In Memoriam - Sir Roger Moore (1927 - 2017)

Live And Let Die: Roger Moore and Jane Seymour on the set of Roger's first outing as 007.

Sir Roger Moore, Film and TV star and more recently, UNICEF Ambassador, has died at his home in Switzerland at the age of 89 after a short battle with cancer.

It goes without saying that Sir Roger was well known the world over as Simon Templar in 'The Saint' from 1962 to 69 and then achieved even more recognition as James Bond 007 in seven films from 1973 to 1985 beginning with the George Martin scored 'Live And Let Die' and ending with 'A View To A Kill'.

Sir Roger's work with UNICEF is less well known but ultimately far more important. Since Audrey Hepburn introduced him to the organization, Sir Roger got involved in 1991 as a Goodwill Ambassador and worked tirelessly for them for decades. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003 for his work with the organization.

Sir Roger is and always will be much loved among us Bond fans. His portrayal of 007 brought a new dynamic to the role and furthered the longevity of the James Bond franchise. I firmly believe that if it wasn't for Sir Roger Moore, the James Bond films would not be what they are today. You may all have your favourite Bond actors, whether they be Connery, Lazenby, Dalton, Brosnan or Craig, you cannot deny Sir Roger Moore held the role with the suave sophistication that we've come to expect from Britain's favourite secret agent.

So, we shall raise a glass and toast the memory of a truly great storyteller and actor. Here he is in a memorable interview on 'Des O'Connor Tonight' in 1994 being brilliant.

Goodbye and thank you for everything, Sir Roger Moore.

In Memoriam: Theresa Saldana (1954 - 2016)

Theresa Saldana (Image: Getty)

We are sad to hear that Theresa Saldana has died following a short illness. She was 61.

Perhaps best known to US audiences as Rachael Scali in the 1990s series 'The Commish', Theresa Saldana will be forever known to Beatles fans as Grace Corrigan in Robert Zemeckis' 1978 film 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand', based on the Beatles' First ground breaking visit to the United States.

It was her first film role and along with Nancy Allen, Wendy Jo Sperber and Susan Kendall Newman, she brought to life what it was like to be a Beatles fan in 1964.

Her other major roles in the 1980s included turns in 'Defiance' and 'Raging Bull'.

In 1982, Saldana was brutally attacked outside her LA home by an obsessed stalker who had seen her in Raging Bull and fallen in love with her. It was only due to the quick action of a delivery man that her life was saved. Since that, Saldana became an activist for victims of stalking and she continued to act in roles both on the big screen and small. In 2004, she retired from acting.

In Memoriam: Tony Barrow (1936 - 2016)

Inner Circle: Brian Epstein with Tony Barrow (Right) in 1965.

Anthony FJ "Tony" Barrow has sadly died. He was 80 years old. Barrow was born in Crosby, Liverpool in 1936 and when John and Paul were getting together in one part of Liverpool, Barrow was putting on shows and dances featuring Skiffle and Jazz bands around Crosby. While The Beatles were in Hamburg, Barrow moved down to London to work for Decca records, writing liner notes, which went on the back of an LP. While still contributing to the Liverpool Echo. 

It was in 1961 when Barrow was contacted by Brian Epstein for some professional advice that Barrow first learned of the Beatles. He arranged for them an audition with Decca records which they infamously rejected. Despite this, Barrow was encouraged by Epstein to work for the Beatles by doubling his salary and from 1962 to 1968, he worked for NEMS Enterprises as their Press Officer, writing the liner notes for their albums. He promoted all the artists on the NEMS roster which by then included Cilla Black, Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas, Gerry and the Pacemakers and the Fourmost.

When Beatlemania took off in the UK after their appearance on Sunday Night at the London Palladium, Barrow no longer had to contact the Press about the Beatles, they contacted him.


Barrow travelled with the Beatles during their 64, 65 and 66 tours and was present during the 'Summit of the Giants' when they met Elvis Presley.

When the Beatles formed Apple in 1968, Barrow was naturally made redundant from his role, he left NEMS Enterprises to set up his own PR company, representing entertainers and musical acts from the Kinks, the Bay City Rollers, the New Seekers and Bob Monkhouse, to American artists, including David Cassidy, Gladys Knight, David Soul, the Monkees, Tony Bennett, the Jackson Five, Andy Williams, and Neil Sedaka, for their European tours.

