Ottawa Beatle Site Chief Researcher, John Whelan, goes into semi-retirement!

That's right folks! After accumulating as much information on the Beatles both locally and abroad, this researcher is pretty much calling it a day now. There will be only one last addition to make in the Beatles Timeline and that will be the fall release of the "non-Spectorized" version of "Let It Be". The Beatles Timeline itself has become "a monster of a page" both to work with and to download, but I believe it will always continue to be an excellent on-line web resource of  interesting facts, photos and in some cases, first-hand interviews about the Beatles contained therein by those "active links".

When I first teamed up with Tony Copple shortly after he had started this site, I knew that it could be developed into more than just your typical run-of-the-mill Beatle fan site like you see on the internet where just a few pictures are scattered on a page with the big proclamation: "Hey, I'm a Beatle fan, too!" I've seen many of them on the web with very little good information on the band. But there are several good Beatle sites to be found, many of them we've researched and listed in our "Direct Links" section, so please take the time and explore those ones, too (but only after you've explored ours first, of course!)

I would like to take the time in thanking the Ottawa Citizen for allowing us to publish their news articles which definitely added to the rich history on the band. It is very interesting to go back in time and read the coverage as it was reported back then. I would also like to give a special thanks to Beat Brother Roy Young; Timothy Porteous (Trudeau's Executive Assistant); former reporter Sandy Gardiner of the now defunct Ottawa Journal and Dave Marsden, founder of CFNY, the worlds first Modern Rock Radio for providing me with exclusive interviews or background information about their place in the Beatles' history books. Thanks, guys! A very big thank you also to Beatlology Editor Andrew Croft for providing their interview with Andre Perry, the engineer who recorded "Give Peace Chance" and to Brad Howard, publisher of the World Beatles Forum for his articles and research. I would be amiss if I did not include my dear friend Alan Chrisman, former proprietor of "Get Back Records" which I frequented on many occasions. Alan had a wealth of information to share with me, some which helped to develop stories that appear on this site -- but one of the biggest coups he had in his collection was Dave Marsden re-broadcast of the "Paul is Dead" hoax.  I should mention that Alan was given this cassette tape a very long, long time ago by a friend and when he handed tape over to me, the cassette itself looked like it had been banged around in a garbage can! I was suspicious at first if the cassette would play and I did have some difficulty along the way in transferring the Marsden broadcast onto my "Sony TC-270" reel-to-reel tape recorder. But I eventually solved tape jamming problems and ended up with the abbreviated version that you are able to hear at the Ottawa Beatles Site. In the end though, I did manage to transfer all of the broadcast onto tape! What a labour of love that project was!

Both Tony Copple and myself have worked diligently in making this a good site. We hope you enjoy it. If you haven't already discovered, the National Capital Freenet is a non-commercial web provider. This means that both Tony and myself do not, and cannot make any money off of our research efforts in spite of what some of you might think. We have, however, been rewarded "in small spades" along the way  for the good work that we do. If you read this news page carefully, you'll see a few examples.

Finally, I would like to thank Tony Copple for allowing me to make a contribution to his site. Tony is actually from Britain who one day decided to come over to Canada to reside in Ottawa. I'm sure Tony would be the first to agree that he wasn't completely aware of the numerous articles written on John Lennon and Yoko Ono visits to Ottawa that would be of interest to Beatle fans. Being a native of the city, I had a slight upper-hand on knowing where to find both information and photos. But in all honesty, folks, all this information here would never have taken place if it weren't for Tony's kind gesture when he provided me with his negatives that he took of  John Lennon's psychedelic Rolls-Royce in 1996 (the car was displayed at the time at Ottawa's "Science and Technology Museum.")  In '96, I had seen Lennon's car in Ottawa, as did Tony (though we didn't know each other at that time), but I was told in advance by a museum staff member that cameras were off limits to the Lennon car and so I left my camera behind. However, much to surprise when I got there, I saw a lot of people taking pictures of the vehicle! While I had now seen the car, I was disappointed that the photo opportunity was missed on the very last day the Rolls-Royce was to be displayed! It wasn't until I read on Tony's own discussion board that I became aware that he had taken pictures of it. Through a series of friendly e-mails, he sent out the negatives to me. Little did we know at the time that our first series of correspondences would lead up to bigger and better things, such as expanding this web site. I know Tony has some good memories from this web site including yours truly. There are a few story's that we are not permitted to tell, but who knows...maybe one day!

Tony has indicated that he will continue to work on the site and I have told him that I will stay on in an "advisory capacity" but the days of hard-core research are pretty much over now.

Thanks for the ride, Tony. It's been a lot of fun!

John Whelan
May 25, 2003

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