#damon hill

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Ray Cooper talking about George Harrison in the documentary,An Accidental Studio.

Happy Birthday, George. Thank you for making this world a little brighter. In so many ways.

“I didn’t know what to expect, because a lot of other rock stars had turned us down, including Mick Jagger who we had also represented. I eventually secured a meeting with George and went along to see him at Apple. He met me at the door and told me how much he admired the work we were doing. As soon as we sat down in his office, he opened his desk drawer and, without asking questions or making any conditions, he took out his check book and wrote a check. I was so grateful and so amazed that I said my thanks, took the check and walked out of the office not even daring to look at it. I expected maybe £10 or £20 but, when I eventually looked at it, he’d given us £5,000 […] which saved us from closing. When I saw how much he’d given us, I burst into tears.“ - Caroline Coon[x]
“George said to me after the second session, ‘What are you doing, Doris? Are you free?’ I said, ‘Yeah, man, I’m free.’ He said ‘Do you want to sign to Apple?’ I said ‘Sure! Are you serious?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Well, I want to be writer, producer and artist, OK?’ He said ‘OK.’” - Doris Troy[x]
"Yesterday, as [Janet Guthrie] announced that she would receive ‘somewhat more than $100,000’ in oil money to attempt to take part in the million‐dollar race May 28, a representative of George Harrison, the former Beatle, called to say he, too, would like to sponsor the only woman in history to appear in the auto racing classic. The representative was told Harrison was too late.” - New York Times[x]
“Later that winter I got a message telling me to head down to the offices of Dark Horse Records and Harrisongs in Sloane Square, where a very smart, prim and proper lady handed me a cheque, written out by the record label, for £50,000. ‘You are the third person this week and it’s only Tuesday!’ she smiled, shaking her head.” - Steve Parrish[x]

“I’d be calling into George, and he’d say, ‘I’ll pay for it,’ so I thought ‘Yeah yeah yeah.’ And all the time he’s saying, ‘No I’ll take care of it.’ We were looking for $4 million. Nobody has that amount of money, you know? Eventually when we finally got to California, George says, ‘Yeah, I figured it out. We’re gonna create a company and we’re gonna give you the money,’ and it’s $4 million, and he mortgaged his house to put up the money for [Life of Brian] because he wanted to see it, which is still the most anybody’s ever paid for a cinema ticket.” - Eric Idle,Living in the Material World
“'There was this guy who wanted to start up a garden centre near Henley in a village called Woodcote and they gave him such a hard time. He battled for years and years to get permission to open. It is now lovely to see people at the weekends driving out from his little place with tiny trees sticking out of their car windows!’ I asked Harrison about the help that he is so often said to give to local people in situations like this. For example, had he paid for the garden centre proprietor’s planning appeal expenses? Harrison smiled and said, 'You know, I never answer questions like that. It’s better simply to think that God ensured the right decision was reached, ultimately.’” - Nick Dent-Robinson[x]
“If you are involved in Handmade, the possibilities really are quite extraordinary. You could just come up with a lollipop wrapper and say, 'I’d like to make a film about this character on the lollipop wrapper.’ 'Yeah?’ [laughs] And they’ll listen.” - Bob Hoskins,Movie Life of George
“I really was shocked that he actually said that he would help. But he helped lots of people in different ways that you never get to hear about, so I didn’t like to talk about it. I felt really grateful to George for helping me out at a time when I really needed a leg up.“ - Damon Hill,Living in the Material World (book)
“When I arrived home, Christina already greeted me with a huge smile on her face. What had happened? Christina had, as discussed, faxed the offer [from a moving company to transport materials for a Lakota youth building] to George. Two hours later, his assistant called with the request to be sent to bank account number of Christina’s organization Lakota Village Fund. 'George wants to pay for the shipping costs.’ 'But he only wanted to find a cheaper moving service for us?’ Christina was speechless. 'I don’t know anything about that. He told me to send over the money for the shipping right away. Good luck, Christina.'” - Klaus Voormann, Last Visit with George
”[The Harrisons] have always been in contact with us and when George died, he gave my foundation $30,000 to teach mariachi classes in Los Angeles.“ - José Hernández[x]
"For a man who seemed to have everything, and who could hardly stop himself from being amusing when he was in front of a microphone (even if his interviewers often seemed to miss the joke). George Harrison could come across as being surprisingly unhappy. He wore his heart on his sleeve and his opinions on his lips, and didn’t make any attempts to keep them hidden. For all his obsession with the saintly life, he certainly wasn’t one himself, as his nearest and dearest would probably be the first to admit. He didn’t suffer fools gladly, and sometimes he gave the impression that everyone else was a fool. Yet, as I’ve said, he was also perhaps the most generous soul in music history - certainly the man who gave away the highest proportion of his income.” - Peter Doggett,British Beatles Fan Club magazine