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Being one of The Beatles meant being mobbed, followed and even stalked everywhere you went. They quit Liverpool for London for its mix of anonymity and excitement–and because everything happened there. Eventually, John, George and Ringo moved on to the stockbroker belt to find peace, quiet and happy isolation. But even there, Lennon had unwelcome visitors who wanted a photo or to say that they understood what his songs were about, and touch the hem of his clothes.

Eventually, Lennon moved again, this time to New York where he said he could walk the streets without anyone bothering him. Going by these fan photographs of Lennon in London and New York, it’s obvious he was just as mobbed by devoted fans in the Big Apple as he had been back in the Big Smoke.

These fan snaps capture Lennon from the late 1960s, through his relationship with Yoko Ono, to just before his untimely death in 1980.

John Lennon signing an autograph outside the Abbey Road Studios, 1968.

Lennon visiting an antiques market with Yoko Ono and Paul McCartney.

Apple scruffs–John and Yoko shopping for clothes at a market.

Wedding album: mobbed by fans at Heathrow airport, March 1969.

Lennon-Ono, London, 1969.

Demonstrating on the streets of London against the ‘Oz‘ obscenity trial, 1970.

Sometime in New York City.

Mobbed, circa 1974.

John reunited with Yoko, who was pregnant with Sean, summer 1975.

Double Fantasy, 1980.

Via Vintage Everyday.