Tune In
Page 136
I’ve been actively interviewing people about the Beatles since 1983 and other quotes in this book come from vintage sessions, including many with Paul McCartney, one with George Harrison and several with George Martin, and also Judy Martin, Cilla Black, Bob Boast, Jim Foy, Mike McCartney, Tony Meehan, Bob Molyneux, Pauline Sutcliffe, Alistair Taylor and Wally Whyton. Thanks also to Yoko Ono for opening an important research door, and to Paul McCartney for answering some further questions by e-mail; they didn’t have to help, so I particularly appreciate the fact they did.
OTHER PROVIDERS OF INFORMATION OR ASSISTANCE
Thanks to the following for helping me in a wide variety of ways (with three cheers for the inventors of e-mail).
Roger Akehurst, Harold Alderman, Ken Ashcroft, Geoff Barker, Andre Barreau, Mark Baxter, David Bedford, Johnny Beerling, Simon Beresford, Leon Berger, Jim Berkenstadt, Roag Best, Rachael Binns, David Birch, Charles Blackwell, Rob Bradford, Steve Braunias, Lizzie Bravo, Mike Brocken, Gordon Brown, Kathy Burns, Linda Butt, Trevor Cajiao, Heather Canter, Jasper Carrott, Chris Carter, Stephen Carter, Howie Casey, Ernesto Juan Castellanos, Leslie Cavendish, William Cavendish, Irwin Chusid, Bob Clifford, Jeannie Cohen, Stuart Colman, Peter Compton, Ray Connolly, David Costa, Sylvia Cowling, Martin Creasy, Michael Crick, Lorre Crimi, John Crisp, Sandra Currie, Reynold D’Silva, Bert Danher, Russell Davies, Julian Dawson, Andrew Dickson, Ed Dieckmann, Claudio Dirani, Peter Doggett, Bert Donn, Paul du Noyer, Joe Dumas, Bruno Dupont, Jim Elyea, Ray Ennis, Gary and Vanda Evans, Lily Evans … Joe Farrag, Horst Fascher, Alison Fiddler, Andy Finney, John Firminger, Bob Fisher, Dave Forshaw, Gerard Fox, Frances Friedlander, Susan Fuller, Gillian Gaar, Paul Gallagher, John Gorman, Hans Olof Gotfriddson, Dale Grayson, Ian Greaves, Margaret Grose, Raymond Hall, Colin Hanton, Bob Hardy, Roger Harris, Bill Harry, Tony Hatch, Dermott Hayes, Mark Hayward, Bill Heckle, Stefanie Hempel, Mike Hennessey, Chris Hewlett, Harold Hill, Jean-Claude Hocquet, Peter Hodgson, Jackie Holmes, Brad Howard, Beth Howells, Kevin Howlett, Gary Howman, Brian Hudson, Jim Hughes, Brian Innes, Ivor Jacobs, Dave Jones, Peter Jones, Serena Karp, Jude Southerland Kessler, Adrian Killen, Marlene King, Raymond Kingsbury, Pat Kinzer, Axel Korinth, Eric Krasker, Jonny Kremer, Jeffrey Kruger, Ulf Krüger … Tony Lacey, Richard Larcombe, Peter Lawson, James Leasing, Cynthia Lennon, Richard Lester, John Lewin, John Lewis, Vic Lewis, Helen Lindsay, Rhoddy Macpherson, Kenji Maeda, John Maguire, Pat Mancuso, Margaret Marsden, Garry Marsh, Dibbs Mather, Harald Mau, Chas McDevitt, Dee Meehan, T. J. Meenach, John Merrit, Ray Miller, Doug Morris, Geoff Mullin, Patti Murawski, Lorne Murdoch, Mark Naboshek, Mary Newton, Michael O’Connell, Staffan Olander, Tony Onslow, Alan Ould, Peter Paetzold, Carl Magnus Palm, Nigel Parkinson, Dave Peacock, Brian Poole, Richard Porter, Andrew Pratley, Simon Prentis, Heather Paige Preston, Celia Quantrill, John Repsch, Geoff Rhind, Tim Riley, Kate Robertson, Joe Robinson, Johnny Rogan, Amy Rossiter and Paul Gurrell, Peter Rubin … saki, Jon Schotten, Henry Scott-Irvine, Peter Seaman, Joey Self, Frank Seltier, Denny Seyton, John Shakespeare (Johnny Carter), Adam Sharp, Colin Shearman, Robbie Shepherd, Anna Sheridan, Trevor Simpson, Andy Smith, David J. Smith, Jimmy Stevens, Pauline Stone, Gerry Stonestreet, John Sugar, Michael Swerdlow, Joan Taylor, Greg Temple, Denise Theophilus, Michael Thornton, Dennis Toll, Mike Tomkies, Ken Townsend, Josie Tucker, Steve Voce, Jacques Volcouve, Tony Wadsworth, Jens Waldenmaier, Anthony Wall, Ron Watson, Linda Watts, Jean Weir, Alan Weston, Carol Weston, Scott Wheeler, Chris White, Jim Woodley, Ali Zayeri.
ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES
I’m at my happiest quietly turning pages in archives and libraries, and I’ve had many fine times discovering information great and small for this project. My thanks to all the people who’ve accommodated me and allowed me to find what I was looking for, and very often what I wasn’t.
MERSEYSIDE. Liverpool Record Office (Diane Adams, David Stoker, John Keane and particularly Kevin Roach, who patiently and enthusiastically answered dozens of specific inquiries and is now an author himself); Liverpool Roman Catholic Archdiocesan Archives (Dr. Meg Whittle); University of Liverpool (Kate Robertson); Athenaeum Club (Anna Jackson); and Wirral Archives (Emma Challoner). Thanks also to Peter Kennerley, to Barbara Woosey at Mosspits Lane Primary School, and to Brian Davies at Calderstones School, formerly Quarry Bank.
LONDON. My thanks to the staffs of the London Library and the various reading rooms of the British Library at St. Pancras and especially the newspaper outpost at Colindale. I’ve had tremendous times researching the Beatles here since 1979 (when it was still the British Museum Newspaper Library) and will miss the place terribly after its closure. I’d like it proved to me that the service for readers won’t suffer as a result of the moves. London Metropolitan Archive (Charlotte Hopkins and especially Julian Carr, a dedicated, knowledgeable, resourceful librarian who made the LMA a great place to research); British Film Institute (Steve Bryant, Carolyne Bevan, Dick Fiddy, Veronica Taylor, Heather Osborn); EMI Archive (Jackie Bishop, Sonita Cox, Hamish Hamilton); the National Archives (special thanks to Yudit Collard Treml); London Borough of Havering Central Library (Simon Donoghue); and RADA (James Thornton).
ALSO IN BRITAIN. BBC Written Archives (Jeff Walden—simply the best); Aberdeenshire Library and Information Service (Judith Legg); Bristol University Arts and Social Sciences Library (Hannah Lowery); The British Institute of Jazz Studies (Graham Langley); Butlin’s Archive (Roger Billington); Churchill Archives Centre (Sophie Bridges, Claire Knight); Norfolk & Norwich Millennium Library (Claire Agate); University of Reading Special Collections Service (Nancy Jean Fulford; with thanks to Jean Rose at Random House); and Wrekin College (Serena Kyle).
USA. My thanks to the staffs of the Library of Congress, Washington, DC; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; the Paley Center for Media (Ron Simon); and Clyde Savannah Public Library (Sue Ayers).
GERMANY. My thanks to the staffs of the Staats-und Universitätsbibliothek, Hamburg; Staatsarchiv, Hamburg; Bayerische StaatsBibliothek, Munich; and to Rudi, Christa and Olaf at Automaten-Markt magazine in Braunschweig, who allowed me to visit and make notes from back issues.
ONLINE. There are tons of great things on the Internet. My thanks to everyone who posts it. (My website will mention some of these sites in particular.)
PUBLISHING
This project required a leap of faith from my publishers. Contracts were signed in 2004, a time when best estimates pitched 2008, 2012 and 2016 as likely publication years for the three volumes. Being that the agreed essence of the project was (and remains) to get the story right and cut no corners, it soon became clear some elasticity would be required. This realization more or less coincided with the global recession and a revolution in publishing, away from printed books and toward electronic delivery, with companies contracting fast and bookshops closing everywhere. These events brought about the cancellation of hundreds of valid projects, so the fact you’re seeing this book at all owes to the professionalism and belief of a number of key people. They could have pulled the plug but didn’t, and they have my heartfelt thanks.
LITTLE, BROWN BOOK GROUP. The project was commissioned in London by the multitalented Tom Bromley, who then left, overseen by company president Ursula McKenzie, who thankfully hasn’t. Richard Beswick has been a constant supporter, and I’m immensely grateful to group managing editor Vivien Lipski and my editor, the publishing director Tim Whiting, for their endurance and editorial brilliance, and I can also only applaud their appointment of Dan Balado as line-editor—he absorbed the spirit of the project from the start and made a valuable contribution.
