“What was the name of the drummer sacked by the Beatles and replaced by Ringo Starr?”
University Challenge, BBC TV programme, April 1996 – no-one knew the answer
Brian Epstein’s confidant, Peter Brown, writes in his biography, The Love You Make: “George Martin was particularly critical of Pete Best’s heavy, uninventive drumming. When the audition was over, the most George Martin would say was, ‘Maybe’.” In John, Paul and George’s minds, Pete Best was already doomed as he sat next to them in the van on the way back to Liverpool.” Dramatic, but not very accurate.
Because of the Hamburg engagement, the Beatles had not played Liverpool for 2 months. From 9 June to 20 June 1962, they performed exclusively at the Cavern and recorded a second session for the BBC. For the radio programme, Here We Go, they performed ‘Ask Me Why’, which would end up as the B-side of ‘Please Please Me’, their old favourite ‘Besame Mucho’ and a contemporary hit, Joe Brown’s ‘A Picture of You’.
On 21 June they performed at the Tower Ballroom on a Bob Wooler production, starring Bruce Channel and Delbert McClinton, the hit recorders of ‘Hey! Baby’. ‘Hey! Baby’ with its catchy harmonica riff was an influence on ‘Love Me Do’, although Frank Ifield puts in a claim for ‘I Remember You’. The Beatles performed ‘Hey! Baby’ and ‘I Remember You’ from time-to-time, both with John playing harmonica.
Bruce Channel recalls, “It was a tremendous audience at that ballroom. I’d had a Number 1 record but I was surprised that so many people were there. Then I found out that the Beatles were on the bill and they went on just before me. John Lennon liked Delbert’s harmonica playing very much. I can remember him talking to Delbert quite a bit and Delbert was showing him how he played. I liked his harmonica on ‘Love Me Do’ very much, and I also liked the song.”
Leo Sayer: “I was fascinated by the harmonica on the Beatles ‘Love Me Do’ as I’d never heard anyone play a harmonica like that before. All I knew was Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee who were all (demonstrates) chugga-chugga-chugga, just a rhythmic thing. John Lennon was using the harmonica to make a riff and what he was playing was more like a trumpet line. I played the harmonica myself and this was a very good influence on me.”
Several Beatle books state that the EMI recording contract was kept secret from Pete Best, and yet the poster for the Tower Ballroom event states that the Beatles are ‘Parlophone Recording Artists.’ Didn’t Pete Best see the advertising?
The weeks went by – the Beatles’ appearances centred around the Cavern, but there were some odd appearances such as the Barnston Women’s Institute (30 June 1962) and the Royal Iris on the River Mersey (6 July and 10 August). The Grafton Rooms (now known for its ‘Grab a Granny’ nights) succumbed to rock ’n’ roll on 3 August, with a bill featuring the Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers and the Big Three. Brian Epstein also presented two shows with the Beatles and Joe Brown and the Bruvvers, and Joe recalls, “I was one of the first persons from outside Liverpool that Brian Epstein actually booked. He booked the hall, put on the show and tried to make money out of it. I remember that we followed the Beatles. Normally, if you’re topping the bill, you finish the show; if you’re second top, you close the first half; Brian wanted the Beatles on just before me, hoping that the fans would be screaming so much that we wouldn’t be able to get on at first. It was a good trick and the Beatles were a real hard act to follow. We did it, mind you, to our credit, we did it.”
Local musician Steve Kelly was at the Joe Brown/Beatles show at the Cambridge Hall in Southport. “I’d gone to see Joe Brown and I didn’t go into the hall for the Beatles. Someone told me that they were a greasy, noisy, sweaty band and I wasn’t missing out on anything.”
Granada TV had seen the Beatles on that showcase and decided to film them at the Cavern for their Know the North programme. The filming would take place on 22 August and it would be the Beatles’ first TV appearance. In all probability, it precipitated Pete Best’s sacking as the Beatles wanted to be seen with a new drummer.
Much to everyone’s surprise, Mona Best was pregnant. Musicians wondered who the father was as regular visitors to the Casbah had never seen Johnny Best there. It is common knowledge among Merseyside musicians that the father was the Beatles’ road manager Neil Aspinall, although this has never been revealed in any Beatles book. When the Beatles returned from Germany in June 1962, Neil left his regular employment as a trainee accountant and became their full-time roadie. He was very friendly with Pete Best and had lodgings at Hayman’s Green with the Best family.
