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[Xose]

David Bedford, Liddypool. Birthplace of The Beatles, Deerfield, Dalton Watson Fine Books, 2009, pp. 127-128:

"...When they returned home that Christmass, disheveled and distraught, it was Mo who kept them together and was partly responsible for stopping The Beatles from falling apart. Hamburg had been a disaster. George had been deported for being under eighteen and breaking the curfew. Pete and Paul had been arrested for allegedly trying to burn the Bambi Kino down and were returned to Liverpool. Back in iverpool, they didn't contact each other. The future looked bleak. Before going to Hamburg, The Silver Beatles had a poor reputation, so there no bookings back in Liverpool. Between 21 November and 10 December, The Beatles thought seriously about giving it all up. John admitted to his girlfriend Cynthia, as far as he knew, it was 'the end of the road for The Beatles'.

Paul's dad, Jim, had opposed Hamburg in the first place. He sent his son to the labour exchamge to get a job. Paul found work with the Speedy Prompt delivery service around the docks, and then with Massey & Coggings engineering firm, where he was winding armature coisl. Paul admitted that he wasn't sure if he wanted to make another go of The Beatles...

...Most of their gear remained in Hamburg, so Pete and Mo had to contact Peter Eckhorn the Hamburg club owner, to make arrangements the return of their drums and guitars. Mo persuaded The Beatles to return and when they did walk in that December night, The Casbah membesr though it was a con. Mo had put up signs proclaming 'The Fabolous Beatles, direct from Hamburg'...

...That night at The Casbah was a foretaste of what was to come just a few days later. Not much was expected of them, Rory Best was so unimpressed with The Beatles that after the first band, Gene Day and the Jango Beats appeared, he went with them to the pub and didn't wait to see them...

...'I had been to the Wyvern with Pete Best for the audition before Hamburg, and they were alright, but not great. When they left Liverpool, The Silver Beatles had a poor reputation. So I went to the pub with the Jango Beats. They went down in their gold lamé suits, and Georgie Spruce -aka Gene Day- was wearing his pink suit. A girl came in shouting at us to come and see the group who were playing at The Casbah: they were brilliant. I thought, it's only our Pete and The Beatles, but they left their pints and went running back. I walked behind them. When I joined them there I couldn't believe how good they were. All I could hear was Pet's bass drum going boom, boom, boom and bouncing off the walls.

They were superb, and everyone was going wild. I couldn't believe the difference. They went out as a loose uniti who could play some average rock 'n' roll, but when they came back from Hamburg they were a tight, fantastic band. No one had heard anything like that before, they just blew everyone away. And they looked so good in theur black leathre, because all the other bands were doing this synchronized walking up and down with their guitars like The Shadows did, dressed in their pink and gold suits. The Beatles just stood there, chewing gum, doing their own thing and playing their own arrangements of the songs, unlike the other bands who just covered the records as they sounded on vynil'..."

Roag Best - Pete Best - Rory Best, The Beatles. The True Beginnings, Suffolk, Spine Book, 2002, p. 111:

[John McNally, from Gene Day & The Jango Beats, recalling their gig together at St. John's Hall on 17 February 1961, booked by Casbah Productions, Mona Best]: "...They were doing four solos on one song, which was unheard of in those days; you'd do the song straight from the record. People stopped dancing. Instead they walked forward and just stood and watched. We thought, something strange is happening. The Beatles were jumping on chairs and smoking on stage, Paul McCartney was playing this guitar with four strings on, and Pete was pounding out his powerful drum beat..."

Roag Best - Pete Best - Rory Best, op. cit., p. 107:

[Faron Ruffley, from Faron & The Flamingoes, recalling their gig together at Litherland Town Hall on 27 December 1960]: "...I was top of the bill and wearing a white suit. The boys are wearing purple suits. We're doing The Shadows and all that and the girls are screaming. These guys came walking in, they all had leather and black polo necks and John Lennon had big rips in his jeans. I thought, good God, what's this? They're going to ruin everything, the state of them. John Lennon hit his amplifier with a hammer, Paul put on a solid redRosetti guitar with three strings on it, not even plugged in. No stage clothes, just this scruffy. stinky, smelly group. All of a sudden I heard this voice, 'Oh, my soul baby baby baby'. Paul just ripped it out. My fans came screaming from one end of Litherland town hall to the other to watch them. Usually all the girls tried to talk to me, but I was completely ignored. Beatles, oh man, I was sick'..."

