My Brother Covers the Plastic Ono Band

I must have been totally out of it when my brother Bill first told me about his participation in Candice Breitz's Working Class Hero (A Portrait of John Lennon), an art installation in his adopted city of Newcastle Upon Tyne, because I honestly didn't remember any of it when he brought it up again last week.

With his permission, I'm republishing what he wrote to me about it.

"Twenty John Lennon fans filmed singing along with POB. The music played in our earphones, so that when you saw the videos, you only saw our talking heads and heard our voices singing the songs in unison.

"Usually displayed on twenty screens (4x5), but shown at the Baltic in Gateshead winding up the stairwell.I did it all in one take, start to finish (and was the only one who didn't use the sole cheat sheet, a listing of all the 'God' items he didn't believe in."

(When I asked him if he was on the monitor on the right hand side of the photograph in the linked article:)

"That was me! I was one of the bookends!

"I wore a Boston Red Sox t-shirt to show that I was an American fan. Turned out that you never saw the logo!

"She did a similar work with 'Madonna: the Immaculate Collection' with an entirely different sort of fan base. They were shown from the waist up, due to the danceable nature of Madonna. Her other pieces have been Bob Marley's Legend and Thriller. The Plastic Ono Band is actually the most marginal album she's used (most people would have gone with 'Imagine' or maybe 'Shaved Fish'). Candice listened to the album from her parent's collection when she was young and fell in love with the album.

"They wanted a wide demographic for the piece. One fan flew from Japan to do it (I never asked who payed for the flight). I happened to notice a small advert for it one day, and contacted them technically after the cutoff period. But they were pleased to have an American, especially one who lived closer to the project than any of the Brits! There were a few females, and some young folk too, but most of us were 40 to 50 year old white males.

"It's eerie when you hear all the combined voices singing the songs in unison. The only downside was that no one made any sounds during the guitar solo's, meaning that the whole thing fell silent. Luckily, POB has few instrumental breaks!

(After I remarked that he looked a bit intense on the screen:)

"And yes, I looked big scary and insane; although Candice found my rendition of 'Love' very touching. She hugged me after the performance was done, right before she told me I had to do 'Mother' again! I still regret not screaming during the sound test!

"The Japanese was actually one of the few women, and a young person as well. They offered to pay my Metro fare: I declined. That's what made me wonder whose traveling was paid for.

"And frankly, Isolation was my favorite tune to sing. It's very slow, then kicks into high gear with "I don't expect you to understand..." I just loved the contrast."

I sure hope I get to see this someday.