Paul McCartney songwriter, on the cover of the Mersey Beat magazine, 06-Aug-1964 by Bill Harry
Image details
Contributor:
Tony Smith / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
2K0KPPDFile size:
31.1 MB (1.6 MB Compressed download)Releases:
Model - no | Property - noDo I need a release?Dimensions:
2736 x 3968 px | 23.2 x 33.6 cm | 9.1 x 13.2 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
10 September 2022Location:
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UKMore information:
Mersey Beat was a music publication in Liverpool, England in the early 1960s. It was founded by Bill Harry, who was one of John Lennon's classmates at Liverpool Art College. The paper carried news about all the local Liverpool bands, and stars who came to town to perform. The Beatles had a close association with Mersey Beat, which carried many exclusive stories and photos of them. It also published several of Lennon's early writings, including a history of the band, and occasional comical classified advertisements by him as space filler. 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 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 front page announcing, "Beatles Top Poll!" An iconic symbol of the Mersey Beat era was the poster artwork created by local artist Tony Booth. He was a popular figure amongst the promoters in the area where he was commissioned to create hundreds of the posters used to advertise all the concerts that were occurring during that period. His posters were seen on walls all across Merseyside including some of his famous work outside The Cavern Club