British comedian
POPULARITY
6 episodes with Jasper Carrott
3 episodes with Jasper Carrott
2 episodes with Jasper Carrott
3 episodes with Jasper Carrott
2 episodes with Jasper Carrott
2 episodes with Jasper Carrott
5 episodes with Jasper Carrott
You know what we've been telling you happened to UK comics after STC? We get a couple of disturbing glimpses of it this issue. Bags of tat, three poundsworth of hail Marys, and what happened to Dave when Jasper Carrott came on.
Today, Danny Hurst sits down with Rachel Creeger, a talented comedian, writer, director, speaker, podcaster and actress. Rachel explains how, despite being from an Orthodox Jewish background, which traditionally discourages stand-up comedy, she became one. She shares how she fell in love with comedy through her family’s love of jokes and how it helped her at school where she was bullied and struggled with being neurodiverse. A serious illness didn’t stop her either and when she received a cash windfall; she used it to run away to the theatre and fulfil her dream. She also shares her experience of growing up as an Orthodox Jew in an area where the National Front was very prevalent. If you can´t get enough of these podcasts, head to https://www.patreon.com/DannyHurst to access my exclusive, member-only, fun-filled and fact-packed history-related videos. KEY TAKEAWAYS Most successful careers involve taking on multiple roles, so be willing to learn. Pursuing creative interests often requires you to take risks and prioritise personal happiness over traditional career paths. Do as much as you can within your current circumstances to follow your passion. Everything you do builds skills for your creative future. You don´t have to be famous to write something or act in a play. Personal challenges and unexpected circumstances can be transformed into opportunities. Comedians who used music, e.g. Jasper Carrott and Victoria Wood, really shaped comedy in the 70s. Dealing with the National Front was especially hard for Rachel´s older relatives who had fled persecution to find safety in the UK. BEST MOMENTS “When someone introduces me as a comedian. I get a little, tiny glow." “I said, ‘I'm going to run away to join the theatre,’ and that's what I did.” “My material isn't niche. It's just another perspective on the same stuff.” “Skinheads would stop you in the street and give you a hard time… it was sort of my normal reality.” “It was important to also be part of what was happening in Britain and in London, because that's where we were growing up.” “One minute our Sabbaths were these quite casual affairs, and then they became very strict.” “I had one of those retro-antisemitic experiences.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.rachelcreeger.com https://www.jewtalkintome.com/ https://podstatus.com/podcasts/leaving-erinsborough-327103 https://www.instagram.com/upstairsatadamandeve HOST BIO Historian, performer, and mentor Danny Hurst has been engaging audiences for many years, whether as a lecturer, stand-up comic or intervention teacher with young offenders and excluded secondary students. Having worked with some of the most difficult people in the UK, he is a natural storyteller and entertainer, whilst purveying the most fascinating information that you didn't know you didn't know. A writer and host of pub quizzes across London, he has travelled extensively and speaks several languages. He has been a consultant for exhibitions at the Imperial War Museum and Natural History Museum in London as well as presenting accelerated learning seminars across the UK. With a wide range of knowledge ranging from motor mechanics to opera to breeding carnivorous plants, he believes learning is the most effective when it's fun. Uniquely delivered, this is history without the boring bits, told the way only Danny Hurst can. CONTACT AND SOCIALS https://instagram.com/dannyjhurstfacebook.com/danny.hurst.9638 https://twitter.com/dannyhurst https://www.linkedin.com/in/danny-hurst-19574720
Looks Unfamiliar is a podcast in which writer and occasional broadcaster Tim Worthington talks to a guest about some of the things that they remember that nobody else ever seems to.Joining Tim this time is political commentator Mark Thompson, who's off on the campaign trail in search of anyone who remembers Twiggy Twiggy (Twiggy Vs. James Bond) by Pizzicato Five, Your Party Needs You, Jasper Carrott's I've Got This Mole, Society, Lost In Austen, Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo and Shadow Chasers. Along the way we'll be debating the the importance of elongated faces in topical satire, revealing how to avert attacks by 'soldier ants', setting the Time Variance Authority on ITV schedulers and maybe, just ,maybe, finding out why Week Ending used Party Fears Two as its theme music...You can more editions of Looks Unfamiliar at http://timworthington.org/. You can also find Mark on Looks Unfamiliar talking about Whiz Kids, Crash ZX Spectrum, Night Shift, Public Information Film family The Blunders, The Last Train and The Drak Pack here, Libby's Moonshine, A. Mazing Monsters, Agony, Being Erica, Hawkeye Collins And Amy Adams – Can You Solve The Mystery? and We Know Where You Live plus an extra secret bit about watching television on holiday here and V: The Series, Dirty Dick, The Giftie, The Mad Death, The Different Story (World Of Lust And Crime) by Peter Schilling and Space Shuttle here.If you enjoy Looks Unfamiliar, you can help support the show by buying us a coffee here. Itsu made mo 'love and peace' (soshite kōhī mo).
In this latest bonus nugget of ‘Now and Ben' goodness, our sometime super sub Ben Bailey Smith chats to legendary film & TV writer Stephen Knight. He's penned some of the most exciting scripts to hit our screens over the last three decades, from ‘Dirty Pretty Things' and ‘Locke' to ‘SAS Rogue Heroes' and, of course, ‘Peaky Blinders'. Most recently he's written ‘Maria'—a biopic of opera singer Maria Callas in her last days as she tries to rediscover her voice in time for her swan song. Following 2021's ‘Spencer', it's Knight's second collaboration with director Pablo Larraín. Ben sits down with Steven for an in-depth chat about the exceptional career that's seen him become one of Britain's most prolific and best-known TV & film writers. They talk humble beginnings in British TV comedy with Jasper Carrott, and his journey from the backstreets of Birmingham and the small screen to the bright lights of Hollywood. Ben even gets a cheeky bit of gossip about the upcoming Peaky Blinders movie… Listen out for more of Ben's conversations with cinema's most exciting creative talents dropping into the feed every ‘Now and Ben'… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this edition of Behind the Scenes we meet one of Britain's busiest and most versatile television Script Supervisors – Laura Vine. In this candid, laugh-out-loud chat Laura talks about her 30 years at the BBC starting as Production Secretary, and then the freelance world beyond, working on everything from occasions of state to The Chelsea Flower Show, Carrot Confidential and The Sky at Night, where she enjoyed Sir Patrick Moore's little known 5-star culinary skills. Add to that international sport along with modern and Shakespearean productions at the National and RSC, there's hardly an aspect of telly she's not covered. Support the podcast by becoming a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/BEHINDTHESCENESWITHCOLINEDMONDS Colin Edmonds socials Facebook: colin.edmonds.73 Instagram: colinedmondsssm Twitter:@ColinEdmondsSSM Website: https://www.steamsmokeandmirrors.com/ Listen to all episodes of the podcast available on; Spotify Amazon Music Audible Apple Podcasts BOOKS Buy Steam, Smoke and Mirrors Available at Caffeine Nights Available at Amazon Available on Audible Buy The Lazarus Curiosity: Steam, Smoke and Mirrors 2 Available at Caffeine Nights Available at Amazon Available on Audible Buy The Nostradamus Curiosity: Steam, Smoke and Mirrors 3 Available at Caffeine Nights Available at Amazon
Autoglass repair? Okay cool, yeah I'm into this. I'm buying what you're selling. I'm picking up what you're putting down. A repaired windshield, well who could say no to that? What a deal! My beautiful original windshield, restored to its former glory, the idea delights my heart! What's that?! Autoglass REPLACE?! Well hold on just a minute!!! In this episode, Joe gets word from our podcast sponsors that one of us has been electing for dangerous and unapproved head surgeries. Log rediscovers the wondrous routines of Jasper Carrott. And Steve simply attends. Nobody can ever accuse him of not having been in the room.
Intro music from:Arthemis - Survivor (Destiny's Child Cover)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjYCOtYjCY4The Survivor is a 1981 supernatural horror Australian-British co-production directed by David Hemmings and starring Robert Powell, Jenny Agutter, and Joseph Cotten.In Adelaide, Australia (not Eton in the UK as in the original novel written by James Herbert), airline pilot David Keller (played by Powell) survives the crash of his Boeing 747-200, unhurt despite all 300 passengers dying in the accident. With no memories of the accident, he starts to suffer strange supernatural visions.Director David Hemmings is most famous for his acting roles, including Dildano in Barbarella, Marcus Daly in Dario Argento's Deep Red, and Thomas, the fashion photographer in the hugely successful avant-garde mystery film Blowup – a role turned down by Sean Connery because director Michelangelo Antonioni would not show him the full script but only a seven-page treatment stored in a cigarette packet. Hemmings would later feature in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with Connery 37 years later.Robert Powell, best known for his portrayal of a charismatic cult leader/son of a carpenter in the 1977 epic television drama series Jesus of Nazareth, also played secret agent Richard Hannay in The Thirty-Nine Steps, appeared in Ken Russell's Tommy as Captain Walker and, at the request of his friend and golf partner, comedian Jasper Carrott, co-starred in the BBC sitcom The Detectives (which ran for five series!). He also lent his voice to the 2002 rock opera The Hound of the Baskervilles by Clive Nolan and Oliver Wakeman, playing John Watson. Powell was considered for several roles in Lifeforce (featured in episode 39 of this podcast). A founder member of the Social Democratic Party in 1981, he campaigned alongside Barry Norman on behalf of the party's first leader, Roy Jenkins.Jenny Agutter (OBE), who plays the role of Hobbs the clairvoyant (a male character in the novel), is best known for her ongoing role in the inexplicably popular Call the Midwife. She also starred in two adaptations of The Railway Children, the critically acclaimed film Walkabout, and, relevant to this podcast, An American Werewolf in London (listen to episode 26 for more info). The film also features Joseph Cotten, (best man at Orson Welles's wedding to Rita Hayworth) appeared in five films selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant. In addition to these classics, he appeared in many films and TV programs, including, pertinent to this podcast, one episode of Tales of the Unexpected. He later admitted, "I was in a lot of junk. I get nervous when I don't work." This was his final motion picture, suffering a stroke shortly after working on it.James Herbert, author of the source novel, sent a note to David Hemmings offering his assistance. He never received a reply, and in 1988 dismissed this film and the later Deadly Eyes (the film adaptation of The Rats) as "They're terrible...absolute rubbish. I can only say - don't blame me." The Survivor was Herbert's third novel, published in 1976, coming after The Rats and The Fog.The music for this film is by Brian May! …but not the one you're thinking of... This is the Australian Brian May, who has an impressive musical CV, including: The Blue Lagoon, Gallipoli, Mad Max, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, Missing in Action 2 and Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.This was the first Australian movie to cost more than $1 million (Australian) to make. The location was shifted to OZ as a complex tax dodge, allowing English investors to completely write-off on the whole film. Get bonus content on PatreonSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/general-witchfinders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
WRITER: Nick Warburton DIRECTOR: Kim GreengrassDavid Archer…. Timothy Bentinck Jill Archer …. Patricia Greene Pip Archer …. Daisy Badger Alice Carter …. Hollie Chapman Chris Carter …. Wilf Scolding Susan Carter …. Charlotte Martin Harry Chilcott …. Jack Ashton Alan Franks …. John Telfer Usha Franks …. Souad Faress Emma Grundy…. Emerald O'Hanrahan George Grundy …. Angus Stobie Jakob Hakansson …. Paul Venables Freddie Pargetter …. Toby Laurence Stella Pryor…. Lucy Speed Lynda Snell MBE …. Carole Boyd Syksey …. Jasper Carrott
WRITER: Nick Warburton DIRECTOR: Kim GreengrassDavid Archer…. Timothy Bentinck Jill Archer …. Patricia Greene Pip Archer …. Daisy Badger Alice Carter …. Hollie Chapman Chris Carter …. Wilf Scolding Susan Carter …. Charlotte Martin Harry Chilcott …. Jack Ashton Alan Franks …. John Telfer Usha Franks …. Souad Faress Emma Grundy…. Emerald O'Hanrahan George Grundy …. Angus Stobie Jakob Hakansson …. Paul Venables Freddie Pargetter …. Toby Laurence Stella Pryor…. Lucy Speed Lynda Snell MBE …. Carole Boyd Syksey …. Jasper Carrott
WRITER: Daniel Thurman DIRECTOR: Julie Beckett & Kim GreengrassHelen Archer… Louiza Patikas Natasha Archer…. Mali Harries Tom Archer …. William Troughton Lilian Bellamy …. Sunny Ormonde Harrison Burns …. James Cartwright Alice Carter …. Hollie Chapman Harry Chilcott…. Jack Ashton Ian Craig …. Stephen Kennedy Justin Elliot…. Simon Williams Alan Franks …. John Telfer Emma Grundy …. Emerald O‘Hanrahan Jakob Hakannson …. Paul Venables Fallon Rogers …. Joanna Van Kampen Adil Shah…. Ronny Jhutti Lynda Snell MBE …. Carole Boyd Oliver Sterling …. Michael Cochrane Syksey …. Jasper Carrott
WRITER: Daniel Thurman DIRECTOR: Julie Beckett and Kim GreengrassHelen Archer… Louiza Patikas Natasha Archer…. Mali Harries Tom Archer …. William Troughton Lilian Bellamy …. Sunny Ormonde Harrison Burns …. James Cartwright Alice Carter …. Hollie Chapman Harry Chilcott…. Jack Ashton Ian Craig …. Stephen Kennedy Justin Elliot…. Simon Williams Alan Franks …. John Telfer Emma Grundy …. Emerald O‘Hanrahan Jakob Hakannson …. Paul Venables Fallon Rogers …. Joanna Van Kampen Adil Shah…. Ronny Jhutti Lynda Snell MBE …. Carole Boyd Oliver Sterling …. Michael Cochrane Syksey …. Jasper Carrott
Writer, Katie Hims Director, Rosemary Watts Editor, Jeremy Howe Ben Archer ..... Ben Norris Pip Archer ..... Daisy Badger Ruth Archer ..... Felicity Finch Helen Archer ..... Louiza Patikas Henry Archer ..... Blayke Darby Natasha Archer ..... Mali Harries Pat Archer ..... Patricia Gallimore Susan Carter ..... Charlotte Martin George Grundy ..... Angus Stobie Mia Grundy ..... Molly Pipe Brad Horrobin ..... Taylor Uttley Chelsea Horrobin ..... Madeleine Leslay Tracy Horrobin ..... Susie Riddell Stella Pryor ..... Lucy Speed Sykesy ..... Jasper Carrott
Writer, Katie Hims Director, Rosemary Watts Editor, Jeremy Howe Ben Archer ..... Ben Norris Pip Archer ..... Daisy Badger Ruth Archer ..... Felicity Finch Helen Archer ..... Louiza Patikas Henry Archer ..... Blayke Darby Natasha Archer ..... Mali Harries Pat Archer ..... Patricia Gallimore Susan Carter ..... Charlotte Martin George Grundy ..... Angus Stobie Mia Grundy ..... Molly Pipe Brad Horrobin ..... Taylor Uttley Chelsea Horrobin ..... Madeleine Leslay Tracy Horrobin ..... Susie Riddell Stella Pryor ..... Lucy Speed Sykesy ..... Jasper Carrott
Writer, Caroline Harrington Director, Rosemary Watts Editor, Jeremy Howe Ben Archer ….. Ben Norris Ruth Archer ….. Felicity Finch Jill Archer ….. Patricia Greene Helen Archer ….. Louiza Patikas Natasha Archer ….. Mali Harries Pat Archer ….. Patricia Gallimore Tom Archer ….. William Troughton Jolene Archer ….. Buffy Davis Kenton Archer ….. Richard Attlee Leonard Berry ….. Paul Copley Lee Bryce ….. Ryan Early Harrison Burns ….. James Cartwright Justin Elliott ….. Simon Williams Chelsea Horrobin ….. Madeleine Leslay Tracy Horrobin ….. Susie Riddell Joy Horville ….. Jackie Lye Jim Lloyd ….. John Rowe Kirsty Miller ….. Annabelle Dowler Lynda Snell ….. Carole Boyd Sykesy ….. Jasper Carrott
In a Talking Away special, Greg is joined by Bob Warman MBE who this year celebrates half a century since his television debut in 1973. A well-known face and voice in The Midlands, Bob is recognised all over the United Kingdom chiefly for his news reporting on Central News, formerly ATV Today. In a life full of colour and movement, Bob discusses how it all began and his friendships with Countdown star Richard Whiteley and motorcycle racer Percy Tait amongst many others. He also recalls the horror of reporting live from the scene of the Birmingham pub bombings in 1974. As well as the news reporting which became his trademark, including hosting the UK's first-ever breakfast TV show, Bob also presented The Price is Right and enjoyed an indoor firework party with Chris Tarrant. What are his opinions on social media and the fall of the manufacturing industry in Birmingham - and what does it take to be a successful broadcaster? With tributes from Jasper Carrott, Mary Nightingale, Nick Owen and Ozzy Osbourne.Follow @GregHainesTV on social media!X - https://x.com/greghainestvInsta - https://www.instagram.com/greghainestvYouTube - https://www.youtube.com/greghainestvContact Talking Away by email:TalkingAwayPodcast@gmail.com
Writer, Naylah Ahmed Director, Marina Caldarone Editor, Jeremy Howe Brian Aldridge ….. Charles Collingwood Ben Archer ….. Ben Norris Jill Archer ….. Patricia Greene Josh Archer ….. Angus Imrie Helen Archer ….. Louiza Patikas Alice Carter ….. Hollie Chapman Neil Carter ….. Brian Hewlett Susan Carter ….. Charlotte Martin Usha Franks ….. Souad Faress Clarrie Grundy ….. Heather Bell Eddie Grundy ….. Trevor Harrison Jakob Hakansson ….. Paul Venables Joy Horville ….. Jackie Lye Alistair Lloyd ….. Michael Lumsden Paul Mack ….. Joshua Riley Adam Macy ….. Andrew Wincott Sykesy ….. Jasper Carrott
This week's Dum Tee Dum is from Our Stephen Bowden and the podcast is sponsored by: Aaron SnowThis is Dumteedum, the show about the reality docu-drama that is centered on Ambridge in the heart of the Midlands. We hear from: Witherspoon who is concerned about Adam and Brian, Jen, Ambridge Pony Club who remembers a dear DumTeeDum friend Owen Kyffin, Aaron from Delaware who is surprised by Shula's absence, David from Carmarthenshire who has found The Archers Clunky this week, Christopher McKiddie who is interested in Helen and Lee's relationship, Marie Bray who asks what was the point of Jasper Carrott and formerly cycling Christine who has questions. We also have a new, and regular feature from our Stephen who can be relied upon to explain the ins and outs of some of our favourite Ambridge institutions!Plus we have Tweet of the week from Purple Pumpkin, our Theo. And we have the social media round-up from our Stephen.Don't forget if you search for DTD on Youtube, you'll be able to find hours of videos where I interview The Archers actors. We hear from: Richard in Krakow who questions Freddy's position in the Lower Loxley Trust, Witherspoon who has managed a mini DTD meet up this week, Jen, Ambridge Pony Club who has worked out how Brian will react to Stella buying a seed drill, Paul in Aulney whose favourite character is Susan, Our Glynn, who rang in before Jenny's funeral, Claire from Clapham who is asking about the future Post Office and village shop manager, and finally 2 New callerinerers Aaron who calls us from Delaware and David from Carmarthenshire.ACADEMIC ARCHERS AND DUMTEEDUM WEEKEND MASH-UP MEET-UP - WEEKEND TICKETSBOX OFFICE IS OPEN!Buy your Saturday-only ticket here: https://bmusic.co.uk/book/instance/1473936Buy your whole weekend ticket here: https://bmusic.co.uk/book/instance/1474336Buy your Saturday night dinner here: https://buytickets.at/academicarchers/855702Please call into the show using this link: https://www.speakpipe.com/dumteedum Do keep your call to a maximum of two minutes. The minimum age for contributors is 18.To support the show visit us at: https://www.patreon.com/dumteedumHow to Write a Podcast Review on Apple Podcasts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9QbySG2Exk&ab_channel=TheDigitalLearningConsultant Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Writer, Keri Davies Director, Peter Leslie Wild Editor, Jeremy Howe Brian Aldridge ….. Charles Collingwood Ben Archer ….. Ben Norris Josh Archer ….. Angus Imrie Helen Archer ….. Louiza Patikas Tony Archer ….. David Troughton Lilian Bellamy ….. Sunny Ormonde Lee Bryce ….. Ryan Early Harrison Burns ….. James Cartwright Alice Carter ….. Hollie Chapman Neil Carter ….. Brian Hewlett Susan Carter ….. Charlotte Martin Alan Franks ….. John Telfer Brad Horrobin ….. Taylor Uttley Chelsea Horrobin ….. Madeleine Leslay Kate Madikane ….. Perdita Avery Noluthando Madikane ….. Mogali Masuku Freddie Pargetter ….. Toby Laurence Lily Pargetter ….. Katie Redford Sykesy ….. Jasper Carrott
More than Mopeds with Jasper Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Our most interminable podcast format, Games Court, returns! 18 listeners' pre-owned games purchases go on trial in front of the corrupt Judge Castle, who delivers shaky justice from the courtroom of his dubious island nation. From Zelda on the CD-i to Jasper Carrott's Golden Balls on Wii and DS, it's an absolute treasure trove of nonsense this week. Sorry again for the continued existence of Games Court. This week's music is from the No More Heroes soundtrack by Masafumi Takada and Jun Fukuda. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The amazing Jasper Carrott
Jasper Carrott chats with James Watt about mopeds and millionaires, and much more
My latest guest is the former music mogul and legendary concert promoter Tim Parsons. It was a real joy to hear his stories from starting out as a "humper" (someone to move equipment) at an ELO gig to promoting Jasper Carrott, punk bands and heavy metal and the mighty Midland Concert Promotions which started in started in January 1978 with Tim and Maurice Jones. It as part of MCP, that Tim worked closely with both The Jam and The Style Council along with the likes of U2, INXS, Simply Red, The Police, Dire Straits, The Boomtown Rats, Oasis and Bon Jovi. We hear about his respect and love for John Weller (Paul's dad and manager ), we hear about the characters in the set up - the likes of Kenny Wheeler, Dave Liddle (Guitar Tech), Ian Harvey (Production Manager) and Ray 'Rat' Salter (Monitor Desk). From the mid-80s to mid-90s, MCP were undoubtedly the biggest in the business. At the height of their success they were putting on hundreds of shows each year, including open air shows in the summer and annual festivals such as Monsters of Rock. We also talk about his involvement in Live Aid in 1985, Oasis at Knebworth in 1996 and much more... Thanks for listening - make sure that you subscribe / follow and leave a review - and if you want to support the podcast financially, you can buy me a virtual coffee or our new official merchandise at paulwellerfanpodcast.com/store
Do You Wish To Gain Momentum In Your Magic Business?Angus Baskerville is a professional magician. He is based in Warwickshire, UK and has been studying and performing magic for just over 5 years now. He currently travels around the country performing magic at a wide variety of different events including weddings, corporate events, private parties, and promotions. He has entertained a variety of celebrities including Frank Bruno, Lee Ingleby, Jasper Carrott, and Melanie Sykes. Some of his other accomplishments include performing at the mayor's annual dinner, Autism's Got Talent, and the Mermaid Theatre. He is featured in MyTV's Chrissy B show and has entertained at the Autism Hero award ceremony. Angus also supports autism awareness by giving talks at conferences where he speaks about growing up with Asperger's Syndrome and ADHD. In this episode, Angus joins Aidan and Ashley to discuss his entertainment career and share his experience with the MOMENTUM programme. Topics Discussed Include: [00:55] Who Is Angus Baskerville? [03:20] Magic Business Before Gaining MOMENTUM [06:00] The Unpredictability Of Show Business [07:20] Exponential Rise In Angus' Fees [10:00] Transformation In The Booking Process [15:10] Why Angus Wasn't Sure About Joining The Programme [18:05] Advantages Of Being In A Like-Minded Community [20:15] Magic Business After Gaining MOMENTUM [24:10] Making £4k In Just One Day [26:50] One Key Takeaway From The Programme Find More About Angus Baskerville: Website: https://www.angusbaskerville.com/ (AngusBaskerville.com) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/angusbaskervillemagic (Angus Baskerville Magic) Bonus Resources: 3 Steps Grow Your Magic Business: https://thesuccessfulmentalist.com/momentum/ (TheSuccessfulMentalist.com/Momentum) Join Our Facebook Group: https://thesuccessfulmentalist.com/group (TheSuccessfulMentalist.com/Group) Did you enjoy this podcast? If so, don't forget to FOLLOW THE SHOW onhttps://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-successful-mentalist/id1512659543 ( Apple Podcasts) orhttps://open.spotify.com/show/41CivTlicy4DWUkDGoQh5n ( Spotify) so you never miss an episode! Also, if you could spend just 13 seconds and leave us a review on your preferred platform, we would really appreciate it. We want to get this information and these episodes into the hands of more magicians and entertainers across the globe so your help and support would mean the world to us. Share and tag us on Social Media (http://facebook.com/thesuccessfulmentalist (@TheSuccessfulMentalist)) or use the hashtag #thesuccessfulmentalist
James Watt chats to Jasper about his life and tour. Stand Up and Rock. Find out about those early days and his greatest hits! Plus his life as a top TV executive!
