John Lennon appeared on the television special Salute To Sir Lew – The Master Showman on 18 April 1975.
Lennon had signed a publishing contract with Sir Lew Grade’s ATV Music on 25 June 1974, and agreed to take part in a tribute show, just as Paul McCartney had appeared in James Paul McCartney in February and March 1973 after signing a similar deal.
The show was filmed at the Grand Ballroom of the New York Hilton. A dinner took place at 8pm, followed by the recording of the TV special at 9.30. Also appearing were Julie Andrews, Peter Sellers, Ann-Margret, Tom Jones, Dave Allen, and The Second Generation Dancers, and the guests included Lauren Bacall, Kirk Douglas, Gene Kelly, and Orson Welles.
Lennon’s backing group was the in-house band at the Record Plant, BOMF (Brothers Of Mother F*****s), who had backed him during his Whistle Test appearance on 8 April. On this occasion the musicians were Joe Bassin, Joey Cooper, Joe Crupi, and Patrick Jude on guitar, Angelo Arcuri on bass guitar, Jon Cobert on keyboards and piano, Bob Livingood on trumpet, Mark Rivera on saxophone, and Vinny Appice on drums. They were credited as John Lennon, Etcetera during the show.
The musicians wore black leather jumpsuits, while Lennon wore one in red. They also wore sculpted masks on the backs of their heads, a reference to Lennon’s view of Grade as two-faced.
John wanted us to be two-faced because he was kind of poking fun at the establishment and probably poking fun at Sir Lew at the same time. A month or two before the shoot, we went to an artist’s loft in the East Village, and we sat there and she took molds of our face with plaster and made little death masks of us and then she made latex masks of our faces. We got to the video shoot very early because we had to do hours worth of make-up. So they put these bald wigs on our heads and they put the masks on the back of our heads and they used make-up to blend the whole thing in together. We sat in make-up for about three hours and John was in there with us even though he wasn’t having the make-up, but he was hanging out with us.
Lennonology, Chip Madinger and Scott Raile
Lennon and BOMF performed ‘Slippin’ And Slidin”, ‘Stand By Me’, and ‘Imagine’. Salute To Sir Lew – The Master Showman was broadcast in the US on 13 June 1975 at 9pm EST on ABC-TV.