The Bealtes 909 is meant for the "above average" Beatles fan. Those of you who already know the basics about the Fab Four will hopefully discover facts that you did not know before.
Please continue down the page to view the background of each of the Fab Four from birth to Hamburg!
John
And In The Beginning . . . John Winston Lennon, named John after his grandfather and Winston after the country’s heroic leader, Winston Churchill, was born to Freddie Lennon and Julia Stanley during a raid of German bombs on October 9, 1940. Both John’s parents were intellectually clever and always looking for a good time. With the same quick-wit humor, joking and playing, the couple was perfect match and inseparable. Freddie, being the fun-loving guy he was, had a difficult time holding down a job out of sheer boredom. Therefore, he put himself in the unique position to not have the choice to bounce from job to job and set to sea as a merchant navy steward for months at a time. Although this did bring home a comfortable income for his new wife and baby son to live on at 9 Newcastle Road, Julia never saw her husband and John never saw his father.
For the first few years, Julia threw herself into motherhood caring and doting over her son. Unfortunately, this new responsibility, coupled with having to take her father in after her mother died, weighed heavily on Julia and wore her out quickly. She was out on the town once more and met a man named Bobby Dykins. Bobby was suave, dapper, responsible, and successful; but he was also moody, unpredictable and a mean drunk. There were times when John would see his mother’s glowing face bruised and bloodied. Even at this young age, John must have disapproved of Bobby, nicknaming him Twitchy because of his nervous cough. After Bobby and Julia moved in together, Julia’s full-time attention went from doting over her son to keeping her relationship together.
With this lack of proper upbringing for John, among other things that had built up over the years, Julia’s oldest sister, Mary Elizabeth (known as Mimi) took six-year-old John to live with her and Uncle George at 251 Menlove Ave. in Woolton. The house they lived in was called Mendips, which was a cozy abode with seven rooms, stucco, brick, and a golf course across the street. Mimi and George did not have children of their own and just doted over their little nephew. John’s next five years were full of joy and playfulness in a terrific environment for little boy to grow up, unfortunately, damage had already been done in the first five years. But now able to flourish in this new stable environment, John was beginning to explore books, word play, and art, which he was very good at and greatly enjoyed. When John was 12 years old, he began Quarry Bank grammar school.
As soon as John was confined to the mundane drudgery of school, he began realizing that he was different. He had difficulty with school work and paying attention, which the teachers and headmasters insisted he was just a trouble child who needed to buckle down. However, on one fateful day, it was made apparent that John wasn’t unable to learn or pay attention, he just wasn’t interested and found school a waste of his time. That was the fateful day that he first heard Elvis Presley over the wave frequencies of Radio Luxembourg. From that point on, there was no turning back for John Lennon - rock n’ roll had taken a hold of him full force! There was only one problem - he didn’t know how to play an instrument.
Laying The Foundation John’s mother Julia, who visited almost every day since he was living with Mimi, saw this new spark in her son. Whereas Mimi was not supportive of this newfound interest (after all, you can’t make a living with rock n’ roll), Julia was all for it! She gave John a banjo and showed him the few chords she knew. John quickly commissioned a few of his friends to be in a band with him. All the guys were apprehensive because none of them played instruments, or even wanted to! John convinced them that it was the spirit of rock n’ roll more than anything, and skiffle was in at the time - they could start with that. Skiffle was becoming the big craze because you did not have to have musical experience or instruments (most of the instruments were made of old household items like washboards and tea chests) - the original “garage band” minus the garage. The band would be called The Quarry Men after the school they all attended.
The Quarry Men had small gigs like birthday parties, but they just weren’t all that good. With no one having a musical background or really any desire to be in a band, they were pretty much driven only by John’s passionate (and sometimes demanding) fumes that he was performing. On July 6, 1957, The Quarry Men played on a raised stage at the St. Peter’s church garden fete, a town gala that many of the youth eagerly awaited to socialize, play, and eat. One of those teens was John’s friend, Ivan Vaughan, who brought along a baby-faced, charming boy he had befriended, Paul McCartney. Not only did this guy look young, but he was only fifteen - he did not impress the seventeen-year-old bad-boy front man, John Lennon. John paid no heed to Paul, that is, until after the Quarry Men were finished playing and Ivan told Paul to play his guitar for the guys. When Paul whipped out his guitar and played a perfect rendition of Eddie Cochran’s Twenty Flight Rock, with such passion, such talent, and no apprehensions whatsoever, John was absolutely blown over! From that moment on, The Quarry Men was not a backing band for John Lennon, it was John and Paul’s band - and even that began to go through a slow metamorphosis.
As John and Paul were getting tighter and tighter, the rest of the band was either dropping off or being pushed aside; after all, no one could keep up with the passion that drove John and Paul through their music. Many factors made it difficult for a band to have the proper chance to develop: it was very difficult to learn chords, music, and words, other than listening to the radio or going to the local record shop and listening to a track over and over again until they were kicked out; they didn’t have money to buy proper equipment; and they had school to attend. At this point, John was just finishing (failing) school and had to transition into adulthood. With unwavering persistence, Aunt Mimi managed to get John into art college, allowing him to avoid the working world for a couple more years. Paul was in an accelerated school program, which he was becoming less and less interested in now that rock n’ roll was occupying his mind constantly, and now beginning to fall behind so far he could not catch up again.
