03/06/2026
This is a photo of Lionel Bart pictured at The Cavern Club Liverpool with Brian Epstein. Ronnie Carr told me a funny story about his meeting with Lionel Bart in 1963 which I won't repeat. I think I remember Ronnie saying that is was Lionel Bart's personal recommendation that The Beat Boys should approach Joe Meek for a recording contract. Ronnie met Lionel Bart one night through Georgie Fame. There are not many photographs of Lionel Bart hanging out up North in a club. When Ronnie and I did research for the dvd "The Life & Times of The Beat Boys" in 2010 we couldn't find many decent photograghs of him really, there are quite a few online now. Lionel Bart was a composer. He wrote the musical "Oliver" and he also wrote the James Bond theme "Thunderball" for Tom Jones. John Hodkinson / Tony Allen sang at the Thunderball auditions. He narrowly missed out to Tom Jones. There is a live recording of that somewhere. I always thought John sang it better. It was Lionel Bart who recommended to Larry Parne's that he should sign Georgie Fame and create a band for him in 1959. Lionel Bart was an integral part of the early history really. He was a big ear on the ground who could make things happen and did. He was the one in Pwllhelii in 1959. - Chris (ukfm) Thanks to Brian's nephew Henry Epstein for the photo.