Steve Brown is a composer, music producer and performer perhaps best known for playing Glen Ponder in Steve Coogan's Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge. As a composer he's worked extensively with Harry Hill as MD on all his live shows, TV Burp, The Harry Hill Movie and the musical that they wrote together, I Can't Sing! The X Factor Musical. He wrote the West End hit musical, Spend Spend Spend and as a record producer he produced Seasons of My Soul by Rumer and the MOBO winning debut by Laura Mvula, Sing To The Moon. Steve has written the music for a number of hit television shows including Not Going Out, SM:TV Live, My Parents Are Aliens, Spitting Image, The Mary Whitehouse Experience, Newman and Baddiel, They Think It's All Over, Fantasy Football League, Lenny Henry Goes To Town, Rory Bremner, Jasper Carrott, Frank Skinner, Smith and Jones and Zig and Zag. Steve Brown is guest 159 on My Time Capsule and he chats to Michael Fenton Stevens about the five things he'd like to put in a time capsule; four he'd like to preserve and one he'd like to bury and never have to think about again .Follow My Time Capsule on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook: @MyTCpod .Follow Michael Fenton Stevens on Twitter: @fentonstevens and Instagram @mikefentonstevens .Produced and edited by John Fenton-Stevens for Cast Off Productions .Music by Pass The Peas Music .Artwork by Matthew Boxall .This podcast is proud to be associated with the charity Viva! Providing theatrical opportunities for hundreds of young people. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Welcome to Time Ram, the new podcast that mashes together different eras of Doctor Who. In this first episode, we reimagine Peter Capaldi's 'Mummy on the Orient Express' as if it was made in the Colin Baker era. Does it work? Is it better? Can we get Colin to take off that terrible jacket? What were Jasper Carrott and Tomek Bork up to in 1986? And what happens to Peri if she loses her spleen?
This week, we play our own personal game of “talk about the game show with the most suggestive name.” We break down the somewhat confusing rules, the incredible British-ness of a show hosted by a man named Jasper Carrott, and the studies social scientists have done about these peculiar golden balls.
BECOME A PRODUCER! http://www.patreon.com/themidnighttrainpodcast Find The Midnight Train Podcast: www.themidnighttrainpodcast.com www.facebook.com/themidnighttrainpodcast www.twitter.com/themidnighttrainpc www.instagram.com/themidnighttrainpodcast www.discord.com/themidnighttrainpodcast www.tiktok.com/themidnighttrainp And wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Subscribe to our official YouTube channel: OUR YOUTUBE Support our sponsors www.themidnighttraintrainpodcast.com/sponsors Ep. 112 Haunted Venues On today's episode we're going on tour!!! That's right Moody and myself are heading back out on the road and this time we're bringing Logan to carry our shit instead of us lugging everyone else's shit! Why are we heading out on tour you ask? Well it's because we are doing a tour of haunted music and theater venues throughout the world! This is an episode we've been wanting to do for a while especially because we've been to quite a few of these places! There's even one in our home town! Like we have at that certain Cleveland venue, we're sure some of our listeners have spent a ton of their time at some of the venues on the list. This is gonna be a fun one for us so hopefully you guys love it too! First up we've got a big one that will be on every list of haunted venues. The House Of Blues in Chicago. So the history of the building took a bit to find because every search for the house of blues in any city comes up with the main house of blues page but with a little digging we found some info on the building's history. The House of Blues is part of a complex called The Marina City complex. The Marina complex is also known as the Corn cob apparently, and looking at it… You can see why. If you're listening in Chicago and are like "what the fuck, nobody calls it that", will remember our mantra.. Don't blame us, blame the internet… Although we did find that reference in a couple spots. The Marina is a mix of residential condos and commercial buildings built between 1961-1968. The complex consists of two 587-foot, 65-story apartment towers, a 10-story office building which is now a hotel, and a saddle-shaped auditorium building originally used as a cinema. When finished, the two towers were both the tallest residential buildings and the tallest reinforced concrete structures in the world. The complex was built as a "city within a city", featuring numerous on-site facilities including a theater, gym, swimming pool, ice rink, bowling alley, stores, restaurants, and, of course, a marina. WLS-TV (ABC Channel 7) transmitted from an antenna atop Marina City until the Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower) was completed. Marina City was the first post-war urban high-rise residential complex in the United States and is widely credited with beginning the residential renaissance of American inner cities. These days the complex is home to the Hotel Chicago, 10pin bowling lounge, and several restaurants including… You fucking guessed it... Dick's Last Resort bitches!!! Oh and also the complex is home to the house of blues. The house of blues was built in the shell of the cinema which was out of use for quite some time. The story is that the hob is haunted by the spirit of a little girl that died due to an illness. There are many reports of weird things happening. The most circulated story seems to be that of a little boy who was playing with some of his toys toys. As he was playing he stepped away for a moment and when he came back he saw a little girl playing with his toys. She asked him if he'd like to play with her. FUCK THAT SHIT!!!! The little boy screamed and the girl vanished. Oddly enough, I did find a comment on one website from a man named Skyler seeming to corroborate this story. The comment reads as follows: " This can not be… no way… I have performed there 2 times. once was in 2013, and there was a boy in the back playing with his cars. a few minutes after he screamed and started to cry. I was feeling bad,, but this can't be him… also know that in 2015 in march i had another performance and all the lights turned off. This is too creepy." Was this the same boy that the story is referring too? Who knows. We also found several comments from people staying in what we assume is the hotel Chicago as it's in the complex and pretty much right next to the house of blues. There's comment also claim the hotel is haunted. One of the claims says this: "It's haunted!!! I saw a middle aged/older woman (dressed in clothing from a period long ago) in my room when I stayed there in 1999/2000. I woke in the early morning to see a woman staring at me. I went through a rational thought process of it being my female business colleague (who stayed in a separate room) and I thought, oh well she can sleep in the other bed (it was a double room & I was in the bed furthest away from the front door) and then quickly snapped out of it and said to myself she has her own room why would she be in my room, I opened my eyes again and that's when I could see it was a woman clearly (w/ angry face) staring at me. I then thought this is a stranger/intruder in my room – I laid there with my eyes just open enough to see – she was there staring at me & she still didn't look happy. I laid there thinking of what to do – I decided I was going to reach and turn the light on and then charge her or run after her when she ran for the door (fortunately, there was a switch right next to the bed). HOWEVER, when I reached for the light and turned it on she was gone. This is what makes this story interesting — I called the front desk and simply asked, ‘had anything significant ever happened at the site of the hotel' (b/c as the person above points out, its not an old or historic looking building (e.g. PreWar). I asked another question that any tourist could have just asked (I don't recall what it was right now). She said immediatley, “No, why did you see a ghost?” My response was, yea, I saw a ghost, I'm in my twenties and not some nut job.” I asked if anyone else had ever reported seeing a ghost and she said, “No.” Anyway, when I met up with my colleague, she could tell I was shaken up and I was pretty pale (like “I had seen a host.”). My story has never changed in all this time. I did stay at the hotel 1 other time after (not in the same room) & didn't see anything – but I slept with the bathroom light on… Scary & Cool experience for sure!" Sounds spooky! Next on our list of haunted venues we are heading to Milwaukee! Which is actually pronounced meely waukay, which is Algonquin for the good land. Now the Rave is amazing for several reasons: first it's the location of one of Moody's favorite tour stories which also involves Jon and our friend Brad from Voudoux. 2: it's huge and creepy as shit. 3: the pool... The Rave/Eagles Club is a 180,000 square foot, seven-level, live entertainment complex in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The building contains eight independent clubs with capacities ranging from 400 to 3500. The Eagles Ballroom is the building's showpiece, featuring a 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2) oval wooden dance floor, originally installed when the building was constructed, in addition to a large, old-fashioned domed ceiling and a stage on one side. Originally a ballroom, it has hosted everything from boxing matches to concerts to ethnic dances. The ballroom head hosted huge acts ranging from Bob Dylan to Green day, from the grateful dead to slayer and of course none other than Lil Pump. Along with the eagles ballroom, the building houses the Rave hall, The eagles hall, the Rave bar, The Rave craft beer lounge, The penthouse lounge, and the eagles club. Since its construction in 1926, the Eagles Club has known several incarnations. Prominently among them, it housed the Fraternal Order of the Eagles, a notable organization whose considerable impacts on America's cultural landscape remain in effect today. In 1939, the idea of using the building for music presentations took hold, reinventing its purpose. The grand ballroom became a popular venue for big band music, such as band leaders Guy Lombardo and Glen Miller and their orchestras. Soon, other types of music, theatre and performing arts also offered shows and concerts in the large, elegant ballroom; from 1939 through the mid-sixties. Comedians like Bob Hope and Red Skeleton did stand-up comedy. In 1959, people who bought a $1.50 ticket to the Winter Dance Party, were treated to the music of Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Big Bopper, Dion and the Belmonts, and Richie Valens. This would be the last show for buddy Holly before he died. In 1964, The Eagles Club had its first rock concert, with the Dave Clark Five performing on the ballroom stage. The 1970s brought even more famous groups and people, such as Eric Clapton, Crosby, Stills and Nash and other rising rock stars.When the Athletic Club was closed, a homeless men's shelter opened up temporarily in the basement area, providing shelter for the destitute which is life-saving during the freezing winter months. By the late 1980s, The Eagles Club was in a state of disrepair and The Eagle Club put it out on the real estate market, after getting it listed on The National Register of Historic Places, in 1986. In late 1992, the Eagles Club was rescued when it was bought by Wauwatosa businessman Anthony J. Balestrieri and his wife, Marjorie, who performed in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. They began the long process of restoring the historic beauty of the elegant ballroom and interior art, as well as the outside facade. They also restored and renovated other areas turning the building into the multi venue building it is today. We wanted to include this history because: A. We love the history of places like this and B. It shows how many things this building way used for and how many people have passed through the building. We all know where there tons of history there tends to be ghost stories! Let's get into the spooky shit! Remember the pool we mentioned earlier… Well at one point a 17 year old boy had a fucking heart attack and died in the pool. Later, at least two more children would die in the pool. This would ultimately cause the closure of the athletic club. Also the man who ran the homeless shelter was said to be extremely cruel and abusive to the men staying there. The basement area which is the home of the former men's shelter, is one of the more haunted areas. The shelter manager mentioned earlier is thought to be the reason behind the heavy negative energy felt there. Cold spots are often felt by staff in the late hours after closing. Shadow people have often been reported by staff as well as band members packing up after a show. Next is the pool area, which we've seen and it's fucking creepy. A little girl is said to roam around the area. People have heard her laughter and have said her presence can bring a sense of dread. Staff have said they have heard shuffling footsteps and have smelled a strong odor of bleach in the pool area. In the boiler room under the pool, a former employee still hangs and he doesn't like people in his area. "Jack" was once recorded telling a group on a ghost hunt to "get out, get out now" Apparently, you can find a video of this on YouTube, we'll try and find it to post on our page. The ballroom has had its share of apparitions hanging around during sound checks and after shows when everyone has left. An employee told a story of when he was standing on the floor of The Eagles Ballroom, making sure that the people going to the roof patio didn't “get lost” and go into the Eagles Ballroom by design. He said that one of his fellow workers had seen what they thought was a man, standing in one of the second floor boxes located above the Eagles Ballroom. He called security and when they approached this person, he ran down the aisle but disappeared before the staff person that was behind him and the security person cutting off his escape could try to grab him. One other common theme is people hearing either happy laughing children or sad crying children. Some staff have stated they've seen entities of children playing in groups. We've been here.. This place is awesome. Also another fun tidbit… not to far away from the Rave is the ambassador hotel. Which of you're up on your serial killers, you know is the place where Jeffrey Dahmer killed his first victim in Milwaukee. Steven Tuomi was Jeffrey Dahmer's first victim in Milwaukee. Dahmer met Tuomi in September of 1987. At the time, Dahmer was out on probation after molestation charges of a minor. The two men spent the night together drinking heavily and visiting multiple bars. Later that night, they ended up in a room together in the Ambassador, room 507, which is a room some Dahmer historians have requested to stay in. Dahmer killed Toumi while he was in a drunken stupor. Upon waking up to find Tuomi dead, Dahmer put the body in a suitcase and took it to his grandmother's house where he was living. In the basement, he acted out necrophiliac desires and then dismembered the body. Supposedly when Dahmer awoke to find Tuomi dead, the body was in an awkward position hanging off the side of the bed. Some visitors have reported instances of waking up to discover their partner in a similarly awkward position. Visitors to room 507 have reported a variety of experiences, such as a heaviness to the room that they can't quite explain. Some people get woken up in the middle of the night by odd circumstances. There's an extra little bit for ya!!! Info on the Hauntings and most of the historical facts on the Rave was taken from an excellent article on hauntedhouses.com Next up we're gonna head across the pond, so to speak. We're heading to London and the famous Royal Albert Hall! This place has a long and rich history behind it. The Royal Albert Hall was built on what was once the Gore estate, at the centre of which stood Gore House. The three acre estate was occupied by political reformer William Wilberforce between 1808-1828 and subsequently occupied between 1836-1849 by the Countess of Blessington and Count D'Orsay. After the couple left for Paris in May 1851, the house was opened as the ‘Universal Symposium of All Nations', a restaurant run by the first celebrity chef, Alexis Soyer, who planned to cater for the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park. After the exhibition and following the advice of Prince Albert, Gore House and its grounds were bought by the Exhibition's Royal Commission to create the cultural quarter known as Albertopolis. A complex of public Victorian buildings were developed to house exhibits from the Great Exhibition and to further the study of art, science and industry. On May 20, 1867 7,000 people gathered under a purpose-built marquee to watch Queen Victoria lay the Hall's red Aberdeen granite foundation stone, which today can be found underneath K stalls, row 11, seat 87 in the main auditorium. The Queen announced that “It is my wish that this Hall should bear his name to whom it will have owed its existence and be called The Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences”, as a 21 gun salute was heard from Hyde Park and a trumpet fanfare from HM Life Guards sounded. By December 1870 construction of the Hall had moved on so much that HM Queen Victoria and her daughter Princess Beatrice visited the Hall to listen to the acoustics. Almost three months later, on 25 February 1871, the Hall's first concert was held to an audience for 7,000 people comprising the workmen and their families, various officials and the invited public. Amateur orchestra, The Wandering Minstrels, played to test the acoustics from all areas of the auditorium. This place has been running as a venue for 150 years! Again… History breeds ghosts and Hauntings! There's so much history in this building that we are not going to be able to include but please check out the official website for the royal Albert Hall to really drive into the history of this place. You won't be sorry you did. We gave you the beginnings to show how long this place has been around. We're gonna get right into the spooky shit though! On 13 July 1930 the Spiritualist Association rented the Royal Albert Hall for a seance for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, following the death of the Sherlock author on 7 July. Conan Doyle was a spiritualist and believed in the existence beyond the grave. Upon his death 10,000 people gathered expectantly in the Hall to watch a medium take to the stage, hoping to witness some supernatural activity and hear a message from Conan Doyle from the other side… Lady Doyle: “Although I have not spoken to Arthur since he passed, I am certain that in his own time and his own way he will send a message to us” Time Magazine, 21 July 1930 Lady Conan Doyle took to the stage alongside members of his family, with a vacant chair on her right reserved for her late husband.Time Magazine, who attended the seance, reports: ‘Mrs. Estelle Roberts, clairvoyant, took the stage. She declared five spirits were “pushing” her. She cried out their messages. Persons in the audience confirmed their validity. Suddenly Mrs. Roberts looked at Sir Arthur's empty chair, cried: “He is here.” Lady Doyle stood up. The clairvoyant's eyes moved as though accompanying a person who was approaching her. “He is wearing evening clothes,” she murmured. She inclined her head to listen. A silent moment. Her head jerked up. She stared at Lady Doyle, shivered, ran to the widow, whispered. Persons nearby could hear: “Sir Arthur told me that one of you went into the hut [on the Doyle estate] this morning. Is that correct?” Lady Doyle, faltering: “Why, yes.” She beamed. Her eyes opened widely. The clairvoyant to Lady Doyle: “The message is this. Tell Mary [eldest daughter]…' Time Magazine, 21 July 1930 At this the audience rose in a clamor, and the great organ of the Hall began to peal, the noise drowning out the answer of Mrs Roberts. But what was the message delivered to Lady Doyle that night? Did the ghost of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle really visit the Royal Albert Hall on that night in 1930? Seances are always fun and definitely work as we found out...yea...right…. Here's some more stories taken straight from the RAH website! THE GIRLS Beneath the Door 6 foyer, in the carpeted basement area, there is one spot where two young women, known as ‘the girls', briefly appear each November 2nd a little before 2am, when the building is almost deserted, except for some security staff. Over the years, several staff members reported hearing ‘the girls' laughing, and seeing their animated and excited silhouettes appear, clothed in the fashion of slightly risqué Victorian ladies (extravagant long dark dresses embellished with lace from neck to bodice, with many ruffles, especially around the sleeves and hem, and their hair styled in cottage-loaf buns with ringlets hanging over their ears). The Duty Security Incident Book indicates that there had been appearances by ‘the girls' for the three years prior to 1991. They have been seen passing across the foyer space, which is bounded by double doors at each end, leading on one side to the staff canteen (where we still eat today) and on the other to the kitchen corridor, and then disappear. That is why some believe that ‘the girls' may be responsible for unexplained accidents, tappings and footsteps that occur behind locked doors late at night in the kitchens. Assistants Chefs, who have to clean the kitchen every night after use, often used to hear noises and have been frightened whilst in that area. FATHER WILLIS Whenever restoration work is carried out on our organ, its original constructor Henry Willis, fondly nicknamed ‘Father Willis', returns as a stooped ghost wearing a black skull cap. When the organ was being reconstructed in 1924, workmen saw a little old man walk down the stairs late one afternoon. On returning to their workshop and relating the facts, their foreman asked what the man was wearing. When told that he was donning a black skull cap, the foreman decided it was the ghost of Father Willis, the original builder of the organ, long since dead, who would not approve of the alterations being undertaken. Since then there have been many reports of a sudden cold atmosphere in the area behind the organ. When interviewed in 2018, Michael Broadway, the Hall's organ custodian was asked if he had ever seen signs of the legendary ghost of Henry Willis. He answered: “I remember the organ builder Clifford Hyatt telling me about this over forty years ago. The tuner […] was making the final visit of the Willis contract before the Harrison & Harrison rebuild in the 1920s. When he got up on to the Great passage board he saw Father Willis there saying ‘They shan't take my organ from me'. A lovely story, but I haven't seen him. There are many questions I would ask him and hopefully have his approval of the way I look after this instrument. Perhaps he has no reason to be disturbed.” THE MAN IN WHITE During a Jasper Carrott comedy event in May 1990, the Duty Manager was ordered to clear the Middle Choir seats and to post a Steward at either end to avoid anyone entering as it is very distracting for a performer to have people walking across the back of the stage during the show. That's why a very angry Stage Manager demanded on radio to know why there was someone crossing the stage. The description was of a man dressed in white, walking oddly as if on drugs. The Stewards insisted no one had passed them and on further investigation no one except Jasper Carrott was onstage, but several people had seen the figure cross the stage from left to right. THE VICTORIAN COUPLE A staff member during the 2000s reported having seen a couple in Victorian clothing walk across the second tier near to Door Six and vanish into a box. As a venue whose history is so closely tied to the Victorian times, this didn't seem particularly odd (people dress up sometimes…) But in 2011, a Head Steward was finishing off his shift one evening and had made sure that all members of the public had left the second tier. On going downstairs into the auditorium, he noticed a couple sitting in the box so he returned to the second tier but found no one in the box. He assumed they had left while he was on his way back, so once again he returned to the auditorium… Only to see them again. So he went back to the second tier, and that's when he heard the couple chattering. He assumed they were in the box but on opening the door, there was no one there. There are several more accounts on their website and tons and tons of stories all over the web about experiences at the historical venue. It sounds like it's one crazy place!!! We've got a couple more for you guys. Next up is another club we've been too, the Masquerade in Atlanta. The Masquerade features three indoor venues with capacities ranging from 300 to 1000, appropriately named Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. The Masquerade was founded in 1988 at the historic DuPre Excelsior Mill, a former excelsior mill at 695 North Avenue in the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood. The venue had both indoor and outdoor concert space. It was sold in 2006 and moved in late November 2016 after it was made part of a new mixed-use development called North + Line. The building was designated as historic by the city and all of the original parts will be saved through adaptive reuse. The masquerade had hosted tons of national and local acts from cannibal corpse to the greatest entertainer in history, Weird Al Yankovic. This night club is said to be visited by the spirits who died in fire and tuberculosis outbreaks long ago, both of which killed several members of the building's former staff. Apparitions have been seen and unexplained footsteps have been reported.One popular story is that of a large and tall black man who is always seen walking around the nightclub. The staff believes that it is this man who turns the musical amplifiers every night. The staff has also reported hearing footsteps from unidentified sources, as well as cold spots all throughout the building. Horrifying screams can also be heard coming from the back of the stairs even when there is no one there. They believe that the screams come from the young woman who died in a freakish accident in the nightclub. Nowadays, there are rumors that real vampires come to the nightclub and even live there. Some people believe that this rumor has been spread to promote business as vampires have suddenly become very popular. Next up were heading to Nashville and a place the Moody had been to, but not for music, for the national beard and mustache competition. He did not place unfortunately. The auditorium opened as the Union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892. Its construction was spearheaded by Thomas Ryman, a Nashville businessman who owned several saloons and a fleet of riverboats.When Ryman died in 1904, his memorial service was held at the tabernacle. During the service, it was proposed the building be renamed Ryman Auditorium, which was met with the overwhelming approval of the attendees. The building was originally designed to contain a balcony, but a lack of funds delayed its completion. The balcony was eventually built and opened in time for the 1897 gathering of the United Confederate Veterans, with funds provided by members of the group. As a result, the balcony was once called the Confederate Gallery.