Still, Paul would ride the bus to and from school, usually sitting and talking with the bus driver’s son, George Harrison. If Paul McCartney looked young, George looked like a baby. But George was the one and only challenge for Paul musically - that boy could play a mean guitar! Paul told John about George and how he would be an invaluable addition to the band. On February 6, 1958, George was introduced to John, but John did not approve - with George and Paul both being and looking so young, it was ruining the rough rock n’ roll image John had in mind. But after hearing George rip through one of the more difficult rock n’ roll songs, Raunchy (which Paul was aspiring at the time to play as well as George), John realized that talent and sound would probably get them further than how they looked anyway. With John, Paul, and George all playing guitar, and one or two of the original Quarry Men remaining, the band tried to book gigs, but there just wasn’t that much demand for a rock n’ roll group.
By now John and Paul were beginning to write originals together. In June, The Quarry Men played a dinner dance at St. Barnabas Hall, where John’s mother Julia came and proudly watched her son fronting his own band. They had a set of songs they could play, but more importantly, they rocked the house! All accountings of the early gigs once John, Paul and George were in the band, were that they weren’t that great, but they had a stage presence that was unmatched. Devastatingly, this was the only time Julia would see her son play on stage. July 15, 1958, while John was at Julia’s house waiting for his mother to return home from visiting Mimi, Julia was run down by an intoxicated off-duty policeman hugging the corner of the street to tightly as Julia began to cross. One of John’s friends, Nigel Wally, witnessed the horrifying accident that evening. From then on, Nigel and John’s friendship was never the same, and neither was John - ever. For the next few months, John was lost, grieving and depressed. Not even music could save him during this time. Paul and George gave him room to heal, but would sometimes become frustrated and impatient with John wallowing in his pity (at one point, George discreetly joined another band). After all, Paul and George now had nothing going for them either, having put the band as priority over everything, including their futures as respectable men in Liverpool.
With A Little Help One key player in helping John out of the hole of emptiness after his mother’s tragic death was his best friend at art college, Stuart Sutcliffe. Although seeming to be the complete opposite physically, mentally, and emotionally, Stu and John had a bond that could not be penetrated. They each taught each other and learned from each other (John and Paul had the same relationship) with a mutual respect that no one else could offer them. As John felt comfortable in performing and perusing gigs again, he had to take Stu with him. Stuart was a very talented artist, and had just sold one of his paintings. John, Paul and George convinced him to buy a bass guitar and they’d teach him how to play. Now that they were revamping the band, they needed a new name. John and Stuart came up with the name, The Beatals, to look like beat music as a joke, because they weren’t a beat band - they were rock n’ roll.
The boys would frequent a coffee bar called the Jacaranda. It was a place where many of the art college students would go to sit and talk art and philosophy. Allan Williams was the owner of this bar, and was an ambitious businessman who was trying to get his finger on the pulse of this new growing Liverpool phenomenon of skiffle and rock n’ roll bands. Through Williams on April 10, 1960, The Beatals auditioned for a talent coordinator and agent, Larry Parnes, who chose them to open for his new up-and-comer, Johnny Gentle. The Beatals were getting their toe in the water touring with Johnny Gentle, but it was through Williams that the band was to be invited to play in Hamburg, Germany. They needed two things before they were ready, however, a new name and a drummer. They quickly came up with both: The Silver Beetles, adding a little more catch, became the new name; and Pete Best, a strapping, mysterious-looking young man the guys knew because he was the son of the owner of a club they used to play at, the Casbah (and he had the look and the drum kit they were looking for) became the drummer. Hamburg was a very scary place for anyone, even the Germans.
August, 1960, (now known as just )The Beatles were hired to play in the red-light district of St. Pauli, a strip named Reeperbahn, where men flocked to get drunk, have orgies (kind of like a really rough Las Vegas). The were to play sets at a club called Indra, owned by a man named Bruno Koschmider. Their living conditions were horrible and their work schedule was grueling. Word had spread that this new group, The Beatles were on fire! They had developed the perfect show for what this audience demanded. Soon, due to numerous complaints and visits by the police, Bruno decided to close down the Indra. The Beatles were such a hot commodity though, that Koschmider moved them to his other club, the Kaiserkeller (which was a step up from the Indra), to share the stage with their hometown rivals Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. John would say later that they (John, Paul, and George) were born in Liverpool, but grew up in Hamburg.
