The Cutting Edge: The Story of the Beatles’ Hairdresser Who Defined an Era
By Leslie Cavendish
ISBN: 9781846884313
288 pages
£11.99
My book, The Cutting Edge: The Story of the Beatles’ Hairdresser Who Defined an Era, was published in August 2017.
The Standard Edition costs just £11.99 hardback, £7.99 softback. There is also a special limited edition of The Cutting Edge alongside the standard edition – 200 numbered copies, signed by Leslie Cavendish which cost £20.00. Order the book NOW via this link.
Visitors based in the USA and Canada can purchase the book from Barnes & Noble from their website here: www.barnesandnoble.com.
My book is also available in Spanish – please use the links below to order it.
About the book
The Beatles’ hair changed the world. As their increasingly wild, untamed manes grew, to the horror of parents everywhere, they set off a cultural revolution as the most tangible symbol of the Sixties’ psychedelic dream of peace, love and playful rebellion. In the midst of this epochal change was Leslie Cavendish, hairdresser to the Beatles and some of the greatest stars of the music and entertainment industry.
But just how did a fifteen-year-old Jewish school dropout from an undistinguished North London suburb, with no particular artistic talent or showbusiness connections, end up literally at the cutting edge of Sixties’ fashion in just four years? His story – honest, always entertaining and inspiring – parallels the meteoric rise of the Beatles themselves, and is no less astounding.
Order the book NOW via this link.
El peluquero de los Beatles
By Leslie Cavendish
Detalles del producto
Tapa blanda: 304 páginas
Editor: Indicios (3 de septiembre de 2018)
Colección: Indicios no ficción
Idioma: Español
ISBN-10: 841573235X
ISBN-13: 978-8415732358
Descripción del producto
Leslie Cavendish era un joven aprendiz de peluquero que trabajaba para Vidal Sassoon en la década del sesenta, cuando un día le tocó suplantar a otro peluquero y le cortó el cabello a la actriz Jane Asher que por entonces era la novia de Paul McCartney. Al poco tiempo, ella lo llamó para preguntarle si podía hacerle el favor de ir a la casa de Paul a cortarle el cabello a su novio. Así por casualidad la vida de Leslie cambió por completo. Al poco tiempo no solo le cortaba el cabello a los cuatro integrantes del grupo, sino también a otros músicos invitados y empleados de Apple records.
Participó en proyectos como el ?Magical Mistery Tour? que relata desde dentro, y cuenta muchas otras curiosidades de los Beatles jamás contadas. Un libro ameno y fácil de leer que muestra no solo una nueva faceta del genial grupo musical, sino que también es un retrato de la sociedad inglesa de fines de los años sesenta.
Ordene el libro AHORA a través de este enlace
Events
I am attending a number of events to talk about my time at the Beatle’s hairdresser.
I will also be selling and signing copies of my book. Please come along.
We are contstantly adding dates and their is an updated list of events – so please check this page regularly.
Upcoming
Due to the current restrictions concerning the holding of events my live apperances have been curtailed. However you can still catch me virtually – I’ll be posting information here shortly!
Previous
Andy Crofts
Night Train Radio Show
6 April 2020
Andy chats with special guest Leslie Cavendish (personal hairdresser to the Beatles).
Listen live from 10PM, 6 April 2020
More information here
Come and join me and Beatles fans all over the world on this Beatle cruise…
Beatles Themed Cruise 2020
3-10 October 2020
Departs from Barcelona 3rd October 2020
Prices for the cruise start at just 699 €
More information here
Author Talk: Leslie Cavendish
Leslie Cavendish will be visiting Blackburn Library on
Friday, 3rd April 2020, 7:00PM
Blackburn Central Library
Town Hall Street
Blackburn
Lancashire
BB2 1AG
More information here
Portsmouth Bookfest 2020
22 February, 2019
1:00PM – 3:00PM
Central Library Portsmouth
Leslie Cavendish will be interviewed by Ernie Sutton of the British Beatle’s Fan Club
Buckingham Literary Festival 2019
13-16 June, 2019
Leslie Cavendish and Annabel Leventon – Hair, There and Everywhere: it’s Rock and Roll
The Beatles and Hair the musical, are tangible symbols of the Sixties’ psychedelic dream of peace, love and playful rebellion.
Let Leslie Cavendish, the hairdresser to the Beatles, and Annabel Leventon, Actress of the Year for her lead role in the original London production of rock musical Hair! lead you by the hand to rediscover life in the fast lane of the sixties and seventies.
