The Quarry Men was formed by
John Lennon and
Pete Shotton. At first they were named
The Black Jacks but as they both attended The Quarry Band High School and because their school song contained the line "Quarry Men, strong before our birth" they changed name to The Quarry Men.
The members of The Quarry Men changed all the time. Some of the early members of the group was:
John Lennon: Vocal & "Guitar"
Pete Shotton: Washboard.
Bill Smith: Tea-chest bass.
Eric Griffiths: Guitar
Rod Davis: Banjo
Colin Hanton: Drums
Ivan Vaughan: Bass
Len Garry; Bass
Nigel Whalley: Bass
Paul McCartney Joins The Group
Paul McCartney saw The Quarry Men for the first time on
Saturday 6 July 1957. It was
Ivan Vaughan that told him about the gig and asked him if he would like to come see them. Ivan knew John from Dovendale Primary and had been a member of the group. Now both Paul and Ivan went to the Liverpool Institute and therefor he knew both Paul and John very well. As we almost all known Paul said yes to the invitation and in
a break
Ivan Vaughan introduced
Paul McCartney to
John Lennon. Paul impressed John by playing and singing perfect versions of Twenty Flight Rock and Be-Bop-A-Lula which just had been released in Britain by
Eddie Cochran and was huge hits. Nobody in The Quarry Men new the right chords or the right lyrics to none of these songs so John was indeed impressed. On top of that Paul could tune a guitar something John and
Eric Griffiths until this point had to have done in a shop in Kings Drive Woolton.
After Johns first meeting with Paul he was a little unsure if he would let Paul join the group. If he did, he knew that the group definitely would become stronger, but this would at the same time reduce his leading role in the group. Though John had a major ego the decision was not that tough after all. John wanted to move forward musically and to achieve this he had to get better musicians to join group. A few days after he
for the first time met Paul he sent
Ivan Vaughan out to ask Paul if would join the group. Paul remembers that one day while cycling he met
Ivan Vaughan who then asked him. After thinking about it for a while Paul said yes.
Paul missed the first gig The Quarry Men had after he had become a member. The gig was on
Wednesday 7 August 1957 at the Cavern Jazz Club which later would become like a home for
The Beatles. Paul was away on a scout camp together with his brother Michael McCartney.
The lineup was at this point:
John Lennon: Vocal & "Guitar"
Eric Griffiths: Guitar
Colin Hanton: Drums
Rod Davis: Banjo
Pete Shotton: Washboard
Len Garry: Bass
On
Friday 18 October 1957
Paul McCartney had his debut with The Quarry Men at New Clubmoor Hall. Paul was very nervous and made a lot of mistakes, on their visiting card the promoter
Charlie McBain wrote "Good & Bad".
The lineup was at this point:
John Lennon: Vocal & "Guitar"
Paul McCartney: Guitar & Vocal
Eric Griffiths: Guitar
Colin Hanton: Drums
Len Garry: Bass
1957 was a good year for The Quarry Men with many gigs (by Quarry Men standards) and
Paul McCartney joining the group. 1958 was more dull with very few gigs that wasn't held at family parties. But 58 also had some good events. One of them was that
George Harrison joined the group in early 58. It is a little bit uncertain when he met with The Quarry Men for the first time.
George Harrison himself remembers (and this is the most likely story) that he met The Quarry Men at Wilson Hall on
Thursday 6 February 1958.
Colin Hanton remember meeting
George Harrison for the first time on
Thursday 13 March 1958 in The Morgue Skiffle Cellar. A third story comes from
George Harrisons mother and she remembers that George met them in a chip shop. The final story comes from
Pete Shotton and he remember that
Paul McCartney led The Quarry Men to 25 Upton Green, Speke where George lived.