Paul
An Unlikely Couple James Paul McCartney was born June 18, 1942 in Walton Hospital to Jim and Mary McCartney. Paul was named after his father, James, but was called Paul as not to be confused with his father. When Jim was young, he started working as a sample boy in a cotton firm, then naturally moved up to salesman because of his outgoing, charming demeanor. On the side, he loved music and had taught himself how to play piano mostly by ear. During the early 1920’s Jim fronted his own band, the Masked Melody Makers, and then later Jim Mac’s Jazz Band. Paul’s first introduction to music, and the lasting influence of his own, was due to his father’s musical passion and taste during Paul’s childhood. Mary Mohin was a career-conscious, intelligent woman who spent all of her time devoted to nursing from the time she was fourteen, and had worked her way up the ranks and achieved the prestigious degree of state-registered nurse. When Jim and Mary met at one of Jim’s family’s parties June 1940, he was forty and she was thirty one; each of their friends and family had resigned to the fact that they would both be single for life. Mary had arrived to this soirée with Jim’s sister Jin (Auntie Jin from Let ’Em In). She spent most of the party quietly sitting in a chair in the corner, while Jim was at the piano entertaining guests. As it often happened in Liverpool during the early 1940’s, an air raid began that night and the gathering was forced to go down into the cellar for protection. This is where the party resumed until dawn, allowing Jim to take a rest from entertaining and engage Mary in conversation. She was taken by his steel-blue eyes, trim build and outgoing personality; and Jim knew he had met the love of his life. The unlikely couple courted for less than a year and was married April of 1941.
The McCartney’s moved around frequently during Paul’s childhood. They were always trying to “climb the ladder” and provide the best possible life for their family. Jim refused to be a victim of circumstance and Mary always worked and strived for a better life, two main attributes the couple instilled in their boy and was apparent in Paul’s work ethic through his life. Paul’s first home was in Anfield, Everton; then they moved across the Mersey to Wallasey. In 1944, Paul became a big brother to the family’s new baby Peter Michael McCartney, who also was called by his middle name. The McCartney’s, now four, moved yet again back to the mainland to Knowsley Estates. Although Jim would never let circumstances bring him down, the war was taking its toll on all of Liverpool and the independent cotton company he had worked for all his life was taken over by the Corporation and sales were scarce, if any. Mary decided to go back to work to help her husband out and get out of the house (those boys were turning out to be a handful, to say the least). She began work as a midwife, which was on high-demand and called Mary out all the time. Jim essentially began raising his sons while Mary, on a moment’s notice, would have to gather all of her equipment, strap her bag on her back, and jump on her bicycle rain or shine, day or night to help birth a baby.
In 1946, Mary’s boss moved the McCartneys to 72 Western Avenue in Speke to a two-bedroom home with a spacious kitchen, and although it was nothing special, it was a step up from Knowsley Estates. There was plenty of open space for the boys to play in Speke. Then a year later, they moved again to the outer limits of Speke to Ardwick Road. Paul remembers feeling like he was on the edge of the world, very isolated; but the two brothers learned to entertain each other. After a year or so, Mary began feeling stomach pains, but just thought it was indigestion caused by stress from the grueling schedule and physical demands of her midwifery. When the pain did not subside, Jim urged Mary to get a check up. The doctors confirmed something that, being in the medical industry, Mary suspected but did not want to hear - she had cancer and it was in the advanced stages. As devastating as this news was, Mary only let on to Jim that she was scared and worried; her boys didn’t know. They continued to be the most rambunctious couple of boys one could imagine. As Mary’s pain subsided for a while, she ignored her diagnosis and went about her job and family life as usual, now preparing her boys for school.
A Higher Education Paul had grown into the most adorable boy with his cherub face and inherited charm (after his father), while his mother had raised him to be a very polite, well-spoken gentleman. He took naturally to everything he tried and had a real sense of himself. Paul had developed this unwavering demeanor of self confidence, but balanced this borderline arrogance with self-depreciation and showing that he was eager to please. As he entered into Joseph Williams Primary School, Paul supplemented his education with philosophical discussions with his father (Paul loved to get him started) during evenings. Mary recognized her first son was clever and really pushed for his education wanting to groom him for medical school, as not to waste his natural abilities. Out of several hundred in Paul’s class, ninety students took the Eleven Plus Exam (the test that determines if a student goes onto grammar school or would go on to earn the highly honored General Certificate of Education), and only four passed, including Paul. Although his mother was absolutely ecstatic, Paul was less enthusiastic because it took him away from his friends, who would go on to grammar school.
The fall of 1953, eleven-year-old Paul took a bus from his home to Mount Street, a routine he would adapt to quickly, and later in life miss. When he arrived at his new school, most of the students there were seventeen and eighteen years old and exceptional, pretty intimidating to the first-year students. Paul excelled in art and language, but the entire school experience was very challenging and took every ounce of his concentration and abilities just to keep up. By his third year, Paul became distracted by a new exploding passion in his life after hearing American rock n’ roll. Recognizing Paul’s passion for this new form of music, his father decided to take this opportunity to fine tune Paul’s (and Mike’s) musical ear, teach him how to identify instruments when hearing them, recognize chord patterns, and the structure of harmonies. Jim insisted that his boys learn music properly, unlike himself, and enrolled them in piano lessons. This did not last long, however, because the lessons would always be when Paul’s friends were urging him to go outside and play; plus, Paul and Mike were never very disciplined, anyway. Passing down the jazz tradition, Jim gave Paul a trumpet from his cousin Ian Harris, as sort of a rite of passage. Paul was not very passionate about playing the trumpet and later commented he had realized that he couldn’t sing with an instrument in his mouth (the same problem John Lennon found with the mouth organ).
