Unless you were hanging out in Hamburg, Germany, or in Liverpool between 1960 and early 1962, you wouldn’t have seen the Beatles’ original drummer, Pete Best. By the time the group had captured the attention of the media, Ringo Starr had taken over the drum seat. However, the two years that Best spent as part of the pre-Fab Four helped create the final Beatles experience.
Self-taught and inspired by Gene Krupa, Best had been playing in semiprofessional bands when he saw the Quarrymen—John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison-playing at his mother’s tiny coffee club, the Casbah, in the cellar of their home. The trio asked Best to join them, and shortly afterward they departed for Hamburg under the name the Silver Beatles. Pete kept time behind them as the band developed its sound and appeal, working seven hours a day, seven days a week, for the next six months.
Then, in 1962, when the Beatles were on the brink of superstardom, Pete Best got the axe and, as a result, missed out on unimaginable wealth and worldwide fame. Despite this monumental disappointment, he persevered in the music business. He formed his own band, the Pete Best Combo, which featured a horn section, and he toured North America. In New York he recorded an album that became infamous because of its misleading title: Best of the Beatles.
In 1968, as gigs began to wind down and the music scene changed, Pete Best decided to leave the business and find steady employment to support his wife and daughter. For the past 20 years he has worked for the British government.
Thanks to a couple of early Beatles singles and several bootleg albums, such as the three-record set, Silver Beatles: Like Dreamers Do—a collection of their Decca Records audition tapes—Pete Best’s affiliation with the world’s most famous rock ’n’ roll group has at least not gone unrecorded.
Pete recently shared some of his best Beatles memories with SH-BOOM.
SH-BOOM: When you first saw John, Paul and George play in 1960, what was your impression?
PETE: Around that time, the vogue was frontline singers: a main singer with a backing group behind him, as opposed to a group where each individual sang, which is commonplace today. Back in ’58, it was people copying Elvis with a band behind them, so the names of the groups was always So-and-So & the Blanks. Like the top groups: Rory Storme & the Hurricanes, or Cass & the Casanovas. When I saw [the Quarry-men] perform, even though they didn't have a drummer, the harmonies they were singing and the type of material was great. Instead of playing typical Top 20 material, these guys were knocking out [songs by] Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and they were doing harmony work like the Everly Brothers. That was new in those days. Consequently, they went down very well, even though they didn’t have the reputation of [other] Liverpool groups at that time. The funny thing was that other bands looked down on the Quarrymen.
SH-BOOM: Why?
PETE: I suppose the others thought they were inferior. Here were these guys who didn't have a drummer, who sort of sat there, played guitar and sang, which seemed amateurish. When I joined and we disappeared off to Hamburg for six months, [after] we came back, there was a little bit of prestige. When we got up on stage and played, and the kids went wild, which was basically overnight, those [bands] who had been the top dogs suddenly found themselves embarrassed. The Beatles were suddenly the ones setting the trends.
SH-BOOM: What do you think created this overnight hysteria?
PETE: Playing seven hours, seven days a week, got us in good shape. We got our act together there. We developed a style that the German audience wanted to see. They wanted to hear powerhouse music, from soft-harmony music to out-and-out rockers. Plus, we were unconventional. We didn’t give two damns about what people thought about us.
SH-BOOM: Unconventional?
PETE: In those days, most groups wore collar-and-tie outfits, gold-lame suits, clean cut. Because we had to spend so much time on stage in Germany, we never had a conventional stage outfit, and we’d play in jeans and T-shirts, anything we woke up in, basically. Our hair grew long. When we came back to Liverpool, we wore leather jackets and jeans and cowboy boots, and we did what we’d been doing in Hamburg. The kids must have been ready for something like that, because they went crazy. The other groups in Liverpool turned around and said, “We gotta get on the b and wagon quick.” Virtually overnight id of the stage suits disappeared, and everyone started walking around in jeans and T-shirts. And they began playing similar, American-influenced material. So we turned around and said, “Okay, we're gonna have to be a little smarter. We can write our own songs.” We slowly tried out original material on the audiences. We found the kids were liking it, so more and more original material came out.
