JOHN AND YOKO IN CAMBRIDGE

Six years earlier, he had appeared on stage in Cambridge in the trademark Fab Four smart dark suit and zipped black boots.

Now it is 1969, and John Lennon, bearded, bespectacled, and be-denimed, is back in the city.

These remarkable pictures from the News archive show him not at The Regal, where the band wowed screaming fans in 1963, but in the academic surroundings of Cambridge University's Lady Mitchell Hall.

Also there is Yoko Ono, performing alongside him in what was the first live show by any individual Beatle away from the group.

The event, called Natural Music, took place in March of that year, and it was witnessed by an audience of 500. It was promoted by poet and percussionist Anthony Barnett, who had invited Yoko Ono to attend, and was no doubt delighted when she brought Lennon along too.

The Beatles were at the height of their pop fame. Only a couple of weeks earlier, the Yellow Submarine album had been released, and they were working on their next, Abbey Road, due for release in September. But inspired by Ono, Lennon had branched off in a project called Unfinished Music, which was all about experimentation.

Lennon remained towards the back of the stage, coaxing all sorts of atonal sounds and feedback from his guitar while Ono "howled and shrieked" into a microphone. It lasted just over 25 minutes, and two other musicians joined in halfway through the piece – John Stevens on percussion and piano, and saxophonist John Tchicai.

Several shorter pieces of this ilk had already been recorded a few months earlier at Queen Charlotte's Hospital in London, where Ono, then six months pregnant, had been admitted reportedly suffering from stress. Sadly, she suffered a miscarriage.

The music recorded in London and Cambridge came out on an album called Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions, part two in a series of three controversial albums about Lennon and Ono's life together, the first of which, Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins, featured nude pictures of the couple.

At the time of its release some record shops did not display it, but kept copies out of sight under the counter or in cupboards, making them available to customers only on request.

The third recording, The Wedding Album, was pretty weird too, celebrating their marriage in Gibraltar about a fortnight after their Cambridge appearance.

It contained a poster showing pictures of the wedding, a copy of the marriage certificate, and a photo of the couple, in full-on hippy gear, giving a press conference in Amsterdam – in bed.

All three albums were commercial flops.

According to reviews of the concert at Lady Mitchell Hall – more used to classical events and lectures – Lennon sat down on stage for most of the time with his back to the audience.

Although the recording appeared in stereo on a standard vinyl album, he and Ono apparently imagined that the sound would not be printed into the grooves, but would somehow emerge from the mind of the listener. Lennon said at the time: "This is unfinished music, saying whatever you want it to say. It is just us expressing ourselves like a child does, you know, however he feels like then. What we're saying is make your own music."