Sam Leach, who has died aged 81, promoted beat dances around Liverpool in the early 1960s, including several with the Beatles. He was a firm believer in local talent and without him the Merseybeat scene would not have developed as it did.
Sam was born in Liverpool, son of Stanley Leach, a clerk working on the city docks, and his Canadian wife, Pauline. On leaving school, Sam worked for English Electric, but he hated being told what to do and resolved to become self-employed, embarking on a series of ventures that included damp-proofing properties and running a hair salon. He was perpetually optimistic, always expecting something good to turn up.
Sam loved rock’n’roll music and in the late 1950s started promoting shows in the Norris Green suburb of Liverpool. He moved to the city centre with regular nights at the Cassanova and established all-night sessions at the Iron Door, a rival club to the Cavern, in 1961. In the same year, he began Operation Big Beat nights at the Tower Ballroom, New Brighton, with attendances reaching 4,000. He called his one man set-up the Leach Organisation.
Sam first saw the Beatles early in 1961 and was soon working with them, calling them the “boys with the atom beat”. He organised their first appearance in the south of England, at the Palais Ballroom in Aldershot, Hampshire, in December 1961. Unfortunately, he had not appreciated that his newspaper advertisement promoting the event had to be paid for in advance and so the local paper did not run it. Only 18 people turned up. The following night, back on Merseyside, the Beatles were in a furious mood at Hambleton Hall, Huyton, and would never have accepted Sam as a manager after what they considered a fiasco. Affectionately, though, they used to change the title line of Besame Mucho to “Besammy Leacho”.
Brian Epstein, who did become their manager, spoke at Sam’s wedding to Joan McEvoy in June 1962. That did not stop him outbidding Sam to book Little Richard for the Tower Ballroom. Possibly Little Richard’s agent Don Arden sensed there would be less hassle in getting money from Epstein. Sam’s finances usually lurched precariously from one show to the next. George Harrison once sent a letter to a fan telling how Sam had 10 bands booked for the next weekend and nowhere to put them.
In December 1980, Sam organised the memorial service and candlelit vigil for John Lennon outside St George’s Hall, Liverpool, less than a week after his death, a remarkable achievement. He spoke at many Beatles festivals and wrote a memoir, The Rocking City (1999). For a while, he managed a tribute band from Chicago, American English. He befriended the young blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa while on a visit to the US, and helped to establish him in the UK.
Sam and Joan divorced but remained on friendly terms and he was devoted to their children, Debbie, Paul, Tony and Samantha, who survive him.