Does anyone know whatever happened to Circus (and New York Post) writer Lou O'Niell Jr?

I am thinking he isn't around anymore....but not coming across any information on google searches or wiki...

Good question. He was/is cool

Between his misinformation and his insistence that a Beatles reunion was imminent, he was a hack.

I remember when, prior to the NJ/Philly/NYC shows in '78, he wrote a column based on information he had supposedly received about the Lakeland, FL show that opened the tour. He was going on about them playing a three-hour show with a break and playing all sorts of things that they didn't play until the Vegas years (e.g., Memory Motel). It seemed pretty obvious that he made the whole thing up.

Well, he was really such a huge Stones and Beatles FAN... I do recall a concert, perhaps a benefit concert in London I believe in the very late 1970s. Paul McCartney was on the bill and NYC Rock station WPLJ, I think it was, sent Lou across the pond to cover the event in case the rumored Beatles reunion took place. I don't recall Lou O having any significant affiliation with the radio station previously, and certainly they didn't typically send "reporters" to cover live events in other countries. The buzz, mostly created by Lou O, of an impending Beatles reunion, while greeted skeptically, was slowly increasing.

As fate would have it, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon, all apparently had business in the city a day or two before the concert, documented by other media sources, and suddenly the rumor began gaining traction. [They were noted separately from one another; no two together at any one time].

In the minutes before the concert began, someone must've decided to pull Lou's leg, seeing how desperate he was to believe, and over the airwaves he breathlessly informed the audience that he was just informed John Lennon w/guitar had arrived backstage with Yoko in tow... he couldn't get any information on George and Ringo, but no doubt they were around and expected shortly.

As the concert began, Paul apparently had a musician on stage that looked vaguely like John Lennon and he had to tell the audience something along the lines of, "no I am sorry, that is not John Lennon".... So, Lou O's credibility was shot to pieces that night.

He did manage to get his picture taken with Keith a few times in NYC clubs, and wrote a very touching column in the Post when his father passed away. Just odd how he VANISHED entirely at some point...

As kids, my buddy and I used to get a kick out of Lou's "insider" information in "Back Pages" his cheesy column in Circus Magazine. As a tribute, we have a regular column at our website, From Out Of Nowhere, called FOON's Back Pages with Lou's offspring. Kind of like a rock and roll Onion.



Here's our latest column, you can find more at the main page.
[fromoutofnowheremedia.tumblr.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-10-28 16:25 by omom.