Harvey Lisberg

little bit of music because I could read music. And my first song that did was a Smile in F one flat and it was quite good actually. And then later on I played the piano. Always played the piano as a piano in the house. It was part of the house, and that right piano in the kitchen teeny

Roombert had a big piano. And then when skiffle came into England much later, there was a skiffle group that played in a jazz club that I went to, and I got friendly with the leader called Paul Beatty, who now lives in Canada, and he had a skiffle group and he came back to a party in my house and he taught me some chords on the on the guitar. With one finger, I could play Takes a Worried Man. You just fit one finger around and you play all the blues chords. And then I started playing a bit,

and I started writing songs, trying songs myself. This is, you know, about sixty two before anything had happened as far as the Beatles or anything like that, and I thought, right, I write these songs and I'm going to try and get them to artists. There were songs that were like how do you do It? Or Freddie's do the Freddy? They weren't masterpieces, they weren't any good at all. But I wanted to get them to somebody and to do it.

And that's how I started writing songs, and ultimately I got one, which was the B side of I'm Into Something Good with Herman's Hermits first band, and that was very lucky. But that's a long story. To get to that. But so that was really it. I just wrote songs. I love music. I loved all the sixties music. We were inundated with American trash and English singers with American accents. It was just dirdhit music. We were inundated with.

few exceptions with some very good songs. But the English people in the early sixties were listening to We listened to all the doop from America. Then it was mostly the Chuck Berry and rock and roll sort of thing. Inundated the airways. When I say airways, that was a joke.

There was only one station, Radio one on the BBC before all the commercial radio had started, So when I was young, I had to listen to Radio Luxembourg, which was two oh eight on the crystallized little radios that we had to fiddle around with, or American Forces Network in Europe AFM, and that's where we got all our good music from America from as opposed to just the crooners and all the Johnny Rays and Frankie Lanes and everything else that was poured into the radio. So there's

a concoction of music. Skiffle was really because everybody could play the instrument, and there was an artist called Lonnie Donegan that started playing all these songs which were basically American folk songs. Cumberland Gap, it wasn't Cumberland in Cumberland, it was something else. Midnight Special doesn't mean anything to anybody in England because there's no midnight specials in England.

It's a train in America. And we were inundated with all these songs and they were really good and very popular and everybody could be in a skiffle group because they didn't have to play an instrument. They played a washboard for a drum sound and they all sang together and it was quite exciting. And there's a Rock Island line. There's about twenty bring a little wad of Sylvie. All these songs were basically American folk songs, so maybe country

folk songs, whatever, traditional folk songs. They were probably one hundred years old, and we all played them and that was it. And that's how skiffle started. That's how the guitar started. That's how the Beatles started. They you know, they played skiffle, they played that type of music. Maggie Maggie May or whatever. They played folk songs.

I could make any song up lyrically. I could really get clever with the lyrics, so I could go to a party and start talking about all the people in the room. And at Calypso, and I was pretty pretty adept at Calypso. For some reason, maybe I've got roots, but I don't know.

at the clubs in Manchester. So there's a very healthy club scene in Manchester, Liverpool happened when the Beatles started. It was they'd worked at this Star club in Hamburg for a while and they were getting their own following. Before they met Epstein or anything. They were working very hard getting their band together. I believe that's correct, and they just when they happened. It was the most magical thing that ever happened in the sixties. Probably it was

just incredible. All of a sudden we had great music. It was English, it was humorous, it was brilliant, and we all fell in love with it. I mean I never every time a Beatles album or record was released, I got it on the first morning of release and I wore the album out before it anybody probably had heard it, which just was berserk on the Beatles. It was just appeal to me. I mean. My background in music was Italian opera, which has paddled through my house

from my father who loved opera. He was a violinist and also a saxophone player in the band. During the war. I was just had that in My next door neighbor was mad on classical music. And then I went to synagogue and the beautiful music from the synagogue all the school music and the fantastic choirs they had their So I had all that music going around my head, and I just I love music, and it wasn't just specifically

any brand of music. Even up to today, I still can like a good song or if something's good, it appeals to me. I don't say, oh, well, it's always better in the older days, because new things are great, sometimes rarely but sometimes.

But when I went to the non Jewish schools Cheatamil Methodist School sold for Grammar School, there was avert anti Semitism because basically the people there are conditioned to believe that all Jews were rich, and comparatively speaking, yes, maybe I was more wealthy from a middle class as opposed to the working class, which was the schools inundated with really low working class people, very low wages. And they thought, all you Jews have got everything. But of course that

isn't true. I mean, there's millions of Jews that are starving, and you know, there were lots of working class Jews at that level. But as far as anti Semitems were concerned, these kids believed all Jews are rich, all Jews did this, all do that. And I was a minority in England. I had to be on my best behavior all the time.

The only time I evolved out of my I don't call it an inferiority complex, an awareness of being Jewish, was when I went to Israel, and it was just it was like a breath of fresh air to me. All of a sudden, I was I didn't have to be quiet, I didn't have to watch my p's and

q's on Friday night. I didn't have to stay in like a lunatic and not be allowed out because then my uncle there had a meal, a Friday night meal with the candles and everything, and after it's finished, lo and behold the cards came out, poker gambling, god knows what's smoking things that didn't my house in England because it was Friday night and you didn't do that. You just obeyed the law. And that's so. Yes, there was a lot of anti Semitism and Semitism through. My wife

found it as well. She went to a school called Lady Harrogate's Ladies College and she was very good at tennis, really good, and they wanted her to go to Wimbledon to play tennis. And the teacher came up to her and said, look, I'm terribly sorry, Carol. You can't go to Wimbled and they won't accept you. And she said why she is because no Jews are allowed there. So this in nineteen fifty four and this is Wimbledon, right, So it was right throughout the whole country. Also, you

couldn't get a job, you know. I wanted to be a stockbroker. That was my aim. I didn't want to be an accountant. You know, I'm a gambler, so I was always gambling on stocks and chairs. There were no Jewish stockbrokers. It was my aim to become one. But I mean it was just everywhere. The jobs weren't available for you. You weren't bankers or anything. Your jobs were limited from coming over from Europe and everything. You had

certain jobs you had to do. They were open to you money lending whatever, you know, that sort of thing, or peddling or working on the markets, selling stuff on markets. There weren't that many openings for Jewish people really, so a lot of them became doctors and intellectual sort of thing. And that differentiated Liverpool from Manchester as well, because Manchester was all the Eastern European immigrants, whereas Liverpool with the Irish,

came in an inundated. They were with an Irish background and they kind of looked at each other. I mean they kind of looked down at them, the Europeans, you know, they're not cultured, you know. And that was the situation.

and I didn't I didn't find any anti Semetter. There might have been anti Semetins started with a pank Era, but that was in the eighties when I started, I

didn't find anything in the music. In fact, it was possibly even an advantage to be Jewish, possibly because it was like a network of Jewish people controlling everything for the record label, the record companies, everybody that we had infiltrated that Maybe that was because of the artistic side, and it was an opening for Jews who always musical and liked music and the culture and wanted to get in there, and it was an avenue where they could get in.

and Herman and the Hermits were appearing. They were playing Chuck Berry sort of standing there. They actually had it. Missus Brown was actually in the act at that stage. She was played in there. And all the normal songs that every group played, needles and pens or whatever, anything that was American that they could but adapt they did it do or did he did he? Whatever? And after each number, all these girls charged the stage. I was screaming.

