Raymond Jones

Antney

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Missed the anniversary a few weeks ago...from the web:

Raymond Jones played a small but pivotal role in The Beatles' history. He was the man who, on Saturday 28 October 1961, ordered a copy of the group's single My Bonnie from the NEMS shop at 12-14 Whitechapel, Liverpool. Jones was served by Brian Epstein, who at the time ran the store's record department.
 

walrus

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Digging deep into The Beatles, Antney - love it!

walrus
 

fronobulax

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I am not a Beatles obsessive. Why is this interesting? Was this the first documented sale of a Beatles recording? Was it the first time Epstein heard or heard of the Beatles? Something else?
 

adorshki

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Yes! Then he went to see them at the Cavern Club, and you know the rest.

walrus

Yeah if he hadn't cleaned 'em up we could have seen the birth of punk twenty years earlier.
4-%20Thursday%209%20February%201961%20Beatles%20at%20Cavern%20Club%203.jpg
 

coreyman97

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I've always read about Raymond Jones, and how his request at NEMS alerted Brian Epstein to The Beatles. However, Bill Harry, the creator of Mersey Beat and friend of the group tells a different story on his fb page:

Bill Harry I've already commented on this. Brian Epstein used a real person to create a myth, which was a good story to open his book. Paul McCartney confirms that Brian discovered the Beatles through Mersey Beat. So does Joe Flannery. I have the proof in the issues of Mersey Beat months before Brian utilised a fans name. The front page story of their Hamburg recording was in Mersey Beat in July 1961. Brian became my reviewer with Issue No. 3 the first week of August. He took me to lunch twice at the Basnett Bar to discuss them. He'd invite me into his office to discuss the Mersey Beat contents. Raymond Jones really has no relevance in the Beatles history because Brian already knew all about them. Raymond Jones was one of several fans who asked for the record at NEMS, months after I'd been discussing the Beatles with Brian. Brian just pulled one of the names out of the hat to enable him to have a good story to tell rather than the truth.
 

walrus

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Epstein was a master marketeer so maybe he fibbed. And Bill Harry likes to think of himself as the man who created that whole Liverpool scene, including the Beatles, as editor of Mersey Beat, a local music newspaper.

You'd need at two hands and two feet to list all the people who claim they were responsible for some part of the Beatles success.

walrus
 
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