Bill Harry facts for kids

William Harry (born 17 September 1938) is a journalist and public relations agent from Liverpool, England. He is best known for creating Mersey Beat, a popular newspaper in the early 1960s that focused on the exciting music scene in Liverpool.

Before Mersey Beat, Bill Harry started several magazines and newspapers while he was still a student. He went to the Liverpool College of Art, where he met famous future members of the Beatles, like John Lennon and Stuart Sutcliffe. After his success with Mersey Beat, he became a public relations agent, working with many famous bands like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.

Bill Harry's Early Life and School Days

Bill Harry was born in Liverpool on 17 September 1938. He grew up in a tough area near the city's docks. His father sadly passed away during World War II when his ship was sunk.

Bill went to St. Vincent's Institute, a Catholic school, where he faced some difficult experiences. Because he was small, he was sometimes picked on by other students. His mother eventually moved him to a different school.

Discovering Science Fiction and Starting Magazines

Bill became very interested in science fiction stories. He would read comics by candlelight because his house didn't have electricity. When he was 13, he created his own science fiction magazine called Biped. He printed 60 copies using a special machine.

Later, Bill won a scholarship to the Junior School of Art in Liverpool. There, he started his first school newspaper, which he called Premier.

Art College and New Friends

The Liverpool College of Art at 68 Hope Street, Liverpool, where Harry, Lennon and Sutcliffe all attended.

At 16, Bill got into the Liverpool College of Art. He learned about how to design pages and arrange text. In 1958, he used the college's printing machine to publish a newspaper called Jazz. This paper covered concerts at local jazz clubs, including the famous the Cavern Club. He also helped edit other magazines.

Bill believed that art students should be creative and free-thinking. He met John Lennon at the college, who was quite a lively character. Despite their differences, Bill introduced Lennon to Stuart Sutcliffe, a quiet and talented art student. The three of them often hung out at local pubs and clubs. It was at the Jacaranda club that Bill met his future wife, Virginia Sowry.

In 1960, Bill, Lennon, Sutcliffe, and another friend, Rod Murray, had an idea. They wanted to make Liverpool famous through their art and music. They called themselves "the Dissenters."

Starting Mersey Beat Newspaper

Bill Harry's friend, John Ashcroft, introduced him to rock 'n' roll music and local bands. Bill started carrying notebooks to collect information about these groups. He realized that no major newspapers were covering the exciting new music scene in Liverpool. He tried to get the Daily Mail and Liverpool Echo interested, but they weren't.

Bill decided to start his own newspaper to cover Liverpool's rock 'n' roll music. He wanted it to be different from national music papers that only focused on chart hits.

Getting Mersey Beat Off the Ground

A friend helped Bill meet Jim Anderson, who lent him £50. This money allowed Bill to start Mersey Beat in 1961. Bill decided to publish the newspaper every two weeks. It would cover the music scene in Liverpool and nearby towns.

Bill came up with the name Mersey Beat by thinking of a policeman's 'beat' (their area of duty), not a musical beat. His future wife, Virginia, quit her job to work full-time for the paper. They found a small office above a wine shop at 81a Renshaw Street, Liverpool.

The original Mersey Beat office was at 81a Renshaw Street, Liverpool. (green shop front on the right)

Bill worked very hard, often staying up all night at the office. Virginia's parents even helped by paying for some advertisements.

The First Issue and Growing Popularity

The first issue of Mersey Beat came out on 6 July 1961. All 5,000 copies sold out quickly! Bill personally delivered copies to newsagents and music stores.

The newspaper's popularity grew fast. Bill started featuring stories about groups from other cities like Manchester and Birmingham. The paper's circulation (how many copies were sold) grew to 75,000. People started calling Mersey Beat the "Teenagers Bible." Local bands became known as "beat groups," and concerts were advertised as "Beat Sessions."

Bill explained that older generations didn't understand what young people wanted. Mersey Beat became their voice, full of photos and information about their favorite local groups.

Liverpool's Music Scene and The Beatles

Between 1958 and 1964, the Liverpool area had around 500 different music groups! In 1961, Bill Harry and Bob Wooler, the DJ at the Cavern Club, made a list of almost 300 groups they knew.

