I was born in 1945 and brought up in the West Derby area of Liverpool, attending Roscoe Garsfield School. Among my friends at school was David Aspinall, younger brother of Neil. We spent a lot of time together and learned about the formation of the Blackjacks, with Pete Best on drums - Neil was a good friend of Pete's.

We went along to the Casbah club after school in what must have been either 1959 or 1960 and saw lots of groups. My interest in music began then. I learned to play guitar and was influenced by lots of American music: Elvis, Buddy Holly, etc.

After leaving school at the age of 15 I went to work in T.J.Hughes selling shirts. This lasted for about six months and I went to work as a waiter in the Crown Hotel in Lime Street. I met up with a guy there called Kenny Davies, who also played guitar, and we quickly began playing and singing together.

Various jobs followed, including one at Blacklers Stores in Charlotte Street. At this time we were visiting the Cavern club in our lunchtime and evenings, looking at all the bands. We also did the usual venues such as the Iron Door and Litherland Town Hall and saw the Beatles many, many times.

Our main venue for seeing them was Brockman Hall in Tuebrook. It was here that I began to talk to them in their break - and I was always asking George Harrison to play the Joe Brown numbers. He was a big favourite of mine. Most times George duly obliged.

By this time I was in a band called the Outlaws and we played in various clubs, including the Paladin Club. I then left and was a founder member of a band called Almost Blues. This was with a workmate whose name was Alan Peters - I must admit that I have never had any recognition for being a member of this band. I also played in several other bands including Obsession, the Big Lox Blues Band and one or two others that are completely insignificant.

I did play in a band that was probably one of the first tribute bands. We played nothing but Buddy Holly songs. I cannot even remember what we were called. We played in a club in Liverpool called the Beetroot Club, somewhere around Smithdown Road/Allerton Road. In 1966 I met a guy called Dave Roberts at a club in Liverpool called Labamba. He was playing in a band called the Maraccas. We hit it off together and quickly became friends.

It was then that we decided to get together and to start writing some original songs. The first ones were pretty bad, but we never gave up. We tried to start various bands with all kinds of musicians, but nothing stood out. In May 1967 we decided to do something about our songs. I had seen an article in one of the women's magazines about famous people's houses and saw one about where Paul McCartney lived. The address wasn't given, but it revealed that the house backed onto Lord's Cricket Ground.

Dave and I, together with another friend called Peter McKenna, decided to go to London to track Paul McCartney down. We rented a car and decided to have a week in Torquay, via London.

On arrival in London on a Saturday in May, around lunchtime, we found the house in Cavendish Avenue. Several girls were hanging around outside, waiting. After talking to one of the girls we established that this was indeed the right place. 

After a period of time the gates opened and a Mini shot out and drove off - with us in hot pursuit. Paul was sitting in the passenger seat with his dog in the back seat. We didn't notice who was driving. Eventually, after some hairy driving, we arrived at a park where the Mini stopped. Paul got out with the dog and proceeded to walk across the field. We then decided to follow him. We abandoned the car and just went for it. Dave shouted to Paul, who turned around and stopped. It was then that we explained that we were from Liverpool and we wrote songs. We asked him if he could advise us as to what we had to do to get them heard.

Paul looked at us and said "Why should I do this for you? I could get you a recording contract just like that, but why should I?" We then began to sell ourselves with our 'Scouse humour.' After about two minutes Paul smiled and said he would give us a phone number of someone who might be able to help us. He wrote down the number and said to say he recommended us and to give us a listen. With that he was gone. we went back to the car, hardly believing what had happened. The phone number was for a man called Terry Doran.

We eventually contacted Terry and told him Paul had given us his number. Terry was a Liverpool man like ourselves and we agreed to meet the following week after our holiday in Torquay.

The due date arrived and we got the overnight bus down to London and made our way to Terry's office. This was situated in the same building as Radio Luxembourg. I think the address was somewhere near Curzon Street. I think Terry's office was on the top floor. The adjacent office had a sign saying 'Dratleaf Music and Abigail Music.' Terry's door had a cardboard sign, written in pen, stating 'Apple Publishing.'

We got on immediately with Terry and he told us he had spoken to Paul and he wanted to hear what we had to offer. He also told us about the concept of Apple, how it was being formed. We did not have demo's or tapes of our songs in those days, all we had was two guitars and our cheek. Terry said he wanted to hear what we had to offer. The songs we had written were called 'Miss Sinclair's Courtship', 'Reflections', 'Girl On The Corner' and ''Cept Me.'

We sang them all through twice for Terry. Terry said he loved them and wanted to get them down on acetate quickly. After some phone calls he arranged for us to go to a studio that afternoon to put down the four songs. We then went with him to pick up his car. This car turned out to be a black Mini with blacked out windows. We later found out this was either John's car, or maybe George's, I can't remember. We went to a small studio in Denmark Street, I think it was called Central Sound - and we recorded everything in one take. 

We were astounded at what was happening to us, it was truly amazing. Terry then took us to IBC Studios to have some acetates made from the tapes. He then took us back to his house in Esher - I think the address was Quill Cottage, Woolsey Road, Esher.

He was raving about our songs, saying he was going to play them to John and Brian. In fact he was on the phone to Brian Epstein saying how good he thought the songs were and he wanted to play them to him. As it happens, Brian Epstein was with John at John's house in Weybridge. Terry told us to make ourselves at home and he left for the evening. The next morning Terry told us he had played the songs to Brian and John and they both loved them. In fact, John Lennon said the song ''Cept Me' was great while Brian liked 'Miss Sinclair.' Terry then arranged for us to return to London the following week to repeat the entire episode. He took us up to the station, gave us some cash and we boarded a train for Lime Street. Back in style, by train instead of bus!

We were over the moon and during the next week Terry was on the phone telling us how great Brian thought the songs were and he couldn't wait to repeat the performance.

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