Post by restlesswind on Aug 20, 2007 19:23:04 GMT 1
I found this article about Pete Best: Hope it's not too long!!
Pete Best was drummer with the Beatles from 1960 to 1962 and at one point he was the most popular member of the group among the majority of Liverpool fans.
In fact, in 1962, Mersey Beat was to observe that he was: 'a figure with mystique, darkly good-looking and seemingly the one likely to emerge as the most popular Beatle.'
He was born Peter Randolph Best in Madras, India on 24 November 1941. His English parents were stationed in India at the time, where his father, John, was an army physical training instructor and his mother, Mona, was a nurse in the Red Cross.
Following the birth of Pete's brother, Rory in 1944, the family sailed to England, moving to Liverpool and initially settling into a flat in Casey Street. Two years later they moved to 8 Haymans Green, a 15-room Victorian house in the West Derby district of the city.
When, at the age of 16, Pete began to take an interest in skiffle and rock 'n' roll music, he was encouraged by his parents. As so many friends were dropping in to see Pete and Rory, their mother suggested a novel idea -- they could have a meeting place of their own by utilising the seven adjoining basement rooms. The idea developed until they decided to turn the basement into a coffee bar-style venue, which was similar to Lowlands, a nearby club.
Mona (generally known to everyone as 'Mo') and her sons, together with about ten friends, began work on converting the basement. They had decided to open during the week as a coffee bar -- where youngsters could dance to jukebox music -- but would hire live groups for the weekend.
One of their helpers was Ruth Morrison, the girlfriend of George Harrison, who suggested that the Les Stewart Quartet, of which George was a member, could play at the club. They were currently appearing at the Lowlands club, which was situated on the opposite side of the street, 50 yards down from the Bests' home.
As a result, George and Ken Brown, another member of the quartet, came around to see Mo.
However, group leader Les Stewart didn't want to appear in the new coffee club, which Mo called the Casbah, and he had an argument with Brown. Brown left the group and George followed.
George then turned up with John Lennon and Paul McCartney and they teamed up with Brown as a quartet, assuming the former name of John's skiffle group, the Quarry Men, to begin their residency. The group didn't use a drummer at the time.
The club officially opened on Saturday 29 August 1959 and within a year they enrolled 1,000 members.
On Saturday 10 October 1959 there was a dispute because Brown was unable to play, yet Mrs Best still paid him a share of the group's fee. As a result, John, George and Paul walked out on their residency and sacked Brown.
Ken then encouraged Pete to form a new outfit with him and to take over a residency at the club. They called themselves the Blackjacks (the original name of Lennon's first group). Brown played rhythm, Charles Newby played lead, Bill Barlow played bass and Pete became the group's drummer.
Mo bought Pete a drum kit from Blackler's store (where George Harrison was to work for a time) and the group repertoire comprised numbers from rock 'n' roll acts such as Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins.
In the meantime, the Quarry Men underwent a number of name changes ranging from Johnny & the Moondogs to the Beatals to the Silver Beetles, and enlisted the services of drummer Tommy Moore. As the Silver Beatles, they toured Scotland, backing Johnny Gentle and then began appearing in Liverpool, mainly at the Jacaranda Coffee club, the Grosvenor Ballroom, Liscard and the Institute, Neston.
On 6 August 1960 their Grosvenor gig was cancelled when Wallasey Corporation withdrew promoter Les Dodd's licence to operate there and that evening they dropped into the Casbah club, where they saw Pete perform with the Blackjacks. His new blue mother-of-pearl drum kit particularly impressed them.
At that time they had accepted their first Hamburg booking, which was to commence on 13 August. However, they were without a drummer as Tommy Moore had left them.
One afternoon Paul phoned Pete at home and asked: "How'd you like to come to Hamburg with the Beatles?"
Aware that the Blackjacks were on the point of disbanding and excited by the prospect of foreign climes Pete accepted and successfully auditioned for the band at the Wyvern club. After playing together for 20 minutes on numbers such as 'Shakin' All Over', they told him, "You're in!"
