Bill Harry

William Harry (born 17 September 1938) is a British journalist who founded Mersey Beat, a newspaper of the early 1960s focused on the Liverpool music scene. Harry had previously started various magazines and newspapers, such as Biped and Premier, while at Liverpool's Junior School of Art. He later attended the Liverpool College of Art, where his fellow students included John Lennon and Stuart Sutcliffe, who both later performed with the Beatles. He published a magazine, Jazz, in 1958, and worked as an assistant editor on the University of Liverpool's charity magazine, Pantosphinx.

Harry met his wife-to-be, Virginia Sowry, at the Jacaranda club—managed by Allan Williams, the first manager of the Beatles—and she later agreed to help him start a music newspaper. After borrowing £50, Harry released the first issue of Mersey Beat on 6 July 1961, with the first 5,000 copies selling out within a short time. The newspaper was published every two weeks, covering the music scenes in Liverpool, Wirral, Birkenhead, New Brighton, Crosby and Southport, as well as Warrington, Widnes and Runcorn. He edited the paper in a small attic office above a wine merchant's shop at 81a Renshaw Street, Liverpool.

Harry arranged for the future Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, to see them perform a lunchtime concert at the Cavern Club on 9 November 1961. Epstein subsequently asked Harry to create a national music paper, the Music Echo. After disagreements with Epstein about editorial control, he decided to become a public relations agent, and went on to work for artists such as Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Procol Harum, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin and the Beach Boys.

Early years

Harry was born in Smithdown Road Hospital (now demolished), in Liverpool, Lancashire, on 17 September 1938. He came from a poor Liverpudlian background and was brought up in a rough neighbourhood near Liverpool's dockyards. His father (John Jelicoe Harry), was killed during the war on the SS Kyleglen British Steam Merchant ship, which was torpedoed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean by a German U-boat. None of the crew survived, and Harry's father died on 14 December 1940, aged 25. Harry attended the Catholic St. Vincent's Institute, but had to get used to the priests dispensing corporal punishment on a regular basis. Because of his small stature, Harry was beaten by his classmates, being once kicked in the appendix and "left for dead". His mother had no option but to transfer him elsewhere.

Harry became interested in science fiction and read comics by candlelight (as the house had no electricity), eventually joining the Liverpool Science Fiction Society. At the age of 13, he produced his own science fiction fanzine, Biped,

Liverpool College of Art

At the age of 16, Harry obtained a place at Liverpool's College of Art at 68 Hope Street. After studying typography and page layouts, he borrowed the college's duplicating machine and published a newspaper called Jazz in 1958, which reported concerts at the Liverpool Jazz Society club, the Temple Jazz Club and the Cavern Club. He also worked as assistant editor on the University of Liverpool's charity magazine, Pantosphinx, and on a music newsletter for Frank Hessy's musical instruments store called Frank Comments. The title was suggested by the owner, Frank Hesselberg, as a play on his own comments, but was abandoned after a few issues.

Harry received a National Diploma in design while at the Liverpool Art College and became the first student in the new Graphic Design course, eventually winning a Senior City Art Scholarship. Harry maintained that students at art college should be bohemian in their thoughts and actions and not like the "dilettantes and dabblers", whom Harry disapproved of for wearing duffle coats and turtle neck sweaters. One of the college's artists and teachers, Arthur Ballard, later stated that Harry and Sutcliffe both overshadowed Lennon at college, explaining that they were both "extremely well educated, and very eager for information". Harry organised a students' film society, where he showed Orphee, by Jean Cocteau and Salvador Dalí, and Luis Buñuel's, L'Age d'Or.

Meeting Lennon had been a shock for Harry, as Lennon often dressed like a Teddy boy, and was a disruptive influence at the college. Despite his misgivings about Lennon, Harry introduced him to Sutcliffe, who was a small, softly-spoken and shy student, who had painted a portrait of Harry. The three often spent time together at the Cracke pub in Rice Street, or on the top floor of the Jacaranda club (run by Williams, who later managed the Beatles). Harry, Lennon, Sutcliffe and Rod Murray saw the poet Royston Ellis at Liverpool University in June 1960. Having been disappointed with Ellis' performance, Harry proposed the idea that they should call the assembled quartet of friends the Dissenters, and make Liverpool famous: Sutcliffe and Murray with their paintings, Harry's writing and Lennon's music.

