Tune In

by Mark Lewisohn

  I said, “What’s going to happen to me, then?” He made me business offers. He said that as long as I was still under contract to him he’d pay me the present wage that I was earning, which was about £50–60 a week. He’d also put me in another group and make me the leader of it.50

  It isn’t obvious why Brian asked Neil to be present—his employment with the Beatles wasn’t addressed, and Brian’s strategy was not to raise it but to see on which side of the fence Neil came down. Brian had gone to the trouble of sounding out a possible replacement if Neil left, but that man (Johnny Booker, roadie for the Undertakers and sometimes the Mersey Beats) says he turned it down because he was Neil’s mate.51

  Neil was taking it all in. He was angry Pete was being treated this way and admired him for his acceptance of the news: “He said that if the three other Beatles didn’t want him in the group then he would go. He had a contract with them and could have insisted on staying.” Neil also felt sympathy for Brian himself, who patently had been put in this horrible position: “None of this was Brian’s fault. I don’t think he wanted to get rid of Pete. It was John, Paul and George, and they kept right out of it and made him do their dirty work.”52

  Finally, Brian asked Pete if he would stay on till Saturday, doing the Beatles’ three Thursday/Friday bookings, and Pete said he would. Then he and Neil left, and in doing so walked straight past Billy Kinsley and Tony Crane of the Mersey Beats. They’d arrived for an appointment with Brian—to discuss the Mike Berry tour, they thought, though very likely Brian was hoping to tell them about Pete joining their group as leader and him becoming their manager. But Brian had retreated into his office exhausted, and the lads were told to come back another time.53

  Pete and Neil went to the pub. There wasn’t much to do except drink: Pete was numb and Neil could be silent for unusually extended periods when turning things over in his mind. One point above all others was bothering Pete. He’d been in the Beatles two years almost to the day—August 13 or 14, 1960, to August 16, 1962—so surely there had to be another reason for his dismissal, one they weren’t telling him. Otherwise, why would it take them all that time to say he wasn’t good enough?

  What with this, and the timing, and their cowardice, Pete was hurting. “I knew the Beatles were gonna go places, I knew we were going to be a chart group—and to be kicked out on the verge of it actually happening upset me a great deal. And the fact that they weren’t at the dismissal hurt me a lot more. It was vicious and back-handed and I felt like putting a stone round my neck and jumping off the Pier Head.”54

  Brian somehow gathered himself during the afternoon and got down to business. He spoke to David Harris and then dictated a letter that confirmed their conversation. This formally closed the door on Pete’s time in the Beatles and opened it for Ringo; it also set down the framework for a new and more robust contract between him and the Beatles that would cover all activities as far as 1967.

  August 16, 1962.

  Dear David,

  Confirming our telephone conversation to-day, would you please prepare the new contract for THE BEATLES based similarly to their previous contract with the following exceptions:–

  1. That the name Richard Starkey§ replaces that of Pete Best. I understand he is over 21 years of age.

  2. That you provide for the signature of both Paul McCartney’s and George Harrison’s fathers.

  3. That the contract is for five years and may be terminated by either party at the end of each contractual year.

  4. That you include clause four as in the contracts relating to THE BIG THREE and GERRY & THE PACEMAKERS.‖

  5. The rate of commission [is] to be changed in that the management receive 20% when the total earnings of an individual artist exceeds £100 per week, and that the management receive 25% should their earnings, individually, amount to more than £200 per week.

  I would be obliged if you would please prepare four draft copies of this contract for the group’s approval.

  Yours sincerely,

  For NEMS ENTERPRISES LTD.

