Philip Norman (born 13 April 1943) is an English author,

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

. He is best known for his biographies of

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically dr ...

Buddy Holly Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer and songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texas ...

and

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

. His other books include similar studies of

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

and

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list o ...

Early years

Norman was born in London but grew up in

Ryde Ryde is an English seaside town and civil parish on the north-east coast of the Isle of Wight. The built-up area had a population of 23,999 according to the 2011 Census and an estimate of 24,847 in 2019. Its growth as a seaside resort came ...

, on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Is ...

. He attended Ryde School, and his father, Clive Norman, ran the Seagull Ballroom on

Ryde Pier Ryde Pier is an early 19th century pier serving the town of Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England. It is the world's oldest seaside pleasure pier. Ryde Pier Head railway station is at the sea end of the pier, and Ryde Es ...

. He describes his childhood in the book ''Babycham Night''. Relatives of his produced the

eponymous An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

sparkling perry in

Shepton Mallet Shepton Mallet is a market town and civil parish in the Mendip District of Somerset, England, some south-west of Bath, south of Bristol and east of Wells. It had an estimated population of 10,810 in 2019. Mendip District Council is based ...

Career

Journalism

Norman began working as a staff writer for ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' in 1965. In addition to writing the newspaper's Atticus column, he gained notice during the late 1960s and over the following decade for his profiles of public figures such as

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...

P.G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...

and

Muammar Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by '' The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...

, and of musical artists, including

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the hono ...

Little Richard Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as the " ...

the Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by the ...

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band, formed in London in 1967. Fleetwood Mac were founded by guitarist Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Jeremy Spencer, before bassist John McVie joined the line-up for their epo ...

Rod Stewart Sir Roderick David Stewart (born 10 January 1945) is a British rock and pop singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, he is of Scottish and English ancestry. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is among the best-selling ...

and

the Everly Brothers The Everly Brothers were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly (February 1, 1937 – August 21, 2021) and Phillip "Phil" Everly (January 19, 193 ...

. Another of his assignments was to investigate and report on the problems afflicting

' multimedia company Apple Corps.Hohan, Randolph
"They Love They Take and Make"
''New York Times'', 5 April 1981. In the 1970s, he also worked as ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States a ...

critic.

As author and novelist

''Shout!''

Norman's first book, '' Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation'', also published as ''Shout!: The True Story of the Beatles'', was published in 1981, with later revisions. An immediate bestseller, it has since sold over a million copies. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' described ''Shout!'' as "the definitive biography f the Beatles– comprehensive, intelligent, sensitively written and exhaustively researched", while the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...

'' admired it as "The best, most detailed, and most serious biography of the Beatles and their time." The book portrays

in an unfavourable light, and the former Beatle voiced his objections to Norman's characterisation of him as "the great manipulator". Norman later recalled that when promoting ''Shout!'' on the television show ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. ...

'' in May 1981, he described Lennon as having represented "three-quarters of the Beatles" and was rewarded with an invitation to visit Lennon's widow,

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

. Norman also recalled that he had heard that McCartney had taken to calling the book ''Shite!'' In his review of the most popular books about the group, in ''The Rough Guide to the Beatles'', Chris Ingham writes that Norman displays a "clear dislike" for McCartney yet ''Shout!'' merits the praise it has received, due to "the rigour of its research and insightful reflection of the times". Writing in 2005, Beatles biographer

Ian MacDonald Ian MacCormick (known by the pseudonym Ian MacDonald; 3 October 1948 – 20 August 2003) was a British music critic and author, best known for both '' Revolution in the Head'', his critical history of the Beatles which borrowed techniques from ...

said that Norman's book "remains the sharpest account of The Beatles' career" and suggested that its anti-McCartney sentiments were balanced by the 1997 publication of

Barry Miles Barry Miles (born 21 February 1943) is an English author known for his participation in and writing on the subjects of the 1960s London underground and counterculture. He is the author of numerous books and his work has also regularly appeare ...

' '' Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now''.

Further writing and opinions on the Beatles

Norman was interviewed in 1987 for a feature on

George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian c ...

on the show ''

West 57th Street 57th Street is a broad thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan, one of the major two-way, east-west streets in the borough's grid. As with Manhattan's other "crosstown" streets, it is divided into its east and west sections at ...

'', during which he stated that Harrison's view of the Beatles' history was the only reliable first-hand account, given Lennon's death seven years before. When asked for an explanation, Norman said that McCartney "rewrites history all the time" and

Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the ...

was unable to remember "He doesn't know. He just... he drank, he smoked the joints, he had the girls and he drummed the drums... that was Ringo". Reporting on the British media's reaction to Harrison's death in November 2001, Spencer Leigh wrote that "the only sour note" had come from a piece written by Norman in ''The Sunday Times''. According to Leigh, Norman's article "tore away at Harrison's memory" by branding him "a serial philanderer" and denigrating his standing as a humanitarian. In October 2008, Norman's 800-page book ''John Lennon: The Life'' was released to some controversy. According to Sean O'Hagan of ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'', the tone of the book falls midway between the "extravagantly spiteful" narrative of

Albert Goldman Albert Harry Goldman (April 15, 1927 – March 28, 1994) was an American academic and author. Goldman wrote about the culture and personalities of the American music industry both in books and as a contributor to magazines. He is best known f ...

's 1988 biography ''

The Lives of John Lennon ''The Lives of John Lennon'' is a 1988 biography of musician John Lennon by American author Albert Goldman. The book is a product of several years of research and hundreds of interviews with Lennon's friends, acquaintances, servants and musician ...

'' and the "respectful, going-on adulatory" message of Ray Coleman's ''Lennon: The Definitive Biography'', published in 1984. O'Hagan reported that Ono and McCartney, both of whom had co-operated with Norman during the book's creation, were displeased with the result. Norman's book on McCartney, titled ''Paul McCartney: The Biography'', was published in 2016.

Other works

Norman has also published what the music journalism website

Rock's Backpages Rock's Backpages is an online archive of music journalism, sourced from contributions to the music and mainstream press from the 1950s to the present day. The articles are full text and searchable, and all are reproduced with the permission of the ...

describes as "definitive biographies" of

and

. Additionally, Norman has authored six works of fiction, and two plays: ''The Man That Got Away'' and ''Words of Love''.

Published biographies

* ''Shout!: The True Story of the Beatles'' (1981), , * ''Symphony for the Devil: The Rolling Stones Story'' (1984), * ''The Life and Good Times of the Rolling Stones'' (1989), Century * ''Days in the life: John Lennon Remembered'' (1990), * ''The Stones'' (1993, updated w/ a new afterword), Penguin * ''Elton'' or ''Elton John'' (1991), or * ''Shout!: The Beatles in their Generation'' (1996), * ''Buddy: The Biography'' (1997), or * ''Sir Elton: The Definitive Biography'' (2001), * ''The Stones: The Acclaimed Biography'' (2002), * ''John Lennon: The Life'' (2008), * ''Mick Jagger'' (2012), (15) * ''Paul McCartney: The Biography'' (2016), * ''Slowhand: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton'' (2018) *''Wild Thing: The Short, Spellbinding Life of Jimi Hendrix'' (2020),

References

15. Schavemaker, Peter (5 November 2012) NPO Radio 2, The Netherlands https://www.nporadio2.nl/nieuws/npo-radio-2/bfe9fc15-2d7c-42d9-a42d-a35749da411d/interview-biograaf-mick-jagger

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Norman, Philip 1943 births British biographers British male journalists Living people Male biographers People educated at Ryde School with Upper Chine