Jimmie Nicol Thread
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This is an interesting new article about Jimmie Nicol... It discusses his life and that there's a movie in the works about his time with the Beatles. Edited to add this better link: http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7693294/beatles-vanished-film-jimmie-nicol-drummer This link is subscription only, with same info, but mentions that Jimmie is now living as a total recluse and that his own son doesn't even know where he is. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/the-times/what-happened-to-jimmie-nicol/news-story/45d662d99c0907386ce2c3325266a2f6 Below is a short excerpt from article posted at theaustralian.com.au: (forum guidelines here wouldn't allow entire article to be posted). What happened to Jimmie Nichol? David Brown The Times, 11:01 AM February 25, 2017 "....Howie Nicol says that he has no idea of his father's location, or even if he is still alive. He would now be 77. 'I try to collect [mementoes of his father] on the internet because they are not pieces of somebody who is a Beatle they are pieces of someone who is my father who was not around much when I was young because he was a travelling musician and I don't see him,' he said. 'It is quite nice for me and my family to have that.' The last confirmed sighting of Nicol was outside his rented first-floor flat in a rubbish-strewn mews in Kentish Town, north London. A neighbour said this week that Nicol and a woman called Josefina, he presumed to be the drummer's wife, had left four years ago saying they were moving to her native Mexico. Howie Nicol says the suggestion that [his] father was married to Josefina was 'quite possibly right' and that if the couple were in Mexico 'I am thrilled for him. He will be doing what he wants to do'. Sir Paul McCartney once said he understood Nicol's reluctance to speak about his time in the Beatles saying: 'It wasn't an easy thing for Jimmie to stand in for Ringo and have all that fame thrust upon him. And the minute his tenure was over, he wasn't famous anymore.' When McCartney asked how Nicol was coping with the pressure, the drummer would reply: 'It's getting better'. The phrase inspired the song Getting Better on the Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Jim Berkenstadt, author of The Beatle who Vanished on which the film is to be based, failed to find Nicol. He was told that in 2011 someone saw the drummer working on a building site in Amsterdam. When asked if he was Jimmie Nicol, the man nodded, signed an autograph and disappeared back into the site without saying a word..."
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Read Jim Berkenstadt's book, The Beatle Who Vanished. Met Jim on a Beatles trip (5 nights all inclusive at the Riviera Maya Hard Rock hotel in Mexico in 2014) and he gave everyone in our group signed copies.
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LadyLeslie:
This article discusses Jimmie Nicol's life and that there's a movie in the works about his time with the Beatles. It also mentions that he is now living as a total recluse and that his own son doesn't even know where he is now. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/the-times/what-happened-to-jimmie-nicol/news-story/45d662d99c0907386ce2c3325266a2f6
Have to have an account with them to read article.
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Nancy R wrote: Have to have an account with them to read article.
Aww, that's too bad... Sorry
I hate when that happens... Found another link though (see below) ... Billboard magazine posted a nearly identical article about Jimmie Nicol a week ago, with same info.. It isn't a subscription site, so is freely accessible, and you should be ok. Go to this link to view it: http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7693294/beatles-vanished-film-jimmie-nicol-drummer I edited my first post at top to refer people to this new link instead..NancyR wrote: Read Jim Berkenstadt's book, The Beatle Who Vanished. Met Jim on a Beatles trip (5 nights all inclusive at the Riviera Maya Hard Rock hotel in Mexico in 2014) and he gave everyone in our group signed copies.
That must have been really interesting to meet Jim Berkenstadt, and to receive a copy of his book! According to the article (link above), he's been trying to find Jimmie Nicol for years, to interview him, without any luck....
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LadyLeslie:
Nancy R wrote: Have to have an account with them to read article.
Aww, that's too bad... Sorry
I hate when that happens... Found another link though (see below) ... Billboard magazine posted a nearly identical article about Jimmie Nicol a week ago, with same info.. It isn't a subscription site, so is freely accessible, and you should be ok. Go to this link to view it: http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7693294/beatles-vanished-film-jimmie-nicol-drummer I edited my first post at top to refer people to this new link instead..NancyR wrote: Read Jim Berkenstadt's book, The Beatle Who Vanished. Met Jim on a Beatles trip (5 nights all inclusive at the Riviera Maya Hard Rock hotel in Mexico in 2014) and he gave everyone in our group signed copies.
