Patricia Angadi: A Biographical Essay

Patricia Angadi was an artist, writer and co-founder of the Asian Music Circle who played a key role in George Harrison's initiation into Indian music. She had been born Patricia Fell-Clark on September 23, 1914, at 68, Fitzjohns Avenue, Hampstead, London, whose current value is £5,628,000. Her father, Robert Fell-Clark (1872-1949), was an alumnus of Cambridge University whose full history is here (note: death date is wrong; he died on March 1, 1949). On June 5, 1914, Robert was listed in The Times as a member of the General Circle in the Royal Court. By 1939, Robert had retired and was living with his wife and Patricia at Mill Court, Wallingford, Berkshire. Their status can be inferred from the fact that they had servants and that Patricia was able to live there at age 25 despite doing unpaid domestic labour. We can also infer that Patricia was experiencing a generation gap given that, when she was 25, her father was 67 and her mother 62.

Patricia entered the art scene in London and was named in The Observer on July 7, 1940, as having a painting exhibited at the Goupil Gallery Salon (clipping here). Her life changed dramatically on Labour Day, 1943, when she married Ayana Deva Angadi (1903-1993), who had been a Marxist radical in London throughout the previous decade. British surveillance reports claimed these details about Angadi to be true:

AYANA VEERAYASWAMI ANGADI has lived mainly in the United Kingdom since 1930. He is an individual of ordinary status who has made a livelihood as a lecturer and journalist. His book 'Japan’s Kampf' attracted the favourable attention of the Ministry of Information during the war and for a time he was engaged as a lecturer to troops. However he was relieved of this occupation because he introduced his political views into the lectures. 

ANGADI is described as being a revolutionary Communist. His record includes a sentence in 1937 of a month’s imprisonment for stealing a typewriter. 

Since 1946 ANGADI has toured and lectured in the Scandinavian countries more than once and many of his lectures have been marked by a strong anti-British bias. He has made himself unpopular both in Norway and Denmark and the former has decided to refuse him a visa should he apply for one again. 

It has been stated that his visit to Norway in February 1947 was under the auspices of the Imperial Institute, and has been suggested that the Institute should be told about his undesirability. You may be able to find out if it is correct that the Institute sponsored ANGADI in any way, and may be able to tell someone in the Institute about the kind of individual he is.

The reality was that Angadi had been involved in dogmatic disputes with the Stalinists who ran the Communist Party. For example, Harry Wicks reported that Angadi (under his pseudonym Raj Hansa) had disrupted a CP meeting to protest the Moscow Trials (CLR James, World Revolution, p.18).

The Angadis initially lived with Patricia's parents in Wallingford, where the first of their four children was born in 1944. By the 1950s they had settled in Finchley, where they were still living at the time they were photographed with George and Patti here:

This appears to be from the same session as the photo above given the clothing of the participants. The Angadis had formed the Asian Music Circle at some point in the 1940s or early 50s. It seems likely that the growth of the Circle was initially funded by Patricia's inheritance after her father died in 1949. It began to be featured regularly in The Guardian and The Observer in 1954, a year after Yehudi Menuhin became President.

Sarah Harrison's obituary of Patricia gives this account of how she was introduced to The Beatles:

It was in the mid-1960s that Angadi met the Beatles. The group was recording the Rubber Soul album at the nearby Abbey Road studios, and a string had broken on Harrison's sitar; replacements were not easy to find for an instrument then practically unknown in Britain. The Beatles had rung the Indian embassy, which had put them on to the Asian Music Circle - and thus to the Angadis. 

Ringo Starr made the call, and Patricia was invited to listen to the group put the finishing touches to Norwegian Wood, as she drew sketches of John Lennon and Harrison. The Beatles later joined the Angadis at home, where they were introduced to Shankar. Harrison became a regular visitor, and was duly painted.

The rest was history.