Music and journalism

A fellow student, John Ashcroft, introduced Harry to rock 'n' roll records, and the members of Rory Storm & the Hurricanes and Cass & the Cassanovas. Harry carried notebooks with him, collecting information about the local groups, once writing to the Daily Mail: "Liverpool is like New Orleans at the turn of the century, but with rock 'n' roll instead of jazz". He also wrote to the Liverpool Echo about the emerging Liverpool music scene, but neither paper was interested in stories about music that was popular with teenagers. Harry also borrowed blocks from the Widnes Weekly News, Pantosphinx and local cinemas, but contributed to charities by printing free charity advertisements at the side of the front cover page. After taking Virginia home to Bowring Park in the evening, Harry would often return to the office and work throughout the night, pausing only to go to the Pier Head to buy a cup of tea and a hot pie at four in the morning. Virginia's parents helped the paper during this time, as they paid for classified ads, and arranged for Harry and his future wife's first photographs together. With circulation rising, the paper's offices were moved downstairs to a larger two-roomed office. The Cavern Club's doorman, Pat (Paddy) Delaney, was employed to deliver copies, a secretary, Pat Finn, was hired, as well as Raymond Caine to promote advertising space.

Harry later said: "The newspapers, television, theatres and radio were all run by people of a different generation who had no idea of what youngsters wanted. For decades they had manipulated and controlled them. Suddenly, there was an awareness of being young, and young people wanted their own styles and their own music, just at the time they were beginning to earn money, which gave them the spending power. Mersey Beat was their voice, it was a paper for them, crammed with photos and information about their own groups, which is why it also began to appeal to youngsters throughout Britain as its coverage extended to other areas."

Liverpool groups

Between 1958 and 1964, the Merseyside area had about 500 different groups, which were constantly forming and breaking up, with an average of about 350 groups playing concerts on a regular basis. In 1961, Harry and the Cavern Club's DJ, Bob Wooler, compiled a list of groups that they had personally heard of, which had almost 300 names. In 1962, Mersey Beat held a poll to find out who was the most popular Merseyside group. When the votes were counted, Rory Storm & the Hurricanes were in first place, but after looking through the postal votes again, Harry noticed that forty votes were all written in green ink, in the same handwriting, and from the same area of Liverpool, so the dubious votes were declared void. This was suspected to have been Storm himself, but Harry had no idea that the Beatles and other groups had done exactly the same thing.

The results were announced on 4 January 1962, with the Beatles in first place. The results were printed in issue 13 of Mersey Beat on 4 January 1962, with the now famous front page announcing, "Beatles Top Poll!" Such was the popularity of the poll, Rushworth's music store manager, Bob Hobbs, presented Lennon and George Harrison with new guitars. At the time, many groups in Liverpool complained to Harry that his newspaper should be called Mersey Beatles, as he featured them so often.

Harry asked a local singer, Priscilla White, to contribute a fashion column after writing an article called "Swinging Cilla", in which he wrote, "Cilla Black is a Liverpool girl who is starting out on the road to fame." Harry's mistake came about because he could not remember her surname (which he knew was a colour), but White decided to keep it as a stage name. Two years later Harry arranged for her to sing for Epstein at the Blue Angel club, leading to a management contract.

In late 1962, Harry wrote an article called "Take a look up North", asking for A&R men from London to travel up to Liverpool and see what was really happening with the music scene, but not one record company sent an A&R representative to Liverpool. Journalist Nancy Spain once wrote an article for the News of the World newspaper, stating that "Bill and Virginia Harry were Mr. & Mrs. Mersey Beat", and when Bob Dylan visited Liverpool to appear at the Odeon, he specifically asked for Harry to act as his guide to the city. Lennon was very grateful that Harry printed his 'Dubious Origins' piece without editing it and later gave Harry a large collection of drawings, poems and stories (approximately 250), telling Harry he was free to publish whatever he liked (under the pseudonym of "Beatcomber", which was appropriated from a Daily Express column, Beachcomber).