In 1980, he left the PR business and returned to freelance journalism. Of course, his most talked about period in his career was his time with the Beatles and so he wrote two books about it: The Making of the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour (1999) and John, Paul, George, Ringo and Me: The Real Beatles Story (2006).

Barrow attended numerous Beatle conventions talking about his time with the band and participated in numerous documentaries on the band.  He died at his home in Morecambe, Lancashire, England, three days after his eightieth birthday.

In Memoriam: Sir George Martin (1926 - 2016)

Sir George Martin, who recently passed away at the age of 90, had a long and extremely successful career as a record producer in Britain. Picking up the gift for music at an early age, Martin started his career in the BBC's classical music department before joining EMI in 1950 as an assistant to Oscar Preuss, the head of EMI's Parlophone Records from 1950 to 1955.

Parlophone in those days wasn't taken seriously by EMI and as such, insignificant acts were signed to the label and when Oscar retired in 1955, George Martin took over the role as head of the label and recorded classical and baroque music, original cast recordings of West End shows and travelled around, recording regional music from all over the UK.

The label's most popular output at that time were its comedy and novelty records. Over the course of the 1950s, Martin worked with the comedy team known as the Goons. The Goons were Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe and 'The Goon Show' was extremely popular with radio audiences on the BBC Home Service. Becoming a friend of them all, especially Spike Milligan, George issued comedy records with them together and solo.

Despite having success with his comedy records, Martin had been watching the rise of this new thing called 'Rock and Roll and saw the success Cliff Richard and The Shadows were having over on Columbia, Parlophone's sister label. Martin was looking to sign someone even better than them to Parlophone and, in 1962, he did it.


Martin met an enthusiastic manager of a beat group in Liverpool and, on the basis of the manager's charm and belief that his group were going to be 'Bigger than Elvis', he gave them a recording contract, without ever meeting them or seeing them play l.

That group was the Beatles and the rest, as they say, is popular music history. The Beatles allowed Martin to become a rock and roll producer and to push the boundaries of recording techniques. During the 1960s, Martin recorded such artists as Shirley Bassey, Cilla Black, Gerry & The Pacemakers, Matt Monro, The Fourmost, Billy J Kramer & The Dakotas. When the Beatles split in 1969, Martin went on to work with Paul McCartney, most notably producing his James Bond theme 'Live & Let Die' in 1973. Martin had produced Shirley Bassey's theme of 'Goldfinger' in 1964.


His success with the Beatles gave him the leverage to start AIR (Associated Independent Recording) at a time when most producers were on a salary. AIR studios gave him the opportunity to be hired by any artist who wanted him. He continued to work through the 1970s and 80s, his final album before he retired in 1998 was 'In My Life' an album of Beatles covers done by actors and musicians such as Celine Dion, Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, Billy Connolly and Sean Connery. He also worked with his son Giles, also a producer, who worked on the Beatles' 'Love' album for the Las Vegas show of the same name.

George Martin's work with the Beatles will remain the pinnacle of his achievements, something which he was proud of and always took the opportunity to speak about. In Paul McCartney's remembrance of George, he nudged him closer to the 'Fifth Beatle' moniker, one that Martin usually distanced himself from.

Indeed, when speaking to Gloria Hunniford, Martin told a story of a conversation he had with his daughter in the mid 70s on his work with the Beatles. She came home from school and told him the other children had asked her about him and his work with the Beatles and if it was true. He nodded and said it was. She then asked if they were any good, to which he replied yes. She then turned away and said "Not as good as the Bay City Rollers though!"

George will be fondly remembered by all who knew him and I for one today will be celebrating his work by listening to it. Thank you Mister Martin, I like your tie too. 

Brian Epstein: 1934 - 1967

Brian with the Beatles in 1964.

On this day in 1967, Brian Epstein, who is perhaps the most successful manager in music history, died from an overdose. There are many theories as to whether Brian meant to commit suicide or whether he accidentally overdosed. My personal thinking is that it was accidental. Sure, Brian had his demons that would cause him to erupt in fits of rage. He was a homosexual man living in a time when homosexuality was illegal in Britain. He was manager to one of the most successful acts on the planet that had just recently announced it was stopping touring to concentrate on their studio output. It must have seemed like he was being sidelined.

Allegedly, the above photo was taken just hours before he died. It shows him looking somewhat sadly at the camera, with his hair in the style of his boys' famous Beatle cut. It's an extremely poignant photo. Does it capture his wish that the Beatles were still those mop tops that sped round the world? Or just his wish that he was actually a Beatle himself?

