Tune In

by Mark Lewisohn

  29 The Songwriter—Paul McCartney, PPM RadioWaves, spring 1990.

  30 From the opening show in Ringo’s Yellow Submarine, American radio series, 1983, interview by Dave Herman.

  31 Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, August 7, 1971.

  32 “We thought, ‘Hey, these are good,’ ” George recalled in The Beatles Anthology, p28.

  33 Author interview, May 28, 2004.

  34 Eddie Clayton (Eddie Myles) interview by Spencer Leigh.

  35 Author interview, April 10, 2007.

  36 John Lennon in Davies, p48.

  37 Author interview, September 30, 1987. A little more of the lyric is known: “Well I’ve been thinking of linking my life with you / Thinking of linking a love so true / Thinking of linking can only be done by two.” Like most Lennon-McCartney Originals in this period it was heavily influenced by the sound of Buddy Holly and the Crickets.

  38 Davies, p53. Paul quotes from interview by Julia’s daughter, Julia Baird, 1988; The Beatles Anthology, p20; Many Years From Now, p48.

  39 Interview by Kevin Howlett, April 6, 1990.

  40 Author interview, October 9, 2010.

  41 Author interview, December 17, 2004.

  42 All details in these paragraphs about Jeff Mahomed’s lifestyle and character are drawn from interviews with Ann Mason, Tony Carricker, Pat Jourdan and Thelma Pickles.

  43 Author interview, May 27, 2004.

  44 Interview by Leonard Gross, Look magazine, December 13, 1966.

  45 Interview by Paul Drew, US radio, April 1975.

  46 Phillips, aged 62, and his eldest son Frank, 32, ran the studio together and much of their business was in personalized greetings. A contemporary newspaper article (Liverpool Evening Express, June 15, 1957) took delight in noting how a man cut a disc pleading for his wife to return. And of course, since the skiffle boom, plenty of groups had been turning up at 38 Kensington, lugging their washboards and tea-chests through the front door. The Byrne/Murphy disk was “Butterfly” c/w “She’s Got It,” Charlie Gracie c/w Little Richard. The latter is included on the album Unearthed Merseybeat (Viper CD016).

  47 Interview by Paul Drew, US radio, April 1975.

  48 Every new record on the NME chart in 1958 was compiled into a pair of four-CD sets, 1958 British Hit Parade, issued in 2009 (Fantastic Voyage FVQD001 and 002), and of these two hundred tracks only two ran longer than the 3.30 of “In Spite of All the Danger.” Thanks to iTunes it’s possible to see at a glance that the median duration of a 1958 chart record was 2:25. (These CDs formed part of an invaluable annual series beginning 1952, intended to extend as far as the fifty-year copyright expiry rule permitted.)

  49 Liverpool Echo, December 24, 1977 (Phillips, born December 1895, was then a grand old-timer of 82). A return visit with extra cash could be where the logbook reference to Arthur Kelly comes in. Duff Lowe apart, the Quarry Men lived some distance from Kensington but Kelly was close by. Paul quote from author interview, September 30, 1987.

  50 He kept it until 1981 and then sold it to Paul McCartney. Both tracks appear on The Beatles Anthology 1, though “In Spite of All the Danger” is edited there by forty-five seconds.

  NINE: “This Is My Life” (June–December 1958)

  1 Liverpool Weekly News, June 26, 1958. The deleted expletive is theirs. (Newspapers could restrain themselves from printing swear words in those days.)

  2 Evening Express and also Echo, June 21, 1958; Liverpool Weekly News, June 26 and July 3, 1958. The last of these said Dykins was disqualified from driving for three months, but the court record specifies one year.

  3 This explanation of Julia’s visit, credible in itself and even more so in the circumstances, is contained in an original document written by Mimi, privately owned.

  4 Author interview, February 5, 2008.

  5 Author interview, April 27, 2007. The death certificate gives the place of death as “on the way to Sefton General Hospital” and the cause as “lacerations and hemorrhage of the brain due to fracture of the skull.” Michael Fishwick was no longer living at Mendips, but was back in Liverpool to oversee the printing of his thesis.

  6 Davies, p52.

  7 Ibid.

  8 Ibid.

  9 John Lennon, My Brother, p46.

  10 July 17 and 24, 1958.

  11 Interview by Mike Tomkies, Tit-Bits, June 20, 1964.

  12 The swindle from Daddy, Come Home, pp99–100; the heroic refusal from Tit-Bits, June 27, 1964. Julia’s daughter, Julia, believes that she and her sister Jacqui, and John, received a share of their mother’s insurance money—them later, John straightaway in 1958–9. Considering his permanently impoverished state, and no art school friend recalling his being flush with any cash ever, this must remain unproven. (And John certainly didn’t inherit £530 on his 21st birthday in 1961.)

