A regional press journalist who once wrote a negative review about a Beatles gig before they were famous has died aged 81.

Lyndon Whittaker, pictured, began his career at the now-defunct Peterborough Standard in 1960.

Two years later an up-and-coming young band called The Beatles played a gig in the city which Lyndon reviewed for the paper.

In it he wrote in that the Beatles ‘quite frankly failed to excite me’, that drummer Ringo Starr ‘made far too much noise’ and that in Twist and Shout, they ‘sounded as though everyone was trying to make more noise than the others.’

Lyndon was much more impressed by the yodelling singer Frank Ifield at the city’s Embassy club than his support act, the fab four.

His wife of 46 years, Rosie, said: “Lyndon always laughed that he was more embarrassed about his praise for Frank Ifield than his condemnation of the Beatles.

“In 1969 he interviewed John Lennon and Yoko at the Amsterdam Hilton during their ‘bed-in’ for peace. He didn’t mention his 1962 review to John.

Lyndon went on to work at the Peterborough Evening Telegraph, the St Neots office of Cambridge Evening News and the Rutland & Stamford Mercury before joining the Melton Times in 1988.

Earlier in his careeer Lyndon had got to know the young Huntington MP John Major and the two became friends.

During his time at Melton, Lyndon covered the visit to the town railway station by Mr Major ahead of the 1992 General Election and was delighted that the young MP he got to know well in Huntingdon had gone on to become Prime Minister.

Lyndon left the Times in 2000 and retired in 2004 after reporting for the Grantham Journal and the Stamford Mercury for a short period.

He died after being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in September last year.

Added Rosie:  “So many journalists have told me that ‘Lyndon was my mentor’ and he was mine too when I used to sit next to him at the Peterborough Standard.”

“Lyndon’s was a life of fulfilment, contentment and fun, with wonderful times spent with good friends and family, playing petanque, listening to music and enjoying life with a beer or a glass of wine in the garden or by a roaring fire.”

Lyndon also leaves his son, Steven, daughter-in-law Sandra, grandchildren Sarah, Lynne and Martyn, plus four great-grandchildren.

Many of his former colleagues and friends gathered for a celebration of his life at the Wheatsheaf pub in Oakham on May 28.