KEITH BATESON was the invisible Beatle. He was the man responsible, in part, for the incredible Sounds of the Sixties.

As Beatlemania gripped the world, Keith bounced the Fab Four's magic music across the air waves for the BBC - the sound man on hit radio shows 'Pop Go The Beatles' and 'Ticket To Ride'.

"I was the guy who, technically, made the Beatles sound like they did," said this bespectacled and comfortable 56-year-old, sipping cold coffee out of a 'Help' mug in one of a cavern of anonymous college rooms in Railway Road, Leigh.

"I didn't keep any souvenirs," he added. "I bought this mug in Liverpool recently. Oh yes, I have a copy of 'Sergeant Pepper' complete with Paul's scrawl."'

Thirty years on - and the beat goes on. But the contemporary sounds of the 90s are now echoing out of Leigh.

Keith, a lecturer in performing arts at Wigan and Leigh College, is happily imparting his unique knowledge of radio, TV, recording, music and drama to a new and vibrant generation of students.

And a new dynamism of discovery is beginning to emerge out of this unlikely setting in the World of Music.

"The studio facilities here and second to none," said Keith. "From 24-track digital to 8-track analog, plus computerised keyboards and recording capabilities, we have the lot.

"Over on Merseyside Paul McCartney is pumping millions into the Liverpool Institute of Music. Yet here in Railway Road we can match any college or studio in Britain.

"And youngsters are coming here brimming with raw talent and such energy and vision, producing stuff far better than the Beatles could ever envisage.

"That's because here we have the technology to take music and sound into the 21st Century and beyond imagination."

It's been a long and winding road for Keith, who is keeping busy away from his lectures writing a film script for Hollywood with his wife, Anne.

From his roots in Bolton he joined the BBC, wandering into sound mixing and sound effects with programmes such as 'Mrs Dale's Diary, Round The Horne and The Navy Lark'.

Early in 1963, as the frenetic rock 'n pop roundabout spiralled pin-striped Beeb officials into frantic dizzy spells, along came The Beatles, complete with long hair, Scouse humour and a raucous new sound.

An Old Etonian was handed the task of sound mixer. "For John, Paul, George and Ringo he might just as well have come from another planet," laughed Keith.

"They simply didn't understand him.

"So - as I came from 'Up North' - I was brought in. Paul McCartney still refers to me as 'Our Translator' and I never looked back."

Keith worked with all the top artists of the blossoming New Generation - Rolling Stones, Hollies, Gerry & The Pacemakers, Searchers, Fourmost, Brian Poole & The Tremeloes, Roy Orbison, Del Shannon, Cliff Richard & The Shadows, Gene Pitney...the list is endless, a Who's Who of Sixties Pop.

"They were exciting times," said Keith.

"But they were also difficult as we tried to produce the new sounds with 20s technology. The Beeb was wildly out of date with their equipment.

"Lennon once asked me: 'How do you get that noise out of this crystal set?'

"But we did. They were great days."

And the ultimate accolade fell on Keith when he learned the Beatles would not appear on the BBC without him. Manager Brian Epstein snapped: I'm not having my boys on radio unless I can have the Sound Mixer I want." He got him!

In August 1965, for the Light Programme (a fore-runner of Radio One), Keith produced the last Beatles show 'Ticket To Ride.'

"When The Beatles finally called it a day 25 years ago I left the BBC," added Keith. "I've lost touch with them now but the memories never fade."

The beat goes on for the Sound Man. From Liverpool to London to Leigh.

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