1960
The band – yet to be the definitive John,
Paul, George and Ringo – are John, Paul, George and Stuart Sutcliffe. Mid year,
Pete Best is recruited as drummer; the group start the year as The Quarry Men, ‘morph’
to The Beatals, then to The Silver Beetles. Eventually in August 1960 they
become The Beatles. Large parts of the year are spent in Hamburg first at the Indra Club then at the KaiserKeller where total immersion develops their skills. At
one stage they play along side Rory Storm and the Hurricanes whose drummer is one
Ringo Starr.
“It was Hamburg that did it. That’s where we
really developed. To get the Germans going and keep it up for twelve hours at a
time we really had to hammer. We would never have developed so much if we had
stayed at home. We had to try anything that came into our heads.” John Lennon,
Anthology.
“Hamburg totally wrecked us. I remember
getting home to England and my dad thought I was half-dead. I looked like a skeleton.
I hadn’t noticed the change, I’d been having such a ball.” Paul McCartney,
Anthology
Meanwhile: February: discovery of Dead Sea
Scrolls; September: Kennedy and Nixon in TV debate; November Lady Chatterley’s
lover book cleared of obscenity.
On 27 December 1960, the first real turning
point occurred. John, Paul, George, Pete and Chas (Newby on Bass), turned up at
Litherland town hall in North Liverpool to do a gig. In leathers and cowboy
boots and with a no-nonsense, hardened, totally engaging and loud post-Hamburg
style they totally amazed the predominately creped and drain-piped audience who
were drawn to the front to absorb the captivating experience. A thing called
Beatlemania was born.
That's another reason we love The Beatles.
JfDI!
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