The line-up of the Beatles now comprised John Lennon (rhythm/vocals), Paul McCartney (rhythm/vocals), George Harrison (lead/vocals), Stuart Sutcliffe (bass/vocals) and Pete Best (drums).
Arriving in Hamburg they discovered they were not playing at the Kaiserkeller as they had assumed, but at a smaller club called the Indra, which was further down, at the seedier end of the Grosse Freiheit.
After several weeks at the Indra, they then played at the Kaiserkeller and when their season was coming to an end, they had intended to move on to the Top Ten Club in the nearby Reeperbahn.
The groups' sleeping quarters were cramped ones at the rear of the Bambi Kino, owned by Bruno Koschmider, who ran the Kaiserkeller. Stu Sutcliffe moved out to live in Astrid Kirchherr's house and, when Koschmider found the group intended to move on to the rival Top Ten, George was deported for being under age.
John, Paul and Pete moved into the dormitory of the Top Ten, intending to play for a season at the club as a quartet with Stuart.
As Pete and Paul needed to collect the rest of their belongings from the Bambi Kino, they crept along there one night to pack. In the windowless rooms, there was no light so some lateral thinking had them pinning condoms into a frayed tapestry in the hall and then lighting them. The condoms singed the tapestry and that evening the police came and arrested the two of them for allegedly trying to set fire to the premises.
Pete and Paul left their equipment behind and John remained in Hamburg for a further week, while Stuart decided to stay on with Astrid. Mona Best phoned Peter Eckhorn, who sent their kit over by ship, and the group then intended to take up a residency at Williams' new club, the Top Ten. Unfortunately, it burned to the ground and the Beatles were left with few bookings. Mo got to work, offering them several gigs at the Casbah, setting up some promotions of her own to keep them in work, and Pete and Mo began to take over the bookings for the group. They were, in effect, managing the Beatles at the time.
Through Bob Wooler, the group were booked by Brian Kelly for Litherland Town Hall on 27 December 1960 -- a highlight in their local career. Their baptism of fire in Hamburg had made them an exceptionally dynamic outfit.
When recalling this time to Beatles' biographer, Hunter Davies, Pete said: "When we came back from Germany I was playing using my bass drum very loud and laying down a very solid beat. This was unheard of at the time in Liverpool as all the groups were playing in the Shadows' style. Even Ringo in Rory's group copied our beat and it wasn't long before most drummers in Liverpool were playing the same style. This way of drumming had a great deal to do with the big sound we were producing."
This style of playing (which Pete had developed in Germany) earned the tag 'the Atom Beat', and Pete was regarded as one of the 'Pool's leading drummers.
Issue No. 2 of Mersey Beat, published on 20 July 1961, devoted its entire front page to the story of the Beatles' Hamburg recording and Brian Epstein ordered 144 copies of that particular issue.
When Bob Wooler wrote his report on the Beatles' impact locally (in Mersey Beat on 31 August 1961), the only Beatle he named was Pete, describing the group as: 'musically authoritative and physically magnetic, example the mean, moody magnificence of drummer Pete Best -- a sort of teenage Jeff Chandler.'
It was due to pressure from Mo and Bob Wooler that Ray McFall eventually decided to book the Beatles at the Cavern and their rise to local fame continued at a meteoric pace. Pete and Mo continued to act as unofficial managers and agents for the group, arranging all their gigs and negotiating the fees.
Pete Best was emerging as the most popular Beatle among the fans. Bob Wooler considered him the Beatles' biggest asset and said that it was principally Best who was the attraction at the Aintree Institute and Litherland Town Hall gigs.
Due to his popularity, he was encouraged to introduce his own singing spot, 'Peppermint Twist' into the act. Next, Bob Wooler suggested something unprecedented -- place Pete in front of the other three members of the group. This unusual line-up was presented only once -- at the St Valentine's Dance on 14 February 1961 at Litherland Town Hall -- because the stage was mobbed when the girls surged forward and almost pulled him off. This had never happened when John, Paul and George were in the front line.
