This has probably been discussed before -
In the book: Liddypool: Birthplace of The Beatles - it turns out that Pete was kicked out for money & not drumming! & John & George were in on it too.
Now, Pete wrote the forward, so maybe he's trying to sway things away from the drumming issue. But, it sounds convincing, the author paints a pretty good picture.
What are your thoughts?
p.s. listening to the Decca outtakes & cavern club stuff with Pete, he's not as bad as others make him out to be.
i had posted the Liddy dismissal chapter back in '09 before it was published. Sorry have not been aorund here much. i posted a reply comment last night but it didnt seem to post up yet..maybe moderator is reviewing. im not sure.
the foreword isn't really an endorsement of the dismissal chapter, but rather an appreciation the early history being explored, in particular the chapter about the casbah coffee club. Also, the authors dismissal discussion goes more into some studio economics, but concludes, appropriately, that PB made a very important contribution to the band, and is an integral part of the band's history.
it's doubtful that brian the businessman wold acquiese to such a a scheme based on 1p / record, considering how the GM contract was the last, and only, offer they had, it doesn't make much sense to squbble over a measly 25 percent share of a penny, and then not tell the producer himself that they want to make a material change to the band behind his (GM's) back....all for the sake of a 1/4 share of a penny ? If they told that to GM, he'd laugh them out of the studio...and say "grow up...you 4 boys are the band i saw live, and the drummer guy is the marketable image as well...this is the band i signed to contract"
Aside from that, remember the 1983 (or '82?) book by peter brown and steve gaines. The Intro even goes into how very few people were still alive who cold tell the story, including brown. the others listed specifically were, john, paul, george ringo ("the beatles themselves"), and neil aspinall. Um, PB ws very much alive when this "insider" book was being researched and documented. Taking another look at the book some 30 years later , it reads almost as if PB was no longer was on the planet, even though the book was published a mere 20 years after dismissal.
Take a look at the sequence that brown lays out in TLYM. and keep in mind the mucho thanks to the contributors, including ringo starr for "his long and candid interview". My comment: there was a narrative that all members of the beatles, and neil a., appear to have agreed on to descibe the dismissal sequence of events...and it spreads out over a few different paragraphs...to tell a story very different from what all other books describe. It's quite simple actually..but was surprising when i went back to the book after discussing the Liddypool authors 1p theory with him. i said "ya know..it may be a defenseible plausible theory, but it's not so rational to make such a change, swapping in an unrehearsed drummer whom the producer has never even seen or heard, AND, add to that: they'd be playing originals that not even the new drummer has never heard himself. How was he ever going to learn to play the originals in the studio, when he'd never even played the songs with them ever before.?
As history showed, RS did not do well on sept 4 1962 when he arrived. Related note: Brown's TLYM conveniently excludes RS's sept 4 1962 studio debut with the boys. why? it fits the dismissal narrative better...because he DOEs mention that GM had already arranged for Andy White, which conveniently supports "using a studio drummer instead of pb".
The reality is: RS, barely 3 weeks with his new band, was in studio on sept 4.. meeting GM for the first time with GM even wondering "who's this bloke?" History reflects that RS did not so well on sept 4, and Andy white was called in after RS's debut was less than impressive. TLYM spells it out quite differntly,..to the point of actually MISREPRESENTING (deliberaltely?) the story of RS's studio debut on sept 4. (which prompts the question: is somethgn else--the dismissal ssequence-- also being deliberately misrepresented in TLYM, as agreed upon by the surving "insiders" including Ringo himself, back at the time of the interviews, 1979-82. ? ITs a fun premise to consider the question.
forget theories and all that...go have some fun and find the "pb dismissal / RS hired" sequence. It's right there..plainly spelled out in the , ahem, ultimate "insiders" guide. It it will challenge what you've previously read over the years about that sequence. If you'd like, i'll paste it up.