[5] Upon the completion of the balcony, the Ryman's capacity rose to 6,000. A stage was added in 1901 that reduced the capacity to just over 3,000. Though the building was designed to be a house of worship – a purpose it continued to serve throughout most of its early existence – it was often leased to promoters for nonreligious events in an effort to pay off its debts and remain open. In 1904, Lula C. Naff, a widow and mother who was working as a stenographer, began to book and promote speaking engagements, concerts, boxing matches, and other attractions at the Ryman in her free time. Naff gained a reputation for battling local censorship groups, who had threatened to ban various performances deemed too risqué. In 1939, Naff won a landmark lawsuit against the Nashville Board of Censors, which was planning to arrest the star of the play Tobacco Road due to its provocative nature. The court declared the law creating the censors to be invalid W.C. Fields, Will Rogers in 1925, Charlie Chaplin, Bob Hope with Doris Day in '49, Harry Houdini in '24, and John Philip Sousa (among others) performed at the venue over the years, earning the Ryman the nickname, "The Carnegie Hall of the South". The Ryman in its early years also hosted Marian Anderson in 1932, Bill Monroe (from KY) and the Bluegrass Boys in '45, Little Jimmy Dickens in '48, Hank Williams in '49, The Carter Sisters with Mother Maybelle Carter in 1950, Elvis in '54, Johnny Cash in '56, trumpeter Louis Armstrong in '57, Patsy Cline in '60, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs (bluegrass) in '64, and Minnie Pearl in '64. The Grand Ole Opry was first broadcast from the Ryman on June 5, 1943, and originated there every week for nearly 31 years thereafter. Every show sold out, and hundreds of fans were often turned away. During its tenure at Ryman Auditorium, the Opry hosted the biggest country music stars of the day and became a show known around the world. Melding its then-current usage with the building's origins as a house of worship, the Ryman got the nickname "The Mother Church of Country Music", which it still holds to this day. The last Opry show at the Ryman occurred the previous evening, on Friday, March 15. The final shows downtown were emotional. Sarah Cannon, performing as Minnie Pearl, broke character and cried on stage. When the plans for Opryland USA were announced, WSM president Irving Waugh also revealed the company's intent to demolish the Ryman and use its materials to construct a chapel called "The Little Church of Opryland" at the amusement park. Waugh brought in a consultant to evaluate the building, noted theatrical producer Jo Mielziner, who had staged a production at the Ryman in 1935. He concluded that the Ryman was "full of bad workmanship and contains nothing of value as a theater worth restoring." Mielziner suggested the auditorium be razed and replaced with a modern theater. Waugh's plans were met with resounding resistance from the public, including many influential musicians of the time. Members of historic preservation groups argued that WSM, Inc. (and Acuff, by proxy) exaggerated the Ryman's poor condition, saying the company was worried that attachment to the old building would hurt business at the new Opry House. Preservationists leaned on the building's religious history and gained traction for their case as a result. The outcry led to the building being added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Following the departure of the Opry, the Ryman sat mostly vacant and deteriorating for nearly 20 years, as the neighborhood surrounding it continued to see the increasing effects of urban decay. In 1986, as part of the Grand Ole Opry 60th-anniversary celebration, CBS aired a special program that featured some of the Opry's legendary stars performing at the Ryman. While the auditorium was dormant, major motion pictures continued to be filmed on location there, including John Carpenter's Elvis (1979), Coal Miner's Daughter (1980 – Loretta Lynn Oscar-winning biopic), Sweet Dreams (1985 – story of Patsy Cline), and Clint Eastwood's Honkytonk Man (1982). A 1979 television special, Dolly & Carol in Nashville, included a segment featuring Dolly Parton performing a gospel medley on the Ryman stage. In 1989, Gaylord Entertainment began work to beautify the Ryman's exterior. The structure of the building was also improved, as the company installed a new roof, replaced broken windows, and repaired broken bricks and wood. In October 1992, executives of Gaylord Entertainment announced plans to renovate the entire building and expand it to create modern amenities for performers and audiences alike, as part of a larger initiative to invest in the city's efforts to revitalize the downtown area. The first performance at the newly renovated Ryman was a broadcast of Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion on June 4, 1994. Beginning in November 1999, the Opry was held at Ryman Auditorium for three months, mostly due to the success of the January shows, but partly due to the ongoing construction of Opry Mills shopping mall next door to the Grand Ole Opry House. The Opry has returned to the Ryman for all of its November, December, and January shows every year since then, allowing the production to acknowledge its roots while also taking advantage of a smaller venue during the off-peak season for tourism and freeing the Grand Ole Opry House for special holiday presentations.The Ryman has also served as a gathering place for the memorial services of many prominent country music figures. Tammy Wynette, Chet Atkins, Skeeter Davis, Harlan Howard, Bill Monroe, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Billy Block, George Hamilton IV, Earl Scruggs, and Jim Ed Brown have all been memorialized from the Ryman stage. In 2018, the Ryman was named the most iconic structure in Tennessee by Architectural Digest. And just because….On June 9, 2019, Wu-Tang Clan performed the first pure rap concert ever at the Ryman. The concert was sold out. Again, we like to give history on these places for context and honestly it's just interesting to us so whatever. But this again illustrates the point that many crazy things happened here over the years as many many people have passed through this auditorium… Including Moody. Ok, so let's get to the ghosts and spooky shit. Ryman's spirit was fine with most performances but would rise if the people onstage were getting a bit risqué. Apparently, he disrupted shows by stomping around the room so loudly that spectators were forced to leave. Famously, the ghost wreaked havoc while the opera Carmen was taking place. Probably because it tells the story of a gypsy temptress. During the grand ole Opry period, rumors surfaced that the venue was cursed since apparently, most singers that performed there wound up dead. A total of 37 people met their fate in the most gruesome ways, dying from O.D.s, car accidents, fires, or slaughterings. Among the artists believed to have succumbed to the curse are: Stringbean Akeman, Patsy Cline, Texas Ruby, and many more. In a blog post by Virginia Lamkin titled Haunted Ryman Auditorium, the author explains that when the show relocated to the Opryland USA theme park, 14 additional acts died. It is believed that the curse followed because a large portion of the Ryman Auditorium stage was cut out and brought to the new location. The spirit often referred to as “The Grey Man,” is believed to have been one of the Confederate soldiers who frequented the auditorium during post-war gatherings. Some say they've witnessed him sitting in the balcony while artists rehearse. He watches the stage steadily but disappears as soon as anyone gets too close. ”The lady,” on the other hand, isn't a spectator; she's a performer. Believed to be the ghost of Patsy Cline, she has been heard singing by staff. Usually, her performance happens late at night as they prepare to close. Patsy Cline, who died tragically in a plane crash, has also been linked to the Opry Curse. Could the curse not only kill but also trap artists in the venue? Speaking of Opry Curse victims, Hank Williams is said to have been another casualty. The successful singer/songwriter passed away in 1953, after mixing prescription drugs with alcohol. Similar to the other artists haunting the auditorium, Hank's voice has been heard clear as day by employees. They have also heard his songs being played onstage, without explanation. Along with Patsy, Hank Williams' soul has lingered in the old venue ever since he passed. The info on the history of the ryman comes mostly from their own website while the stories of the hauntings we found on the website ghostcitytours.com Next up is the Phoenix theater in Petaluma California. The club has been in existence since 1905 and has changed in both structure and purpose, mostly due to severe damage caused by several fires. Petaluma's Phoenix Theater has been entertaining Sonoma County residents for over 116 years. Hosting everyone from the likes of Harry Houdini to Green Day, the fabled teen center and music venue has a varied and interesting history. The entertainment center opened in 1904 as the Hill Opera House. The structure was designed by San Francisco architect Charles Havens, who also designed Petaluma's Carlson-Currier Silk Mill in 1892. The Beaux Arts-style theater hosted operas, theatrical performances, high school graduations and music for over 15 years until the early 1920s when it was gutted by fire. In 1925, the venue reopened as the California Theatre playing silent films accompanied by music. A Jan. 24, 1925, Press Democrat article proclaimed the showplace the “largest playhouse in Petaluma and one of the finest theaters of Northern California.” A packed house attended the opening night performance which include a double feature picture show and live entertainment. The theater switched to movies with sound in later years and lost major sections of its roof to a second fire in 1957. Petaluma's Tocchini family bought the floundering venue in 1967 switching to a program of live music and entertainment. In 1983, the theater was renamed the Phoenix - reflecting its ability to be reborn from the ashes. Tom Gaffey, a young man who had grown up in Petaluma and worked at both the California and the Showcase theaters, was hired as manager, a position he holds to this day. The theater gained unwanted attention after a late-night performance by the band Popsicle Love Sponge performed a questionable act with the body of what was believed to be a dead chicken. The late-night shows ended, but the movies continued for a short time. Today the venue serves as a graffiti-covered teen center and venue for rock, punk, reggae and more. In 1996, it hosted the last show of the Long Beach ska band Sublime as well as rock and punk legends the Ramones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, X, Metallica and Primus. The guiding principle of the Phoenix has always been that it's "everyone's building" and this was formalized in the early 2000's when the Phoenix became a 501(c)3 nonprofit community center. This place sounds pretty awesome. This following except it's taken directly from their website : The Phoenix Theater is open seven days a week, generally from 3pm to 7pm, for drop-in “unstructured” use. Our building interior is large and soulful, with several rooms to accommodate a variety of activities. On a typical afternoon, you'll find kids playing acoustic music (we've got two pianos and a big stage), skateboarding (across the large wooden floor and up one of four quarter-pipe ramps), doing homework in the tutoring room, or sitting in one of the overstuffed sofas: reading, talking with friends, or napping. There's always a staff member onsite, but the atmosphere is casual. On top of this they have free music programs from lessons to recording to production to podcasting to band management and everything in between. Also they have many programs for teens in the art community to hone their skills. Not only that they have a teen health center to help inform teens and help them make better, more conscientious choices regarding their personal health. They also have services for transitive health and STD help as well. We feel like every town needs a place like this. Especially if it's haunted!!! Speaking of which we found an interview that Gaffney did where he talks about some of his experiences and other things that have happened. The following was taken from petaluma360.com: Gaffey began by talking about his earliest days. “It was my job to close the theater down. By 10:15 it would just be me, and whatever people were watching the movie. Near the end, I'd go up to the projection booth. After the audience exited, I'd turn off the projector, come down onto the stage where the sound equipment was, turn off the amps, check doors, balcony, bathrooms, lock the doors, hit the security alarm, then go out the door by the box office.” On three separate nights, as he was leaving, the box office phone rang. Gaffey explained the building had five phone stations. The light on the box office phone indicated the call was from the projection booth. “I'd have to turn off the alarm and pick up the phone. ‘Hello? Hello? Hello?' But there was nobody there. “You can't believe in ghosts when you're shutting down a theater. You have to check. “Three times I mustered my courage, turned the lights back on and burst into the projection booth. There was no one there. “That was my first experience, when I was an unknown here, a spooky ‘welcome back.'” Gaffey is quick to temper his conversation with “it could have been” and “maybe someone playing pranks.” He keeps an open mind. Ghosts or explainable experiences: it's for the individual to decide. “Blue lights have been seen floating through the building. There's the Little Kid: he'd been seen even when I was a kid working down here. And one night, sleeping on stage as a teen, I could hear and feel big footsteps. I never felt afraid. “The big guy has been felt by many over the years,” Gaffey said. “We named him Chris. Big Chris. He's the only ghost - if there are ghosts here - who's not from a show business background.” He added that psychics who've visited the theater have talked about Chris dating to the livery stable-era and that someone was murdered on this spot, possibly with a knife. But Gaffey continued firmly, “My experiences in this building have been warm and protective. “Chris had the spirit of the Phoenix before it became what it is. Chris may have loved this spot. I think it's one of the coolest corners in town.” He commented he sensed from the warmth he felt as he was talking that Chris was on stage, observing. Then there's the Little Kid - a boy. “That's an interesting one,” Gaffey said. “Again - a psychic had come in. First off, he talked about the guy in the attic [the projection booth], said he seemed to be older, white hair and faded green, almost khaki, clothing; tall, thin with angular knees and elbows. The older man, the psychic told Gaffey, is trying to make good on something wrong he felt he did to a child. The psychic added the old man hadn't, however, done anything. “I'm wondering,” Gaffey said, “if it's the little boy. This was the fly area” - the area to the rear of the stage where backdrops hung. “With stuff hanging here and ladder work, maybe the kid was injured. He's been seen by many. He's got shaggy hair, maybe less than five feet, wearing shorts or knickers, a wool suit and a cap, from the 1920s.” In the 1990s, a security guard for the thrash metal band GWAR got down off a ladder and asked, “Who's that little kid back there in the exit?” When no one could find the boy, the guard quit. There is much more to the interview and we would definitely recommend checking it out! We've got one one more venue for you guys even though there are a bunch more out there. Some of the more well known and covered places like Bobby Mackey's in Kentucky, The Avalon in Hollywood, Le Petit Théâtre du Vieux Carre in New Orleans, The rapids theater in Niagara falls NY among others we've left off but will definitely be back to cover at a future point as the history and Hauntings in these places is awesome. So that brings us to our home town of Cleveland Ohio and to the World famous Agora Theater. Now this a place where we've both spent many nights jamming out to some great fucking shows. And yes.. Whether you like it or not… Here comes some history fuckers. The first Agora in Cleveland, informally referred to as Agora Alpha, opened on February 26, 1966, at 2175 Cornell Road in Little Italy near the campus of Case Western Reserve University. In 1967, the Agora moved to a second building on East 24th Street near the campus of Cleveland State University. Once settled in their new location, the new Agora Ballroom, informally referred to as Agora Beta, played a role in giving exposure to many bands, both from the Cleveland area and abroad. Many artists such as Peter Frampton, Bruce Springsteen, Boston, Grand Funk Railroad, ZZ Top, Kiss and many others received much exposure after playing the Agora.[3] The Agora Ballroom was also the setting of the concert by Paul Simon's character in the opening minutes of the 1980 movie One-Trick Pony. The front facade of the Agora Ballroom was temporarily swapped for the one shown in the movie. It is also one of three locations used to record Todd Rundgren's live album Back to the Bars in 1978. The East 24th Street building also housed Agency Recording Studios, located above the Agora. The onsite recording studio and the close proximity to radio station WMMS allowed for high-quality live concert broadcasts from the Agora. Some of these concerts were later released commercially, including Bruce Springsteen's “The Agora, Cleveland 1978”, the Cars' “Live at the Agora 1978”, Ian Hunter's “You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic, Deluxe Edition” and Dwight Twilley Band's “Live From Agora”. The popularity of the club led the Agora to expand during the 1970s and 1980s, opening 12 other clubs in the cities of Columbus, Toledo, Youngstown, Painesville, Akron, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Tampa, Hallandale, Hartford, and New Haven. However, the Cleveland location is the only one still in existence today. In 1984, the Agora was damaged by a fire and closed. The building currently known as the Agora first opened on March 31, 1913, with an English performance of Aida as the Metropolitan Theatre. It was the brainchild of Max Faetkenheuer, an opera promoter and conductor who had also been involved in the construction of the monumental Hippodrome Theatre on Euclid Avenue five years earlier. The new opera house was well received and did well early on, but later struggled to stay profitable. Among various uses, the Metropolitan was home to a Cleveland's Yiddish theatre troupe in 1927. This brief episode in its history came to an end a few months later in 1928 after the troupe was involved in a bus accident on the way to a performance in Youngstown; the actors were too injured to perform and the venture went bankrupt. By 1932, the venue had turned into a vaudeville/burlesque house called "The Gayety," hosting "hoofers, comics and strippers." The Metropolitan returned to its original use for a short time during the mid-1940s staging comedic musicals, but by the end of the decade stage productions had ceased and the theatre became a full-time movie house. From 1951–78, the theater offices were home to radio stations WHK (1420 AM) and WMMS (100.7 FM); the theater itself was known as the WHK Auditorium. In 1968–69 the theater was known as the Cleveland Grande. In the early 1980s, it briefly re-opened as the New Hippodrome Theatre showing movies. Following the fire which damaged the Agora Ballroom on East 24th Street, club owner Henry LoConti, Sr. decided to move to the 5000 Euclid Avenue location. Following extensive renovations, the new Agora Metropolitan Theater, the third Cleveland venue to bear the Agora name, opened in October 1986. The Agora has two rooms: a 500-person capacity, standing-room-only ballroom with adjoining bar, and an 1800-seat theater. As far as some spooky shit goes, we were able to get some info straight from the source! We spoke with Mike who works at the agora and we got some cool stuff from him. In an email mine related the following information. "Prior to our merger with AEG Presents, I used to lead our ‘Ghost Tours' with a group called Black Sheep Paranormal. While I didn't know what to expect, and I wasn't exactly familiar with paranormal investigations, that quickly changed working with the group. One of the members of the Black Sheep Paranormal group was a retired police officer. Pretty easy to say he's seen some shit, and could be characterized as fearless. Another member told him to check out the men's room, where we have a utility closest between our sinks and stalls. From past experiences, we usually get some decent activity from that closest. However, nothing occurred this time. After giving up on this spot, the team member decided to use the bathroom. Seconds later, he hears **CLAP, CLAP, CLAP** from behind his neck, and he exited the bathroom about as white as a ghost. Oh man… Good thing he was in the bathroom in case he pissed himself!! This next story is pretty crazy. He talks about "The Cleaning Lady"! "One of the known spirits at The Agora, who we call “The Cleaning Lady,” as you could have guessed, was responsible for cleaning the venue many decades ago. While I'm not exactly sure what happened to her, she was said to have fallen off our balcony, and died. One night, during an investigation, we were sitting in silence at the top of our balcony on the left hand side. As we sat there, we started to hear sweeping sounds. As the broom sweeps started to happen for a few seconds, all of the sudden, the sound traveled from the left side of the venue, all the way to the right side of the venue. We couldn't really explain it, but that's exactly what happened." Wow! That's awesome! This next one would probably freak a lot of people out… but it's definitely cool. "Another occurrence was when we were up in one of the suite boxes up in the balcony. The venue was blacked out, and from where we were sitting, you could still see the bar area in our lower level. The bar had a mini fridge up against the wall that had lighting in it. We draped it off with a black table cloth, but there was still exposed light coming from the fridge. As we're sitting there, we see a shadow fading in, and fading out of the light. Almost as if a person was pacing back and forth. We were able to see this because of the light from the fridge. As this shadow figure is pacing back and forth for a good 30 – 60 seconds, one of our team members calls out “if anyone is over by the bar, please make a sound.” And I shit you not, with no hesitation, a stack of plastic cups falls off the bar and onto the ground. That was definitely one of my favorite experiences." Hopefully we get some action like that on our ghost hunt! Mike goes on to say that he actually got to see an apparition as well! "Over the years, we've heard and seen many things. We've had items that turn up missing, seen plenty of white anomalies, and other occurrences. Apparitions are rare, but sounds are usually constant. We've heard bangs on our doors, we've heard voices, we've even heard music; big band music to be specific. The apparition I've seen was an unreal experience. We were sitting in the balcony, and we just saw this shadow figure in one of the seats across/behind us. The figure was perfectly human-shaped, but you could see through it. It definitely seemed like it was staring at us the whole time. Sadly, my story telling doesn't do this moment very much justice. He said that a lot of the investigation stuff was mainly communication based with the spirits. He said they would ask questions and they frequently got answers. We asked about how the spirits would answer and he told us: "Most of the time in our investigations, we used dowsing rods for the questions, and asked them to cross the rods in a ‘yes or no' type of questioning. They were always responsive in this form. As long as we got it started, we usually were able to keep the questions going. Obviously, noises would happen all the time. I remember one evening just working (no event going on), but we use to have these ‘garage' type doors for our balcony entry. And for whatever reason, the spirts would not stop banging on them. Like something out of a movie, non-stop banging. That was the same day where my coworker went to use the bathroom, and as she was coming back to the office she heard “There she goes…” in a whisper type voice. Damn! That's some crazy shit! We would like to thank Mike for his time and this incredible stories of the strange stuff that occurs at the agora! Hometown spooky shit is always awesome! Top ten horror movie musicals https://screenrant.com/horror-musicals-best-ever-imdb/
Barry Cryer is perhaps best known as a panelist on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue on BBC Radio 4 but his career is so much more than that. Amongst other things, too many to mention, he has written for Dave Allen, Stanley Baxter, Jack Benny, Rory Bremner, George Burns, Jasper Carrott, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Dick Emery, Kenny Everett, Sir Bruce Forsyth, Sir David Frost, Bob Hope, Frankie Howerd, Richard Pryor, Spike Milligan, Mike Yarwood, The Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise. Barry Cryer is guest number 104 on My Time Capsule and chats to Michael Fenton Stevens about the five things he'd like to put in a time capsule; four he'd like to preserve and one he'd like to bury and never have to think about again .Follow My Time Capsule on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook: @MyTCpod .Follow Michael Fenton Stevens on Twitter: @fentonstevens & Instagram @mikefentonstevens .Produced and edited by John Fenton-Stevens for Cast Off Productions .Music by Pass The Peas Music .Artwork by Matthew Boxall .Social media support by Harriet Stevens .This podcast is proud to be associated with the charity Viva! Providing theatrical opportunities for hundreds of young people. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Barry Cryer is perhaps best known as a panelist on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue on BBC Radio 4 but his career is so much more than that. Amongst other things, too many to mention, he has written for Dave Allen, Stanley Baxter, Jack Benny, Rory Bremner, George Burns, Jasper Carrott, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Dick Emery, Kenny Everett, Sir Bruce Forsyth, Sir David Frost, Bob Hope, Frankie Howerd, Richard Pryor, Spike Milligan, Mike Yarwood, The Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise. Barry Cryer is guest number 104 on My Time Capsule and chats to Michael Fenton Stevens about the five things he'd like to put in a time capsule; four he'd like to preserve and one he'd like to bury and never have to think about again .Follow My Time Capsule on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook: @MyTCpod .Follow Michael Fenton Stevens on Twitter: @fentonstevens & Instagram @mikefentonstevens .Produced and edited by John Fenton-Stevens for Cast Off Productions .Music by Pass The Peas Music .Artwork by Matthew Boxall .Social media support by Harriet Stevens .This podcast is proud to be associated with the charity Viva! Providing theatrical opportunities for hundreds of young people. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Mike Parry and Lesley-Ann Jones are back with plenty of hot debate as Life on Planet Porky rolls on.Topics include: the Cheltenham festival, being unprepared for COVID, Andrew Lloyd Webber, being a less successful sibling, why you have to forgive and forget to truly let go, Jasper Carrott, Porky's pub punch-up, Kate Garraway's anguish, Sarah Harding's illness, Yuri Gagarin, flight attendants, joining the mile high club, Mauritius, the new Princess Diana statue, Dave Hill's mullet, and the return of the doorstep milkman. It's the podcast that always delivers, it's Life on Planet Porky! Follow the show on Twitter: @PlanetPorky or Mike is: @MikeParry8 while you can find Lesley-Ann: @LAJwriter.Or you can email us questions or comments to: planetporkypod@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you!