Sources on Amrit Gajjar (Dilruba player on 'Within You, Without You')

Information on Amrit Gajjar is drawn from his 1982 US Social Security application records at Ancestry.com and articles in the Indian press taken from this video on Facebook, which includes a photo of Gajjar with George Harrison at one of the 'Within You, Without You' sessions. He was born Amritlal Vaji Gajjar in Kampala, Uganda, on October 21, 1929, to Valji Gajjar and Puriba Sachania and raised in Kenya. Although his obituary claims he moved to the UK in the 1960s, a person with his exact name appears on the UK electoral register of 1954 living at 12 Norland Square in Notting Hill, London. All his children were born in the UK, his wife having been born in 1950. He moved in early 1982 to the US and became established on the west coast as a master musician, performing in numerous concerts. He died of cancer in San Jose, California on June 25, 1996, just after an album of his work, arranged by Asim Mehta, had been completed.

Nems and the Epstein Family: Some Findings

 The following advertisement appeared in the Isle of Man Weekly Times on 23 Jul 1892

The North-End Music Stores (Nems) had been established as a piano and organ importers in 1886 and run from 70 & 72 Walton Road, as shown above.* It would eventually be purchased by the Epstein family, which had originally taken over a furniture store at the neighbouring 80 Walton Road around 1900-1901, which in turn had been run by Nicholas Frudenstein (or Freudenstein) from 1892 until 1900. Frudenstein's wife, Annie, who was a broker, had advertised in the Liverpool Mercury for used clothing, such as in this advert of 6 Nov 1897:



Annie was still listed as living at 80 Walton Road in the 1900 Gore's Directory, which shows Isaac Epstein as living at 16 Langsdale Street East and working as a draper, as shown below:



In the same year, he married Dinah Hyman from Manchester, whose Polish Jewish father had also been a draper. It is plausible to infer that they moved into 80 Walton Road upon marrying.

By 1938, when Brian was 4, his family ran stores at several Walton Road addresses, and also at 27 Anfield Road, as shown in this page from Kelly's Directory of that year:




Acknowledgement: I am grateful to Philip Kirkland for initiating research into this topic with his own findings on the Frudensteins, upon which I have built in dialogue with him.

*Frank Lott was the organist at St Saviour's Church on Huskisson Street/Falkner Square. Turner & Co. was owned by James Crook Turner, spouse of Mary. James was born in 1851 and listed in the 1881 census as a music salesman living at 16 Candia Street. He became a freemason in 1889. His wife Mary was born in Scotland as Mary Jane Copland and baptised on 23 November 1853. Mary died in 1906.

Circus Advertisements Featuring Mr Kite and his Ancestors plus Sources on Pablo Fanque and the Hendersons

 The involvement of the Kite family in the circus in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Lincolnshire can be traced to 1805 or earlier and suggest that there were at least two generations of Kites whose specialisms were horse mastery, high-wire tightrope and acrobatics. This article focuses on newspaper advertisements but also introduces information concerning births, deaths and baptisms.

In 1805, Mr. Kite's "Troop from London" appeared in Leeds, partnered with Mr Harris and Mr Moritz. His horsemanship is emphasized (The Leeds Intelligencer and Yorkshire General Advertiser, 9.9.1805).

In 1809, Mr and Mrs W Kite performed together in Leeds:

In 1810, he appeared in Hull, advertised as being from "London, Liverpool and Manchester."

He also performed again with his wife in Leeds:

Mr. Kite had at least two daughters whose records are preserved via Ancestry.com. Margaret was born in 1810 but died in 1815. Ann was Christened in Bradford on July 22, 1812. The record of this event is valuable because it lists William Kite's occupation as "Travelling Riding Master"

Mr Kite appears to have died in 1813, and his wife then merged the company with that of a Mr Samwell:

The generation of Mr. Kite immortalized by The Beatles seems to have originally performed as Master Kite, shown in this source:

Kite first appears in the sources with Pablo Fanque in 1841:

In 1843, Kite appears in Ashton

Pablo Fanque had a violent side so being a bill poster could be a dangerous trade:

Fanque's wife died in an accident in 1848:

Mr. John Henderson, mentioned in the song, was reported as doing "Somerset leaps" in September 1842:

However, the title of "first somerset thrower in the world" seems to belong to a man called Price, who performed the feat of 21 somersets without the aid of a trampoline (i.e. "on solid ground") in Brighton in 1836:

Somersets had previously been performed by a man called Wilkinson using a springboard, as in this source from 1834:

John Henderson was born in Lambeth in 1822 (according to the funeral article below). He married Agnes Selina Hengler (born Canterbury around 1825; baptised September 11, 1825) in Canterbury in the last quarter of 1843 and subsequently became an Equestrian Director. He died on May 10, 1867:

Agnes died on October 10, 1879, aged 54, in Low Hill and is buried in Toxteth Park Cemetery, Section N, Grave 471. Her grave is on unconsecrated ground (see map), indicating that she was not considered to belong to the Church of England. Her brother Charles Hengler (pictured), was a circus proprietor (Hengler's Grande Cirque).

Beatles 1964 US Tour Part 9: Bess Coleman

 Bess Coleman attended school in Leicester before working as a journalist with the Leicester Mercury, a role which included writing a record column. In 1964 US interviews, she gave her height as 5' 3" and age as 23. She was EMI press officer in London from 1962 until going to New York, where she eventually got a job with United Artists, which led to a meeting with Brian Epstein when he was in New York to discuss the project that became A Hard Day's Night. Epstein appointed her as press liaison for Brian Epstein's stable of acts, which most importantly would mean arranging access to The Beatles for DJs and journalists during the North American tour in August-September 1964. She joined the group in San Francisco on 18.8.64. A photograph of Bess appeared in The Indianapolis Star, 4.9.64, p.7:

On October 11, 1964, The Sunday Sun in Baltimore provided this longer profile:

Her appointment in June 1964 was reported in Cash Box, reproduced in the Ottawa Journal 20.6.64:

The facsimile below is a letter that Brian Epstein wrote to Patrick Kelly of the Tampa Tribune on 12.10.64. Kelly had been corresponding frequently with Coleman about the possibility of The Beatles visiting Tampa. Bess seems to have had to let him down gently. Epstein's letter of October resulted from Kelly's efforts to boost Tampa's claim for a place on the 1965 itinerary:

Bess later became TV department head with Solters, Sabinson and Roskin before joining Tony Barrow International in 1970, where (as Tony Barrow Management) they eventually represented the New Seekers, Lyn Paul and Bay City Rollers (Billboard, 27.1.73 and 20.4.74). In 1975, she co-wrote the Rollers' 1975 US Tour Souvenir.

Strawberry Field Documents and Reports, 1880 to 1953

 Between 1880 and 1912, the head of household at Strawberry Field in Woolton was the shipping owner George Hignett Warren, born in Boston, Massachusetts on February 5, 1852. His father died on October 10, 1880, in Bellagio, Italy, as reported in The Standard on October 19 (1):

George Hignett Warren was listed in the 1881 census at Strawberry Field:

He was still at Strawberry Field when he died on February 3, 1912. He was buried four days later at St Peter's, Woolton (where John met Paul).

The property was sold to Alexander Cameron Mitchell, who died aged 83 on July 23, 1927.

His widow sold it to the Salvation Army in 1934.

In 1953, a study reported in The Manchester Guardian provided details of the 38 girls in the Strawberry Field home:

(1) I strongly recommend Philip Kirkland's From Silk to a Song: A Complete History of Strawberry Field for more details on the Warren and Mitchell families, including this reference.

Competing Narratives: John and Paul on the Break-Up, September 1969 to December 1970

 All sources agree that, on September 20, 1969, John Lennon told Paul McCartney that he wanted "a divorce" from The Beatles. However, when Paul and John were interviewed separately by Ray Connolly and Jan Wenner respectively in 1970, they gave conflicting accounts of the meaning of that statement. Paul told Connolly, in an interview that appeared in the Evening Standard on April 21, that it was a "trial separation" and portrayed the period as one in which John's return to the group was still considered by him to be a realistic possibility:

Anyway, I hung on for all these months wondering whether the Beatles would ever come back together again…and let’s face it I’ve been as vague as anyone, hoping that John might come around and say, “All right lads, I’m ready to go back to work,” and naturally enough, in the meantime, I began to look for something to do. And the album, McCartney, turned out to be the answer in my case (The Ray Connolly Archive, Kindle Edition, pp. 86-87).