Reports in Mersey Beat and comments by people involved in the local scene confirm Best's huge local appeal. One story related how girls slept in his garden overnight just to be near him!
Promoter Ron Appleby was to comment: "He was definitely the big attraction with the group and did much to establish their popularity during their early career."
In 1963, the Cavern doorman, Paddy Delaney, was to recall:
"Before the Beatles recorded, Pete was inclined to be more popular with the girls than any other member of the group. There were several reasons why I believe he was so popular. Girls were attracted by the fact that he wouldn't smile, even though they tried to make him. They also tried to attract his attention on stage, but he wouldn't look at them. When he left the Beatles there were exclamations of surprise. 'the Beatles will never be the same without him'...'He was the Beatles'...'They've taken away the vital part', were comments I heard."
When Brian Epstein took over the management reigns, it was Pete who discussed gigs and fees with him. The two men had an amicable relationship, although Pete was to point out that Brian once attempted to seduce him and had asked if he would come to a hotel and stay with him overnight. Pete politely told him to forget it -- and nothing further was said.
1961 was an event-packed year, in which the group's Cavern bookings increased. They went on another trip to Hamburg, during which Stuart Sutcliffe left the band. The Beatles also recorded in Hamburg with Tony Sheridan and Bert Kaempfert. Astrid Kirchherr fashioned Stuart's hair in a style that was developed by Jurgen Vollmer for John and Paul in Paris and later became known as the 'moptop.' Astrid never offered to style Pete's hair and no one ever asked him to adopt the hairstyle.
Astrid said she never attempted to style Pete's hair because it was too curly, although Pete said he would have agreed to the style if he'd been asked. Too many writers have written, inaccurately, that one of the reasons he was fired was because he refused to adopt the moptop.
The Beatles began 1962 with a Decca recording audition and were confirmed as Liverpool's No.1 group in a January issue on Mersey Beat. On 7 March 1962 they made their broadcasting debut on 'Teenager's Turn' in Manchester. When they recorded their second radio appearance on 11 June, Pete was mobbed by the Manchester girls, while John, Paul and George managed to make their way to the coach. When Pete finally managed to break free and join the others, he was reprimanded by Paul's father, who accused him of hogging the limelight.
That month, Pete learned by accident that Decca had rejected the group. The other members knew about it, but no one had bothered to inform Pete. He said: "I was hurt because I was the last to know about it. The others knew a couple of weeks earlier. They let it slip out in a casual conversation one day."
Pete was also to comment: "When I did eventually learn our fate, their lame excuse was that they had all thought I would take the result extremely badly."
When news of the Parlophone deal came through, Mersey Beat ran the story on the front page, featuring a photograph of Pete Best with the caption: "Congratulations to Pete, Paul, John and George."
The Beatles were now on the brink of success, but a number of incidents hinted at a covert plan to get rid of Pete. Apart from the fact that the others had not immediately informed him of the Decca audition result, a similar situation occurred regarding the Parlophone contract -- they just didn't bother to tell him.
When Pete was chatting with Paul and mentioned he was considering buying a Ford Capri, Paul told him: "If you take my advice you won't buy it, that's all. You'd be better saving your money."
On Wednesday 15 August 1962, following their lunchtime gig at the Cavern, Pete asked John what time he and Neil Aspinall would collect him for the customary lift in the van the next day. John said: "No, don't bother. I've got other arrangements," and rushed away.
Brian was still in the Cavern and asked Pete if he could come and see him at the office the next morning. Pete saw nothing unusual in this -- he was the one who met with Brian regularly to discuss forthcoming gigs. He arrived at NEMS the next day, driven by Neil, and went to meet Brian in his office.
The manager seemed unusually flustered and blurted out: "The boys want you out and Ringo in. They don't think you're a good enough drummer, Pete. And George Martin doesn't think you're a good enough drummer."
When Pete asked him: "Does Ringo know yet?", Brian told him that he was joining the band on the coming Saturday. Then the phone rang -- it was someone asking if Pete had been given the news. Brian asked Pete if he could fulfil the remaining three bookings until Ringo replaced him.