It’s common for authors to have unhappy experiences with publishers, but this Little, Brown team have been magnificent.
THE CROWN PUBLISHING GROUP. My thanks to Kristin Kiser, Steve Ross and Carrie Thornton, who commissioned the book in New York, and to Tina Constable and Sean Desmond, who took it over and have been fantastically patient while I finished writing it.
AGENTS. Simon Trewin became my London literary agent at the project’s incepti
on and I’ll be forever grateful for his advice, belief and the wonderful ride we shared before unforeseen events crashed that day-to-day relationship. Thanks also to his excellent PAs, Claire Gill and Ariella Feiner. In New York, Mark Reiter helped seal the Crown deal, aided by his terrific PA Emily Sklar. My thanks too to Christy Fletcher.
My deepest gratitude is to KT Forster, my super-agent, who stepped into a difficult breach and performed miracles to keep this project alive. KT’s professional advice and personal friendship have been of the very best, helping me overcome a hundred obstacles and taking weights from my shoulders so I could get on with the work. Simply amazing.
Last on the page is the person who’s first always, Anita. Through living with me, she’s known every intricacy of this project from Day One: the early starts and late finishes, the frustrations and stresses, the delights and air-punching breakthroughs. The long haul. She was also the first person to hear the manuscript, getting me to read it aloud to her every week, giving ever-insightful feedback and becoming a bit of a Beatle Know-all along the way. Thank you, LOML.
Next challenge: volume two.
Mark Lewisohn
Summer 2013
PICTURE CREDITS
Jim Mac’s Band; Liverpool Echo ad (October 19, 1923); Richard Starkey; John at Quarry Bank; George at Dovedale Road; Richy in hospital; Japage 3; Beatless at Indra; Hamburger Morgenpost ad (August 18, 1960); John and the Daily Express; Top Ten Club roof; Paul and John with Bob Wooler; Les Nerk Twins á Paris—all courtesy Aarkive Features.
Mary, Jim, Mike and Paul—© MPL Communications Ltd.
Harry and Elsie Graves—© Mealey Photographers, Liverpool.
Harry and Louise Harrison—courtesy Denise Theophilus
Alf Lennon—© Billy Hall.
Mimi and George Smith; Julia and John—© Mark Hayward (from his fine photo book The Beatles Unseen).
Richy at St. Silas; Paul at Joseph Williams—courtesy Stephen Bailey, The Beatles Shop, Liverpool.
Brian at Hoylake; Beatles at Liverpool Airport—© the Epstein family.
George and Jenny—© Jenny Butler.
Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group—© Les Kearney.
Quarry Men at Woolton—© Geoff Rhind.
George and Arthur—© Arthur Kelly.
Quarry Men at New Clubmoor Hall—photo by Les Kearney, © the Quarry Men.
George Martin’s Top Ten Special—© EMI.
John, Paul and George sketch—© Ann Mason.
Beatles audition for Billy Fury—© Cheniston Roland.
Ringo with Ty, Johnny and Rory; Ringo with Johnny; Rory Storm and the Hurricanes with Vicky; outside tailor Duncan’s (color)—© Iris Caldwell.
Oosterbeek cemetery—© Barry Chang.
Stuart in woods; George at Dom; John at Dom; Paul at Dom; Beatles at Dom—photos by Astrid Kirchherr, courtesy Ulf Krüger, K&K.
Top Ten mach Schau—courtesy the late Gerd Mingram.
Casual in the Cavern—photo by Geoff Williams, commissioned by Maureen O’Shea and Jennifer Dawes.
George and Ringo—photo by Dick Matthews, © Apple Corps Ltd.
Beatles in leather suits—photo by Albert Marrion, © Apple Corps Ltd.
Beatles in tailored suits—photo by Harry Watmough.
John and Lindy—photo by Lou Steen.
John, Paul and George at Hulme Hall—© Graham Smith.
Beatles in Abbey Road—photo by Dezo Hoffmann, ©Apple Corps Ltd.
John, Paul, George and Dennis (color)—© Mike McCartney.
John, Cyn, Jon and Tony (color)—© Tony Carricker.
Beatles and Prellies (color)—© Horst Fascher Collection/K&K.
Beatles on Saltney Street—photo by “Peter Kaye” (Les Chadwick), © Apple Corps Ltd.
Very grateful thanks to Richard Buskin and especially to Thorsten Knublauch for cleaning up several of the images for publication.