NOT ONE, BUT TWO TRAVEL SUPPLEMENTS ON GIbraltar and casares - From P17
olive press The original and only English-language investigative newspaper in Andalucía
the Unholy disruption TRAVEL over the Easter period has been thrown into jeopardy after a rail strike was called for March 23. The strike, on the day that Spaniards traditionally depart for their Easter holiday, is in protest against rail firms Renfe and Adif breaking a promise to hire more workers. Game of thrones - Page 14
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Vol. 10 Issue 235 NEWS
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March 2nd- March 15th 2016
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March 16th - March 29nd 2016
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EXCLUSIVE: John Lennon wedding photographer makes urgent plea to track down his missing negatives, worth over £100,000
HELP!
SPECIAL REPORT By Joe Duggan
THEY are some of the most iconic photographs in rock and roll history. But controversy surrounds the original negatives from John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1969 Gibraltar wedding taken by British photographer David Nutter, it can be revealed. Showing the Beatles singer celebrating his nuptials to his Japanese lover out of the glare of the public eye, the pictures have been published in thousands of publications around the world ever since. Yet, the valuable negatives - estimated to be worth over £100,000 - vanished in the 1970s after Nutter, 77, lent them to a friend Anthony Fawcett to use in his book, John Lennon: One Day At A Time. Included in the missing batch, taken on Nutter’s Nikon camera, are around a dozen never-before published photos of the wedding day, some seen for the first time in the Olive Press, this issue. Music photographer Nutter - who had flown out for the wedding from London to Gibraltar on a commission from the Beatles record label Apple - has spent the best part of the last four decades trying to recoup his property. Tet two separate investigations by British police and the FBI in America have so far failed to recover them. Now however, in a sensational twist, the Olive Press can reveal that various anonymous ‘sellers’ have recently tried to sell back Nutter’s own images. The London-born snapper, who now lives in New York, revealed that another photographer Brian Hamill, has also been suspiciously offered two strips of his original negatives taken of John Lennon. New Yorker Hamill had also lent the original negatives to Fawcett - a British art critic, author and media consultant - for the same book.
ICONIC: John and Yoko on wedding day and (top left) with certificate while (above) police letter
“Now we are being offered our own photographs back for thousands of pounds,” Nutter told the Olive Press, this week. “It is an outrage and it adds salt to the wounds that go back over 40 years,” he added. He had ‘stupidly’ lent Fawcett the negatives after they became friends, while living in New York in the mid 1970s.
Fawcett had worked with Lennon and Yoko as their assistant for a while and was writing a book about Lennon’s life. “He asked me if I could help with images for the book and I stupidly said ‘yes’ and lent him all the negatives. “When I asked for them back a little while later, he told me his apartment had been repossessed... and everything
had been taken. “Even when I called in the police, I never got them back.” Indeed, a 1983 letter from Southwark Police to Nutter (above), seen by the Olive Press, shows that officers questioned Fawcett at his home in south London. Fawcett told the officers about his flat being repossessed in the Big Apple and that while most of his property was later returned, the photographs and negatives were not included. "However, he (Fawcett) did say he knew someone in possession of the photographs and agreed to telephone Mr
Photos worth over £100,000!
A
world-renowned Beatles memorabilia expert estimated the set of wedding pictures to be worth over £100,000, last night. Peter Miniaci claims that he, himself, was offered the images in 2007, when he received an email offering him 'some rare John and Yoko wedding photos'. "I was suspicious and asked if the sender had the rights to the images, to which it was claimed that ‘the photographer is dead’ so I didn’t need to worry about it," he told the Olive Press. "Right away the red flag went up. I rang May Pang [Lennon's former PA] and she told me ‘definitively’ David Nutter took those photos and he is alive and well in New York." He later called the anonymous seller, who had a fake British accent, to try and track him down. He said he wanted £20,000 for the contact sheets (which are not as valuable or good quality as the original negatives). "Whoever offered me the contact sheets must know where the negatives are. If David could sell the whole set of photos I'm confident, because the majority are unpublished, he could get £70,000 to over £100,000 for them.”
