Peter Jones (journalist)

Peter Langley Jones (6 January 1930 – 10 July 2015) was a British journalist, author, editor, promoter and presenter who wrote mainly on show business matters, especially pop music, for magazines including Record Mirror and Billboard. He was involved in the early careers of both The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, pseudonymously writing the first book-length biographies of both bands.

He was born in Carshalton, Surrey. After his father died, he moved with his mother and her second husband to Portsmouth, where he started his career as a reporter for the Portsmouth Evening News. He began to specialise in show business interviews, before leaving the newspaper to work as a trainee screenwriter and talent booker for Associated London Scripts, where he worked with such stars as Frankie Howerd, Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes. He left to begin writing a regular column for the Weekend magazine, which in the mid-1950s had a reported circulation of 1.5 million.

As well as writing in a freelance capacity for Weekend, Record Mirror and other magazines, he appeared regularly on Southern TV's sports programmes during the early 1960s. In 1963, after seeing the Rolling Stones perform at the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, he recommended them to Andrew Loog Oldham, who became their manager as a result. He actively championed Motown music before it became popular in the UK; John Schroeder, who brokered the first distribution deal for Motown in Britain, said of Jones that he was his only ally in promoting the release of early Motown material.

In 1964, Jones was appointed as editor of Record Mirror, at the time one of the three main national music weeklies in the UK, and during the 1960s and early 1970s wrote hundreds of articles on pop music for the journal. He also wrote extensively in The Beatles Book monthly magazine, under the pseudonym Billy Shepherd, and in the Rolling Stones' magazine, as Peter Goodman. He wrote the first book-length biographies of both bands: The True Story of the Beatles (as Shepherd, 1964), and the Stones' Our Own Story (as Goodman, 1965). He supported and encouraged the early careers of such stars as Dusty Springfield, The Who, and, later, Jimi Hendrix. He also wrote biographies of Elvis Presley and Tom Jones, and was the ghostwriter of newspaper columns for many British pop stars in the 1960s, including Sandie Shaw and Dave Dee, and for footballers including George Best and Denis Law.

After Billboard purchased Record Mirror in 1969, Jones continued to write for both publications, and for Music Week. He launched another magazine, Easy Listening, in 1972. For Billboard, he was successively news editor for British, European and international coverage and, finally, special issues editor, based in its London office. He also contributed to the publication, The Story of Rock, and regularly broadcast on music news for Südwestrundfunk in Baden-Baden, Germany, while continuing to work for Billboard until 1997.

He died of heart failure in 2015, aged 85.

ΥΓ  Ο Πητερ ηταν ο ανθρωπος που μου προτεινε να γινω ανταποκριτης του περιοδικου MUSIC WEEK στην Ελλαδα,μια συνεργασια που κρατησε αρκετα χρονια και μου εδινε την ευκαιρια να

επικεπτομαι τα γραφεια τους στο Λονδινο και να να ενημερωνομαι απο πρωτο χερι για τα μεγαλα αστερια της δεκαετιας του 70. Λ.Κ.

Mike Hennessey, 

Billboard Editor and Jazz Booster 

Mike Hennessey, one of the great personalities of the global music market and a longtime editor at Billboard, died last August in Durchhausen (Baden-Württemberg), Germany at the age of 89. He died following a brief illness in the presence of his immediate family in Durchhausen near Stuttgart, relatives announced today. 

Hennessey was an internationally celebrated pianist for well-known jazz ensembles. He wrote many biographies about famous jazz musicians such as Kenny Clarke, Johnny Griffin and Ronnie Scott, helping countless global pop stars to establish their careers as he had worked as international editor and correspondent at Billboard for 27 years. When he retired from the magazine in early January 1994, then-international editor in chief Adam White said, 

"Our global coverage of the entertainment business today owes a great deal to his groundwork."

He had lived in the idyllic countryside of Durchhausen with his wife, the famous concert agent, 

Gaby Kleinschmidt, since 1989. Up until his death, he played piano and composed and was 

repeatedly able to give well-known jazz compositions his own unique style. With a real sense

 of humor, he came to appreciate and love Durchhausen, giving concerts in the vicinity to

 please his neighbors and friends.

Billboard

Hennessey's hello and goodbye in the pages of Billboard.

Born in London in 1928, he became a legendary jazz specialist who made a name for himself with his many contacts to the rock and pop scene as well as iconic bands such as the Beatles, whose press spokesman he became for a number of years. With his love of and dedication to jazz, he was also able to achieve greater popularity and recognition for many jazz stars.

However, there is one thing that he never achieved in his long and varied life, he once admitted with a twinkle in his eyes: "I have never learned German properly because everyone made it too easy for me in Germany by speaking English to me. But I haven’t given up trying."

Hennessey found happiness in Durchhausen. “Since I met Gaby at a jazz congress in New York 30 years ago and then moved to wonderful Durchhausen after retiring from Billboard in New York, I have found great joy in playing the piano and visiting the most world’s most important jazz festivals.” 

Υ.Γ. Ηταν ο Μαικ που με προσελαβε στο περιοδικο Billboard,το 1970,και παρεμεινα ως πρωτος ανταποκριτης στην Ελλαδα για τα επομενα 10 χρονια.Θυμαμαι οτι η γνωριμια μας εγινε στις Καννες οπου μου υπεβαλε τρεις ερωτησεις για να διαπιστωσει το επιπεδο των μουσικων γνωσεων και
την επαρκεια των αγγλικων μου
.Λ.Κ.