No Rock And Roll Fun

HOW CLOSE WE CAME: John Lennon nearly chucked the guitar after two lessons because it was "too hard", says Colin Hanton, who was in The Quarrymen with him. (Yeah, Colin, I was Mollie Sugden's bridesmaid, but I don't go on about it all the time...). Hanton says that it was only seeing Lonnie Donegan that made him give it a second go.

Imagine, for a moment, though, a parallel universe a bit like The Wish episode of Buffy. No Lennon. Yoko wouldn't even be famous enough to count as obscure. Ringo might have got a few more songs there. Noel Gallagher would just have this gnawing feeling that he was missing something. Liverpool airport would be called Professor Redmond Central. On the other hand, without that famous bed-in for peace, the last decades of the 20th century might have been ruined by almost perpetual conflict around the planet. And you're still wondering if I'm going to crowbar in a reference to Alyson Hannigan in a corset, aren't you?