James Watt talks to the comedy genius that is Jasper Carrott
Jake Sanson takes us on a journey of comedy where some of the funniest men and women in entertainment mess around in cars, get it wrong and generally miss the corner all together. Featuring the talents of Victoria Wood, Eddie Izzard, Harry Enfield, Jasper Carrott, Michael McIntyre, John Bishop and Dick Emery, plus many more. WARNING - This programme contains strong language and material that may offend some listeners.
Jake Sanson takes us on a journey of comedy where some of the funniest men and women in entertainment mess around in cars, get it wrong and generally miss the corner all together. Featuring the talents of Victoria Wood, Eddie Izzard, Harry Enfield, Jasper Carrott, Michael McIntyre, John Bishop and Dick Emery, plus many more. WARNING - This programme contains strong language and material that may offend some listeners.
This week there are two episiodes of the podcast going up, both of them longer than normal. This one, episode one hundred, is the hundredth-episode special and is an hour and a half long. It looks at the early career of the Beatles, and at the three recordings of "Love Me Do". Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "Misirlou" by Dick Dale and the Deltones. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ ----more---- Resources No Mixclouds this week, as both episodes have far too many songs by one artist. The mixclouds will be back with episode 101. While there are many books on the Beatles, and I have read dozens of them, only one needs to be mentioned as a reference for this episode (others will be used for others). All These Years Vol 1: Tune In by Mark Lewisohn is simply the *only* book worth reading on the Beatles' career up to the end of 1962. It is the most detailed, most accurate, biography imaginable, and the gold standard by which all other biographies of musicians should be measured. I only wish volumes two and three were available already so I could not expect my future episodes on the Beatles to be obsolete when they do come out. There are two versions of the book -- a nine-hundred page mass-market version and a 1700-page expanded edition. I recommend the latter. The information in this podcast is almost all from Lewisohn's book, but I must emphasise that the opinions are mine, and so are any errors -- Lewisohn's book only has one error that I'm aware of (a joke attributed to the comedian Jasper Carrott in a footnote that has since been traced to an earlier radio show). I am only mortal, and so have doubtless misunderstood or oversimplified things and introduced errors where he had none. The single version of "Love Me Do" can be found on Past Masters, a 2-CD compilation of the Beatles' non-album tracks that includes the majority of their singles and B-sides. The version with Andy White playing on can be found on Please Please Me. The version with Pete Best, and many of the other early tracks used here, is on Anthology 1. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Errata I pronounce the name of Lewisohn's book as "All Those Years" instead of "All These Years". I say " The Jets hadn't liked playing at Williams' club" at one point. I meant "at Koschmider's club" Transcript The Beatles came closer than most people realise to never making a record. Until the publication of Mark Lewisohn's seminal biography All These Years vol 1: Tune In, in 2013 everyone thought they knew the true story -- John met Paul at Woolton Village Fete in 1957, and Paul joined the Quarrymen, who later became the Beatles. They played Hamburg and made a demo, and after the Beatles' demo was turned down by Decca, their manager Brian Epstein shopped it around every record label without success, until finally George Martin heard the potential in it and signed them to Parlophone, a label which was otherwise known for comedy records. Martin was, luckily, the one producer in the whole of the UK who could appreciate the Beatles' music, and he signed them up, and the rest was history. The problem is, as Lewisohn showed, that's not what happened. Today I'm going to tell, as best I can the story of how the Beatles actually became the band that they became, and how they got signed to EMI records. I'm going to tell you the story of "Love Me Do": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Love Me Do (single version)"] As I mentioned at the beginning, this episode owes a *huge* debt to Mark Lewisohn's book. I like to acknowledge my sources, anyway, but I've actually had difficulty with this episode because Lewisohn's book is *so* detailed, *so* full, and written *so* well that much of the effort in writing this episode came from paring down the information, rather than finding more, and from reworking things so I was not just paraphrasing bits of his writing. Normally I rely on many sources, and integrate the material myself, but Lewisohn has done all that work far better than any other biographer of any other musician. Were the Beatles not such an important part of music history, I would just skip this episode because there is nothing for me to add. As it is, I *obviously* have to cover this, but I almost feel like I'm cheating in doing so. If you find this episode interesting at all, please do yourself a favour and buy that book. This episode is going to be a long one -- much longer than normal. I won't know the precise length until after I've recorded and edited it, of course, but I'm guessing it's going to be about ninety minutes. This is the hundredth episode, the end of the second year of the podcast, the end of the second book based on the podcast, and the introduction of the single most important band in the whole story, so I'm going to stretch out a bit. I should also mention that there are a couple of discussions of sudden, traumatic, deaths in this episode. With all that said, settle in, this is going to take a while. Every British act we've looked at so far -- and many of those we're going to look at in the next year or two -- was based in London. Either they grew up there, or they moved there before their musical career really took off. The Beatles, during the time we're covering in this episode, were based in Liverpool. While they did eventually move to London, it wasn't until after they'd started having hits. And what listeners from outside the UK might not realise is what that means in terms of attitudes and perceptions. Liverpool is a large city -- it currently has a population of around half a million, and the wider Liverpool metropolitan area is closer to two million -- but like all British cities other than London, it was regarded largely as a joke in the British media, and so in return the people of Liverpool had a healthy contempt for London. To give Americans some idea of how London dominates in Britain, and thus how it's thought of outside London, imagine that New York, Washington DC, and Los Angeles were all the same city -- that the financial, media, and political centres of the country were all the same place. Now further imagine that Silicon Valley and all the Ivy League universities were half an hour's drive from that city. Now, imagine how much worse the attitudes that that city would have about so-called "flyover states" would be, and imagine in return how people in large Midwestern cities like Detroit or Chicago would think about that big city. In this analogy, Liverpool is Detroit, and like Detroit, it was very poor and had produced a few famous musicians, most notably Billy Fury, who was from an impoverished area of Liverpool called the Dingle: [Excerpt: Billy Fury, "Halfway to Paradise"] But Fury had, of course, moved to London to have his career. That's what you did. But in general, Liverpool, if people in London thought of it at all, was thought of as a provincial backwater full of poor people, many of them Irish, and all of them talking with a ridiculous accent. Liverpool was ignored by London, and that meant that things could develop there out of sight. The story of the Beatles starts in the 1950s, with two young men in their mid-teens. John Winston Lennon was born in 1940, and had had a rather troubled childhood. His father had been a merchant seaman who had been away in the war, and his parents' relationship had deteriorated for that and other reasons. As a result, Lennon had barely known his father, and when his mother met another man, Lennon's aunt, Mary Smith, who he always called Mimi, had taken him in, believing that his mother "living in sin" would be a bad influence on the young boy. The Smith family were the kind of lower middle class family that seemed extremely rich to the impoverished families in Liverpool, but were not well off by any absolute standard. Mimi, in particular, was torn between two very different urges. On one hand, she had strongly bohemian, artistic, urges -- as did all of her sisters. She was a voracious reader, and a lover of art history, and encouraged these tendencies in John. But at the same time, she was of that class which has a little status, but not much security, and so she was extremely wary of the need to appear respectable. This tension between respectability and rebellion was something that would appear in many of the people who Lennon later worked with, such as Brian Epstein and George Martin, and it was something that Lennon would always respond to -- those people would be the only ones who Lennon would ever view as authority figures he could respect, though he would also resent them at times. And it might be that combination of rebellion and respectability that Lennon saw in Paul McCartney. McCartney was from a family who, in the Byzantine world of the British class system of the time, were a notch or so lower than the Smith family who raised Lennon, but he was academically bright, and his family had big plans for him -- they thought that it might even be possible that he might become a teacher if he worked very hard at school. McCartney was a far less openly rebellious person than Lennon was, but he was still just as caught up in the music and fashions of the mid-fifties that his father associated with street gangs and hooliganism. Lennon, like many teenagers in Britain at the time, had had his life changed when he first heard Elvis Presley, and he had soon become a rock and roll obsessive -- Elvis was always his absolute favourite, but he also loved Little Richard, who he thought was almost as good, and he admired Buddy Holly, who had a special place in Lennon's heart as Holly wore glasses on stage, something that Lennon, who was extremely short-sighted, could never bring himself to do, but which at least showed him that it was a possibility. Lennon was, by his mid-teens, recreating a relationship with his mother, and one of the things they bonded over was music -- she taught him how to play the banjo, and together they worked out the chords to "That'll Be the Day", and Lennon later switched to the guitar, playing banjo chords on five of the six strings. Like many, many, teenagers of the time, Lennon also formed a skiffle group, which he called the Quarrymen, after a line in his school song. The group tended to have a rotating lineup, but Lennon was the unquestioned leader. The group had a repertoire consisting of the same Lonnie Donegan songs that every other skiffle group was playing, plus any Elvis and Buddy Holly songs that could sound reasonable with a lineup of guitars, teachest bass, and washboard. The moment that changed the history of the music, though, came on July the sixth, 1957, when Ivan Vaughan, a friend of Lennon's, invited his friend Paul McCartney to go and see the Quarry Men perform at Woolton Village Fete. That day has gone down in history as "the day John met Paul", although Mark Lewisohn has since discovered that Lennon and McCartney had briefly met once before. It is, though, the day on which Lennon and McCartney first impressed each other musically. McCartney talks about being particularly impressed that the Quarry Men's lead singer was changing the lyrics to the songs he was performing, making up new words when he forgot the originals -- he says in particular that he remembers Lennon singing "Come Go With Me" by the Del-Vikings: [Excerpt: The Del-Vikings, "Come Go With Me"] McCartney remembers Lennon as changing the lyrics to "come go with me, right down to the penitentiary", and thinking that was clever. Astonishingly, some audio recording actually exists of the Quarry Men's second performance that day -- they did two sets, and this second one comes just after Lennon met McCartney rather than just before. The recording only seems to exist in a very fragmentary form, which has snatches of Lennon singing "Baby Let's Play House" and Lonnie Donegan's hit "Puttin' on the Style", which was number one on the charts at the time, but that even those fragments have survived, given how historic a day this was, is almost miraculous: [Excerpt: The Quarrymen, "Puttin' on the Style"] After the first set, Lennon met McCartney, who was nearly two years younger, but a more accomplished musician -- for a start, he knew how to tune the guitar with all six strings, and to proper guitar tuning, rather than tuning five strings like a banjo. Lennon and his friends were a little nonplussed by McCartney holding his guitar upside-down at first -- McCartney is left-handed -- but despite having an upside-down guitar with the wrong tuning, McCartney managed to bash out a version of Eddie Cochran's "Twenty-Flight Rock", a song he would often perform in later decades when reminding people of this story: [Excerpt: Paul McCartney, "Twenty-Flight Rock"] This was impressive to Lennon for three reasons. The first was that McCartney was already a strong, confident performer -- he perhaps seemed a little more confident than he really was, showing off in front of the bigger boys like this. The second was that "Twenty-Flight Rock" was a moderately obscure song -- it hadn't charted, but it *had* appeared in The Girl Can't Help It, a film which every rock and roll lover in Britain had watched at the cinema over and over. Choosing that song rather than, say, "Be-Bop-A-Lula", was a way of announcing a kind of group affiliation -- "I am one of you, I am a real rock and roll fan, not just a casual listener to what's in the charts". I stress that second point because it's something that's very important in the history of the Beatles generally -- they were *music fans*, and often fans of relatively obscure records. That's something that bound Lennon and McCartney, and later the other members, together from the start, and something they always noted about other musicians. They weren't the kind of systematic scholars who track down rare pressings and memorise every session musician's name, but they were constantly drawn to find the best new music, and to seek it out wherever they could. But the most impressive thing for Lennon -- and one that seems a little calculated on McCartney's part, though he's never said that he thought about this that I'm aware of -- was that this was an extremely wordy song, and McCartney *knew all the words*. Remember that McCartney had noticed Lennon forgetting the words to a song with lyrics as simple as "come, come, come, come, come into my heart/Tell me darling we will never part", and here's McCartney singing this fast-paced, almost patter song, and getting the words right. From the beginning, McCartney was showing how he could complement Lennon -- if Lennon could impress McCartney by improvising new lyrics when he forgot the old ones, then McCartney could impress Lennon by remembering the lyrics that Lennon couldn't -- and by writing them down for Lennon, sharing his knowledge freely. McCartney went on to show off more, and in particular impressed Lennon by going to a piano and showing off his Little Richard imitation. Little Richard was the only serious rival to Elvis in Lennon's affections, and McCartney could do a very decent imitation of him. This was someone special, clearly. But this put Lennon in a quandary. McCartney was clearly far, far, better than any of the Quarry Men -- at least Lennon's equal, and light years ahead of the rest of them. Lennon had a choice -- invite this young freak of nature into his band, and improve the band dramatically, but no longer be the unquestioned centre of the group, or remain in absolute control but not have someone in the group who *knew the words* and *knew how to tune a guitar*, and other such magical abilities that no mere mortals had. Those who only know of Lennon from his later reputation as a massive egoist would be surprised, but he decided fairly quickly that he had to make the group better at his own expense. He invited McCartney to join the group, and McCartney said yes. Over the next few months the membership of the Quarry Men changed. They'd been formed while they were all at Quarry Bank Grammar School, but that summer Lennon moved on to art school. I'm going to have to talk about the art school system, and the British education system of the fifties and early sixties a lot over the next few months, but here's an extremely abbreviated and inaccurate version that's good enough for now. Between the ages of eleven and sixteen, people in Britain -- at least those without extremely rich parents, who had a different system -- went to two kinds of school depending on the result of an exam they took aged eleven, which was based on some since-discredited eugenic research about children's potential. If you passed the exam, you were considered academically apt, and went to a grammar school, which was designed to filter you through to university and the professions. If you failed the exam, you went to a secondary modern, which was designed to give you the skills to get a trade and make a living working with your hands. And for the most part, people followed the pipeline that was set up for them. You go to grammar school, go to university, become a lawyer or a doctor or a teacher. You go to secondary modern, leave school at fourteen, become a plumber or a builder or a factory worker. But there are always those people who don't properly fit into the neat categories that the world tries to put them in. And for people in their late teens and early twenties, people who'd been through the school system but not been shaped properly by it, there was another option at this time. If you were bright and creative, but weren't suited for university because you'd failed your exams, you could go to art school. The supposed purpose of the art schools was to teach people to do commercial art, and they would learn skills like lettering and basic draughtsmanship. But what the art schools really did was give creative people space to explore ideas, to find out about areas of art and culture that would otherwise have been closed to them. Keith Richards, Pete Townshend, Ian Dury, Ray Davies, Bryan Ferry, Syd Barrett, and many more people we'll be seeing over the course of this story went to art school, and as David Bowie would put it later, the joke at the time was that you went to art school to learn to play blues guitar. With Lennon and his friends all moving on from the school that had drawn them together, the group stabilised for a time on a lineup of Lennon, McCartney, Colin Hanton, Len Garry, and Eric Griffiths. But the first time this version of the group played live, while McCartney sang well, he totally fluffed his lead guitar lines on stage. While there were three guitarists in the band at this point, they needed someone who could play lead fluently and confidently on stage. Enter George Harrison, who had suddenly become a close friend of McCartney. Harrison went to the same school as McCartney -- a grammar school called the Liverpool Institute, but was in the year below McCartney, and so the two had always been a bit distant. However, at the same time as Lennon was moving on to art school after failing his exams, McCartney was being kept back a year for failing Latin -- which his father always thought was deliberate, so he wouldn't have to go to university. Now he was in the same year at school as Harrison, and they started hanging out together. The two bonded strongly over music, and would do things like take a bus journey to another part of town, where someone lived who they heard owned a copy of "Searchin'" by the Coasters: [Excerpt: The Coasters, "Searchin'"] The two knocked on this stranger's door, asked if he'd play them this prized record, and he agreed -- and then they stole it from him as they left his house. Another time they took the bus to another part of town again, because they'd heard that someone in that part of town knew how to play a B7 chord on his guitar, and sat there as he showed them. So now the Quarrymen needed a lead guitarist, McCartney volunteered his young mate. There are a couple of stories about how Harrison came to join the band -- apparently he auditioned for Lennon at least twice, because Lennon was very unsure about having such a young kid in his band -- but the story I like best is that Harrison took his guitar to a Quarry Men gig at Wilson Hall -- he'd apparently often take his guitar to gigs and just see if he could sit in with the bands. On the bill with the Quarry Men was another group, the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group, who were generally regarded as the best skiffle band in Liverpool. Lennon told Harrison that he could join the band if he could play as well as Clayton, and Harrison took out his guitar and played "Raunchy": [Excerpt: Bill Justis, "Raunchy"] I like this story rather than the other story that the members would tell later -- that Harrison played "Raunchy" on a bus for Lennon -- for one reason. The drummer in the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group was one Richy Starkey, and if it happened that way, the day that George joined the Quarry Men was also the day that John, Paul, George, and Ringo were all in the same place for the first time. George looked up to John and essentially idolised him, though Lennon thought of him as a little annoying at times -- he'd follow John everywhere, and not take a hint when he wasn't wanted sometimes, just eager to be with his big cool new mate. But despite this tiny bit of tension, John, Paul, and George quickly became a solid unit -- helped by the fact that the school that Paul and George went to was part of the same complex of buildings as Lennon's art college, so they'd all get the bus there and back together. George was not only younger, he was a notch or two further down the social class ladder than John or Paul, and he spoke more slowly, which made him seem less intelligent. He came from Speke, which was a rougher area, and he would dress even more like a juvenile delinquent than the others. Meanwhile, Len Garry and Eric Griffiths left the group -- Len Garry because he became ill and had to spend time in hospital, and anyway they didn't really need a teachest bass. What they did need was an electric bass, and since they had four guitars now they tried to persuade Eric to get one, but he didn't want to pay that much money, and he was always a little on the outside of the main three members, as he didn't share their sense of humour. So the group got Nigel Walley, who was acting as the group's manager, to fire him. The group was now John, Paul, and George all on guitars, and Colin Hanton on drums. Sometimes, if they played a venue that had a piano, they'd also bring along a schoolfriend of Paul's, John "Duff" Lowe, to play piano. Meanwhile, the group were growing in other ways. Both John and Paul had started writing songs, together and apart. McCartney seems to have been the first, writing a song called "I Lost My Little Girl" which he would eventually record more than thirty years later: [Excerpt: Paul McCartney, "I Lost My Little Girl"] Lennon's first song likewise sang about a little girl, this time being "Hello, Little Girl". By the middle of 1958, this five-piece group was ready to cut their first record -- at a local studio that would cut a single copy of a disc for you. They went into this studio at some time around July 1958, and recorded two songs. The first was their version of "That'll Be the Day": [Excerpt: The Quarry Men, "That'll be the Day"] The B-side was a song that McCartney had written, with a guitar solo that George had come up with, so the label credit read "McCartney/Harrison". "In Spite of All the Danger" seems to have been inspired by Elvis' "Trying to Get to You": [Excerpt: Elvis Presley, "Trying to Get to You"] It's a rough song, but a good attempt for a teenager who had only just started writing songs: [Excerpt: The Quarry Men, "In Spite of All the Danger"] Apparently Lowe and Hanton hadn't heard the song before they started playing, but they make a decent enough fist of it in the circumstances. Lennon took the lead even though it was McCartney's song -- he said later "I was such a bully in those days I didn’t even let Paul sing his own song." That was about the last time that this lineup of Quarry Men played together. In July, the month that seems likely for the recording, Lowe finished at the Liverpool Institute, and so he drifted away from McCartney and Harrison. Meanwhile Hanton had a huge row with the others after a show, and they fell out and never spoke again. The Quarry Men were reduced to a trio of Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison. But -- possibly the very day after that recording if an unreliable plaque at the studio where they recorded it is to be believed -- something happened which was to have far more impact on the group than the drummer leaving. John Lennon's mother, with whom he'd slowly been repairing his relationship, had called round to visit Mimi. She left the house, and bumped into Nigel Walley, who was calling round to see John. She told him he wasn't there, and that he could walk with her to the bus stop. They walked a little while, then went off in different directions. Walley heard a thump and turned round -- Julia Lennon had been hit by a car and killed instantly. As you can imagine, John's mother dying caused him a huge amount of distress, but it also gave him a bond with McCartney, whose own mother had died of cancer shortly before they met. Neither really spoke about it to each other, and to the extent they did it was with ultra-cynical humour -- but the two now shared something deeper than just the music, even though the music itself was deep enough. Lennon became a much harder, nastier, person after this, at least for a time, his natural wit taking on a dark edge, and he would often drink too much and get aggressive. But life still went on, and John, Paul, and George kept trying to perform -- though the gigs dried up, and they didn't have a drummer any more. They'd just say "the rhythm's in the guitars" when asked why they didn't have one. They were also no longer the Quarry Men -- they didn't have a name. At one point late in the year, they also only had two guitars between the three of them -- Lennon seems to have smashed his in a fit of fury after his mother's death. But he stole one backstage at a talent contest, and soon they were back to having three. That talent show was one run by Carroll Levis, who we talked about before in the episode on "Shakin' All Over". The three boys went on Levis' show, this time performing as Johnny & The Moondogs -- in Manchester, at the Hippodrome in Ancoats, singing Buddy Holly's "Think it Over": [Excerpt: The Crickets, "Think it Over"] Lennon sang lead with his arms draped over the shoulders of Paul and George, who sang backing vocals and played guitar. They apparently did quite well, but had to leave before the show finished to get the last train back to Liverpool, and so never found out whether the audience would have made them the winner, with the possibility of a TV appearance. They did well enough, though, to impress a couple of other young lads on the bill, two Manchester singers named Allan Clarke and Graham Nash. But in general, the Japage Three, a portmanteau of their names that they settled on as their most usual group name at this point, played very little in 1959 -- indeed, George spent much of the early part of the year