Stunned, Pete said "Yes", then left, in somewhat of a daze.
Pete Best was drummer with the Beatles from 1960 to 1962 and at one point he was the most popular member of the group among the majority of Liverpool fans.
In fact, in 1962, Mersey Beat was to observe that he was: 'a figure with mystique, darkly good-looking and seemingly the one likely to emerge as the most popular Beatle.'
He was born Peter Randolph Best in Madras, India on 24 November 1941. His English parents were stationed in India at the time, where his father, John, was an army physical training instructor and his mother, Mona, was a nurse in the Red Cross.
Following the birth of Pete's brother, Rory in 1944, the family sailed to England, moving to Liverpool and initially settling into a flat in Casey Street. Two years later they moved to 8 Haymans Green, a 15-room Victorian house in the West Derby district of the city.
When, at the age of 16, Pete began to take an interest in skiffle and rock 'n' roll music, he was encouraged by his parents. As so many friends were dropping in to see Pete and Rory, their mother suggested a novel idea -- they could have a meeting place of their own by utilising the seven adjoining basement rooms. The idea developed until they decided to turn the basement into a coffee bar-style venue, which was similar to Lowlands, a nearby club.
Mona (generally known to everyone as 'Mo') and her sons, together with about ten friends, began work on converting the basement. They had decided to open during the week as a coffee bar -- where youngsters could dance to jukebox music -- but would hire live groups for the weekend.
One of their helpers was Ruth Morrison, the girlfriend of George Harrison, who suggested that the Les Stewart Quartet, of which George was a member, could play at the club. They were currently appearing at the Lowlands club, which was situated on the opposite side of the street, 50 yards down from the Bests' home.
As a result, George and Ken Brown, another member of the quartet, came around to see Mo.
However, group leader Les Stewart didn't want to appear in the new coffee club, which Mo called the Casbah, and he had an argument with Brown. Brown left the group and George followed.
George then turned up with John Lennon and Paul McCartney and they teamed up with Brown as a quartet, assuming the former name of John's skiffle group, the Quarry Men, to begin their residency. The group didn't use a drummer at the time.
The club officially opened on Saturday 29 August 1959 and within a year they enrolled 1,000 members.
On Saturday 10 October 1959 there was a dispute because Brown was unable to play, yet Mrs Best still paid him a share of the group's fee. As a result, John, George and Paul walked out on their residency and sacked Brown.
Ken then encouraged Pete to form a new outfit with him and to take over a residency at the club. They called themselves the Blackjacks (the original name of Lennon's first group). Brown played rhythm, Charles Newby played lead, Bill Barlow played bass and Pete became the group's drummer.
Mo bought Pete a drum kit from Blackler's store (where George Harrison was to work for a time) and the group repertoire comprised numbers from rock 'n' roll acts such as Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins.
In the meantime, the Quarry Men underwent a number of name changes ranging from Johnny & the Moondogs to the Beatals to the Silver Beetles, and enlisted the services of drummer Tommy Moore. As the Silver Beatles, they toured Scotland, backing Johnny Gentle and then began appearing in Liverpool, mainly at the Jacaranda Coffee club, the Grosvenor Ballroom, Liscard and the Institute, Neston.
On 6 August 1960 their Grosvenor gig was cancelled when Wallasey Corporation withdrew promoter Les Dodd's licence to operate there and that evening they dropped into the Casbah club, where they saw Pete perform with the Blackjacks. His new blue mother-of-pearl drum kit particularly impressed them.
At that time they had accepted their first Hamburg booking, which was to commence on 13 August. However, they were without a drummer as Tommy Moore had left them.
One afternoon Paul phoned Pete at home and asked: "How'd you like to come to Hamburg with the Beatles?"
Aware that the Blackjacks were on the point of disbanding and excited by the prospect of foreign climes Pete accepted and successfully auditioned for the band at the Wyvern club. After playing together for 20 minutes on numbers such as 'Shakin' All Over', they told him, "You're in!"