Roag Best was born on 21 July 1962. “At the time I thought Roag was Pete’s full brother,” says Beryl Marsden, “and many other musicians thought the same.” Johnny Guitar of Rory Storm and the Hurricanes: “I got on very well with Mona Best and so did Rory, but I never met Johnny Best. Pete told Rory the truth, and Rory told me that Neil was his father when Mona Best was pregnant.”
The birth was registered by Mona Best on 31 August 1962 and the certificate gives her son’s name as Vincent Rogue Best (sic). She lists herself, Alice Mona Best, as the mother and John Best as the father. In keeping with the times, the birth was made legitimate.
But there was no announcement of the birth in the Liverpool Echo.
3 August 1962, according to Philip Norman’s Shout! The True Story of The Beatles: “August began, and still Pete Best knew nothing of the contract with Parlophone. The Beatles, en route for The Grafton in West Derby Road, were all in Mona Best’s Oriental sitting room, waiting for Pete to come downstairs. He did so in high spirits, full of the Ford Capri car he had almost decided to buy. Mrs Best remembers that Paul, in particular, showed unease over the price Pete intended to pay for the car. “He went all mysterious. He told Pete, ‘If you take my advice, you won’t buy it. You’d be better off saving your money.’”
In the early 1960s, teenage girls preferred their idols to be unencumbered. Managers would tell the stars to keep their girlfriends from the press and their marriages secret, if they couldn’t be persuaded from taking such a ridiculous step. Joe Brown recalls, “If it got out that a pop star was married, his career could be ruined. The idea was to be untouchable but always available. On a pedestal, but on the same level as the fans, if you know what I mean. My manager didn’t want anyone to know that I was getting married and he made me wear a black wig. The idea was to whip it off when I got to the altar, but I’d pencilled my eyebrows and I realised that I’d look very silly with a blond crew-cut and black eyebrows. I kept the wig on and Vicki started arguing with me at the altar. The press hounded me for months. They were sure that I was married but they couldn’t prove it. They made my life hell and they tried all sorts of tricks to find out. They’d ring up my mother and say they were the jewellers wanting to know about the alterations to the wedding ring. One night two reporters turned up at my house at half-past ten in the pouring rain, clutching a copy of our marriage certificate. My manager told me to make a statement at ten o’clock the next morning. My publicity agent rang round all the papers but only two of them turned up. The press were getting a bit sick of this nonsense by then. Fortunately, the Beatles killed everything like that.”
But not at first. Brian Epstein told John and Cynthia that the Beatles’ popularity would be harmed if they were seen as a couple and, for its time, it was sensible advice. Cynthia says, “I was in a horribly vulnerable position. The fanatical Lennon followers did not take kindly to me. I was a threat to their fantasies and dreams. The most dangerous place for me was the ladies’ toilet. Sometimes I thought that I wouldn’t get out in one piece. My solution was to keep a very low profile and keep my mouth firmly shut. I was no match for all those girls.”
Early in August 1962, Cynthia told John Lennon that she was pregnant. “It was such a shock to both of us that I was pregnant. It was anything but a celebration at the time as John had to tell Mimi and I had to tell my mum.” Even worse, they had to tell Eppy.
In 1962, if you got a girl into trouble you married, and John immediately said that they should get married. The wedding was arranged for 23 August at the Registry Office in Mount Pleasant, the day after their TV appearance, and John would spend his wedding night playing at the Riverpark Ballroom in Chester. Start as you mean to go on.
John was getting married, going to be a father and he had to write songs for the Beatles’ recording session. Writing about Pete Best in his autobiography, Brian Epstein said, “He was friendly with John; he was not with George and Paul.” If there was to be a spirited defence to retain Pete, John would be too preoccupied to give it.
On Wednesday 15 August 1962, the Beatles played lunchtime and evening sessions at the Cavern. This marked Pete Best’s final appearances with the group – and indeed, the last time he would ever speak to any of them.
Pete Best says, “I’d been with the Beatles for 2 years. We’d been through thick and thin together. There were times when the money from bookings wasn’t enough to keep things going. There was a strong fellowship about the group and I never thought that they wanted to get rid of me. On Wednesday night when we’d finished, Brian said he’d like to see me in his office the next morning. This was quite normal because, with the family phone, I fixed the bookings and he used to ask me about venues and prices.”
Bob Wooler: “I learnt that Pete Best was going to be sacked on that night, not before. I could imagine it with someone who was constantly late or giving problems, but Pete Best was not awkward and he did not step out of line. I was most indignant and I said, ‘Why are you doing this?’ but I didn’t get an answer.”
Pete went to bed a happy man. Eppy had a sleepless night.