I thought it was like a Beatles concert. I thought, God, I won the National lottery here. This is fantastic. I subsequently found out that they'd planted in the audience lots of their friends and asked them to scream and shout, telling them that an American manager was coming to see the band. I went back to Peter's house after the concert and I started fiddling on the piano because I was playing piano. He had a piano in the house,

a huge piano, and I started fiddling. Ray Charles, tell me what I say, And Peter said, would you like to join the band? I said no, I don't want to join the band. I want to manage the band, and I want you to do my songs. So they did your hand in mine as a B side, as I say, And I got a huge check at Christmas, and I showed it to my father and my father said, well, maybe I was wrong, but he wasn't wrong. He was

that's right. It was just a stupid way that people that wrote B sides could get half the mechanicals, which is a nonsense. So I got the same for mechanicals as Carol King, and I can't claim to be in the same light years as her as far as the songwriters and goffin of course.

the Jewish community, it was like an icon. And I thought, well, he's had no background in music, he knows nothing about management of acts or anything, but why can't I do that? So that was that was the thing that sparked me into wanted to be a manager. It wasn't the original intention at all. The original attention was to write songs, have loads of hits and earn the royalties. My envy was always book writers who just thought, God, they write a book, they go to bed and they're hemingway and

you know that the roatis come in. You don't do anything else. And I thought, and I'm like that, I'm not very I'm a bit I know, and it's selfish or my idea of earning money the easy way, and it's just a it's a fault of mine. But I always envied the songwriters for that reason, not the musical songwriters, the book writers. Those are the people that were the big things in the forties and fifties.

meant to ask royalty any questions. But I didn't take an notice of that. I said, but you never heard I'm not in Love. You know it's on the It's on the radio all the time. And he said, well, no, I don't really. I don't really get a chance to hear that very much. I do listen to Radio four sometimes on my way to Ascot and I thought there's the future King of England that didn't know the first thing about the pop music business. And I was shocked,

and I think Princess Diana sorted him out. And no doubt now is an expert.

no wives, no nothing. They were all single, fifteen sixteen seventeen and at the end of the day they split a pounds they got about thirty forty pounds cash, which is a lot of money in those days. So that was that was really exciting. And with a full date sheet it helped because I knew that if I got somehow to EMI or somebody I could, I could get a record deal, or I can get them to see the band working and see the date sheet, et cetera.

And I was We did a lunchtime session at the Plaza Ballroom and I went to the manager's office, a gentleman called Terry Devine and on the table there was a piece of paper with EARI headliner. Could I borrow that letter a second? And I looked at it had Derek Caverett at the bottom. So I decided, okay, let's do it. Let's write to Derek Caverrett. And I wrote to Dereka, We've heard all about you and we'd like to come and meet you. I've got this band. Would

you be interested in meeting me? And very kindly wrote back the next day and said, yeah, I come down to London. I ran down to London as quickly as I could, and I went into EMI's office as a Manchester Square, where I saw Derek Everett and as I walked through the door and says, you know, I've got nothing to do with A and R. I don't have anything to do with the artistic side of the bands. I just put physical records into dance halls. So I

was really totally totally shocked. So I'm sitting there and I'm depressed and my chins down. I thought, what an idiot I've been. I've written this letter to him telling them how wonderful it is, and he's a completely nonentity. But just as I left, though, he said, by the way, though, I know there's a new producer called Mickey must and he's just having some success with a group called The Animals.

Would you be interested in meeting him? So I thought, yeah, well, while I'm in London, I might as well make some use of this journey. And I went to see Mickey Mos and I presented him with the photograph of Herman and the Hermits as they were when I first saught them, and he looked at them and he said, yes, looks quite looks quite interesting. And then I went back to Manchester and I kept phoning his office. Would he come up and see the band? Nothing happened, Nothing happened, and

I decided to have a brainwave. I'm going to send him two first class there tickets and I'm going to put him at the best hotel in Manchester in the Middland overnight and see if he'll come up. So I sat in them and he got the envelope with the tickets and he came up and I took him to see Herman and the Hermits at the Beach Comba in Bolton, and he said, yeah, they're quite good. They're all right. And I had a really clapped out core in those days. It was my mother's. It was kind of I think

it was a Ford Prefect or a Triumph Herald. It was just a little piece of tin. But I'd had the I was so mad on music that I'd invested a four in this record player for one of the Phillips record players. I don't know whether they had them in America. You could put a forty five in it and when you went over a bump, the suspension didn't affect the record. It still played. And on the way back to the hotel, g so, by the way, I've got a song here you might be interested in. And

I had very good ears. I mean I could always pick hits, even from early days. As soon as I heard something, once I knew whether I had a feeling, I knew it was it usually it was. And he put on this song. It was Earl Jean's I'm Into Something Good, which apparently just entered the American charts at about ninety two, and I thought, that's fantastic. Can we do it? Can we do it? He says, yes, if

you get rid of two members of your band. I thought, so, I've had the good and the bad, you know, the good, bad and the ugly. Has got to be getting rid of them. But so it wasn't very It was the mixed thing where the song was so great. I went back to Peter's house. I told Peter, look, we've got to get rid of two of the group. And it's very hard because they were an integral part of the early group and it's not easy. But we said to the guy, look, Alan, you've got to leave the band.

It's nothing we can do. If we want to get a record doing, and we don't get a record deal, we're not going to get anywhere. And Alan knew he wasn't that great as a bass player. He went with Peter to the cavern to see the Beatles and his only comment was, oh God, we're fucked. You know, he could have played me played the bass like that. So he was depressed even then. Which was six months earlier. So anyhow, he walked out of the room in a storm, and I was a bit sad and Peter and also

I was scared. I mean, his father had been convicted of some capital crime and was in jail, and he was a fierce looking guy. You don't want to mess with him. And I thought, It'by's coming with a knife for the next two weeks. I'll have to protect myself, keep my eyes over my head. So anyhow, I I

got in the car, which was a van. We had a van which took all the equipment round in with Peter, and we drove out of Peter's house and as we went in the road going Alan Rigley was lying across the middle of the road and had to swerve to me to miss him. And so it was so it was so awful. I mean, at the time it was a relief getting it done, but it was it was

an awful, awful experience. And then we evolved into getting new members of the band, and everybody we put in was an excellent musician, and the music improved tremendously as far as the actual physical playing was concerned. And some of the band didn't people like Derek Leckenbye and Barry whitwom who came later on to be drummer and a

lead guitarist, that they didn't want. Everybody had heard about Herman and Hermits because they were working everywhere and nobody was impressed at the time, But when they saw the date sheet, Lex said, well, you know this is good, this looks all right, so they joined. Because of that, all my friends kept telling me what a load of rubbish this bout is. Why don't I get a proper job, get an accountcy job, start messing around with all these people.

Then we had a number one hit with them and something good and they said, oh, well there's only be a one hit wonder you know the really happy Jewish background. Sarcasm was rife at the time because they weren't impressed with Herman and Ermits musically okay, and then Show Me Go it was a miss, and I thought, well, maybe they're right. But after that, after ten hits, they stopped telling me they were a load of rubbish.

their own right from really successful businesses. And I needed I think one thousand or two thousand pounds ultimately to get a new van because the van disintegrated. It was doing so much work and they didn't want to really put any more money into it, okay, because as I say, everybody was laughing at us sort of thing. And that's when I got involved with Charlie Silverman, who was also very wealthy father who made money going on the gold

Trail of the Yukon or something. Vastly wealthy, flew planes and god knows what. In the forties, my grandmother used to go mad because of Charlie's father used to fly over in one of these single engine planes and flip it over the back garden, and she trying to impress, you know, and she was really fed up with him anyhow. So I went to the boys. I said, look, if you're not going to if you're not going to carry on or put more money in, would I be able

to buy you back? And they will agreed to take the money back that they put in, and they were happy. There was no resentment. So I moved in with Charlie and then we wrote songs with Charlie as well.

before and probably by the time I got him. Yeah, it's probably all within six or eight months this happened. All this happened. What was the second part of your question.

