McCartney Times

The man credited with discovering the Beatles and who became the band’s first manager has died at the age of 86.Allan Williams was also the original owner of Liverpool’s Jacaranda Club.The Jacaranda tweeted: “Today our founder and the man who discovered the Beatles passed away. Allan Williams, you will be missed.”Williams worked with The Beatles from 1960 to 1961, getting the band gigs in Britain, and in Hamburg where their future development was shaped.Born in Bootle, Williams opened Jacaranda on Slater Street as a coffee bar in 1957 and it became a popular meeting place for many of the young musicians who were soon to make Merseybeat a worldwide phenomenon.Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Lennon’s fellow art school student Stuart Sutcliffe were among the customers and they asked Williams if they could play at the club. Initially, he asked them to work on decorating the venue before allowing them on stage.After helping to secure the band gigs at other venues, Williams personally drove the van to take the Beatles to Hamburg in 1960.But he parted company with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe in 1961. The following January, the band – minus Sutcliffe – signed a five-year contract with Brian Epstein.Williams later co-wrote a memoir called Allan Williams: The Man Who Gave The Beatles Away.In 2010, Williams told the Liverpool Echo: “I was just glad to have been there in the 60s, at the start of it all.

Source: Beatles’ first manager Allan Williams dies aged 86 – BBC News