There's something a little odd about Pete learning by accident that Decca had rejected the group based on their 1-1-62 audition .... not so much perhaps that nobody told him, but that he didn't learn until June '62! I'd think he might have been asking in the previous 6 months about the results of the audition? Especially since it seems he was the main contact with Brian Epstein ... it doesn't add up somehow
Anyway, thanks for the read again Bill! I think the color pic with the "city skyline" was maybe taken in Hamburg ... Star Club? Anyone with a better idea?
I love John, I love Paul, And George and Ringo, I love them all!
Yes, the photo was one of over a dozen colour slides Manfred Weissleder took for me at the Star Club in return for me writing a column in his Star Club News. I used one of John on stage at the club as a Mersey Beat cover. I had the box of slides for many years and a friend, Henri Henroid, who used to be involved with the Star Club asked if he could borrow them to show Manfred. I never got them back and found that Henri had sold them at auction, even though they were my copyright. This happened a lot to me because I was very trusting.
Bill Harry, thank you very much! Your article is very interesting, I read it in a gulp! Few people know the truth about Pete Best. Everybody thinks that he was not good enough, poor guy...
Many thanks, correcting. What about this on Pete's mum: BEST, MONA. Arguably, the first Merseyside promoter to give the Beatles regular support. Born of English parents in India, she worked for the Red Cross in Delhi, where she met and married John Best, an army officer. The couple had two sons, Peter and Rory. In 1945 the family returned to England and lived in a flat in Casey Street, Liverpool for two years. Then they settled in a large Victorian house at 8 Haymans Green in the West Derby area of Liverpool. The huge house had a large complex of cellars and when Pete was sixteen, Mona had noticed the number of young friends visiting him at the house and decided to turn part of the cellar area into a private club for him. But word got out and more ambitious plans developed, which resulted in a club for young people with live groups. It became one of the first cellar clubs to present rock ‘n’ roll exclusively when it opened in August 1959. And ‘Mo’, as she was called, decided to call it the Casbah club. This was because her favourite film at the time was Algiers, which starred Charles Boyer, who, people asserted, said ‘Come with me to the Casbah,’ although that line of dialogue isn’t actually in the film. The resident group became the Quarry Men, who had re-formed specially for the club’s opening on Saturday 29 August 1959. George Harrison, who was in another band, the Les Stewart Quartet, quit the outfit, along with Ken Brown, and sought out John and Paul to join them. The Quarry Men had been inactive for several months and had more or less disbanded. If Mo hadn’t opened the Casbah, the Beatles might never have existed! In some ways, the Casbah has more right to be called ‘the birthplace of the Beatles’ than the Cavern, which didn’t book them until two years later, when they had already become established locally. After her son Pete joined the group as drummer in August 1960, Mo began to take an active role in their career. For a time she arranged for the Casbah doorman Frank Garner to become the Beatles’ road manager, and then presented them with a permanent roadie in the form of her lover, Neil Aspinall. Mona also bought the Beatles their first van. When the Beatles returned from their first trip to Hamburg they appeared at the Casbah and Mo, in an effort to keep them in work, began a series of independent promotions at St John’s Hall, Tuebrook and booked the Beatles for 11 gigs there. She also booked them on shows at Knotty Ash Village Hall, in addition to their Casbah work. On the first of the Beatles bookings at St John’s Hall Mona paid them twenty pounds – a 200% increase on the five pounds she used to pay for the Casbah bookings. These gigs, plus the Casbah appearances and the gigs Pete was lining up, proved a lifeline for the Beatles during the early months of 1961. Mona was championing the group, obviously because of her son’s part in it and even wrote off to Granada Television in an attempt to get them on the People and Places show. Producer David Plowright wrote back to her on Thursday 21 September 1961. “Dear Mrs Best, “Thank you for your letter telling me about the Beatles. I will certainly bear them in mind and will contact you again if it is possible to invite them to take part in our programme People and Places at any time.” Ironically, the Beatles were to make their television debut on that very show. Once Brian Epstein entered the picture, he took over the reins of management, although Mrs Best was still obviously keen to promote the group in which her son was a member. Mo was furious when her son was sacked without explanation and set out to find the reason why. Epstein wouldn’t answer her calls, but she managed to contact George Martin, who told her that he was completely surprised by the decision as he regarded Pete and a valuable member of the group. Mo was to tell Beatles biographer Hunter Davies: “He’d (Pete) been their manager before Brian (Epstein)) arrived, did the bookings and collected the money. I’d looked upon them as friends. I’d helped them so much, got them bookings, lending them money. I fed them when they were hungry. I was far more interested in them than their own parents.” It was felt by various people in Liverpool who were associated with the local scene that perhaps the Beatles had resented Mo’s efforts on their behalf – a situation which may have been one of the elements involved in Pete’s dismissal. Sadly, Mo died in hospital on 9 September 1988 following a heart attack after a long illness.
Thanks for the link. He's playing in my state on my birthday!
"Wings IV introduced Jimmy McCulloch, a spunky lead guitarist with grit, able to spur Paul on unlike any previous soloist. His debut track, the magnificent single `Junior's Farm', stands as one of Wings' finest emotional and technical releases."
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Over the past 45 years, the legend of Pete Best has grown to the point where his name is shorthand for those who couldn’t capitalize on a great opportunity. But when it came to the upcoming movie “The Rocker,” the former Beatles drummer wasn’t about to let it happen again.
“It’s a variation on the Pete Best story, and he actually came to set one day and did a line in the movie,” gushed Emma Stone, the “Superbad” actress who appears in the flick alongside Rainn Wilson and Christina Applegate. “I freaked out about it, because I’m a Beatles fanatic. I was very excited.”
Now, fans of the Fab Four will be similarly thrilled when the so-called “Fifth Beatle” — who was fired by John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison roughly a year before the group exploded — shows up in “The Rocker” to get the last laugh.
“Rainn’s character was in this 80s hair band, and he got kicked out right before they became famous, just like Pete Best,” Stone said of the film’s plot. “So he’s sitting at a bus stop and says ‘Man, this is tough! I can’t believe this happened to me!’, and Pete says ‘I know what you mean!’. And then the bus pulls up.”
Now 65 years old, Best has learned to laugh at his misfortune, and remains so famous to Beatles fans that the makers of “The Rocker” don’t even feel the need to identify him. “No, nobody ever says ‘This is Pete Best,’” Stone revealed. “[The cameo] will just be for Beatles hardcore fans.”
The Pete Best Band is coming HERE to Little Rock, October 1, for a one night performance at this rock club we have in town called, "Sticky-Finga's"...........That's a "school night" for me, on a Wednesday.......so I don't know if I'll be able to attend.............you know I'm a wife and mom.............But you NEVER KNOW what I'll pull out from the "wood-work".....ask my hubby about this one.................
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