In 1962, Mersey Beat held a poll to find the most popular Merseyside group. The the Beatles won first place! This was a huge deal, and the results were printed on the front page of Mersey Beat on 4 January 1962, with the famous headline, "Beatles Top Poll!" Because of this, the Beatles received new guitars from a music store. Many groups joked that the paper should be called Mersey Beatles because Bill featured them so often.

Bill also helped Priscilla White, a local singer, get her start. He wrote an article about her and accidentally called her "Cilla Black" because he couldn't remember her last name. She liked it and kept it as her stage name! Bill later helped her get a management contract with Brian Epstein.

The Beatles and Brian Epstein

Bill Harry often saw Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison (who would become The Beatles) practicing at the Art College. He encouraged Brian Epstein, who owned a local music store called NEMS, to sell Mersey Beat. Epstein sold 12 copies of the first issue in one day and had to order more!

Epstein then started writing a record review column for Mersey Beat. He became very interested in The Beatles after seeing their name in the paper and on concert posters.

On 9 November 1961, Epstein went to see The Beatles perform at the Cavern Club. Bill Harry arranged for him to get in easily. After seeing them, Epstein became their manager.

John Lennon had given Bill Harry some funny photos taken in Hamburg, Germany, including one of Lennon in his underwear and McCartney on a toilet. After Epstein became their manager, Lennon rushed to Bill's office to get these photos back, saying Epstein insisted they be returned.

When Epstein finally got The Beatles a recording contract with EMI, he sent a telegram to the Mersey Beat office to share the exciting news.

Moving to London and Public Relations

In 1964, Brian Epstein asked Bill Harry to create a national music newspaper. Bill named it Music Echo. However, Epstein started making editorial decisions without telling Bill, so Bill decided to leave. The paper later merged with another and became Disc & Music Echo.

In 1966, Bill and his wife moved to London. He started writing for other magazines. Then, he became a public relations (PR) officer for bands like the Kinks and the Hollies. For the next 18 years, he worked as a PR agent for many famous artists, including Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, and the Beach Boys.

During this time, Bill also started new magazines, like Tracks, which reported on new album releases, and Idols: 20th Century Legends.

In 1994, Bill Harry received a special gold award for his "Lifetime Achievement in Music" from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. He has appeared on many TV and radio shows and helped with documentaries about The Beatles and the Mersey Beat era.

In 2009, Mersey Beat even returned for a special issue to celebrate Liverpool's International Beatle Week!

Books Written by Bill Harry

Bill Harry has written many books, mostly about music and The Beatles. He once said that he used hundreds of interviews and his large collection of clippings, magazines, and books to write them.

Here are some of his books:

• Arrows : The Official Story, Everest Books (1976) ISBN: 978-0-903925-61-7
• Mersey Beat: The Beginnings of the Beatles, Omnibus Press (1978) ISBN: 978-0-86001-415-7
• The Beatles Who's Who, Littlehampton Book Services Ltd. (1982) ISBN: 978-0-906053-38-6
• Beatle-mania: The History of the Beatles on Film, Virgin Books (1984) ISBN: 978-0-86369-041-9
• The Book of Lennon, John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd (1984) ISBN: 978-0-906053-74-4
• The Book of Beatle Lists, Javelin Books (1985) ISBN: 978-0-7137-1521-7
• The Ultimate Beatles Encyclopedia, Hyperion Books (1994) ISBN: 978-0-7868-8071-3
• The Encyclopedia of Beatles' People, Cassell Illustrated (1997) ISBN: 978-0-7137-2606-0
• The Beatles Encyclopedia: Revised and Updated, Virgin Books (2000) ISBN: 978-0-7535-0481-9
• The John Lennon Encyclopedia, Virgin Books (2001) ISBN: 978-0-7535-3921-7
• The Paul McCartney Encyclopedia, Virgin Books (2002) ISBN: 978-0-7535-0716-2
• The George Harrison Encyclopedia, Virgin Books (2003) ISBN: 978-0-7535-0822-0
• The Ringo Starr Encyclopedia, Virgin Books (2004) ISBN: 978-0-7535-0843-5
• The British Invasion: How the Beatles and Other UK Bands Conquered America, Chrome Dreams (2004) ISBN: 978-1-84240-247-4
• Bigger Than the Beatles, Trinity Mirror (2009) ISBN: 978-1-906802-04-2
• Lennon's Liverpool, Trinity Mirror (2010) ISBN: 978-1-906802-51-6