John Lennon would have been 64 this week. Chronicle reporter MARC BAKER meets the super-star's half-sister Julia Baird.

JULIA Baird has broken years of silence to tell the world how fab her famous half-brother really was and how important Chester was in their childhood. Last week the former teacher, who lives quietly in an unassuming home near Malpas, threw herself into the spotlight to unveil an exhibition at The Beatles Story museum in Liverpool.

In the run-up to what would have been John Lennon's 64th birthday on Saturday, Julia was there to hand over her his lyrics to All You Need is Love and the Bed-in for Peace bedspread used during his protest in Montreal.

Julia, 57, is helping to promote John's achievement as Liverpool prepares to be the European Capital of Culture in 2008.

However, she believes people should also be visiting Chester, where she and John used to visit when they were small.

John and Julia's grandmother Annie Mill-ward was born at the Earl of Shrewsbury's town house in Chester - now the Bear & Billet pub in Lower Bridge Street - and lived there until her 20s.

'Our great grandfather and great-grandmother lived there,' she said. 'Our great-grandfather was the clerk to the earl, because of that he had the freedom to the city of Chester.

'During childhood, John and I used to spend a lot of time in Chester.

'We also used to come to Chester on the train from Liverpool as we always knew that Chester was the best place for clothes shopping. We used to go for lunch at Browns and walk down by the river.

'Chester has always been in the family. We are the classic family that moved from Wales to Chester to Liverpool.

'John was very fond of Chester. We always thought Chester was the place to be, not Liverpool.'

Like Liverpool, Julia says Chester could boast its own Beatles Magical Mystery Tour.

Though Chester does not have Strawberry Fields or Penny Lane, The Beatles did stay at The Blossoms Hotel, Love Street, when they played the former Royalty Theatre, City Road, in the 1960s.

The band also played The Riverpark Ballroom in Union Street, and passed through Chester on a train to Bangor in the 1960s to meet Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It was on this journey that the Fab Four were informed of the death of manager Brian Epstein, who was due to join them in Bangor for a meeting of the International Meditation Society.

Close to the River Dee is a house called Nowhere, thought to be Lennon's inspiration for The Beatles song Nowhere Man.

'I am sure you could do a Beatles tour of Chester,' said Julia.

'If the Americans or the Japanese knew about its connection to The Beatles and John they would be here like a shot.'

For the past 15 years Julia has worked as a teacher in Blacon, Chester, helping children and teenagers with various problems.

During that time she kept her link to John secret as she says it would have been too easy for youngsters to turn round and poke fun.

'I will now have to tell them all,' she said. 'I want to go back and speak to them.

'I have not spoken about John for a long time, only through my work helping Liverpool have I decided to talk more and more about him.

'This is absolutely the right time to remind Liverpool and the rest of the world of John's message of peace.

'Sadly, John's dream of 'all the people living life in peace' seems even more remote today than when he first composed Imagine.'

Julia is the eldest daughter of Julia Lennon - John's mother - and John Dykin. When she was two, the family moved to the Springwood Estate in Liverpool.

She was 10 when she first saw John perform with her younger sister, Jackie. When Julia was 11, her and John's mother was killed by a car outside the family home.

In 1965, when she was 18, Julia met Allen Baird. They married in 1968 and, after the birth of their first child, lived in Liverpool, then Cheshire.

When John first moved to America, Julia lost touch with him, but in 1974 a phone call reestablished contact and from then on John called on a regular basis. He asked Julia to send him family pictures, especially photos of their mother.

If he had been alive today, Julia believes John would still be creative.

'He would have still been writing, painting and would have definitely been anti-war,' she said. 'He would have also helped the Third World. He would have given money. He would have definitely cared.'

She says John would have been 'thrilled' to hear that Imagine was last week named the most-played single in America.

However, she says he would have laughed if he knew his sister once forgot its lyrics during a trip to India in 1993 with Save the Family.

Julia said: 'My partner and I were over there sitting with these children and they were singing us songs. I asked 'what can we sing them that's a bit more adult?'. I said 'I know, let's sing Imagine'. But as I started to sing it I forgot the words. I had to contact a friend in Chester to send the lyrics over by mail!'