Imagine a life like Lennon's...

The West Australian 18 May 2004 :: By Ron Banks

The first time John Lennon met Paul McCartney, he knew the pair were not going to hit it off.

But Lennon had signed on for a tour in Hong Kong with the Australian Beatles and was committed to completing the contract.

"Let's just say that I didn't see eye to eye with Paul, who was a real control freak," he says.

On his return to Perth, however, John Lennon, otherwise known as Irish-born Marcus Cahill, decided it was time to go out on his own as an impersonator.

Next month, Cahill will get his biggest test when he performs at the first Australian Beatles Festival in Adelaide.

Beatles bands from all over the world will converge on Adelaide for the four-day festival - a chance to relive the Beatlemania of that city, which was the first to host a concert in Australia by the original Beatles exactly 40 years ago.

The festival's major guests will be the real Lennon's half-sister Julia Baird and Pete Best, the original drummer who was replaced by Ringo Starr as the band began it's climb to fame.

Perth's own John Lennon is looking forward to meeting the real John's half-sister and also hopes to meet Best. He says the festival will be a chance to rub shoulders with other Beatles impersonators and maybe gain a few tips about performing the Fab Four's material.

Like most Beatles impersonators, Cahill is a walking encyclopedia on his favourite Beatles' life and career and has collected literally hundred of bootleg tapes of just about everything Lennon sang or recorded.

"It's an addiction, or maybe it's a disease," says Perth's John, who was born in 1971, the year Lennon release Imagine.

For his Adelaide appearances, Cahill will present material from Lennon's early career with the Beatles - as well as songs from the Abbey Road album period.

That means two costume changes - and a long-haired wig that cost him $700 for the Abbey Road part of the act.

Cahill was born and raised in Dublin and migrated to Perth with his family at the age of 17. His father has been a professional folk musician for much of his life and Cahill began his musical career singing with his father's Irish folk band around Perth.

He has also played with other folk and rock bands on the local pub circuit.

The Beatles festival runs from June 11-14.