Sean O'Mahony

British music journalist, editor, publisher, and songwriter (1932, London — 21 July 2020). Sean O'Mahony, who also used the "Johnny Dean" pseudonym, is best known as the founder and editor of several notable UK publications, including Beat Instrumental, The Beatles Book and Record Collector Magazine. O'Mahony has worked for the music industry since the mid-1950s, employed at ABC Weekend TV and as a freelance songwriter for various publishers. In the early '60s, Sean O'Mahony became the advertising manager at Robert Stigwood's publication Pop Weekly, soon befriending Brian Epstein. In late 1962, Sean O'Mahony established his first magazine, Beat Monthly (later known as Beat Instrumental), which soon featured The Beatles on the front cover. As "Beatlemania" took over the nation, O'Mahony approached Epstein and suggested producing an exclusive periodical devoted to the Fab Four; in August '63, the inaugural issue of The Beatles Book came out, with 80,000 copies quickly sold out. The monthly magazine, which Sean had been editing under his Johnny Dean moniker, surpassed the circulation of 330,000 copies by the year's end. He worked on the Beatles Book until late 1969, regularly interacting with Epstein and all four members that fully endorsed the publication. (Sean O'Mahony began republishing the magazine in 1976, with new content added to back issues; the revived periodical continued until his retirement in 2003.) In 1979, O'Mahony launched Record Collector, serving as the magazine's editor until '83 and evolving it into one of the industry's most reputable and authoritative sources of pricing information on rare and collectible records. In 1999, he produced music for a feature-length film adaptation of the Broadway musical Julie and the Cadillacs, also writing songs and the script as "Johnny Dean."