The line-up of the Beatles now comprised John Lennon (rhythm/vocals), Paul McCartney (rhythm/vocals), George Harrison (lead/vocals), Stuart Sutcliffe (bass/vocals) and Pete Best (drums).
Arriving in Hamburg they discovered they were not playing at the Kaiserkeller as they had assumed, but at a smaller club called the Indra, which was further down, at the seedier end of the Grosse Freiheit.
After several weeks at the Indra, they then played at the Kaiserkeller and when their season was coming to an end, they had intended to move on to the Top Ten Club in the nearby Reeperbahn.
The groups' sleeping quarters were cramped ones at the rear of the Bambi Kino, owned by Bruno Koschmider, who ran the Kaiserkeller. Stu Sutcliffe moved out to live in Astrid Kirchherr's house and, when Koschmider found the group intended to move on to the rival Top Ten, George was deported for being under age.
John, Paul and Pete moved into the dormitory of the Top Ten, intending to play for a season at the club as a quartet with Stuart.
As Pete and Paul needed to collect the rest of their belongings from the Bambi Kino, they crept along there one night to pack. In the windowless rooms, there was no light so some lateral thinking had them pinning condoms into a frayed tapestry in the hall and then lighting them. The condoms singed the tapestry and that evening the police came and arrested the two of them for allegedly trying to set fire to the premises.
Pete and Paul left their equipment behind and John remained in Hamburg for a further week, while Stuart decided to stay on with Astrid. Mona Best phoned Peter Eckhorn, who sent their kit over by ship, and the group then intended to take up a residency at Williams' new club, the Top Ten. Unfortunately, it burned to the ground and the Beatles were left with few bookings. Mo got to work, offering them several gigs at the Casbah, setting up some promotions of her own to keep them in work, and Pete and Mo began to take over the bookings for the group. They were, in effect, managing the Beatles at the time.
Through Bob Wooler, the group were booked by Brian Kelly for Litherland Town Hall on 27 December 1960 -- a highlight in their local career. Their baptism of fire in Hamburg had made them an exceptionally dynamic outfit.
When recalling this time to Beatles' biographer, Hunter Davies, Pete said: "When we came back from Germany I was playing using my bass drum very loud and laying down a very solid beat. This was unheard of at the time in Liverpool as all the groups were playing in the Shadows' style. Even Ringo in Rory's group copied our beat and it wasn't long before most drummers in Liverpool were playing the same style. This way of drumming had a great deal to do with the big sound we were producing."
This style of playing (which Pete had developed in Germany) earned the tag 'the Atom Beat', and Pete was regarded as one of the 'Pool's leading drummers.
Issue No. 2 of Mersey Beat, published on 20 July 1961, devoted its entire front page to the story of the Beatles' Hamburg recording and Brian Epstein ordered 144 copies of that particular issue.
When Bob Wooler wrote his report on the Beatles' impact locally (in Mersey Beat on 31 August 1961), the only Beatle he named was Pete, describing the group as: 'musically authoritative and physically magnetic, example the mean, moody magnificence of drummer Pete Best -- a sort of teenage Jeff Chandler.'
It was due to pressure from Mo and Bob Wooler that Ray McFall eventually decided to book the Beatles at the Cavern and their rise to local fame continued at a meteoric pace. Pete and Mo continued to act as unofficial managers and agents for the group, arranging all their gigs and negotiating the fees.
Pete Best was emerging as the most popular Beatle among the fans. Bob Wooler considered him the Beatles' biggest asset and said that it was principally Best who was the attraction at the Aintree Institute and Litherland Town Hall gigs.
Due to his popularity, he was encouraged to introduce his own singing spot, 'Peppermint Twist' into the act. Next, Bob Wooler suggested something unprecedented -- place Pete in front of the other three members of the group. This unusual line-up was presented only once -- at the St Valentine's Dance on 14 February 1961 at Litherland Town Hall -- because the stage was mobbed when the girls surged forward and almost pulled him off. This had never happened when John, Paul and George were in the front line.
Reports in Mersey Beat and comments by people involved in the local scene confirm Best's huge local appeal. One story related how girls slept in his garden overnight just to be near him!
