MERSEYBEATS member Billy Kinsley is the subject of a new book by Liverpool music journalist Spencer Leigh.
It’s Love That Really Counts follows the story of Kinslet, Tony Crane, Aaron Williams and John Banks on the road as pop stars, revealing the background to their hit records including the book’s title, I Think of You, Don’t Turn Around and Wish’ and Hopin.
There are tales about working at Apple with The Beatles, forming Rockin’ Horse with Jimmy Campbell and going on to success with Liverpool Express (You Are My Love, Every Man Must Have a Dream).
Leigh, whose On the Beat programme has been broadcast on BBC Radio Merseyside for more than 25 years, says: “I did worry that the book might be too rooted in the past with little contemporary relevance.
“Then, while I was with Billy, he got a text from his friend Chris Sharrock, a former member of the Icicle Works and the La’s, then playing drums for Oasis.
“Chris told Billy that Noel Gallagher had been given a copy of the reissued Rockin’ Horse CD. The final track is Julian the Hooligan.
“Thirty minutes later, another text came through. It read, ‘Everyone loves Julian The Hooligan’.”
IT’S Love That Really Counts, by Spencer Leigh, is priced at £12.95.
