From
Woolton to EMI: The Rise of The Beatles (1957-1962)
By Aaron Cates
For Advanced Composition, East TN State U, Fall 2011
About The Author: Aaron
Cates is a junior English major at ETSU, and a Beatle historian with
approximately 15 years in the field of Fab Four research. You can contact him
at aaroncates@comcast.net. Coo-Coo,
Ca-Choo.
Over forty years after their 1970 breakup, the Beatles are widely considered to be the most successful and influential rock group of all time. Although you may recognize them as well-mannered, messy-haired Liverpudlian crooners they became, you may not know about their long, laborious history. But if not for this history, the band may well have never become the force that overtook the music world in the 60’s.
Most historians date the beginning of The Beatles back to the afternoon of July 6, 1957, when 16-year old John Lennon met 15-year old Paul McCartney for the first time at the St. Peter’s Parish Church Garden fete in Woolton, Liverpool, the industrial port town on the eastern side of the Mersey River in England. Lennon’s group, The Quarrymen (named after The Quarry Bank School its members attended) had just performed, and McCartney, impressed with what he had seen, was introduced to Lennon by a mutual friend, and played guitar for him behind the stage. Lennon, impressed with what he had seen, asked McCartney to join his group. McCartney agreed the next day.
George Harrison joined The Quarrymen in February of 1958 at the suggestion of Paul McCartney. Lennon was apprehensive at first given Harrison’s age (he was fourteen at the time), but consented after hearing him play late one night atop a double-deck bus. Around this time, Lennon’s original band members began to leave the group to begin their various trades or go on to college, and for about a year the group consisted of only Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison, with no bass player and a series of temporary but never stable drummers.
Above: The Quarrymen at Harry Harrison’s
wedding reception.
L to R: George Harrison, John Lennon,
Paul McCartney – 1958
By 1960, Lennon’s friend and art college classmate Stu Sutcliffe was recruited to “play” bass, although technically he could barely play at all. Now a four-piece band, still without a permanent drummer, they played around town wherever they could, often performing in the basement of a venue called The Casbah, run by Mona Best. It was around this time that The Quarrymen changed their name to “The Beetles” (not yet with an ‘a’). Sutcliffe had suggested the name in honor of Buddy Holly’s band The Crickets.
By the spring of 1960, the group had a sort of unofficial manager named Allan Williams. Williams, an old friend of Sutcliffe’s, got them booked whenever he could, and eventually landed them a tour of Scotland backing up a pop singer whose stage name was Johnny Gentle. The tour was a rather sour experience for The Beetles, who (with McCartney on drums) played on very cheap equipment, made very little money, and with their subpar bass player could barely hold it together. Williams, stayed resilient, determined to make something happen for them.
He would do just that upon meeting Bruno Koschmider, a club owner from Hamburg, Germany. Koschmider had gotten the idea to book rock n’ roll acts in his clubs. Williams recommended a few groups (such as Rory Storm and The Hurricanes) to Koschmider, and after their success abroad, Koschmider requested one more. Williams wanted to send The Beatles (as they now spelled their name), but they still needed a drummer. Just days before leaving for Hamburg, they auditioned Pete Best (son of Mona Best, owner of The Casbah), and the five boys set out for Germany.
In August of 1960, despite lacking the proper work permits, The Beatles began their residency at The Indra Club in St. Pauli, a district in Hamburg known for its gratuitous prostitution and bizarre sex shows. It was during this time that the group got their act together. Often having to play for hours on end night after night, The Beatles worked up a variety of music, from American rock n’ roll to jazz standards, to show tunes. On a steady diet of beer and amphetamines, and at the insistence of Koschmider, who would scream up at them to “Mak Show,” (“Make a show” through his accent), The Beatles began to jump around and scream like animals during their performances, generating excitement from bar-goers, and generating a raw, unpolished sound from virtually ravishing their instruments.
Above: The Beatles at The Indra in
Hamburg – 1960.
L to R: George Harrison, John Lennon,
Pete Best, Paul McCartney, Stu Sutcliffe
They soon moved to a more popular club of Koschmider’s, The Kaiserkeller, and adopted a rough look, dressing like bikers and cocking fearsome attitudes on stage. They were quickly becoming a hit. During this period they first got to know Ringo Starr, who was playing in Rory Storm and The Hurricanes. The Beatles also befriended Astrid Kirchherr, a young German photographer who took several photographs of the group at the time, and was responsible for their “mop-top” hairstyle.
The Beatles were just about to move to the best club in the district, the Top Ten Club, when Harrison, who had been discovered at 17 as underage and without a work permit, was deported. The rest of the group soon returned to Liverpool (except for Sutcliffe, who stayed in Hamburg for another couple months with Kirrcherr, now his fiancé). On December 27, 1960, with friend Chas Newby on bass, The Beatles played the gig many consider the turning point in their career, a performance at the Town Hall Ballroom in Litherland, a suburb in Liverpool. Billed as being from Hamburg, their eccentric look, sound, and stage show shocked their former classmates, who stood in disbelief of the group that used to be known as one of the worst acts in town. From that point forward, word about The Beatles spread across Liverpool’s youth like wildfire.