10.30-11.30am Sunday 16th June 2019, The Vinson Building
Tickets £7
The International Beatles On the Beach Festival
Delray Beach, Southern Florida, USA
24-28 April, 2019
Leslie Cavendish will be appearing at the Festival. Find out more at: https://beatlesonthebeach.com/
Entrevista con Leslie Cavendish, por Maricarmen Moratalla – Tutores del Rock
Cadiz University March 28 2019
Huelva University March 29 2019
Leslie Cavendish will be appearing at Tutores del Rock.
Find out more at: https://www.tutoresdelrock.com/entrevista-con-leslie-cavendish-por-maricarmen-moratalla/
Previous
Beatlemania comes to Sevilla
5-9 December 2018
Come and join me and Beatles fans all over the world on this Beatle cruise…
October 2018
Prices for the cruise start at just 699 €
More information here
Henley Literary Festival
29 Sep – 7 Oct 2018
Sunday 30 September 2018 at 4:00pm in The FESTIVAL HUB programme
Nothing defines the fashion of the sixties and seventies as much as the hairstyles, with the hairdressers themselves becoming stars. Leslie was 15 when he joined Vidal Sassoon, and while still a teenager he became official hairdresser to The Beatles he was also with them on the Magical Mystery Tour coach. He also worked on the distinctive coiffures of the Bee Gees, The Who, Tony Curtis, Dave Clark 5, James Taylor and Peter Cook. Let Leslie regale you with stories from his autobiography The Cutting Edge.
More information here
Chicago Fest For Beatles Fans 2018
August 10-12, 2018
Hyatt Regency O’Hare, Chicago
Further information here: https://www.thefest.com/
I gave celebratory “haircuts”!
Beatles Pfingst Convention 2018
Special guest Leslie Cavendish (Beatles Hairdresser)
The Beatles Museum
Alter Markt 12
06108
Halle (Saale)
Germany’
19th May 2018, 10.00 a.m. – 6.00 p.m.
Beatles Museum
Ticket for this day incl. lectures (10.00 a.m. – 18.00 p.m.)
Entrance: 6,00 € for each; für M.B.M. s free (except special guest action)
Leslie Cavendish, author of The Cutting Edge
Glasgow’s Book Festival
15-25th March 2018
Friday 23rd March 2018 at 7.45pm in The Mitchell Library
Further information here:
https://www.ayewrite.com
Leslie Cavendish, author of The Cutting Edge
The Fest For Beatles Fans
March 9-11, 2018
Hyatt Regency, Jersey City, New York
Further information here: https://www.thefest.com/
Leslie Cavendish, author of The Cutting Edge
Lichfield Literature Festival
March 3, 2018 at 3.30-4.30PM
An In Conversation Event with interviewer Charlie Jordan
The George Hotel
Bird Street, Lichfield
Further information here: https://www.lichfieldfestival.org/
Leslie Cavendish at the Idea Store
Idea Store Whitechapel
October 21, 2017 at 2.00PM
Entrance: Free
321 Whitechapel Rd, London E1 1BU
Leslie Cavendish in Conversation at Oldham Library
Oldham Library
November 9, 2017 at 7.00PM
Entrance: Free
Oldham Library, Greaves Street, Oldham, OL1 1AL
Interview followed by Q&A with Leslie Cavendish
The Club at The Ivy
October 30, 2017 at 7.00PM
Leslie will be in conversation with author and historian Mark Lewisohn, regarded as one of the world’s leading authorities on the Beatles.
This event is free for members and their guests.
An Evening with Leslie Cavendish
Interviewed by Claudia Elliott
(Writer: Classic Rock, Sounds of the Sixties (Radio 2), The Blues and the Royal Albert Hall) NME interviews History of Rock, and my favorite The Ultimate music to Neil Young uncut
The Book Club
October 26, 2017, 18:00–20:30
Entrance: Free
100 Leonard Street, EC2A 4RH London, United Kingdom
Interview January 2018 in Sixties City with Bill Harry the creator of the iconic 60s music paper Mersey Beat.
Read the full article here
“Learn the secret behind The Beatles hair” – Interview with W Radio (Colombia) in English and Spanish in January 2018.
Listen to the interview here
“Beatles hair: How Fab Four stylist Leslie Cavendish helped change the world”
App Press article, 8 March 2018 by Chris Jordan
Read the interview here
Interview with Leslie Cavendish
Sur
17 September 2018
Read the interview here
Interview with Leslie Cavendish
Esquire
22 September 2018
Read the interview here
Gary Crowley speaks to hairdresser Leslie Cavendish, getting his memories of the capital.