It was not a foregone conclusion that any drummer, if invited, would want to join the Beatles. Norman Kuhlke of the Swinging Blue Jeans: “A lot of drummers wouldn’t have wanted to join the Beatles. I was having such a good time in the Blue Jeans that I don’t think I would have wanted to change groups. The Beatles were just another Liverpool group at the time.”
In the Anthology 1 video, Paul McCartney says, “We started to think that we needed the greatest drummer in Liverpool.” Was that automatically Ringo Starr?
The Beatles were very impressed with Joe Brown’s drummer, Bobby Graham, formerly with Mike Berry and the Outlaws. “Brian Epstein invited us back to the Blue Angel after a show. He called me to one side and told me that he was having problems with Pete Best’s mum and he wanted him out of the Beatles. He asked me if I would take his place. Although I liked the Beatles, I turned him down because I didn’t want to come to Liverpool. Besides, I liked Joe Brown, who was having hit records. I met George Harrison about five years ago and he had no idea that Brian had asked me.”
Strangely enough, Bobby’s path kept crossing with the Beatles. “George Martin used me for session work and I did get involved in one of the Beatles’ early sessions although I’ve no idea which one. When Ringo had his tonsils out, I was asked to take his place on tour for a few days, but I was getting so much session work that I couldn’t do it and I recommended Jimmy Nicol instead. I did play with the Beatles on one of their Pop Go The Beatles sessions from the Paris Theatre and that was because the BBC didn’t think Ringo was adaptable enough for what they wanted at that time.”
From Gerry Marsden’s autobiography, I’ll Never Walk Alone: “Whatever they planned for the Beatles, Pete certainly didn’t figure in it, which was a tragedy of a kind. They asked my brother Fred to play with them, go to Hamburg with them, but he told them that he had decided to stay with me, the biggest mistake he’d made in his life!” A nice quote, but Fred Marsden tells me not to believe everything I read in books. “Also, I could never have had a Beatle hairstyle. They’d have looked stupid with William Hague on drums.”
When Mike McCartney was interviewed by Libby Purves about a children’s book on Radio 4 in December 1992, he added that he had once been a drummer with the Quarry Men and that he would have replaced Pete Best in the Beatles, had he not broken his arm. Why did he feel after 30 years that he had to declare this? Did it really happen? To be fair, there was a set of drums in the McCartney household and both Paul and Mike had practiced on them. Also, Mike had played a snare drum on an early Quarry Men home recording of ‘One After 909’.
Fred Marsden continues: “The only person in Liverpool who did drum solos in Liverpool was Johnny Hutch from the Big Three. He was a very good drummer and even in 1962 he was into heavy sort of rock ’n’ roll music rather than pop. Technically, he was the best in Liverpool – well, he was the only one who did solos so he must have been the best.”
Johnny Hutchinson: “Bob Wooler said, ‘Well, Brian, I think John would suit the Beatles down to the ground.’ Brian said, ‘I do too. What do you think, John?’ I said, ‘I wouldn’t join the Beatles for a gold clock. There’s only one group as far as I’m concerned and that’s the Big Three.’ The Beatles couldn’t make a better sound than that and, anyway, Pete was a very good friend of mine and I couldn’t do the dirty on him like that, but why don’t you get Ringo? Ringo’s a bum – Ringo’ll join anybody for a few bob.” Ringo was playing at Butlin’s with Rory Storm, who had signed a contract to play there. Ringo just got up and left – ‘Bugger you, boy; I’m going to higher things.’ He had no scruples at all.”
If there was any possibility of Johnny Hutch joining the Beatles, they were dispelled by the few gigs he’d play in the period between Pete’s sacking and Ringo’s arrival, which will be coming up shortly. There was considerable friction between Hutch and Lennon, and quite clearly Hutch was not prepared to be subordinate to him.
Bob Wooler: “The Beatles didn’t want a drummer who would be a force to be reckoned with and, hence, Johnny Hutch didn’t stand a chance. Trevor Morais (of Faron’s Flamingos) was also considered but he was a centre of attraction and they didn’t want all the showmanship. They wanted a very good drummer who would not intrude, and Ringo played that role very well indeed.”
How it happens in fiction:
Mike is the Stray Cats’ manager in Stardust (Fontana Books, 1974) by the Liverpool author, Ray Connolly: “Mike looked at him and hated him more than ever. The grovelling little bastard, he thought. But he smiled, ‘Johnny! Fancy a drink?’ he said, and with an arm round Johnny’s shoulders, he led him away to a sudden and merciless slaughter. He just couldn’t afford to let some little two-faced twat like Johnny interfere with his plans now. No way.”