very nice record. And after three hours everybody went back to Manchester. I mean there was like, drove down into the studio three hours by out gone and that's it. And then the rest is all taken over by Mickey mosten Emi or whatever they do with the records to get it out. We'd done our bit, we'd driven down, spent three hours, very little. I don't know, it's little preparation in a way, I don't know what preparation Mickey did in the background, whether he used I can't remember,

and I'm in something good. I really can't remember what sort of arrangement, So what sort of instrumentation he used on top of everything, I don't know, but subsequently on future records he used Jimmy Page. John Paul Jones arranged everything. Every orchestral bit for Herman Sermons was arranged by John Paul Jones. Big Jim Sullivan played on things. Katini played that. I mean, Mickey only used the best people, which was a shame for Herman Sermits, who weren't allowed to develop musically,

although potentially they might have been tremendous. But because every time Mickey used this session man, because of the way he did it, and that's the way you couldn't really argue with it. Because while he's giving you hit after hit after hit, what do you say you don't want to change? Change the boat?

those songs like in the Summertime by Mungo Jerry. You knew first time you hear it, it's an absolute smash. And so as I'm into something good, it was like a one above what you know, one's a one, a real one, and we were in heaven. Obviously, all our bookings went up, the prices went up, money went up, and we had strange things happen. You know, it's perhaps that did happen in America, you know went out on MGM.

to see a second suit on. And you, Harvey Lizberg, Yeah, I'm Harvey Lisbeg, and we've come to give you a film offer for peterter noon. And we got and I said, there's no way we can't. We fully booked, we haven't got time to do it. There's no way we can do this. And they said, well, can we come into de Elvis? So I invited him in the office. Very embarrassing. It wasn't a Santa Monica Fifth Glory office with huge

windows overlooking the sea. It was an office with no windows in it, with the cassettes all over the room, cigarettes, god knows what cars. It was just embarrassing. And I sat down with him and said, there's no ways. Look at the date sheet. There are no way. And he looks at the date sheets and he says, well, you've got a week there. I said, yeah, but a week.

I said, no, there's no way. All right, we'll give you twenty five thousand dollars for the no, well, we'll give you forty five thousand dollars for the two two for the two days. Jute and the film was with Connie Francis and it's where the Boys Meet the Girls. It was completely controlled by the Gershering estate. As far as the music was concerned. I think liber Archie was in. There were some very were sort of poppy names of

the time. We're in this film. And he says, there's there nothing I could do to entice you into it. I said, all right, Cadillac, you got it. Before I had finished the sentence, I got it. So I ended up with this huge Cadillac. The boys went over and then they had to do two songs. Well, the first song was where the Boys Meet was a Gershwin number I'm Biding My Time, which they did, and the second number I think that was offered to them was that

I think it was a Liberarchie song or something. It It was absolutely appalling apparently, and the book and the boys refuge used it, can't we do one of ours? And they happened to have Listened People, which is a Graham Gooman song, which I was involved with at the time, so they put that on and that became a huge hit in America. I think that might have been our

second hit. And then Mickey did can't You Hear My Heartbeat, which was a hit in England for a band called a girl band called Goldie I think, who was managed by Mike Jeffries, who managed The Animals. Everything is interconnected. Everything is no doubt that publishing was with Alan klin or There's always something weird was going on in the background. But I was very I'm trying to say I accepted

the fact that everything was not correct. My aim was to get the band to be the biggest band of the world, and if the attorney was shaving off five percent or this, that and the other, it didn't really concern me as long as I got to where I wanted to get. So everybody said, what're you using him for? He? Why is Alan Kline? What are you crazy? You know? But I used Alan Kline knowing that it might not all be good. But I was using him as much as he was using me.

chewing him? And his reply was, I know I've got bad breath. It's totally intentional. And at that stage I know I was talking to a monster, you know he was, and he is unbelievable. I mean, he was ruthless. I didn't like him, particularly because I had to be careful that he wouldn't take herman's hermits away or start causing trouble, as he did with every band he got involved with.

It was never a smooth ride. There's always a problem, whether it would be the Beatles, rolling Stones, there was always trouble and eventually they all booting him out eventually, So you know. On the other hand, he was an accountant in a record company. He'd seen how the record companies have been exploiting all the artists and it used it and rather cleverly. But when I discussed the breath thing with you, it shows to what extent he would go to get what he wanted. I don't like it particularly.

nightclubs in London. That wasn't my job in America. I had to look after and be very careful, and we had a lot of I liked every one of that. They were all from very nice backgrounds. The band, they were nice. They're all from nice people. And in fact, when they had the success, I arranged for all the parents and then to go to Hawaii for two weeks. We had a fantastic trip to celebrate all our success. So I always involved the parents. I knew the parents.

They were nice, that Peter was a great boy, he was a I mean, they were all were I mean, they were just nice people. I don't have had a problem with him. We were all in love with each other and the business, and we were very young and so much success and you know, more success maybe than we deserved, but we got it and we were there. We were number one in America, beat the Beatles in nineteen sixty five, four weeks at number one, keeping Help off the chart. I mean, it's ridiculous when you think

of it. I mean, Missus Brown was done in a flash one take in a studio and voices and every mixed together. It wasn't even separated. It was a throwaway track on the end of the album, which Mickey was adamant not to go out as a single. And the story there was MGM said they would prepay on six hundred thousand records if he allowed them to put it out as a single. They said, no, eight hundred thousand, No a million. Okay, if you pay me on a million, you can put it out now. The DJs in the meanwhile,

they've been playing the back off this thing. I mean, it was everywhere we went. We were doing Dick Clark Caravan of Tours Stars and everywhere we went the DJs were playing this track on on and on. So it entered the Billboard at number twelve, which was the highest entry at that stage of any racked as a single at that stage, and it went from twelve to three to one, stayed at one for four weeks. And I was I was in a situation where I didn't think

I could go wrong. I had Graham Goldman, who we will talk about, no doubt, but you know I was having hit after hit, Peter was having it after it, Mickey Moses having hit after hit. I mean were and money didn't mean anything. Do you know. I wasn't being careful and I just thought, well whatever, I was playing roulette, winning a roulette. Everything that could possibly go right as far as money was concerned, to happen all at once during that time. Yeah, so what can I say?

to bother about it never queried it or anything. But I think when you think where they came from, I mean, I suppose you could say the same about all acts, but where they came from and where they got it would be very difficult for them to say the money wasn't worth it, you know. I mean, I did do a well. I don't want to praise myself, but it was a spectacular success story.

with other acts as well. But my main act, obviously was Homan Sermons. I went to the obviously when they were doing the film, I went filming and I went on a lot of the American dates. Any date that was important, La or something like that, or New York, I would be there. And I lived in America for a while. Yeah, that's right. I learned for about six months in America in that sixty five period, So I was around because a lot of our stuff was in America.

smell in there. And I had a very very very tough, very tough attorney called Stephen Wise, who has led Zeppelin's attorney who they had a falling out with eventually and legal case and god knows, but Steve was a very bright operator and between us we protected our interest.

and he put them with their owning stones. On certain nights we played Dates Herman and the Rolling Stones, and trying to think everybody that went on a tour he packaged. He was a great packager. He got an act, put them on the show, and the next time they went out themselves and so forth. And he was very nice guy. He was very likable. Nice wife June Harris, who was also in the business at the time, pr whatever, and they were a good couple, and they were nice people.