BBC Radio London, 12 January 2019
Listen the interview here
In the Media
CRÓNICA: Los secretos del jubilado Leslie Cavendish
(CHRONICLE: Secrets of retired Leslie Cavendish)
Interview in El Mundo, the second largest printed daily newspaper in Spain, with Carlos Fresneda
22 Jan. 2018
Read the article here
Interview in El Mercurio, Chile
3 March 2018
Read the article here
WNYC Interview with Leslie Cavendish guest hosted by Kai Wright.
14 March 2018
WNYC is one New York’s flagship public radio stations.
Listen to the interview here
STV Live at Five Interview with Leslie Cavendish
23 March 2018
Watch the interview here
No, The Beatles Weren’t Jewish – But Their Hairdresser Certainly Was
Interview with Leslie Cavendish in The Forward by Seth Rogovoy
19 March 19, 2018
Read the interview here
News item in Mail Online
2 October 2018
Read the article here
Interview in La Nacion, Argentina with Leslie Cavendish
13 January 2019
Read the article here
Interview with Leslie Cavendish in
The Jewish Telegraph January 2018
Read the full article here
Interview with Leslie Cavendish in
The Jewish News March 2018
Read the full article here
“A Cut Above: In Conversation with Beatles’ Hairdresser Leslie Cavendish”
Interview with Deirdre Kelly
Critics at Large, Friday, March 9, 2018
Read the full article here
“A Cut Above: Beatles’ Hairdresser Leslie Cavendish on McCartney, ‘Magical Mystery Tour,’ and a Close Call with Charles Manson”
Interview in REBEAT – a digital blog/magazine primarily dedicated to mid-century music, culture, and lifestyle
by Allison Johnelle Boron
August 6, 2018
Read the full article here
The Jam TV Show, WCIU-TV, Chicago
Interview with Leslie Cavendish
10 August 2018
Watch the interview here
Interview with Leslie Cavendish
El Pais
16 September 2018
Read the interview here
Leslie Cavendish on the Jo Good Show, BBC Radio
March 2019
A fascinating view of what it was like working for the Beatles at the end of the Sixties.
Ray Connolly, pop culture writer and journalist who published over 50 interviews with the Beatles.
The best Beatles book for some time
British Beatles Fan Club Magazine
Book Reviews
As Paul McCartney’s hairdresser in the Sixties, Leslie Cavendish was privy to a lot more than split ends. His memoir, deftly written with Neil McNaughton, is a charming, gossipy tale of Beatles, barnets and cultural earthquakes.
Ed Potton
Leslie Cavendish wasn’t just the Beatles’ hairdresser, he was one of the few Londoners/Cockneys at the core of the Apple empire. How many people can say they had a seat on the Magical Mystery Tour bus, were inside the Apple building while the Fab Four played on the roof, and drove Paul McCartney across London in a Mini Cooper?
Claudia Elliott
Beatles Freak’s Blog
https://beatles-freak.com/
I’m not sure where I first heard or saw The Cutting Edge: The Story of the Beatles’ Hairdresser Who Defined an Era by Leslie Cavendish, but the very thought of the Beatles hairdresser writing a book pretty much made me roll my eyes and snort. Not knowing anything about the author my first thoughts were of a tiny little Beatlemaniac who worked somewhere in Liverpool in the early sixties and managed to cut the Fab Four’s greased back locks long before they ever hit the big time. I could image this girl collecting and selling off these locks to all her screaming little friends who also spent their lunch hours at the cavern club swooning over John, Paul, George and Pete!
Well folks…I couldn’t have been more wrong in my first impression of this book. You see, Leslie Cavendish is a man! In fact, he’s a man who loves women so much that after accompanying his mother to her hair salon as a teen, he decided that being a hairdresser would be the ultimate job for a guy who wants to be around glamorous, sexy women all the time. Conveniently, his best childhood friend Lawrence had the same idea and recommended that Leslie try to get an apprenticeship at the hottest salon in London…Vidal Sassoon! After two years as an apprentice, and as luck would have it one day, Jane Asher came into the salon to find that her regular stylist was behind schedule and being in a hurry, she remarkably ended up in the chair of junior stylist Leslie Cavendish. If he thought he was nervous working on Jane Asher’s hair, imagine his surprise when she asked if he would come over to her house later that day to cut her boyfriend’s hair. Leslie knew exactly who that was…Paul McCartney. And so the story goes…
This is actually an incredibly fascinating book with little snippets in between of other famous rock stars and artists sitting in Leslie’s chair. Yes, there is sex, drugs and rock n’ roll, but he does keep it clean, funny and oh so interesting in this very well written and quick read. And for that reason…
I rate this book, 4 out of 4 Beetles!
Promoting my book
After Paul Weller had read The Cutting Edge he invited Leslie to his concert in Brighton at the start of his UK tour.
The pictures show Leslie, Paul and his Bass guitarist Andy Crofts.
