Customer Reviews

The Man Who Gave the Beatles Away

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

How could I give 5 stars to a boozy little clod of memoirs like this? Easy. Since there are probably thousands of books written about the Beatles, it stands to reason that there must be a few good ones in the bunch: and I've looked for them. THIS is one of those few: it actually tells stories we haven't heard before, with the impressive authority of Allan Williams, a clubowner and crucial promoter of Merseyside Beat music. His barstool companion chat about the old days fills a long volume of stories that are Fun, Fun, Fun! in a grimy, speedy sort of way. I recommend this book to just about everyone, because it's just plain fun, with enough bittersweet musings to make the whole thing edifying to read. But I especially recommend it to people who HATE the Beatles, because you will see them in appealingly different ways from the Legend: awkward, goofy, drunk, mean, broke, cheap, powerless, and vulnerable. All too human. As is Williams himself, who proves to be utterly empathetic as well as entertaining, and who hopefully made a bit of money off this book. Every modern rocker who reads this should end up enthralled by the unexpectedly punk rock early years of these stone gods. Even a disinterested nonrocker would find the hardscrabble life of Williams to be intriguing and a little bit heart-wrenching. This book surpasses in scope all the typical "chronicle of (x) times with the Beatles" and proves to be an intriguing illumination of success, failure, aspiration and hope. It's a tragedy that it's out of print while so many tiresome retellings of the band's halcyon days go on and on in endless repetition. Buy this one; it's well worth it.

I first heard of this book back in 1976, John Lenon said in an interview how the Hamburg days were his funnest as a Beatle, & if anyone wanted to know about them they should get this book. Since then 2 other books have come out about the period,"Beatle", by Pete Best, & "The Beatles Live", by Mark Lewisohn. Taken all together, the 3 books paint a vivid picture of one of the greatest stories in rock n roll history,(a side of the Beatles that Brian Epstein did his best to hide from the public when he took over from Williams as their manager)by the way, in the film "Hard days night", the character of the Beatles manager was based on Alan Williams, not on epstien.Alun Owen, the screenwriter for the film is also a godparent to alan williams kids. Epstein brought the Beatles to America, but 4 years earlier it was Williams who had brought them to Hamburg,where they played 6+ hours a night & forged the sound that would take over the world. But to his credit, it was Epestein who saw their potential as the greatest act in all of rock music, not Williams.

Allan Williams was the Beatles' first manager in Liverpool. He helped John, Paul, & George keep body and soul together as they were learning to play their instruments, struggled to keep finding drummers for them, and took them to Hamburg where they became the frenzied on-stage performers soon to conquer the world. After some disputes over unpaid debts, he grew disgusted with their ingrate attitudes and gave them to Brian Epstein to manage shortly before they became the most famous and successful entertainers in history. This book is brilliantly written and hysterically funny, an absolute must for anyone who rues the opportunities in life that have slipped through the fingers.

I don't think this obscure title ever made it into hardcover. Its circulation life must have been very short before having gone out of print. What a shame. I consider it one of the best books about the Beatles I've ever read, maybe the best (and I've read quite a few).

This title weighs the creative influences that went into the Fab Four pre-fame, a story not told anywhere else. For example, what did John & Paul learn in art school that they applied to their music? Would anyone guess Picasso had anything to do with it? That story is told here. With this book you can play fly on the wall during the Hamburg days. I found it completely absorbing. In short, I cannot recommend this gem enough.

Full of lovely sentimentality and regrets and selfpity - a first hand document written by one of very few people who were right in the epicentre at the scruffy start of the neverending everfascinating Beatles saga. And Allan certainly has a sense of humour. His memory may be not completely focused on all accounts, but he was there, which most weren't (for example the endless list of pompous stamp collecting biographers who just knick stories from Allan, May Pang, Fred Seaman, Derek Taylor, Neil Aspinall, Astrid Kirchherr, Yoko Ono - and from John, Paul, George and Ringo). Whether he actually was in the position to give the Beatles away to Brian Epstein or not may be debatable, but he knows how to tell some very good stories. This is one of ten, possibly twenty, published sources needed to get a fair kaleidoscope of different angles on the four personalities who made this quartet. The rest is just recycling really. Why in the world would you waste time on fifth-hand interpretations when you can have it straight from the horse's mouth?

Highly recommend this book for any Beatles fan. It gives a first person insight into how truly

driven and rough around the edges they were before they were the Fab Four.

Alan Williams was their first manager before Brian Epstein and was the one to send them

to play Hamburg where they developed their rocking style and became so tight.

If you are a Beatle fan buy it if you can find it.

This is the story about how 5 Liverpool Lads gets a job in

Hamburg, and goes to big fame.

The story is told by their first manager, with a nice sense of humor.

A single fact isn't correct, is wasn't Paul and George who went to jail

in Hamburg but Paul and Pete.

This book is also mentioned at The Beatles Story in Liverpool, and it is

told that John has read it and had a good laugh.

It also tells how the world got to know the Live Star Club Recordings from

Hamburg just before the Fab Four became very big.

Buy it.

This is a very enjoyable book and one of the Best Beatle books. "The Longest Cocktail Party" and "Many Years From Now" are also my favorites.

A history of the early Beatles, seen through the biased eyes of the man who managed and lost them. Humerous and with the wit that only the Liverpool of the 60's could give. A must for any true Beatles fan!

I read this book a few years ago. I remember being quite disappointed with the book and look at it as a bit of a joke. Allan Williams had the opportunity to write a really fascinating memoir, but he blew it! I would've liked a bit more about the demented behaviour of Lennon before he was famous. Some of the 'conversations' Williams remembers seem the work of fiction. One thing the book did well though, was to set the scene. Certainly not a must-read.