Promoter Ron Appleby was to comment: "He was definitely the big attraction with the group and did much to establish their popularity during their early career."
In 1963, the Cavern doorman, Paddy Delaney, was to recall:
"Before the Beatles recorded, Pete was inclined to be more popular with the girls than any other member of the group. There were several reasons why I believe he was so popular. Girls were attracted by the fact that he wouldn't smile, even though they tried to make him. They also tried to attract his attention on stage, but he wouldn't look at them. When he left the Beatles there were exclamations of surprise. 'the Beatles will never be the same without him'...'He was the Beatles'...'They've taken away the vital part', were comments I heard."
When Brian Epstein took over the management reigns, it was Pete who discussed gigs and fees with him. The two men had an amicable relationship, although Pete was to point out that Brian once attempted to seduce him and had asked if he would come to a hotel and stay with him overnight. Pete politely told him to forget it -- and nothing further was said.
1961 was an event-packed year, in which the group's Cavern bookings increased. They went on another trip to Hamburg, during which Stuart Sutcliffe left the band. The Beatles also recorded in Hamburg with Tony Sheridan and Bert Kaempfert. Astrid Kirchherr fashioned Stuart's hair in a style that was developed by Jurgen Vollmer for John and Paul in Paris and later became known as the 'moptop.' Astrid never offered to style Pete's hair and no one ever asked him to adopt the hairstyle.
Astrid said she never attempted to style Pete's hair because it was too curly, although Pete said he would have agreed to the style if he'd been asked. Too many writers have written, inaccurately, that one of the reasons he was fired was because he refused to adopt the moptop.
The Beatles began 1962 with a Decca recording audition and were confirmed as Liverpool's No.1 group in a January issue on Mersey Beat. On 7 March 1962 they made their broadcasting debut on 'Teenager's Turn' in Manchester. When they recorded their second radio appearance on 11 June, Pete was mobbed by the Manchester girls, while John, Paul and George managed to make their way to the coach. When Pete finally managed to break free and join the others, he was reprimanded by Paul's father, who accused him of hogging the limelight.
That month, Pete learned by accident that Decca had rejected the group. The other members knew about it, but no one had bothered to inform Pete. He said: "I was hurt because I was the last to know about it. The others knew a couple of weeks earlier. They let it slip out in a casual conversation one day."
Pete was also to comment: "When I did eventually learn our fate, their lame excuse was that they had all thought I would take the result extremely badly."
When news of the Parlophone deal came through, Mersey Beat ran the story on the front page, featuring a photograph of Pete Best with the caption: "Congratulations to Pete, Paul, John and George."
The Beatles were now on the brink of success, but a number of incidents hinted at a covert plan to get rid of Pete. Apart from the fact that the others had not immediately informed him of the Decca audition result, a similar situation occurred regarding the Parlophone contract -- they just didn't bother to tell him.
When Pete was chatting with Paul and mentioned he was considering buying a Ford Capri, Paul told him: "If you take my advice you won't buy it, that's all. You'd be better saving your money."
On Wednesday 15 August 1962, following their lunchtime gig at the Cavern, Pete asked John what time he and Neil Aspinall would collect him for the customary lift in the van the next day. John said: "No, don't bother. I've got other arrangements," and rushed away.
Brian was still in the Cavern and asked Pete if he could come and see him at the office the next morning. Pete saw nothing unusual in this -- he was the one who met with Brian regularly to discuss forthcoming gigs. He arrived at NEMS the next day, driven by Neil, and went to meet Brian in his office.
The manager seemed unusually flustered and blurted out: "The boys want you out and Ringo in. They don't think you're a good enough drummer, Pete. And George Martin doesn't think you're a good enough drummer."
When Pete asked him: "Does Ringo know yet?", Brian told him that he was joining the band on the coming Saturday. Then the phone rang -- it was someone asking if Pete had been given the news. Brian asked Pete if he could fulfil the remaining three bookings until Ringo replaced him.
Stunned, Pete said "Yes", then left, in somewhat of a daze.
