London 25th June 2009

The MerseyBeat Website

Bill Harry Talks about his re-launch of the Merseybeat website

I decided to re-launch Mersey Beat as a website at the end of the nineties. Much of this was as the result of my e-mail friendship with David Maggin, CEO of Triumph PC, a major American company whose sites included the John Lennon Artificial Intelligence Project.

You'll have fun talking to this bot which is the world's first cyber-Beatle. As David relates: "In the autumn of 1998, we embarked on a unique, ground-breaking research project to see if current Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology had advanced sufficiently to allow for the recreation or cloning of a human personality. Because of our life-long admiration and respect for John Lennon, the late Beatle was chosen as the candidate for this technological labour of love. By late 1999, after completing the initial phase of the project (and proving the basic technological concept to be sound), we officially opened the JLAIP to the public. Since then, the JLAIP has gone on to gain international attention from the media and has become THE cyber-mecca for John Lennon and Beatle fans the world over."

You'll probably enjoy talking to this artificial intelligence of John Lennon at

http://johnlennonproject.com/

David suggested he help me to launch Mersey Beat online and he designed and hosted the site which has attracted worldwide interest ...the media in general from around the world all regularly visit the site, in addition to Mersey Beatsters from around the globe. It is www.mersey-beat.com

There are eight different sections of the site.

"Birth"

tells the story of the Mersey scene in six pages and there is also a section The Founder's Story which relates how Virginia and I created Mersey Beat.

Editors Note: Its pretty amazing that the week we publish Bill's article the page he refers to includes this ad featuring The Dominoes, who gave us a great set just last night (June 25th) at Cats.

'Archives'

will be of special interest to any Mersey Beat fan as it contains 83 features from the original newspaper, printed in their entirety. They include articles by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Pete Best, Brian Epstein, Bob Wooler, Tony Jackson, Lu Walters, Kingsize Taylor, Mike Hart, Mal Jefferson, Pete Pemberton, Keith Karlson, Ray Ennis, Les Braid, Nicky Crouch, John Schroeder and others. The Meet The Singers series includes Gerry Marsden, Derry Wilkie, Beryl Marsden, Earl Preston, Mark Peters and Sonny Webb. There is an article on Bill Haley's tribute to Liverpool , the Animals writing a song about Mersey Beat and many other fascinating stories. But it would be much better if you read them yourselves, although it would take you many hours to browse through the site.

'Beatles'

has 50 articles on the Beatles  - many people will not have been aware of, such as 'John Lennon in the Spirit World.' This is a feature I wrote in the Eighties and is all about John Lennon and a White Feather! (Yes, you'll notice that a new exhibition on the White Feather has just opened at the Beatles Story with Julian and Cynthia Lennon in attendance). There is the story of Stuart Sutcliffe at Prescot  Grammar School; a feature on their first manager - Nigel Walley; Pete Best's memories of Rory Storm in Hamburg; Mike Hill's recollections of how he turned John Lennon onto rock 'n' roll and details of the Beatles recording session at the Akoustic Studios in Hamburg.

Of particular interest to Merseycats is the section...

'Mersey A-Z'

This is in two parts, the first with 48 articles detailing the history of bands and solo artists such as the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group, Steve Day & the Drifters, Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, Jimmy Campbell, Paddy Chambers, Beryl Marsden, the Big Three, Billy J. Kramer, Colin Manley, Cilla Black, the Black Knights, the Hy-Tones, the Hi-Cats, the Merseys, Nicky Crouch and many others. There are also lots of photos I took at the Blue Angel which have been previously unpublished.

The other section...

'Mersey A-Z Articles'

contains nearly 60 features by friends you will be familiar with, including Billy Hatton, Chris Huston, Dave Elias, Arty Davies and stories on Freddie Starr, Tommy Quickly and others. Once again, it's a section to browse through for hours.

They are the most important sections and there is also an e-mail contact if you wish to get hold of me direct.

As is apparent, I have spend ten years researching this site and am keen to track down as many musicians and artists from the original Mersey scene as possible to present their stories for posterity. Sadly, several of the artists I was in touch with or trying to get hold of, ranging from Mark Peters and Ian Edwards to Brendan McCormack and Derry Wilkie had sadly passed away before I could complete their histories.

If you were ever part of the Mersey  scene in the Sixties, please get hold of me as I'd love to include your personal story on the site. Among the many people I would like to write about are Earl Preston, Barbara Harrison, Paul Pilnick, Cy Tucker, Lawrence Areety, Eddie Amoo, Karl Terry, Hank Walters, Ron Appleby, Wayne Bickerton, Les Chadwick, Lee Curtis, Geoff Nugent, Vince Earl, Ricky Gleason, Ralph Ellis, Joe Fagin, Mike Byrne, Chick Graham, Trevor Morais and about 500 others!