George Harrison on Monolia?

Footage shown during Paul McCartney's live performance of 'Now and Then' appears to show Harrison in the Lichadonisia archipelago

I’ve argued the case that the most likely location for the Beatles’ proposed Greek island refuge was the Lichadonisia archipelago.

Like the island the Beatles are said to have wanted, the largest island in this group – called Monolia – is about 80 acres in size, and is near several smaller islands. Alongside various other parallels with the evidence, Monolia also seems to make a notable appearance in The Beatles Anthology TV documentary.

However, considerable mystery remains about the trip, not least because there were no known photos or videos showing the Beatles setting foot on any identifiable Greek island. That, though, may now have changed: a video played on Paul McCartney’s current tour seems to include a brief shot of George Harrison on Monolia.

The eagle-eyed Beatles researcher Obadiah Jones (who I spoke to for this podcast episode on the Beatles Greece trip) first alerted me to the clip – which was shown during the first live performance of ‘Now and Then’ by Paul McCartney in Montevideo on 1 October (and since in later shows).

Intriguingly, the style of the stone houses, the black rocks and the shape of the trees in this image are indeed reminiscent of Monolia. I initially wondered if the footage could be from the Beatles’ famous trip to India. However, Harrison’s look here is definitely much closer to the Greece photos than those from Rishikesh in 1968.

You can see the clip itself play for about a second at 1:43 in the video below.

Seeking further clarity, I consulted Giorgos Lyberis – whose family historically lived on Monolia and still owns land there. While he couldn’t say for sure, he thought it was possible the clip showed the island. He also sent me a photograph taken in 1974 of the village on Monolia – presumably looking fairly similar to how it did in 1967.

Obadiah has now carried out further detective work on this photo. And in my view, the markings he has added to the two images below make a convincing case for them showing the same location. The coloured crosses denote the same structure in each photo, seen from different angles (the arrow shows where George Harrison would be standing).

Incidentally, the 1970s photograph is also a close match to Alistair Taylor’s recollection of “white-painted old Greek houses scattered along the waterfront” on the island the Beatles had wanted¹. We may also be able to connect this scene to one that appears in ‘Fifty Years Adrift’, the autobiography by the Beatles’ publicist Derek Taylor, which includes a series of quotes from George Harrison. In that book, Harrison recalls the Greek island visit:

“The island was covered in rocks but very pleasant. Eventually we landed on a little beach with a village. As soon as we did, there was a clap of thunder and lighting and it poured with rain. We all ran for cover into somebody’s hut and all the local fishermen were friendly and gave us glasses of wine. ‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph,’ they were saying. ‘This hasn’t happened for the last 5,000 years.’ It was like a big omen. Amen.”

As Obadiah pointed out to me, Harrison’s hair, that of the woman just behind him, and the shiny rocks, all look in the clip like they could have been recently rained on. The hut that George mentions to may refer to the ‘kiosk’ that can be seen on the right of both photos (marked with the red cross) - the roofed structure on the shore that fishermen used for shelter and storage. Here’s a picture of one in use :

If the analysis above is right, then the building that can be just seen in the top left of the clip shown during Sir Paul’s performance is the small church of Agios Georgios on Monolia. This is what it looks like today:

The church of Agios Georgios on Monolia. Photo: Jonathan Knott

Of course, the fact that Harrison apparently went to Monolia doesn’t prove that the Beatles wanted to buy it. But this was the island I thought was most likely anyway – and seeing apparent evidence of a Beatle there makes the possibility seem all the more real.

An additional puzzle about the photograph concerns the woman walking just behind Harrison. My first thought was that this was Paula Boyd – the sister of George’s wife Pattie, who was on the Greece trip. But in photos from Greece, Paula’s hair is much shorter than this. And it doesn’t look like Pattie Harrison either.

So this person’s identity at present remains unclear. I do have some thoughts on this, which I’ll write about soon.

You can listen to the discussion about the Beatles’ trip to Greece in this episode of Obadiah Jones’s podcast, Gimme Some Truth.

Read more:

John Lennon’s island fantasies
Where is ‘Leslo’, the Greek island the Beatles wanted to buy?
How a reporter tracked down the Beatles in Greece

1. Alistair Taylor, Yesterday