Whatever Happened To...? by Bill Harry: The man who became semi-famous for publishing 'Mersey Beat' magazine in the days of the Beatles put out a book about famous and semi-famous singers/musicians and what happened to them in later years. It's an interesting look at people living & dead from the heyday of Rock & Roll. Unfortunately, I found over a dozen factual errors and mis-spellings of famous names, whether from poor editing or just sloppy research, I don't know, but it shouldn't happen to the extent it does, especially in this kind of book. For example: Though many of the artist bios gave their real and stage names, the entry on Scott McKenzie never mentioned that that was his stage name, he is neither Scott nor McKenzie. Scott Gorham from Thin Lizzy is called Scott Gorman; Sting (Gordon Sumner) is called Graham; Jorge Santana's (Carlos's brother) mid-70s band Malo (Spanish for 'bad') is called Malmo (a place in Sweden); The Troggs album made with members of R.E.M. is called Athens To Andover instead of Athens Andover; Graham Parson's body was taken to the desert and burned, not buried as stated in the book.
Now, some of these errors many people wouldn't notice, and there may be more that I didn't catch, but really, if you're going to publish a book, take the time to get your facts straight. Especially if you're someone like Bill Harry, who was actually involved in the music business.
But an interesting read nonetheless, with much (correct) info on musicans you and I grew up with (OK, maybe not you).
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