moonlighting in the Les Stewart Quartet, another group, though he still thought of Lennon and McCartney as his musical soulmates; the Les Stewart Quartet were just a gig. The three of them would spend much of their time at the Jacaranda, a coffee bar opened by a Liverpool entrepreneur, Allan Williams, in imitation of the 2is, which was owned by a friend of his. Lennon was also spending a lot of time with an older student at his art school, Stuart Sutcliffe, one of the few people in the world that Lennon himself looked up to. The Les Stewart Quartet would end up indirectly being key to the Beatles' development, because after one of their shows at a local youth club they were approached by a woman named Mona Best. Mona's son Pete liked to go to the youth club, but she was fairly protective of him, and also wanted him to have more friends -- he was a quiet boy who didn't make friends easily. So she'd hit upon a plan -- she'd open her own club in her cellar, since the Best family were rich enough to have a big house. If there was a club *in Pete's house* he'd definitely make lots of friends. They needed a band, and she asked the Les Stewart Quartet if they'd like to be the resident band at this new club, the Casbah, and also if they'd like to help decorate it. They said yes, but then Paul and George went on a hitch-hiking holiday around Wales for a few days, and George didn't get back in time to play a gig the quartet had booked. Ken Brown, the other guitarist, didn't turn up either, and Les Stewart got into a rage and split the group. Suddenly, the Casbah had no group -- George and Ken were willing to play, but neither was a lead singer -- and no decorators either. So George roped in John and Paul, who helped decorate the place, and with the addition of Ken Brown, the group returned to the Quarry Men name for their regular Saturday night gig at the Casbah. The group had no bass player or drummer, and they all kept pestering everyone they knew to get a bass or a drum kit, but nobody would bite. But then Stuart Sutcliffe got half a painting in an exhibition put on by John Moores, the millionaire owner of Littlewoods, who was a big patron of the arts in Liverpool. I say he got half a painting in the exhibition, because the painting was done on two large boards -- Stuart and his friends took the first half of the painting down to the gallery, went back to get the other half, and got distracted by the pub and never brought it. But Moores was impressed enough with the abstract painting that he bought it at the end of the exhibition's run, for ninety pounds -- about two thousand pounds in today's money. And so Stuart's friends gave him a choice -- he could either buy a bass or a drum kit, either would be fine. He chose the bass. But the same week that Stuart joined, Ken Brown was out, and they lost their gig at the Casbah. John, Paul, George and Ken had turned up one Saturday, and Ken hadn't felt well, so instead of performing he just worked on the door. At the end of the show, Mona Best insisted on giving Ken an equal share of the money, as agreed. John, Paul, and George wouldn't stand for that, and so Ken was out of the group, and they were no longer playing for Mona Best. Stuart joining the group caused tensions -- George was fine with him, thinking that a bass player who didn't yet know how to play was better than no bass player at all, but Paul was much less keen. Partly this was because he thought the group needed to get better, which would be hard with someone who couldn't play, but also he was getting jealous of Sutcliffe's closeness to Lennon, especially when the two became flatmates. But John wanted him in the group, and what John wanted, he got. There are recordings of the group around this time that circulate -- only one has been released officially, a McCartney instrumental called "Cayenne", but the others are out there if you look: [Excerpt: The Quarry Men, "Cayenne"] The gigs had dried up again, but they did have one new advantage -- they now had a name they actually liked. John and Stuart had come up with it, inspired by Buddy Holly's Crickets. They were going to be Beatles, with an a. Shortly after the Beatles' first appearance under that name, at the art school student union, came the Liverpool gig which was to have had Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent headlining, before Cochran died. A lot of Liverpool groups were booked to play on the bill there, but not the Beatles -- though Richy Starkey was going to play the gig, with his latest group Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. Allan Williams, the local promoter, added extra groups to fill out the bill, including Gerry and the Pacemakers, and suddenly everyone who loved rock and roll in Liverpool realised that there were others out there like them. Overnight, a scene had been born. And where there's a scene, there's money to be made. Larry Parnes, who had been the national promoter of the tour, was at the show and realised that there were a lot of quite proficient musicians in Liverpool. And it so happened that he needed backing bands for three of his artists who were going on tour, separately -- two minor stars, Duffy Power and Johnny Gentle, and one big star, Billy Fury. And both Gentle and Fury were from Liverpool themselves. So Parnes asked Allan Williams to set up auditions with some of the local groups. Williams invited several groups, and one he asked along was the Beatles, largely because Lennon and Sutcliffe begged him. He also found them a drummer, Tommy Moore, who was a decade older than the rest of them -- though Moore didn't turn up to the audition because he had to work, and so Johnny "Hutch" Hutchinson of Cass and the Cassanovas sat in with them, much to Hutch's disgust -- he hated the Beatles, and especially Lennon. Cass of the Cassanovas also insisted that "the Beatles" was a stupid name, and that the group needed to be Something and the Somethings, and he suggested Long John and the Silver Beatles, and that stuck for a couple of shows before they reverted to their proper name. The Beatles weren't chosen for any of the main tours that were being booked, but then Parnes phoned Williams up -- there were some extra dates on the Johnny Gentle tour that he hadn't yet booked a group for. Could Williams find him a band who could be in Scotland that Friday night for a nine-day tour? Williams tried Cass and the Cassanovas, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and Gerry and the Pacemakers, but none of them could go on tour at such short notice. They all had gigs booked, or day jobs they had to book time off with. The Beatles had no gigs booked, and only George had a day job, and he didn't mind just quitting that. They were off to Scotland. They were so inspired by being on tour with a Larry Parnes artist that most of them took on new names just like those big stars -- George became Carl Harrison, after Carl Perkins, Stuart became Stuart de Staël, after his favourite painter, and Paul became Paul Ramon, which he thought sounded mysterious and French. There's some question about whether John took on a new name -- some sources have him becoming "Long John", while others say he was "Johnny" Lennon rather than John. Tommy Moore, meanwhile, was just Thomas Moore. It was on this tour, of course, that Lennon helped Johnny Gentle write "I've Just Fallen For Someone", which we talked about last week: [Excerpt: Darren Young, "I've Just Fallen For Someone"] The tour was apparently fairly miserable, with horrible accommodation, poor musicianship from the group, and everyone getting on everyone's nerves -- George and Stuart got into fistfights, John bullied Stuart a bit because of his poor playing, and John particularly didn't get on well with Moore -- a man who was a decade older, didn't share their taste in music, and worked in a factory rather than having the intellectual aspirations of the group. The two hated each other by the end of the tour. But the tour did also give the group the experience of signing autographs, and of feeling like stars in at least a minor way. When they got back to Liverpool, George moved in with John and Stuart, to get away from his mum telling him to get a proper job, and they got a few more bookings thanks to Williams, but they soon became drummerless -- they turned up to a gig one time to find that Tommy Moore wasn't there. They went round to his house, and his wife shouted from an upstairs window, "Yez can piss off, he's had enough of yez and gone back to work at the bottle factory". The now four-piece group carried on, however, and recordings exist of them in this period, sounding much more professional than only a few months before, including performances of some of their own songs. The most entertaining of these is probably "You'll Be Mine", an Ink Spots parody with some absurd wordplay from Lennon: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "You'll Be Mine"] Soon enough the group found another drummer, Norm Chapman, and carried on as before, getting regular bookings thanks to Williams. There was soon a temporary guest at the flat John, Stuart, and George shared with several other people -- Royston Ellis, the Beat poet and friend of the Shadows, had turned up in Liverpool and latched on to the group, partly because he fancied George. He performed with them a couple of times, crashed at the flat, and provided them with two formative experiences -- he gave them their first national press, talking in Record and Show Mirror about how he wanted them to be his full-time group, and he gave them their first drug experience, showing them how to get amphetamines out of inhalers. While the group's first national press was positive, there was soon some very negative press indeed associated with them. A tabloid newspaper wanted to do a smear story about the dangerous Beatnik menace. The article talked about how "they revel in filth", and how beatniks were "a dangerous menace to our young people… a corrupting influence of drug addicts and peddlers, degenerates who specialise in obscene orgies". And for some reason -- it's never been made clear exactly how -- the beatnik "pad" they chose to photograph for this story was the one that John, Stuart, and George lived in, though they weren't there at the time -- several of their friends and associates are in the pictures though. They were all kicked out of their flat, and moved back in with their families, and around this time they lost Chapman from the group too -- he was called up to do his National Service, one of the last people to be conscripted before conscription ended for good. They were back to a four-piece again, and for a while Paul was drumming. But then, as seems to have happened so often with this group, a bizarre coincidence happened. A while earlier, Allan Williams had travelled to Hamburg, with the idea of trying to get Liverpool groups booked there. He'd met up with Bruno Koschmider, the owner of a club called the Kaiserkeller. Koschmider had liked the idea, but nothing had come of it, partly because neither could speak the other's language well. A little while later, Koschmider had remembered the idea and come over to the UK to find musicians. He didn't remember where Williams was from, so of course he went to London, to the 2is, and there he found a group of musicians including Tony Sheridan, who we talked about back in the episode on "Brand New Cadillac", the man who'd been Vince Taylor's lead guitarist and had a minor solo career: [Excerpt: Tony Sheridan, "Why?"] Sheridan was one of the most impressive musicians in Britain, but he also wanted to skip the country -- he'd just bought a guitar on credit in someone else's name, and he also had a wife and six-month-old baby he wanted rid of. He eagerly went off with Koschmider, and a scratch group called the Jets soon took up residence at the Kaiserkeller. Meanwhile, in Liverpool, Derry and the Seniors were annoyed. Larry Parnes had booked them for a tour, but then he'd got annoyed at the unprofessionalism of the Liverpool bands he was booking and cancelled the booking, severing his relationship with Williams. The Seniors wanted to know what Williams was going to do about it. There was no way to get them enough gigs in Liverpool, so Williams, being a thoroughly decent man who had a sense of obligation, offered to drive the group down to London to see if they could get work there. He took them to the 2is, and they were allowed to get up and play there, since Williams was a friend of the owner. And Bruno Koschmider was there. The Jets hadn't liked playing at Williams' club, and they'd scarpered to another one with better working conditions, which they helped get off the ground and renamed the Top Ten, after Vince Taylor's club in London. So Bruno had come back to find another group, and there in the same club at the same time was the man who'd given him the idea in the first place, with a group. Koschmider immediately signed up Derry and the Seniors to play at the Kaiserkeller. Meanwhile, the best gig the Beatles could get, also through Williams, was backing a stripper, where they played whatever instrumentals they knew, no matter how inappropriate, things like the theme from The Third Man: [Excerpt: Anton Karas, "Theme from The Third Man"] A tune guaranteed to get the audience into a sexy mood, I'm sure you'll agree. But then Allan Williams got a call from Koschmider. Derry and the Seniors were doing great business, and he'd decided to convert another of his clubs to be a rock and roll club. Could Williams have a group for him by next Friday? Oh, and it needed to be five people. Williams tried Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. They were busy. He tried Cass and the Cassanovas. They were busy. He tried Gerry and the Pacemakers. They were busy. Finally, he tried the Beatles. They weren't busy, and said yes they could go to Hamburg that week. There were a few minor issues, like there not being five of them, none of them having passports, and them not having a drummer. The passports could be sorted quickly -- there's a passport office in Liverpool -- but the lack of a fifth Beatle was more of a problem. In desperation, they turned eventually to Pete Best, Mrs. Best's son, because they knew he had a drum kit. He agreed. Allan Williams drove the group to Hamburg, and they started playing six-hour sets every night at the Indra, not finishing til three in the morning, at which point they'd make their way to their lodgings -- the back of a filthy cinema. By this time, the Beatles had already got good -- Howie Casey, of Derry and the Seniors, who'd remembered the Beatles as being awful at the Johnny Gentle audition, came over to see them and make fun of them, but found that they were far better than they had been. But playing six hours a night got them *very* good *very* quickly -- especially as they decided that they weren't going to play the same song twice in a night, meaning they soon built up a vast repertoire. But right from the start, there was a disconnect between Pete Best and the other four -- they socialised together, and he went off on his own. He was also a weak player -- he was only just starting to learn -- and so the rest of the group would stamp their feet to keep him in time. That, though, also gave them a bit more of a stage act than they might otherwise have had. There are lots of legendary stories about the group's time in Hamburg, and it's impossible to sort fact from fiction, and the bits we can sort out would get this podcast categorised as adult content, but they were teenagers, away from home for a long period for the first time, living in a squalid back room in the red light district of a city with a reputation for vice. I'm sure whatever you imagine is probably about right. After a relatively short time, they were moved from the Indra, which had to stop putting on rock and roll shows, to the Kaiserkeller, where they shared the bill with Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, up to that point considered Liverpool's best band. There's a live recording of the Hurricanes from 1960, which shows that they were certainly powerful: [Excerpt: Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, "Brand New Cadillac"] That recording doesn't have the Hurricanes' normal drummer on, who was sick for that show. But compared to what the Beatles had become -- a stomping powerhouse with John Lennon, whose sense of humour was both cruel and pointed, doing everything he could to get a rise out of the audience -- they were left in the dust. A letter home that George Harrison wrote sums it up -- "Rory Storm & the Hurricanes came out here the other week, and they are crumby. He does a bit of dancing around but it still doesn’t make up for his phoney group. The only person who is any good in the group is the drummer." That drummer was Richy Starkey from the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group, now performing as Ringo Starr. They struck up a friendship, and even performed together at least once -- John, Paul, George, and Ringo acting as the backing group for Lu Walters of the Hurricanes on a demo, which is frustratingly missing and hasn't been heard since. They were making other friends, too. There was Tony Sheridan, who they'd seen on TV, but who would now sometimes jam with them as equals. And there was a trio of arty bohemian types who had stumbled across the club, where they were very out of place -- Astrid Kirscherr, Klaus Voormann, and Jurgen Vollmer. They all latched on to the Beatles, and especially to Stuart, who soon started dating Astrid, despite her speaking no English and him speaking no German. But relations between Koschmider and the Beatles had worsened, and he reported to the police that George, at only seventeen, was under-age. George got deported. The rest of the group decided to move over to the Top Ten Club, and as a parting gift, Paul and Pete nailed some condoms to their bedroom wall and set fire to them. Koschmider decided to report this to the police as attempted arson, and those two were deported as well. John followed a week later, while Stuart stayed in Hamburg for a while, to spend more time with Astrid, who he planned to marry. The other four regrouped, getting in a friend, Chas Newby, as a temporary bass player while Stuart was away. And on the twenty-seventh of December, 1960, when they played Litherland Town Hall, they changed the Liverpool music scene. They were like nothing anyone had ever seen, and the audience didn't dance -- they just rushed to the stage, to be as close to the performance as possible. The Beatles had become the best band in Liverpool. Mark Lewisohn goes further, and suggests that the three months of long nights playing different songs in Hamburg had turned them into the single most experienced rock band *in the world* -- which seems vanishingly unlikely to me, but Lewisohn is not a man given to exaggeration. By this time, Mona Best had largely taken over the group's bookings, and there were a lot of them, as well as a regular spot at the Casbah. Neil Aspinall, a friend of Pete's, started driving them to gigs, while they also had a regular MC, Bob Wooler, who ran many local gigs, and who gave the Beatles their own theme music -- he'd introduce them with the fanfare from Rossini's William Tell Overture: [Excerpt: Rossini, "William Tell Overture"] Stuart came over from Hamburg in early January, and once again the Beatles were a five-piece -- and by now, he could play quite well, well enough, at any rate, that it didn't destroy the momentum the group had gathered. The group were getting more and more bookings, including the venue that would become synonymous with them, the Cavern, a tiny little warehouse cellar that had started as a jazz club, and that the Quarry Men had played once a couple of years earlier, but had been banned from for playing too much rock and roll. Now, the Beatles were getting bookings at the Cavern's lunchtime sessions, and that meant more than it seemed. Most of the gigs they played otherwise were on the outskirts of the city, but the Cavern was in the city centre. And that meant that for the lunchtime sessions, commuters from outside the city were coming to see them -- which meant that the group got fans from anywhere within commuting distance, fans who wanted them to play in their towns. Meanwhile, the group were branching out musically -- they were particularly becoming fascinated by the new R&B, soul, and girl-group records that were coming out in the US. After already having loved "Money" by Barrett Strong, John was also obsessed with the Miracles, and would soon become a fervent fan of anything Motown, and the group were all big fans of the Shirelles. As they weren't playing original material live, and as every group would soon learn every other group's best songs, there was an arms race on to find the most exciting songs to cover. As well as Elvis and Buddy and Eddie, they were now covering the Shirelles and Ray Charles and Gary US Bonds. The group returned to Hamburg in April, Paul and Pete's immigration status having been resolved and George now having turned eighteen, and started playing at the Top Ten club, where they played even longer sets, and more of them, than they had at the Kaiserkeller and the Indra. Tony Sheridan started regularly joining them on stage at this time, and Paul switched to piano while Sheridan added the third guitar. This was also when they started using Preludin, a stimulant related to amphetamines which was prescribed as a diet drug -- Paul would take one pill a night, George a couple, and John would gobble them down. But Pete didn't take them -- one more way in which he was different from the others -- and he started having occasional micro-sleeps in the middle of songs as the long nights got to him, much to the annoyance of the rest of the group. But despite Pete's less than stellar playing they were good enough that Sheridan -- the single most experienced musician in the British rock and roll scene -- described them as the best R&B band he'd ever heard. Once they were there, they severed their relationship with Allan Williams, refusing to pay him his share of the money, and just cutting him out of their careers. Meanwhile, Stuart was starting to get ill. He was having headaches all the time, and had to miss shows on occasion. He was also the only Beatle with a passion for anything else, and he managed to get a scholarship to study art with the famous sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi, who was now working in Hamburg. Paul subbed for Stuart on bass, and eventually Stuart left the group, though on good terms with everyone other than Paul. So it was John, Paul, George and Pete who ended up making the Beatles' first records. Bert Kaempfert, the most important man in the German music industry, had been to see them all at the Top Ten and liked what he saw. Outside Germany, Kaempfert was probably best known for co-writing Elvis' "Wooden Heart", which the Beatles had in their sets at this time: [Excerpt: Elvis Presley, "Wooden Heart"] Kaempfert had signed Tony Sheridan to a contract, and he wanted the Beatles to back him in the studio -- and he was also interested in recording a couple of tracks with them on their own. The group eagerly agreed, and their first session started at eight in the morning on the twenty-second of June 1961, after they had finished playing all night at the club, and all of them but Pete were on Preludin for the session. Stuart came along for moral support, but didn't play. Pete was a problem, though. He wasn't keeping time properly, and Kaempfert eventually insisted on removing his bass drum and toms, leaving only a snare, hi-hat, and ride cymbal for Pete to play. They recorded seven songs at that session in total. Two of them were just by the Beatles. One was a version of "Ain't She Sweet", an old standard which Gene Vincent had recorded fairly recently, but the other was the only track ever credited to Lennon and Harrison as cowriters. On their first trip to Hamburg, they'd wanted to learn "Man of Mystery" by the Shadows: [Excerpt: The Shadows, "Man of Mystery"] But there was a slight problem in that they didn't have a copy of the record, and had never heard it -- it came out in the UK while they were in Germany. So they asked Rory Storm to hum it for them. He hummed a few notes, and Lennon and Harrison wrote a parody of what Storm had sung, which they named "Beatle Bop" but by this point they'd renamed "Cry For a Shadow": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Cry For a Shadow"] The other five songs at the session were given over to Tony Sheridan, with the Beatles backing him, and the song that Kaempfert was most interested in recording was one the group had been performing on stage -- a rocked-up version of the old folk song "My Bonnie": [Excerpt: Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers, "My Bonnie"] That was the record chosen as the single, but it was released not as by Tony Sheridan and the Beatles, but by Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers -- "Beatles", to German ears, sounded a little like "piedels", a childish slang term for penises. The Beatles had made their first record, but it wasn't one they thought much of. They knew they could do better. The next week, the now four-piece Beatles returned to Liverpool, with much crying at Stuart staying behind -- even Paul, now Stuart was no longer a threat for John's attention, was contrite and tried to make amends to him. On their return to Liverpool, they picked up where they had left off, playing almost every night, and spending the days trying to find new records -- often listening to the latest releases at NEMS, a department store with an extensive record selection. Brian Epstein, the shop's manager, prided himself on being able to get any record a customer wanted, and whenever anyone requested anything he'd buy a second copy for the shelves. As a result, you could find records there that you wouldn't get anywhere else in Liverpool, and the Beatles were soon adding more songs by the Shirelles and Gary US Bonds to their sets, as well as more songs by the Coasters and Ben E. King's "Stand By Me". They were playing gigs further afield, and Neil Aspinall was now driving them everywhere. Aspinall was Pete Best's closest friend -- and was having an affair with Pete's mother -- but unlike Pete himself he also became close to the other Beatles, and would remain so for the rest of his life. By this point, the group were so obviously the best band on the Liverpool scene that they were starting to get bored -- there was no competition. And by this point it really was a proper scene -- John's old art school friend Bill Harry had started up a magazine, Mersey Beat, which may be the first magazine anywhere in the world to focus on one area's local music scene. Brian Epstein from NEMS had a column, as did Bob Wooler, and often John's humorous writing would appear as well. The Beatles were featured in most issues -- although Paul McCartney's name was misspelled almost every time it appeared -- and not just because Lennon and Harry were friends. By this point there were the Beatles, and there were all the other groups in the area. For several months this continued -- they learned new songs, they played almost every day, and they continued to be the best. They started to find it boring. The one big change that came at this point was when John and Paul went on holiday to Paris, saw Vince Taylor, bumped into their friend Jurgen from Hamburg, and got Jurgen to do their hair like his -- the story we told in the episode on "Brand New Cadillac". They now had the Beatles haircut, though they were still wearing leather. When they got back, George copied their new style straight away, but Pete decided to leave his hair in a quiff. There was nowhere else to go without a manager to look after them. They needed management -- and they found it because of "My Bonnie": [Excerpt: Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers, "My Bonnie"] "My Bonnie" was far from a great record, but it was what led to everything that followed. The Beatles had mentioned from the stage at the Cavern that they