This amazing story reveals enduring links with The Beatles, Sixties songwriter Mitch Murray and 84,000 Isle of Man residents whose lifeline ferry service faced a Perfect Storm.

by Terry Walker

AS28082014

8 minute read

The sea ferry company serving the tax haven Isle of Man is the oldest in the world but ran out of steam after 150 years of ploughing across the Irish Sea. A new rival ferry company and a smart airline start-up were attracting passengers and freight. In the 1970s, holidaymakers were singing the praises of Viva España as they flocked to their favourite Costas on cheap package holidays.

It seemed like a Perfect Storm was brewing, but a timely link to The Beatles helped set the ferry firm back on course to fame and improved fortune.

I had been working as a marketing and public relations consultant for the Isle of Man Government and its tourism industry for some years. I also headed up its information centre, based at our London Mayfair offices. This eventually led to a summons from the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, the island’s lifeline from 1830. Its ageing fleet of ferryboats provided reliable, three-hour crossings to England, Scotland and Ireland. But it was losing passengers, fast.

Changing holiday market

The ferry firm knew it had to improve its marketing to compete with new rivals and combat a changing holiday market that was no longer British beaches in British summers but cheap, affordable package holidays to Spain and sunnier climes – it was the worldwide cheesy pop hit, Y Viva España that chorussed the vacation trend:

… And then there was the Chicken Dance played nightly in Spanish bars and nighteries for holidaymakers who couldn’t dance sober…

In its post-war heyday, the IOM Steam Packet had become the island’s Golden Goose, providing regular share dividends based on mass tourism and a travel monopoly.

In the 1970s, world tourist trends left the Steam Packet sailors astern. They didn’t have leggy trolley dollies to welcome you aboard, just hairy-arsed seafarers wearing Guernsey-knit sweaters and, in a few cases, looking a bit like Popeye, the sailor man. But they excelled in the level of seamanship needed to keep going in an Irish Sea Force Nine storm when the Steam Packet’s boats were often the only ones at sea at that time. The crew were kind to green-faced and puking passengers and adept in power hosing the scene of any “oral mishaps”. 

It was an efficient, no-frills service with an unblemished record stretching across 150 years. That should be at the heart of any new PR and marketing campaign. Stick with your strengths, sailors. Simples.

My colleagues and I had developed a lot of expertise in tourism and the leisure market, resulting from our work for the Isle of Man Tourist Board and their counterparts in other countries, so we had some stop-gap suggestions to focus on.

Best jingle writer in Europe

With the help of a cartoonist mate, we invented a seafarer character called Steam Packet Jack to emphasise the traditions and reliability of the ferry service. A friendly character to front advertising. “Steam Packet Jack – he’ll get you out, and he’ll get you back” A “visual” Jack and his message could appear in brochures, newspaper ads and TV commercials – maybe even painted on the sides of the ferries?

Radio commercials would need a jingle to carry the message, and the best jingle writer in Europe lived, with his untold wealth from pop song royalties, in the low-tax Isle of Man. Mitch Murray and his wife Grazina were low-key residents, but visitors to their home were greeted by the strains of The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde when they pressed the front doorbell.

I phoned Mitch from London to ask for his help on a jingle for Steam Packet Jack. By the end of the afternoon, we had a happy, catchy jingle with a hint of a traditional sea shanty. It took us about the same time as the sailing from Liverpool Pier Head to Douglas Harbour. Brilliant. Mitch was a jingle genius! It was all done over the phone as I tweaked the lyrics and Mitch tinkered with his home keyboard/ukulele. Words and music, job done…how do you do it, over the phone. Who needs Abbey Road Studios?

Mitch Murray’s first record for the Beatles

Abbey Road Studios in North London was where, in 1963, the Beatles were trying to find the right song to become their first-ever release. Their record producer, George Martin, wanted Mitch Murray’s How Do You Do It composition as the group’s first single, but Lennon and McCartney wanted to write what would have been their first hit song together.

Martin insisted, adding: ‘When you can write a song as good as this, then you can record your own songs. Until then, you are doing this.” Reluctantly, the Beatles agreed to record the song. However, Murray vetoed the resultant track as he thought it was suitable only for the B side. He offered the composition to Gerry and the Pacemakers, who took their version to number one in the UK and nine in the States.

Mitch Murray was 22 when he started songwriting, and Sixties pop stars like Gerry and the Pacemakers, Freddie and the Dreamers and The Tremeloes enjoyed big hits from his unique Sixties Sound. Tony Christie had number-one hits, including I Did What I Did for Maria. Georgie Fame had a massive hit with Bonnie and Clyde, while Paper Lace also went to number one with Billy Don’t Be A Hero.

Just as crucial for the Steam Packet and my work for them, Mitch Murray’s unique creativity helped the company achieve its highest passenger figures for decades. 1979 showed a substantial passenger spike, as thousands of overseas visitors with Manx connections returned to celebrate the island’s Millennium; 1,000 years of continuous parliament, dating back to Viking rulers.

The increased awareness and promotion of specialist activity holidays kept the momentum in successive years. However, it wasn’t the cars and passengers producing vast profits. It was the company’s monopoly of freight traffic.

Steam Packet freight profits were up to three times higher than any of the 23 other European ferry firms, as the Manx Government discovered when they were asked to help fund new ferries. It was a publicly quoted company in the Isle of Man, and many Manx families held Steam Packet shares to top up their pension fund or pay towards that autumn holiday in Majorca – on direct island-to-island charter flights.

Ferry service rescued by Manx Government

It wasn’t very long before prying UK bankers spotted the potential for a quick killing. They made a multi-million-pound offer in UK sterling for the Steam Packet… subsequently sold on to Banco Espirito Santa (BES), one of the biggest banks in Portugal that eventually sank in a storm of money laundering and corruption claims. It has since been proven that the administration of BES led by Ricardo Salgado “disobeyed the Bank of Portugal 21 times, between December 2013 and July 2014”, practising “wilful acts of ruinous management”.

The Steam Packet ferry looked like it was going down with the rogue bank until the Isle of Man Government force-rescued it in an agreed purchase from the successor bank of its previous owner. Handing over £124M, a government spokesman said: “At least the money will come back here now.”

As was the case before, the old sailors at the helm went all jingly in the 1970s and raised the profile and profits before selling out to a corporate raider…

Like the Golden Goose fable, this story has a moral: Boost yourself with a nice new jingle, by all means, but best avoid looking too much like the legendary goose that lays the golden egg to corporate pirates. And that’s how the little island lost its golden egg forever but gained an enduring link to the legendary Beatles.

UPDATE

Lennon & McCartney became the most prolific songwriters of the 20th century, creating 162 best-known and most-loved tracks, including 104 number-one hits in the UK and USA. Paul has had 194 compositions in the charts and is worth £800M.

Mitch Murray got a CBE for services to music. He continued his idyll in the Isle of Man, with his £millions of earnings regularly topped up by performance royalties, including some extra royalties from the How Do You Do It track. It was eventually included on the Beatles Anthology 1 album 30 years later. But their first recording remains a flop for them but a great hit for Gerry and the Pacemakers – he knew how to do better with Mitch Murray’s composition.

Mitch Murray’s life in pop and Manx residency has been commemorated in postage stamps by the Isle of Man Post Office. Issued in 2020, they have proved to be a money-spinning enterprise for the free-spirited Manx nation.

For more early revelations, read The Beatles – A Tiny Contribution

Island’s fightback for tourists who had GONE TO THE COSTAS