Looking for the origins of The Beatles, we have to move back to the year 1957, when John Lennon together with his friend- Pete Shotten- organized a musical group 'The Black Jacks'. They wanted to follow the American groups playing rock & roll. After short period of time, they changed their name into 'The Quarry Men'. They played mostly in the garages and their audience consisted of their neighbors.
In July 1957, the group performed for wider audience in Liverpool at St. Peter's Parish Church. After the concert, John Lennon was introduced to a young guitarist- James Paul McCartney. Especially for Lennon, Paul played the 'Twenty Flight Rock'. They talked for a long time, and finally Pete Shotten asked McCartney to become a member of 'The Quarry Men'. The first concert performed together with Paul took place on 18th October.
In autumn 1957 John Lennon started learning in 'The Liverpool College of Art'. George Harrison and Paul McCartney were at the same time the students of 'Liverpool Institute High School for Boys'. Every day they spent a long time driving together to their schools and talking about their musical interests and ideas.
At the beginning of 1958, George asked John Lennon to allow him to join their band. It took him quite a long time to convince John to this idea. For several days, George was following John wherever he went, he assisted him even on the dates.
George was accepted as a member of 'The Quarry Men' on 29th August 1958. The group consisted of seven men up till 1959. Than the group disbanded.
After some time, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ken Brown united to play seven concerts at the Casbah Club. Eventually, after a few months they had a big quarrel on financial issues and decided to stop playing in this club and playing together with Ken Brown. They started to perform as a trio 'Johnny and Moondogs'. Paul was their drummer at that time. Ken Brown started his own group together with Pete Best and they kept on playing in Casbah Club.
At the beginning of 1960, John Lennon asked a fellow student Stu Sutcliff to become a member of their band, but he gave him a condition that Stu has to have his own bass guitar. In May 1960 the group changed its name into 'The Beetles'. They said that it was a tribute to the most favorite band of Stu- 'Buddy Holly and The Crickets'. Soon their name Changed into 'Silver Beetles'. They made Allan Williams their manager. Also in May, the new drummer- Tommy Moore- became their member. 'The Beetles' started their first tour on 18th May. They were supporting Johnny Gentle. Tommy Moore had to leave the group, as he has some financial obligations. But already in July, the group found a new drummer- Norman Chapman. Unfortunately, he had to leave the group, because he was called by the country to do the military service. Finally they found a drummer, who stayed with them for longer- Pete Best. It was the same man, whom they met in Casbah Club and who used to play with Ken Brown. They soon started performing in many fashionable clubs in England. As they got to know that Rock and Roll is very popular in Hamburg in Germany, they decided to go there. They loved not only playing music, but also having fun, drinking alcohol and meeting new people. The Beetles arrived to Hamburg in autumn 1960. They pretended that they were students and started a series of performances in Hamburg. There, from John's initiative, they also finally changed their name into 'The Beatles'. The group spent in Hamburg for a few months. They loved the atmosphere of freedom, promiscuity, pills and alcohol.
At that time the group consisted on 5 men: John Lennon (vocals/ rhythm), Paul McCartney (vocals/ rhythm), Stuart Sutcliffe (vocals/ bass), George Harrison (vocals/ lead) and Pete Best (drums). In Hamburg they had many problems with law and police- George Harrison was underage and he had to be deported back to England, and the police arrested Pete and Paul. As they finally came back from Hamburg, Stu decided to leave the group. He was engaged with Astrid Kircher, a well known photographer, whom he met in Hamburg.
The group split up. Paul McCartney was forced by his parents to get a regular work in a factory. But after a month they reunited. As Pete Best was considered by the audience the most handsome and attractive member of the group, the rest of the guys were very jealous. The fans were really charmed by Pete's original drumming style, called by people 'atomic beat'. The group played in Cavern Club for a few times and on 1st April 1961 they went back to Hamburg. They were engaged to perform in the club 'Top Ten' for at least three months.
Naturally, they could not live without serious arguments. John thought that their manager Alan Williams should not be paid as much as usually for the concerts in Germany. Alan decided to leave The Beatles. However, soon after that, the producer Bert Kampfert met them at the club and asked them to record in his studio with Tony Sheridan. The group was very happy and proud of themselves. They signed a contract with Polydor, and under the name Beat Brothers they recorded 4 songs- 'My Bonnie', 'Cry for a Shadow', 'Ain't She Sweet' and 'In the School Hall'. It all took them only two days.
On 28th October 1961 Brian Epstein, who worked at the record store in Liverpool, was asked by few people for the record of The Beatles. He was surprised to hear that they recorded their songs. He had heard them several times in Cavern Club and he liked them very much. He was a friend of Alan Williams and asked him to consult him with the band. Although Alan was still very angry at the band, he made them and Brian meet. Brian wanted to become their new manager and they signed an agreement with him on 24th January 1962. Brian was paid 25% of the incomes of the group.
The Beatles were invited to the TV program on the New Year's Day 1962. It was a program made by A&R department, whose directors and leaders were Dick Rowe and Mike Smith. The latter liked the band very much. However, they had to decide to choose one band and the opponent of The Beatles was Brian Poole and The Tremeloes. As The Beatles had been partying very hard until early in the morning and were very tired at the 1st of January, the TV station decided to have The Tremeloes in the program.
In the spring of 1962, Stuart Sutcliff died. He had been ill with the brain hemorrhage for a few years, not knowing about it.
On 4th June, the band was offered a very lucrative contract by EMI/ Parlophone Records. However, George was not sure if Pete Best should play with them, as in George's opinion Pete was not a good drum player.
Several times, when Pete was not able to play with the group, he was replaced with Ringo Starr. George had an idea, that Ringo should join the band and that Pete should be fired. He was trying to convince the others to this idea. On 16th August, Brian Epstein expelled Pete Best. Soon after that, Ringo Starr became the drummer of The Beatles.
On 4th September two great producers- George Martin and Ron Richards started to work with The Beatles on the new record. The first song recorded was 'Love Me Do', composed by Paul McCartney. It was recorded on different tapes, but the producers found Ringo not good enough. They wanted the band to have a session drummer. They also suggested that John Lennon should play a solo part on harmonica.
Finally, in September the record was ready. The most famous songs from this record are 'Love Me Do', ' PS I love you' and 'Please Please Me'. On the drums there played Andy White. Ringo Starr was given a part on Maracas. The band, however, was not satisfied with the record and they tried to re-record it several times after all.
