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The Press Officer – Derek Taylor

by on 26. Aug, 2010 in Books, Merseyside, Psychedelia, Read, The Beatles, The Sixties

More than interested to recently hear that Liam Gallagher has acquired the rights to one of my favourite Beatles related books, ‘The Longest Cocktail Party’ (1972), and plans to make it into a film. Told from the perspective of ‘house hippy’ Richard DiLello, this wonderfully entertaining memoir aptly describes itself as ‘An insiders diary of The Beatles, their million-dollar Apple Empire, and its wild rise and fall’. What really sets it apart is that the books central character is neither John, Paul, George or Ringo, but Derek Taylor, the bands press officer who, alongside fellow Liverpudlians Brian Epstein, Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans, played key supporting roles as part of the Beatle inner-circle.

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The One That Got Away

by on 23. Jun, 2010 in Black Culture, Hear, Merseyside, See, The Beatles, The Sixties

Filmed by Granada TV in 1964, this is a wonderful piece of footage of Liverpool’s The Chants performing on Merseyside - there's something very heartfelt about it, especially the close-ups showing some of the girls swooning over them. The song is ‘I Could Write A Book’ and was written by Rodgers & Hart, originally appearing in the 1940 musical ‘Pal Joey’ (later, in 1957, made into a movie, where it was sung by Frank Sinatra). It would be the second single by The Chants, released on PYE records, and famously given the thumbs up by all four Beatles on the TV show Juke Box Jury (Dec 7th 1963), although even the Fabs’ wholehearted endorsement failed to help it break into the charts.

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And In The End The Love You Take Is Equal To The Love You Make

by on 21. Jun, 2010 in Merseyside, Misc, Read, The Beatles, The Sixties

The Beatles remain the best band ever. Others have and will continue to do new things with rock and roll, but The Beatles will forever mark the forms high renaissance. These are the guys who figured it out, took it to another level and defined it for generations to come.

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