Trying to solve the Greek mystery

16 Responses

  1. Rico says:

    Frankly, my dear. Who gives a toss?

    • admin says:

      Well, I had a friend (now sadly no longer with us) who was very interested in the subject and who tried to narrow it down. So I was happy when Jonathan approached me with his idea of an article on the subject. Every aspect of the Beatles history deserves to be scrutinized, and I believe Greek Beatles fans are among those who would love to have the locations pinpointed.

      • Marty J. says:

        This was interesting. I would have been very curious to see what would have happened if the purchase actually played out.

      • Rico says:

        Sorry about that, I came across a bit rude and you don’t deserve that. Your work is a lifeline for many of us, so please, accept my apologies and a bit thank you for keeping us all in the loop. It’s just that I can’t wait for news about the new London Town and Back to the egg boxsets and get a bit frustrated when all the news we get is all this small fry.
        Keep it up and all the best

    • James says:

      No-one made you read it, Rico!

  2. absinthe says:

    Agreed.  I think most would like to know the location.  Excellent detective work.

  3. John Vickers says:

    For all you non-Greek-speaking Beatles fans, the essential parts of that long article which answer the original question about which island The Beatles wanted to buy are these:

    Are you really going to buy that island which we understand has been offered to you?
    Paul McCartney: No, they won’t let us buy an island…
    John Lennon: Maybe we could buy a bit of sea! We miss it in London…

    But which island was it? Some say Ayia Triada off the coast of Eretria, others have spoken about one of the Lichadonisia islands in the North Evian Gulf. In truth, however, the small island was Tsoungria near Skiathos.
    From an article published in the newspaper Macedonia on 29 July 1967, we learned that Tsoungria (which had an owner) cost 12.5 million drachma and that the Junta’s Ministry of Agriculture had banned the sale in order to safeguard the free nature of the land and to save it from being ruined by tourism (if we can believe that). The newspaper published McCartney’s statement: “We wanted to buy it but now they’re not selling it. They told us that it’s not permitted to sell large pieces of land in Greece.”

  4. Kevin says:

    This is fascinating! Great sleuthing! To think the Fabs might have had little holiday homes so close to the historic pass of Thermopylae! (Just across that gulf).

  5. Ian Drummond says:

    Some home movies of the trip- hopefully useful

  6. Ian Drummond says:

    Ooops- here’s the nhome movies:-
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyD0icF-qSU

  7. It does seem that the Beatles were at one point interested in Tsougria near Skiathos – but (as the article mentioned above also indicates) it seems that by the end of July, it had become clear it wouldn’t be possible for them to buy it. However, the discussions within the government about granting permission for the Beatles’ purchase continued well beyond this. So in my view it’s more likely that the application was regarding another island/islands. I write about this more in this post: https://followthesun.substack.com/p/where-was-the-greek-island-the-beatles

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