There is one thing we know for sure and that is that it was
Paul McCartney that had the connection to
George Harrison. George was (and is) one year younger than Paul and went like Paul to The Liverpool Institute. Because George also was very interested in playing the guitar Paul and George became good friends and often visited each other to practice the guitar. It is told that Paul for a longer period had been talking to John
about George and that John wasn't very keen on having him in the group because he was too young. But when John finally met him and could see for himself that he was talented he allowed that George could attend when they were practicing and after a short period he automatically became a real member of the band.
1958 was also the year that saw some of the first Lennon and McCartney compositions. Especially Paul was writing a lot of songs. Some of the songs they wrote were:
I Lost My Little Girl (Performed by
Paul McCartney on his MTV Unplugged album).
Hot As Sun (Released on
Paul McCartneys first solo album McCartney).
That's My Woman
Thinking Of Linking
Hello Little Girl (DECCA) (
The Beatles performed this song in their audtion at DECCA).
When I'm Sixty-Four
Years Roll Along
Keep Looking That Way
Just Fun
To Bad About Sorrows
Looking Glass (Instrumental)
Winston's Walk (Instrumental)
Catwalk
In mid
1958 The Quarry Men, except
Colin Hanton, made their first and only record. John, Paul, George and
John Lowe collected 17s 6d and went to
Percy Phillips a 60 year old man who in 1955 had established his own little studio. In this studio The Quarry Men recorded
That'll Be The Day and the McCartney-Harrison son
In Spite Of All Danger. For more information follow this link:
1958.
In early 1959 The Quarry Men lost their drummer
Colin Hanton after a gig in Prescot. All members of the group had been drinking and performed lousy and a fight had begun between the band members. On the way home in the bus
Colin Hanton got off the bus a stop early and The Quarry Men never saw him again. But it was not only
Colin Hanton that was unsatisfied with the group The Quarry Men did in fact split up. Only John, Paul and George stayed together under the name
The Rainbow. At a point even
George Harrison left the group to play with a group called
Les Stewart Quartet.
George Harrisons membership of
Les Stewart Quartet would become the reason why The Quarry Men was reunited.
Les Stewart Quartet was booked to play at the opening of a new club for teenagers called The Casbah Coffee Club owned by Mrs.
Mona Best (the mother of
Pete Best). On the night of the opening
Les Stewart got into a disagreement with the bass player
Ken Brown and the group did split-up a few hours before the opening, leaving
Ken Brown with the responsibility of finding a new group. He then asked
George Harrison if he knew someone who could help out. George then contacted Paul and John and The Quarry Men reunited with the following lineup and played on the opening on
Saturday 29 August 1959:
John Lennon: Vocal & Guitar.
Paul McCartney: Vocal & Guitar.
George Harrison: Vocal & Guitar.
Ken Brown: Bass.
When they were asked why they didn't have a drummer they said: "The rhythm is in the guitars."
Ken Brown was now a member of The Quarry Men but not for long. On
Saturday 10 October 1959 Ken was suffering from a cold and could not play. When Mrs.
Mona Best at the end of the evening should pay the band
Paul McCartney argued that Ken wasn't entitle for any money while he hadn't played. John and George backed him up and
Ken Brown left the group. While it was because of Ken that The Quarry Men played at the Casbah, where they had played every Saturday since
Saturday 29 August 1959, The Quarry Men had no more gigs there for a long time. In fact it wasn't until they changed name to
The Beatles and
Pete Best joined the group, that they would play there again.
Just about two years later than
The Quarry Men contested in Mr Star-Maker on
Sunday 9 June 1957 with no success, they were ready again on the
Sundays 11, 18 and 25 October 1959 where new qualification rounds took place for the TV program. This time however under a new name:
Johnny And The Moondogs.
During 1960 the group changed name several times. Each name represents a period in their career. Follow the links to read more about each period:
John Lennon and
Paul McCartney brifely performed under the name
The Nerk Twins in April 1960.
The Quarry Men becomes
Johnny And The Moondogs.
Johnny And The Moondogs becomes
The Beatals.
The Beatals becomes
The Silver Beetles.
The Silver Beetles becomes
The Silver Beatles.
The Silver Beatles becomes
The Beatles