Anyway, he was into rock n’ roll, not jazz, and was now listening to a nighttime radio show that played all the American musicians like Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Little Richard, The Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry, and the King - Elvis Presley. Paul couldn’t get enough of the explosiveness of these songs and the range of vocals coming from Little Richard, in particular. Sitting and listening for hours on end alone with the radio, Paul would imitated the singers’ sounds and words, and studied the guitar licks. But now he needed a guitar. Paul reasoned (he was always very good at negotiating) with his father to trade in his trumpet for a guitar. After some persuasion, Jim allowed it and Paul went down to the local music shop and got himself a Zenith sunburst guitar with f-holes and a cutaway tuning head. Now, he was able to teach himself rock n’ roll!
The Final Stop The McCartney’s moved yet again to a council house on 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton, not far from Speke to a three bedroom, brown-bricked cottage, remnant of a gingerbread house in late 1955. During the following summer, Paul was obsessed with his guitar. His brother, Mike, remembers Paul would just be alone for hours indoors trying out different sounds and fingerings. Being natural at the art of music and having an unquenched desire to play, Paul was very frustrated when he could not coordinate his hands with the strumming and fingering. But determined to successfully transfer the rhythm he felt inside himself to this guitar, he began to change the mechanics by trying to chord it as if it were right handed or turning the guitar around so the fingers were reversed, but nothing worked. Finally, Paul restrung the Zenith to reverse the strings so the highest string was on bottom and the lowest string was on top, and played it left-handed. Like magic, his rhythm and technique were synchronized. Now there was no stopping him!
Unfortunately, the spring of 1956, Mary’s stomach pains came back strong. It became too much for her to be a midwife, so she resumed her less-demanding former position with the Liverpool Corporation as a health visitor while she continued to care for her family at home. Some days she’d be doubled over in pain, but she always tried to keep her deteriorating health from her vibrant young boys. Soon, trying to hide it was moot because she could not even make it up the stairs without help. October 30, 1956, Mary was taken to the hospital where she would undergo a mastectomy. Before leaving her home, she made sure it was prepared for her husband and boys in case she was not to return. The operation was successful, but the cancer had spread more rapidly and severely than the doctors thought. The evening of October 31st, Jim dressed Paul and Mike up like proper gentlemen to see their mother. She was so proud of them when they walked in her hospital room. The surgery had wiped her out, but she put on her brave face as usual and enjoyed her boys playing on her carefree. A relative took the boys home, while Jim stayed with Mary. By 9 pm, Mary had passed away.
Paul was devastated, but being fourteen, he could not show his emotions. Instead he just learned to put a shell around himself, and for weeks Paul would just wonder around the house lost and detached. Nothing could ease his depression, except for music. Now music was not just a passion, it was a necessary therapy, and he would practice for hours on end, alone. Needless to say, his grades slipped even further now to the point of no return with Paul completely ignoring the preparation and requirements to take the next important test, the O-level Exams. His only inspiration and motivation to do well in school was now gone (Paul’s mother was also the inspiration behind the song Let It Be “Mother Mary,” after a dream he had about her. Paul also named his first born daughter Mary after her). Eight months later, “fete” stepped in when Paul McCartney accompanied his friend, Ivan Vaughan, to the St. Peter’s church garden fete and met his next inspiration, John Lennon.
New Beginnings By the time Paul met John in July 1957, it was natural for Paul to perform - he had practiced for hours on end emulating the rock n’ roll singers. Paul’s debut in the Quarry Men was October 18, 1957 (after leaving town for the summer) at an official gig at New Clubmoor Hall for the Conservation Club, a real posh group. To look professional, and hopefully be invited back, John and Paul decided to wear matching jackets. Paul had practiced relentlessly, to the annoyance of his other teenaged friends, to prepare for this debut. Halfway through the set, John introduced the newest member of the Quarry Men and the band began to play “Guitar Boogie Shuffle,” an instrumental piece meant to showcase Paul’s unbelievable fingering technique. Well, Paul missed his cue, slipped up on fingering and tried to recover by catching up with the band, unsuccessfully. After the song, Paul slinked back towards the rear of the stage cowering and waiting for John, concerned with the band’s professionalism and reputation, to give him quite a lashing. It was awkward for the other band members to see the always assured, cocky, and smooth McCartney so deflated. When the set was over, they all awaited John’s brutality, but instead Lennon began laughing so hard he almost wet his pants. It was at that point that Paul decided he needed to try to recruit a lead guitarist (because he wasn’t going to be it), and propositioned John to meet a friend of his, George Harrison.
