Bill King talks about 30 years of being a Beatlefan (editor)

  Beatlefan editor Bill King

Let's travel back in time to 1978.

It was the year "Mull of Kintyre" became a huge hit for Paul McCartney almost everywhere -- except the United States. It was the year Ringo Starr appeared in his own TV special and had a role in the movie "Sextette" with Mae West. The year George and Olivia Harrison's son, Dhani, was born, when John adlibbed a parody of Bob Dylan inspired by a newscast and when the Rutles' film "All You Need Is Cash" debuted.

It was also the year Beatlefan magazine made its debut. Its most recent issue marks its 30th anniversary. We sent editor Bill King some questions by email and got his responses.

Q: What motivated you to start Beatlefan?

Bill King: It was really a case of starting a magazine that I'd always wanted to read. I wanted a magazine about The Beatles that was more than just a fan club newsletter and that was published on a regular basis. I also wanted a publication that was professionally put together. That desire dovetailed with my wife, Leslie, and I wanting to start a publication of our own on the side. We were both journalists. I was the rock critic of The Atlanta Constitution at the time and so had access to a lot of sources of news about The Beatles. After having dinner with Mark and Carol Lapidos, who were in Atlanta to stage a Beatlefest, Leslie and I decided to launch our Beatles magazine. Mark kindly offered to let us put flyers for it on the main table at the Beatlefest. And right before Christmas 1978, our first issue came out, which included my interview with Joe English (who was back living in Georgia at the time after having left Wings) and our first "scoop," that McCartney was leaving Capitol for Columbia in the U.S. 

Q: What changes in your immediate family have happened since you started publishing (kids, how they've grown up).
 
Bill King: Well, our son, Bill, came along in 1985. His first real concert ever was McCartney at the Georgia Dome, and he's been to numerous Paul and Ringo shows since. He grew up with Beatles music around him, but I never forced it on him. He became a fan on his own. He's written some pieces for Beatlefan and handles our web site. Our daughter, Olivia, was born in 1984, a day after we had sent an issue off to the printer and a few hours after we put a special Beatlefan/EXTRA! in the mail with our exclusive report that the Threetles were together recording "Free As a Bird." That report got cited by newspapers and wire services around the world. Olivia also has become a fan of Beatles music on her own. Interestingly, she really got into it through a CD of cover versions of Beatles songs designed for kids.

Q:  How has producing the magazine changed since you started?

Bill King: When we began, there was no such thing as desktop publishing. The fanzines that were around were generally done on typewriters. We decided we wanted ours to be professionally typeset, and fortunately a college pal of ours had some Compugraphic phototypesetting equipment left over from a failed weekly newspaper venture. Leslie had some experience typesetting from time working at her hometown weekly paper, so our friend agreed to rent us time on his typesetter. Leslie set the stories, which came out of the machine on long strips of photopaper, which I then pasted up on a page form that was then sent to the printer. We initially used a local Kwik Kopy as our printer before graduating to the newsprint format with slick covers we still use today. Eventually, of course, we quit using a typesetter and started producing the magazine on a Mac. The format of Beatlefan evolved, too. The first couple of years we began the articles on the front cover like a newsletter. The first issue where we went to a magazine-style cover was our John Lennon memorial issue, which was put together in the two weeks after Lennon died and was the first memorial to come out aside from the weekly newsmagazines like Time and Newsweek.

  Bill King, right, with "Fan on the Run" Rick Glover

Q: As a professional journalist (at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), what changes have you noticed in how the Beatles relate to the press and the press relate to the Beatles in 30 years?

Bill King: When I started in newspapers, four years before Beatlefan was born and just after I graduated from college, the World War II generation was still running things and they tended to still view The Beatles as kid stuff. But as my generation, the Beatles generation, came into positions of authority in the media, that changed. Any news to do with The Beatles generally got pretty big play in the 1980s and ’90s because their fans were making the decisions on what was covered. Now that a younger generation of editors has joined the mix, there's a bit less interest in the solo Beatles individually, but anything to do with them as a group still gets pretty big play. The Beatles are still cool even with college kids. You notice the continuing influence of the Beatles generation of journalists on coverage when something happens like Ringo announcing he's not going to sign autographs by mail any more or the Vatican "forgiving" Lennon. Big, prestigious newspapers will even comment on these events on their editorial pages. So The Beatles are still big news. As for how they relate to the press, I'd say that hasn't changed much over the years. George never was that comfortable with the press in general, though he was a good sport about it when it became necessary. McCartney still knows how to charm reporters and Ringo has proved to be pretty quick-witted, though at times he has a bit of a temper and is much pricklier. They both have become increasingly available for press interviews over the years, but not substantial ones. There's not much of interest that can be discussed in a five-minute phoner where they just want to plug the latest release.

Q: The story you're proudest of?

Bill King: Hard to narrow it to one single story. I'm very proud of that Lennon memorial issue. I'm proud of the "Free As a Bird" scoop. I'm proud of our city-by-city tour coverage over the years, our "Anthology" coverage (one person involved in that project commented in amazement at our sources for breaking fresh information during that time), and I'm proud of many of the interviews we've run. Perhaps my two favorite stories that I did myself, besides my "A Fan's Notes" series about what it was like to grow up as a fan of The Beatles, were the "Unity Through Diversity" piece in which I used contemporary quotes from the Fabs from 1969-70 to show that the breakup was not a foregone conclusion, and my interview with Phil Ramone in which we went track by track through the "lost" McCartney album he produced.  

Q: Meeting the Beatles -- any stories?

Bill King: I met and briefly interviewed George at a press function in Washington, D.C., when the "33 1/3" album was about to come out. He was very gracious and kind, but I also noted how incredibly weak his handshake was. I never got to meet John, unfortunately. I sat next to Paul for an hour as I participated with about five other journalists in a group interview at the time of the "Give My Regards to Broad Street" release. I had gotten to the interview room long before anyone else and guessed right about where he would sit and situated myself to his immediate left. That was a thrill. I've questioned him at several tour press conferences since then. My brother and I and a friend once ended up backstage at a McCartney concert when a hotel clerk mistakenly directed us to an MPL staff shuttle bus, but we didn't run into Paul. The looks on our other friends' faces as we waved from the bus as it entered the gate was priceless, though! I first met Ringo when he came to Atlanta for a press conference announcing his involvement in a restaurant there. I've done a couple of press conferences with him since.

Q: Have the Beatles ever commented on the magazine?
 
Bill King: Not directly. We've never really sought direct involvement with them because we like the editorial freedom of being independent. But a friend who's visited Paul's home said that he found a copy of Beatlefan on the bookshelf there, and Paul has indicated to our chief Fan on the Run, Rick Glover, that he's seen some of our tour coverage and thought it was great. Yoko Ono has indicated she's aware of us. I've had indications Ringo has seen some of our coverage of his All Starr Band tours, too. I don't know whether George knew of us or not, but I suspect he did since Brian Roylance of Genesis Publications, one of his closest friends, knew all about us. As far as the inner circle goes, the late Derek Taylor was well acquainted with us. I first interviewed him in Liverpool and then did a lengthy phone interview with him a few years later and he remembered what I looked like and what I'd written about him previously. And when ABC set me up to talk with him about the "Anthology," he came on the line and said there was nothing he could tell me that I didn't already know! A thoroughly charming man and much missed.