Sutcliffe rejoined to the group that winter, and in April of 1961 they returned to Hamburg for thirteen weeks at the Top Ten Club. By June of that year, Sutcliffe permanently left the band and McCartney took over on bass. That same month, they entered the studio for the first time under producer Bert Kaempfert to back up fellow musician Tony Sheridan on several songs. By July, The Beatles returned to Liverpool, and Sutcliffe stayed with Kirrchherr and enrolled in art school again.
Over the fall of 1961 the Beatles began to play at the venue that they are now most closely associated with: The Cavern club, a cellar-like rock and jazz club in the heat of Liverpool. Their hometown following grew exponentially during this time, eventually sparking the interest of Brian Epstein, a record store owner who had been asked for a copy of “My Bonnie” (recorded by The Beatles in Hamburg). He attended a performance at The Cavern, and after seeing The Beatles live, with the provision that they clean up their on-stage language and wear suits, asked to be their manager.
Above: The Beatles at The Cavern in Liverpool, 1961
By December they agreed, and on New Year’s Day 1962, The Beatles went to London with Epstein to record an audition with Decca Records. They recorded several songs that spanned the variety of rock and jazz covers they had learned and originals they had written playing Hamburg. They failed the audition, left with the famous line “Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein.” The disparaged manager then took the tapes to several labels around England, all of which turned him down.
Still hoping for label success, The Beatles went back to Hamburg in April of 1962 to play at a new venue called The Star Club. Upon their arrival, they were met by Astrid Kirrcherr, who informed them that Sutcliffe had died of a brain hemorrhage three days earlier. The group played in Hamburg until the end of May, and on June 4, back in London, they signed with EMI under producer George Martin. Although their audition with Martin was successful, he was displeased with Pete Best’s playing, and insisted that a different drummer be used when they make their first record. Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison, partial to their old friend Ringo Starr, fired Pete Best in August of 1962, and asked Starr to join.
Above: Ringo Starr with The Beatles at The Cavern – August 1962
From that point forward, The Beatles are well-documented. Million-selling record after million-selling record and film reel after film reel show the hysteria that the group stirred as they went from town to town, country to country. In a matter of five years, they had gone from playing a church carnival to the biggest band in England, and eventually, the world.
Bibliography
This essay had three main sources.
The first is Read The Beatles: Classic and New Writings On The Beatles, Their Legacy, and Why They Still Matter, published in 2006 by Penguin books. Edited by June Skinner Sawyers, a pop culture journalist and contributor to the Chicago Tribune, it is a collection of essays and articles by various authors about the group from the early sixties all the way up to the present, and gives great insight into their early period.
Secondly, in reference to The Quarrymen, the tour of Scotland, and Hamburg Chronology, I used The Beatles’ Wikipedia page, which laid out a very thorough chronicle of the beginnings of the group.
Lastly, I referred to Part I of "The Beatles Anthology," an in-depth documentary distributed by EMI records, directed by Bob Smeaton and produced by Neil Aspinall. It was originally released on VHS in 1995, and released on DVD in 2003, which is where I’ve taken my information from. It’s loaded with interviews of every band member as well as producer George Martin and various road crew members that scrupulously covers every nook and cranny of the group’s formation. The Beatles Anthology Part 1 can be found on YouTube.
Pictures:
“The Quarrymen at Harry Harrison’s wedding reception. L to R: George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney – 1958” taken from The Quarrymen http://beatlesnumber9.com/quarrymen.html. No Date Posted. No Author. Accessed on November 2, 2011.
“The Beatles at The Indra in Hamburg – 1960. L to R: George Harrison, John Lennon, Pete Best, Paul McCartney, Stu Sutcliffe” Taken from The Beatles In Hamburg and Liverpool 1960-62. Posted by Prinz Ulrich Von Boffke. http://thehamburgbeatles.blogspot.com/2010_03_01_archive.html Posted on March 26, 2010. Accessed on November 2, 2011.
“The Beatles at The Cavern in Liverpool, 1961” taken from 1961> No Wonder The Beatles Changed The Shape of Music After 456 Sessions Practicing In Public http://shapersofthe80s.com/2011/02/09/1961-%E2%9E%A4-no-wonder-the-beatles-changed-the-shape-of-music-after-456-sessions-practising-in-public/ posted on February 9th, 2011. Accessed on October 26, 2011.
“Ringo Starr with The Beatles at The Cavern – August 1962” taken from “Boys” History written and compiled by Dave Rybaczewski. http://www.beatlesebooks.com/boys No Date posted. Accessed on October 26, 2011.