A man who played with the Beatles

Even though it was my day off, I switched into journalism mode today and interviewed a man who once played with The Beatles before they were superstars.

Roy Young was fairly well-known in England in the early 1960s and was in demand on the booming rock and roll scene in Hamburg, Germany. It was there he shared the stage with the young Beatles before they had even secured a record contract.

Roy is coming to Bermuda to play at the John Lennon tribute event on September 21, hence my reason for doing a phone interview for the newspaper.

Having watched films like 'Backbeat' and 'Nowhere Boy', which detail those early years of the Beatles story, I can only imagine what it was like to have actually been there and been friends with the group. Roy has that story, and I felt it was a privilege to hear him talk about it.

Here is some of what Roy had to say: "John (Lennon) was really the funny guy, you really had to watch your step with him because he would do some strange things. He was my favourite friend. He was a good guy to be around. He was a lot of laughs. He just had that sort of magic about him. It was nice to be in his company. I found him to be an absolute gentleman, as much as he was fooling around.

"John was always chewing gum when he was singing. I don't know how he could sing and chew gum. And of course he and I were always on the same microphone and one night he was chewing this gum, he must have thought about it and he spat it out and it hit me on the nose and stuck there. I looked like Pinocchio. John started laughing when he saw it stuck there. Paul and George looked over and John pointed at my face, I had left it there because I could see the funny side of it. Paul and George fell on the floor."

It was a toss up whether to seek out this interview or spend time on Dolphin Girl. I'm glad I did reach out to Roy. It was an enlightening and engaging hour on the phone.

It also gives me a little more time to consider a shift in Dolphin Girl, from present tense to past tense presentation; a debate of which I shall write more very shortly.

UPDATE (24 August 2012): Link to interview with Roy Young CLICK HERE