Whatever it was, we are definitely thankful for Mister Brian Epstein.

In Memoriam: Cilla Black (1943 - 2015)

Cilla Black with her manager Brian Epstein in 1964.

Cilla Black has died at the age of 72 following a stroke at her home in Spain. Cilla was born Priscilla White in Liverpool on 27 May 1943 and began her career as a singer in 1963 following a stint as a coat check girl in the Cavern Club. Championed by the Liverpool groups, many of them would let her get up and sing during their set. The most notable of these were Rory Storm and the Hurricanes and the Beatles. John Lennon famously referred to her as "Cyril".

The Beatles were under the management of Brian Epstein and Cilla, who was being managed by her boyfriend Bobby Willis at the time, decided to go with Brian which turned out to be the smart move. Her first audition for Brian turned out to be a failure as the Beatles backed her during 'Summertime' and the key was wrong for Black's voice. A second time seeing Cilla persuaded Epstein that he should sign her and Cilla's first single, the Paul McCartney written 'Love of the Loved' which the Beatles had recorded during their New Year's Day 1962 audition for Decca, was a relative failure compared to the success of Epstein's other artists, most notably the Beatles.

Black's next single, a cover of 'Anyone Who Had A Heart' which had been a major success for Dionne Warwick in the US, hit number one in the UK in 1964. (Much to Dionne's everlasting annoyance) and she followed that one up with a second number one in the song. 'You're My World'. Another McCartney/Lennon song 'It's For You' peaked at number 7 on the UK charts.

Black's recording career with Parlophone lasted until 1973. Shortly before his death, Epstein arranged with the BBC to have Cilla present her own show. 'Cilla' lasted from 1968 to 1976. After 1976, Cilla's career went on the downturn and by the early 80s, her TV appearances were rare.

Black (far left) presenting Blind Date in the 90s

After a comeback performance on the chat show Wogan in 1983, Black returned to ITV with the shows 'Surprise Surprise' (1984 - 2001) and 'Blind Date' (1985 - 2003). Both of these shows were roaring successes for Black and she became well known to British TV audiences (myself among them) for her catchphrase of "We're gonna have a lorra, lorra (lot of) laughs tonight!" and referring to people in the Scouse way, e.g: "Our Graham".

Black largely retired from television after Blind Date came to an end in 2003. She was a guest panelist on the morning topic show 'Loose Women' but since her husband and manager Bobby Willis had died in 1999, she had lost her best friend and confidant and never was the same.

After her death, tributes poured in from her celebrity friends, Paul & Ringo were among those who shared their condolences and her long time friend Paul O'Grady, a fellow scouser, was in shock. Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, he said "Please tell me this isn’t true? We’ve been friends for nearly 20 years. She’s like my sister. Apart from her hearing she was all right. We had a week together in Barbados at the beginning of the year and I saw her on my birthday. I thought she was well. I can’t believe it, to tell you the truth."

Black is survived by her three sons with Bobby: Robert, who became her manager after his father died, Ben and Jack.

Tra, Cilla.

In Memoriam: Jerry Hoban

Jerry Hoban as Ed Sullivan.

It is with sadness that we report the death of Jerry Hoban. A lot of you may know Jerry as a comedic actor and Ed Sullivan impersonator who opened shows for the highly acclaimed Beatles tribute band The Fab Four.

I had the honour of meeting Jerry when the Fab Four performed at Beatle Week in Liverpool in 2008. He was a funny and talented guy and watching him get into character as Ed Sullivan backstage at the Royal Court Theatre was a privilege.

One story I remember from that week was when we were all in a restaurant next door to the Adelphi hotel, Jerry wanted some iced tea. As a British native, I knew that iced tea wasn't hugely popular in the UK like it is in the states and I told him that he probably wasn't going to get iced tea like he would back home but he stuck to his guns and ordered it anyway. They finally brought it out and it was a cup of hot, black English breakfast tea with a small bowl of ice cubes next to it. I shook my head and we all chuckled watching a frustrated Jerry take a spoonful of ice cubes and put them in the tea where they promptly melted!

On stage, Jerry was fantastic, he was extremely funny and really made a great show even better through his introduction as Ed Sullivan. Jerry appeared as Ed Sullivan in the 1994 film 'Pulp Fiction' and also did other TV work as Ed but most will remember him for hosting the Fab Four's fantastic tribute shows.

I am honoured to have met him and we at The Beatles Through The Years offer our sincere condolences to Jerry's wife and son and the Fab Four family.