That must have been really interesting to meet Jim Berkenstadt, and to receive a copy of his book! According to the article (link above), he's been trying to find Jimmie Nicol for years, to interview him, without any luck....
Yeah, he was/is a super nice guy. He had lunch with a bunch of us one day. That was what was so great about the trip - got to actually hang out with the celebrity guests like Denny Seiwell (had lunch or dinner with him and his wife), Laurence Juber and his wife Hope, Tim Piper, and Pete & Roag Best and their band. Had met Roag 2 1/2 years earlier and he actually remembered me! We both have twins so talked about that in 2014. Then I saw him again at the Casbah last August and he still remembered me! Pete is a sweetheart of a guy, but barely said 3 words in the 3 hours I spent with the group one night! I can see why he was, as John said, "Not a Beatle." Roag is the talkative, gregarious one who is, as many of you know, the son of Neil Aspinall. The 3 brothers each have different fathers. Rory, the middle son, who I met in 2011, is the only one who is really a "Best." Pete's father is a Donald Peter Scanland who died in WWII. Mona married Johnny Best in 1944.
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NancyR wrote: Yeah, he was/is a super nice guy. He had lunch with a bunch of us one day. That was what was so great about the trip - got to actually hang out with the celebrity guests like Denny Seiwell (had lunch or dinner with him and his wife), Laurence Juber and his wife Hope, Tim Piper, and Pete & Roag Best and their band. Had met Roag 2 1/2 years earlier and he actually remembered me! We both have twins so talked about that in 2014. Then I saw him again at the Casbah last August and he still remembered me! Pete is a sweetheart of a guy, but barely said 3 words in the 3 hours I spent with the group one night! I can see why he was, as John said, "Not a Beatle." Roag is the talkative, gregarious one who is, as many of you know, the son of Neil Aspinall. The 3 brothers each have different fathers. Rory, the middle son, who I met in 2011, is the only one who is really a "Best." Pete's father is a Donald Peter Scanland who died in WWII. Mona married Johnny Best in 1944.
That's really interesting! You must have really enjoyed spending time with them all! Pete Best seems like he is doing well and happy, but Jimmie Nicol's reclusiveness seems a bit strange, as if there's issues he's still dealing with. But both of them contributed to the Beatles story, though, so they shouldn't be forgotten.
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This is another even more extensive article about Jimmie, and the upcoming movie project, from The Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4262400/Film-fifth-Beatle.html It's good someone wrote a biography of Jimmie, so the story of his time with the Beatles can be documented, but I hope the news media will respect Mr Nicol's privacy and won't try to locate him, or take delight in reporting about hard times and private matters that he's gone through.
I was told by someone in the film community that whenever you begin a film project about a living person, legally you should let them know (or have the producers get their permission or endorsement), or you can risk being sued later, if the portrayal of them is considered libelous or unflattering. It would probably be difficult to find a way for the producers of this film to contact Jimmie though. -
A new interview (posted April 8, 2017) with Jimmie Berkenstadt, author of "The Beatle Who Vanished," about Jimmie Nicol. The film project about Nicol is discussed. http://www.culturesonar.com/beatles-jimmie-nicol/ Ringo's Replacement Gets a Big Screen Treatment Thought this was interesting, and very kind of Paul:
Q: How do you think The Beatles themselves fared in Jimmie Nicol's sad story? A: They were all sociable and pleasurable in their interactions with him. I found lots of footage of Jimmie Nicol with The Beatles on tour, and even though George Harrison was against Jimmie (or anyone) replacing Ringo at first, he treated him with great kindness and respect, patting him on the back and joking with him. Even afterwards, the newspapers did a story a year after Jimmie's stint with The Beatles, saying he was bankrupt, divorced, out of work... a piece where they build you up and tear you down. Paul McCartney read this and wanted to help Jimmie, but he knew he would be too proud to directly talk with him, so he made phone calls on his behalf that gave him studio session work and tour work. He was solicited for other kinds of paid work in later years and I think Paul's goal was to help him....
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I've just read that it's Jimmie's 80th Bday.
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A mod needs to change the spelling of Jimmie’s last name - it is Nicol.
