Ivan Vaughan

Ivan Vaughan (18 June 1942 – 16 August 1993) was a boyhood friend of John Lennon and later a schoolmate of Paul McCartney at the Liverpool Institute, both commencing school there in September 1953. He was born in Liverpool on the same day as McCartney. He played tea-chest bass part-time in Lennon's first band, The Quarrymen, and was responsible for introducing Lennon to McCartney at a community event (the Woolton village fête) on 6 July 1957, where The Quarrymen were performing. McCartney impressed Lennon, who invited him to join the band, which he did a week later. This led to the formation of Lennon and McCartney's songwriting partnership and, later, of The Beatles.[1][2]

Ivan Vaughan
Born
Ivan Vaughan

18 June 1942
Liverpool, England
Died16 August 1993(1993-08-16) (aged 51)
Liverpool, England
Occupation
  • Musician
  • teacher
Spouse(s)
Jan Vaughan
​
(m. 1966)​
Musical career
GenresSkiffle
Instruments
  • Tea-chest bass
Associated acts

Personal life

Vaughan studied classics at University College London,[2] married in 1966 and settled down to family life with a son and daughter.

From 1973 to 1983, Vaughan taught Psychology at Homerton College. On grounds of ill health, he had to take early retirement.[3]

Lennon and McCartney never forgot the friend who brought them together. For a time they put Vaughan on the payroll of their Apple company, in charge of a plan that never took off to set up a school[4] with a Sixties, hippie-style education ethos. Vaughan's wife Jan, a language teacher, helped McCartney with the French lyrics to the Beatles 1965 song "Michelle".[3]

Autobiographic and documentary

In 1977 Vaughan was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. His book, Ivan: Living with Parkinson’s Disease, was published in 1986,[5] and he featured in a documentary produced for the BBC in 1984 by Patrick Uden, and hosted by Jonathan Miller[6][7] about his search for a cure. He died in 1993[2] of pneumonia.

Vaughan's death touched Paul McCartney so deeply that he began to write poetry for the first time since he was a child. He wrote the poem "Ivan" about him after his death, which was published in 2001 McCartney's book, Blackbird Singing.[8][9]

References
  1. "The Beatles Bible - John Lennon meets Paul McCartney". The Beatles Bible. 6 July 1957. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  2. Simpson, George (4 September 2020). "The Beatles: Paul McCartney shares childhood photo with George Harrison and Ivan Vaughan". Express. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  3. "Ivan Vaughan". Homerton 250. Homerton College. Cambridge University. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  4. Doggett, Peter (13 October 2009). You Never Give Me Your Money: The Battle For The Soul Of The Beatles. Random House. p. 35. ISBN 978-1-4090-8664-2.
  5. Vaughan, Ivan (1986). Ivan. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-42454-9. OCLC 13904860., first published in US in 1987 with title "Ivan: Living with Parkinson’s Disease"
  6. Vaughan, Ivan; BBC Education (1984), Ivan, London: BBC Education & Training, OCLC 220771119, retrieved 6 March 2022
  7. "Ivan (1984)". BFI. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  8. "Paul McCartney: From Pop To The Printed Page". NPR.org. Retrieved 6 March 2022.
  9. McCartney, Paul (2001). Blackbird singing : poems and lyrics, 1965-1999. Adrian Mitchell (1st ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-02049-5. OCLC 45791387.
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