DETAILS OF FUNERAL OF ALAN WILLIAMS, THE BEATLES´FIRST MANAGER, ALSO PLANS FOR A CELEBRATION AT THE CAVERN CLUB

Details have been released for the funeral service of Allan Williams, the first manager of The Beatles , who died last week aged 86.

It will take place at Liverpool Parish Church, Our Lady and St Nicholas, at 11.30am on Thursday January 12, followed by a reception at the nearby Atlantic Tower Hotel, in Chapel Street.

The family has requested that no flowers be sent, but say any donations people would like to make can go to Macmillan Cancer Support c/o www.macmillan.org.uk

A celebration of Allan’s life is also being planned. It will take place at The Cavern Club in Mathew Street on what would have been his 87th birthday – February 21. Details of this will be released nearer the time.

 

As the original manager of the Fab Four, in 1960-1961, Allan got the band gigs both here and, crucially for their future development, in Hamburg. He was also the original owner of The Jacaranda in Slater Street, which he opened as a coffee bar in 1958.

He once told the ECHO: “I’ve always been proud of The Beatles and proud and happy to have been just a small cog in the wheel of the most famous group in the world. A lot of people have told me ‘I would have loved to have been there’ and it WAS a lot of fun – but we didn’t know we were making history. It was such a good time, though, and I’ve got no regrets – they were exciting days.”

The Beatles were later managed by Brian Epstein, and Allan said: “I wasn’t jealous of Brian and always thought he was a thorough gentleman. I couldn’t have done what Brian did because I had a mind like a grasshopper and could never have gone through all that big business.”