Bill Harry

William Harry (born 17 September 1938) is the creator of Mersey Beat, a newspaper of the early 1960s which focused on the Liverpool music scene.

Harry had previously started various magazines and newspapers, such as Biped and Premier, while at Liverpool's Junior School of Art.

He later attended the Liverpool College of Art, where his fellow students included John Lennon and Stuart Sutcliffe, who both later performed with the Beatles.

Harry was born in Smithdown Road Hospital (now demolished), in Liverpool, Lancashire, on 17 September 1938.

He came from a poor Liverpudlian background and was brought up in a rough neighbourhood near Liverpool's dockyards.

His father (John Jelicoe Harry), was killed during the war on the SS Kyleglen British Steam Merchant ship, which was torpedoed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean by a German U-boat.

None of the crew survived, and Harry's father died on 14 December 1940, aged 25.

Harry attended the Catholic St. Vincent's Institute, but had to get used to the priests dispensing corporal punishment on a regular basis.

Because of his small stature, Harry was beaten by his classmates, being once kicked in the appendix and "left for dead".

His mother had no option but to transfer him elsewhere.

Harry became interested in science fiction and read comics by candlelight (as the house had no electricity), eventually joining the Liverpool Science Fiction Society.

At the age of 13, he produced his own science fiction fanzine, Biped, using a Gestetner machine to print 60 copies.

His pen friend at the time was Michael Moorcock; the writer of science fiction and fantasy novels.

After winning a scholarship to the Junior School of Art in Gambier Terrace, Liverpool, Harry started his first school newspaper, Premier.

At the age of 16, Harry obtained a place at Liverpool's College of Art at 68 Hope Street.

He published a magazine, Jazz, in 1958, and worked as an assistant editor on the University of Liverpool's charity magazine, Pantosphinx.

Harry met his wife-to-be, Virginia Sowry, at the Jacaranda club—managed by Allan Williams, the first manager of the Beatles—and she later agreed to help him start a music newspaper.

After studying typography and page layouts, he borrowed the college's duplicating machine and published a newspaper called Jazz in 1958, which reported concerts at the Liverpool Jazz Society club, the Temple Jazz Club and the Cavern Club.

He also worked as assistant editor on University of Liverpool's charity magazine, Pantosphinx, and on a music newsletter for Frank Hessy's musical instruments store called Frank Comments.

The title was suggested by the owner, Frank Hesselberg, as a play on his own comments, but was abandoned after a few issues.

Harry received a National Diploma in design while at the Liverpool Art College and became the first student in the new Graphic Design course, eventually winning a Senior City Art Scholarship.

Harry maintained that students at art college should be bohemian in their thoughts and actions and not like the "dilettantes and dabblers", whom Harry disapproved of for wearing duffle coats and turtle neck sweaters.

One of the college's artists and teachers, Arthur Ballard, later stated that Harry and Sutcliffe both overshadowed Lennon at college, explaining that they were both "extremely well educated, and very eager for information".

Harry organised a students' film society, where he showed Orphee, by Jean Cocteau and Salvador Dalí, and Luis Buñuel's, L'Age d'Or.

Meeting Lennon had been a shock for Harry, as Lennon often dressed like a Teddy boy, and was a disruptive influence at the college.

Despite his misgivings about Lennon, Harry introduced him to Sutcliffe, who was a small, softly-spoken and shy student, who had painted a portrait of Harry.

The three often spent time together at the Cracke pub in Rice Street, or on the top floor of the Jacaranda club (run by Williams, who later managed the Beatles).

Harry met his then 16-year-old future wife-to-be, Virginia Sowry, at the club.

Harry, Lennon, Sutcliffe and Rod Murray saw the poet Royston Ellis at Liverpool University in June 1960.

Having been disappointed with Ellis' performance, Harry proposed the idea that they should call the assembled quartet of friends the Dissenters, and make Liverpool famous: Sutcliffe and Murray with their paintings, Harry's writing and Lennon's music.

A fellow student, John Ashcroft, introduced Harry to rock 'n' roll records, and the members of Rory Storm & the Hurricanes and Cass & the Cassanovas.

Harry carried notebooks with him, collecting information about the local groups, once writing to the Daily Mail: "Liverpool is like New Orleans at the turn of the century, but with rock 'n' roll instead of jazz".

He also wrote to the Liverpool Echo about the emerging Liverpool music scene, but neither paper was interested in stories about music that was popular with teenagers.

The classified ads in the Liverpool Echo for local groups were always under the heading of Jazz, but the paper refused to change this policy, despite pleas from the promoters and groups who actually paid for them.

After borrowing £50, Harry released the first issue of Mersey Beat on 6 July 1961, with the first 5,000 copies selling out within a short time.

The newspaper was published every two weeks, covering the music scenes in Liverpool, Wirral, Birkenhead, New Brighton, Crosby and Southport, as well as Warrington, Widnes and Runcorn.

He edited the paper in a small attic office above a wine merchant's shop at 81a Renshaw Street, Liverpool.

Harry arranged for the future Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, to see them perform a lunchtime concert at the Cavern Club on 9 November 1961.

Epstein subsequently asked Harry to create a national music paper, the Music Echo.

After disagreements with Epstein about editorial control, he decided to become a public relations agent, and went on to work for artists such as Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Procol Harum, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin and The Beach Boys.