As press officer and publicist for the Beatles, Tony Barrow, who has died aged 80, was a key member of the inner circle formed by Brian Epstein to steer the group’s rise to global stardom. Barrow coined the term “Fab Four”, which was swiftly adopted by grateful headline writers, wrote sleeve notes for Beatles records and compered press conferences during the group’s world tours.
Barrow was born into a middle-class family in the Merseyside town of Crosby. From an early age, his twin passions were music and journalism. The first record he bought, in 1951, was Winifred Atwell’s Black and White Rag, and he booked traditional jazz and skiffle groups for local dances. At Merchant Taylors’ school he edited an unofficial, hand-duplicated magazine, the Flash. One school report said that his written work was “suavely persuasive but short on facts”, which Barrow later remarked fitted him well for a career in PR.
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