Lennon's description of the period to Wenner in December 1970, printed in Rolling Stone as "Lennon Remembers", is clearly a contradiction of Paul's understanding. For example, Lennon claimed to Wenner that "It’s like he knew really that this was the final thing; and six months later he comes out with whatever." McCartney clearly did not describe September 20 as "the final thing" but rather something far more provisional. The problem this created for the historiography of The Beatles is that Wenner's interview shaped the dominant narrative of the break-up in subsequent biographies, and this has not yet been properly debunked.

Historians who still support Lennon's claim may point to Paul's interview with Life, published on November 7, 1969, in which he stated that "the Beatle thing is over. It has been exploded, partly by what we have done, and partly by other people." However, the comment was only a measure of how Paul felt at that moment and does not preclude his waking up on other days feeling more hopeful, in the manner he explained to Connolly in April. It is also unclear whether Paul meant the phrase "the Beatle thing" to refer to all Beatles projects or just, say, joint Lennon-McCartney songwriting credits on future Beatles albums and collaborations on each other's arrangements in the studio. Furthermore, Lennon's own position in December 1969, as outlined to Alan Smith in the NME, was far more provisional than the one he presented to Wenner a year later, and far closer to McCartney's April 1970 description:

“The Beatles split up? It just depends how much we all want to record together. I don’t know if I want to record together again. I go off and on it. I really do.

“The problem is that in the old days, when we needed an album, Paul and I got together and produced enough songs for it. Nowadays there’s three if us writing prolifically and trying to fit it all onto one album. Or we have to think of a double album every time, which takes six months.

“That’s the hang-up we have. It’s not a personal ‘The Beatles are fighting’ thing, so much as an actual physical problem. What do you do? I don’t want to spend six months making an album I have two tracks on. And neither do Paul or George probably. That’s the problem. If we can overcome that, maybe it’ll sort itself out."

The Wenner narrative would have to assume that John was camouflaging his true feelings in this interview, but there is no reason why John needed to maintain a fiction indefinitely into 1970. It is not convincing that he would have remained silent just to maintain the commercial interests of the "Get Back" project, which Lennon cared little for and which still made money after the group's split became public knowledge in April 1970 (arguably it made more money than if the band had still been together). 

A more plausible narrative is that John and Paul became more convinced of the split in early 1970. John recorded 'Instant Karma' without offering it as a Beatles project, and Paul escalated his work on his solo album around the time that 'Instant Karma' came out. This supports the idea that Paul was still waiting for John to make a move up to February 1970 and viewed the release of 'Instant Karma' as Lennon's confirmation that he was not coming back.

Where does this leave us on motivation, psychology and the dynamics of interpersonal interaction between two close but bitter friends? John had an incentive after the break-up to present himself as decisive and Paul as Machiavellian. In reality, John and Paul were experimenting tentatively and indecisively with a trial separation while keeping the band alive and future options still, to a degree, open. However, both of them went through three changes between September 1969 and February 1970. Firstly, John was getting used to being a 'Plastic Ono Band' performer; his identity as a non-Beatle was becoming more plausible to him. Paul equally was expanding his home studio work and becoming less centred on London. Secondly, as with many separated couples, the resentment was simmering and absence was making the heart grow colder. Grievances that could be smoothed over by daily contact were being allowed to fester. Thirdly, their ability to communicate with each other seems to have collapsed. Whatever signals they had been using to give each other reassurance were replaced by behaviours that each other perceived as provocations. They were not viewing each other's signals through rational eyes. These three processes, alongside the longer-standing issues of managerial conflict, song credits and suitable song choices for albums (Revolution 9, Cold Turkey, Maxwell's Silver Hammer) eventually convinced John to make the split permanent with the Instant Karma release, which Paul correctly perceived to be the final nail in the coffin.