"Yoko was very tough," he says. "She gave us a really severe grilling in the office about whether it would be suitable for them to do the interview with us rather than anyone else."
But it was agreed that they would meet at noon the following day at the Hit Factory recording studio, Manhattan. Peebles kept the appointment, but there was no sign of the Lennons, who had been up late the previous night mixing a Yoko track called Walking on Thin Ice. They left a message putting the meeting back six hours
"My heart sank. I thought this is not going to happen" says Peebles. But he returned at 5.50pm.
"There they were. My most vivid memory was walking into the studio and John greeting me like a long lost friend. He was absolutely delightful. There was no doubt in that he had terrific affection for the BBC. The World Service had been part of his life-blood. Yoko told me that whenever he turned on the radio and heard Liverpool mentioned he used to get very tearful and very emotional. To be blunt, he was homesick.
"I was 3,000 miles away from home meeting a man who to me, from my school days, had literally been a god. Maybe he hadn't been my favourite Beatle, but there was a bit of spit and sawdust about Lennon that I always liked.
"I thought we would do an hour and when we had done two, John said that he was hungry and sent out for a Chinese takeaway. It went cold on a side table because he just gushed with memories. It was a great out-pouring for him, mildly cathartic because a lot of the issues we talked about had been difficult for him.
"When it was all edited, for the saddest of reasons as you know, we got seven, one-hour programmes.
"After the interview he and Yoko invited our party to Mr Chow's restaurant which was full of a lot of affluent New Yorkers. John put his arm round me on the stairs and said, 'look at that lot down there all wondering who's that with Andy Peebles'. We laughed a lot and had a fantastic meal."
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