Tony Barrow's new book: author contradicts himself over Xmas Fan Club records

Tony Barrow, in his new book, "John, Paul, George, Ringo and Me" (published
by André Deutsch), has written the following statement:

At one stage a rumour circulated suggesting that my inspiration for the
records was the Queen's Christmas Day message to her subjects. "Presto!" I
was supposed to have said. "Why not have The Beatles do the same and send
out a record to their fans just before Christmas?" Well, I have to admit
that this sounds like a good spin-doctor's version of events but it's
completely untrue. My sole objective in creating the "Fan Club Christmas
Record" was to revive the club's reputation among members." - page 104.

At the expense of my own research, Tony Barrow has decided to quote from a
piece that I wrote back on May 30, 1999 entitled "Who's Who Behind the
Beatles Fan Club Messages?" While he did not specifically identify the
source in his book, it's very clear that the quotes that he used above were
pulled from a report that I wrote for the Ottawa Beatles Site (please read:
two counts:

First of all, in a BBC 2 radio broadcast of December 26, 1983, Tony Barrow
himself clearly explains that the Queen's Christmas Day message was one of
two sources of inspiration in the creation of the Beatles Fan Club Christmas
record. The other source of inspiration (which he also states in that same
interview) resulted from the huge amounts of mail from fans that the Fan
Club staff had to handle. When my write-up went to publication at the Ottawa
Beatles Site, I described those two salient points that he mentions. In
fact, you can now actually listen to Tony Barrow's interview from that BBC 2
broadcast contradicts what the author has recently written in his book.

Secondly, Tony Barrow suggests in his book that the sentences, "Presto!" and
"Why not have The Beatles do the same and send out a record to their fan
just before Christmas?" were somehow his own words. Well, the fact of the
matter is they are my own words and not his. As a writer I was simply

donz5...

While it's obvious that he appropriated the words from your site, I got
the impression that he wasn't quoting his own words but rather
challenging the quote itself.

That he evidently contradicts himself is an entirely different matter,
though.

attempting to find a nice way to summarize how the two ideas came together,
i.e. the deluge of fan club mail and the Queen's Christmas Day message. In
my publication, which has not changed until now regarding his comments from
his book, parenthesis were never used in those two sentences -- it was not a
transcribed quote from the BBC 2 broadcast and so I fail to see how Tony
Barrow could have come up with that idea in the first place.

I'm only about half-way through reading his book. It's really an excellent
read and a must-have book. Apart from the few mistakes mentioned here, I
haven't seen any other errors from the author. If I discover more, I'll let
you know in due course.

ian...

You might not have noticed this, but RMB is a discussion group, *not*
a bookstore -- bookstores usually have a sign out the front saying
"Books".

RMB doesn't sell books or stories, it's a place to discuss them -- in
all the tedious detail that one might take delight in.

John Whelan
Chief Researcher for the
Ottawa Beatles Site
January 14, 2006

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Hollywood Bowl on CD format petition:
The Beatles Timeline:
Ottawa Beatles site
Expo 67
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** NOTICE: ALL INCOMING/OUTGOING E-MAIL ARE SCANNED AUTOMATICALLY WITH
NORTON ANTIVIRUS, VERSION 8.07.17 FOR YOUR PROTECTION.