 IT wasn't a happy birthday - how could it have been? - but it was one which overflowed with love and pride. John Lennon should have been celebrating his 65th birthday yesterday, with his wife and soulmate. But, instead, Yoko Ono could only wrap herself in the warm memories of a man she so clearly adored. And still adores. For the past 25 years, Yoko, who's 72 but looks more like 52, has enthusiastically spread the gospel according to her John - and she isn't going to stop now. On this day of days - John and Yoko's son, Sean, had his 30th birthday yesterday, but couldn't be with his mum due to filming and recording commitments in Los Angeles - she wanted to tell the good news to the readers of the Liverpool ECHO. And so, late yesterday afternoon, I met a barefoot Yoko, who was dressed casually in black jumper and jeans, in her sumptuous suite in the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park hotel. Before turning her mind to what on earth she might wear for today's Q magazine awards ceremony, where John will be honoured, she happily (and, on one occasion, not so happily - see tomorrow's article) answered questions relating to one of the most fascinating men in musical history. No, make that history - full stop.. Like so many Merseysiders, I'd seen Yoko's breasts before (well, the photographs of that woman's breasts she put on show in the city centre in the name of art - and women's breasts have always been art in my book) - but it was great to meet her in the flesh. As it were. Possibly due to the fact that she has enjoyed/endured interviews with a million and one journalists, her answers were, at times, short and succinct. Some people are economical with the truth - Yoko can be economical with words. At times I thought she was pausing, as she prepared to unleash an avalanche of words to support the four or five she had just uttered. But they weren't pauses, they were full stops. Not always, though . . . | 