He had a partner called Dick Freeberg, who you know there.

the brilliance of Graham Gouldman. But there's nothing like success, and then eventually he did No Milk Today, and even No Milk Today, he didn't put out as a single A side in America because there's a kind of huss was the A side which was crazy and East West was another huge hit. You know, I think, no, I think I was pretty good. I always employed the best people. I employed a p R. I was Les Perrin. He represented Frank Sinatra and then he's represented the Rolling Stones,

you know, a few small acts. So I'm going to him Peter Noon, you know, right, or best photographer, who's the best photographer? Go to him, always for the best. I was never never frightened of you know, I was never frightened of attempting something big. Always always, and even

the film. We did the film because the guy was reputed to have had done some films with Elvis Presley, and so he had a pedigree of some sort that he wasn't just somebody off the street that's putting together a movie, but he was because it was a chick flick and it was rubbish. But that's beside the point. I didn't know that at the time. So I think I think all round, I think I was I was pretty salad. You know I didn't do anything illegal. I was straight. If somebody did something, I didn't need to

have a contract, you know. I was as good as my words.

three year contract. We always had a contract with Peter, Yeah, I did. And Peter I speak to today, you know, I spoke to him yesterday. I mean, he's he's a very nice person and he's improved in his performances. Is wonderful. He's a great storyteller, you know, he can he's got the gift of the blindet as well.

have the rooms. We've got reservation in Hawaii. If the people don't leave the rooms, they can't be pushed out. This is the law of Hawaii and I've stud there. So I said to the group, put all your equipment on the front of the cahal. It's a beautiful entrance. So from thirty feet there was masses of equipment and cases. Ten people with all the cases right across, so nobody could get him. And I phoned up tom Off at the DJ and I said, can we what we're going

to do? We can't get in. There are no rooms. Oh, come and stay with me, I said, there, I said, I've got nineteen rooms. I live in a mission house. Don't worry about it. So we stayed with him. He used to put every show on, and he put Elvis on, so he'd obviously told the colonel, why didn't you ask Carvey to come and meet Elvis? And I got I got in the room and there was an you know, and for some reason there was a notice that Elvis and the Colonel would like to meet you and the Hermits.

Well okay, so I wasn't going to say no, great. Uh. There were photographs taken of that event, and for some reason, Keith Hotwood wasn't on the photograph, and neither was Carl Green. And I could never understand why why weren't they there? And I spoke to Keith about three weeks ago and he said they kept changing this date for us to go out there. And I was so fed up being away from home. I decided to go home because I never thought it was going to happen. Anyhow, it did happen.

We went to the the went to the Polynesian village whether than beautiful Hut, a bit like the catch Bull at four, you know, so far in the Sweet Cat Stevens thing, all those huts, you know, lovely hut, And there was Elvis. He has white trousers on bear down to the nothing underneath, no shoes, nothing, and the colonel comes in. He said, ah, a fat Brian Epstein, I thought, great, I need this like a hole in. That was true. I was fat for everybody else. Anyhow, we had a

chat with Elvis. If Elvis stood up six henchmen dressed exactly the same, with the same houstyle, same brookriam, everything all stood up together. Everything was. It was the king, so everybody had to do what the king did. He farted. They're all going to fard. You know, there's no that that's what you do. And he and Peter Noom was brilliant, brilliant. The first question said how come you made it without long hair, which is and so Elvis said, well maybe

my side Boon's helped, you know what I mean. It was a great It was a great conversation. It was, and we got on really well. I'm not convinced how well Elvis even knew about Herman's service. I don't know. All I know is it was a It was a meeting that we milked to hell. And when I got back to England, I was doing TV. Somebody that's actually matter because nobody did meet meta Alvis. He never been to England. He never went to England.

the head of the man was incredible. There was a film that Elvis Presley was in and when they'd finished, the Colonel had said to the heads of MGM, by the way, did you get permission to use that watch that Elvis was wearing? And they looked to no, Well, either you take it out of every scene, or you give me quarter of a million dollars quarter a million dollars, thank you very much. I mean, he was who's he was.

He was a showman who was from circus background. He told me why he used to get I didn't care about opening acts, adding package. I used to get a magician, a conjurer with three mice, and they went on for forty five minutes and the crowd were going mad, and then I boy went on Elvis. Now was it the crowd where? I mean it was? It was a total opposite to what I was doing when I was trategy, what's a good act to get the public? And his idea was to bore the people to sick until Elvis

came on and then he was away and what else? Yeah, So when I got to Las Vegas. My final story about him, which is my favorite. He was my son Paul's twenty first birthday and we were in LA and I said, well, what, well, what would you like to do for your birthday? He said, I'd like to go to Las Vegas. And we were shocked because nobody it just wasn't the right place we went, and I said, well, I know the colonel lives here. I'll phone him up

to see whether we can see him. So I'll phone up the colonel and he says, Harvey, I'm sorry, I'm just going to the dentist at the moment. I'd love for you to come, but unfortunate, I've got this. But if I get finished earlier, I'll call you. So anyhow, I thought, yes, we're not going to hear from him. Two hours later, the phone goes, Hi, Harvey, I'm back from the I'm back. Do you want to bring the boys around so I can meet them? So now I'm panicking. Every time I met him, we'd all been in limos.

I mean when he went in a limo with Elvis, there was a Cadillac in front, three behind. It was like a processional rub So anyhow, I thought, well, I've got to get a limo. I'll go into his house. I'll phone up this agency and I said, look, I don't want any stretch wheel base, I don't want anything flash. I just want an ordinary town car please, and a driver. They send this car around. It's a gray, a gray town car. It has bullet holes all the way through

the side of the doors, all through the back. And then he drives us up to the house and he can't go park. We'll walk up to the house so we couldn't show this limo. So such bad, that's my sorny. We came in there and he took the boys into a room which was filled with photographs of Elvis, with every dignitary, every memoraiyalty of the world, to you know, to to the King or whatever, you know, every It was just amazing. And he spent a lot of time

with the boys. He really liked them, Philip and Paula, my two boys, and he was very kind. And he invited me to his ninetieth I think or eighty fifth birthday party. One. I couldn't get to the last one. But I always liked him, and I hated the interpretation of Tom Hanks in the film Elvis. I mean, he never had a voice like that at all. He had a kind of a sudden drawl or put on sudden draw.

It was nothing like that thing. And apparently somebody told me that the reason Hanks did that voice was because they wanted to make him distinctive as being kind of European. And I don't know whatever it was, but it was very unfair. It was. It was a bad portrayal, I thought, I mean really rough. And all I can say to everybody, they say, well, he had fifty percent. What do you think of that? I said, well, do you think Elvis Presley would have had any success without the Colonel? Because

I don't think he would. He would have children as another country singer maybe.

the pladium and do his own thing. And Mickey got him a song which was a Davy Bowie song, Oh You Pretty Thing, and he had a huge So the band split on November the fifth, right, the Hermits went their own way and it was reasonably amicable. But because things weren't that great at that stage, we had no success in America at all. That had sort of dried

it completely. But Oh You Pretty Things became a hit in England, and when it came to doing it on Top of the Pops, David Bowie himself played on the set because Musicians' Union regulations that people that played on the record either had to be on it or had to something to do with unions, and he came all dressed in as David bib. We dressed totally out of it, and there was Peter both on the same thing. And I met David bow who was very charming, very nice person,

very really nice. I found it very nice. You can only find people where they found them. I mean I've even found people that like Alan Klin. So you know, it's how you found somebody and how you deal with them. It's because you found them to be abhorrent or whatever. It doesn't mean to say they are. My other favorite manager was Peter Grant.

was fifteen. I saw him at Kensington Market, film maker, nails polished and everything, and I said, somebody, who's that, Oh it's Freddy And he was exactly the same as he was ten seven years later. Freddie was Freddy even then. So going back to her that they had the meeting, Jim Beach was the person that was the accountant and he was holding the meeting the four members, myself and Peter,

and they rejected us. So I couldn't believe it. And also Peter was just about to form his label, Swan Song, and I think he wanted them to be on that label. And I'm not sure whether the reason they turned us down was maybe because they didn't want to go on Swan Song anyhow, which I wouldn't have minded, or I don't think it would have been the ideal for them. I think we could have done better than doing that.

