February 1, 1961
The Beatles play Hambleton Hall, tonight, then Litherland, St John's in Bootle and Lathom again. All with John possibly favoring an injured finger. Well, the show must go on.
We are in the middle of a string of 18 straight days of gigs without a day off. Admittedly, playing music to adoring audiences is not quite the same as pulling 10 hour shifts in the salt mines, or even in a car factory or bank office, but I do think this demonstrates a high level of commitment from all the members of the band. Most especially when you factor in all of the unglamorous, logistical trouble of toting equipment from home to venue and back each day. Not to mention the unseen effort of always learning new material to keep the sets fresh and exciting.
By now, the promoters are getting the message that the Beatles are lads who can be relied on to show up and deliver the goods.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
One Version of Events
January 30, 1961
Nobody can seem to agree 50 years after the fact. There are many dissenting voices. I'll just present the most likely scenario as I see it.
Today, a Monday, is the day that Stu Sutcliffe is beaten up by a gang of toughs after a show at Lathom Hall in Seafort, a borough of Liverpool. Frequently, tough teenagers, know as Teddy boys because of their penchant for pseudo-Edwardian style clothes, would use the dance halls to exhibit their testosterone fueled agressive impulses. Band members were natural targets for them, as they would frequently be the focus of attention of the "birds", who are, after all, the people the Teddy boys want to impress in their caveman-like way. It's one of the hazards of the job of being a musician in that time and place. All of the Beatles are of rather slight build, and Stu is positively wispy. (In Hamburg, he would share clothes with his girlfriend Astrid.) He doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell against a bunch of jealous thugs. All he can do is to cover up as best he can while they knock him to the ground and go to work on him with their boots.
His friends, John and Pete, come running when the word reaches them and wade in to the melee, but only after poor Stu is bleeding profusely. John sustains a broken finger in the cause of the defense of his best friend.
Does it have a bearing on the early death of Stu a little more than a year later? No one can be sure.
Nobody can seem to agree 50 years after the fact. There are many dissenting voices. I'll just present the most likely scenario as I see it.
Today, a Monday, is the day that Stu Sutcliffe is beaten up by a gang of toughs after a show at Lathom Hall in Seafort, a borough of Liverpool. Frequently, tough teenagers, know as Teddy boys because of their penchant for pseudo-Edwardian style clothes, would use the dance halls to exhibit their testosterone fueled agressive impulses. Band members were natural targets for them, as they would frequently be the focus of attention of the "birds", who are, after all, the people the Teddy boys want to impress in their caveman-like way. It's one of the hazards of the job of being a musician in that time and place. All of the Beatles are of rather slight build, and Stu is positively wispy. (In Hamburg, he would share clothes with his girlfriend Astrid.) He doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell against a bunch of jealous thugs. All he can do is to cover up as best he can while they knock him to the ground and go to work on him with their boots.
His friends, John and Pete, come running when the word reaches them and wade in to the melee, but only after poor Stu is bleeding profusely. John sustains a broken finger in the cause of the defense of his best friend.
Does it have a bearing on the early death of Stu a little more than a year later? No one can be sure.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Traveling Band
January 26-29 1961
The Beatles play five gigs in four days, at the usual venues. Thursday the 26th, they appear at the scene of their recent triumph, Litherland Town Hall. Friday, they are back at the Aintree Institute. Saturday, they play a gig there as well as another at Lathom Hall (which will soon occupy a infamous niche in Beatles lore, due to the violence that was likely to break out there). Finally, on Sunday, they bring the music to the Mona Best's basement Cavern Club.
The Beatles are still making do with whatever transportation arrangements that can be made, including using city buses when necessary. Tony Bramwell, a friend from the earliest days and one of the Beatles later entourage remembers meeting with George who was carrying his own guitar on the way to a Litherland gig on the number 81 bus. Tony offers to carry George's ax in anticipation of gaining free admission to the club ("I'm with the band"). Of course, George agreed. Scousers are loyal to friends that way.
Note for the cognoscenti. I just received in the mail a book that I'm really looking forward to reading, direct from Liverpool. (Homeland security did open the package to make sure there was nothing dangerous in there.) It's called Twist and Shout - Merseybeat, The Cavern, The Star Club and The Beatles, written by Spenser Leigh, who was in attendance at the birth of the Merseybeat and has more recently tracked down all the the denizens of the beat scene to document their memories of events. (As of 2004, the live music was still going strong there.) You can order the book direct from the author and he will personalize it for you.
The Beatles play five gigs in four days, at the usual venues. Thursday the 26th, they appear at the scene of their recent triumph, Litherland Town Hall. Friday, they are back at the Aintree Institute. Saturday, they play a gig there as well as another at Lathom Hall (which will soon occupy a infamous niche in Beatles lore, due to the violence that was likely to break out there). Finally, on Sunday, they bring the music to the Mona Best's basement Cavern Club.
The Beatles are still making do with whatever transportation arrangements that can be made, including using city buses when necessary. Tony Bramwell, a friend from the earliest days and one of the Beatles later entourage remembers meeting with George who was carrying his own guitar on the way to a Litherland gig on the number 81 bus. Tony offers to carry George's ax in anticipation of gaining free admission to the club ("I'm with the band"). Of course, George agreed. Scousers are loyal to friends that way.