“We were unconventional. We didn't give two damns what people thought about us!”
SH-BOOM: Who were you the closest to in Hamburg?
PETE: It’s got to be John. Even before that, when I first got to know him, there was something you just instantly liked about the fellow. He had a lot of wit. I liked his attitude—he couldn’t give a damn—and he was a down-to-earth guy. Even after we got back to Liverpool, I was closer to John than to anyone else.
SH-BOOM: Was that when you started playing at the Cavern?
PETE: Rock ’n’ roll was still a dirty word down there, but the owner was experimenting. He was doing some dinnertime sessions, which meant that he was letting rock bands play down there at dinnertime [at noon]. If you were good, he might let you play with a jazz band for an evening.
SH-BOOM: You went back to Hamburg in 1961 and played the Top Ten Club. Had conditions improved for you there?
PETE: We only played five hours during the week and six hours on the weekend. A little bit more civilized.
SH-BOOM: How did you physically stand those hours?
PETE: A lot of the time we were riding with booze as the adrenalin. A lot of it was that we were young and excited, and mentally it didn’t worry us. We were making money and had a lot of fun.
SH-BOOM: During this trip you recorded “My Bonnie” with Tony Sheridan. Were there any contracts?
PETE: When we backed Tony Sheridan, we were paid a set fee, which was something we weren’t worried about. The numbers we laid down [in Hamburg] for Polydor, “Ain’t She Sweet” and “Cry for a Shadow,” again we got paid a set fee for that. We didn’t know if they were going to be released, but as it happened, once the Beatle phenomenon took off, of course they were.
SH-BOOM: The band’s very first session must have been exciting.
PETE: Oh yes. The funny thing was that we got signed by a big orchestra leader in Germany [Bert Kaempfert, famous for “Wonderland by Night,’’ a #7 song in America in 1960], and when he said he was going to take us to record, we thought he meant to a recording studio. As it turned out, we played in a school hall that he used for his orchestra. We got miked up, and there were drapes there to keep the sound down to a minimum, so consequently the sound on the record is pretty raw.
SH-BOOM: When you got back to Liverpool, was the hysteria beginning?
PETE: By this time, we’d been away for three months, and people were waiting to see how we’d changed, if we'd changed, which we hadn’t. We just got more wild. So when we came back, the kids were going wild at the Cavern, which had become our second home.
SH-BOOM: When you joined the Beatles, did they want you to play a certain way?
PETE: The one thing about the Beatles was that everyone contributed in his own right. We’d sit down, and as drummer I would listen to [the songs] and decide what the rhythm was, and if it didn’t sound right I’d change it around. But no one sat down and said, “Okay, let’s do an eight-bar boogie or a shuffle beat.” You did what you felt was right.
SH-BOOM: Brian Epstein became involved about this time, right?
PETE: Right. We got back to Liverpool and brought our first record, “My Bonnie,” which was not [credited to] the Beatles. It was by Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers. We had become stars because [of the record], and fans from the Cavern went down to Brian Epstein’s record store and made inquiries for the record, saying “ ‘My Bonnie’ by the Beatles,” which it wasn’t. Curiosity got the better of him. His store was 50 yards from the Cavern, so he went down and saw us, and a couple of days later he asked to see us in his office. He said he’d like to become our manager. We were looking for someone who could do a little bit more for us, so the group decision was made that we would take him on as manager, and in October 1961, Brian Epstein became our manager.
SH-BOOM: It’s been said that when you were sick, Ringo Starr filled in for you a few times. Is that true?
PETE: There were two occasions. One, I had the flu, and the other I had to go to court. Things get misrepresented sometimes, and the impression has been gotten that I was always sick or something, and Ringo was the standby drummer. But there were only those two occasions, both at the Cavern.
SH-BOOM: After two years, the Beatles let you go. How did that happen?