  13 Interview by David Sheff, September 24, 1980, for Playboy.

  14 Fifty Years Adrift, by Derek Taylor (Genesis Publications, Guildford, 1984), p181.

  15 Interview by Nick Logan, NME, March 29, 1969; “born happy” from interview by Michael Aspel, Aspel & Company, LWT, March 5, 1988.

  16 Interview by Garvin Rutherford, Sydney, June 14, 1964.

  17 Author interview, May 28, 2004. Geraldine from Rave, issue 7, August 1964.

  18 Aspel & Company, LWT, March 5, 1988.

  19 Davies, p155.

  20 Davies, p53.

  21 First sentence from interview by Sir David Frost, Channel 5, December 28, 1997; remainder from interview by author and Kevin Howlett, June 6, 1990.

  22 Author interview, April 25, 2005.

  23 A Private View, by Robert Freeman (Pyramid Books, London, 1990), p155.

  24 There were four other Vikings besides Brierley: Glyn “Gwndwn” Williams (guitar/vocal), Bernard Lee (guitar), Aneurin Thomas (tea-chest bass) and John Diggle (snare drum). Aneurin’s dad ran the Queens Hotel and the Vikings played in the saloon bar from time to time, mostly on Saturday nights. In George Harrison: Living in the Material World (p42), Paul recalled the names John and Aniron [sic]—“a big Welsh guy”—and “[sitting] in with their band one drunken night in a Welsh pub.” George never mentioned it in any interview.

  25 Many Years From Now, pp41–2.

  26 From 1970s interview transcript of unknown origin.

  27 Author interview, December 17, 2004.

  28 Author interview, August 10, 2004.

  29 Interview by Kevin Howlett, April 6, 1990.

  30 Observer, December 13, 2009.

  31 Author interview, September 6, 2010.

  32 From Paul McCartney interview by Paul du Noyer for the World Tour program (1989–90), p9. These were briefly used nicknames, though George had also been “Hazza” to some friends at Liverpool Institute.

  33 A Twist of Lennon, by Cynthia Lennon (W. H. Allen, London, 1978), pp26–7. (Cyn went to the house too.) Paul McCartney interview by Julia Baird, 1988; John Lennon, My Brother, p49. George: “When he [Bobby Dykins] was safely down the road, on the way to his local pub, we would sneak into the house so that we could all plug our instruments into the back of his radiogram”—17 Watts?, p184.

  34 Author interview, April 15, 2010. The Adult Beginner’s Guide to Musical Notation was an instruction manual by Dawson Freer (1953).

  35 First part of quote from interview by Edward Seckerson, Kaleidoscope, BBC Radio 4, October 4, 1997; middle from interview by Ed Stewart, BBC Radio 2, December 14, 1991; final part from interview by Melvyn Bragg, The South Bank Show, LWT, January 14, 1978.

  36 Davies, p33. Paul from interview by Janice Long for Listen to What the Man Says, BBC Radio 1, December 22, 1985.

  37 “On Safairy With Whide Hunter” may be unique among John’s published works in that it was subjected to revision. When first published (in Mersey Beat, September 6, 1962), its opening paragraph was a recent addition to the original 1958 piece, being a parody of the lyric from “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” (aka “Wimoweh”), a hit record in early 1962. (The revision may have been prompted by r
epeats of the TV series White Hunter in the Granada TV region at the time.) Although John always said he never returned to a piece once it was written, this clearly was an exception: he typed the revised version on the back of a document dated mid-July 1962 (currently in the hands of a private collector). The piece first appeared in book form in 1964: In His Own Write (Jonathan Cape, London), pp62–3.

  During interviews at that time, John said the book also contained a second piece “written in conjugal with Paul” but that, owing to an error, it hadn’t been denoted. Its identity still isn’t known.

  38 The fullest account of the Pilchard play, which may never have had a title, is in Many Years From Now, p39. Paul’s exercise-book pages have never been seen and are believed lost. The Daily Mail piece was February 1, 1963: Paul told Adrian Mitchell “We’ve written a couple of plays together,” but if this wasn’t bluster no second piece is known.

