20 Facts About Harvey Lisberg

Harvey Lisberg was a war baby, born in Manchester, UK, to Violet and Judah Lisberg, into a Jewish family.

Harvey Lisberg's father joined the British Army at the beginning of World War II, and served in North Africa and Italy until 1945.

Mother and son evacuated to Blackpool for the duration of the war, and Harvey Lisberg was five years old when he first spoke with his father.

Reunited, they returned to Manchester, and young Harvey Lisberg was sent to Jewish Day School, before transferring to Carmel College in Oxfordshire, where he was the youngest boarder at school.

Harvey Lisberg ran away three times, once getting as far as London on a penny platform ticket, and struck a deal with headmaster, Kopul Rosen, who let him off as long as he did not run away again.

At age eleven, Harvey Lisberg attended Salford Grammar School, graduating in July 1962 as a Bachelor of Arts in Commerce from the University of Manchester.

In 1981, Harvey Lisberg ventured into the snooker world; by signing Jimmy White, who he helped mould into the people's champion.

Harvey Lisberg arranged a complete makeover for White: with a new permed hairstyle, French designer clothes, and a photo session with Patrick Lichfield.

In 1963, Harvey Lisberg was a trainee at accountants Binder Hamlyn when he discovered Herman's Hermits at a church hall in Davyhulme.

Harvey Lisberg then tried to get the song heard by The Beatles when they were playing the Hammersmith Odeon, and via Ronnie Beck was introduced to the support act's manager, Giorgio Gomelsky who placed it with his band The Yardbirds.

The stellar successes of Herman's Hermits and Gouldman seduced Harvey Lisberg into making music management his full-time job.

Harvey Lisberg spent much of his early career globe-trotting with Herman's Hermits, who capitalized on a string of hits in the US and later in the UK, but he represented acts such as Little Frankie, The Herd, The Measles, Eric Woolfson, The Mockingbirds, John Paul Joans and Julie Driscoll.

The song was rejected by Mickie Most as a Herman's Hermits single, but Harvey Lisberg nevertheless signed the duo to a development deal when he heard their sketches for a musical called Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.

Harvey Lisberg was one of the very first to recognise potential in Andrew Lloyd Webber and myself but he was probably too far ahead of his time in this regard as we were still a year or so away from making our own mark in the music industry.

Harvey Lisberg managed Wayne Fontana after he left the Mindbenders, allowing guitarist Eric Stewart to step-up to lead vocals on "A Groovy Kind of Love", which reached No 2 in the UK and US in 1965.

Harvey Lisberg procured a deal for Gouldman to move to New York and write songs for Super K Productions, the 'bubblegum' hit factory owned by Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffry Katz.

Harvey Lisberg secured a record deal with MCA Records and introduced Christie to Mitch Murray and Peter Callander, the successful songwriting and production duo.

In early 1972, after the success of "Amarillo", Harvey Lisberg convinced Neil Sedaka to record some new compositions at Strawberry Studios using Eric Stewart to engineer the recordings with Graham Gouldman, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme as session musicians.

The band achieved only moderate commercial success with the first two albums, Fanx Ta Ra and Misplaced Ideals, but Harvey Lisberg persuaded RCA to recruit Eric Stewart as producer for the third album, Facades, which yielded three top 40 singles with "Every Day Hurts", reaching No 3 in the UK in September 1979.

Harvey Lisberg managed Barclay James Harvest from 1973 to 1977 securing a deal for them on Polydor.