BEATLE DAD
George Harrison's father no longer keeps the newspapers which have reports of the Beatles in them. He told me: "I had to stop buying papers - there were far too many of them with reports about the boys that there just isn't the space to keep them. Nowadays if we buy a paper we take pieces out of them and send the cutting to friends and relations all over the place - in the States, New Zealand, Australia."

A bus-driver, Mr. Harrison is on extended leave - he has had to take time off work to cope with the hundreds of letters that pour into his home every day. "We get numerous letters with cuttings out of various papers," he told me. "Pictures - I've never seen so many pictures in my life as I've seen of them from the States. We get coloured cards of the boys from bubble gum packets - and we hear that the chewing gum that has pictures of the Beatles on the packet has sold eighteen million dollars' worth in three months - a lot of chewing!"

Mrs. Harrison told me, "I answered a letter from a girl in Japan - and she sent me a nice little doll. someone else sent me a toy poodle and an owl."

FLAMINGOS
All four members od Faron's Flamingos have settled with groups. Nicky Crouch is with the Mojos, Faron is with the Big Three, Paddy Chambers is with the Eyes and Trevor Morais is with the Song Peddlers.

When the Flamingos disbanded, Trevor joined Ian Crawford & the Boomerangs. The group appeared in different parts of the North for several months and then disbanded.

Trevor then tried to form a group of his own, but decided against the idea when he received an offer from the Song Peddlers.

The group are a trio managed by Alan Lewis and the other two members are Tab Martin and Roy Phillips.

Tab and Roy were former members of Heinz's backing group, the Saints, and are excellent songwriters. They are currently writing numbers for several leading artists and groups.

BILLY
Billy Butler, the 21-year-old Scouser who made such a hit on 'Thank Your Lucky Stars' during the early editions, appears regularly at the Cavern with his group the Tuxedos.

"I remember the first time I met Pete Murray," he said. "Following rehearsals for 'Lucky Stars' a number of us went into the canteen for dinner. We all ordered a meal and sat down to eat it. Pete came to the table and sat down - but didn't seem to have any food with him.

"Then he took a packet of lettuce sandwiches from his pocket and started to eat them.

"I found out that he's very keen on health and eats special foods." Remembering the very first show he appeared in, Billy said "Russ Conway was on the programme and, of course, he's from Birkenhead. He walked over to me and said, 'Hello, wack, how're you doing?' I said to him, 'All right, and my mother will be very pleased when I tell her i was on the same programme as Semprinii!'

"Later on I walked over to him an apologized and said I knew quite well he was Winifred Atwell."

RECORDING MAN PAUL
Handling the 'pop' recording session at Polydor studios in Hamburg is a handsome young Liverpudlian - Paul Murphy.

Paul was active on the Mersey scene some five years ago, and sang with Ringo's old group Rory Storm & the Hurricanes.

As a solo artist he secured a recording contract. His first disc was entitled 'Four And Twenty Thousand Kisses'.

The disc was on the jukebox at a club called the Zodiac, and it was the most played record in the club at the time.

I suspect that Cilla Black, who worked there, gave it a number of spins. The Zodiac was a regular haunt for beat groups, particularly the Big 3. There, in fact, I designed the Big 3 trade mark.

Paul disappeared from the scene and I was surprised to bump into him one night some years later in Hamburg's Star Club.

Among the groups he recorded in Germany were Kingsize Taylor & the Dominoes, Alex Harvey & his Soul Band and Tony Sheridan & the Beat Brothers.

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