After the show had finished Hal gave Parnes his contact details. He then sorted out a cab to take Marty and Parnes back to the hotel, but then found they’d already left. When he arrived at the hotel he was kept waiting and then received a thank you note and ten shillings from Parnes.

A couple of weeks later his mother contacted him at Union Carbide to tell him a telegram had arrived for him. In those days a telegram sometimes augured bad news and he rushed home only to find it was an offer from Parnes to look after musicians and their equipment: “On a trial basis. Ten pounds a week. Pay your own way.”

At the time Hal was receiving £18 a week as warehouse foreman, but he was prepared to take such a drastic drop in income because he wanted to become involved in show business. He joined Parnes team as a band boy but two weeks later was appointed tour manager for Marty Wilde, which lasted for a year until he was asked to look after Dickie Pride. Pride was a complex artist who had an unpredictable nature, but Hal managed to cope.

His next task was to oversee a tour with Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran in 1960. Cochran was so impressed with Hal that he invited him to become his manager and run his business affairs. There was a rapport between them, which was to end with Eddie’s tragic death.

Hal had been called away from his duties on the tour to supervise Billy Fury and Joe Brown for their appearance on the TV show ‘Wham!’ In the meantime, following the show in Bristol, Eddie decided he wanted to return to London and, together with Sharon Sheeley and Gene Vincent, was offered a lift in someone’s car (they didn’t take the tour bus and considered the taxi fare to London to be excessive). A tyre burst on the car, which crashed, killing Eddie.

Hal feels that if he were there the accident wouldn’t have happened and he would have insisted they had a good night’s sleep before traveling.

Eddie’s mother, aware of the close friendship that had developed between Hal and her son, sponsored his application for a Green Card to allow him to work in America. He met many stars, including Elvis Presley and for a brief time worked as an agent in Las Vegas before deciding to return to England where he worked on the road with Matt Monro and Jeff Conrad prior to joining the Parnes team again to look after Billy Fury, becoming involved in working with Billy on his feature film debut ‘Play It Cool.’ 

Incidentally, Hal recorded for Oriole Records in 1962 with his single, "Twistin' Time Is Here" and the self-penned "Come On And Twist".

In 1963 he decided to move on from the Parnes Organization, accepting an offer to become tour manager for the Robert Stigwood Organization. Parnes was angry at Hal for leaving him and refused to allow the release of a record Fury had made of one of Hal’s songs, ‘Please Love Me.’

Larry Page asked Hal to work with the Kinks and by 1967 he’d formed his own publishing company Moggie Music and gone into business with Stan Phillips, manager of the Troggs and Loot. He then began to manage a series of artists including the Merseys, Billy Fury, Marty Wilde and the Swinging Bluejeans.

In 1971 he took over management of Shane Fenton and within a couple of years had transformed the singer’s image to fit in with the new glam rock trends, also changing Shane’s name to Alvin Stardust. As Alvin, Shane enjoyed a high profile and several chart hits although Hal had a dispute with the record company and decided to sell out his management share.

He next became involved in promoting his own nationwide rock ‘n’ roll revival tours with a host of artists including Billy, Marty, Joe Brown, Heinz, Tommy Bruce and Jess Conrad.

Hal also became a recording manager, producing records for Rockin’ Horse and Liverpool Express, the latter enjoying major chart success with ‘You Are My Love’ and ‘Every Man Must Have A Dream.’

By that time he had built up a solid reputation and his Hal Carter Organization was one of the leading promoters of acts from the 60s and 70s and now included several further signings ranging from Mungo Jerry to the Equals.

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