{"id":384298,"date":"2025-08-30T05:06:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T05:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/384298\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T05:06:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T05:06:14","slug":"he-didnt-really-talk-about-the-beatles-but-he-was-a-mentor-to-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/384298\/","title":{"rendered":"‘He didn’t really talk about The Beatles but he was a mentor to them’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lord Woodbine, a key player in The Beatles early days, has been honoured in the city<\/p>\n

19:02, 29 Aug 2025Updated 19:03, 29 Aug 2025<\/p>\n

A plaque has been unveiled in the heart of Liverpool in honour of a Caribbean mentor of The Beatles. Lord Woodbine, born Harold Adolphus Phillips, came to Britain from Trinidad in 1943 and served as a Royal Air Force flight engineer during the Second World War.<\/a><\/p>\n

He later returned to the UK in 1948 aboard the HMT Empire Windrush and settled in Liverpool where he performed as a musician, calypsonian, composer, band leader, and manager of The Jacaranda Club.<\/a> Harold was said to be the first singer-songwriter John Lennon and Paul McCartney<\/a> \u201cever encountered\u201d. In a music scene dominated by cover acts, he did not tell the pair to write songs, he showed them that it was possible.<\/p>\n

In a 1970 interview, Lennon recalled the first song he ever wrote was Calypso Rock, written in 1957, a reflection of the musical environment Lord Woodbine helped create.<\/p>\n

\"HaroldHarold Phillips, otherwise known as Lord Woodbine, who arrived in Britain on HMT Windrush(Image: Carol Phillips)<\/p>\n

Variously described as the ‘Sixth Beatle’ and ‘the man who put the beat in Merseybeat’, Lord Woodbine went on to create a lasting legacy that shaped the music and culture of, not just Liverpool, but also the rest of the world – helping to take The Beatles to Hamburg and even smuggling an underage George Harrison into the German city.<\/a><\/p>\n

Although never formally written out of history, Harold often felt excluded from The Beatles\u2019 story. In 1992, while attending a Beatles-themed play in Liverpool, he saw a group photo used on stage from a Hamburg trip but he had been airbrushed out.<\/p>\n

\"LordLord Woodbine, seated, with Allan Williams, his wife Beryl and The Beatles in Hamburg, August 1960(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt really hurt me. Maybe the great Beatle publicity machine did not want a Black man associated with their boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he held no bitterness, believing simply that there was a time when The Beatles needed him, and that time had passed. Lord Woodbine passed away in 2000, aged 71.<\/p>\n

\"BlueBlue plaque unveiled for Harold Phillips, aka Lord Woodbine, at the Jacaranda.(Pic Andrew Teebay).(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

The plaque, found at Slater Street’s The Jacaranda, will serve as a long overdue tribute to a man whose contribution to British music was once overshadowed and whose story will now be permanently recognised. The ECHO spoke <\/a>with Lord Woodbine’s children, Hudson and Carol Phillips at the ceremony.<\/p>\n

Carol said: “We’re all so proud, my family. He didn’t really talk about The Beatles but he had a lot to say. He was the manager of the Jacaranda at one point so I’m very happy to be here.<\/p>\n

\"CarolCarol Phillips unveiled a Blue plaque in memory of her father Harold Phillips, aka Lord Woodbine, at the Jacaranda. (Pic Andrew Teebay).(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

“A lot of research has been done about my dad, so the plaque feels very special to have. He faced a lot of racism but for him to be where he was at that time is telling of how intelligent he was.”<\/p>\n

You can see the full interviews in the video above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lord Woodbine, a key player in The Beatles early days, has been honoured in the city 19:02, 29…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[51856,77,2349,269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-384298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-black-communities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-liverpool-city-centre","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115115981998456792","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}