Note for the cognoscenti. I just received in the mail a book that I'm really looking forward to reading, direct from Liverpool. (Homeland security did open the package to make sure there was nothing dangerous in there.) It's called Twist and Shout - Merseybeat, The Cavern, The Star Club and The Beatles, written by Spenser Leigh, who was in attendance at the birth of the Merseybeat and has more recently tracked down all the the denizens of the beat scene to document their memories of events. (As of 2004, the live music was still going strong there.) You can order the book direct from the author and he will personalize it for you.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Hambleton, Hill and Anton
January 25, 1961
The Beatles play for the first time at Hambleton Hall in Huyton the first of their engagements for a team of promoters, Wally Hill and Vic Anton.
Stuart Sutcliffe was born here. Huyton is also the location of Yew Tree Cemetery, where Paul McCartney's mother lies buried perhaps a half mile away from the hall. I wonder if that fact crossed his mind on the way to the gig.
The Beatles play for the first time at Hambleton Hall in Huyton the first of their engagements for a team of promoters, Wally Hill and Vic Anton.
Stuart Sutcliffe was born here. Huyton is also the location of Yew Tree Cemetery, where Paul McCartney's mother lies buried perhaps a half mile away from the hall. I wonder if that fact crossed his mind on the way to the gig.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Cynthia Gets a Leather Coat
January, 1961
John Lennon, on his return from Germany, has moved back in with his rather severe widowed Aunt Mimi. How his suburban middle class living arrangements must have clashed with his after dark rock and roll life.
One of the best sources for information about John's development as an artist and as a person during this time is Cynthia Lennon's book called simply "John". She was raised in rather privileged style and so views the whole crazy time with a certain detached rationality, but because she was a member herself of his generation, she also understands the rebellious lifestyle that John was so deeply involved in. She is the perfect go-between.
John is obviously deeply (if somewhat immaturely) in love with her at this time and decides to use some of his musicians earnings to buy her a leather coat, such as he has seen German girls wearing. They go together to a local department store and pick out a chocolate brown 3/4 length coat. Then, they buy a roast chicken at a deli nearby and head for Mimi's to proudly show off their purchase.
When Mimi sees the coat she is enraged at his, in her view, foolish purchase. She throws the chicken in their faces and orders them out of her house. In the street, John puts his arm tenderly around Cynthia and comforts her saying "All she cares about is f_cking money and cats." What an pithy insight into his life and emotional state echoes down to us via this episode!
John Lennon, on his return from Germany, has moved back in with his rather severe widowed Aunt Mimi. How his suburban middle class living arrangements must have clashed with his after dark rock and roll life.
One of the best sources for information about John's development as an artist and as a person during this time is Cynthia Lennon's book called simply "John". She was raised in rather privileged style and so views the whole crazy time with a certain detached rationality, but because she was a member herself of his generation, she also understands the rebellious lifestyle that John was so deeply involved in. She is the perfect go-between.
John is obviously deeply (if somewhat immaturely) in love with her at this time and decides to use some of his musicians earnings to buy her a leather coat, such as he has seen German girls wearing. They go together to a local department store and pick out a chocolate brown 3/4 length coat. Then, they buy a roast chicken at a deli nearby and head for Mimi's to proudly show off their purchase.
When Mimi sees the coat she is enraged at his, in her view, foolish purchase. She throws the chicken in their faces and orders them out of her house. In the street, John puts his arm tenderly around Cynthia and comforts her saying "All she cares about is f_cking money and cats." What an pithy insight into his life and emotional state echoes down to us via this episode!
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Hardest Working Band in Show Biz
January 19-21, 1961
The Beatles do four gigs over the next three days. Tonight, a Thursday, at Alexandra Hall, tomorrow back at Lathom Hall and on Saturday at Lathom Hall and the Aintree Institute. Brian Kelly and the Beatles are obviously made for each other. And a pattern is emerging here that the Beatles would come to live by until 1965. Lives of constant touring would be their lot and anyone who looks at it objectively begins to wonder how they did it. From the outside, it looks like such a lark, but inside the performance pressure cooker that the band was developing into, it was very hard (although rewarding, personally if not financially) work.
The Beatles do four gigs over the next three days. Tonight, a Thursday, at Alexandra Hall, tomorrow back at Lathom Hall and on Saturday at Lathom Hall and the Aintree Institute. Brian Kelly and the Beatles are obviously made for each other. And a pattern is emerging here that the Beatles would come to live by until 1965. Lives of constant touring would be their lot and anyone who looks at it objectively begins to wonder how they did it. From the outside, it looks like such a lark, but inside the performance pressure cooker that the band was developing into, it was very hard (although rewarding, personally if not financially) work.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Cashbah and Aintree
January 18,1961
The Beatles play another gig on the 15th at the Casbah. Probably more of a practice really, since they have really risen above playing a basement coffee bar, but isn't is fun to imagine what it must have been like to have heard them in that cramped space at the top of their rave-up game.
On the 18th they return to the Aintree Institute. We have on good authority they were paid 8 and a half pounds sterling for this gig. They must have felt like they were really making it, now. Little did they know!
The Beatles play another gig on the 15th at the Casbah. Probably more of a practice really, since they have really risen above playing a basement coffee bar, but isn't is fun to imagine what it must have been like to have heard them in that cramped space at the top of their rave-up game.
On the 18th they return to the Aintree Institute. We have on good authority they were paid 8 and a half pounds sterling for this gig. They must have felt like they were really making it, now. Little did they know!
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