  39 An off-the-cuff January 24, 1969, recording of Paul and John singing “I Fancy Me Chances” is included within the 2003 album Let It Be … Naked, on the second disk, Fly on the Wall; the song was copyrighted for this purpose, but as “Fancy My Chances With You.” One line rhymes “frock” with “Loc” (as in Locarno Ballroom) but it isn’t clear if Paul made this up on the spot or it was part of the 1958 words.

  40 The origin of the name Johnny and the Moondogs is not clear cut. The word “Moondog” probably came to their attention through its use by the American rock and roll DJ Alan Freed, whose show was broadcast for a while on Radio Luxembourg. It had finished by late 1958 but the word could have lodged, and they might also have heard it said in Freed’s films. Alternatively, George Harrison recalled not many years later, “I think Moondog was the name of a big Red Indian on TV at the time.” British TV was certainly swamped by American westerns in autumn 1958: the BBC had three, ITV showed a different import most days of the week. A check of episode descriptions and character names has not yielded a Moondog but the possibility can’t be ruled out.

  41 Author interview, November 11, 2004. “Smashed in half” from interview by John Peel, Night Ride, BBC Radio 1 and 2, December 11, 1968.

  42 Davies, p63.

  43 Beatles Gear, by Andy Babiuk (Backbeat Books, London and San Francisco, 2001), p26. Clarke and Nash were both later of the Hollies; Nash also of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Manchester Evening News review, November 25, 1958.

  44 The Beatles Anthology, p31. Graham Nash says that he and Allan Clarke, as Ricky & Dane, won the Manchester contest, singing Conway Twitty’s current hit “It’s Only Make Believe,” and that they went to perform in Blackpool as a result.

  45 Interview by Spencer Leigh.

  46 Interview by Charlie Gillett and Johnny Beerling, November 14, 1973, for BBC Radio 1.

  47 “… the first three-part we ever did” from author interview, September 30, 1987; Jim’s help from The Beatles Anthology, p96. All these records were released in Britain by Decca’s London label. At this same time, Richy Starkey got the only drum record he ever bought, Topsy, by the black jazz drummer Cozy Cole.

  48 Author interview, January 20, 2005.

  49 Remember, p28.

  50 Hodkin’s recollection seems to suggest John didn’t have a guitar at this recording, but it can’t be remembered with any certainty. It’s clear, however, that he wasn’t playing one at events either side of this.

  51 Remembered by Harry Harrison in the film George Harrison: Living in the Material World. George’s recollection of them being drunk is from The Beatles Anthology, p30. Almost the same today as it was in 1958, Childwall Abbey Hotel is one of the best “Beatles Liverpool” locations, the only surviving haunt of Japage 3.

  52 Davies, p61.

  53 “I used to drink black velvet—Guinness and cider—and get sick a lot,” Paul told Russell Harty when talking about these parties (BBC1, November 26, 1984).

  TEN: “A Sort of Violent Teddy Boy” (January–July 1959)

  1 Interview by Ed Stewart, BBC Radio 2, December 14, 1991.

  2 Author interview, December 17, 2004. If there was a fourth player there’s no clue who it could have been.

  3 Author interview, January 20, 2005.

  4 Interview by Alan Smith, NME, August 30, 1963: “I did a bit of freelancing for a while. In fact, at one stage I think I was in about three groups all at the same time.” The Les Stewart Quartet and Japage 3 are two—if there was a third, nothing is known of it.

  5 Author interview, January 6, 2005.

  6 Author interview, November 11, 2004.

  7 I Me Mine, p26. Irene gave birth to her and Harry’s first child, Paul Harrison, on January 15, 1960—George becoming an uncle for the third time, the first locally.

  8 Author interview, September 6, 2010.

  9 Interview by David Sheff, September 24, 1980, for Playboy.

  10 Davies, pp56–7. The song lyric: “I used to be cruel to my woman / I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved”—“Getting Better,” 1967.

  11 Interview by Sandra Shevey, the Hartford Courant, November 26, 1972.

  12 “The Teddy Boy … that was my scene, but it was only a club to belong to at the time”—interview by David Skan, Record Mirror, October 11, 1969.

  13 Many Years From Now, pp49/33.

  14 The Beatles Anthology, p31.

  15 One of many secrets was that his real name wasn’t Bob or Robert. He was born Frederick James Wooler. This fact didn’t emerge until his death in 2002. His earliest involvement in teenage music was his management of Garston skiffle group the Kingstrums in 1957.

  16 Disc, April 18, 1959. The paper launched on February 8, 1958. Quickly good, informative and pictorially strong, it covered all types of popular music and comfortably found a niche: not musicianly like Melody Maker or as fact-filled as the NME, it competed mostly with the Record Mirror.

