LISTEN: Tom Brook’s 1980 News Report on Lennon’s Murder

On that fateful day 30 years ago, BBC’s Tom Brook was the first British journalist to report live from the scene of John Lennon‘s murder outside his New York home. Brook writes: “On the evening of December 8th 1980, I was a young inexperienced journalist living in New York who’d recently arrived from London. I was totally unprepared for the drama that would unfold.

“It began with a late night phone call from pop impresario Jonathan King, who was then a columnist for BBC Radio 1 living in New York. He told me he’d heard reports of a shooting outside the Dakota, Lennon’s home, and that the former Beatle was possibly the victim.

“Before long I was racing up 8th Avenue in a taxi and I arrived at the Dakota sometime after 11.00 pm bearing a tape recorder and notepaper.”

You can listen to Brook’s live report with BBC Radio News below. AUDIO ONLY:

Read Mr. Brook’s full account of covering Lennon death over at BBC News.

Where were you the day John Lennon died?

by Kevin Wicks

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