| Rumours
are still that the National
Motor Museum at Beaulieu
will be displaying George's Mini. More soon ....... |
George
Harrison
1943 - 2001
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INTRODUCTION
George Harrison owned the Mini that featured in 'Magical
Mystery Tour'. The Mini, an Austin Cooper 'S', LGF 695D,
was built for George Harrison by Harold Radford (Coachbuilder)
Ltd in late 1965 and painted in Metallic Black.
In
early 1967, the car was repainted and the psychedelic
pictures were added using a book, Tantrum Art, for inspiration.
At the same time Harrison also had the wall of his house
painted in the same style, which did not go down very
well with his neighbours...
The Mini then was used in the film 'Magical Mystery Tour',
which was screened by the BBC on the 26th December 1967
in black and white then again in colour in January 1968.
Shortly
after the film the Mini was given to Eric Clapton from
whom Harrison got it back in the 1970's.
Mike sent a letter to George Harrison about his Minis
and he got a reply saying he could not provide him with
any information though a few months later, in June 1998,
the Mini appeared at the 'Goodwood Festival of Speed'
(that is where many of the photos on the sides were taken)
and was still owned by George Harrison.
INTERESTING FACTS / STORIES
The
Mini with George in one of the pictures is GUU 707C, which
is a 850 Mini. George had a number of 850 Minis another
one was KMT 449C that he brought from Epstein's company
and part exchanged a mini for it (I think it was GUU 707C)
he also brought an Aston Martin at the same time (reg
number KMT 499C).
George
on Magical Mystery Tour: "I remember quite a bit of it,
really, in the big hangar down in Kent. We were driving
around this air field in the Mini Cooper, your mother
should know. That was quite interesting, I quite enjoyed
that..."
George remembered:"after the drive around in the rain
each of us was put in a Mini with our name on. John, Paul
George, Jimmy individually, in huge Dayglo paint. They
were advertising the British Motor Corporation. These
cars were Minis, together with an Austin Princess with
'Beatles' right along the side in Dayglo" - 11th June
1964, Australia.
The story Mike (Radford/Mini de Ville Register) was told
some years ago was that the Mini had been stripped ready
for painting but no one had taken photos of the paintings.
The chap who had painted them wanted silly money to redo
them, the car was said at this time to have belonged to
Harrison's brother. Some years later the paintings were
done by someone else using old photos and the film for
reference, although if you look closely some differ from
when the car was in the film.
George, John, Cynthia, and Patti had their first LSD trip
while driving LGF 695D (they were leaving the home of
a dentist friend that had slipped it into their tea).
George recalls driving very slowly because they did not
know what was happening to them (this is from the Beatles
Anthology series). Thanks to Mike Weaver.
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