{"id":614415,"date":"2026-05-31T23:41:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T23:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/614415\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T23:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T23:41:12","slug":"the-1972-decision-that-ended-john-lennons-touring-career-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/614415\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1972 decision that ended John Lennon\u2019s touring career forever"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"John<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy<\/p>\n

Sun 31 May 2026 19:45, UK <\/p>\n

When the Beatles quit touring in 1966, they cited the fact that they couldn\u2019t hear themselves playing anymore as one of the key considerations, but, it should also be considered that McCartney, Harrison, Starr and John Lennon<\/a> had started to have more expansive ideas about the kind of sound they\u2019d like to have as a band, and that sound would not have been so easy to replicate on the stage. <\/p>\n

The group spent so much time working on songs in the studio, manipulating the space itself and the technology at their disposal to create their masterpieces in the second half of the 1960s, that you could go so far as to say that Abbey Road\u2019s Studio Two was the fifth Beatle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By the time the group disbanded in 1970, after one final, famous, rooftop performance together<\/a>, they\u2019d all moved on to separate musical journeys and gotten back on the road, or at least, on the stage, in some capacity. <\/p>\n

George Harrison organised the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh<\/a>, two shows held across the afternoon and evening of Sunday, August 1st, 1971, in New York City\u2019s Madison Square Garden, where he was joined onstage by former bandmate Ringo, as well as the likes of Leon Russell, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston and future Traveling Wilbury Bob Dylan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, McCartney had formed a new band, Wings, who were really starting to take flight both onstage and in the studio as the \u201970s went on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lennon didn\u2019t embark on a full-blooded tour himself, but like Harrison, performed at benefit shows and one-off\u2019s through 1971 and 1972. On December 10th, 1971, Lennon, alongside wife Yoko Ono<\/a>, headlined the John Sinclair Freedom Rally, and then a week later the pair played at a benefit concert in New York\u2019s Apollo Theater in aid of the families of the victims of the Attica State Prison riot. In \u201972, he took a leaf out of Harrison\u2019s book and performed a two-session benefit show at MSG himself, in aid of the Willowbrook State School, dubbed the One to One show, which also featured other performers such as Stevie Wonder<\/a>, Roberta Flack, Melanie Safka and Sha Na Na.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Tony Barnard \/ Los Angeles Times \/ UCLA Library<\/p>\n

By that point, it had been six long years since The Beatles\u2019 final tour, and many fans were left wondering if Lennon would ever consistently hit the road again, rather than just making sporadic appearances here and there at shows organised around a cause outside himself. <\/p>\n

Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n

Those fans didn\u2019t have to wait too long for an answer, but it wasn\u2019t the one they\u2019d hoped to hear. \u201cAt the time they were trying to throw me out, I really felt like going on the road\u201d, Lennon said in 1973, in reference to the US government\u2019s attempts to deport him<\/a>, which began in 1972 and which would take up his time for the next four years, \u201cBut having to go to court and go to Washington put me off the idea. I had no time to think about work, which was maybe what they were trying to do to me\u2013wear me down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lennon then mused, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t mind doing it, but the organisation frightens me. I could probably earn a lot of money, which wouldn\u2019t be a bad thing because all my money is tied up in England and they won\u2019t let me have it. I get lots of people wanting me to do things for charity, but usually when I show, it turns out the whole thing is a fiasco and I end up running the whole show. Not many people know how to put a show on properly. Most of them think that if they get a famous name, he\u2019ll call everybody he knows and they won\u2019t have to worry about anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that George Harrison\u2019s recent benefit show had started something of a trend, but in typical John Lennon style, he had something to say about that trend, too. \u201cThe Bangladesh show started this big charity thing. Now people ring me and they think that if I say \u2018yes\u2019 then Dylan, George and God will appear, too. If Yoko appears anywhere<\/a>, they automatically expect me to appear, so I now say screw it for the time being\u201d.<\/p>\n

Adding, \u201cI\u2019m in no particular hurry, I don\u2019t miss not being on stage and one way or the other I always seem to be performing somehow, no matter where I am. When I did the Madison Square Gardens show, I had a sort of deja vu feeling that I\u2019d done it all before, and this was no better or no worse than it had ever been before. It felt strange and I felt like a robot doing the same thing over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll probably go out on the road again before too long, but it\u2019s just the itty-bitty things about it that I can\u2019t stand\u201d.<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cIf something comes up that interests me, then I may do it. I think I\u2019d sooner play the Roxy here than a ballpark, but the complications of someone like me doing a show anywhere are endless. I couldn\u2019t do what Paul did with Wings and just turn up at Bradford University and play. It\u2019d have to be something more organised than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, though, Lennon never would get back out on the road again<\/a> in any major way. His final concert appearance came during a 1975 cameo at an Elton John concert at, where else? Madison Square Garden, which he only agreed to do after making a bet with the other John, stipulating he\u2019d perform with the flamboyant pianist only if their duet \u2018Whatever Gets You Thru the Night\u2019 made it to number one in the charts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After his visa issues had finally been settled in 1976, he might have had time to think about putting a more organised tour together, but cruelly, he only got around to putting the pieces in place in 1980, planning his first major solo tour around his then-new album Double Fantasy<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Having discussed potential setlists with his band, Lennon and Co had even organised rehearsals for the proposed tour, which would have been known as the One World, One People Tour, and which was set to feature shows in America, Japan, Europe and include Lennon\u2019s first return to England in almost ten years, which he was particularly excited about.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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