Biografia

Claimed to have introduced John Lennon to Brian Epstein, whose music store NEMS carried "Mersey Beat". Epstein's own published recollections (and later Lennon's, in interviews) were different.

Founder of "Mersey Beat", a Liverpool newspaper devoted to the local music scene, and the first to publish John Lennon's writings. One of Lennon's first submissions was a pun-filled history (to date) of The Beatles. "Mersey Beat" later carried an irregular "column" by Lennon, titled "Beatcomber" (a play on "Beachcomber", a popular running column in another newspaper).

A friend of John Lennon from Liverpool Art College, and the college's first Commercial Design student. The two were briefly members of a "band" called the Dissenters, with friend Stuart Sutcliffe, who also attended the college.