Beatles publicist coined the nickname ‘Fab Four’

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Tony Barrow, who gave up his career as a journalist and music critic to become the Beatles’ first publicist in 1962, and who for the next six years played a crucial role in shaping the public’s perception of the Fab Four — a nickname he coined, in an early news release — died Saturday in Morecambe, England. He was 80.

His death was confirmed by the Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn, who had known Barrow for 35 years.

In one of his first acts as the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein wrote to Barrow in December 1961, hoping to get the group mentioned in “Off the Record,” the record review column Barrow had been writing for The Liverpool Echo, under the pen name Disker, since 1954. The Beatles were then an unsigned dance-hall and bar band, and Barrow, who had moved to London and also had a job writing liner notes for Decca Records, responded that as a record reviewer, he could do nothing for a band that had not made any recordings.

Epstein was persistent. While visiting London in the hope of getting the Beatles a record deal, he visited Barrow and played him a poor-quality live recording of the group. Barrow was intrigued enough to help Epstein arrange for the group to audition for Decca.

As it turned out, Decca passed. Told by his boss that he could sign only one group, the label’s Mike Smith signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes instead.

Shortly after the Beatles were signed to Parlophone, an EMI subsidiary, late in 1962, Epstein invited Barrow to join his production company, NEMS Enterprises, as senior press and publicity officer. Both Barrow and his wife, Corrine, doubted the wisdom of leaving a steady corporate job to work with a nascent pop band. But Epstein offered to double Barrow’s Decca salary, and Barrow decided to take the chance.

As a former critic, Barrow knew what writers wanted, and he filled his early news releases with details about which instrument each Beatle played, and who wrote the songs featured on their singles and albums, as well as fan-friendly information about the Beatles’ backgrounds, interests, ambitions, likes and dislikes. He did the same for other NEMS acts, including Gerry and the Pacemakers and the singers Cilla Black and Billy J. Kramer.

He also wrote detailed liner notes for the Beatles’ early British albums and EPs. And he was directly responsible for several recordings now prized by Beatles collectors.

It was at his suggestion that the group made a Christmas disc, to be sent exclusively to members of its fan club, at the end of 1963. The band continued the practice through 1969, filling these 7-inch discs with humorous messages, skits and songs.

It is also thanks to Barrow that the Beatles’ final live concert, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on Aug. 29, 1966, was preserved on tape. The Beatles had by then resolved to give up touring, and Paul McCartney had asked Barrow to tape the show. Standing alone a few feet in front of the stage, he captured most of it on a primitive cassette recorder. The recording was never officially released but has been widely bootlegged.

Barrow was born in Crosby, a Liverpool suburb, on May 11, 1936, and was educated at Durham University. He began his writing career while still a high school student: Fascinated with music, he persuaded the editor of the Liverpool Echo to give him a column when he was 17. But because the paper did not want it known that its critic was so young, the editor insisted he use a pseudonym.

Barrow chose Disker after seeing the American singer Guy Mitchell called “the world’s top-selling disker” in an advertisement.

Barrow’s survivors include his wife and their two sons, Michael and Mark. He lived in Morecambe.

After Epstein’s death in 1967, the Beatles sought to distance themselves from NEMS and set up their own company, Apple, which had its own publicity department. Feeling marginalized, Barrow resigned from NEMS to start his own publicity company, Tony Barrow International (later Tony Barrow Management), with a client roster including MCA Records, the Bee Gees, the Kinks and the Bay City Rollers.

In 1980, he left the publicity business to return to writing and editing. In 2005 he published a memoir, “John, Paul, George, Ringo & Me: The Real Beatles Story.”