Terri Hooley Remembers When He Hit John Lennon: Not The Moment I'm Most Proud Of

Terri Hooley (Instagram @irihartscenter)

JAKARTA - Terri Hooley recalled when he hit John Lennon saying he didn't see it as the proudest moment in his life.

Belfast's punk scene icon, Terri Hooley recalls some of the biggest moments of her life in a new interview with The Guardian, including her turmoil meeting with Beatles legend John Lennon.

In discussions conducted to help promote new biography of Terri Hooley: Seventy-Five Revolutions by Stuart Bailie, the music industry veteran recalls how the meeting took place around 1970.

Introduced to Lennon in London by friends of Oz Magazine, the musician thought Hooley was a supporter of the IRA (Irland Republic Army) during his pre-cavity and offered to give him a gun.

The mistake caused Hooley to blow the former Beatles. An act he now doesn't think he's proud of.

It wasn't the proudest moment for me, he told the outlet, adding: When I met Cynthia [ Lennon's first wife] and told her, she said, 'You should have hit her harder!'

The response to this misunderstanding comes from Hooley's education during Belfast's difficult times and his strong political views; which also led him to confront Bob Dylan about his refusal to stop paying taxes to protest against Vietnam's war.

Hooley's importance in the industry stems from his role in placing Belfast on the music map launching various counter-cultural magazines and pirated radio stations during the conflict period. Notable in 1977, he turned an abandoned building into a the most-bombed half-mile cassette shop in Europe', called Good Vibrations.

Inspiration to open the shop came after an attempted kidnapping made him even more determined to fight for non-securativeism, and the success of the shop led him to become a champion for local punk artists.

He then launched a punk label with the same name and remained active in the world until 2015, when poor health forced him to close his last record store.

Good Vibrations appear as small oases of positivity when things are bad. When our country is experiencing collective nervous disorders, Hooley told the outlet. I am just as angry with them, but I want love and peace, not violence and hatred.

The importance of Hooley's figure in the music world Belfast also prompted the musical Good Vibrations about him, as well as the BBC documentary series Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland.