A sub-editor on the Aldershot News in Hampshire, Martin Creasy, has written a book on the pop legends of the 1960s – five years after he began researching it.
Martin Creasy tracked down and interviewed 21 pop stars and talked to numerous fans for his book Legends On Tour – The Pop Package Tours Of The 1960s.
He discovered dozens of photographs of stars such as Jimi Hendrix, Roy Orbison and The Small Faces some of which hadn’t been seen for 40 years saved from his newspaper’s archives. Retired News photographer Mike Hawley made a surprise appearance to take photographs of Creasy at his book signing in Farnborough.
Among the stars interviewed were Engelbert Humperdinck, Kenney Jones, then of The Small Faces, Bobby Elliott of The Hollies and Gene Pitney just before his death last year.
Creasy said: ‘It was great fun. Some of them I have interviewed when their bands have come down in recent years, but others I had to do a bit of journalistic digging to find. They were all incredibly generous with their time and the book is filled with their insights into the tough, though often humorous, world of the 1960s pop tour.
‘The News coverage of their concerts stands up pretty well. A lot of newspapers threw away their old pictures and negs when they moved offices for space reasons, but (former News photographer) Brian Bramley arranged for the Aldershot Military Museum to house up to 80,000 News pictures.”
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