John and Paul would practice, listen, and experiment nearly everyday with their music. Their innate collaboration grew stronger and tighter, as they were the only two that approached the band with equal fervor and seriousness. John Lennon and Paul McCartney were completely opposite of each other: John was straight forward in everything he did and said while Paul was more diplomatic and calculating; John had the rock n’ roll attitude while Paul had the musical talent; John was temperamental while Paul was jovial; John struggled to be a musician while Paul was born to play music. Paul looked up to John and John deferred to Paul’s musical instincts to make the band stronger. The Lennon-McCartney bond was formed and the best songwriting partnership was born. Buddy Holly was a major influence in the decision to write their own songs, but it became a necessity when all the other competing Liverpool bands would all play the same songs (even the obscure B-sides as a back up). The Quarry Men had to have something fresh and new that the bands before them couldn’t play. By 1958, Paul and John would usually slag off of school and meet at Paul’s house in his empty parlor and haphazardly come up with new songs. Paul had an ability to come up with tunes and rhythms that would be appealing to audiences, while John could tap into that and use his amazing ability to turn lyrics upside down and inside out to create a one-of-a-kind sound. Some of their first songs included, “Like Dreamers Do,” “One After 909,” and “I Call Your Name.”
With the addition of George Harrison, who was an unmatched lead guitarist, and John and Paul able to read and feed off of each other on stage and write original compositions, there was no reason they couldn’t be the leading band in Liverpool! Suddenly, a damper was thrown into the mix when John’s mother was killed by a hit-and-run motorist. Now John was thrown into a secluded depression, as Paul was just a little over a year before. Paul knew what John was going through, and he and George gave John his space. Soon, Paul began to push that John move on with his life (getting drunk and violent wasn’t healing anything), and with the help of John’s art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe, John got back on his feet and into the groove of the band again. They landed a steady gig at the new hot spot, The Casbah where they were a hit. They were paid, playing music, and having to fend off the girls with a stick! Ah, the girls! That promising job came to an abrupt end, however, when one of the band members was sick one night and the owner, Mo Best (whose son was Pete Best), paid him anyway. The rest of the band, especially Lennon, was irate - no one gets a free ride. And they left the club, having to find odd gigs here and there, which was actually more difficult than they thought. Finally, they caught their big break when they were offered a contract to play in Hamburg. It was a difficult feat for Paul to talk his father into allowing his eighteen year old son to go to the most risqué district in Germany, and after all, just a few years before, Jim had to hide his family in a cellar because of German air raids. But with a rational argument from Paul, consisting of the fact that it was hopeless for him to continue in school at this point and that his father was once in a band himself, Jim conceded and wished his son luck. August 16, 1960, with John Lennon on rhythm guitar, Paul McCartney on rhythm guitar and piano, George Harrison on lead guitar, Stuart Sutcliffe on bass guitar, and the newest recruit Pete Best on drums, the newly-formed Beatles left home and traveled to Hamburg, Germany.
George
A Rough Start February 24, 1943 the youngest son of Harry and Louise Harrison was born. They named him George Harold Harrison and would usually call him Geo (sounds like Joe). George’s older siblings started twelve years earlier with his sister, Louise, and later his brothers Harry and Peter. Before raising a family of four together, Harry Harrison became a sailor when he was seventeen, romanticizing the experience at sea as many young Liverpool men did, until 1929 when he met the love of his life, Louise French, just passing by in an alleyway. When they bumped into each other, Louise gave Harry her phone number thinking that a man who was to hit the high waters to Africa couldn’t do any harm. Although Harry was sent to Africa the very next day after their meeting, he couldn’t get Louise out of his head, and wrote to her for the months he was away. The two were married a year later.
The newly weds struggled financially for the next six years while Harry was absent most of the time, earning his meager wages as a seaman. After their first daughter and son (who were both named after their parents) were born, it was becoming increasingly difficult for Harry to be gone all the time and earning barely enough money for himself and his wife, much less the two new additions to the family. As a result, in 1936, Harry came ashore to be with his family and find a different career. Unfortunately, he decided to make those changes just as Liverpool was hitting a depression, forcing the Harrisons to move to a modest home in South Liverpool in Wavertree, Louise taking a job as a grocer clerk, and the rest of their income coming from charity.
With A Little Luck After two years, Harry finally found a job with the Liverpool Corporation as a street car conductor, and for the next thirty-one years his regular route would be between Speke and Liverpool. By the time George was born, the Harrisons were surely stable, but still just eking by with each paycheck; but that did not stop them from being a good-natured, boisterous family who would have fun by taunting and ridiculing each other across the dinner table in a noisy fashion (a rapport that would allow George to keep up with John Lennon and Paul McCartney later). When George was six years old, his family had found the break they were waiting for. The Liverpool Corporation had this list, which everyone thought was fictitious, and if your name was drawn, the Corporation would supply your family with a house. After eighteen long years of being on that list, it happened for the Harrisons and they moved to a new council house at 25 Upton Green in Speke (about half a mile from the McCartneys). It was a dream for young George having his own bedroom and plenty of space to explore.