That isn’t far from real life. Mike Middles tells how the lead singer of the fledgling Durutti Column was sacked in From Joy Division to New Order – The Factory Story (Virgin, 1996): “That night, Tony Wilson visited the flat of singer Phil Rainford. To make matters worse, Rainford seemed unusually enthusiastic, painfully exclaiming in an increasingly excited tone about his plans for the band and how marvellous the recent rehearsals had been. As every excitable comment passed by, Wilson found himself sinking deeper and deeper into despair. He sat, quietly panicking, preparing to administer the chop while a Bruce Springsteen album filled the room. ‘At the end of side one,’ thought Wilson, ‘I’ll tell him then.’ Inevitably, side one cluttered to a halt and side two began to spin threateningly. Wilson decided to tell him at the end of side two, and so he did. Feeling profoundly wretched, with Rainford’s tone of disbelief ringing in his ears, he strode wretchedly away from the startled singer’s flat. Tony Wilson had tasted the darker side of band management.”
And so to the Beatles…
When he awoke on the morning of Thursday 16 August, Pete Best put on his T-shirt and jeans and asked the Beatles’ roadie, Neil Aspinall, if he wanted to come into town with him.
They drove to Whitechapel and Pete went into NEMS while Neil waited outside. Pete went into Brian Epstein’s office, sat down and, as he 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, drummer with the Fourmost: “I think Ringo would admit that he has never been a brilliant drummer technically, but he had a very unique drive and he was very good to watch. He used to throw his head all over the place and the beat that he produced was really pounding. He had a very unusual style but technically he isn’t brilliant.”
Bobby Thomson, guitarist for Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes and later the Rockin’ Berries: “Ringo used to set the kit for a right-handed drummer even though he was left-handed. He could play so evenly with either hand, he was such a rock-steady drummer that once he started a tempo he never moved. A similar drummer is Bev Bevan from ELO, a real bricklayer and I mean that in the nicest sense. On the other hand, Trevor Morais of Faron’s Flamingos and the Peddlers was a very flowery, flashy drummer and I don’t think I could play with him in the same band, there would be too much going on. Roy Dyke, who became part of Ashton, Gardner and Dyke was also very good but he was very jazz-influenced which is fine if you’re playing that type of music.”
Johnny Guitar of Rory Storm and the Hurricanes: “We had a great band in Skegness in 1962. There was Bobby Thomson, Ty O’Brien, Ringo and me. To be honest, we couldn’t wait for Rory to take his break so that we could get into some hard instrumental rock ’n’ roll.”
Ritchie Galvin, drummer with Earl Preston and the TTs: “Ringo was wasted with Rory Storm because although Rory was a great showman, he was a dire singer. No wonder Ringo said yes.”
Billy Butlin opened his first holiday camp in Skegness in 1936. The concept was to provide mass, on-site entertainment and catering for the British working man and his family. The rows of chalets looked like army barracks and the Redcoats organised the camp with military precision. The holidaymakers were even told when to get up with a voice over the tannoy saying, ‘Wakey-wakey, campers.’ The holidaymakers enjoyed themselves in the swimming pool, playing billiards, darts or tennis, old-time dancing, watching variety shows, at the funfair or simply making new friends. The Skegness camp incorporated a zoo which attracted national publicity in 1962 when an elephant fell into the swimming pool, upturned and drowned.
By the early 1960s, Billy Butlin realised that the camps were losing their appeal. The British public was becoming more free-spirited – they wanted to holiday abroad, good heavens – and older teenagers no longer wanted to holiday with their parents. He introduced rock ’n’ roll nights to attract adolescents and their advertisements implied that sexual freedom was the order of the day. ‘Wakey-wakey’ was the call to move back to your own chalet.
Rory Storm and the Hurricanes and the Beatles were good friends, but Storm’s group was far more show-biz. They enjoyed playing holiday camps, something John Lennon could never have tolerated. Holiday camps apart, they often worked the same venues and had spent several weeks together in Hamburg. They got on well with each other and Ringo had sat in with the Beatles on occasion.
Mind you, Ringo had sat in with many bands – he had worked with the Seniors and had left the Hurricanes in January 1962 to be part of Tony Sheridan’s backing group at the Top Ten Club. Although he was back with the Hurricanes, he was unsure about his career and was considering emigrating to America.
Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes were in Hamburg with their drummer, Dave Lovelady. Dave recalls, “After we’d been in Hamburg for two months, the time came when I had to come home and return to my studies. Teddy Taylor and the rest of the boys wanted to stay professional, so it was decided that I would leave and they would fly out a replacement. Teddy wrote to Ringo to ask him if he’d like to take my place. He wrote back to say that he would and he gave Rory Storm his notice.”