But you know, so Peter and I got really friendly, and they employed John Reid as the manager Queen and then he slunk him out after two years, and then Jim Beach became the manager and to this day he still manages them. He's in Switzerland, I don't know, obviously in his eighties, but and he's ever since that day.

And I met Roger Taylor coincidentally at what was meant to be Paul McCartney's last concert ever about ten years ago, which was an extra date put on the end of the last tour in Inverted Commerce at Liverpool at the Albert Dock, and I was sitting next to Roger Taylor and he turned around and says, have you got any Wimbledon tickets? Which is amazing how people remember things. I mean, it was, it was just great. And I really liked

Queen by the way. I didn't when I was young, because when I had TENNCC they were like I would saying to myself, what are you playing that rubbish? Use was playing Queen Killer Queen Back to Florence, and oh it's rubbish. But afterwards I began to love them. And we've actually promoted them as well a few times in England. But Freddie Mercury was probably my favorite showman of the last century.

He had this exterior that was like a gorilla but at the time and I just and I had all the stories about him, people hanging from the windows and god knows what to get money. But I never came across that. I came across the other side of him. He came to our house for dinner. My wife Carol was the most wonderful, wonderful gormet chef, and she did

a side of beef fifty pounds. He came in, he sat down on a chair, broke the chair, and then we put him back up again, and he at the whole side of beef himself, and he says, I've got tickets for you to go to the Free Trade Hall to see led Zeppelin. And I said, okay, have you got any cotton wool in the house? I said, what cotton wool? So why? He says, well, i'll give you impression you are to eat. Therefore rows in front of the base speaking and I don't think you were going

to like that anyhow, and then we went. We've met many occasions and my favorite story, which is in the book, I love this one. We're in La both at the Beverly Hillton Hotel and we decide we're going to go out for dinner. And he liked steak, so I said, well, there's a restaurant called Larry's, which is the best steak there is. And my parents were staying there. I was with my parents. Let's all go together. So I went with my parents and he was following on and I

got to the door of the restaurant. A very stuffy matre d ontwer the door, and he says, oh, you can't come in without a jacket. And of course, with my arrogance, I said, well you get me one, you know, And that was me. It was horrible, but that was me. You get me one. And he comes back with his seasucker jacket and I put it on and I said by the way, he says, yes, I said that our next the last person in the pot to arrive. You might not be able to accommodate him with a jacket.

We can fit anybody. Don't you worry about it. We got it all covered. Peter Graham walks through the door and he says, I pass, Yeah, that's Peter.

They played all the Italian songs of which were inundating England Marino, Marini, Kondo, Kondo, Kwonda, all those type of songs, played them very nicely, and finished off with Alexander's ragtime band with all the hands going you know at the end. And Brain was a phenomenal guitarist. And I went to see them at the Jewish Lads Brigade it was a month. I think it was Monday night the US.

the music business other than I love music. And I asked Phil Cohen, who was one of the lead singers of the band, about two weeks ago, I said, why was I there? And he said, well, none of us knew why you were there, and none of us knew you except me because I played football with you. So I was the only person. And I don't know why you were there. So anyhow, but I was there, and obviously, and I got trying to I don't know what it was. The manager they had there was a guy called Victor

Coss and he was very, very arrogant. This band was very popular. They had date sheet that was fill you know, they played upmarket places. They weren't playing rock and roll places. They were playing you know, maybe maybe weddings, maybe you know, tennis club dances or whatever. They were. They were very, very very They were well paid, and I probably wanted

to be involved with them somehow. But I can't put it together why except that I love Graham and this guy, the Victor Call, he was just in his own planet. He was just horrendous. And I asked Phil about him as well. I said, well, what was he like as a manager? Am I being unfair saying he wasn't a good manager? He said he wasn't until we signed the contract, and I don't know what that means. Meanwhile, I loved

Graham anyhow. Graham was just amazing guitarist and lived really near to me, I mean nearer than the others, and I got talking to him and I waited then till Herman Summits had had some success and I approached him again. I said, well, you know, would you like to join me? Obviously what I can do for you? And maybe you should write some songs yourself, you know, because he wasn't writing songs in the in that pand particularly I think they had a couple of records. Actually one of them

might have been and are fully brothers. I don't know what. Then they did a cover version of something, but it didn't do anything. So their band was kind of in a to disarray and people were going into their own careers, and Graham said, okay, well let's try it. And I met his father, who is a very nice man called himI, who is a frustrated playwright, absolute genius, beautiful with lyrics,

very very close. And his mother was lovely, lady Betty, and they were a lovely couple, and they she was very into theater, so both of them were very theatrical. And it was a nice thing. And I got to know them and I said, look, would could I look after him? And I gave him a few quid a week. I was a retainer to you know, keep just good faith. And I did that with Kevin Law. I did that with they did a mural for me. I just kept

everybody in work because money was flowing through me. Like like I said to you, it was a joke, you know, I couldn't give it away quick enough. Rice Weber as well. We talked about I put them on a dealer, I mean everybody that came and Graham. Graham was very close. He was like a brother, and we started writing together, and then I was involved in the writing. We used to go nine till five every day to his little flat and we used to just plod along, playing things,

taking things out. I was acting like more as an editor. He'd plays something. I said, well, that's great play that. Why do you change that? And we had this break where it wasn't a brain wave house. The Rising Sun was so big, I mean it was just everybody had a guitar was playing it. I said, why do you write a song on those four chords? And he said, and surreptitiously he changed the last chord minimally and then wrote for your Love And then in the middle, I said,

well we need something different in the middle. Can you do anything? And he broke it into the rock and roll part of it, and then it finished it and I heard it and I thought, number one, there is no question. I was absolutely convinced going to take that to the Beatles. They can do it. I had very like I said, I don't think small, and Graham looked at me as, oh, man, yeah, write the Beatles. You know they're not going to And he hadn't handy his

success at all ready, so you know. But anyhow, I decided we'd go and see the Beatles and get it to them. So we went to see the Beatles at Hammersmith Odeon and the opening up with the Yardbirds, and behind me was a publisher called running Back, who was a publisher. I said, look, Ronnie, can you do me a favor? I've got this demo? Can you go and play it to the Beatles? I think that I think it's the number one and I'd like to know And

and he looked at me sheepishly as I'm mad. And after the interval he comes back, do you mind very much of I play it to the Yardbirds? I said? Who are the yard Berds are opening up? No? I wanted to go to the Beatles. Who the uppers? The armis don't mean shit? Come on? Anyhow, he said, well, the manager would like to meet you. And how between Georgio Gomelsky and Hem they managed to taught me into

allowing them to do it. Eric Clapton blew a fit He wanted the Yard to be a blues orientated band, as most of them were, like Lon John Baldry and the Huci Coucie Man, Rod Stewart and the Steam Packet. They all played American rhythm and blues and that was it, and they were mad on the blues. And Eric Clapton didn't want to know about Bloody Graham, Gooman or pop or anything. It wasn't where he wanted to go, and he subsequently left the band. They've got a few small

people in there, didn't they. Jeff Beck, a few other miners came into the band, but that so For Your Love went out. Georgio taught me into it. He used I think Brian August. They used some very he did some very nice things the harpsichord on. It was very clever and it was a very again it was it had atmosphere, you know, certain records like I'm Not in Love bahem in Rhapsody MacArthur Park, they've got atmosphere, and that for Your Love at the time, for what it was,

it had that atmosphere. Something slightly weird, isn't it. And the lyrics, of course weren't done by the Graham. The lyrics were high. Miss A seventeen year old doesn't write I'd give the moon if it were mine to give. I mean, not in the sixteen year old guy from school. I might know it. So I'm an artist from his father. And it was great. It was a great, great lyric And of course then the thing went to number one. I mean, as I said, everything I had touched turned

to gold. I mean, it really did. I should have known that things would change, but it was certainly. It was certainly a golden era for me.

