Jamie Bowman talks to Beatles expert Spencer Leigh about his new book ‘The Beatles in America’

Sunday, January 5, 2014

FEW people can claim to know as much about The Beatles as Ainsdale author Spencer Leigh. His On The Beat music programme has been a fixture on BBC Radio Merseyside since 1985 and over that time, he’s conducted more interviews about the Fab Four – all captured on tape – than anyone in the world.

Spencer has also written more than 25 books, including biographies of Lonnie Donegan, Billy Fury and Buddy Holly, but his latest offering sees him return to his favourite subject as he tackles The Beatles career Stateside, in The Beatles in America. “It's the third one in a series after The Beatles in Liverpool and The Beatles in Hamburg and both have done very well,” said Spencer. “With the 50th anniversary of the Ed Sullivan TV show coming up, my publishers and I agreed it was a good time to do it and, of course, it is a great story.” He’s not wrong. In 1962, The Beatles were still just a band from Liverpool but by January 1964, they were top of the US charts, having sold 1.5m copies of I Want To Hold Your Hand before they had even set foot on American soil.