So, after all, Beatlemania was born on 17 December 1960 at The Casbah, thanks to Mo, and with McCartney playing his Rosetti Solid 7 converted to a bass...

Xosé

[Ligger]

More, please, Xose. Love it.

[Xose]

Thank you Ligger!!

But I need some other forum members help to find more sources...

But, what seems clear, is that McCartney was using his Rosetti Solid 7 converted to a bass_with_three_piano_strings_plus_a_Fuma_type_guitar_&_cable already that 16 December 1960 gig at The Casbah. Cfr. David Bedford, Liddypool. Birthplace of The Beatles, Deerfield, Dalton Watson Fine Books, 2009, pp. 147-148 (=interview to Faron Ruffley):

"...[Q]: Tell me your memories of The Beatles' Litherland Town Hall appearance.

[A]:...I'll never forget that night at Litherland after they returned [from Hamburg]. I was chatting to the girls at the back of the hall. Bob announces 'Direct from Hamburg, The Beatles' and they started with 'Long Tall Sally' which Paul sang. I'll never forget it, it was so loud and piercing, and then they belted the song out. The crowd went wild, and the girls ran from the back of the hall to the stage, leaving me on my own. They started screaming -I'd never seen it before; no one had.

I had my trademark white suit and these lads were scruffy. Paul had a brown tweed jacket; they all had smelly leathers with fur trim and they did stink. John had ripped jeans. They were a right mess, Paul had a red guitar with three strings on it, and it wasn't even plugged in. John hit his amp with a hammer to get it going. What on earth was going on?

They were different. Paul sang 'Oh My Soul' and 'Long Tall Sally', and then John would do Gene Vincent's 'Dance in the Street' and George would do 'Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby' and then they would all do 'Searching' together. No other groups do this. There would be one singer and backing singers, but they had three of them doing solos and then singing three-part harmonies together. However, I then made my famous quote: 'They'll never last'. How wrong was I? I say that the world never saw the real Beatles, the greatest rock 'n' roll band ever known...".

Xosé

[Xose]

But the question still remains: were these arrangements on the guitar made in Hamburg or in Liverpool??

Xosé

[Xose]

Peter Stone, "An interview with The Beatles' Chas Newby", Beatlology Magazine (September/October 2007), pp. 8-13:

"...CN:...but there were a couple of tunes where I had to learn a bass line. There's a Ray Charles number, Hallelujah, I Love Her So, but they used to do the Eddie Cochrane type version of it. And that had a more scale bass line to it, rather than just a blues .playing the prime note and the thirds. So I had to learn that. And the other one was Red Sails In The Sunset. Its funny now, because I've joined a band, here, locally -you know, a bunch of old guys playing together. And, some of the songs they sing are Beatles songs, and it's amazing how many of those Beatles songs have the same scale progessions for the bass lines. And funny enough, that's exactly the same as Red Sails In The Sunset. I can remember, even Paul must have, I guess, been listening for the bass line that he wanted in a particular song. And, I can remember him playing it, because bear in mind we were both left-handed and so we had a certain affinity. But I can remember him playing it on his guitar and then showing me the notes that he wanted me to play for Red Sails In The Sunset and Hallelujah, I Love Her So. But with all the others, there wasn't that sort of problem, because they were basically... 12-bar blues and just play the bass line like a boogie-woogie, like a left-hand on a piano.

P.S.: It's intriguing that Paul was interested, even back then, in the bass lines.

CN: All I'm saying is that he was the one who told me what he wanted to hear. Whether it was just the bass line or whether he told the others what he wanted to hear, I don't know. I'm not aware of that. But, he was the one in those two particular songs. He made sure that I knew what it was he wanted..."

So, Paul McCartney was playing bass lines with his Solid 7 on 17 December 1960..., wasn't he??

Xosé

[Chris62]

Xose creates THE best posts on any Beatle forum hands down. 

ta, Chris (52tele)

[Xose]

Thank you Chris!!

Xosé

[Bobber]

Nah, it's just a bunch of copies.