some of Graham's songs in it as well. I think maybe even no milk today went in it. And we just did that fifty to fifty myself with Graham, so it was like it was done with Campbell Connelly. They had fifty and we had fifty percent. I was fed up about for your love's royalties. Graham was getting fifty percent, and then it was fifty percent for Overseas Publishing, which was just so that was the end as far as

I was concerned. And we I just did a heart full of soul deal because we didn't have time to really and afterwards we said, right, we'll go our own publishing company. We're not going through all this nonsense again. And that was it and we formed man Well, I formed mankm Us in America and that was in sixty five or something. And yeah, so that that's what goded me to do my own publishing company.

or six or something. They sold to Saint Ann's was sold to EMI firstly, and then every member of Tennessee C other than Long sold their rights because of various financial implications they had at the time. They needed money and they couldn't acquire it or whatever, and they sold

for considerable amount of money. And I acquired the American rights because I asked Graham, Eric and Kevin I think at the time, you know, said, look, if you're going to sell to EMI for the world, why do you let me buy the rights, I'll give you a better deal, which I did, and you know, let me look after it. They're my babies as well. So I still published the the songs even to today, of subjects to reversions obviously of Tennessee c in America.

thought it was a super song. I was in Israel and when I got back, Graham said, I've written a new song. I said, okay, and I come around to the house. He came out to my house and we had this horrendous Epstein furniture which was like so big you could filled the whole room. And he sat in this huge armchair with one foot laps on both sides with this thick material. And Graham gets on and starts playing bus stop. He plays it right through with the reff everything, and I just sat back. I thought, oh

my god, that is incredible. It's possibly his best song, you know. It was just it was amazing. It had the feel of the time, The lyric was charming, the song was incredible. How can Mickey most turn it down? Well, in one word, No, that WASNX and the the exide. I think Grahamer got it to the Hollies. The Hollis had done an initial song of Graham had written a song with Charlie call look Through Any Window, So that's probably how they got it because that had a success

as well. That was a top twenty in England, so that's probably how that happened.

of Love. I think then the mind Wayne Fontana and the mind Benders split up mind Men as a hit called Groovy Kind of Love, which went to number one world wide. I think was was it Gothinking might have been. I don't know who it was. It was, It was a very big writers anyhow, it was a great song. And then Graham joined with Eric in the Mind Benders. I don't know why, but that happened. So that's their

first thing together. I'd met Wayne Fontana and Eric in America on tour when I was touring home and I met him for the first time. Very good looking, very charming, nice, very nice, very nice person and at the time, so they got together. Then then we always had this dilemma of having to go to London to record, which was a pain in the ass. So they decided they wanted to start a recording studio in Manchester. We invested in

the studio Kennedy Street, our company. Dixon, who was managing Eric at the time, also was employed by Kennedy Street. He was supervised a lot of the work in the studio and they developed a Strawberry studio. Once that studio was going, Graham in the meantime had been writing and he was doing songs. He went to America to write for Kaznuts Cats on some kind of a deal, and then he used to do demos of the songs and put them out in England to try and have success

with various tracks that they all wrote together. Really good stuff read songs that nobody's ever heard, but they were really good. They were utilizing the studio to get it. Then when it really happened was when they were testing drum equipment or something and kevil Ola and Eric came up with neanderthal Man, which was huge hit in England, a song Obscure Song, And when Graham joined, then that band to put with Moody Blues on some tour, and then the four of them used to do session work

all the time for anybody that came. So we had an artist called Ramses and they did a whole album with Rameses. And then through my meeting Tony Christie and being my real second act, probably after Herman's Thermit's or no, after Graham, Tony Christie was the next person on the scene and he had a very good voice. You liked

Tom Jones. I was in America the bal Building with Donny Kirshner, who I was quite friendly with her liked a lot, And I said, whatever happened to Nil Sadhaka, one of my teenage loves, And he said he's upstairs. He said, you're kidding. He said, can I hear it? Because I'm with my wife Carol, Let's go and see him. So we went up to this little room ten feet by six with a big upright piano, and Donnie says, Neil, playing some of your new stuff. They played five tracks.

The last one was is this the Way to Amarillo? And I said that's it. That's a smash. I like that, and Donnie looked at him. It's Neil, and Neil looked at Donnie and they said, this guy is crazy. They didn't. They just looked at it. They didn't. They didn't like the song. Anyhow. I get back to England and now Carol's driving me mad. Have you got a demo for that song? Get the demo? And I'm phoning Donna Cashion. It was like with Mickey most It's like getting things

out of people was so hard. You had to have my kind of persistence or ignorance or whatever you call it, or what there's a better word than that kutzper to truly drive people mad. So and finally he sent me a demo of Amarillo. I went to London. It was recorded the next day. It was put in the charts. Two weeks later he got to eighteen, which I thought

was crap. I thought that it was much better than that. Anyhow, twenty five years later, Peter care comedian did a thing for BBC which is a Red Nose Day, which is to do with charity, and they did a new video and they used it is this the way to Amarilla. It became the biggest record of two thousand and four and was number one for twelve weeks in the UK charts.

That's the history of that. But going back to why I started, so when even when he got to eighteen, Danny Kirshn who was ecstatic, He says, God, I thought I had good ears. That's amazing, Harvey. And I said, well, why do you send Kneel over to England? And that's let the boys do a bit of recording with him, you know, because they're very good and they had had a hit with I think that, yeah, they might have

had a hit with Neanderthal Man. By then they were having success and Graham had had a pedigree, and you know, Graham just had hit. He was a joke. So anyhow, and also so I become a brother in law of Graham. We married sisters, and that was in nineteen sixty nine, so this was seventy one. Everything was happening at the same time. So Danny said, okay, I'll send him over to do a session. So he came over to do a session and he did two albums. Monster never stopped recording.

We used to go into the studio. He used to sit at the piano to start with, and then he goes calendar girl breaking up his heart to do and everybody's sitting on the floor getting a concert before his starts. And I used to bring bagels and locks from north Manchster, best bagels in the world, best locks from a shock called Titanic, which was named after some of his grandparents who died in the Titanic or something. And he loved it, and the so and so credited me on the album.

I was quite instrument I was responsible. Yeah, I can say I was responsible for Neil's Darker having a revival. I mean, you know, okay, Elton John put the record out, and Elton John did this and that and the other. But he wouldn't have seen Elton John unless this had happened. The credit was Harvey didn't even have full name Harvey Bagels and lucks. That's the darker story. So then then he said to them boys, because he'd done beautiful music with them, it was magnificent, he said to them, well,

why don't you do something yourself? And I think that goaded them. They've now done a Ramses album which is pretty damn good. They've done. It's a darker album with tracks which are amazing, right solitaire, I mean just incredible. And then so they started fiddling around themselves. That's the beginning of the tense siemaur together. And then they did

a song called Waterfall, which I didn't like. They thought it was the greatest thing since Last Bread, and they pedaled it everywhere themselves more or less, and Apple said they liked it. You know, Apple, it was the most disorganized organization in the world. They liked it. So you know what happened to that. Jonathan King comes up one day and they they done a track called Donner, which is a ripoff of O Darling by the Beatles, which

is a ripoff of Valance Darling. I mean, the thing oh Darling has been used not I can't describe it to the Beatles. It goes back to American whoever did it to start with. So they did this and we thought it was a joke. I mean, Lol had a high pitched voice, and you know, they all thought Waterfall was great. And Jonathan King said that's a hit. Oh yeah, right, yeah, right right, yeah, we know it's a hit. So well, I'll give you I think he gave him five and

