John Charles Julian Lennon is a British rock musician and photographer. Julian is the first son of John Lennon, founder of The Beatles, and his wife Cynthia.
Biography
Julian Lennon was born on April 8, 1963 in Liverpool (UK). Little Lennon was named after his paternal grandmother, Julia Lennon. Julian's godfather was Beatles manager Brian Epstein.
Julian inspired his father to write the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", and the lullaby song "Good Night", which became the last one on the 1968 Beatles album (also known as the "White Album").
In 1967, the boy was present on the set of the British comedy film The Magic Mystic Tour with the Beatles.
In 1968, when Julian was only five years old, his parents divorced after his father's betrayal with Yoko Ono. John Lennon married Ono on March 20, 1969. Julian, from his father's second marriage, has a younger half-brother, Sean Lennon, and a sister, Kyoko Chan Cox.
In June 1968, Paul McCartney wrote the song "Hey Jude" to comfort Julian during his parents' divorce.
Little Lennon grew up as a rather inquisitive and active boy. After the divorce of his parents, Julian practically did not see his father. But in the early 1970s, at the request of his friend Mai Pan (at that time, Yoko Ono and John temporarily separated), he began to visit his father regularly.
The future musician was educated at the School of Routine, one of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom.
In 1973, for Christmas, Julian's father bought a Gibson Les Paul guitar and a drum for Julian, which encouraged the boy's interest in music by showing some chords.
While at school, Julian Lennon, along with his best friend Justin Clayton, began to compose music. Julian was interested in contemporary jazz-oriented bands such as Steely Dan and Keith Jarrett's piano miniatures. Because he was calm and dreamy at home, his favorite rock songs were calm songs, including the lyric songs of The Beatles.
After leaving school, Julian lived in Wales and, along with Justin Clayton, earned money washing dishes in a bistro. In the evenings they played music together, wrote a lot.
Career
Julian began playing guitar and drums at the age of 10, adding piano as a teenager. He debuted as a drummer on the track "Ya Ya" on John Lennon's 1974 album Walls and Bridges.
After killing his father, Julian decided to pursue his own musical career. 1984 saw the release of its first album, Valotte, to a fairly widespread success: it collected four singles on the chart, including the Top 10 hits "Valotte" and "Too Late For Goodbyes," and went platinum by March 1985. The album was released by Phil Ramon, who was known for his work with famous personalities such as Paul Simon and Billy Joel. However, some critics were skeptical of the singer's musical talents, believing that he was trying to become famous due to the big name of his father.
Lennon's second album, 1986, "The Secret Value of Daydreaming" collected 40 best tracks, and the song "Stick Around" was certified gold.
In 1986, Julian was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
On April 1, 1987, Julian Lennon appeared as Baker in Mike Butt's musical The Hunting of the Snark. The musical performance took place at London's Royal Albert Hall to help the deaf.
In 1989, his single "Now You in Heaven" peaked at # 5 in Australia and # 2 on the US Album Rock Tracks chart.
In 1991, the studio album "Help Yourself" was released, and the single "Saltwater" reached # 6 in the UK and topped the Australian hit charts for four weeks.
After 8 years in show business, Julian decided to take a break and do other things that he loved equally - cooking, sailing and sculpture, as well as reminisce about his acting talents.
In 1993, he voiced the role of David Copperfield in the NBC animated series of the same name. Two years later, he starred in an episode of Leaving Las Vegas. In this picture, Julian played a bartender in England in the 80s.
In his film portfolio during this period, there were several more episodes in the cinema, dubbed cartoons, as well as shooting in documentaries.
A new studio album, Photograph Smile, was released on May 18, 1998, after a seven-year hiatus from his previous album Help Yourself. In 1999, an advertising sampler was released in the United States containing the tracks I Don't Want to Know, Day After Day, and And She Cries.
In the mid-2000s, he became interested in the Internet business, and in parallel he also took up documentary filmmaking. Lennon's most significant and successful production project is the documentary "WhaleDreamers", which tells the story of an ancient Australian Aboriginal tribe that was declared extinct in the 1950s.
On September 2, 2011, another studio album of the musician in the UK, Everything Changes, was released, which received worldwide recognition in June 2013.
Creation
Along with his music, Julian Lennon developed a keen interest in photography after photographing his brother Sean's music tour in 2007. His first exhibition was held in New York on September 17, 2010. The exhibition included 35 photographs entitled "No Time".
From March 12 - May 2, 2015, a series of photographs "Horizons" was presented at the Emmanuel Fremin Gallery, New York.
Julian also devoted significant time to charitable causes, most notably forming the White Pen Foundation in 2009 to focus on environmental and humanitarian issues.
In his youth, after the death of his father, Julian Lennon collected Beatles memorabilia. And in 2010 he published a book describing his collection called "The Beatles Memorabilia: The Julian Lennon Collection"
Personal life
Julian lives in Monaco. He never married or had children of his own, which suggests that his difficult relationship with his famous father did not allow him to do so. The musician stated that unlike his father, he wanted to be mature enough to cope with fatherhood.
