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A former DJ who helped launch the career of the Beatles has died after a long illness, aged 76.

Bob Wooler organised The Beatles' first major gig after their return from Hamburg in 1960.

He introduced the band on stage hundreds of times at Liverpool's legendary Cavern club.

The former docks railway clerk was also asked by John Lennon to accompany the band to its first meeting with manager Brian Epstein in 1961.

Wooler, who met Lennon when they were in rival skiffle groups during the late 1950s, was invited to follow Epstein and the band to London, but chose to stay in his native Liverpool.

Merseybeat DJ Billy Butler said: "Bob was there at the birth of it all, with the skiffle groups. He was a legend at the Cavern, and not just for the Beatles but the whole Merseybeat scene."

Beatles guide Phil Coppell described Wooler as a "friend and trusted adviser to the Beatles."

He said: "It was Bob who accompanied the Beatles when they went to see Brian Epstein for the first time.

"If Bob had turned round and said to them 'Don't trust him' then things might have turned out differently. He was a witty man and a good friend who the Beatles trusted."

Wooler's relationship with Lennon was not always smooth, and the pair had a well-publicised punch-up at Paul McCartney's 21st birthday party, apparently sparked by Wooler making a joke about Lennon's sexuality.

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Очень жаль

TRIBUTES were paid today to Bob Wooler, the Cavern DJ who introduced the
Beatles to the world.

Mr Wooler, 76, died in the Royal Liverpool hospital, where he had been
receiving treatment since collapsing at his Wavertree home last month.

Today he was hailed as "one of the true architects of the Merseybeat scene"
by his solicitor, Rex Makin.

Bob Wooler introduced the Beatles live at the Cavern Club nearly 400 times
between 1961 and 1963.

Within hours of his death there was uncertainty over what will happen to his
unique collection of Beatles memorabilia, said to number hundreds of items.

As Mr Wooler was unmarried and had no family, there is no apparent heir to
his estate, said Mr Makin.

A search was also underway to find a book which Mr Wooler was said to have
written about the 1960s Liverpool pop music scene, but which he said must
not be published during his lifetime.

Mr Wooler's lifelong associate Allan Williams, the first Beatles manager,
said: "We had our ups and downs, but we were also very firm friends over the
years.

"When everyone else went off to London in the wake of the Beatles' world
fame, Bob decided to stay in Liverpool."

Liverpool music promoter Joe Flannery, who had known Mr Wooler since the
1950s, said: "He was the gentleman of the Cavern. He was so loved by
everbody.

"Bob never cashed in on being such a vital part of the Beatles scene, but
his name will remain for ever a vital part of that story."

Mr Wooler hit the national headlines in 1963, when he was struck in the face
by John Lennon at Paul McCartney's 21st birthday party.

It was reported that the Cavern DJ had asked Lennon about his suspected
homosexual liaison with group manager Brian Epstein.

Mr Wooler worked at the railway dock offices in Garston before becoming
Cavern DJ and a freelance music journalist.

He was the first writer to predict the Beatles' future rise to world fame.
He was renowned for his encyclopaedic knowledge of pop music, and introduced
the Beatles to many of the cover numbers by American singers which they
performed during their Cavern days.

But Bob Wooler remained cynical about the many false stories and
exaggerations which surrounded the Beatles' Liverpool roots.

Bob Wooler

Disc jockey who introduced the Beatles at the Cavern Club

AT THE height of Beatlemania, almost everyone from Liverpool was said to have
a Beatles story to dine out on, and many exploited the most tenuous
connections with the group. As the resident DJ at the Cavern Club, Bob Wooler
was closer to the Beatles than most, and he played a key role in their
embryonic career. Like a true Liverpudlian, he enjoyed spinning his tales and
in later years he became a regular fixture at Beatles’ conventions. Yet he
was not unduly boastful of his friendship and remained respected among fans.

