There aren’t many people alive today who don’t know who The Beatles are.
But before Beatlemania took hold in 1964, whipping hordes of hysterical teenage fans into a frenzy that One Direction could only dream of, there was one man who was none the wiser as to who Paul, John, Ringo and George were.
When Neil Smith, then 16, was approached in the Manchester nightclub where he was working and asked to tour with a few ‘better’ Liverpool bands, including The Beatles, he was noncommittal saying: “I’ve never heard of them!”
The man who approached him was an employee of legendary music manager Brian Epstein, who was looking for a guitarist to go to Germany and be resident deputy guitarist on tour with a number of groups including The Beatles.
Neil was given two weeks to mull it over however his decision not to cross the Iron Curtain was made with a heavy heart and was because he had Ministry of Defence commitments to fulfil.
“My father had been in the RAF in the War and worked in the aircraft industry, so at 16 he suggested that I start there as an apprentice,” he explained.
“At nearly 17 I was working in night clubs in Manchester and trying to work all day.
“The band I played with at the time was Johnny Lee and The Falcons and we played at the Mecca dance halls.”
“But I was already an MoD apprentice and contracted for 5 years – my father had a massive row with me at home all night and said he would not pay the £1000 default fee to get me out of the industrial contract… bear in mind that it was a giant fee back then.
“I would have been on stage with all the top Liverpool bands and surely would have made a name in that arena and it would have been another life for me – even wilder than my life eventually became!”
After Neil turned down this potentially life-changing opportunity he threw himself into top secret work, however this didn’t extinguish his smouldering ambitions of musical acclaim.
” I got interested in music through school, I was a good singer and often fronted the choir,” he said.
“My father and two of his brothers played music so I guess some of this started there.”
He first got to grips with a guitar at school when he paid the princely sum of £2 for his first acoustic guitar from a friend, and figured out chord boxes and started to learn how to read music.
By the time he was 16 he started to gig around the North West deputising for absent players, while undertaking formal classical guitar training and doing solo gigs.
“In the early years music gave me access to new areas in life; I played some amazing gigs and travelled to some incredible places, all paid for by music.” he said.
“This freedom coincided with my first divorce, a very traumatic time, so I dived into my work often playing until my fingers were cut.
“I once went to a three-day party and had grown a beard by the time I got back home!”
Although music was clearly Neil’s passion he still had his day job to commit to.
He said: “I worked with hundreds of bands, some good, some bad. They weren’t trained musicians, people just picked up whatever they could do and often relied on me as a kind of musical director.”
By the time Neil had completed his apprenticeship a nightclub asked him to play six nights a week until 2am, so he swapped top secrets for top notes and quit his regular job.
“I began a wild spree, drinking, womanising and socialising, my working-class life was over, but I also studied the classical guitar and harmony – when sober!” he said.
In the mid-70s colleges and schools approached him to teach guitar theory to their students, so made a decent living, remarried and had three children, one of whom sadly died.
He took a three-week break to Rome with some friends and played at many intimate venues across the city.
“Once I got there, it became clear that my guitar was a passport to the high life,” he said.
“We went to The Little Bar, a classy club where film stars went. One night a man asked me to play The Spanish Romance and he pointed at Elizabeth Taylor, who was sat with Richard Burton, who requested it.”
However his roman holiday wasn’t all iconic film stars and guitar strumming; later that week he was arrested after falling into the Trevi Fountain, (it’s illegal since coins are thrown in, which can be stolen).
When he returned to the UK he auditioned and was accepted onto a music course at Toronto University where he studied with critically-acclaimed classical guitarists Leo Brouwer and Alirio Diaz.
Never one to miss an opportunity, he contacted both the BBC and Granada to let them know about his trip and received favourable coverage which beamed his face and musical talent directly into the homes of thousands of eager viewers.
It was then that the bookings came in thick and fast, one high profile billing was his Wigmore Hall debut in January 1979.
This fell during the Winter of Discontent when all forms of public transport ground to a halt; however Neil battled through the strikes and played a successful set.
A European tour in 1982, followed by a series of gigs in New York, Princeton and Philadelphia two years later, proved hugely successful, however subsequent visits to the USSR didn’t go as smoothly.
“When I landed, the lady who met me seemed very interested in my former work for the Ministry of Defence and seemed to know all about my past life,” he said.
“On another trip behind The Curtain, I overstayed in a city without permission – it’s illegal to stay more than 72 hours without police clearance – and had to remain under curfew for three days.
“At least my playing was very much appreciated there since I gave seven encores at one concert!”
As the 1980s gave way to the 90s Neil’s career showed no sign of slowing down, and following a second divorce, he played in Dubai for His Highness General Sheik Mahktoum and also performed for the Red Army at the castle of Atilla the Hun in Hungary.
On home soil in August 2000, he performed at the 100th birthday celebrations of Her Majesty the Queen Mother at Glamis Castle.
“Apparently she liked Spanish guitar music and I was chosen to play, sadly she was in London with the Queen at the time but I met the Earl and Countess of Strathmore and my name went round the world press.”
Gone are the hedonistic days of partying, womanising and playing to the early dawn, now Neil lives a much quieter life but still indulges his first love, music.
“These days I do less travelling,” he said. “I give talks now to various clubs like Rotary, and the Women’s Institutes playing my music as always and entertaining with these tales.”
Neil’s e-Book Have Guitar Will Travel, is available to download here.
For more on this story and many others, follow Mancunian Matters on Twitter and Facebook.