  Brian Epstein, Director

  Pete and Neil went home to find Mo in fighting mood. She’d heard the news from Neil, phoning from a public box, and was ready to spring to her eldest boy’s defense in every way. As for Neil, while Pete would maintain that he did his best to persuade him to carry on working for the Beatles, Neil would remember a different version of events: “When Pete was sacked he wanted to drink with me all through the afternoon, but I said, ‘No, I have to drive the van tonight.’ He said, ‘But I’ve just been sacked!’ and I said ‘You’ve been sacked, Pete, I haven’t been sacked. I’ve still got a job to do.’ ”55

  Pete didn’t play that night after all—he just couldn’t face seeing the others and no longer saw why he should work with them. Neil did. He was staying on, and not going to keep his mouth shut. “They all looked at me and said, ‘Er, how’s Pete taking it?’ and I said, ‘Never mind about how Pete’s taking it, how are you taking it?’ ”56

  John, Paul and George had feared they’d never see their “Nell” again, so his arrival in Chester this Thursday night came as a huge relief. He was, they already knew, a man to be reckoned with, and this only confirmed his remarkable mental toughness, because he was going to balance being the Beatles’ right-hand man while staying in a domestic relationship with the Bests. The essence of pragmatism, the soul of discretion, as unbending as old boots, Neil could stay loyal to both sides, lifelong. He went up even higher in the Beatles’ estimation as a result, and his personal relationships, with John and George especially, strengthened. His faithfulness was also rewarded financially: they raised his £8-a-week wage to £10. (Neil was employed directly by the Beatles, never by Nems Enterprises, but Brian paid his wage and deducted it from their statements.)

  The lineup at Chester, the first of three consecutive Thursdays here, was assembled by Brian: this week it was the Beatles, the Big Three and Bob Wooler. In the dressing-room, when Wooler pointedly asked John, Paul and George what he should say if people asked him where Pete was, everyone kept their heads down. Meanwhile, the Big Three’s presence on the bill meant that Johnny Hutch did drum with the Beatles again after all, playing through a veil of scorn, hitting the drums hard and ruminating that he was doing them a bloody big favor, which he was. And when the night was over, Neil took the Beatles’ guitar amps back home to the Best house and parked them in the hall for safekeeping, as he always had, and always would.

  They did it again the next night too: the Beatles had a pair of bookings for Sam Leach, independent promotions in Birkenhead and New Brighton, and Hutch again bridged the gap. He’d a berdzerkly busy night because the Big Three also had a booking, back over the water, and he had to dash between the three halls. “I said to Eppy, ‘I can’t do this no more, it’s killing me!’ ”57 He wouldn’t have to.

  Ringo finished with the Hurricanes just as he’d promised. The Butlin’s Friday ended as usual at 11:15PM with the jolly holidaymakers joining in to sing “God Save the Queen,” “Auld Lang Syne” and the campers’ anthem, “Drown your sorrow, bring the bottles back tomorrow” … and when that tomorrow came Ringo was out of that trailer, into his Zodiac and haring home, leaving his flaming red suit for the next man and expecting to be paid for it. The future was unknown, but he wasn’t coming back.

  August 1962 was dull and dismal on Merseyside, and Saturday the 18th sent clouds and light evening rain. Elsie was delighted to have her Richy home three weeks early, doubly so when he announced he’d be able to give her £5 a week housekeeping from now on instead of twenty-five bob. It was an enormous sum. Then Richy stood at the kitchen sink in this tiny terraced house in Liverpool 8 and did as John had bid—he shaved off his beard, then tried to flatten down his hair. With the drums in the trunk of his car, he drove down the hill into town for a private first rehearsal in the Cavern.58

  Tonight’s Beatles booking was back on the Wirral, in the beautiful self-contained village of Port Sunlight. The Horticultural Soc
iety’s annual show took place all afternoon in the smart L-shaped Hulme Hall, and a dance always concluded the day. Brian agreed the Beatles could play between sixty and eighty minutes for £30; they’d be the main act, supported by their friends the Four Jays. In mid-June, at the time of an easy and polite negotiation, it was merely going to be the Beatles’ second appearance at this venue, but life had intervened to make it the start of something.59 Hulme Hall was fit for it, with beautiful blooms everywhere, their bouquet just sustaining through the ciggie smoke.

  Around the Beatles were flowers, flowers everywhere, but not entirely peace. Ringo was on high alert, expecting trouble from Neil. He didn’t know him very well but knew he was Pete’s mate, so when Neil seemed to refuse to set up the drums for him, Ringo went into a loud strop, accusing Neil of being petty and mean-minded. As Neil would explain, Ringo misinterpreted the situation:

  I didn’t know how to set up a drum kit. Pete always set up his own because he knew how he wanted it. So when Ringo came into the band I just let him do his own thing and he thought I was thinking “Fuck you” because he’d taken over from Pete.