George was a skinny little boy with brown eyes, huge ears, and a mischievous smile that occupied most of his face. He was introspective, seemingly detached, and so shy that he seemed arrogant. The combination of his quiet yet tough demeanor with his dark features and bone-colored skin cast an eerie feel to those who encountered George. He had an ordinary childhood, where his parents were content with their post war lifestyle and jobs provided by the Corporation. George started school at Dovedale Primary where one of the upperclassmen was John Lennon, although they did not meet at this time - it was very rare for upperclassmen to converse with underclassmen, even if only by a year. George started out as an apt, good-mannered student and passed his eleven-plus scholarship to move up to the next grade level, which sparked his father to push for education wanting George to become an apprentice electrician - people would always have a need for electricians. George’s older sister and brothers were smart and conscience, but did not move on to Universities after their basic education. Now George was his father’s last hope for a life free of poverty and physical labor, and his father pushed in hopes that George would graduate to a University.
A New Inspiration After Dovedale, George moved on to the Liverpool Institute and his attitude about school, teachers, and life had changed drastically. Upon entering, George was obstinate, indifferent, unmotivated, and rebellious. He began to loath the discipline and conformity he was held to by the school heads, and showed it by not wearing the proper clothes that fit the dress code, growing his hair long, and attracting negative attention to himself during class. George and his other outcast friend, Arthur Kelly, would ditch school to go to the movies or do other things - any other thing as long as it wasn’t at school. George reviled “being dictated to” by the authorities and blamed them for his lack of interest. But from age thirteen, there was only one thing that could stimulate George’s interest - and that was rock n’ roll.
There was always music playing in the Harrison household from his father’s records and the radio. Listening to Radio Luxembourg, George would first be taken by skiffle artists like Lonnie Donegan and Hoagy Carmichael. George and his friend Arthur, who also loved this new sound, decided they had to get guitars! But after just a few times of trying to work out fingering, George became frustrated with his guitar and quickly retired it to the closet. It was a couple months later that Arthur’s brother-in-law brought him back from New York loads of albums with American music, including Elvis Presley. As soon as Arthur put the needle on that record and the first song, “Blue Suede Shoes,” began to play, he had George on the phone to get over there before the song even ended. Ahh, Elvis! Until hearing that album, George felt dislocated, separate from the mundane existence he perceived around him. With this new inspiration, George realized that there were others out there who saw the world as differently as he did, and both he and Arthur grabbed their guitars and were determined to create that feeling that Elvis evoked themselves.
George and Arthur learned a few chords from a local electric guitarist and formed their own skiffle group - they would be known as the Rebels. Every Saturday morning Arthur was at George’s house to practice, and they commissioned George’s older brother, Pete, to play a make-shift tea chest bass. To their own surprise, the Rebels actually landed a gig (their one and only) at the British Legion outpost, but it did not go over well. No matter, George did not get the same feeling from skiffle as he did from rock n’ roll - that is what he had an insatiable desire for. He’d listen to Radio Luxembourg religiously and was overtaken by the exact same songs and artists that captivated John and Paul. George also favored Chet Atkins and Carl Perkins and studied their twangy guitar leads (many Carl Perkins songs made it into their repertoire and later onto Beatles albums). George and Arthur would go to the local record store and steal the latest hits, but artists like Fats Domino and Ray Charles were not as readily available as the Everly Brothers, Elvis, and Bill Haley. So, to get those more obscure records, George took up a part-time job as a butcher’s delivery boy to buy them from outside sources (usually people that he couldn’t steal from). George would devour those records, and listen to the same song, the same passage over and over again to try to pick up how to play by ear.
Musician in the Midst From the beginning, friends and musicians recognized that George was not just another Liverpool teenager that wanted to be in a band or who wanted to learn guitar. He was an incredibly talented player who took to his passion with more seriousness and originality, and had a knack for hearing subtleties and then learn to play it when others listening to the same record didn’t even hear it in the first place. George was out to conquer this instrument and would study passages until he mastered it. His hours of hard work and commitment to his guitar was what landed George his break with a local band, and kept him up with two other Liverpool teenagers with the same unquenchable passion for rock n’ roll.
By the time George was fourteen, he barely went to school, and when he did there was trouble. During breaks, all the outcasts would go to the Smokers Center, where there were about ten boys, including Neil Aspinall (their future road manager and eventually the head of Apple Corps) and Paul McCartney. They would stand around smoking and making fun of all the conformists with their drab lives. Paul was a bit of an outcast to the outcasts, inasmuch that he had a posh accent, he was self-assured, good-looking, and smooth-talking - not the usual outcast profile. But he was an all-out Elvis fan, wore skin tight pants, and his hair in the “Teddy Boy quiff” like George and the others. He was a bit of a double agent (which was a skill that would later come in handy with the press). George actually conversed with Paul on the Liverpool-Speke bus route his father drove, coming home from school. They both had a passion for refining guitar mechanics and technique, and they began practicing together some afternoons. George was all about the execution and precision, while Paul was more about the interpretation and expression, which became a strength in their collaboration. Their friendship grew and Paul developed a big-brother affection for his underclassmen (Paul was a year ahead of George in school and nine months older). Paul kind of took George under his wing with George barely fourteen years old and not as outgoing and charming as Paul. If it weren’t for their same infatuation for music and guitar, they might never have spoken.
