Saturday, February 8, 2014

25 Days of Harrison Day 8- Kinfauns


17 June, 1964 George Harrison had purchased a bungalow style home on 16 Claremont Drive in Esher, Surrey. The home was recommended to him by Beatles accountant, Dr. Walter Strach who had seen the house for £20,000.
"It was the first one I saw, thought 'That'll Do'." -George Harrison, I Me Mine
There was one point where all of The Beatles lived extremely closed to each other, Kinfauns was a short distant from Ringo, who at the time was living in his home in Sunny Heights; John, who was living in Kenwood; and Paul, who was the farthest living in St John's Wood. Kinfauns would be the home that The Beatles would mostly go to and would play an important part in the recordings for The Beatles (White Album).

George lived in Kinfauns with his wife Pattie Boyd (married in 1966) up until they bought a Roman Catholic school that was about to be torn down, called Friar Park in 1970. It would also be the home that George, Pattie, and The Lennon's would go to after the famous "Dental Experience" in 1965. Kinfauns later was were The Beatles, after coming back from their India trip in May of 1968, would go to record the outtakes for their new album The Beatles (White Album) using George's four-track reel-to-reel tape recorder; these outtakes would be known as the Kinfauns outtakes or the Esher Outtakes which could be heard on The Beatles Anthology Volume 3. It also was were Pattie and George were arrested in March of 1969.

The Fool's fireplace mural
In The late 1960s The Harrison's with help from good friend from Hamburg, Klaus Voorman, would paint the home in psychedelic patterns. The Fool, an artist of the 1960s most known for works with The Beatles (; painted George's mini cooper, Painted the three story mural on Apple Boutique, the original cover design for Sgt Peppers [which later was rejected], even helped with The Beatles outfits when they preformed "All You Need Is Love" on television, painted one of John's acoustic guitars and piano, and painted some of George's guitars.), had painted the mural on Kinfauns fireplace.

George painting Kinfauns
When George had bought Friar Park the house was put up for sale and would later be home of Barry and Sylvan Mason, who wrote hits like Tom Jone's "Delilah", and would later be demolished and replaced by a two story home.

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