Donovan's still mellow after all these years

Aug 11 2006 Liverpool Daily Post

SIXTIES superstar Donovan tells Philip Key about his links with Liverpool and the Beatles

Donovan has also since appeared at Beatle conventions in the USA, Chicago and Boston. "I found those experiences very interesting and met a lot of old pals. They were not only celebrating the four lads - as they used to be called - but celebrating their philosophy and the music and that was important.

"I found I had a few anecdotes to tell and I am going to tell a few when I come to Liverpool this time."

Donovan's first meeting with the Beatles came early in a career which had taken off quite fast.

He had grown up as Donovan Leitch in Glasgow but moved with the family to Hatfield when he was 10.

By the age of 14, he was playing guitar and two years later he had left school and began touring Britain, busking with his long-time pal Gypsy Dave.

Finally settling in London two years later, he recorded a demo tape which included Catch the Wind.That led to an appearance in 1965 on the television pop music show Ready, Steady Go! and a hit single in Catch the Wind.

There were inevitable comparisons with Bob Dylan and later that year the two met.

"I was with Gypsy Dave my road buddy when I first met the Beatles and I was introduced to them by Bob Dylan.

"I immediately got on with them and over the years I wondered why. I came to realise it was because we had a shared interest and a shared background. I came from a tough seaport town called Glasgow and they came from a tough seaport town named Liverpool. There is a strong Irish connection in both these seaports which influenced the music and poetry of the singer/ songwriter.