offered some money or something for it. Was crazy. Okay, right, okay, we'll do it, and he I got to number two in the charts, and that was the beginning of the Nathan King thing. We signed a contract with Jonathan King on a very low loyalty. I think we were on four percent, I think. And my idea was, Okay, we'll sign this, but if they become successful, I'm sure he'll renegotiate and that will be great for us. We can we'll have all the benefits of his enthusiasm. We'll have

a hit, we'll have another hit. Great, and then he won't be happy. He wants us to earn money. Anyhow, that was the wrong thing. He didn't anyway. They had a load of success. This is between seventy two and seventy four, tremendous, many of many hits. Nothing in America, not a smell in America. Number one in England with rubber bullets, The Dean and I was a hit, or Frant's Saint's a hit, Mandy Flymy Classic was a hit, and nothing in America all and the boys said, we're

on four percent, We're on one percent. Jonathan is getting more himself than all of us put together. It's not right. So I speak to Jonathan. I said, look, this isn't right. Will you change it? No, the contracts at contract public school is you signed a contract. That's the contract. And the law in England stipulates you can't force somebody to do a management contract. And it was I managed Jimmy White, for instance, a snooker player. He tried to get out of his contract. My only all I could do is

get damages. I can't force him to carry on with me and that so we did the reverse with Jonathan. King said, well, look they're not going to give you any more product. You're not going to work for less than you getting more than the whole group put together. I'm sorry. And incidentally, by the way Jonathan said, finally was forced into meeting and we went on the train, myself and my attorney to meet Jonathan King at eight

o'clock in the Westbury Hotel. The train broke down in the middle of nowhere and we were stuck on this train from Manchester to London. We got into the Westbury Hotel at four thirteen and there were no telephones. There was no mobile phone. We were in the middle of nowhere. He was at the hotel. We got there at four point thirty were still sitting there waiting, and I couldn't believe that he'd waited all that time. And now we did the deal, and he got a very good deal.

He got a reversion of the rights from me. First of all, we got permission to leave and go on to another company. And the other company being Phonograph, had done a deal with him to acquire the rights for those albums for that period of time, the rights reverting to him again, they could sell them again and again. And I spoke to Jonathan a few weeks ago and they said it was the worst decision he ever made. Now, the reason we left was was we had no success

in America. The reason we had no success in America because we're on a crappy label. London Records was born on the worst label I've ever been associated with. Not that we went to a much better one in Mercury, but London was particularly bad. I mean, we went with Mercury because of the money, and Phonogram because of their pedigree Deutsche Grammarphone. For the rest of the world, that's a different story. But London didn't get us a sniff.

And my son Paul said to me, well, maybe it's because the American radio weren't playing that kind of music at the time. It was very formatted American radio and TENCC just didn't fit into that at all. And there is an element of truth in that. But the talent was so great and the publicity was so wonderful, even in America, that one would have thought they'd have had some kind of success with all that magnificent, but they didn't. So we went to Phonogram.

and talking about atmosphere. That was the Bee's Knees. That was That was definitely the best thing they did from a point of view of atmosphere, it was incredible difficulty being it was six minutes and there was a lot of discussion was resulted in them putting Minnestronia as the first single in England. Anyhow, I'm Not in Love just took over the world. It was the biggest record and it was even in America, even on Mercury, probably the

worst record company there. And the other thing why it really didn't happen was the group, who were always very meticulous about the sound in concerts did not give it well, I shouldn't say they didn't give it off. They didn't pay much attention to the visuality of their show. So they never they would go on in genes with a

T shirt like like Steve Jobs. You know, it wasn't even they weren't even interested in anything, whereas Dave Bowie, Mark Bowl and Freddie Mercury, you know, you just go on and on of all the stars that did get that additional visual thing. And concerning how good Kevin Low were on visuality and artistic work, as subsequently they proved with their video stuff, it just wasn't used for them. So when we were off they were interested in sound

sound sound. Oh it's to me mad. I said to them, well, if they want the sound and by the bloody record, I want to go to a concert. I want to hear them singer sing flat. I don't care if he drops a few notes. I don't care if the string breaks. I want a live performance. I want an interaction with Surely that's the game for a live show. But they didn't see it that way. Well, they weren't prepared to

do anything. We were off at the Eagle store while the record was in the charts, and of course it was rejected, wasn't it because of some bloody sound thing or something? Or I didn't want to go into it. I thought, well, you know, and also I think I think Frank Barcelona was actually looking after tency See as well. I think so it might have come from his packaging ideas. I don't know, but they were perfectly suited as well. I mean, when we played with the Rolling Stones, that

was not a clever match. It was totally different. But the Eagles and TENCC, that just that would have been easy. And I think if they'd have done that, they'd have had a number one album, and I think we wouldn't be talking about them in the same way. I mean, they are definitely not first division. You know, they're not Beatles, Queen Pink, Floyd Prince, Michael Jackson. But I think they could have been if they'd have had a few number one albums in America and the American public had got

to know the humor and the genius of them. And of course they didn't stay together again, I mean, I'm talking about I'm not in Love with only half the band as well in the end, because the others had left were leaving.

And they played a track called Honolulu Lulu, which is seventeen seconds of a brilliant idea. Aloha, I'm Honolulu, Lulu from Hawaii. I saw you from the corner of my eye, which and it was beautiful music, and I said, that's it. We've got a single. It's going to be a smash. Anyhow, a few weeks later I went to the rest of their track, put like a fifteen minute orchestral piece on top of the seventeen seconds, and that was all. That's

their commerciality. They weren't. They weren't at all interested in commerciality. But Kevin loll but Graham and Eric, they think, right, we've got to do an album. We've got to do it by this time. We've got to have the singles. We've got to do this, We've got to do that. And I think the obviously they've been together for four years, and there was there was, I don't know, not musical differences. There were I don't even think of his personality differences.

I just think, you know, the instead of nowadays an artist would take off for a year and then go back and do it. In those days, it was like they created a brand. It had a tremendous marketing aspect worldwide, with the exception of America. They could everywhere they went, and so Graham and Eric joined together and they did The Things We Do for Love, which was half done before Kevin long left or that, and Kevin just hated

it when they heard it. They hated it, and it was very much liked in America, and Graham went to see beat Middler, who was a favorite song at the time. I mean, you know, it was a very popular song, and it actually outsold I'm Not in Love, which I didn't understand, but go figure it.

very friendly with loll. Lull's the lucky one really because he didn't sell any rights, so he didn't have any handy and beefs or anything. He just let the money keep rolling in because he had some kind of a case in America against the previous management where he'd been awarded a nice chunk of money, and I think it just kept him able to retain everything he had because

everybody else was probably overspending at a tremendous rate. And then there's always the tax implications of earnings which you've not put aside for which is very typical of lots of people. Although everybody had accountants, the accountants can't control the spending. If you're going to get three ferraris, what do you want?

Didn't do any good. But we did move to a des label, and I think I don't know that they just grew apart. You know, it was just pretty much impossible, So I think Graham decided to do his own thing. Meanwhile, punk had come in. Their music was not fashionable. They were self in, dundant algent capitalists, and it wasn't what the sex pistols were about. And the sex pistols took over the airways, and so you.

Andrew Andrew was a very big favorite of mine. I really think he's a very talented person, could play every instrument and was absolutely tremendous. And Graham and Andrew, I think together had the best time of their respective lives as far as musical music was concerned. So Graham had gone from a situation where it was probably always battling whether it be on editing Kevin Lowl or whatever edit or falling out with musically with with Eric or whatever production.

