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Author Topic: Bill Harry  (Read 63072 times)

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Re: Bill Harry
« Reply #40 on: February 03, 2008, 10:08:06 PM »

Great article,thanks Jon :)
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BlueMeanie

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Re: Bill Harry
« Reply #41 on: February 04, 2008, 03:04:59 PM »

Great article Jon, thanks. And nice to see you finally posting! ;)
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harihead

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Re: Bill Harry
« Reply #42 on: February 05, 2008, 04:52:33 AM »

Yes, Jon. Many thanks. Great to see you again. :)
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All you've got to do is choose love.  That's how I live it now.  I learned a long time ago, I can feed the birds in my garden.  I can't feed them all. -- Ringo Starr, Rolling Stone magazine, May 2007<br />

Kevin

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Re: Bill Harry
« Reply #43 on: February 05, 2008, 09:56:42 AM »

Great stuff. Though I can't get Jimmy Nicol out of my mind. The bandwagon rolled on, the fans kept screaming, and despite a silent drummer the press interviews were just as sharp and witty as the other press interviews.
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don't follow leaders

alexis

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Re: Bill Harry
« Reply #44 on: February 11, 2008, 02:33:08 AM »

Quote from: 185
Great stuff. Though I can't get Jimmy Nicol out of my mind. The bandwagon rolled on, the fans kept screaming, and despite a silent drummer the press interviews were just as sharp and witty as the other press interviews.

"All novel is fascinating. The roosters come home to play only after the sun goes down."

Somerset Maughley
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I love John,
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And George and Ringo,
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Re: Bill Harry
« Reply #45 on: February 11, 2008, 02:33:51 AM »

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
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I love John,
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And George and Ringo,
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Alexis

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Re: Bill Harry
« Reply #46 on: February 11, 2008, 10:51:53 PM »

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 :-)
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Re: Bill Harry
« Reply #47 on: March 05, 2008, 06:38:06 PM »

Bump!
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Bill Harry

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Re: Bill Harry
« Reply #48 on: March 05, 2008, 07:34:10 PM »

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.
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Re: Bill Harry
« Reply #49 on: March 05, 2008, 09:40:47 PM »

Thanks for setting the record straight Bill :-)
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harihead

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Re: Bill Harry
« Reply #50 on: March 06, 2008, 02:19:52 AM »

Thanks, Bill. It's great to have you share your memories with us.:)
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All you've got to do is choose love.  That's how I live it now.  I learned a long time ago, I can feed the birds in my garden.  I can't feed them all. -- Ringo Starr, Rolling Stone magazine, May 2007<br />

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Re: Bill Harry
« Reply #51 on: March 06, 2008, 09:57:47 AM »

Nice one Bill. ;)
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Re: Bill Harry
« Reply #52 on: April 17, 2008, 07:32:14 AM »

Bill, where can I find an overview of your books? And are they all still available?
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Re: Bill Harry
« Reply #53 on: April 18, 2008, 02:41:25 AM »

Gosh I love when you post Bill!!
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Bill Harry

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Re: Bill Harry
« Reply #54 on: April 18, 2008, 07:31:02 AM »

Virtually none of my books is currently available. I'm afraid they never got the distribution that other similar books get. My book with Pete Best, 'The Best Years Of The Beatles', gives a completely different insight into Pete's life than the previous book 'Beatle!' and is quite lavishly illustrated, but it was only published in Britain and soon went out of print. I believe copies are still available from Pete Best's own site and I asked Roag to request all the original film of the book from the publisher. I spent about 20 years compiling my encyclopedias, but apart from 'The Beatles Encyclopedia', which was originally published in America by Hyperion, the rest had little distribution in the States. They include the revised edition of the Encyclopedia and the encyclopedias on George, John, Paul and Ringo.
The books on George, Paul and Ringo are still available at www.merseybeat.co.uk at less than half their original price - and signed!
I've had bad luck with my books - lots of times the corrections I made were never done. In a book with 500,000 words and hundreds of dates, occasionally a printer would put 1968 when it would be 1962 and so on - and although I'd correct the proofs, often they wouldn't be corrected. With the original encyclopedia all the reviews of Beatles publications weren't used, all my colour photos of the Beatles were lost with the publisher, with the revised edition the publisher lost 40,000 words - and so on. With my original Mersey Beat book in 1977 I didn't get my set of original copies of Mersey Beat back, so I went to the publishers office and found them spread across some shelves in the basement - with half of the issues missing!
For an insight into author's publishing problems, I now give authors a forum to write about their books themselves in the 'Rock Books' section of www.merseybeat.co.uk
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Re: Bill Harry
« Reply #55 on: April 18, 2008, 08:29:35 AM »

Thanks Bill. Great publisher you got there!  :-/
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Re: Bill Harry
« Reply #56 on: April 18, 2008, 01:56:01 PM »

Quote from: 1062
I've had bad luck with my books - lots of times the corrections I made were never done. In a book with 500,000 words and hundreds of dates, occasionally a printer would put 1968 when it would be 1962 and so on - and although I'd correct the proofs, often they wouldn't be corrected. With the original encyclopedia all the reviews of Beatles publications weren't used, all my colour photos of the Beatles were lost with the publisher, with the revised edition the publisher lost 40,000 words - and so on. With my original Mersey Beat book in 1977 I didn't get my set of original copies of Mersey Beat back, so I went to the publishers office and found them spread across some shelves in the basement - with half of the issues missing!
For an insight into author's publishing problems, I now give authors a forum to write about their books themselves in the 'Rock Books' section of www.merseybeat.co.uk

I suspect your case is probably not all that unusual. That in itself deserves some sort of publication.
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harihead

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Re: Bill Harry
« Reply #57 on: April 18, 2008, 02:10:34 PM »

Ugh! That's scandalous, how they abused your original material! And not making your corrections after the labor of proofing-- I bet you bit a nail in two.

I have published books on occasion as well. I had to retire a children's book I was shopping round because the publisher lost the beautiful and expensive color photos of the illustrations, and the struggling artist couldn't afford to do a reshoot. One of my books was published with a great chunk duplicated and another section missing-- and the publisher wouldn't recall it! I had to wait for people to write me so I could supply good copies from my stock. Just think of how many people didn't write, and threw away the defective book!

I'll drop into your author's forum sometime-- when I can stand the pain! Cheers.
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All you've got to do is choose love.  That's how I live it now.  I learned a long time ago, I can feed the birds in my garden.  I can't feed them all. -- Ringo Starr, Rolling Stone magazine, May 2007<br />

Bill Harry

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Re: Bill Harry
« Reply #58 on: December 28, 2008, 05:49:28 PM »

Dave Bedford has just had his book published called 'Liddypool.' This was the title John Lennon gave to thed city in a Mersey Beat feature.
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Re: Bill Harry
« Reply #59 on: August 31, 2009, 04:29:53 AM »

Thanks Bill, for the great insights and information about the Raymond Jones incident.  I tend to agree with you that it was better for Brian not to give credit to you, a known expert on the scene. 

Luckily for me, I've got your books, though not signed!

I've always thought you a very meticulous man and it's a crying shame that your corrections weren't put in and that your books didn't get the distribution deals they deserves.  It's especially wrong when you know that there's some awful books on the Beatles around, written by people who didn't know them in any sense at all.  You were/are a friend and that alone should carry some weight.  The fans at least know you and your work if the blinkered and blind publishing industry doesn't!

Thanks again.

James
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