So, in August 1962, Ringo Starr had no intention of joining the Beatles or even returning to Liverpool and his girlfriend, Maureen Cox, in the near future. He was going to finish at Skegness and then join Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes. Their promised £20 a week was good money, but the Beatles would offer £25.
There are conflicting stories as to how and when Ringo Starr was invited to join the Beatles.
Version 1. According to Mark Lewisohn’s The Complete Beatles Chronicle, John Lennon telephoned Ringo at Skegness on Tuesday 14 August, 2 days before the dismissal. This sounds reasonable, but is fraught with difficulty. The chalets did not have telephones and getting through to anyone at a holiday camp in 1962 was a time-consuming and usually fruitless task. Also, Ringo was with Johnny Guitar in a caravan just outside the campsite.
Version 2. In the Anthology 1 video, Ringo Starr recalls, “It was a Wednesday and Brian Epstein called; I don’t remember John coming over, which is in somebody’s book. ‘Would you join the band, really join the band?’ I said, ‘Sure, when?’ and he said, ‘Now,’ I said, ‘I can’t do that, I’ll join you on Saturday.’ We had Saturdays off as that was when they changed their campers. So I gave Rory Thursday, Friday and Saturday to bring someone in.” This is more plausible than Version 1 because Ringo was invited to join the Beatles as an employee (£25 a week rather than a split of the takings) and also because a well-spoken businessman would have more success in getting the holiday camp to locate Ringo.
Version 3. The one Ringo doesn’t remember, has John Lennon visiting ‘Belsen’ as John used to describe Butlin’s, the one venue the Beatles never played. Johnny Guitar remembers, “John and Paul knocked on the door to our caravan about ten o’clock one morning, and I was very surprised because John hated Butlin’s. Paul said, ‘We’ve come to ask Ringo to join us.’ We went into the camp and Rory said, ‘What are we going to do because this is mid-season and we can’t work without a drummer?’ Paul said, ‘Mr Epstein would like Pete Best to play with you.’ We couldn’t stand in Ringo’s way ’cause we knew the Beatles were going to be big. We went back to Liverpool and saw Pete, but he was so upset that he didn’t want to play with anybody.”
I asked Johnny Guitar if he was sure he was correct, that John and Paul did visit Ringo at Skegness. “Yes, Rory got a big shock when Ringo said he was going to leave, and so did I. It is possible that Ringo had been tipped the wink on his last visit to Liverpool, but we had no inkling of what was going on.”
Travelling the 170 miles from Liverpool to Skegness in 1962 was no joke. A train journey would involve changes and take several hours. John Lennon couldn’t drive, and Paul would probably want a relief driver. Quite possibly, that would be Neil Aspinall. There were no motorways and a likely route would be leaving Liverpool on the A580 to Manchester. From there, it is on to the A628 to Marple, A57 to Sheffield and keeping on that road to Worksop and Lincoln. Then it is leaving by the A158 to Wragby, Horncastle, Spilsby and, finally, Skegness. Even maintaining a speed of 30 miles an hour, it is unlikely that the journey could be done in less than 5 hours. No matter how early they set off on the morning of Thursday 16 August, there could be no guarantee that the Beatles would return in time for a show at Riverpark Ballroom that evening. And with Ringo in tow.
But what if it happened on Tuesday 14 August as the Beatles weren’t working that day and they could take Neil Aspinall as well? With a full datebook, isn’t it more likely that the Beatles would line up their replacement before they sacked Pete Best? Mightn’t Ringo Starr think it was grossly unfair to Pete Best and turn them down? In any event, they weren’t to know that Ringo was about to join the Dominoes.
I think that John, Paul and possibly Neil went to Skegness on the Tuesday 14 August and saw Ringo, in spite of his comments. That paved the way for the sacking of Pete Best. Possibly Rory contacted Lou Walters, the Hurricane who was still in Liverpool, and asked him to sound out Pete about joining the Hurricanes. However, Wally found Pete so depressed that he realised that it was neither the time nor the place to invite him to join the Hurricanes. Hence, the Hurricanes returned on Saturday and Pete turned them down.
This would also explain why Brian Epstein wanted Pete Best to play a few more dates with the Beatles. He knew that Ringo couldn’t join until Saturday. Once Pete had gone, he rearranged the meeting with the Merseybeats and set about finding a temporary replacement drummer. Fortunately for him, Johnny Hutchinson of the Big Three agreed. (He had already played with the Beatles at a Larry Parnes audition in May 1960.) This time, he was to stand in on Thursday 16 August 1962 at the Riverpark Ballroom and on Friday 17 August at the Majestic Ballroom in Birkenhead and the Tower Ballroom, New Brighton. Pete Best was said to be ‘indisposed’.
