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Today, they are joined by old friend David Bedford who is a Beatles author/ historian/podcaster/ filmmaker who grew up in The Dingle, Liverpool. He started to write for the British Beatles Fan Club magazine in 2000. His first book, now on its third Edition: Liddypool: Birthplace of The Beatles. His second book, The Fab one hundred and Four: The Evolution of The Beatles, was published in 2013. In 2016, he was a co-author with Hunter Davies on The Beatles Book, with Keith Badman and Spencer Leigh. Published in 2018, his fourth book was Finding the Fourth Beatle, the story of the 23 drummers in The Beatles. He even self-published a part fact, part fiction, detective novel called “Inspector Rocke: That’ll Be The Day That I Die” set in Liverpool in 1960, featuring The Beatles.

Published in 2020 was The Country of Liverpool: Nashville of the North, and in 2021, ACC published The Beatles Fab Four Cities, co-written with Beatles tour guides Richard Porter and Susan Ryan.

He was also the Associate Producer and historical consultant for “Looking For Lennon” (2018).

In 2024, he was the Archive Producer for the film about The Beatles in Hamburg, called “No Hamburg, No Beatles”. In 2025, together with writing partner Andrew Phillips, they released "What If?" via New York publisher Imagine & Wonder and Golden Age Music Collectables. It's the journey of probabilities that examines the question "what if The Beatles never met?".

He is currently working on new books and a movie too!

He has a Liverpool Beatles podcast called Liddypod. www.liddypod.com and a YouTube channel called Brightmoon Liverpool, at www.youtube.com/brightmoonliverpool.

Find out more at www.davidabedford.com

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Learn more about Dr. Angie & Ruth at https://MrsMcCartneysTeas.com and https://RuthMcCartney.com

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After some thirty plus years Herman Matthews has accomplished quite an impressive resume and has created a strong foundation for some of the industries finest.

Dubbed “The Groove Guy” and often called “The Hermanator” Matthews moved to Los Angeles from Houston, Texas with one thing in mind… to work! He has had the great fortune of working with such artists as Kenny Loggins, Richard Marx, Tower Of Power, The Isley Bros., Kirk Whalum, George Duke, Bob James, Timothy B. Schmit, Tom Jones, Hugh Laurie, Greg Adams & East Bay Soul, Patty Austin, Chris Botti, James Ingram, Boney James, Steven Stills, Edgar Winter, Luther Vandross, Celine Dion, Patty Austin, James Ingram, Sheryl Crow, “Baby Face” Edmonds, Chaka Chan, Carol King, SHeDAISY, Barry Goldberg, Ronnie Millsap, Fee Waybill, Bill Champlain, Maxi Priest, Debbie Gibson, Diane Reeves, Kenny G., John Farnham, Nia, Snuffy Walden, Sarah Nimetz, Greg Adams & East Bay Soul, Dan Aykroid & Jim Belushi, Michael Bolton, Expose, Angie and Debbie Winans, Rebekah, Meredith Brooks, Kina, Tiffany, Eric Burdon, Teresa James & The Rhythm Tramps… During the early 90’s he was a member of the house band “Into The Night Starring Rick Dees.” And he's even appeared on some long lost Ruth McCartney tracks produced by Barry Coffing.

Herman was a member of the Soul/Funk Horn band Tower Of Power from 1994 to 1998. He has recorded CDs “Souled Out” and “Rhythm & Business,” co-writing and singing the title track of Rhythm & Business. He’s been the first call subbing for David Garibaldi touring with the band in 2015 and in 2017. Matthews was literally touring non-stop in the year 2017, juggling between touring acts Timothy B. Schmit, Kenny Loggins, Tower Of Power and Richard Marx. Drummer extraordinaire Peter Erskine (Weather Report, Steps Ahead) put it simply, “Herman Matthews is the most powerfully funky drummer I’ve ever heard. Count me as one his biggest fans.” Legendary drummer James Gadson (Bill Withers, Charles Wright’s Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band) says “Herman Matthews is simply the Truth.”

Says Herman "I’ve been lucky fortunate and bless says Matthews, I’m just a drummer from Texas being the best that I can be, working on the never ending groove and having a great time doing it!"

We hope you'll join us for a cuppa tea with our old buddy Herman - learn more about his at https://hermanmatthews.com

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TeaFlix Interview with Spencer Leigh

Spencer Leigh is a BBC Radio presenter and author, with particular expertise in the development of pop and rock music and culture in Britain.

Career

Leigh started broadcasting on BBC Radio Merseyside in the early 1970s. His first series, No Holds Bard, was based around the Mersey poets. His music programme On the Beat ran continuously from 1985 to 2020 on BBC Radio Merseyside. Over the years, Leigh interviewed thousands of musicians on the show. The entire collection of 2,027 programmes has been given to Liverpool's Central Library, and there is an on-going project to archive them. Some one-off series have been given to the British Library.

His first book was Paul Simon - Now and Then, published in 1973, which was the first biography of the American singer-songwriter Paul Simon. Since then, Leigh has written, or collaborated on, over two dozen books. Many of his books relate to The Beatles or Merseybeat, and he has interviewed many people connected to the Liverpool 1960s scene. There have been several one-off series on BBC Radio Merseyside, the best known being Let's Go Down the Cavern (1981), which was also broadcast on local BBC stations throughout the UK.

Leigh has written the sleeve notes or CD booklets for over 300 albums. He writes obituaries of musicians for The Guardian, The Independent, and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; he has also written extensively for Record Collector, Country Music People and Now Dig This. He has a weekly 'My City' column every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo.

His history of British pop before the Beatles, Halfway To Paradise (1996), has been expanded and issued in two volumes as British Pop Before The Beatles, available only on Kindle. He has written a series of musical biographies for McNidder & Grace: Frank Sinatra (updated with 50 pages of lists in 2022), Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Simon & Garfunkel.

Thanks for tuning in to TeaFlix - learn more about the hosts at https://MrsMcCartneyTeas.com and https://RuthMcCartney.com

Learn more about Dr. Angie & Ruth at https://MrsMcCartneysTeas.com and https://RuthMcCartney.com