When Billy J. Kramer’s record of Lennon and McCartney’s “Do
You Want To Know A Secret?” topped the New Musical Express charts
in 1963, he became the first singer in the world to have a number
one hit with a Beatles song, apart from the Fab Four themselves.
This success propelled the teenage Kramer into the fast lane, and
he followed it with another five top twenty singles within the
space of two years. In this autobiography Billy J. Kramer (born
William Ashton) tells his rags to riches story, from his working
class childhood in Liverpool, via a British Rail engineering
apprenticeship in the dying days of steam, to the racy world of
international pop music. Managed by Brian Epstein, produced by
George Martin, engineered by Hurricane Smith, and friend,
confidante and colleague of the Beatles, Kramer gives a definitive
insider’s account of the birth of the Liverpool sound and also
the “British Invasion” of the US. We follow him to the Star
Club in Hamburg, to Abbey Road, into the BBC studios, and onto
package tours and stage shows with the Beatles, Cilla Black, Gerry
and the Pacemakers, Tommy Quickly and other stars of the age. He
shares a dressing room with James Brown, and appears alongside
other 1960s giants of the American music business. Kramer also
brilliantly evokes the world of variety, as he goes behind the
scenes with comedian Tommy Cooper, and learns about the stagecraft
of artistes from another era. On the surface, Kramer’s career
seems like a dream come true, but there are dark secrets in the
Kramer story. Even before he’d reached his twenties, he was
already in the grip of drugs and alcohol, and there were constant
tensions between him and his Mancunian backing band, The Dakotas.
When the screaming stopped, he reinvented himself as a cabaret
performer, and some of his best records were made during the years
he was out of the limelight. He brought up a young family, but the
drink and pills made his domestic life, and eventually his
professional life, a struggle. In this no-holds-barred account of
his life, Kramer evokes the vibrancy of the sixties and reveals how
he exorcised his demons and forged a new career in the US. He
assembles his current band, shows a growing mastery of songwriting
and recording, and returns to national tours, keeping the flame of
the Mersey sound alive. The lifetime of experience he brings to his
new songs infuses every page of this enthralling read.
General
| Imprint: |
Equinox Publishing Ltd
|
| Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
| Series: |
Studies in Popular Music |
| Release date: |
August 2023 |
| Authors: |
Billy J. Kramer
• Alyn Shipton
|
| Dimensions: |
234 x 156mm (L x W) |
| Pages: |
200 |
| ISBN-13: |
978-1-80050-463-9 |
| Categories: |
Books
|
| LSN: |
1-80050-463-2 |
| Barcode: |
9781800504639 |
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