had a record out, and a young man named Raymond Jones walked into NEMS and asked for a copy of it. Brian Epstein couldn't find it in the record company catalogues, and asked Jones for more information -- Jones explained that they were a Liverpool group, but the record had come out in Germany. A couple of days later, two young girls came into the shop asking for the same record, and now Epstein was properly intrigued -- in his view, if *two* people asked for a record, that probably meant a lot more than just two people wanted it. He decided to check these Beatles out for himself. Epstein was instantly struck by the group, and this has led to a lot of speculation over the years, because his tastes ran more to Sibelius than to Little Richard. As Epstein was also gay, many people have assumed that the attraction was purely physical. And it might well have been, at least in part, but the suggestion that everything that followed was just because of that seems unlikely -- Epstein was also someone who had a long interest in the arts, and had trained as an actor at RADA, the most prestigious actors' college in the UK, before taking up his job at the family store. Given that the Beatles were soon to become the most popular musicians in the history of the world, and were already the most popular musicians in the Liverpool area, the most reasonable assumption must be that Epstein was impressed by the same things that impressed roughly a billion other people over the next sixty years. Epstein started going to the Cavern regularly, to watch the Beatles and to make plans -- the immaculately dressed, public-school-educated, older rich man stood out among the crowd, and the Beatles already knew his face from his record shop, and so they knew something was going on. By late November, Brian had managed to obtain a box of twenty-five copies of "My Bonnie", and they'd sold out within hours. He set up a meeting with the Beatles, and even before he got them signed to a management contract he was using his contacts with the record industry in London to push the Beatles at record companies. Those companies listened to Brian, because NEMS was one of their biggest customers. December 1961, the month they signed with Brian Epstein, was also the month that they finally started including Lennon/McCartney songs in their sets. And within a couple of weeks of becoming their manager, even before he'd signed them to a contract, Brian had managed to persuade Mike Smith, an A&R man from Decca, to come to the Cavern to see the group in person. He was impressed, and booked them in for a studio session. December 61 was also the first time that John, Paul, George, and Ringo played together in that lineup, without any other musicians, when on the twenty-seventh of December Pete called in sick for a show, and the others got in their friend to cover for him. It wouldn't be the last time they would play together. On New Year's Day 1962, the Beatles made the trek down to London to record fifteen songs at the Decca studios. The session was intended for two purposes -- to see if they sounded as good on tape as they did in the Cavern, and if they did to produce their first single. Those recordings included the core of their Cavern repertoire, songs like "Money": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Money (Decca version)"] They also recorded three Lennon/McCartney songs, two by Paul -- "Love of the Loved" and "Like Dreamers Do": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Like Dreamers Do"] And one by Lennon -- "Hello Little Girl": [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Hello Little Girl"] And they were Lennon/McCartney songs, even though they were written separately -- the two agreed that they were going to split the credit on anything either of them wrote. The session didn't go well -- the group's equipment wasn't up to standard and they had to use studio amps, and they're all audibly nervous -- but Mike Smith was still fairly confident that they'd be releasing something through Decca -- he just had to work out the details with his boss, Dick Rowe. Meanwhile, the group were making other changes. Brian suggested that they could get more money if they wore suits, and so they agreed -- though they didn't want just any suits, they wanted stylish mohair suits, like the black American groups they loved so much. The Beatles were now a proper professional group -- but unfortunately, Decca turned them down. Dick Rowe, Mike Smith's boss, didn't think that electric guitars were going to become a big thing -- he was very tuned in to the American trends, and nothing with guitars was charting at the time. Smith was considering two groups -- the Beatles, and Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, and wanted to sign both. Rowe told him that he could sign one, but only one, of them. The Tremeloes had been better in the studio, and they lived round the corner from Smith and were friendly with him. There was no contest -- much as Smith wanted to sign both groups, the Tremeloes were the better prospect. Rowe did make an offer to Epstein: if Epstein would pay a hundred pounds (a *lot* of money in those days), Tony Meehan, formerly of the Shadows, would produce the group in another session, and Decca would release that. Brian wasn't interested -- if the Beatles were going to make a record, they were going to make it with people who they weren't having to pay for the privilege. John, Paul, and George were devastated, but for their own reasons they didn't bother to tell Pete they'd been turned down. But they did have a tape of themselves, at least -- a professional-quality recording that they could use to attract other labels. And their career was going forward in other ways. The same day Brian had his second meeting with Decca, they had an audition with the BBC in Manchester, where they were accepted to perform on Teenager's Turn, a radio programme hosted by the Northern Dance Orchestra. A few weeks later, on the seventh of March, they went to Manchester to record four songs in front of an audience, of which three would be broadcast: [Excerpt: The Beatles, "Please Mr. Postman (Teenager's Turn)"] That recording of John singing "Please Mr. Postman" is historic for another reason, which shows just how on the cutting edge of musical taste the Beatles actually were -- it was the first time ever that a Motown song was played on the BBC. Now we get to the part of the story that, before Mark Lewisohn's work in his book a few years back, had always been shrouded in mystery. What Lewisohn shows is that George Martin was in fact forced to sign the Beatles, against his will, and that this may have been as a punishment. The Beatles had already been turned down by Parlophone once, based on "My Bonnie", when Brian Epstein walked into the HMV store on Oxford Street in London in mid-February. HMV is now mostly known as a retail chain, Britain's biggest chain of physical media stores, but at the time it was owned by EMI, and was associated with their label of the same name -- HMV stood for "His Master's Voice", and its logo was the same one as America's RCA, with whom it had a mutual distribution deal for many years. As a record retailer, Epstein naturally had a professional interest in other record shops, and he had a friend at HMV, who suggested to him that they could use a disc-cutting machine that the shop had to turn his copy of the Decca tapes into acetate discs, which would be much more convenient for taking round and playing to record labels. That disc-cutter was actually in a studio that musicians used for making records for themselves, much as the Quarry Men had years earlier -- it was in fact the studio where Cliff Richard had cut *his* first private demo, the one he'd used to get signed to EMI. Jim Foy, the man who worked the lathe cutter, liked what he heard, and he talked with Brian about the group. Brian mentioned that some of the songs were originals, and Foy told him that EMI also owned a publishing company, Ardmore & Beechwood, and the office was upstairs -- would Brian like to meet with them to discuss publishing? Brian said he would like that. Ardmore & Beechwood wanted the original songs on the demo. They were convinced that Lennon and McCartney had potential as songwriters, and that songs like "Like Dreamers Do" could become hits in the right hands. And Brian Epstein agreed with them -- but he also knew that the Beatles had no interest in becoming professional songwriters. They wanted to make records, not write songs for other people to record. Brian took his new discs round to George Martin at EMI -- who wasn't very impressed, and basically said "Don't call us, we'll call you". Brian went back to Liverpool, and got on with the rest of the group's career, including setting up another Hamburg residency for them, this time at a new club called the Star Club. That Star Club residency, in April, would be devastating for the group -- on Tuesday the tenth of April, the same day John, Paul, and Pete got to Hamburg (George was ill and flew over the next day), Stuart Sutcliffe, who'd been having headaches and feeling ill for months, collapsed and died, aged only twenty-one. The group found out the next day -- they got to the airport to meet George, and bumped into Klaus and Astrid, who were there to meet Stuart's mother from the same flight. They asked where Stuart was, and heard the news from Astrid. John basically went
This week there are two episiodes of the podcast going up, both of them longer than normal. This one, episode one hundred, is the hundredth-episode special and is an hour and a half long. It looks at the early career of the Beatles, and at the three recordings of “Love Me Do”. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “Misirlou” by Dick Dale and the Deltones. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ —-more—- Resources No Mixclouds this week, as both episodes have far too many songs by one artist. The mixclouds will be back with episode 101. While there are many books on the Beatles, and I have read dozens of them, only one needs to be mentioned as a reference for this episode (others will be used for others). All These Years Vol 1: Tune In by Mark Lewisohn is simply the *only* book worth reading on the Beatles’ career up to the end of 1962. It is the most detailed, most accurate, biography imaginable, and the gold standard by which all other biographies of musicians should be measured. I only wish volumes two and three were available already so I could not expect my future episodes on the Beatles to be obsolete when they do come out. There are two versions of the book — a nine-hundred page mass-market version and a 1700-page expanded edition. I recommend the latter. The information in this podcast is almost all from Lewisohn’s book, but I must emphasise that the opinions are mine, and so are any errors — Lewisohn’s book only has one error that I’m aware of (a joke attributed to the comedian Jasper Carrott in a footnote that has since been traced to an earlier radio show). I am only mortal, and so have doubtless misunderstood or oversimplified things and introduced errors where he had none. The single version of “Love Me Do” can be found on Past Masters, a 2-CD compilation of the Beatles’ non-album tracks that includes the majority of their singles and B-sides. The version with Andy White playing on can be found on Please Please Me. The version with Pete Best, and many of the other early tracks used here, is on Anthology 1. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Errata I pronounce the name of Lewisohn’s book as “All Those Years” instead of “All These Years”. I say ” The Jets hadn’t liked playing at Williams’ club” at one point. I meant “at Koschmider’s club” Transcript The Beatles came closer than most people realise to never making a record. Until the publication of Mark Lewisohn’s seminal biography All These Years vol 1: Tune In, in 2013 everyone thought they knew the true story — John met Paul at Woolton Village Fete in 1957, and Paul joined the Quarrymen, who later became the Beatles. They played Hamburg and made a demo, and after the Beatles’ demo was turned down by Decca, their manager Brian Epstein shopped it around every record label without success, until finally George Martin heard the potential in it and signed them to Parlophone, a label which was otherwise known for comedy records. Martin was, luckily, the one producer in the whole of the UK who could appreciate the Beatles’ music, and he signed them up, and the rest was history. The problem is, as Lewisohn showed, that’s not what happened. Today I’m going to tell, as best I can the story of how the Beatles actually became the band that they became, and how they got signed to EMI records. I’m going to tell you the story of “Love Me Do”: [Excerpt: The Beatles, “Love Me Do (single version)”] As I mentioned at the beginning, this episode owes a *huge* debt to Mark Lewisohn’s book. I like to acknowledge my sources, anyway, but I’ve actually had difficulty with this episode because Lewisohn’s book is *so* detailed, *so* full, and written *so* well that much of the effort in writing this episode came from paring down the information, rather than finding more, and from reworking things so I was not just paraphrasing bits of his writing. Normally I rely on many sources, and integrate the material myself, but Lewisohn has done all that work far better than any other biographer of any other musician. Were the Beatles not such an important part of music history, I would just skip this episode because there is nothing for me to add. As it is, I *obviously* have to cover this, but I almost feel like I’m cheating in doing so. If you find this episode interesting at all, please do yourself a favour and buy that book. This episode is going to be a long one — much longer than normal. I won’t know the precise length until after I’ve recorded and edited it, of course, but I’m guessing it’s going to be about ninety minutes. This is the hundredth episode, the end of the second year of the podcast, the end of the second book based on the podcast, and the introduction of the single most important band in the whole story, so I’m going to stretch out a bit. I should also mention that there are a couple of discussions of sudden, traumatic, deaths in this episode. With all that said, settle in, this is going to take a while. Every British act we’ve looked at so far — and many of those we’re going to look at in the next year or two — was based in London. Either they grew up there, or they moved there before their musical career really took off. The Beatles, during the time we’re covering in this episode, were based in Liverpool. While they did eventually move to London, it wasn’t until after they’d started having hits. And what listeners from outside the UK might not realise is what that means in terms of attitudes and perceptions. Liverpool is a large city — it currently has a population of around half a million, and the wider Liverpool metropolitan area is closer to two million — but like all British cities other than London, it was regarded largely as a joke in the British media, and so in return the people of Liverpool had a healthy contempt for London. To give Americans some idea of how London dominates in Britain, and thus how it’s thought of outside London, imagine that New York, Washington DC, and Los Angeles were all the same city — that the financial, media, and political centres of the country were all the same place. Now further imagine that Silicon Valley and all the Ivy League universities were half an hour’s drive from that city. Now, imagine how much worse the attitudes that that city would have about so-called “flyover states” would be, and imagine in return how people in large Midwestern cities like Detroit or Chicago would think about that big city. In this analogy, Liverpool is Detroit, and like Detroit, it was very poor and had produced a few famous musicians, most notably Billy Fury, who was from an impoverished area of Liverpool called the Dingle: [Excerpt: Billy Fury, “Halfway to Paradise”] But Fury had, of course, moved to London to have his career. That’s what you did. But in general, Liverpool, if people in London thought of it at all, was thought of as a provincial backwater full of poor people, many of them Irish, and all of them talking with a ridiculous accent. Liverpool was ignored by London, and that meant that things could develop there out of sight. The story of the Beatles starts in the 1950s, with two young men in their mid-teens. John Winston Lennon was born in 1940, and had had a rather troubled childhood. His father had been a merchant seaman who had been away in the war, and his parents’ relationship had deteriorated for that and other reasons. As a result, Lennon had barely known his father, and when his mother met another man, Lennon’s aunt, Mary Smith, who he always called Mimi, had taken him in, believing that his mother “living in sin” would be a bad influence on the young boy. The Smith family were the kind of lower middle class family that seemed extremely rich to the impoverished families in Liverpool, but were not well off by any absolute standard. Mimi, in particular, was torn between two very different urges. On one hand, she had strongly bohemian, artistic, urges — as did all of her sisters. She was a voracious reader, and a lover of art history, and encouraged these tendencies in John. But at the same time, she was of that class which has a little status, but not much security, and so she was extremely wary of the need to appear respectable. This tension between respectability and rebellion was something that would appear in many of the people who Lennon later worked with, such as Brian Epstein and George Martin, and it was something that Lennon would always respond to — those people would be the only ones who Lennon would ever view as authority figures he could respect, though he would also resent them at times. And it might be that combination of rebellion and respectability that Lennon saw in Paul McCartney. McCartney was from a family who, in the Byzantine world of the British class system of the time, were a notch or so lower than the Smith family who raised Lennon, but he was academically bright, and his family had big plans for him — they thought that it might even be possible that he might become a teacher if he worked very hard at school. McCartney was a far less openly rebellious person than Lennon was, but he was still just as caught up in the music and fashions of the mid-fifties that his father associated with street gangs and hooliganism. Lennon, like many teenagers in Britain at the time, had had his life changed when he first heard Elvis Presley, and he had soon become a rock and roll obsessive — Elvis was always his absolute favourite, but he also loved Little Richard, who he thought was almost as good, and he admired Buddy Holly, who had a special place in Lennon’s heart as Holly wore glasses on stage, something that Lennon, who was extremely short-sighted, could never bring himself to do, but which at least showed him that it was a possibility. Lennon was, by his mid-teens, recreating a relationship with his mother, and one of the things they bonded over was music — she taught him how to play the banjo, and together they worked out the chords to “That’ll Be the Day”, and Lennon later switched to the guitar, playing banjo chords on five of the six strings. Like many, many, teenagers of the time, Lennon also formed a skiffle group, which he called the Quarrymen, after a line in his school song. The group tended to have a rotating lineup, but Lennon was the unquestioned leader. The group had a repertoire consisting of the same Lonnie Donegan songs that every other skiffle group was playing, plus any Elvis and Buddy Holly songs that could sound reasonable with a lineup of guitars, teachest bass, and washboard. The moment that changed the history of the music, though, came on July the sixth, 1957, when Ivan Vaughan, a friend of Lennon’s, invited his friend Paul McCartney to go and see the Quarry Men perform at Woolton Village Fete. That day has gone down in history as “the day John met Paul”, although Mark Lewisohn has since discovered that Lennon and McCartney had briefly met once before. It is, though, the day on which Lennon and McCartney first impressed each other musically. McCartney talks about being particularly impressed that the Quarry Men’s lead singer was changing the lyrics to the songs he was performing, making up new words when he forgot the originals — he says in particular that he remembers Lennon singing “Come Go With Me” by the Del-Vikings: [Excerpt: The Del-Vikings, “Come Go With Me”] McCartney remembers Lennon as changing the lyrics to “come go with me, right down to the penitentiary”, and thinking that was clever. Astonishingly, some audio recording actually exists of the Quarry Men’s second performance that day — they did two sets, and this second one comes just after Lennon met McCartney rather than just before. The recording only seems to exist in a very fragmentary form, which has snatches of Lennon singing “Baby Let’s Play House” and Lonnie Donegan’s hit “Puttin’ on the Style”, which was number one on the charts at the time, but that even those fragments have survived, given how historic a day this was, is almost miraculous: [Excerpt: The Quarrymen, “Puttin’ on the Style”] After the first set, Lennon met McCartney, who was nearly two years younger, but a more accomplished musician — for a start, he knew how to tune the guitar with all six strings, and to proper guitar tuning, rather than tuning five strings like a banjo. Lennon and his friends were a little nonplussed by McCartney holding his guitar upside-down at first — McCartney is left-handed — but despite having an upside-down guitar with the wrong tuning, McCartney managed to bash out a version of Eddie Cochran’s “Twenty-Flight Rock”, a song he would often perform in later decades when reminding people of this story: [Excerpt: Paul McCartney, “Twenty-Flight Rock”] This was impressive to Lennon for three reasons. The first was that McCartney was already a strong, confident performer — he perhaps seemed a little more confident than he really was, showing off in front of the bigger boys like this. The second was that “Twenty-Flight Rock” was a moderately obscure song — it hadn’t charted, but it *had* appeared in The Girl Can’t Help It, a film which every rock and roll lover in Britain had watched at the cinema over and over. Choosing that song rather than, say, “Be-Bop-A-Lula”, was a way of announcing a kind of group affiliation — “I am one of you, I am a real rock and roll fan, not just a casual listener to what’s in the charts”. I stress that second point because it’s something that’s very important in the history of the Beatles generally — they were *music fans*, and often fans of relatively obscure records. That’s something that bound Lennon and McCartney, and later the other members, together from the start, and something they always noted about other musicians. They weren’t the kind of systematic scholars who track down rare pressings and memorise every session musician’s name, but they were constantly drawn to find the best new music, and to seek it out wherever they could. But the most impressive thing for Lennon — and one that seems a little calculated on McCartney’s part, though he’s never said that he thought about this that I’m aware of — was that this was an extremely wordy song, and McCartney *knew all the words*. Remember that McCartney had noticed Lennon forgetting the words to a song with lyrics as simple as “come, come, come, come, come into my heart/Tell me darling we will never part”, and here’s McCartney singing this fast-paced, almost patter song, and getting the words right. From the beginning, McCartney was showing how he could complement Lennon — if Lennon could impress McCartney by improvising new lyrics when he forgot the old ones, then McCartney could impress Lennon by remembering the lyrics that Lennon couldn’t — and by writing them down for Lennon, sharing his knowledge freely. McCartney went on to show off more, and in particular impressed Lennon by going to a piano and showing off his Little Richard imitation. Little Richard was the only serious rival to Elvis in Lennon’s affections, and McCartney could do a very decent imitation of him. This was someone special, clearly. But this put Lennon in a quandary. McCartney was clearly far, far, better than any of the Quarry Men — at least Lennon’s equal, and light years ahead of the rest of them. Lennon had a choice — invite this young freak of nature into his band, and improve the band dramatically, but no longer be the unquestioned centre of the group, or remain in absolute control but not have someone in the group who *knew the words* and *knew how to tune a guitar*, and other such magical abilities that no mere mortals had. Those who only know of Lennon from his later reputation as a massive egoist would be surprised, but he decided fairly quickly that he had to make the group better at his own expense. He invited McCartney to join the group, and McCartney said yes. Over the next few months the membership of the Quarry Men changed. They’d been formed while they were all at Quarry Bank Grammar School, but that summer Lennon moved on to art school. I’m going to have to talk about the art school system, and the British education system of the fifties and early sixties a lot over the next few months, but here’s an extremely abbreviated and inaccurate version that’s good enough for now. Between the ages of eleven and sixteen, people in Britain — at least those without extremely rich parents, who had a different system — went to two kinds of school depending on the result of an exam they took aged eleven, which was based on some since-discredited eugenic research about children’s potential. If you passed the exam, you were considered academically apt, and went to a grammar school, which was designed to filter you through to university and the professions. If you failed the exam, you went to a secondary modern, which was designed to give you the skills to get a trade and make a living working with your hands. And for the most part, people followed the pipeline that was set up for them. You go to grammar school, go to university, become a lawyer or a doctor or a teacher. You go to secondary modern, leave school at fourteen, become a plumber or a builder or a factory worker. But there are always those people who don’t properly fit into the neat categories that the world tries to put them in. And for people in their late teens and early twenties, people who’d been through the school system but not been shaped properly by it, there was another option at this time. If you were bright and creative, but weren’t suited for university because you’d failed your exams, you could go to art school. The supposed purpose of the art schools was to teach people to do commercial art, and they would learn skills like lettering and basic draughtsmanship. But what the art schools really did was give creative people space to explore ideas, to find out about areas of art and culture that would otherwise have been closed to them. Keith Richards, Pete Townshend, Ian Dury, Ray Davies, Bryan Ferry, Syd Barrett, and many more people we’ll be seeing over the course of this story went to art school, and as David Bowie would put it later, the joke at the time was that you went to art school to learn to play blues guitar. With Lennon and his friends all moving on from the school that had drawn them together, the group stabilised for a time on a lineup of Lennon, McCartney, Colin Hanton, Len Garry, and Eric Griffiths. But the first time this version of the group played live, while McCartney sang well, he totally fluffed his lead guitar lines on stage. While there were three guitarists in the band at this point, they needed someone who could play lead fluently and confidently on stage. Enter George Harrison, who had suddenly become a close friend of McCartney. Harrison went to the same school as McCartney — a grammar school called the Liverpool Institute, but