Johnny Hutchinson, “I was playing with the Beatles and the Big Three at the same time. I would play the first half-hour with my group and get dressed up in my band suit, set the drums up and do half-an-hour with them, unset my drums, take the suit off, shoot off elsewhere and do half-hour in The Beatles gear and go back for half-an-hour with the Big Three.”
Hutch also offers this gem: “Brian asked me to bear with him for a few more weeks. The Beatles were even going to get a fantastic drummer from Leeds. This chap came down from Leeds – he was about 54, balding and very big, not at all as Brian expected and Brian had to start hiding. Apparently, he turned out to be no good as well. That’s when I started playing with them.”
When he sacked Pete, Brian Epstein was worried that Neil Aspinall might resign in sympathy. As it turns out, his initial reaction was to resign but Pete told him to continue, although it would mean leaving Hayman’s Green. No-one has spoken of the tensions in Hayman’s Green, but it can’t have been easy for Pete. He was telling his half-brother’s father and his mother’s lover to leave the house. When Neil turned up to take the Beatles to Riverpark that evening, he asked the Beatles why Pete had been sacked. “It’s got nothing to do with you,” said John, “you’re only the driver.”
Not even Neil – or Nell as the Beatles called him – may know that Brian Epstein had considered a replacement for him – John Booker, who later worked with the Undertakers. “I was going round with the Merseybeats at the time and Eppy came up to me with George Harrison and said, ‘John, I’d like you to look after the Beatles.’ I said, ‘You’re joking.’ He said, ‘No, I’d like you to take over from Neil.’ I said, ‘No, I wouldn’t do that to Neil.’ That showed me what Eppy was like.”
On Saturday 18 August 1962, Ringo Starr joined the Beatles as a full-time member for a horticultural society’s annual dance at Hulme Hall, Port Sunlight. The real test would come the following evening among the regulars at the Cavern Club.
The Cavern’s doorman, Paddy Delaney: “George Harrison had gone downstairs – there weren’t many people in at the time and there was a bit of a commotion. I went down to see what the trouble was and George was holding his eye. He had a beauty of a black eye.”
George Harrison in the Anthology 1 video: “The Cavern had three tunnels and I stepped out of the dressing room into a tunnel and some guy butted me in the eye.”
Ringo Starr admits in the same video, “We played the Cavern and there was a lot of fighting and shouting – half of them hated me and half of them loved me.”
Mike Gregory of the Escorts: “Everyone was screaming at Ringo and throwing tomatoes at him. They were shouting for Pete Best and giving him a hard time.”
Ian Edwards (Ian and the Zodiacs): “I was very friendly with Ringo and I felt very sorry for him at the time. They were shouting “Ringo never, Pete Best forever” and refusing to let them play. There was a big question as to whether this could be the Beatles’ downfall. Everyone was talking about it. Ringo had been playing in a group which wasn’t taken seriously and suddenly he’s in the biggest thing on Merseyside. He was a very good rock drummer, but there were a lot of better drummers around, such as Johnny Hutch.”
Ray Ennis (Swinging Blue Jeans): “It was murder when Pete got the sack. George Harrison got a black eye and there was a big split in the Beatle fans, they were fighting each other. Pete got a raw deal and without doubt the luckiest man alive is Ringo Starr – and yet I’ve never heard him say that.”
Ritchie Galvin of Earl Preston and the TTs: “I really wanted the Beatles to do well as I thought it might open the floodgates a bit. We might get away from groups like Shane Fenton and the Fentones. I was a bit surprised when they sacked Pete, and I hoped they hadn’t blown it.”
Diana Mothershaw, who sold records at Rushworth and Dreaper: “Shortly after Pete was sacked, John and George came into Rushworth’s when it was quiet. We asked them why Pete had been sacked and they said he couldn’t drum well enough. He only had his own style. Then someone told them that Pete was only round the corner looking at drums and they said, ‘See you girls’, and ran out. We shouted ‘Cowards’ after them.”
From Brian Epstein’s autobiography, A Cellarful of Noise: “The sacking of Pete Best left me in an appalling position in Liverpool. Overnight I became the most disliked man on the seething beat-scene. True, I had the support of the Beatles who were the city’s darlings and they were delighted to have Ringo. But the fans wanted Pete Best as a Beatle and there were several unpleasant scenes.”
