Ivan Vaughan is back

Gene Mahon was the man who designed the Apple label and the one who came up with the idea about slicing the apple in two and have the inside of the Apple on side 2. But many Beatles fans saw this man in the “Get Back” documentary and recognised the face as that of Ivan Vaughan – a childhood friend of both Paul and John, part time member of John’s band The Quarry Men and the man who brought Paul to the Woolton village fete in the summer of 1957 and introduced him to John Lennon. So how come he was labeled as Gene Mahon – graphic designer – in the documentary? Someone surely must have made a mistake during research.

Paul McCartney, Ivan Vaughan and George Harrison in 1958.

Paul and Ivan were lifelong friends and shared the same birthday. It was Ivan’s wife Jan who helped Paul with the French lyrics in “Michelle”. Here’s Paul and Ivan in the backyard of Paul’s home in London.

Ivan and Paul in the doorway of Paul’s back garden

Ivan also accompanied Paul on his trip to Los Angeles in the summer of 1968, where Paul and Linda Eastman were reunited.

Linda, Paul and Ivan, June 24, 1968.

For a time The Beatles put Vaughan on the payroll of their Apple company, in charge of a plan that never took off to set up a school for the children of the company’s employees. In 1977, Ivan was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. His book, “Ivan: Living with Parkinson’s Disease”, was published in 1986, and he featured in a documentary produced for the BBC in 1984 by Jonathan Miller about his search for a cure. Ivan Vaughan died of pneumonia in 1993. His death touched Paul McCartney so deeply that he began to write poetry for the first time since he was a child. He wrote the poem “Ivan” about him after his death, which was later published in McCartney’s book, “Blackbird Singing”.

Someone eventually found out about the mistaken identity in the “Get Back” documentary, and the caption was recently replaced on Disney +

Ivan gets recognition in the Get Back documentary

However, he is described as “friend of John Lennon” – which although true, is clearly not very accurate. We doubt that it was Paul McCartney who corrected their mistake, as we feel he would have given a somewhat broader description of the man. But now that the mistake has been corrected on Disney+ – will they have to destroy all the DVDs and Blu-rays again to get it right there, too?

Amazon has informed their customers that the USA discs have been delayed until March 11.

Amazon message

Release date in Europe changed from February 28 to May 27.

Meanwhile, the official Beatles Store for Europe informs us that the European release has been delayed from February 28 to May 27. Although the banner on the website is the same as the US banner, advertising both the Blu-ray set as well as the DVD set, there is no listing of a DVD set in any of the online stores in Europe, including the official one – only Blu-ray sets.