was in the year below McCartney, and so the two had always been a bit distant. However, at the same time as Lennon was moving on to art school after failing his exams, McCartney was being kept back a year for failing Latin — which his father always thought was deliberate, so he wouldn’t have to go to university. Now he was in the same year at school as Harrison, and they started hanging out together. The two bonded strongly over music, and would do things like take a bus journey to another part of town, where someone lived who they heard owned a copy of “Searchin'” by the Coasters: [Excerpt: The Coasters, “Searchin'”] The two knocked on this stranger’s door, asked if he’d play them this prized record, and he agreed — and then they stole it from him as they left his house. Another time they took the bus to another part of town again, because they’d heard that someone in that part of town knew how to play a B7 chord on his guitar, and sat there as he showed them. So now the Quarrymen needed a lead guitarist, McCartney volunteered his young mate. There are a couple of stories about how Harrison came to join the band — apparently he auditioned for Lennon at least twice, because Lennon was very unsure about having such a young kid in his band — but the story I like best is that Harrison took his guitar to a Quarry Men gig at Wilson Hall — he’d apparently often take his guitar to gigs and just see if he could sit in with the bands. On the bill with the Quarry Men was another group, the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group, who were generally regarded as the best skiffle band in Liverpool. Lennon told Harrison that he could join the band if he could play as well as Clayton, and Harrison took out his guitar and played “Raunchy”: [Excerpt: Bill Justis, “Raunchy”] I like this story rather than the other story that the members would tell later — that Harrison played “Raunchy” on a bus for Lennon — for one reason. The drummer in the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group was one Richy Starkey, and if it happened that way, the day that George joined the Quarry Men was also the day that John, Paul, George, and Ringo were all in the same place for the first time. George looked up to John and essentially idolised him, though Lennon thought of him as a little annoying at times — he’d follow John everywhere, and not take a hint when he wasn’t wanted sometimes, just eager to be with his big cool new mate. But despite this tiny bit of tension, John, Paul, and George quickly became a solid unit — helped by the fact that the school that Paul and George went to was part of the same complex of buildings as Lennon’s art college, so they’d all get the bus there and back together. George was not only younger, he was a notch or two further down the social class ladder than John or Paul, and he spoke more slowly, which made him seem less intelligent. He came from Speke, which was a rougher area, and he would dress even more like a juvenile delinquent than the others. Meanwhile, Len Garry and Eric Griffiths left the group — Len Garry because he became ill and had to spend time in hospital, and anyway they didn’t really need a teachest bass. What they did need was an electric bass, and since they had four guitars now they tried to persuade Eric to get one, but he didn’t want to pay that much money, and he was always a little on the outside of the main three members, as he didn’t share their sense of humour. So the group got Nigel Walley, who was acting as the group’s manager, to fire him. The group was now John, Paul, and George all on guitars, and Colin Hanton on drums. Sometimes, if they played a venue that had a piano, they’d also bring along a schoolfriend of Paul’s, John “Duff” Lowe, to play piano. Meanwhile, the group were growing in other ways. Both John and Paul had started writing songs, together and apart. McCartney seems to have been the first, writing a song called “I Lost My Little Girl” which he would eventually record more than thirty years later: [Excerpt: Paul McCartney, “I Lost My Little Girl”] Lennon’s first song likewise sang about a little girl, this time being “Hello, Little Girl”. By the middle of 1958, this five-piece group was ready to cut their first record — at a local studio that would cut a single copy of a disc for you. They went into this studio at some time around July 1958, and recorded two songs. The first was their version of “That’ll Be the Day”: [Excerpt: The Quarry Men, “That’ll be the Day”] The B-side was a song that McCartney had written, with a guitar solo that George had come up with, so the label credit read “McCartney/Harrison”. “In Spite of All the Danger” seems to have been inspired by Elvis’ “Trying to Get to You”: [Excerpt: Elvis Presley, “Trying to Get to You”] It’s a rough song, but a good attempt for a teenager who had only just started writing songs: [Excerpt: The Quarry Men, “In Spite of All the Danger”] Apparently Lowe and Hanton hadn’t heard the song before they started playing, but they make a decent enough fist of it in the circumstances. Lennon took the lead even though it was McCartney’s song — he said later “I was such a bully in those days I didn’t even let Paul sing his own song.” That was about the last time that this lineup of Quarry Men played together. In July, the month that seems likely for the recording, Lowe finished at the Liverpool Institute, and so he drifted away from McCartney and Harrison. Meanwhile Hanton had a huge row with the others after a show, and they fell out and never spoke again. The Quarry Men were reduced to a trio of Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison. But — possibly the very day after that recording if an unreliable plaque at the studio where they recorded it is to be believed — something happened which was to have far more impact on the group than the drummer leaving. John Lennon’s mother, with whom he’d slowly been repairing his relationship, had called round to visit Mimi. She left the house, and bumped into Nigel Walley, who was calling round to see John. She told him he wasn’t there, and that he could walk with her to the bus stop. They walked a little while, then went off in different directions. Walley heard a thump and turned round — Julia Lennon had been hit by a car and killed instantly. As you can imagine, John’s mother dying caused him a huge amount of distress, but it also gave him a bond with McCartney, whose own mother had died of cancer shortly before they met. Neither really spoke about it to each other, and to the extent they did it was with ultra-cynical humour — but the two now shared something deeper than just the music, even though the music itself was deep enough. Lennon became a much harder, nastier, person after this, at least for a time, his natural wit taking on a dark edge, and he would often drink too much and get aggressive. But life still went on, and John, Paul, and George kept trying to perform — though the gigs dried up, and they didn’t have a drummer any more. They’d just say “the rhythm’s in the guitars” when asked why they didn’t have one. They were also no longer the Quarry Men — they didn’t have a name. At one point late in the year, they also only had two guitars between the three of them — Lennon seems to have smashed his in a fit of fury after his mother’s death. But he stole one backstage at a talent contest, and soon they were back to having three. That talent show was one run by Carroll Levis, who we talked about before in the episode on “Shakin’ All Over”. The three boys went on Levis’ show, this time performing as Johnny & The Moondogs — in Manchester, at the Hippodrome in Ancoats, singing Buddy Holly’s “Think it Over”: [Excerpt: The Crickets, “Think it Over”] Lennon sang lead with his arms draped over the shoulders of Paul and George, who sang backing vocals and played guitar. They apparently did quite well, but had to leave before the show finished to get the last train back to Liverpool, and so never found out whether the audience would have made them the winner, with the possibility of a TV appearance. They did well enough, though, to impress a couple of other young lads on the bill, two Manchester singers named Allan Clarke and Graham Nash. But in general, the Japage Three, a portmanteau of their names that they settled on as their most usual group name at this point, played very little in 1959 — indeed, George spent much of the early part of the year moonlighting in the Les Stewart Quartet, another group, though he still thought of Lennon and McCartney as his musical soulmates; the Les Stewart Quartet were just a gig. The three of them would spend much of their time at the Jacaranda, a coffee bar opened by a Liverpool entrepreneur, Allan Williams, in imitation of the 2is, which was owned by a friend of his. Lennon was also spending a lot of time with an older student at his art school, Stuart Sutcliffe, one of the few people in the world that Lennon himself looked up to. The Les Stewart Quartet would end up indirectly being key to the Beatles’ development, because after one of their shows at a local youth club they were approached by a woman named Mona Best. Mona’s son Pete liked to go to the youth club, but she was fairly protective of him, and also wanted him to have more friends — he was a quiet boy who didn’t make friends easily. So she’d hit upon a plan — she’d open her own club in her cellar, since the Best family were rich enough to have a big house. If there was a club *in Pete’s house* he’d definitely make lots of friends. They needed a band, and she asked the Les Stewart Quartet if they’d like to be the resident band at this new club, the Casbah, and also if they’d like to help decorate it. They said yes, but then Paul and George went on a hitch-hiking holiday around Wales for a few days, and George didn’t get back in time to play a gig the quartet had booked. Ken Brown, the other guitarist, didn’t turn up either, and Les Stewart got into a rage and split the group. Suddenly, the Casbah had no group — George and Ken were willing to play, but neither was a lead singer — and no decorators either. So George roped in John and Paul, who helped decorate the place, and with the addition of Ken Brown, the group returned to the Quarry Men name for their regular Saturday night gig at the Casbah. The group had no bass player or drummer, and they all kept pestering everyone they knew to get a bass or a drum kit, but nobody would bite. But then Stuart Sutcliffe got half a painting in an exhibition put on by John Moores, the millionaire owner of Littlewoods, who was a big patron of the arts in Liverpool. I say he got half a painting in the exhibition, because the painting was done on two large boards — Stuart and his friends took the first half of the painting down to the gallery, went back to get the other half, and got distracted by the pub and never brought it. But Moores was impressed enough with the abstract painting that he bought it at the end of the exhibition’s run, for ninety pounds — about two thousand pounds in today’s money. And so Stuart’s friends gave him a choice — he could either buy a bass or a drum kit, either would be fine. He chose the bass. But the same week that Stuart joined, Ken Brown was out, and they lost their gig at the Casbah. John, Paul, George and Ken had turned up one Saturday, and Ken hadn’t felt well, so instead of performing he just worked on the door. At the end of the show, Mona Best insisted on giving Ken an equal share of the money, as agreed. John, Paul, and George wouldn’t stand for that, and so Ken was out of the group, and they were no longer playing for Mona Best. Stuart joining the group caused tensions — George was fine with him, thinking that a bass player who didn’t yet know how to play was better than no bass player at all, but Paul was much less keen. Partly this was because he thought the group needed to get better, which would be hard with someone who couldn’t play, but also he was getting jealous of Sutcliffe’s closeness to Lennon, especially when the two became flatmates. But John wanted him in the group, and what John wanted, he got. There are recordings of the group around this time that circulate — only one has been released officially, a McCartney instrumental called “Cayenne”, but the others are out there if you look: [Excerpt: The Quarry Men, “Cayenne”] The gigs had dried up again, but they did have one new advantage — they now had a name they actually liked. John and Stuart had come up with it, inspired by Buddy Holly’s Crickets. They were going to be Beatles, with an a. Shortly after the Beatles’ first appearance under that name, at the art school student union, came the Liverpool gig which was to have had Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent headlining, before Cochran died. A lot of Liverpool groups were booked to play on the bill there, but not the Beatles — though Richy Starkey was going to play the gig, with his latest group Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. Allan Williams, the local promoter, added extra groups to fill out the bill, including Gerry and the Pacemakers, and suddenly everyone who loved rock and roll in Liverpool realised that there were others out there like them. Overnight, a scene had been born. And where there’s a scene, there’s money to be made. Larry Parnes, who had been the national promoter of the tour, was at the show and realised that there were a lot of quite proficient musicians in Liverpool. And it so happened that he needed backing bands for three of his artists who were going on tour, separately — two minor stars, Duffy Power and Johnny Gentle, and one big star, Billy Fury. And both Gentle and Fury were from Liverpool themselves. So Parnes asked Allan Williams to set up auditions with some of the local groups. Williams invited several groups, and one he asked along was the Beatles, largely because Lennon and Sutcliffe begged him. He also found them a drummer, Tommy Moore, who was a decade older than the rest of them — though Moore didn’t turn up to the audition because he had to work, and so Johnny “Hutch” Hutchinson of Cass and the Cassanovas sat in with them, much to Hutch’s disgust — he hated the Beatles, and especially Lennon. Cass of the Cassanovas also insisted that “the Beatles” was a stupid name, and that the group needed to be Something and the Somethings, and he suggested Long John and the Silver Beatles, and that stuck for a couple of shows before they reverted to their proper name. The Beatles weren’t chosen for any of the main tours that were being booked, but then Parnes phoned Williams up — there were some extra dates on the Johnny Gentle tour that he hadn’t yet booked a group for. Could Williams find him a band who could be in Scotland that Friday night for a nine-day tour? Williams tried Cass and the Cassanovas, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, and Gerry and the Pacemakers, but none of them could go on tour at such short notice. They all had gigs booked, or day jobs they had to book time off with. The Beatles had no gigs booked, and only George had a day job, and he didn’t mind just quitting that. They were off to Scotland. They were so inspired by being on tour with a Larry Parnes artist that most of them took on new names just like those big stars — George became Carl Harrison, after Carl Perkins, Stuart became Stuart de Staël, after his favourite painter, and Paul became Paul Ramon, which he thought sounded mysterious and French. There’s some question about whether John took on a new name — some sources have him becoming “Long John”, while others say he was “Johnny” Lennon rather than John. Tommy Moore, meanwhile, was just Thomas Moore. It was on this tour, of course, that Lennon helped Johnny Gentle write “I’ve Just Fallen For Someone”, which we talked about last week: [Excerpt: Darren Young, “I’ve Just Fallen For Someone”] The tour was apparently fairly miserable, with horrible accommodation, poor musicianship from the group, and everyone getting on everyone’s nerves — George and Stuart got into fistfights, John bullied Stuart a bit because of his poor playing, and John particularly didn’t get on well with Moore — a man who was a decade older, didn’t share their taste in music, and worked in a factory rather than having the intellectual aspirations of the group. The two hated each other by the end of the tour. But the tour did also give the group the experience of signing autographs, and of feeling like stars in at least a minor way. When they got back to Liverpool, George moved in with John and Stuart, to get away from his mum telling him to get a proper job, and they got a few more bookings thanks to Williams, but they soon became drummerless — they turned up to a gig one time to find that Tommy Moore wasn’t there. They went round to his house, and his wife shouted from an upstairs window, “Yez can piss off, he’s had enough of yez and gone back to work at the bottle factory”. The now four-piece group carried on, however, and recordings exist of them in this period, sounding much more professional than only a few months before, including performances of some of their own songs. The most entertaining of these is probably “You’ll Be Mine”, an Ink Spots parody with some absurd wordplay from Lennon: [Excerpt: The Beatles, “You’ll Be Mine”] Soon enough the group found another drummer, Norm Chapman, and carried on as before, getting regular bookings thanks to Williams. There was soon a temporary guest at the flat John, Stuart, and George shared with several other people — Royston Ellis, the Beat poet and friend of the Shadows, had turned up in Liverpool and latched on to the group, partly because he fancied George. He performed with them a couple of times, crashed at the flat, and provided them with two formative experiences — he gave them their first national press, talking in Record and Show Mirror about how he wanted them to be his full-time group, and he gave them their first drug experience, showing them how to get amphetamines out of inhalers. While the group’s first national press was positive, there was soon some very negative press indeed associated with them. A tabloid newspaper wanted to do a smear story about the dangerous Beatnik menace. The article talked about how “they revel in filth”, and how beatniks were “a dangerous menace to our young people… a corrupting influence of drug addicts and peddlers, degenerates who specialise in obscene orgies”. And for some reason — it’s never been made clear exactly how — the beatnik “pad” they chose to photograph for this story was the one that John, Stuart, and George lived in, though they weren’t there at the time — several of their friends and associates are in the pictures though. They were all kicked out of their flat, and moved back in with their families, and around this time they lost Chapman from the group too — he was called up to do his National Service, one of the last people to be conscripted before conscription ended for good. They were back to a four-piece again, and for a while Paul was drumming. But then, as seems to have happened so often with this group, a bizarre coincidence happened. A while earlier, Allan Williams had travelled to Hamburg, with the idea of trying to get Liverpool groups booked there. He’d met up with Bruno Koschmider, the owner of a club called the Kaiserkeller. Koschmider had liked the idea, but nothing had come of it, partly because neither could speak the other’s language well. A little while later, Koschmider had remembered the idea and come over to the UK to find musicians. He didn’t remember where Williams was from, so of course he went to London, to the 2is, and there he found a group of musicians including Tony Sheridan, who we talked about back in the episode on “Brand New Cadillac”, the man who’d been Vince Taylor’s lead guitarist and had a minor solo career: [Excerpt: Tony Sheridan, “Why?”] Sheridan was one of the most impressive musicians in Britain, but he also wanted to skip the country — he’d just bought a guitar on credit in someone else’s name, and he also had a wife and six-month-old baby he wanted rid of. He eagerly went off with Koschmider, and a scratch group called the Jets soon took up residence at the Kaiserkeller. Meanwhile, in Liverpool, Derry and the Seniors were annoyed. Larry Parnes had booked them for a tour, but then he’d got annoyed at the unprofessionalism of the Liverpool bands he was booking and cancelled the booking, severing his relationship with Williams. The Seniors wanted to know what Williams was going to do about it. There was no way to get them enough gigs in Liverpool, so Williams, being a thoroughly decent man who had a sense of obligation, offered to drive the group down to London to see if they could get work there. He took them to the 2is, and they were allowed to get up and play there, since Williams was a friend of the owner. And Bruno Koschmider was there. The Jets hadn’t liked playing at Williams’ club, and they’d scarpered to another one with better working conditions, which they helped get off the ground and renamed the Top Ten, after Vince Taylor’s club in London. So Bruno had come back to find another group, and there in the same club at the same time was the man who’d given him the idea in the first place, with a group. Koschmider immediately signed up Derry and the Seniors to play at the Kaiserkeller. Meanwhile, the best gig the Beatles could get, also through Williams, was backing a stripper, where they played whatever instrumentals they knew, no matter how inappropriate, things like the theme from The Third Man: [Excerpt: Anton Karas, “Theme from The Third Man”] A tune guaranteed to get the audience into a sexy mood, I’m sure you’ll agree. But then Allan Williams got a call from Koschmider. Derry and the Seniors were doing great business, and he’d decided to convert another of his clubs to be a rock and roll club. Could Williams have a group for him by next Friday? Oh, and it needed to be five people. Williams tried Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. They were busy. He tried Cass and the Cassanovas. They were busy. He tried Gerry and the Pacemakers. They were busy. Finally, he tried the Beatles. They weren’t busy, and said yes they could go to Hamburg that week. There were a few minor issues, like there not being five of them, none of them having passports, and them not having a drummer. The passports could be sorted quickly — there’s a passport office in Liverpool — but the lack of a fifth Beatle was more of a problem. In desperation, they turned eventually to Pete Best, Mrs. Best’s son, because they knew he had a drum kit. He agreed. Allan Williams drove the group to Hamburg, and they started playing six-hour sets every night at the Indra, not finishing til three in the morning, at which point they’d make their way to their lodgings — the back of a filthy cinema. By this time, the Beatles had already got good — Howie Casey, of Derry and the Seniors, who’d remembered the Beatles as being awful at the Johnny Gentle audition, came over to see them and make fun of them, but found that they were far better than they had been. But playing six hours a night got them *very* good *very* quickly — especially as they decided that they weren’t going to play the same song twice in a night, meaning they soon built up a vast repertoire. But right from the start, there was a disconnect between Pete Best and the other four — they socialised together, and he went off on his own. He was also a weak player — he was only just starting to learn — and so the rest of the group would stamp their feet to keep him in time. That, though, also gave them a bit more of a stage act than they might otherwise have had. There are lots of legendary stories about the group’s time in Hamburg, and it’s impossible to sort fact from fiction, and the bits we can sort out would get this podcast categorised as adult content, but they were teenagers, away from home for a long period for the first time, living in a squalid back room in the red light district of a city with a reputation for vice. I’m sure whatever you imagine is probably about right. After a relatively short time, they were moved from the Indra, which had to stop putting on rock and roll shows, to the Kaiserkeller, where they shared the bill with Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, up to that point considered Liverpool’s best band. There’s a live recording of the Hurricanes from 1960, which shows that they were certainly powerful: [Excerpt: Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, “Brand New Cadillac”] That recording doesn’t have the Hurricanes’ normal drummer on, who was sick for that show. But compared to what the Beatles had become — a stomping powerhouse with John Lennon, whose sense of humour was both cruel and pointed, doing everything he could to get a rise out of the audience — they were left in the dust. A letter home that George Harrison wrote sums it up — “Rory Storm & the Hurricanes came out here the other week, and they are crumby. He does a bit of dancing around but it still doesn’t make up for his phoney group. The only person who is any good in the group is the drummer.” That drummer was Richy Starkey from the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group, now performing as Ringo Starr. They struck up a friendship, and even performed together at least once — John, Paul, George, and Ringo acting as the backing group for Lu Walters of the Hurricanes on a demo, which is frustratingly missing and hasn’t been heard since. They were making other friends, too. There was Tony Sheridan, who they’d seen on TV, but who would now sometimes jam with them as equals. And there was a trio of arty bohemian types who had stumbled across the club, where they were very out of place — Astrid Kirscherr, Klaus Voormann, and Jurgen Vollmer. They all latched on to the Beatles, and especially to Stuart, who soon started dating Astrid, despite her speaking no English and him speaking no German. But relations between Koschmider and the Beatles had worsened, and he reported to the police that George, at only seventeen, was under-age. George got deported. The rest of the group decided to move over to the Top Ten Club, and as a parting gift, Paul and Pete nailed some condoms to their bedroom wall and set fire to them. Koschmider decided to report this to the police as attempted arson, and those two were deported as well. John followed a week later, while Stuart stayed in Hamburg for a while, to spend more time with Astrid, who he planned to marry. The other four regrouped, getting in a friend, Chas Newby, as a temporary bass player while Stuart was away. And on the twenty-seventh of December, 1960, when they played Litherland Town Hall, they changed the Liverpool music scene. They were like nothing anyone had ever seen, and the audience didn’t dance — they just rushed to the stage, to be as close to the performance as possible. The Beatles had become the best band in Liverpool. Mark Lewisohn goes further, and suggests that the three months of long nights playing different songs in Hamburg had turned them into the single most experienced rock band *in the world* — which seems vanishingly unlikely to me, but Lewisohn is not a man given to exaggeration. By this time, Mona Best had largely taken over the group’s bookings, and there were a lot of them, as well as a regular spot at the Casbah. Neil Aspinall, a friend of Pete’s, started driving them to gigs, while they also had a regular MC, Bob Wooler, who ran many local gigs, and who gave the Beatles their own theme music — he’d introduce them with the fanfare from Rossini’s William Tell Overture: [Excerpt: Rossini, “William Tell Overture”] Stuart came over from Hamburg in early January, and once again the Beatles were a five-piece — and by now, he could play quite well, well enough, at any rate, that it didn’t destroy the momentum the group had gathered. The group were getting more and more bookings, including the venue that would become synonymous with them, the Cavern, a tiny little warehouse cellar that had started as a jazz club, and that the Quarry Men had played once a couple of years earlier, but