The truth – Pete Best: “I felt like putting a stone around my neck and jumping off the Pier Head. I knew that the Beatles were going places and to be kicked out on the verge of it happening upset me a great deal. I was sure we were going to be a chart group. For weeks afterward, I just wanted to forget about everything. I didn’t want to see the drums. I didn’t want to see people. The fact that they weren’t at my dismissal hurt me a lot more than the fact that Brian told me that I wasn’t a Beatle any longer.”
The spin-doctored version appeared in Mersey Beat, which was published on 23 August 1962: “Pete Best left the group by mutual agreement. There were no arguments or difficulties, and this had been an entirely amicable decision.”
This version is so far from the truth that it casts doubts upon Bill Harry’s integrity as an editor. Was he merely Epstein’s mouthpiece? Was he the only person on Merseyside who thought it was an amicable split? He says, “I was working an 80-hour week on Mersey Beat and I took Brian Epstein’s word for some things I should have checked out. When he gave me the story about Pete leaving, he made it seem like a mutual agreement. I can see now that I was being manipulated.”
But surely Bill had known of the chaos at the Cavern, and surely fans had been calling his office? “Yes, we were inundated with calls but we had already gone to press. I never doubted Brian Epstein’s veracity when he gave me that story. We had to go to press 3 or 4 days beforehand – we were only a little job for the printers, Swales, who also published The Widnes Weekly News.”
Mersey Beat had gone to press before the full facts were known and being a fortnightly paper, the dismissal was old news by the time of the next issue as Ringo Starr was securely established as the Beatles’ drummer. Bill Harry: “I felt an injustice was being done, but not because Pete was getting kicked out on the brink of success. That’s the luck of the game. I felt that there should have been some truth about why he’d been put out. They should have said, “We’ve decided that we get on better with Ringo, and we want Ringo with us.” Instead, they suggested that Pete Best wasn’t good enough.”
Philip Norman’s Shout! The True Story of The Beatles says that Pete’s fate was decided in a pub meeting between Paul, George, Brian Epstein and not John Lennon but Bob Wooler. There may be some substance in this. Sixty-year-old Ted Knibbs was Billy J. Kramer’s first manager. Epstein bought his contract for £50 of which Ted got £25 and he never got the rest. He remembered a meeting shortly after the sacking. “Brian Epstein, Bob Wooler and I were having a few drinks in the New Cabaret Club and Bob said, ‘I’m going to tell the whole Pete Best story in Mersey Beat. I think the fans should know why Pete Best was dropped for Ringo.’ Brian went into a right flap – ‘You won’t, you won’t’ and Bob said, ‘I will, I will’ and this went on and on. I said, ‘I hope there’ll be no trouble.’ And Brian stood up, called the waiter, paid the bill and said ‘I’m sorry, gentlemen, but I must leave your company.’ If he’d had a cloak, he would have gathered it about him and stalked out. I said, ‘Now you’ve done it, haven’t you, Bob?’ He said, ‘Why shouldn’t I tell the story?’ I said, ‘Because you’re not a journalist, mate, you’re not relying on that for your living. You’re relying on Brian Epstein who employs you to put on his shows.’ He said, ‘Well what do you advise me to do?’ I said, ‘First thing in the morning, go round and tell Brian that you are sorry about last night and get it all over with.’”
Bob Wooler says, “I was annoyed about what happened to Pete Best because I couldn’t see any reason why he should have to leave the group. People said he wasn’t a very good drummer – well, it makes you wonder who is a good drummer these days because Ringo wasn’t even on the first record. But I was an outsider looking in. I was going to write an article called ‘Odd Man – Out!’ But it never materialised and I regret that very much.”
Did Bob Wooler repair his relationship with Brian Epstein? “Yes, sense prevailed and I made it up with the Nemperor. Ted Knibbs, who was older and wiser than me, said I had made my Declaration of Independence and that was enough.” Strangely enough, Bob’s concept of the odd man out was taken up by Albert Goldman, a writer not normally known for his perception. He wrote, “The odd man out had to get out – and the new man in had to be an odd fellow.”
But would the story have ever been published in Mersey Beat? Bill Harry: “Once Brian Epstein came into the picture, I felt we were being manipulated. We had a reporter in Widnes who was a Billy J Kramer fan. He would pick up the proofs and show them to us, usually on a Saturday. He also took the proofs to show Epstein, but we didn’t know he was doing that until we caught Epstein with them one day.”