He was now with somebody that he was completely well, completely in bed with. They just they got on like a house on fire. They were wonderful together. We have some great stories of theirs. I mean, on Andrew's thirty third birthday, we went to Morton's in London. It was a restaurant and we both loved the producers. Everybody I'd ever been associated with, going back to twenty years, had always had the producers film and we knew every single

word of it. And we're sitting down at the table, myself, Cara, Andrew and Graham, and mel Brooks walks in and he goes and sits down with a fellow called Joe Lustik, who I knew as an agent. So I, in my inimitable manner, I sent a bottle of beautiful red wine over to their table and saying it's from Harvey over there, so the way to take something over to mel Brooks. And mel Brooks gets hold of the wine, is drinking and says the way to take this pig swill away

and get this. But later in the later in the meal, I feel the mass somebody massaging my shoulder and I thought, what's going on around? It's mel Brooks And I said to him, I said, would you be embarrassed if you repeat a line from the producers and Graham and Andrew will give you the next two lights? He says, how can I be embarrassed? An old Jew? Then he were at the whole room, from table to table. Yeah, Andrew, we all love the producers and that was great and

it's very interesting the producers. Actually I met Gene Wilder and he was appearing in a play and Neil Simon play. You were asking about anti Semitism earlier on. We're sitting in this playhouse in London and it's Neil Simon play and we're sitting down in a woman behind. I didn't know that Neil Simon was Jewish, and this is what you're dealing with. That's part of England. That's probably a

clrent of Wisconsin or somewhere. I don't know, but he's like, you know, there's England, and there's a hit places, and there's places from the wild that you just don't know what's going on. So anyhow, I said to Gene Wilder next morning we were staying at the hotel, I said, why don't you do a musical of the Producers? It's so obvious you've already got music in the film. And he said something that was really interesting. He said, well, he said, no, always like to keep that close to

his chest. Interesting, isn't it. And that's at least ten years before it was I mean a long time before it was released. Interesting because Gene Wilder was amazing in the film.

had like a revival. But making of the album, the boys hardly spoke to each other. One did it in their studio, the other one did it that there was a complete concoction, a total disaster. And I didn't really get out of the business because I was always publishing all the American music anyhow, and then I came in nineteen ninety two. I bought a property in Rancho Mirage

and I became a snowbird. And from there I went to see the Indian Wells Tennis garden, which was used for three weeks in the year for tennis, very nice tournament, and my wife Carol said, what the hell did they do with this for the rest of the year. Well, they don't do very much, and the staff are very happy. The staff are working for eight weeks in the year and they're on Sistan the other and I said, it's

a marvelus amphitheater. So I got hold of Raymond Moore and Passerell, who was his tennis player from a Maria Charlie Passerell, and I said, look, why don't we put some concerts on here. I knew they'd put one thing on which was pretty much a disaster, but it was I think they put Pacelli on and it was all wrong. And I then got hold of a William Morris agent called Peter, whose second name has eluded me on a Peter thank you, Peter Groslite, who's absolutely charming, lovely guy,

great golfer as well. And I got the stadium to agree that I could be an agent for them to bring action in. So my first act was the Eagles, and we get the Eagles, and then we have a meeting there and they say we can't charge two hundred and fifty dollars a ticket. I said, why, you've only got the wealthiest community in America. Why should we charge one hundred when everybody else charges to fifty. Anyhow, we sold out three nights on the Eagles at the price.

Then we put the Who on, Tom Patty and the Heartbreakers Lewis Neguel who you know that we did with all those concerts and all they were worried about was the tennis surface, and god knows what was happening. It wasn't really equipped as a stadium. But of course, as I said, without I thought, right, the answer is this, Barbara Streison won't work open air, right, this one won't do that, this one won't do the other. I said, right,

we're going to do what Wembley Stadium does. We'll get a roof put on the place and then we can work it all year. We don't have to worry about her in twenty degrees. So I get an architect who tells it for twenty million dollars they could do a roof that closes, right, But there were twenty people who who are ten people involved? Raymond wore and ten or fifteen other a committee, and of course the committee rejected it.

And now in Palm Springs they have got a ten thousand arena which has been put up, and they could have had it easily, and I saw world championship boxing matches everything coming from there. Anyhow, my three years expid as an agent. It wasn't renewed and they not had a concert since. So that was fifteen year. How many years ago, and now I'm just writing books and doing other things.

When I was a gambler, I'd have four hundred pound on me if I lost. That that was it. And the other thing about gambling. When I went with Horman Swimmits to Las Vegas, which is relevant to show business, it was in a June's hotel. They said, we're comping everything you've got, mister Lillisburg. All food is free. Your runs three anything you want. And by the way, you and every member of the band will have a credit of one hundred thousand dollars. That's in nineteen sixty six.

I don't know what that is worth today. And I said no way, I said. I didn't say no way. I said, thank you very much. If we need it, we'll ask you. And that so all the people like Frank Sinatra or Elvis or anybody. I mean, the Colonel was an enormous gambler. Brian Epstein was in an enormous gambler. But these people were, I mean, they were permanently in the money. I mean, I think ultimately, probably somehow the Colonel got out lost it. I don't know. But no,

I wasn't. I didn't. I didn't blow it all away. My son said to me two days ago, he said, well, maybe you got something right. So why, I said, because now, if you put all your money away and you had one hundred million in the bank, you wouldn't have been able to go around the world because you wouldn't be you wouldn't be fit enough. Or because I decided when I was fifty that was going to go around the world.

I wasn't going to wait till I was eighty. So that was my mentality, and I think somewhere in between the two is right. I don't think what I was doing was right. It was excessive, and I can criticize myself for that. I got carried away. I had Joseph and the dream Coat, which they came to me, and I had that. I tried putting it with sixteen people

who all rejected it. Now, if i'd have got the publishing on that, when I met t him Rice in two thousand and four, he told me that his earnings from I think it was a quarter and a half on Joseph, which had been rejected, was three hundred and ninety thousand pound. That was twenty five years after it. So you know, if I'd have had all that money, I don't think I would have had yachts, and you

know there's no limit. You'd have era planes. You'd if you were acting stupidly, and you would think you're infallible, you'll believe in yourself. You start becoming like Robert Stigwood. You know, you think you everything you do is you know you're our for cameeron Macintosh. All these people are like kind of egomaniacs in a way, you know, they're becoming a different league. I never got into that league.

I don't think Epstein was in that league either. I think he had the money, but I think he was just he had a lot of problems. When I met him, Clein had tried to get me to see him about getting a piece of the Beatles for him management of the Beatles. Would I speak to Brian and if I did, Alan Klein, in his imitable manner, would give me a percentage. So I went to see Brian Epstein in his flat

in Belgravia. Meeting was at six point thirty at night, and I walked through the door and it was all white, white walls, everywhere was white. And I said to him, look are you interested in Klein looking after the Beatles? We want to sell it. And his face went to the same shade as the walls. You know, he obviously Clian had obviously been busier around all the everywhere else, you know what I mean. And it was he that was the end of that conversation. We just carried on

from there. But I thought that it's funny. I thought the Beatles would end up with Alan Clin somehow, because you were talking about how do you protect yourself? Well against the one person from Manchester, that's one thing, but from people with the experience and the tentacles of Alan Klein, it's not easy to avoid. I mean, you got the biggest in the world.

never know. I still think he's a very talented person, and I don't think he's got it right. But that's life.

managers aren't looked at very kindly. I mean, Peter Grant wasn't, the Colonel wasn't, Brian Epstein wasn't, Andrew Olter wasn't. I mean, where do you go? I mean, it's you create an act. They become the biggest thing in the world. And then I had a thing Robert Graves, the famous writer. He said a friend is like an ass. He waits thirty years to give you a good kick, and that applies to a lot of people in own business.