Hesitation, Invitation, Consternation It wasn’t until February 6, 1958 that Paul opened up his Quarry Men life to George, when he invited George to see the band play a gig at Wilson Hall in Garston. George took a bus from Speke all alone to watch the band play. A month later on March 12th, Paul had arranged an “audition” where George would play for the Quarry Men - and John Lennon. It was at a skiffle cellar in West Oakhill Park called The Morgue. George found the band and Paul introduced them. All the Quarry Men (who were all seventeen and eighteen, while George had just turned fifteen) thought he was just a schoolboy “Ted” with nothing to say. Then George launched into “Guitar Boogie Shuffle.” They were all very impressed with his detail and precision - it was a very elaborate and fancy song and he played it brilliantly! The band’s leader, John Lennon, wanted nothing to do with this child, “Guitar Boogie Shuffle” or no, and told Paul just that. Not giving up so easily, Paul set up a “chance” meeting with just John, George, and himself on the top of an empty Liverpool bus. George played “Raunchy,” the song that Paul still could not play as eloquently even with hours of practice. Nonetheless, John thought he looked too young - this was not the tough rock n’ roll image John wanted to project, and he had already compromised by letting baby-faced Paul in the band. However, the reason Paul was let in was because of his talent and intuition, and that was certainly no mistake by any means. John was always trying to recruit back up that would showcase his talent, and George was the best guitarist in Liverpool. All of George’s hours of hard work had paid off when he was accepted into the Quarry Men, enabling him to put all this talent to good use. Arthur Kelly remembers how everyone in Liverpool idolized John with his humor, attitude and look - and for George to get in with that group was beyond his wildest fantasies. It wasn’t a bad move for the Quarry Men either. You couldn’t keep your eyes off of John and Paul individually, and together they were pure magnetism. When George met them and joined the band, it was like the final element added to a light bulb to make it shine bright.
With George as the new addition, it was painstakingly obvious that the other Quarry Men just did not make the grade and they were either pushed out by omission (they would not be informed of scheduled gigs or practice sessions) or just decided to leave because the band had taken on a whole other level of intensity, which the skiffle band Quarry Men were not up for. Now the three core musicians - John, Paul, and George - became very tight, practicing all the time. What each one of them lacked, the others complimented perfectly, filling in any possible gaps. For the next year, they spent most of their time in backyard practice sessions. During that year, rock n’ roll was just growing stronger and bigger.
They had all the potential, drive, and talent to be the best band in Liverpool and nothing to stop them - until John’s mother was hit by a car and killed instantly. John retreated into seclusion and depression, cutting both Paul and George out of his life - he couldn’t be bothered with music or these children tagging along. It was at this time that John also became serious with one of his lettering classmates in art college, Cynthia Powell (which later became his wife). She gave John a glimpse of happiness and sense of unconditional love when nothing else mattered to him. A few months later, John and Cyn would be walking to a movie to be together alone and George would follow behind them. Cyn was too compassionate to tell him to leave, so he would join them as the third wheel on some dates. At the same time, George and Paul would get together sometimes to practice and kept in touch about the state of their band leader, John. Without John, there were no Quarry Men, there was no band.
Back On Track Meanwhile, George had become impatient with John’s sabbatical and had joined another band, the Les Stewart Quartet; he was too passionate about playing music and he couldn’t wait for anyone else. The Les Stewart Quartet was no John and Paul by far, but at least George was playing with a band and the band was interested in playing and booking gigs. They’d practice in a rehearsal hall where George met his first serious girlfriend, Ruth Morrison. One night, Ruth was talking about a new coffee bar that was opening up in Hayman’s Green. It was in the basement of a private home that could hold up to three hundred teenagers and would feature live music. The club was being built up to be “the place to be.” The guitarist of the Les Stewart Quartet, Ken Brown, went to talk to the owner about becoming the house band. Mona Best (Pete Best’s mother) was happy to feature them at her new coffee bar, which was to be called the Casbah. Ken Brown helped Mona get her new bar painted and ready for opening night on Saturday, August 29, 1959 when the Les Stewart Quartet was to debut. Unfortunately, a couple weeks before then some of the band thought that Ken Brown was helping Mona Best as a power play and refused to play at the Casbah. George and Ken were on their way to tell Mona the bad news about the band, when Ken asked George if there was anything they could do to salvage this promising gig. George said, “Actually, I know these two mates - I’ll go get them.” And off on a bus went George to fetch his two former band mates. So the band that played opening night at the Casbah was made up of four guitarists, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ken Brown. Even without a drummer, they brought down the house!
