Day I cut John Lennon's first record
Sam Wright looks back at the Lancashire music maker who turned down The Beatles
“Just a bunch of youngsters, banging away on guitars, hoping to get somewhere.”
One Oscar, 10 Grammys and more than 1bn album sales later, Derek Marsh may have revised his first impression of The Beatles.
At the height of the post-war entertainment boom, Marsh and his record label, Deroy Studios, existed as a minor Mecca for ageing crooners and ambitious upstarts in the mid-20th Century.
It all began in 1947, when a young Derek Marsh ended his days with the RAF by handling Voice of the Forces, a small, war time recording service in India. Air force personnel, unable to get home for a family occasion or special celebration, would transmit their respective greetings and messages on six-inch records courtesy of both the War Department and Marsh’s technical expertise.
The service coupled primitive recording equipment with fervent enthusiasm, becoming a forces’ favourite in the process. With this post war gratuity, and passion for contemporary music, Marsh returned to his family’s private hotel in Riding Street, Southport, infused by the spirit of invention he had kindled in South Asia, he set up a little recording studio on the top floor.
By: Sam Wright
Source: Lancashire Evening Post