More spin-doctoring took place on 23 August 1962 when John Lennon and Cynthia Powell were married. Paul, George and Brian Epstein attended the ceremony, but not Aunt Mimi. At the wedding breakfast at Reece’s Restaurant opposite Clayton Square, Brian Epstein told them they could live in his flat at 37 Falkner Street. Brian had used the flat for his furtive trysts and one of the first songs John wrote in the flat was ‘Do You Want To Know A Secret?’ There were a lot of secrets in the Beatles – Brian’s love life, John’s wedding and why they sacked Pete Best.
Cynthia Powell: “We were only children in those days, 20 and 21, and we were used to being told what to do and what not to do, so it wasn’t too much of an effort to keep our marriage a secret. That’s the way it seemed to be at the time, according to the pop world. Pop stars weren’t supposed to be married so we fell in with this thing. It was no problem to me as I knew that I had my man and I loved him and he loved me, and we were having a baby. Whatever anybody else thought didn’t really matter to me.”
Pete Best: “In the weeks that followed, Brian got in touch with me and said, ‘There’s another band I’m interested in promoting. Would you like to play drums for them? I’d like you to join the group and build it up into another Beatles.’ I said, ‘I’m flattered that you don’t want to lose me, but because of the vicious way it happened, the backhanded way it took place, I can’t agree to come back and let you be my manager.’ He said, ‘Okay, but the offer’s still there whenever you feel like it.’ In the meantime, Joe Flannery came down to my house and asked me to join Lee Curtis. He knew he wasn’t going to make a lot of money out of it but he wanted me to join the band and be part of the team. I thought about it for a couple of days and then rang him up and said, ‘Okay.’ I didn’t want to cash in on being an ex-Beatle and I often spoke to Joe Flannery about this when I saw, ‘Pete Best, the ex-Beatles’ drummer’ on posters.”
As it happens, Brian Epstein had even set that up. He had asked Joe to contact Pete with a view to forming Lee Curtis and the All Stars. Lee Curtis: “I was so delighted that he came and joined me because he was such an asset to us. Pete Best drumming behind you was a tremendous attraction, it really was. Joe came up with the name the All Stars as they were all stars in their own right from different bands.”
Unfortunately for Pete Best, Lee Curtis was the wrong vocalist for 1963 – his highly overcharged performances were too late for the Elvis Presley era and too early for Tom Jones.
Beryl Marsden also worked with Lee Curtis and the All Stars. “We used to rehearse at Peter’s house and his mum would be telling tales of how awful the Beatles were and how I mustn’t go near them, never speak to them or listen to their music. I thought it was a terrible thing for them to do, but I liked their music and I couldn’t stay away too long. I rang up one day and said, ‘I’m not very well. I can’t come in and rehearse.’ And I skived off to a lunchtime session at the Cavern. Unfortunately, I got caught out and got a really bad scolding from Peter’s mum, but it was worth it.”
Pete Best: “We played on the same bill as the Beatles on two occasions. One was at the Cavern when we were second on the bill to the Beatles. The other was in the Mersey Beat Pollwinners Concert. On both occasions we were on just prior to the Beatles, and we had to pass one another… face-to-face, yet nothing was ever said.”
By joining the Beatles, Ringo Starr had set up a chain reaction.
Rory Storm and the Hurricanes were Ringo-less at Skegness. Johnny Guitar: “Someone at the camp said he’d play drums for us. We said, ‘Are you a drummer?’ and he said, ‘No, I’m an actor.’ He was Anthony Ashdown, who had been in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. He got us by for a week or two until a relief drummer could come out.”
Drummer Dave Lovelady was returning from Hamburg and Ringo was going to replace him in Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes: “About 10 days after the first letter, Kingsize got a second letter from Ringo saying that he was joining the Beatles instead. I came home and we did a swop with the Four Jays. Brian Redman took my place, and I joined the Four Jays or the Fourmost, as they were to become.”
Brian Redman stayed 5 months with the Dominoes and then joined the country-rock band, Sonny Webb and the Cascades, who became the Hillsiders. Kingsize Taylor: “We then took Gibson Kemp to Hamburg, who was playing for Rory Storm at that time. As he was only fifteen, I had to go to London and sign a guarantee to get him out of the country. I had to act as a guardian for him. He was a cracking drummer, the greatest rock drummer who ever came out of Liverpool. I was so glad I took Gibson and everybody seemed to be happy about the changes right the way down the line.”
Except perhaps Rory Storm. Lee Curtis: “Rory Storm told me that he’d got another drummer. I said, ‘Why another one? Gibson Kemp’s a knockout.’ He said, ‘I’ve lost Ringo and now I’ve lost Gibson as well as he’s joining the Dominoes.’ I said, ‘What’s going on, Rory? Why can’t you keep your drummers?’ He said, ‘What can I say? I make ’em and they take ’em.’”