  Ringo didn’t have anyone set up his drums in Rory Storm’s group but as soon as he got with the Beatles he was Big Time, like “We’ve got a road manager, he’ll do it.” But he had no intention of telling me how to fucking do it.60

  When finally set up, the kit showed RINGO STARR on the bass drum, not THE BEATLES. Pete hadn’t had anything printed on his drum for the longest time and (surprisingly) nobody seemed to care very much.

  There are no photographs of the night and no one can think what the Beatles wore—it would have been matching but Ringo didn’t yet have a suit like theirs. Also, no one remembers what songs were played … but what is recalled is that they were, right from the start, a better, tighter band than before. In May, when the Shadows replaced bassist Jet Harris, Hank Marvin reassured Melody Maker readers “It won’t alter the group one bit,” but when the Beatles sacked Pete and got Ringo they wanted it to alter them—their sound especially—and it did. As the Four Jays’ bass player Billy Hatton says, “The Beatles said to us, ‘What do you think?’ I said I thought it sounded better than they’d been. It wasn’t the sound they’d had with Pete, it was different. Pete had a tendency to speed up and slow down, Ringo didn’t, and he had charisma. But we felt sorry for Pete all the same.”61

  Bobby Brown was thrilled to see the Beatles she loved take on a new dimension. “I really liked Ringo from day one, at Hulme Hall. As soon as he got up there I thought he was great. He was full of personality. He wasn’t this moody James Dean–like person at the back. Pete never smiled and Ringo always smiled.”62

  Saturday, August 18, 1962, defines the start of Liverpool’s famous 1960s. In the afternoon, Liverpool Football Club resumed playing in the top division after an eight-season absence, kicking off a period of unforgettable national and international domination. In the evening, the Beatles became the four the world would know and love.

  More so than John and Paul, it was George who brought Ringo into the Beatles, and he always knew the rightness of what he did. “We were all very happy to have him. From that moment on, it gelled—the Beatles just went on to a different level.”63

  Neil Aspinall, even to the detriment of his own best mate, also knew the score. “They’d had a succession of drummers through the years and finally now they found one who integrated, someone who fitted. Until this point it was always ‘John, Paul, George and a drummer’—now it was John, Paul, George and Ringo.”64

  * * *

  * Commentators like to assert that it was a plea for oral sex. It could be, but it needn’t be, and John never mentioned it.

  † There were few vacant dates in the Beatles’ calendar when such a trip could have been made, and it’s useful that the Hurricanes’ friend and sometime roadie Dave Jamieson is sure it was a Sunday. The Beatles were resident in the Cavern every Sunday except July 29, which was also free of any other booking. Since Johnny Guitar said they knocked on the trailer about 10AM, John and Paul had probably driven through Saturday night. Their next booking was Monday lunchtime in Liverpool.

  ‡ The child grew up using the name Roag, still pronounced as “Rogue.” The Bests’ middle-name tradition was thus maintained: Pete was really Randolph Peter (Scanland), Rory was John Rory and Mona was Alice Mona.

  § R. Starkey was typed, Brian replaced the R. with RICHARD by pen.

  ‖ Clause 4 (paraphrased): The manager is responsible for the collection of all monies and shall pay them out, after deducting expenses and commission, and the Artists shall have at all times the right to demand production of statements of account.

  THIRTY-ONE

  AUGUST 19–OCTOBER 4, 1962

  SOME OTHER GUY

  HOW COME YOU SUDDENLY THREW PETE BEST OUT OF THE GROUP?

  BECAUSE HE COULDN’T PLAY VERY WELL.

  IS THAT WHY?

  SURE. WHY ELSE?

