UK mono pressing of the Beatles' debut album Please Please Me, annotated on the reverse of the sleeve in blue ballpoint by John Lennon, "(Married)," a reference to his unpublicized marriage to Cynthia Powell. In fine condition, with some small tears and creases to edges. The record is included. Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Tracks, stating that this was formerly the property of The Beatles press officer Tony Barrow. Lennon was married to Cynthia Powell on August 23, 1962, at the Liverpool Mount Pleasant registry office and Paul McCartney and George Harrison were in attendance along with their manager Brian Epstein. The Beatles' PR team tried to keep the union low profile, fearing that Lennon's monogamy would adversely effect the band's popularity among female fans.
Revealingly, in a 2003 interview conducted by Mark Lewisohn, Tony Barrow stated that on one occasion when the Beatles were in the presence of a couple of reporters ‘John just went and wrote 'married' on the press office copy of the Please Please Me album, inviting what did happen, which was one or two journalists asked me why it said that, I laughed it off as John’s little joke.’ Tony also told Mark that Brian Epstein never once asked him to deny that John was married. It was John himself who asked Tony to keep the fact quiet—and then, as stated above, he undid his own wish by writing ‘(married)’ on the LP sleeve. The fact was then famously publicized during their Ed Sullivan Show appearance, when the caption on the screen below Lennon said: 'Sorry girls, he's married.'
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