A former railway clerk and frustrated songwriter, Wooler made his entry into
the music business in 1956 when he began managing a local skiffle outfit, the
Kingstrums. As well as booking them into local halls, he took on the role of
introducing them. Soon he was also playing the records between the live acts,
and by 1960 he was a fixture on the Liverpool music scene.

One of his favourite stories concerned the day in December 1960 when he met
two young men waiting at a bus stop outside the Holyoake Dance Hall,
Liverpool, where he was a disc jockey. Seeing they were carrying guitars, he
asked if they were in a group and offered them a booking. The pair were Paul
McCartney and George Harrison.

The Beatles never played at Holyoake but Wooler did book them shortly after
that first meeting for a £6 fee to play at Litherland Town Hall on December
27, a date which McCartney singles out for mention in his Who’s Who entry as
the “first important appearance as the Beatles”.

By February 1961 Wooler had secured them a residency at the Cavern Club,
another venue where he worked. They played there regularly, making their last
appearance in August 1963. Wooler was present almost every night and his
voice can be heard introducing the group in the only known film footage of
the Beatles playing at the club.

In August 1961 he was one of the first to hail the Beatles in print. “Truly a
phenomenon,” he wrote in the Liverpool entertainment paper Mersey Beat. “I
don’t think anything like them will ever happen again.” It was a remarkably
prescient piece of journalism, given that at the time they didn’t even have a
recording contract.

Without a manager, Wooler effectively did the job for them until they met
Brian Epstein, a local record shop owner. “He had a car, I didn’t. And he
had a charm and sophistication I certainly didn’t,” Wooler later said
without rancour. Most of the books about the Beatles claim that the first
time Epstein visited the Cavern to see the group play, Wooler announced his
presence from the stage. He denied the story, insisting that he was unaware
of Epstein’s presence. But it has entered Beatles folklore, anyway.

When Beatlemania exploded in 1963, Wooler was in the thick of it. Now working
full-time at the Cavern he was not only compere and disc jockey but was
booking the groups, placing the adverts, arranging the posters and dealing
with the media circus which descended from London to find out what the new
Merseybeat craze was all about.

He even enjoyed minor success as a songwriter when Epstein used his lyrics on
the B-side of a single by another of his groups, Billy J. Kramer and the
Dakotas. The song was called I Know and the music was written by George
Martin. To his chagrin, the credit on the record was mis-spelt
“Martin-Wooller”.

When the Beatles outgrew Liverpool, Epstein invited Wooler to join his
company in its London offices. Wooler, though, opted to stay at the Cavern
until early 1966, when the club went bankrupt and he found himself out of a
job. He saw less of the Beatles, but remained friends with them, although
there was a cloud over his relationship with Lennon, who had punched him at
McCartney’s 21st birthday party in June 1963. Epstein swiftly arranged a
settlement of £200 and an apology.

By 1969 he had retired as a DJ but remained in the entertainment field,
working for a theatrical agency. Later he turned to promotional work and in
1977 he and Allan Williams organised Liverpool’s first Beatles convention,
which became an annual event. A heart attack and stroke in the 1980s slowed
him down but he remained a regular at the conventions, where his stories were
always well received.

Bob Wooler, disc jockey, was born on January 19, 1926. He died on February 8,
2002, aged 76.

THE FUNERAL of Cavern DJ and compere Bob Wooler will be held next
week.

The funeral is due to be held on Monday, February 18 at 2.45pm at St
Nicholas Church, off Tithebarn Street, in the city centre.

The funeral is for friends and family only.

Mr Wooler, who died aged 76, was renowned for being the man who
introduced the Beatles to the world.

He was compere and record spinner at the Cavern Club from January
1961 to June 1967 and introduced the Beatles at the club on Mathew
Street 274 times.

He famously told the story of how the group, which at the time
included Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best, were paid just £1 at their
first gig on February 21, 1961.

Mr Wooler was found collapsed in his home off Lark Lane, Sefton Park,
after suffering from a heart condition and diabetes and died later.