  John Lennon’s reply to a caller on a 1971 New York radio phone-in truthfully answered a question that had hung around for nine years and would continue to linger: why did the Beatles get rid of their drummer?1

  John, Paul and George weren’t sentimental types. This was their decision; they’d taken it and they’d live with it. If anyone didn’t like it, that was a pity; and if they really didn’t like it, that was tough. There were also grounds for keeping quiet. Going into detail couldn’t have reflected well on Pete; also, the central position of Neil Aspinall and his family called for discretion both here and far into the future. However, this reluctance to explain even the primary reason for Pete’s dismissal created a vacuum into which tumbled a blizzard of whispers and rumors.

  Twenty-four hours from Port Sunlight, the Beatles had their usual Sunday-night residency in the Cavern, and the cellar was crackling with the hottest of news. They’d sacked Pete! What? Why? Half-truths and falsehoods to flourish for decades were seeded this night in nothing more substantial than the tattle of teenage girls—as one of them, Liz Tibbott-Roberts, would remember: “It was all rumor. One word going round was that Pete ‘wasn’t good enough for them.’ Another said he was just so handsome that they’d got rid of him out of pure jealousy. Rumors just start, and it never dawned on fifteen-year-olds to stop and say, ‘Yes, but how do you know that?’ You just took it all in like a sponge, then unwittingly spread it.”

  We heard they got rid of Pete because Paul was jealous of the adulation he got.

  Joan McCaldon

  We heard Paul wanted Pete out because he didn’t fit in, because he never went around with them, like at the Blue Angel and so on.

  Beryl Johnson

  My friends and I heard “Brian got rid of him,” so we hated Brian for that. The reason was that Pete was so nice looking, the others were jealous. This was the whisper going around—and it could well have been started by one of Pete’s fans. We didn’t know one drummer from the next, whether he was good or not, so we automatically assumed it had to be jealousy.

  Margaret Chillingworth

  Gossip was rife among older heads too. Mal Evans heard Pete was booted out because he wouldn’t smile. Others said it was because he wouldn’t change his Tony Curtis hair into a Beatle fringe.

  People were saying John Lennon was to blame, that he’d had a row with Pete.

  Thelma Wilkinson, who

  ran the Cavern snack bar

  I was always led to believe the Beatles got rid of Pete to be free of Mrs. Best.

  Margaret Kelly2

  Very occasionally, when pressed, the Beatles responded to the most persistent of these allegations, that Pete was sacked because Paul was jealous of the attention he received (though no answer would ever quiet the conspiracy theorists).

  JOHN: There was always this myth being built up that he [Pete] was great, and Paul was jealous of him because he was pretty, and all that crap. They didn’t get on that much together but it was partly because Pete was a bit slow.

  PAUL: I wasn’t jealous of him
because he was handsome. He just couldn’t play! We wanted him out for that reason.

  PAUL: What’s the truth about why Pete Best was sacked? Because George Martin wouldn’t have him, is one good reason. And Ringo was better, was the other prime reason.3

  Pete would always contend there had to be additional reasons for his dismissal, one or more causes to remain everlastingly unknown to him as to everyone else. This both preserved his dignity and left him room for maneuver. Asked about it thousands of times—as he was—he would say variations of “They said my drumming wasn’t good enough but the real reason is a mystery.” Neil knew better and was very much around for the asking, and it’s telling that Pete and Mona didn’t challenge John, Paul or George about it, only the people around them. Mo even phoned George Martin. Though doubtless bemused at the inquiry, he confirmed his decision not to use Pete on Beatles recording sessions; whether or not the group retained him outside the studio wasn’t his business.

  Mona disregarded such clear statements about her son’s deficiency on the drums, would forever maintain the Beatles had perpetrated “a dirty trick” against her boy, and left Brian in no doubt she knew why:

  I said to him, “It’s jealousy, Brian, jealousy all the way, because Peter is the one who has the terrific following—he has built up the following in Liverpool for the Beatles.”

  I think it was for that reason that Peter had to be got rid of, at that stage—because if it wasn’t, and they went national and international, Peter would have become the main Beatle with the others just the props.4

  One upshot of all the anger was that Pete rejected Brian’s offer to become leader of the Mersey Beats. Brian cannot have been too surprised that a 20-year-old freshly out of the Beatles didn’t want to join a group of young lads with a junior position on the scene—but while Bob Wooler would speculate that Brian was counting on this, Brian knew the rejection left Pete free to take legal action.5