Reporter Bernard Falk’s quirky tale of a lost Beatles’ tape, and the men who hoped to make some money out of it.
The tape was recorded by Beat musician Teddy Taylor in Hamburg, on Christmas Eve, 1962. Taylor was the lead singer with Kingsize Taylor and The Dominoes, one of the dozens of Merseyside bands formed in the late 1950s, that hoped to emulate The Beatles’ success. Kingsize sold one million records on the continent, but had little success back home, and the band split-up in 1964. Taylor became a butcher in Southport, where Falk met him to uncover the mystery of “the lost Beatles’ tape”.
Falk died in 1990, and is sadly now remembered for his hosting ill-conceived late-night, interview series, Sin on Saturday, which was famously pulled after 3 episodes. Clips from Sin on Saturday regularly make top 10 worst program lists, mainly for a legendary appearance by Oliver Reed, which is a shame, as Falk was a talented journalist, who made quirky, intelligent, entertaining and memorable TV reports. A idea of Falk’s skill can be seen here, when he goes in search of the 2 likely lads, Teddy Taylor and The Beatles first manager Allan Williams - who famously gave the band away to Brian Epstein.
First broadcast on BBC’s Nationwide, September 17th, 1973.
With thanks to Nellym
No comments:
Post a Comment