A seemingly perfect, steady gig was cut short when one of the band members was sick and Mona Best, caring for the boys like a mother, took care of him and offered to pay him anyway. The rest of the band was irate and refused to play at the Casbah if not everyone was going to pull their own weight - no free rides. John was most vocal about this, but assumed that with the success and attention they attracted at the Casbah, it would be easy to land another steady paying gig. That proved to be false, and for the next few months they scrounged for work. It wasn’t until April 1960, when the band was taken in by their “acting manager” Allan Williams, that they’d catch their next big break. By August, Williams had successfully executed a contract with a German club owner named Bruno Koschmider to have (now known as) The Silver Beetles play at one of his clubs, the Indra, in the red-light district of Hamburg. When Harry and Louise’s seventeen-year-old son came to them with the proposal of allowing him (the only band member going who was underage) to go to Germany to play in a band, they were actually enthusiastic - probably because they recognized this was the only hope for George’s future anyway. Within four days, the entire band had their papers ready and their bags packed to leave Liverpool August 16, 1960 bound for Hamburg, Germany, and to never return the same.
Ringo
Born on the Seventh of July Richard Starkey, known to his family and friends as Ritchie, was born in Liverpool on a summer Sunday, July 7, 1940. Ritchie’s father was a baker, but left the family when his only son was three years old. Unusually enough, no matter how poor and without the Starkey family was, little Ritchie was never without sugar. For the next ten years it was just Ritchie and his doting mother, Elsie.
During that time, between the ages of 6 ½ to 14, poor Ritchie was in hospitals with one deadly illness or another (hence the doting). It started with a burst appendix and peritonitis at age 6. Then it was a mass of broken pelvic bones, suffered when he stepped out of a hospital bed after a year on his back. And later, it was pleurisy. With all these illnesses through the developmental years, it’s no wonder that Ringo only stands about 5’7” off the ground whereas John, Paul, and George stand almost exactly the same at around 5’9”. But the stunted growth certainly did not stunt young Ritchie’s hormones - all the way through his sickly years he was always trying get to the girls.
Home Sweet Home When Ritchie was 13 and finally well enough to go home, he and Elsie saw a glimpse of light at the end of that dismal tunnel (or was it a hospital hallway) when Elsie fell in love and remarried Harry Graves. Harry was a gentle man, and he and Ritchie got along well. The family of three lived without a bath on a poor, cobbled street in Dingle, outside of Liverpool. #9 Madryn St., eight or nine miles outside of Speke (where George would be residing about five years down the line), is still the welcoming home of the Starkeys/Graves. Ritchie went to St. Silas School, then Dingle Vale Secondary School, although his attendance was sporadic because of his almost constant hospital admittance. Ritchie remembers being alone frequently because Elsie worked tending counter in a fruit shop in efforts to assist Harry bring in some extra income to make ends meet, being that he couldn't make much as a housepainter.
The Wonder Years When Ritchie was young, he wanted to be a tramp or merchant seaman. Many boys growing up in and around Liverpool glorified the position of seaman, although most of the real sailors left their wives, loved ones, families, and obligations behind to hit the high seas (and many were miserable, but had little choice due to the poor economic conditions). The Liverpool lads, however, only saw the sailors coming home being more worldly and adventurous, bringing back things that Liverpudlians had never seen . . .or heard.
In fact, if it weren’t for the ports bringing different things from the outside world, it would have been almost impossible for the kids and teens growing up in this area to hear most of the American rock n’ roll that took them by storm (thank you seamen)! There was very little rock n’ roll available, even over the radio. In Liverpool, most of the teenagers hugged their ears to their radio speakers to hear the almighty Elvis for the first time singing Heartbreak Hotel on Radio Luxembourg, even though they had very poor reception, if any.
Little Drummer Boy Ritchie never did make it as a tramp or a seaman, but he was briefly employed as an apprentice engineer for Hunt & Sons between gigs and tours with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, arguably one of the best and promising new bands coming out of Liverpool by the closing of the 1950’s.
Another dream Ritchie had was to open a hairdressing salon (which is coincidental because his first wife, Maureen Cox, was a young apprentice hairdresser before giving up that glamorous life to become the wife of the second Beatle to get married). But what really hit it home with Ritchie was hitting the pagan skins, better known as drums.
The first time Ritchie played with Rory Storm was at the Cavern. Rory had changed his name from Alan Caldwell (it was the trend at the time to have a cool stage name) and he happened to be friends with John, Paul and George. Shortly after playing the Cavern, while Ritchie was playing a gig in Butlins with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, he decided to also change his name and a Ringo Starr was born!
While with Rory at a coffee bar/hang out for young adults and many art college students (like John Lennon and his band) called the Jacaranda, Ringo Starr met John and Paul for the first time. In 1960, Rory Storm and The Hurricanes finally went to Hamburg, which was becoming the next step for the successful Liverpool bands. Many nights after Ringo played with his band, another band they were sharing 12-hour long sets with, The Beatles, would need a drummer to sit in for their absent drummer, Pete Best. Being that Ringo would usually stay at the club to watch The Beatles play because he liked their sound and energy, he would sometimes sit in. Ringo loved playing with them, and the Beatles loved him! Little did any of them know, Ringo would be asked to join the band permanently a couple years later and make history.
