Lennon, John

five corrections in black ink, one page, large post quarto (10 x 8 in.; 255 x 204 mm, unwatermarked), two lines of seemingly unrelated numbers written in blue ink on the verso

see catalog
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"...All of a southern I notice boils and girks sitting in hubbered lumps smoking Hernia taking Odeon and going very high..."

A satirical account of drug-taking in a "seemy hole" of a nightclub, published on p.60 of In His Own Write. The Beatles's performances had long been fueled by amphetamines and alcohol, but this account of the drug scene was that of an outsider: Lennon was famously introduced to Marijuana by Bob Dylan in August 1964, and his experimentation with hallucinogens and opiates lay further in the future.   

'Neville Club' was written shortly before Lennon accepted Tom Maschler's offer to publish a book of his work. A reading of the piece formed part of an interview with Dibs Mather on 10 December 1963 for Australian radio:

Mather: It’s said, John Lennon, that you have the most Goon-type humor of the four Beatles.
Lennon: Who said that?
Mather: I think I read it in one of the newspapers.
Lennon: You know what the newspapers are like.
Mather: I don’t know. What are they like?
Lennon: Wrong.
Mather: [laughs] This is going wrong…I want to get a nice “personality” bit.
Lennon: I haven’t got a nice personality.
Mather: [laughs] Is this evidence of Goon-type humor?
Lennon: No, I don’t think I really have Goon-type humor. That’s just an expression people use.
[...]
Mather: Do you think a career as a comic might open up to you?
Lennon: No. [laughs] I don’t stand a chance being a comic ... I’m not funny enough.
Mather: You were interested in poetry in school.
Lennon: Who said?
Mather: It’s printed in a book compiled by the Beatles and entitled, The Beatles.
Lennon: [laughs] I haven’t read that book. We don’t normally write those things.
Mather: Written any good comic poems lately?
Lennon: Yes.
Mather: [laughs] I just happened to have it here by sheerest coincidence.

Lennon then read the first half of 'Neville Club', concluding with the comment: "But things like that just help me keep sane."

Mather: Is this business enough to drive you insane?
Lennon: No, I'm quite normal really. If you read in the Beatle books... it says I'm quite normal."