21 The Beatles Anthology, p53.
22 Beatle!, p94. “Tough luck” from interview by Spencer Leigh. British embassy mentioned by Paul in a letter written on May 4. It didn’t happen.
23 The parameters of the booking are fact but there is no known contract for the extension.
24 Winterhuder Fährhaus was close to Jürgen Vollmer’s home at Tewessteg 3, where John and George had spent Good Friday with Jürgen and some friends.
25 This Astrid and Stuart session was at Hartungstrasse 12, another location Jürgen had found from prior research; photos were also taken this day in a doorway somewhere in the Eimsbüttel district.
Fourteen years later, in 1975, John chose one of the Jäger-Passage photos for the cover of his Rock ’n’ Roll album. The blurred figures walking past are, left to right, Paul, Stu and George. It was the only “solo album” of the period to feature a Beatles group photo, and no one realized it.
26 Melody Maker, August 25, 1951. Deutsche Grammophon was a subsidiary of the German electrical engineering company Siemens & Halske.
27 Author interview, March 22, 2006.
28 June 5, 1961. Billboard became Billboard Music Week from January 9, 1961, and didn’t revert to its original one-word title until January 5, 1963—however, for the sake of convenience, it will be referred to here as Billboard. “Wonderland by Night” reached number 1 in this magazine’s charts; in Cash Box, it was a number 1 single and number 2 album. Though voted a hit on Juke Box Jury, it did not break through in Britain.
29 Interview by Spencer Leigh. Kent’s biggest success came in 1959, aged 16, with a German version of Susie Darlin,’ the US hit by Robin Luke.
30 May 4, 1961. The trip was also reported in Billboard, May 1, 1961.
31 Author interview, March 15, 2011.
32 Author interview, April 1, 2008.
33 Author interview, August 25, 2007.
34 Author interviews. Piel, June 7, 2006; Erichsen, March 19, 2006; Braun, March 17, 2006; Berger, June 8, 2006. “Icke” Braun was so nicknamed on account of his accent: he was from Berlin, where the word ich—meaning “I”—is pronounced with a hard ending, a “k” sound rather than a soft “ch.” (The phonetic English pronunciation of the nickname is “Ikker.”)
35 The Beatles Anthology, p59.
36 From interview transcript of unknown origin.
37 “We were all on them,” says Cyn in A Twist of Lennon, p54.
38 Beatle!, p100. Mutti’s houseboat was probably at Spreehafen, in Wilhelmsburg, a short bus ride from St. Pauli.
39 John said this in a March 28, 1975, interview by Frances Schoenberger for the German magazine Bravo, unpublished until appearing in Spin, October 1988. The wooden structures on the viewing platform have since been removed on safety grounds, so the carvings are gone. The church is just beyond the other end of the Reeperbahn from Grosse Freiheit—close to Krameramtsstuben, the seventeenth-century courtyard (preserved intact at the time of writing) where Astrid took some atmospheric photos of Stuart in 1960.
40 Davies, p107. “Independent Group” members included Richard Hamilton. Peter Blake (then a student at the Royal College of Art) attended meetings.
41 Author interview, November 3, 1994.
42 Letter, dated June 19, 1961, illustrated in Paul McCartney World Tour program (1989–90), p39.
43 Beatle!, p109; Cynthia from A Twist of Lennon, p57.
44 Author interview, July 21, 2006.
45 The Beatles Anthology, p62.
46 Author interview, November 3, 1994.
47 Interview by Tony Webster, Beat Instrumental, September 1964; “I didn’t really want to spend that much” from interview by Paul du Noyer, Paul McCartney World Tour program (1989–90), p43.
48 First paragraph from interview by Richard Williams, for The Times, December 16, 1981; second from interview by Julia Baird, 1988.
49 First sentence from interview by Roger Scott, Capital Radio (London), November 17, 1983; second from interview by Mike Read, October 13, 1987, for BBC Radio 1. Pete from Beatle!, p103 (beware of ghostwriter’s journalese); George from The Beatles Anthology, p69; Klaus from author interview, March 29, 2006. All Klaus Voormann quotes in this chapter are from this interview.
50 Hinze interview by Ulf Krüger for Die Beatles in Harburg (Christians Druckerei & Verlag, Hamburg, 1996), p99; Sheridan from The Beatles: Fact and Fiction 1960–1962, by Eric Krasker (Atlantica-Séguier, Biarritz, 2009), p128.
51 George played and sang on a 1990 remake of “Nobody’s Child” by his band the Traveling Wilburys, recorded for the orphans’ charity Romanian Angel Appeal.
52 In the Paul McCartney biography Many Years From Now (p208), author Barry Miles mentions that Bert Kaempfert suggested they make a recording as Paul McCartney and the Beatles. Miles writes that the idea was quickly rejected by the group (though of course John went on to take the spotlight in the same way). This detail must have been provided by Paul himself, since it doesn’t appear elsewhere.
53 Interview by Paul Drew, US radio, April 1975. During a July 1969 recording session the Beatles slipped casually into a jam of three Gene Vincent numbers, including “Ain’t She Sweet,” which they did more in the Vincent style than the “march” sound of 1961. It appears on The Beatles Anthology 3. “… bound to be better” from Davies, p107.
54 Interview on Boston radio WBZ, London, May 30, 1964.
55 “Ain’t She Sweet” c/w “Beatle Bop” mentioned by the Beatles a day or two later to Bob Hardy, a Liverpool friend who, as a merchant seaman, happened to be docked in Hamburg this week and went to see them play at the Top Ten. Hardy conveyed the information to his girlfriend in a letter sent to Merseyside on June 26, shown to the author. Schacht re. disappointment from interview by Johnny Beerling, January 1972, for BBC Radio 1.
56 Interview by Tony MacArthur, Brisbane, June 29, 1964.
57 Calculating a royalty on 90 or 85 percent instead of 100 was standard in the record business throughout the world, based on the premise that shellac discs were so breakable many of those pressed would be rendered useless. The fact that records were now made of much more durable vinyl wouldn’t be reflected in contracts for at least another decade.
58 Davies (1985), p37.
59 Interview by Elliot Mintz, April 16, 1973.
TWENTY: Soup and Sweat and Rock ’n’ Roll (July–September 1961)
1 According to Disc Weekly, July 31, 1965, Ringo recorded his party duet with Cilla and retained the tape. It has never been heard publicly.
2 In his Paul McCartney biography Many Years From Now (p52), Barry Miles wrote that Paul once hitchhiked to the Isle of Wight, with John, to visit his cousin Bett Robbins and her husband, Mike, at their pub—they were resident managers at the popular Bow Bars, in Ryde. Paul then touched on it during an interview from the Isle of Wight (with Geoff Lloyd for Absolute Radio, June 13, 2010). There are no obvious spaces in Paul and John’s calendar for this trip to have happened except at the start of July 1961, but John never mentioned it, and a letter sent by Mike Robbins to Mike McCartney on July 6, 1961 (reproduced in Thank U Very Much, p76) doesn’t refer to Paul making any visits. Paul went to Ryde alone in April 1963, and he and John hitchhiked to the pub the Robbinses managed before this, in Caversham, the Easter 1960 visit when they became the Nerk Twins.
3 They were married in 1965 and remained so at the time of writing this, approaching fifty years later.
4 Brian’s regret from the raw transcripts of interviews for Brian Epstein’s autobiography A Cellarful of Noise.
5 As told to the author, March 14, 1989.
6 Davies, pp122–3, where Queenie Epstein added that Brian “also went back to amateur acting again.” Further information about this has yet to be found. Barcelona account from a handwritten note by Brian Epstein, shown to the author.
7 June Harris piece in Disc, July 8, 1961.
8 The impact of Parlophone’s Beyond the Fringe album reverberated for years: it made it possible for people to study the format
and learn the show by heart, much in the way that, a decade later, the Monty Python albums multiplied the impact and influence of the TV show.
9 John from song-by-song notes typed for his LP Rock ’n’ Roll, spring 1975; George from The Beatles Anthology, p73.
10 The Best Years of the Beatles, p99, and Beatle!, p126.
11 From the raw transcripts of interviews for Brian Epstein’s autobiography A Cellarful of Noise.
12 Interview by Scott Muni, WNEW-FM, February 13, 1975. John was promoting his new record of “Stand by Me,” an international hit that spring.
13 The Beatles Anthology, p53.
14 “The Darktown Strutters’ Ball” was a Joe Brown single in February 1960; “I’m Henery the Eighth, I Am” in June 1961. He’d yet to issue “The Sheik of Araby” but the Beatles saw him do it on TV.
15 Sometimes the sessions ran 12–1PM, with a break until 1:15, then live music again until 2:15.
16 Author interview, June 1, 2005.
17 August 3, 1961.
18 Interview by Chris Charlesworth for Melody Maker, November 20, 1971.
19 Author interview, June 1, 2008. Made in Manchester by Granada, Coronation Street was the first TV serial (the term “soap opera” wasn’t yet used in Britain) set in the north of England. It wasn’t Liverpool but another part of Lancashire, demonstrably working class. The Beatles were sporadic viewers but saw it often enough to impersonate the characters.
20 Interview by author and Kevin Howlett, June 6, 1990.
21 A 1961 photo of the Beatles sitting with their pints was still (at the time of writing) on display in the Grapes. The pub’s interior has altered drastically in recent years.
22 “I don’t know why girls were all over the Beatles when they came off stage in their leather gear,” recalls Mike McCartney. “The stench was terrible.” (Interview by Spencer Leigh.)
23 The Best of Fellas, p91.
24 Author interview, November 4, 2004.
25 Author interview, August 27, 2005.
26 Author interview, July 5, 2007.
27 Author interview, November 6, 2007.
28 54 Ferndale Road, off Smithdown Road. The drip repayments for the Futurama were completed this summer in five large chunks, adding up to £30. After posing for photos at home with his collection of guitars, now numbering four, George sold the Futurama.
29 Author interview, June 18, 2007; George from interview by Nicky Horne, Capital Radio (London), September 13, 1974.
30 Mersey Beat issue dates spanned its fortnightly appearance, so the first was July 6–20 and the second July 20–August 3, 1961. For the sake of abbreviation, this book will cite only the start date of each issue. The headline BEATLE’S SIGN RECORDING CONTRACT was written that way.
31 Author interview, June 21, 2007.
32 Interview by Malcolm Searle, Melbourne, June 15, 1964.
33 Interview by Bob Azurdia, BBC Radio Merseyside, October 19, 1982.
34 Adelaide press conference, June 12, 1964. Here, Paul related how he and John planned to swim the Mersey, though John told the crowded room, “I don’t remember this, actually. He keeps saying it all the time.” Paul countered, “It’s true, John, it is true,” and John—king of the last word—told him, “I think you must have been on your own then.” John also mentioned it during his September 1971 interview by Peter McCabe and Robert D. Schonfeld: “Paul was more aggressive [to getting the Beatles noticed]—’Let’s think up publicity stunts,’ all jump in the Mersey—I don’t know, something like that.”
35 First part from interview by Takahiko Iimura, October 15, 1971; second from Montreal press conference, December 22, 1969; third from interview by Jerry G. Bishop, August 13–24, 1965.
36 First paragraph from interview by Bob Azurdia, BBC Radio Merseyside, October 19, 1982; second from The Best of Fellas, p147.
37 The Best of Fellas, p147. Sam Leach’s management interest happens a little later.
38 The Best Years of the Beatles, p90, and The Best of Fellas, pp147–8.
39 Kenny Ball interview by Spencer Leigh.
40 Eyewitness News, ABC Channel 7, Australia, November 19, 1995.
41 Davies, p78. Cyn had completed her four-year art school course, attained her NDD and was staying on for a fifth and final year, studying for the ATD, the art teacher’s diploma. This entailed being sent into schools to gain classroom experience. In the meantime, during the summer holiday, she took a job on the cosmetics counter at Woolworth’s (just along from the Penny Lane roundabout), where John dropped in to see her most days, barging and crippling through the shop.
42 Author interview, May 12, 2010.
43 Author interview, May 13, 2010.
44 Liverpool Echo, April 24, 1964.
45 Mike McCartney left school (at 17, in July 1961) with one O-Level, in Art, confidently expecting to follow his rebel hero John Lennon into Liverpool College of Art. The last column in the Liverpool Institute register shows the art school as Mike’s destination, but then he found the rules had changed. In 1957, John got in with no O-Levels; in 1961, Mike needed several. Following a period on the dole, he took a job in a tailoring shop, and then, for a short period from April 1962, trudged the streets as an unsuccessful door-to-door salesman of the Catholic Bible.
46 There’s documentary proof that Ringo pursued emigration to Houston in the late summer of 1961, but, on the occasions he talks about it, he usually speaks of 1958 or 1959, when he was 18 and still working at H. Hunt & Son. It’s impossible to reconcile these accounts unless he made two separate attempts to go—but if he did, he’s never mentioned it. He planned to emigrate in tandem with a Liverpool friend, whose identity has been assigned to/claimed by more than one person.
47 Rory renamed 54 Broad Green Road “Hurricaneville” in 1961, perhaps inspired by Stormsville, the title of a Johnny and the Hurricanes LP released in October 1960. (As previously mentioned, the name Rory Storm and the Hurricanes could also have come from the American group.) The house name has often been remembered as Stormsville, even by Rory’s sister Iris, but it was registered with the Post Office as Hurricaneville and appeared that way in the phone directory.
48 Young Ringo, Beatles Book magazine, issue 28 (November 1965).
49 Beatle!, p88.
50 Author interview, January 11, 2005. Pete Mackey became bass guitarist with the Tenabeats; David Boyce (another Cavern Beatles fan) was the drummer, and their guitarist/singer was the poet/writer Mike Hart. They twice played on the same bill as the Beatles in 1961–2; then in 1963, after renaming themselves the Roadrunners, did so again three times, and established a strong Merseyside following as an arty rhythm and blues group. (An important band; more about them in the next volume.)
51 See Davies, p113, for illustration of four of the twenty-one pages.
52 Stuart: The Life and Art of Stuart Sutcliffe, pp182–3. Mersey Beat piece from October 5, 1961.
53 Ibid., p190. The dates of Stuart’s fleeting return to Liverpool aren’t known, but it was the end of August 1961. The Sutcliffes had moved again since his previous visit, to a rented ground-floor flat at 37 Aigburth Drive, a grand house near Sefton Park boating lake.
54 Granada’s response, dated September 21, 1961, is reproduced in several books—e.g., Beatle!, p123.
55 Interview by Johnny Beerling, January 13, 1972, for BBC Radio 1.
56 Interview by Elliot Mintz, January 1, 1976.
57 Paul from The Beatles Anthology, p21; John from interview by Elliot Mintz, January 1, 1976.
58 John’s quote from Davies, p95. Cyn’s aunt, Celia “Tess” Collins, lived at 7 Ennis Road, West Derby. Cyn lived here until spring 1962, entailing long bus journeys to and from art school every day; John became a visitor here.
59 The Best of Fellas, p67.
TWENTY-ONE: Les Nerk Twins à Paris (October 1–14, 1961)
1 “We ended up taking the train all the way,” John told Chris Hutchins, Disc, April 27, 1963.
2 Interview by Antoine de Caunes, October 22,
2007, for Canal+ TV.
3 Interview by David Sheff, September 12, 1980, for Playboy.
4 Author interview, March 12, 2006. All Jürgen Vollmer quotes in this chapter are from this interview.
5 John quote from interview by Albert Goldman, Charlie, July 1971; Paul confirmed his and John’s needle-and-thread handiwork in The Beatles Anthology, p64. “Queer” from Davies, p111.
6 Interview by Jean-François Vallée for French TV, April 4, 1975. There are no known photos of John or Paul wearing the collarless Cardin jacket (or jackets) bought in Paris, or of their hand-altered flared trousers.
7 Referred to in “Cafe on the Left Bank,” a Paul McCartney song on Wings’ album London Town, released 1978.
8 Sydney press conference, June 11, 1964.
9 Jürgen Vollmer’s headless photo of John and Paul outside Bal Tabarin—John wearing his new corduroy jacket bought at the flea market—is one of three or four shots from this Paris holiday included on the poster enclosed within The Beatles (the White Album), issued 1968. There’s also John in his Acker Bilk bowler, sitting up in bed in their Montmartre hotel room; and another crip session—Paul in a cloth cap and scarf and John in glasses. A photo-booth shot of John may also be from this trip. (Except for when Paul handed him his camera, Jürgen took no photos of John and Paul in Paris.)
10 Unidentified 1969 interview, quoted in The Beatles Anthology, p64.
11 Ibid. The theory has formed in France that the Beatles’ hairstyle was modeled on the cut worn by Jean Marais in the Jean Cocteau film Le Testament d’Orphée (1960). This is wrong—Jürgen Vollmer has photos of himself from 1957 (on a trip to London) with the same style.
12 Interview by Ken Douglas, August 16, 1966. If they did fly home, it would have been Paris to Manchester and then a bus and train; there were no direct flights to Liverpool.
TWENTY-TWO: “Right Then, Brian—Manage Us” (October 15–December 3, 1961)
1 Author interview, June 21, 2007.
2 Interview by Spencer Leigh. Also said in Beatle!, p123, and The Best Years of the Beatles, p161.
Tune In Page 128