BURNABY PHOTOGRAPHER TURNS TO KICK STARTER TO HELP PUBLISH EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS OF JOHN

 

When Roy Kerwood was 18 he spent several hours photographing John Lennon and Yoko Ono in Montreal. He now is using crowdsourcing to finance a book of those photos.

Roy Kerwood was in the Montreal hotel room when John Lennon recorded the anthemic Give Peace a Chance in 1969 — and he has the pictures to prove it.

Kerwood, now 64 and living in Burnaby, took about 700 photographs with his Leicaflex camera of those magical Montreal moments.

Some of the pictures disappeared and some were burned in a fire at his father’s house but there are 40 left and Kerwood wants to preserve them by publishing a coffee-table book that will include his memories of what went on.

He has turned to the website Kickstarter to raise the $10,000 he figures he will need to produce 1,000 copies of what he is initially calling ‘The Recording of Give Peace a Chance.’

As of Tuesday afternoon, there were pledges of more than $1,800 for the project.

Kerwood admits to being an alcoholic on his Kickstarter video but said Tuesday he will have been sober for 10 years on Feb. 19.

He thinks it’s time to tell his Lennon story.

“I’ve had heart surgery and I’m 64 and my health isn’t perfect — but I’m not on the edge of death or anything,” said Kerwood.

“But life is so unpredictable,” he said. “I wanted a way to make sure the pictures were in some sort of archive.”

Publishing the pictures would preserve them, along with the story of a historic episode where Lennon and Yoko created a media circus by staying in bed for peace.

The event attracted celebrities of the day like acid guru Timothy Leary and his wife Rosemary, Li’l Abner cartoonist Al Capp and comedian Tommy Smothers, who plays guitar on the recording of Give Peace a Chance done in the hotel room.

Kerwood was born in England but moved with his family to Ontario, B.C. and then Quebec when his father got work there.

He was an 18-year-old photography student in Montreal and got the chance to take pictures for the radio station that was doing a live broadcast from the Lennon’s ‘bed-in’ — where he and Yoko Ono essentially occupied a bed.

Lennon liked the pictures Kerwood brought back and he was allowed to hang out, shooting photos and witnessing history.

But although he said he developed a kinship with Lennon, they never reconnected before the singer was killed in 1980.

“I didn’t ever get back in touch with him again,” said Kerwood. “I tried a number of times but he was an elusive character.”

You’ll have to buy the book to find out more.