ANNUAL REVIEW: TONY SHERIDAN, SID BERNSTEIN, NAT WEISS, DAVID FROST LEFT US IN 2013

 TONY SHERIDAN

British singer/guitarist Tony Sheridan, an early collaborator of The Beatles, has died. He was 72.

Tony passed away on 16 Feb 2013 in Hamburg, Germany. Sheridan is best known for singing on some of the Fab Four's earliest recordings after meeting a young John, Paul, George and original drummer Pete Best in the early 1960s in Germany.

The Beatles served as his back-up band in the Hamburg club scene, and they joined forces to record tracks including My Bonnie, The Saints and Ain't She Sweet.
A statement from his family reads, "Our beloved father and friend! Thank you for your love and inspiration. You left us today at 12.00 pm."

DAVID FROST

Veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost has died at the age of 74 after a suspected heart attack while on board a cruise ship.A family statement said he had been giving a speech aboard the Queen Elizabeth on Saturday night.

Sir David's career spanned journalism, comedy writing and daytime television presenting, including The Frost Report.Internationally, he will be remembered for his revealing interviews with former US President Richard Nixon, John Lennon, Paul McCartney,George Harrison,Ringo Starr and others.

A statement said: "His family are devastated and ask for privacy at this difficult time. A family funeral will be held in the near future and details of a memorial service will be announced in due course." 

John & Yoko: Discussing Art on David Frost’s show 1968

The BBC's Barney Jones, who edited his Breakfast with Frost programme on the BBC for more than 10 years, said: "David loved broadcasting, did it brilliantly for more than 50 years and was eagerly looking forward to a host of projects - including interviewing the prime minister next week - before his sudden and tragic death. We will all miss him enormously."

Prime Minister David Cameron said: "Sir David was an extraordinary man, with charm, wit, talent, intelligence and warmth in equal measure.

Born in Kent, Sir David studied at Cambridge University where he became secretary of the Footlights club, and met future comedy greats such as Peter Cook, Graham Chapman and John Bird.

After university he went to work at ITV before he was asked to front the BBC programme That Was The Week That Was, which ran between 1962 and 1963.Casting a satirical eye over the week's news, the show boasted scriptwriters including John Cleese, John Betjeman and Dennis Potter.

David Frost, George and John on The Frost Programme, 1967

SID BERNSTEIN
Sid Bernstein, the concert promoter who staged early US shows by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, has died on august 2013.

Bernstein booked The Beatles for their legendary show at Shea Stadium in New York in 1965, which was the first concert to be staged in a stadium.Bernstein, who was 95, promoted the Fab Four's gigs at Carnegie Hall in New York on their first US tour in 1964.

He also arranged the Rolling Stones' first five US gigs and shows for Judy Garland, Ray Charles and Tony Bennett.

He died on Wednesday in New York, according to his longtime friend, publicist Merle Frimark.

Bernstein spent time in England during World War II and continued to follow British newspapers after his return to the US.

Reading about the growing Beatlemania, he persuaded the group's manager Brian Epstein to let him promote two shows at Carnegie Hall despite the fact, Bernstein said, that he had never actually heard their music.

A Carnegie Hall official told Bernstein the demand for tickets was so high that he could have sold out 50 dates. That remark led him to book the 55,000-capacity Shea Stadium for the following year.

He also booked a string of other UK bands. "The first dozen groups of the British Invasion were my imports," he later said. "But look, it was no stroke of genius. I was just doing my homework at the time."

In 1976 and '79, Bernstein tried to persuade The Beatles to reform for charity concerts. They declined.

He also arranged concerts for artists ranging from Frank Sinatra to Jimi Hendrix.

In a documentary about Bernstein's life, late funk singer James Brown said the promoter was the only mainstream impresario booking black singers in the 1960s and so, according to Brown, "was in the forefront of race relations".

Bernstein made his own musical debut at the age of 93 with an album of cover versions of his favourite songs.

Bernstein is survived by Geraldine, his wife of 50 years, plus six children and six grandchildren.

NAT WEISS

Nat Weiss, a music-business lawyer who ran the Beatles‘ affairs in the U.S., died on July 31. Neither his age nor the cause of death was disclosed.The news was announced by singer-songwriter Steve Forbert, who had a No. 11 hit in 1980 with ‘Romeo’s Tune.’ Forbert wrote the following on his Facebook page, which he posted with the above picture:

Nathan M. Weiss passed away Wednesday night in New York City.
Nat Weiss was indisputably one of the all-time greats of the real music business — a person whom one would consider themselves very lucky to have known and very lucky to have worked with. He was the smartest person I’ve ever met and certainly one of the strongest. I’m eternally grateful to him.
Nat, along with Coconut Management’s Danny Fields and the late Linda Stein, gave me my start with ‘Alive on Arrival,’ which I recorded for his label, Nemperor Records.
For the last couple of years, due to severe knee and then back problems, he wasn’t able to get out and about, and so has been missed, in that sense, by many people for a while now. (Mark Lewisohn, renowned Beatle authority, was able to interview him extensively about a year and a half ago.)

John, Nat Weiss, Magic Alex, Paul, NYC,1968

Weiss, a divorce attorney who befriended Beatles manager Brian Epstein in 1964, was brought in by Epstein three years later after the band’s relationship with Setlaeb (“Beatles” spelled backward), the group’s original merchandising company, ended after accusations of financial impropriety and protracted litigation. From there he began to manage and represent a number of artists, including Forbert, James Taylor, Peter Asher, Miles Davis and the Cyrkle, who had a smash hit in 1966 with the Paul Simon-penned ‘Red Rubber Ball.’