The Beatles had recorded ‘My Bonnie’ in Hamburg. How did you get to hear about the single?

My ex brother-in-law Kenny Johnson was the lead guitarist with a group called Mark Peters and the Cyclones. It was him that told me The Beatles had made a record in Germany. The following Saturday I went to NEMS to ask for the record, not realising the person I spoke to was Brian Epstein. He started asking me questions: who were they? Where did they play? What type of music did they perform?

After I had answered his questions I told him they were the best group I had ever seen. The next time I went to NEMS I picked up the record. Shortly after that it was common knowledge that Epstein had become their manager.

I had never heard the Tony Sheridan/Beatles record at the Cavern or anywhere else before going into NEMS that day. As I said before, it was just a chance conversation with Kenny Johnson that prompted me to go to NEMS and ask for the record. About two weeks after that that I heard Bob Wooler playing it at the Cavern.

Raymond Jones

How many times did you see The Beatles play? Was it mostly at the Cavern, or all over Liverpool?

It is impossible to even attempt to guess how many times I saw The Beatles. I went to a lot of lunchtime and evening gigs, and also a few afternoon sessions at the Cavern. The other places I saw them play were Aintree Institute, Blair Hall, The Casbah, Litherland Town Hall, Civil Service Club, Hambleton Hall, Knotty Ash Village Hall and The Tower Ballroom. I went to a few other places as well but I can’t remember the names. The venue I wanted to go to see them was on the Royal Iris – I had just come back from holiday and you could say I missed the boat.

Did you ever meet The Beatles?

I wouldn’t say I knew the boys, but I have talked to them all at sometime or other. My father worked on the Liverpool buses as did George Harrison’s dad. They used to go to the Tramway Social Club in Dovecote. I went there for a drink with my father and George was there with his dad too. He wasn’t very talkative that night.

George was a different person when he was on stage. One particular day at the Cavern he was playing a short instrumental in the middle of one of their songs. They all started to do The Shadows’ step-over-and-back walk. They were taking the mickey of course. Nobody in their right minds could have predicted just how big they would become.

Not long afterwards they made an appearance on a TV Show Scene At 6.30, presented by Bill Grundy. After that show everyone jumped on the bandwagon – you couldn’t get near the boys whereas before you could freely mingle freely with them. I stopped going to the Cavern then; for me there was nothing to go for.

When the Beatles had had a couple of recording under their belt, Brian Epstein was telling his story in a national newspaper, I was livid when he described me in the article as a “scruffy” 18-year-old leather-jacketed youth. I wrote to NEMS to show him my disgust about his remark. In the letter I said not everyone wore suits and that some people had to work for a living.

Shortly after that someone from NEMS wrote to me and asked me to contact Mr Epstein at his office, which at that time was in Moorfields off Dale Street. When I contacted him he asked me to call to his office and said he would like to apologise in person. After his somewhat poor apology we both went to Rigby’s pub in Dale Street and had a couple of drinks. He was asking me all sorts of questions and taking notes at the same time. He didn’t say so but I think he must have been planning the book A Cellarful Of Noise.

Letter to Raymond Jones from NEMS

Some time later a neighbour of mine wrote to Brian – for what reason I’m not quite sure – but by return of post she received a letter from Diana Vero, Mr Epstein’s secretary, asking for my address so he could send me a copy of his book. A week or so later I received it.

Why did you never come forward and stake your claim in The Beatles’ story? In the biographies you’re portrayed as an elusive figure that some presume to have never even existed, and it seems odd that you’d not want to tell your story.

I was invited to attend the first the first Liverpool Beatles Convention by Bob Wooler. It was an experience I was not very comfortable with. Being in the limelight didn’t suit me so I decided there and then to keep a low profile.

Years later it was advertised that Raymond Jones was making an appearance at another convention. My friend Ron Billingsley’s wife went as she thought she’d see me there, but all she saw was Bob Wooler arguing with Alistair Taylor because he had said he was Raymond Jones. Bob knew he was lying and asked the audience if anyone had any knowledge of my whereabouts. Sylvia was too shy to speak out, but she approached Bob Wooler afterwards and told him she could contact me. Her husband and my friend contacted me and I in turn contacted Bob Wooler.

Bob and I were both disgusted with Taylor’s claims, and discussed a plan of action. Bob told me he was planning a book and he wanted the truth to come out. Spencer Leigh wrote the book about Bob. It was called The Best Of Fellas: The Story of Bob Wooler. Spencer also told my story in an article in Mojo magazine the article was called “Nowhere Man Found!”. Some time later Mojo contacted me to ask for my permission to print the story in a book, Ten Years That Shook the World.

Raymond Jones' signed copy of The Best Of Fellas by Spencer Leigh

My wife and I were watching a Ultragraph Limited and is based in Burscough, Lancashire. My son Nick and daughter Sarah now run the company.

I retired to Spain around 16 or 17 years ago to fulfil my dream of building my own house. It took me and my wife Sylvia about five or six years of very hard work to complete. It was very satisfying.

Do you still have your copy of ‘My Bonnie’, or the signed copy of Brian Epstein’s book?

If only I still had Epstein’s signed copy of his book and the record! I kept them both together, but nobody knows where they are now. I still have the letter Epstein’s secretary sent to my neighbour, it’s the only proof I have that it was me who went into NEMS.

People have told me that my name will go down in Beatles history. That may be true, but all I did was buy a record by a group that gave me so much pleasure and enjoyment.

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