, so we had to start running for shelter."
I asked him how he liked wearing glasses in the film.
He laughed and said, "There's only plain glass in them. I have to wear them for my film part, but even after I stop filming I keep them on, because I have lost about a dozen pairs already. The poor prop-master has only twenty pairs and we still have about seven weeks of shooting to do."
John said that he was enjoying Spain because it was so warm and quiet. John, his wife Cynthia and three-year-old Julian have a three-roomed flat at Garcia Street in Almeria. It is in a house on the beach owned by a Spanish baron.
John passes the time watching television, reading, making mad tapes on his recorder or playing games with the family. Director Dick Lester is the only one who comes in for a chat with the family before preparing John for the next day's sequences, although I am sure Ringo and Maureen have been visiting them quite a bit.
Referring to the Rolls-Royce, John said that he wanted a black windscreen as well, but they would not deliver one to him. He also wanted a swimming pool with a mirrored bottom, but he didn't get that either.
Surprisingly, John describes himself as "probably the laziest person in England". But this he means physical activity, which he says he has ignored for most of the year. He has spent more of his time sitting down reading, listening and watching TV, he says.
But now that he is filming again he has got to keep very active. He says he is enjoying being just another one of the actors, with no special privileges. He also is getting a great kick out of playing cricket with the rest of the boys. His part as Private Gripweed also demands he is keen on cricket.
Not until late in the afternoon does he go back to his Rolls-Royce, which is fitted with a television set, a telephone, refrigerator, writing desk and a single bed.
John finds that he has to stay on the set for long hours because Dick Lester keeps changing the picture when he has a new idea. John likes wearing his light fatigue costume with gaiters at his ankles. He says that it is a very good way to dress and he might even go around that way when he comes back to London. John told me he felt a long, long was from The Beatles, but he added: "I am looking forward to getting started on teh film we are to make in January."
At the same time, he is also doing a lot of thinking about what is going to happen when The Beatles are no longer.