In the late 1950’s rock and roll was sweeping across America, while we in England played washboards and called it skiffle. Liverpool with its shipping tradition got the first American imports and soon was rocking around the clock to the likes of Elvis. Many young people formed bands, and tried to teach themselves to play guitar (or a wash board!).

John Lennon was seventeen when he formed The Quarry Men in 1957, named after his school. His mate was in the band - Ivan Brown, and unknown to John, Ivan’s other mate was Paul McCartney. Ivan invited Paul to come to one of their gigs - playing on the back of a truck at a Parish Church’s fayre. John was impressed that Paul could play Twenty Flight Rock on the guitar, as John was left-handed and could only play banjo keys, taught to him by his mother. Paul was in the band.

George Harrison came into the band as a friend of Paul’s. A few years younger than John and Paul, but he had a rare talent for playing the guitar. This led to an invite into the band in 1958. The Quarry Men had a variety of members and played local gigs at venues like the Casbah Club, owned by Mo Best. Her son Pete occasionally drummed for them. Around this time they played under different names, usually with different people as well. Johnny and The Moondogs and The Silver Beetles all made their appearance on various handbills across Merseyside. In 1960 John persuaded a fellow art student buddy that he shared rooms with to join the band - mainly because of the prize money the said student had just won for a painting. Stu Sutcliffe bought a bass guitar and was in, although he struggled to play the notes.

They toured around, usually on a wing and a promise of greater glory. Drummers kept eluding the band - so they asked Pete Best to be their permanent drummer. Allan Williams - a local entrepreneur became their manager, and he got them a gig in Hamburg, Germany. This was because being a seaport town like Liverpool; they loved Rock and Roll just as much as the locals did! The band decided to call themselves The Beatles - there are many reasons why but the main one is in The Wild Ones film with Marlon Brando (of whom they were big fans), his group of mates called themselves Beetles. John made it ’beat’-les, as was his clever way with words.

Hamburg was the place that made them, their sound grew rock solid and honed to perfection, after many days of live gigs. It is well documented that all of The Beatles except Pete Best experimented with drugs to keep them going through the long hours. George was actually deported the first time they went over there, as he was too young to be playing in bars! Stu left the band to become engaged to Astrid Kirchherr, who was partially responsible for The Beatles style.

As The Beat Brothers they recorded a B-side song with Tony Sheridan, and this was the record that supposedly got Brian Epstein, a record store boss interested in finding out more. Brian’s family owned NEMS Enterprises, and in Jan 1962 he became the new Beatles manager. A month before their audition with George Martin and EMI / Parlophone Records - Stu Sutcliffe died of a brain hemorrhage in Hamburg. He was only 21.