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Authors: Spencer Leigh
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says, “It took just 10 minutes to change my life forever.”
Less than that actually, because Epstein simply said, “The lads don’t want you in the group anymore.” Not ‘the lads and I,’ not ‘we,’ not ‘I’ but ‘the lads.’ Brian Epstein was distancing himself from the decision.
That may be right. Brian Epstein recognised Pete’s popularity and liked him a lot. He would offer him another drumming job a few days later – the fact that he didn’t do at this meeting implies that this was a hurried decision, that he hadn’t sorted everything out. He also expected Pete Best to work with the Beatles for the rest of the week.
Pete Best told Bill Harry in The Best Years of The Beatles (1996): “There was a phone call while I was there and when he answered it. Eppy said, ‘I’m still with him at the moment.’ I don’t know who phoned, it could have been anyone. I wasn’t paying too much attention to who was phoning as I was still trying to fathom the situation.”
The sensible money is on McCartney. Well, it must be –some years earlier Pete Best had spoken to Philip Norman for Shout! The True Story of The Beatles (1981): “While I was standing there, the phone rang on Brian’s desk. It was Paul, asking if I’d been told yet. Brian said, ‘I can’t talk now. Peter’s here with me in the office.’” So, why the reservation this time round? Surely, though, if Pete was sure it was Paul, he would have grabbed the phone and told him where to go.
A young Liverpool band, the Merseybeats, were waiting outside to see Brian Epstein. He was about to sign them. They saw Pete Best emerge looking as though he had seen a ghost and Epstein in tears. Eppy told them to make another appointment.
Back on the street, Pete met up with Neil and went for a drink. Pete says that by chance, they bumped into Lou Walters from Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, but I wonder if it was coincidental. Bobby Thomson had temporarily replaced Wally in the Hurricanes for the Butlin’s season and we’ll come to Wally’s possible role in a minute.
Ringo Starr – Richard Starkey – the oldest of the Beatles had been born in the Dingle in 1940. He had had a traumatic childhood with one illness after another and, not surprisingly, he left school with no qualifications. In 1957 he joined the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group and then, in 1959, and owning a full drum-kit, he became part of Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He worked for an engineering works, Henry Hunt and Sons, and he was encouraged to pack it in for a season at Butlin’s holiday camp in Pwllheli. Rory was an excellent showman but only a moderate vocalist. In order to add some glamour to the band, Rory insisted that everyone in the band should play a leading role and he introduced a solo spot, ‘Ringo Starr-time’. Ringo would sing undemanding pop and R&B songs of the day including the Shirelles’ ‘Boys’ and Johnny Burnette’s‘You’re Sixteen’. He was a pleasant, rather than a good, vocalist but he was highly rated as a drummer.
Harry Prytherch, drummer with the Remo Four, has strong views. “Ringo was a lot more technical than Pete Best. There were five or six of us who liked discussing the technicalities – Ringo, Kingsize Taylor’s drummer, Sonny Webb’s drummer, myself and Billy Buck out of the Jaywalkers – and Pete Best was different from us, there’s no doubt about that. You noticed the difference when Ringo took over because Pete was a real pounding rock ’n’ roll drummer.”
Fred Marsden, drummer with Gerry and the Pacemakers: “I knew Ringo years before he joined the Beatles. He was always listening to records and getting to grips with the technical side of drumming. That’s why the Beatles wanted him. Ringo only lived a quarter of a mile from me in the Dingle, and after an afternoon session at the Cavern he would watch us, or the Beatles, even if he wasn’t playing himself. We would then go back and listen to records.”
Dave Lovelady,
Less than that actually, because Epstein simply said, “The lads don’t want you in the group anymore.” Not ‘the lads and I,’ not ‘we,’ not ‘I’ but ‘the lads.’ Brian Epstein was distancing himself from the decision.
That may be right. Brian Epstein recognised Pete’s popularity and liked him a lot. He would offer him another drumming job a few days later – the fact that he didn’t do at this meeting implies that this was a hurried decision, that he hadn’t sorted everything out. He also expected Pete Best to work with the Beatles for the rest of the week.
Pete Best told Bill Harry in The Best Years of The Beatles (1996): “There was a phone call while I was there and when he answered it. Eppy said, ‘I’m still with him at the moment.’ I don’t know who phoned, it could have been anyone. I wasn’t paying too much attention to who was phoning as I was still trying to fathom the situation.”
The sensible money is on McCartney. Well, it must be –some years earlier Pete Best had spoken to Philip Norman for Shout! The True Story of The Beatles (1981): “While I was standing there, the phone rang on Brian’s desk. It was Paul, asking if I’d been told yet. Brian said, ‘I can’t talk now. Peter’s here with me in the office.’” So, why the reservation this time round? Surely, though, if Pete was sure it was Paul, he would have grabbed the phone and told him where to go.
A young Liverpool band, the Merseybeats, were waiting outside to see Brian Epstein. He was about to sign them. They saw Pete Best emerge looking as though he had seen a ghost and Epstein in tears. Eppy told them to make another appointment.
Back on the street, Pete met up with Neil and went for a drink. Pete says that by chance, they bumped into Lou Walters from Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, but I wonder if it was coincidental. Bobby Thomson had temporarily replaced Wally in the Hurricanes for the Butlin’s season and we’ll come to Wally’s possible role in a minute.
Ringo Starr – Richard Starkey – the oldest of the Beatles had been born in the Dingle in 1940. He had had a traumatic childhood with one illness after another and, not surprisingly, he left school with no qualifications. In 1957 he joined the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group and then, in 1959, and owning a full drum-kit, he became part of Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He worked for an engineering works, Henry Hunt and Sons, and he was encouraged to pack it in for a season at Butlin’s holiday camp in Pwllheli. Rory was an excellent showman but only a moderate vocalist. In order to add some glamour to the band, Rory insisted that everyone in the band should play a leading role and he introduced a solo spot, ‘Ringo Starr-time’. Ringo would sing undemanding pop and R&B songs of the day including the Shirelles’ ‘Boys’ and Johnny Burnette’s‘You’re Sixteen’. He was a pleasant, rather than a good, vocalist but he was highly rated as a drummer.
Harry Prytherch, drummer with the Remo Four, has strong views. “Ringo was a lot more technical than Pete Best. There were five or six of us who liked discussing the technicalities – Ringo, Kingsize Taylor’s drummer, Sonny Webb’s drummer, myself and Billy Buck out of the Jaywalkers – and Pete Best was different from us, there’s no doubt about that. You noticed the difference when Ringo took over because Pete was a real pounding rock ’n’ roll drummer.”
Fred Marsden, drummer with Gerry and the Pacemakers: “I knew Ringo years before he joined the Beatles. He was always listening to records and getting to grips with the technical side of drumming. That’s why the Beatles wanted him. Ringo only lived a quarter of a mile from me in the Dingle, and after an afternoon session at the Cavern he would watch us, or the Beatles, even if he wasn’t playing himself. We would then go back and listen to records.”
Dave Lovelady,
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