had been banned from for playing too much rock and roll. Now, the Beatles were getting bookings at the Cavern’s lunchtime sessions, and that meant more than it seemed. Most of the gigs they played otherwise were on the outskirts of the city, but the Cavern was in the city centre. And that meant that for the lunchtime sessions, commuters from outside the city were coming to see them — which meant that the group got fans from anywhere within commuting distance, fans who wanted them to play in their towns. Meanwhile, the group were branching out musically — they were particularly becoming fascinated by the new R&B, soul, and girl-group records that were coming out in the US. After already having loved “Money” by Barrett Strong, John was also obsessed with the Miracles, and would soon become a fervent fan of anything Motown, and the group were all big fans of the Shirelles. As they weren’t playing original material live, and as every group would soon learn every other group’s best songs, there was an arms race on to find the most exciting songs to cover. As well as Elvis and Buddy and Eddie, they were now covering the Shirelles and Ray Charles and Gary US Bonds. The group returned to Hamburg in April, Paul and Pete’s immigration status having been resolved and George now having turned eighteen, and started playing at the Top Ten club, where they played even longer sets, and more of them, than they had at the Kaiserkeller and the Indra. Tony Sheridan started regularly joining them on stage at this time, and Paul switched to piano while Sheridan added the third guitar. This was also when they started using Preludin, a stimulant related to amphetamines which was prescribed as a diet drug — Paul would take one pill a night, George a couple, and John would gobble them down. But Pete didn’t take them — one more way in which he was different from the others — and he started having occasional micro-sleeps in the middle of songs as the long nights got to him, much to the annoyance of the rest of the group. But despite Pete’s less than stellar playing they were good enough that Sheridan — the single most experienced musician in the British rock and roll scene — described them as the best R&B band he’d ever heard. Once they were there, they severed their relationship with Allan Williams, refusing to pay him his share of the money, and just cutting him out of their careers. Meanwhile, Stuart was starting to get ill. He was having headaches all the time, and had to miss shows on occasion. He was also the only Beatle with a passion for anything else, and he managed to get a scholarship to study art with the famous sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi, who was now working in Hamburg. Paul subbed for Stuart on bass, and eventually Stuart left the group, though on good terms with everyone other than Paul. So it was John, Paul, George and Pete who ended up making the Beatles’ first records. Bert Kaempfert, the most important man in the German music industry, had been to see them all at the Top Ten and liked what he saw. Outside Germany, Kaempfert was probably best known for co-writing Elvis’ “Wooden Heart”, which the Beatles had in their sets at this time: [Excerpt: Elvis Presley, “Wooden Heart”] Kaempfert had signed Tony Sheridan to a contract, and he wanted the Beatles to back him in the studio — and he was also interested in recording a couple of tracks with them on their own. The group eagerly agreed, and their first session started at eight in the morning on the twenty-second of June 1961, after they had finished playing all night at the club, and all of them but Pete were on Preludin for the session. Stuart came along for moral support, but didn’t play. Pete was a problem, though. He wasn’t keeping time properly, and Kaempfert eventually insisted on removing his bass drum and toms, leaving only a snare, hi-hat, and ride cymbal for Pete to play. They recorded seven songs at that session in total. Two of them were just by the Beatles. One was a version of “Ain’t She Sweet”, an old standard which Gene Vincent had recorded fairly recently, but the other was the only track ever credited to Lennon and Harrison as cowriters. On their first trip to Hamburg, they’d wanted to learn “Man of Mystery” by the Shadows: [Excerpt: The Shadows, “Man of Mystery”] But there was a slight problem in that they didn’t have a copy of the record, and had never heard it — it came out in the UK while they were in Germany. So they asked Rory Storm to hum it for them. He hummed a few notes, and Lennon and Harrison wrote a parody of what Storm had sung, which they named “Beatle Bop” but by this point they’d renamed “Cry For a Shadow”: [Excerpt: The Beatles, “Cry For a Shadow”] The other five songs at the session were given over to Tony Sheridan, with the Beatles backing him, and the song that Kaempfert was most interested in recording was one the group had been performing on stage — a rocked-up version of the old folk song “My Bonnie”: [Excerpt: Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers, “My Bonnie”] That was the record chosen as the single, but it was released not as by Tony Sheridan and the Beatles, but by Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers — “Beatles”, to German ears, sounded a little like “piedels”, a childish slang term for penises. The Beatles had made their first record, but it wasn’t one they thought much of. They knew they could do better. The next week, the now four-piece Beatles returned to Liverpool, with much crying at Stuart staying behind — even Paul, now Stuart was no longer a threat for John’s attention, was contrite and tried to make amends to him. On their return to Liverpool, they picked up where they had left off, playing almost every night, and spending the days trying to find new records — often listening to the latest releases at NEMS, a department store with an extensive record selection. Brian Epstein, the shop’s manager, prided himself on being able to get any record a customer wanted, and whenever anyone requested anything he’d buy a second copy for the shelves. As a result, you could find records there that you wouldn’t get anywhere else in Liverpool, and the Beatles were soon adding more songs by the Shirelles and Gary US Bonds to their sets, as well as more songs by the Coasters and Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me”. They were playing gigs further afield, and Neil Aspinall was now driving them everywhere. Aspinall was Pete Best’s closest friend — and was having an affair with Pete’s mother — but unlike Pete himself he also became close to the other Beatles, and would remain so for the rest of his life. By this point, the group were so obviously the best band on the Liverpool scene that they were starting to get bored — there was no competition. And by this point it really was a proper scene — John’s old art school friend Bill Harry had started up a magazine, Mersey Beat, which may be the first magazine anywhere in the world to focus on one area’s local music scene. Brian Epstein from NEMS had a column, as did Bob Wooler, and often John’s humorous writing would appear as well. The Beatles were featured in most issues — although Paul McCartney’s name was misspelled almost every time it appeared — and not just because Lennon and Harry were friends. By this point there were the Beatles, and there were all the other groups in the area. For several months this continued — they learned new songs, they played almost every day, and they continued to be the best. They started to find it boring. The one big change that came at this point was when John and Paul went on holiday to Paris, saw Vince Taylor, bumped into their friend Jurgen from Hamburg, and got Jurgen to do their hair like his — the story we told in the episode on “Brand New Cadillac”. They now had the Beatles haircut, though they were still wearing leather. When they got back, George copied their new style straight away, but Pete decided to leave his hair in a quiff. There was nowhere else to go without a manager to look after them. They needed management — and they found it because of “My Bonnie”: [Excerpt: Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers, “My Bonnie”] “My Bonnie” was far from a great record, but it was what led to everything that followed. The Beatles had mentioned from the stage at the Cavern that they had a record out, and a young man named Raymond Jones walked into NEMS and asked for a copy of it. Brian Epstein couldn’t find it in the record company catalogues, and asked Jones for more information — Jones explained that they were a Liverpool group, but the record had come out in Germany. A couple of days later, two young girls came into the shop asking for the same record, and now Epstein was properly intrigued — in his view, if *two* people asked for a record, that probably meant a lot more than just two people wanted it. He decided to check these Beatles out for himself. Epstein was instantly struck by the group, and this has led to a lot of speculation over the years, because his tastes ran more to Sibelius than to Little Richard. As Epstein was also gay, many people have assumed that the attraction was purely physical. And it might well have been, at least in part, but the suggestion that everything that followed was just because of that seems unlikely — Epstein was also someone who had a long interest in the arts, and had trained as an actor at RADA, the most prestigious actors’ college in the UK, before taking up his job at the family store. Given that the Beatles were soon to become the most popular musicians in the history of the world, and were already the most popular musicians in the Liverpool area, the most reasonable assumption must be that Epstein was impressed by the same things that impressed roughly a billion other people over the next sixty years. Epstein started going to the Cavern regularly, to watch the Beatles and to make plans — the immaculately dressed, public-school-educated, older rich man stood out among the crowd, and the Beatles already knew his face from his record shop, and so they knew something was going on. By late November, Brian had managed to obtain a box of twenty-five copies of “My Bonnie”, and they’d sold out within hours. He set up a meeting with the Beatles, and even before he got them signed to a management contract he was using his contacts with the record industry in London to push the Beatles at record companies. Those companies listened to Brian, because NEMS was one of their biggest customers. December 1961, the month they signed with Brian Epstein, was also the month that they finally started including Lennon/McCartney songs in their sets. And within a couple of weeks of becoming their manager, even before he’d signed them to a contract, Brian had managed to persuade Mike Smith, an A&R man from Decca, to come to the Cavern to see the group in person. He was impressed, and booked them in for a studio session. December 61 was also the first time that John, Paul, George, and Ringo played together in that lineup, without any other musicians, when on the twenty-seventh of December Pete called in sick for a show, and the others got in their friend to cover for him. It wouldn’t be the last time they would play together. On New Year’s Day 1962, the Beatles made the trek down to London to record fifteen songs at the Decca studios. The session was intended for two purposes — to see if they sounded as good on tape as they did in the Cavern, and if they did to produce their first single. Those recordings included the core of their Cavern repertoire, songs like “Money”: [Excerpt: The Beatles, “Money (Decca version)”] They also recorded three Lennon/McCartney songs, two by Paul — “Love of the Loved” and “Like Dreamers Do”: [Excerpt: The Beatles, “Like Dreamers Do”] And one by Lennon — “Hello Little Girl”: [Excerpt: The Beatles, “Hello Little Girl”] And they were Lennon/McCartney songs, even though they were written separately — the two agreed that they were going to split the credit on anything either of them wrote. The session didn’t go well — the group’s equipment wasn’t up to standard and they had to use studio amps, and they’re all audibly nervous — but Mike Smith was still fairly confident that they’d be releasing something through Decca — he just had to work out the details with his boss, Dick Rowe. Meanwhile, the group were making other changes. Brian suggested that they could get more money if they wore suits, and so they agreed — though they didn’t want just any suits, they wanted stylish mohair suits, like the black American groups they loved so much. The Beatles were now a proper professional group — but unfortunately, Decca turned them down. Dick Rowe, Mike Smith’s boss, didn’t think that electric guitars were going to become a big thing — he was very tuned in to the American trends, and nothing with guitars was charting at the time. Smith was considering two groups — the Beatles, and Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, and wanted to sign both. Rowe told him that he could sign one, but only one, of them. The Tremeloes had been better in the studio, and they lived round the corner from Smith and were friendly with him. There was no contest — much as Smith wanted to sign both groups, the Tremeloes were the better prospect. Rowe did make an offer to Epstein: if Epstein would pay a hundred pounds (a *lot* of money in those days), Tony Meehan, formerly of the Shadows, would produce the group in another session, and Decca would release that. Brian wasn’t interested — if the Beatles were going to make a record, they were going to make it with people who they weren’t having to pay for the privilege. John, Paul, and George were devastated, but for their own reasons they didn’t bother to tell Pete they’d been turned down. But they did have a tape of themselves, at least — a professional-quality recording that they could use to attract other labels. And their career was going forward in other ways. The same day Brian had his second meeting with Decca, they had an audition with the BBC in Manchester, where they were accepted to perform on Teenager’s Turn, a radio programme hosted by the Northern Dance Orchestra. A few weeks later, on the seventh of March, they went to Manchester to record four songs in front of an audience, of which three would be broadcast: [Excerpt: The Beatles, “Please Mr. Postman (Teenager’s Turn)”] That recording of John singing “Please Mr. Postman” is historic for another reason, which shows just how on the cutting edge of musical taste the Beatles actually were — it was the first time ever that a Motown song was played on the BBC. Now we get to the part of the story that, before Mark Lewisohn’s work in his book a few years back, had always been shrouded in mystery. What Lewisohn shows is that George Ma
Comedian Jasper Carrott discusses his career and life in Birmingham with Adrian Goldberg.
The annual Christmas pantomime at Harrogate Theatre is just one week away! Elsewhere, Jasper Carrott and Alistair McGowan are heading to Harrogate Convention Centre for a night of stand-up comedy.
If you think that all Jasper Carrott had to do with music was to wander on stage with a guitar before bringing an act on stage, think again. Jasper has been deeply involved in music all his life, and has some interesting views on the music business, artists' fees, the record industry, performance and audience reaction, gained from deep experience at his gigs and venues. I've talked several times with Jasper about his career. We do go back a bit, which is actually part of the point of the Lives in Music series. I was in radio at the old BRMB when Jasper had his hit. I wound up playing (rather badly) in charity football matches with him back in the day. But he seems to have had a very interesting ride. Music and musicians have been key, much more than you might think. He's even sharing a vocalist with Robert Plant's current band - there's a pub quiz question for you. You can stream or download the podcast here, or if you can't wait, scroll down to the end of this post for the podcast player. Links - music clips and artist websites Music clips are mostly from the late 70s, John Martyn excepted. Jasper Carrott - Magic Roundabout Jasper Carrott - Funky Moped (a vintage TOTP clip) Simon and Garfunkel - The Sun Is Burning (Ian Campbell composition) Al Stewart - Old Compton Street Blues Johnny Coppin Decameron - Journey's End Harvey Andrews Mike Silver Jake Thackray Joe Brown John Martin - Small Hours with some background details. I may have embroidered the story... Links - present day and ancient history Jasper Carott's website Jasper Carrott on wikipedia The Boggery Folk Club Ian Campbell on Birmingham Music Archive Lives in Music The Lives in Music series celebrates people who have spent a lifetime in music. They may be famous; they may be people who have spent their lives working in the background for the love of it. They all have stories. The theme music for this series is by Big Q Fish. 'Boksburg Jive Toon' was written by Brian Neil, and recorded at the Jam House, Birmingham, in 2017. Subscribe! Subscribe to the Podcast through your podcast host to automatically download each episode to your chosen device. These will then land with you first, before everyone else hears about it. If you would prefer email updates each time a podcast episode (or blog post) is published, you can subscribe to the mailing list. Head here and scroll down to the signup form.
THIS WEEK DuckCam GOD-zilla Jasper Carrott dad jokes for dad's day Fiverr IPO?! Elon Musk's deleted Twitter account Sleep tracking with smart mattress and ring - WTF? AOTW Why Mazda is purging touch screens from it's vehicles Byton POTW Si embraces JOMO Find out more at http://verbaldiary.show This podcast is powered by Pinecast.
Hello space fans and fellow mutants to the latest podcast from Moon Ben Baker and Phil "G-Balls" Catterall! In this one: sub-par superheroes, Royal Variety rave ups and strange stuff shot into space (but not necessarily stayed there...) Plus: the majesty of Les Dawson, hero Bottle Opener makes his debut, American puppets, we find out what the Brittas Empire cast were up to in 1996, the real true story of Laika the dog, a big net, Obnoxio The Clown spoils Dark Phoenix, disco dies, we all give thanks for Gary Wilmot, making work for the beeper, where Jasper Carrott fits into Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, 36000 worms, "Beak", not very much about sport....and UGLY JOHN! If you would like to support our new Patreon from less than a pound a month and get an exclusive, not found anywhere else episode of "Don't Lets Chart" plus early access to others, click here: https://www.patreon.com/dontletschart Or if you just fancy throwing the price of a coffee in our faces: https://ko-fi.com/dontletschart Visit the new Don't Lets Chart Twitter feed: @dontletschart or visit us separately @benbakerbooks and @fil5000.
This week’s Private Passions is pretty crowded, with Kirsty Wark, Fiona Bruce, Emily Thornberry and Theresa May all putting in appearances - in the person of Jan Ravens, from the award-winning Radio 4 show Dead Ringers. Jan’s career has been a series of firsts – she was, in 1979, the first female president of the Cambridge Footlights, and the show she directed in Edinburgh went on to win the first ever Perrier Award. She was one of the first women to appear with Jasper Carrott and on Spitting Image, and last year she made her solo Edinburgh debut with her show Difficult Woman. Jan tells Michael how her difficult childhood was transformed by writing and performing at Cambridge, about the battles she’s fought to have women equally represented on comedy shows and discusses the frequently negative perception of women in positions of power. And she demonstrates just how she got inside the voice of Theresa May. Jan’s passion isn’t just for female speaking voices but for singing voices too, and she’s chosen to hear four women singers: Maria Callas, Kathleen Ferrier, Jessye Norman and Barbara Cook. Producer: Jane Greenwood A Loftus production for BBC Radio 3
On the spot with Comedian Jasper Carrott. To find out more information about this and my other interviews, please go to my website: www.beyondthetitle.co.uk www.facebook.com/beyondthetitle
Steve Punt is well known thanks to the popular Radio 4 Friday night comedy, The Now Show - with fellow-host Hugh Dennis, he’s been mocking politicians and celebrities for an astonishing twenty years now. He also presents The Third Degree, the Radio 4 quiz which pits undergraduates against professors. But behind the scenes he’s been busy writing for a whole host of other shows, such as Mock the Week and The Mary Whitehouse Experience, for comedians Jasper Carrott and Rory Bremner; he even used to write for the puppets on Spitting Image. He says “Weirdly, I think people are more inclined to believe comedians than they are politicians.” In Private Passions, Steve talk to Michael Berkeley about how it all began: when he was bad at games at school, and forced to play the clown. He reminisces about his first job, in a music shop in Croydon, which he describes as being so rich in comic material that it was a bit like a sitcom – all of life was there. He talks about how audiences have changed thanks to social media, and why he worries that mocking politicians may just be a way of feeding their gigantic egos. Music choices include Sibelius’s Violin Concerto, piano music by Debussy and by Scott Joplin, Shostakovich’s Jazz Suite, Dave Brubeck, and a comic masterpiece by Dudley Moore, “Bedazzled”. Produced by Elizabeth Burke A Loftus production for BBC Radio 3
She shot to fame playing Dawn Tinsley, the receptionist in the British version of ‘The Office’. But after switching Slough for the States, Lucy Davis is now rubbing shoulders with superstars AND superheroes in Hollywood. You’ll have seen her in a host of films and TV shows but perhaps the most exciting to date is this year’s blockbuster in which she stars along side Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman playing Wonder Woman’s best friend Etta Candy. Having grown up amongst show biz gods - her father being British comedy mega star Jasper Carrott, Lucy is no stranger to fame. But life hasn’t been all plain sailing for our guest. She was diagnosed with kidney failure which resulted in her own mother donating her a kidney and she’s had a very public battle with anorexia and bulimia. In this show, Lucy chats to Caroline Feraday and Claire Bullivant about finally being 'at peace' with her body, gaining great comfort from the practice of Reconnective Healing and how her Grandmother is keeping an eye on her from the other side. She’s mega talented, really funny, spiritual, kind, inspirational and a survivor – oh and our new best friend (we’re hoping) – don’t miss this most candid and fun episode with the wonderful Lucy Davis… Lucy Davis: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0205063/ https://www.instagram.com/officiallucydavis/ https://twitter.com/RealLucyDavis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Davis Find out more about The Reconnection here: http://www.thereconnection.com Our Sponsor - Next Stop LAX: http://www.nextstoplax.com http://www.facebook.com/NextStopLAX http://www.instagram.com/NextStopLAX http://www.twitter.com/NextStopLAX Brits in the Wood: http://www.britsinthewood.com/listen http://www.britsinthewood.blog http://www.facebook.com/BritsintheWood http://www.instagram.com/britsinthewood http://www.twitter.com/britsinthewood
Jasper Carrott talks to Matt & Vicky on Saturday breakfast about his upcoming tour and visit to Newark this week at Newark Palace Theatre
Jasper Carrott presents a look back at the career of Tom Ross as he celebrates 35 years as the voice of sport in Birmingham...
BTG Midlands editor Steve Orme talks to actor Robert Powell, who has taken over the title role in Mike Bartlett's King Charles III from Tim Pigott-Smith for a UK tour which began in September 2015. Powell talks about taking on the most difficult role he has ever played as well as looking back on his 50-year acting career, including his iconic TV performance as Jesus of Nazareth in 1977, an uncharacteristic 6-year run in hospital soap Holby City, playing comedy with Jasper Carrott and the loneliness of touring. For more information about the tour of King Charles III, see the production's web site. (Robert Powell photo credit: Steve Orme.)
Listen[audio:http://media.rvanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/The-Bopst-Show-The-Whats-Happening-Sound-Episode-235.mp3|titles=The Bopst Show -- The What’s Happening Sound -- Episode 235]SubscribeiTunes: The Bopst show podcastEverything else: The Bopst show podcastDownloadThe Bopst Show -- The What’s Happening Sound -- Episode 235— ∮∮∮ —Title: The Bopst Show: "The What’s Happening Sound (Episode 235)"Rating: PG-13 (Adult Situations & Language)Intent: To place my bets on an inherent sense of humanity…Random Richmond Diversion: Our company neither sought nor received any special benefits from any public official and was glad to be part of any effort to promote business and create jobs in the commonwealth of VirginiaRandom USA Diversion: The doctor says only a miracle will bring my daddy backRandom World Diversion: “an act of war"Random Image: Jan 27 2007Random Music Blog: NNM +Random Bopst Show: The Bopst Show: “In The Other Ear (Episode 100)"From the mouths of babes:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpMqMW5ilFQConstruction Date: Thursday & Friday May 2nd & 3rd, 2013Equipment: Mac G5, Free Audio Editor & Recorder Software from Audacity, Frontier US-122 USB Audio/MIDI Interface, Shure SM57 MicrophonePosted: Monday May 6th, 2013Artists and Groups in order of appearance: Jerry Jeff Walker, B-52’s, The Thurston Lave Tube, Daft Punk, Grinderman, Roy Glenn, London Underground, Chakachas, Slayer, Rev, Gary Davis, Brick, Mel Blanc, The Ruins, Porn Scene Music, Old Time RelijunLiner NotesThis week’s top ten radio quotes:Gerald R. Ford I watch a lot of baseball on the radio.Maynard James Keenan If the education of our kids comes from radio, television, newspapers - if that's where they get most of their knowledge from, and not from the schools, then the powers that be are definitely in charge, because they own all those outlets.Glenn Beck Quite honestly, I was running from myself. But I knew how to work Top 40 radio.Jasper Carrott I am amazed at radio DJ's today. I am firmly convinced that AM on my radio stands for Absolute Moron. I will not begin to tell you what FM stands for.Joni Mitchell There was this mountain village in Russia where my music was getting in on some German radio station. I remember this because music used to get up to Saskatchewan from Texas. Late at night after the local station closed down.Ernst Fischer The bosses of our mass media, press, radio, film and television, succeed in their aim of taking our minds off disaster. Thus, the distraction they offer demands the antidote of maximum concentration on disaster.Al Yankovic You still have Top 40 radio now, but it's 40 different stations. There aren't many hits that everybody knows, and there aren't many real superstars.Klaus Kinski About 25 years ago, I was in an apartment, and next door, they put on the radio, so I struck the wall with my fist, but they did not put the radio down. I took a tool and banged until I made a hole through the wall. It was like a comedy movie.Steven Wright George is a radio announcer, and when he walks under a bridge... you can't hear him talk.Aung San Suu Kyi I could listen to the radio and I had access to books from time to time. Not all the time. — ∮∮∮ —Here are some shows I’m hustling at Balliceaux this week...NEXT NEW SHOW: 05/13/13 New show times. The Bopst Show airs Sundays, 11PM and Tuesdays, 6PM (EST-USA) on KAOS Radio Austin.Figure by D.C. SmithPhoto: BOPSTUntil Next Time:Stay clean,BOPSTHo there, reader of RSS feeds! Do you ever want to support RVANews in a real and tangible way? Or at least pay a small penance for reading ad-free content? If so, support us on Patreon for a couple bucks a month!
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