SUSPICIOUS: Hamill
Nutter with the details,” the letter reads. But according to Nutter, Fawcett never called him with the name. Now living a hand to mouth existence in New York, he is desperate to get to the bottom of the mystery. "I go crazy thinking about it," he said. “I would write my initials in ink on every frame so I would know straight away know they were mine. “And, in any case, who else could have taken them… nobody else was there in Gibraltar. I know they’re still around. How do I get them back?” He continued: "It's heartbreaking. I’ve sort of given up. I could have done very well with those images and people are always asking me for them and I don't have them. I am living in poverty. “I could have made a lot of money not that that was the important thing. Its just the idea of someone having my stuff. I want them back.” As fellow photographer Hamill, who also suspiciously lost negatives in the 1970s to Fawcett, said last night: “Me and David are two old guys who survived the sixties. Those photos for us could mean something for my daughter and granddaughter.“ The Olive Press tried to contact Fawcett repeatedly by email and phone this week to discuss the missing negatives but received no response.
Voiceless BUDDING singer Corinne Cooper gave a valiant performance on UK talent show The Voice. Despite the Gibraltarian’s powerful ballad, she was sent home at the blind audition stage. Performing Sam Smith’s Lay me down, Cooper impressed but unfortunately didn’t wow the judges.
MARATHON: At Dusk
Dusk til dawn PARTY-goers are gearing up for a 12-hour live electronic festival. Dusk’s annual Spring Festival will feature bands and djs, including Dead City Radio, My Sick Project, Lazy Daiz and DJ Rookie. Starting at 6pm on March 12, the festival will also feature a tattoo and piercing studio, graffiti art display as well as a Harley Davidson show. Two-for-one cocktails will also be on offer as well as free tapas.
Monica Fabiani · Documentary Photographer · Create your memoir.......
JET SET: Nutter (below, now) and (left) en route to wedding with couple in plane
Telephone: 0034 617 616 533 or fabiani.monica1@gmail.com
HISTORIC: Unseen negs and (above) our appeal 10% discount for OP readers Quote OP10
EXCLUSIVE
Lennon photos found at last Olive Press tracks down Thai-based conman selling stolen photos from John and Yoko’s wedding in Gibraltar
Get Back… to where they once belonged! - Page 3
Young expats are routinely being denied the right to play football in racism row
EXCLUSIVE CHIEF Minister Fabian Picardo issues plea to Spain’s expats, as part of a special Gibraltar supplement
Our country needs EU! - Page 20
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EXPAT children are being denied the opportunity to play football in Spain. New rules introduced by the Spanish Football Federation mean they are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain a licence (ficha) to play in Spain’s amateur leagues. While the parents say this is discriminatory, Spain’s FA argues that the regulations have been introduced to combat child trafficking. SOS Racism has now filed a complaint to UEFA and FIFA, following numerous complaints from disgruntled parents. One, Reg Winkworth ‘can-
EXCLUSIVE By Rob Horgan
not believe’ the discrimination his 16-year-old son Sam has faced since joining Club Deportivo Guadiaro in Sotogrande. Born in Marbella, Sam has
played in Spanish leagues since 2013 when he played for Castellar. However, he has been un-
Putting a foot wrong! Under FIFA rules brought in to protect children from ‘exploitation and abuse’, a player must be 18 to be transferred internationally. This law applies to all FIFA-regulated amateur leagues in Spain, and came in after a study found that 15,000 young players leave Africa each year under false pretences of playing in Europe. However, it should not be enforced if a player’s parents have moved country for non-football related reasons.
able to get a licence since transferring to Guadiaro in August 2015. “It is blatant racism, no question about it,” Winkworth, who has lived in Spain for 20 years, told the Olive Press. “Sam has paid his fees (€60) like everyone else, he trains hard every week and it is heartbreaking for him that he is not allowed to play.” He added: “At first I thought Sam was being singled out but the more parents I speak
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FRUSTRATED: Sam and (left) playing for team to it is clearly endemic. “Every week we see Cristiano Ronaldo and co wearing their Kick it Out tops on match day, but it is totally hypocritical when this kind of discrimination is taking place at grassroots level.” Sam’s club told the Olive Press its ‘hands are tied’ by the ‘excessive red tape’ that has been introduced. A spokesman for SOS Racism described the situation as ‘intolerable’. “Many children are being discriminated against,” he said. “The regulations put in place exceed the FA’s goal in the extreme.
Unfair “It is unfair to put foreign children at a disadvantage compared to nationals.” The regulations (see box, above) were put in place to stop child trafficking, largely from Africa, to professional and semi-professional academies across Europe. The Spanish FA refused to comment on ‘FIFA approved regulations’. Both UEFA and FIFA are yet to respond to SOS Racism or Olive Press questions.