  17 Interview by Ray Connolly, Evening Standard (London), September 9, 1972.

  18 Information from interview with Roy Trafford, July 9, 2010. The rehearsal hall was possibly Mount Carmel RC Boys’ Club.

  19 John wrote this in 1971 when appending a publicity booklet.

  20 Interview by Elliot Mintz, April 18, 1976.

  21 The Beatles Anthology, p38. Richy Starkey saw Sister Rosetta Tharpe in Liverpool, probably in the Cavern on April 12, 1958, and thought her guitar playing was wonderful.

  22 Interview by Tom Snyder, Good Morning America, ABC-TV, November 25, 1981.

  23 Interview by Alan Rowett and Geoff Barker for Paul McCartney’s Routes of Rock, BBC World Service, Oct–Nov 1999.

  24 June 5, 1959.

  25 Interview by Tony Webster, Beat Instrumental, November 1964.

  26 Mimi Smith, interviewed by TVS, December 1981.

  27 Interview by Mike Hennessey, Record Mirror, October 2, 1971.

  28 “Listen to this song, fellers” from Milwaukee press conference, September 4, 1964; “Yes, OK” from Many Years From Now, p112.

  29 The Beatles Anthology, p18.

  30 Interview by Alan Freeman, BBC Radio 1, December 6, 1974.

  31 Davies, p56. Thelma Pickles confirms John’s mocking (“Here comes Miss Prim,” “Watch your manners, here’s Cynthia”) but reckons John had long fancied her. “I always sensed it, and I was very attuned, but I dismissed it because I thought she’d be far too good for him. She was sweet and lovely, a very nice, quiet girl who would blush and be embarrassed.” (Author interview, September 6, 2010.)

  32 Davies, p51.

  33 Interview by Tony Wilson, Granada Weekend, Granada TV, October 26, 1984.

  34 A Twist of Lennon, p19. Cynthia’s answer was a nervous one. She’d been engaged to a Hoylake Romeo (a window cleaner called Barry) but it was over.

  35 The Beatles Anthology, p103.

  36 This is the most likely chronological placing of Paul’s job at Lewis’s, but not definitely correct. He’d hoped to earn the occasional ten shillings as a golf course caddy but there were always other lads ahead of him. (Many Years From Now, p43.)

/>   ELEVEN: “Come Viz Me to Ze Casbah” (July–December 1959)

  1 Author interview, December 17, 2004.

  2 Author interview, February 7, 2005.

  3 Interview by author and Kevin Howlett, June 6, 1990.

  4 Interview by Alan Rowett and Geoff Barker for Paul McCartney’s Routes Of Rock, BBC World Service, Oct–Nov 1999.

  5 Louise remembered George taking a guitar. As there wasn’t much point carrying the Club 40 without an amp, it was probably his old Hofner President.

  6 The Beatles Anthology, p29. George got Oxo Whitney’s name into a piece of John Lennon’s prose, written in 1964—“The Singularge Experience of Miss Anne Duffield,” from A Spaniard in the Works (Jonathan Cape, London, 1965), pp24–33.

  7 Author interview, January 6, 2005. Ken Brown remembered it all quite differently; specifically, he had no recollection of not turning up for a booking. At most (he told me in May 2010) he may have missed a rehearsal.

  8 Rory Best thinks George and Ken did play as a duo—he says they had at least one performance at the British Legion club in Old Roan, near Aintree. As George never mentioned it, and Ken had no such recollection, it has to be filed under unproven.

  9 Davies, p74, and Beatle! The Pete Best Story, by Pete Best and Patrick Doncaster (Plexus, London, 1985), p20.

  10 The Beatles Anthology, p45. As the years pass so claims have been made that various parts of the Casbah’s decor were painted by John, Paul or George—notably in the book The Beatles—The True Beginnings by Roag Best with Pete and Rory Best (Screenpress Publishing, Ipswich, 2002). These claims may well be correct but it’s fair to say some have questioned them, including Neil Aspinall, a close friend of the Bests for fifty years and longtime resident at the house, who told me, “The only room John, Paul or George painted at the Casbah was the one with the stripes. They didn’t do any others. People aren’t remembering things right.”

  11 Beatle!, p20.

  12 Kenneth Alan Brown, born May 30, 1940, in Enfield, Middlesex, moved with his parents to Liverpool at the age of nine months. He went to Stonebridge Lane secondary modern school in Norris Green and by 1959 had an apprenticeship with tools suppliers Robert Kelly & Sons. He died on June 14, 2010, aged 70.