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Bill Harry
alexis:
--- Quote from: 901 ---Dear All,
Forgive me for posting material from my own book, but as a writer who is also a professional drummer, I've been asked constantly about my opinion of Ringo as a drummer, both in his own right and in comparison with Pete Best. To be sure, we don't have a whole lot of recorded evidence of Pete Best's playing circa 1960-62 apart from the Polydor Tony Sheridan tapes and the Parlophone audition tapes, but what we do have is pretty telling. In the interests of stimulating this discussion, I offer the following from Chapter 11 of "Can't Buy Me Love":
"Though their handling of the matter was utterly callous, the Beatles
--- End quote ---
The End:
Hi Bill!
I was just wondering whether you could shed any light on the "Raymond Jones" story - was he a real person or was he invented by Alistair Taylor (and possibly Brian Epstein)?
AL :-)
The End:
Bump!
Bill Harry:
Raymond Jones actuially existed. He was one of several people who went into Nems to ask about the Beatles record which had dominated the entire front page of issue No. 2 of Mersey Beat in July 1961. Paul McCartney had brought me a copy of the single from Germany and he also gave a copy to Bob Wooler, who played it locally. Brian Epstein, my record reviewer in Mersey Beat from issue No. 3 used to drop into the Mersey Beat office with his adverts, which went on the same pages as Beatles features, he'd come into the office with a present for Virginia after a visit to Amsterdam and took me to lunch at the Basnett Bar in Basnett Street on two occasions to discuss what was happening on the local scene. Every time I visited Nems to drop in the latest issue, he'd invite me into his office to discuss it. Therefore, i was suprised when, in his autobiography, he made out that he'd only heard of the Beatles when a lad came into his shop to order the single later that year. I'd been discussing them with him for months and he was aware of them, not only from Mersey Beat but for the fact that they dropped into Nems regularly in the afternoons after their lunchtime sessions at the Cavern and he asked the girls on his staff about them. This can also be confirmed by Pete Best.
Bob Barroch is another person who asked for the record at Nems. He said he asked for it before Jones because Paul McCartney told him about it at the Cavern.
Alistair Taylor did claim that he was Raymond Jones, but this is not so. Raymond Jones now lives in Spain. But his only relevance to the Beatles story would be if Brian had never heard of the group before his enquiry. This is not so. I was the first person ever to discuss the local scene with Brian and that was in July 1961 - and it can all be proven in black and white in the pages of Mersey Beat.
Why Brian decided to put the story in his book is probably because it sounds a lot better that saying he discovered them via Mersey Beat. I was also the one who arranged his visit to the Cavern. He phoned me up and asked if I could smooth the way. He didn't want to have to stand in a queue with youngsters and pay at the door. So I phoned Ray McFall and arranged it for Brian.
The End:
Thanks for setting the record straight Bill :-)
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