Harry convinced Epstein to sell 12 copies of the first Mersey Beat newspaper at his North End Music Stores (NEMS), which sold out in one day, resulting in Epstein having to order more copies. After ordering and selling 144 copies of the second issue, Epstein invited Harry to his office for a glass of sherry, proposing the idea that he (Epstein), should write a record review column. Epstein asked Harry to arrange for him and Taylor to watch the Beatles perform without queuing at the door. Harry phoned the owner, Ray McFall, who said he would inform the doorman on the day, Delaney, to let Epstein in. Epstein and Taylor bypassed the line of fans at the door and heard a welcome message announced over the club's public-address system by Wooler: "We have someone rather famous in the audience today, Mr. Brian Epstein, the owner of NEMS ..."

Lennon had once given Harry a collection of photos taken in Hamburg, showing Lennon standing on the Reeperbahn reading a newspaper and wearing nothing but his underpants, performing on stage with a toilet seat around his neck, and one of McCartney sitting on a toilet. After Epstein became the Beatles' manager, Lennon rushed into Harry's office and asked for them back, saying, "Brian [Epstein] insists I've got to get them back—the pictures, everything you've got. I must take it all with me now." When Epstein finally secured a recording contract with EMI, he sent Harry a telegram from London to the Mersey Beat office to announce the news.

The last issues and London

On 13 September 1964, Epstein approached Harry to create a national music paper, so Harry coined the name Music Echo, Epstein had promised Harry full editorial control, but then hired a female press officer in London to write a fashion column and a D.J. to write a gossip column, without informing Harry of his intentions, which reported the latest album releases, and another magazine, Idols: 20th Century Legends, which ran for 37 issues, from 1988 to 1991. Harry also compiled a 34-track compilation, Mersey Beat, for Parlophone records, which was released on 31 October 1983.

Harry was presented with a gold award for a "Lifetime Achievement in Music" by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) in 1994,

Harry and Virginia have a son, Sean Harry, who is a director and producer.

Books written or co-written by Bill Harry

Harry once commented on his numerous books: "The hundreds of interviews I have conducted over the past 40 years have been utilised. I have always been a hoarder of clippings in addition to collecting magazines, fanzines, newspapers and books. I'll never tire of it."

Arrows : The Official Story, Everest Books (1976) Mersey Beat: The Beginnings of the Beatles, Omnibus Press (1978) The Beatles Who's Who, Littlehampton Book Services Ltd. (1982) Beatle-mania: The History of the Beatles on Film, Virgin Books (1984) Paperback Writers, Virgin Books (1984) The Book of Lennon, John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd (1984) Paperback writers Avon (1985) Beatles: Beatlemania the History of the Beatles on Film Avon (1985) Ask Me Why, Littlehampton Book Services Ltd. (1985) Beatles For Sale, Virgin Books (1985) The Book of Beatle Lists, Javelin Books (1985) The McCartney File, Virgin Books (1986) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Atalanta Press (1987) The Ultimate Beatles Encyclopedia, Hyperion Books (1994) Jan Olofsson: My '60s, (Harry & Olofsson) Taschen GmbH (1994) The Encyclopedia of Beatles' People, Cassell Illustrated (1997) The Best Years of the Beatles (Harry & Pete Best) Headline Book Publishing (1997) Whatever Happened To ... : The Ultimate Pop and Rock Where Are They Now (Harry & Alan Clayson) Cassell Illustrated (1999) The Beatles Encyclopedia: Revised and Updated, Virgin Books (2000) The John Lennon Encyclopedia, Virgin Books (2001) The Paul McCartney Encyclopedia, Virgin Books (2002) The George Harrison Encyclopedia, Virgin Books (2003) The Ringo Starr Encyclopedia, Virgin Books (2004) The British Invasion: How the Beatles and Other UK Bands Conquered America, Chrome Dreams (2004) Bigger Than the Beatles, Trinity Mirror (2009) Lennon's Liverpool, Trinity Mirror (2010) The Sixties (Harry & Robert Orbach) Endeavour London Ltd. (2011) Love Me Do; Miniver Press. (2012) ASIN: B00993EROI