Montrealer who crashed Lennon bed-in for peace to sell lyrics
Last Updated: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 | 12:03 PM ET
CBC News
Yoko Ono and John Lennon at 1969 bed-in at the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam. They recorded Give Peace A Chance during the Montreal bed-in later that year. (Associated Press)The lyrics for Give Peace a Chance, handwritten by John Lennon in a Montreal hotel room during his famous bed-in for peace in 1969, are to be auctioned in London.
They're being sold by Gail Renard, who grew up in Montreal but now is a U.K.-based TV writer and presenter, Christie's auction house announced Tuesday.
Renard, who was 16 in May 1969, crashed the bed-in at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal with a friend by climbing up the fire escape to the floor above Lennon's room and taking the staircase down to the right floor.
She and the friend were admitted to the room by Lennon's new bride, Yoko Ono, after knocking on the door when security guards changed shift.
"I remember Yoko saying, 'Come in' — and finding myself in a room with John Lennon," she said in an interview with the Times of London.
"It was overwhelming. They had been travelling and he was very hungry, and for some reason they couldn't get room service. I had chocolate in my handbag, and I said, 'Do you want the chocolate bar?' It sounds daft, but he was touched, and said, 'Really?' We got to chatting."
Renard ended up staying for all of the seven-day bed-in for peace, though her mother insisted she come home every night.
Renard told the Times Lennon invited her to stay, and helped clear the way with her mother.
"I had to ring my mother. She ended up speaking to John. You wouldn't want to cross my mother — a tough little lady."
The bed-in was a seven-day media event and protest that included Give Peace a Chance being recorded in Montreal.
Renard interviewed Lennon for radio, brought food in and even took Ono's five-year-old daughter Kyoko to the park.
Lennon gave her the lyrics Give Peace a Chance, which would become an anthem for the anti-Vietnam War era, telling her: "One day they will be worth something."
Christie's auction house of London expects them to sell for $400,000 to $600,000 in its July 10 sale of pop and rock lyrics.
According to Reuters, Lennon also helped launch Renard's early career as a writer, by instructing The Beatles Monthly magazine to publish her piece about the bed-in.
She is now a writer of comedy and children's drama including Bafta-winning series Custer's Last Stand Up and TV series The Famous Five.
