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THE ONE AFTER 9:09: A Mystery With A Backbeat
‘Rebel Without A Cause’ meets ‘A Hard Day’s Night’
A DISAFFECTED LIVERPOOL TEENAGER BECOMES INVOLVED WITH THE BEATLES WHEN HE’S HIRED TO HELP PREVENT THE MURDER OF THE GROUP’S MANAGER, BRIAN EPSTEIN.
Liverpool 1961. A city about to explode with the sound of raw-edged rock ‘n’ roll—reborn. Beat groups outnumber street gangs. Gangs of Teddy Boys terrorise dance halls and clubs with flick-knives and bicycle-chains. Gangsters demand protection money and firebomb clubs that don’t pay. But nothing can stop the beat. The beat goes on. The demand for drink, cigarettes, sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll just keeps growing.
But The Beatles are going nowhere fast—and they know it. Liverpool’s grown much too small. Hamburg has become a drag. It’s the same old grind—day in, night out. The big question: Who can get them a recording contract down in London—get them to ‘the toppermost of the poppermost’?
Only two men have vision enough to do it. Sam Leach—a pushy, local, rock ‘n’ roll mad promoter with towering dreams way beyond his means. And Brian Epstein—the sophisticated, urbane owner of a local record store.
A group of rival promoters are plotting to push Sam Leach out of the business for good. The man convicted of beating, robbing, and blackmailing Brian Epstein has not only vowed to kill him, but is about to be released from prison. Everyone, it seems, wants to spoil the party.
Into the swelling scene steps art student Raymond Jones, an angry young man desperate to find something—someone—to believe in after the death of his dad in a road accident. Picasso, Pollock, and de Kooning don’t have the answers. Neither do Kerouac, Camus, or Sartre. So, just maybe, he’ll find his salvation in rock ‘n’ roll.
TONY BROADBENT
Published by: plain sight press
Trade Paper + e-book
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THE ONE AFTER 9:09: A Mystery With A Backbeat
ADDENDUM: Sending out an S.O.S.
Sam Leach was a true rock ‘n’ roll evangelist. A Liverpool visionary with a great big rockin’ heart and towering dreams. A promoter who was way ahead of his many contemporaries—in both scale and daring-do—and who was always seeking bigger and better ways to give beat fans the best in rockin’ entertainment. A man who caught the emerging spirit of the times and did a huge amount to promote the early success of The Beatles—long before Brian Epstein came on the scene—long, long before ‘Beatlemania’ hit Great Britain and the rest of the world.
Paul McCartney refers to the early days as being “The Sam Leach Era” (BBC Radio Merseyside 1984). John Lennon once said: “Sam Leach was the pulse of Merseybeat. What he did, the rest copied.”
Such Liverpool luminaries as Bill Harry of Mersey Beat fame—The Beatles’ Boswell—and Bob Wooler—the brilliantly witty Cavern Club ‘DJ’ and promoter—are justly celebrated. Club owners and promoters Allan Williams; Ray McFall of The Cavern; and Mona Best of The Casbah (& Pete’s Mum)—are all very much on record.
Sam Leach deserves to be celebrated along with them—deserves far more than being relegated to a minor footnote—or worse—to be erased entirely from Beatles’ history—as so often seems to be the case.
I know there are many dedicated Beatles’ fans, worldwide, that rightly revere Sam Leach for all he did way back when. And I’m sure many of them would support an effort to Save. Our. Sam. for Beatles’ History—starting with Liverpool—and then, hopefully, expanding from there.
Help Save. Our. Sam. for Beatles’ History!
https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/save-sam-leach-for-beatles-history
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