PETE: Well, it came out of the blue. We had played the Cavern, and just as I was on my way home, Brian came up to me and said he’d like to see me in the office the next day. This didn’t mean any great shakes to me simply because I’d been called in numerous times. Because prior to Brian’s taking over, I had handled the business side of the group, done the booking, talked to people and decided where we were playing and what the price would be, so I thought it was to talk about that. So I went down there about ten the next morning, but I could tell by looking at Brian, he wasn’t the same cool, collected person he always was. He was agitated and a bit apprehensive. He talked around it for three or four minutes, so I finally said, “Let’s have it,” and he turned around and said, “I’ve got bad news for you, Pete. The boys want you out, and they want Ringo Starr in.” I was completely shocked. I was struggling for things to say, but I couldn’t get my head to work. It just went numb up there. When I asked the reason, he said, “Well, the boys feel that Ringo is a better drummer than you,” which at the time didn’t make sense because I was equally as good if not better than Ringo.
SH-BOOM: What did you think the real reason was?
PETE: A lot of people said, “You weren’t aware of it at the time, Pete, but you were becoming too popular, and for your role with the group, you were starting to overshadow the other three.”
SH-BOOM: Did you try to talk to them?
PETE: The funny thing was, while Brian was attempting to tell me in his office, there was a phone call from Paul asking if I had been told yet, and Brian said, “No, I haven’t told him yet,” and the phone went down. Because they hadn’t had the decency to be in the office, and the way it was done, I felt I didn’t want anything [more] to do with them. I stayed away from the local scene for about three or four weeks to get my head together, trying to work things out for myself, and I finally got an offer to join Lee Curtis & the All Stars, which had a good reputation at the time. So shortly after I was kicked out, the Beatles were top of the bill on two occasions where we had to perform second on the bill, which meant that as we were coming off stage, they were going on—and there was nothing said, just stone silence. From that day until this, I have never seen them [in person].
SH-BOOM: The Beatles were still just a local act. Why were you so devastated?
PETE: It was inner belief that we were going to break through. We were going to be the Liverpool group who made it to the big time, which was a hard thing to do because London was the mecca of the recording industry. Okay, they were top dogs only in Liverpool, but I’d put a lot of hard time into it, two years with long hours in nightclubs, and I’d done a lot for the group, and by this time we’d landed a recording contract with EMI.
SH-BOOM: When did that happen?
PETE: When we were at the Star Club in Germany, April 1962, Brian told us that we’d gotten the EMI contract, which was a big label in England. Things were going well. We had been down to EMI and laid down some of the tracks that were going to be initially recorded, and we were to go back at a later date and put the finishing touches to it. That was “Love Me Do.” And consequently, in between going back to EMI and putting the finishing touches on “Love Me Do,” I was Xed. “Love Me Do” went into the charts and away they went.
Пит Бест: Битл которого предали Если бы вы прогуливались по улицами Гамбурга или Ливерпуля в период с 1960 года по начало 1962 года, то вы бы встретили первоначального барабанщика Битлз, Пита Беста. Но к тому времени, когда группа попала во внимание СМИ, место за барабаном уже занял Ринго Старр. Тем не менее, два года, которые Бест провел как часть добитловского периода, помогли Битлз приобрести важный опыт. Самоучка, вдохновленный игрой Джина Крупа, Бест играл в полупрофессиональных коллективах. Он увидел группу Quarrymen с Джоном Ленноном, Полом Маккартни и Джорджом Харрисоном когда они играли в крошечном кофейном клубе Касбах принадлежавшего его матери, что был в подвале его дома. Трио пригласило Беста присоединиться к ним, и вскоре после этого они отправились в Гамбург под названием The Silver Beatles. Пит держал ритм позади них по мере того как группа совершенствовала свое звучание и привлекательность, работая семь часов в день, семь дней в неделю, в течение следующих шести месяцев. Но затем, в 1962 году, когда Битлз находились у порога всемирной славы, Пита Беста уволили и, как результат, он упустил невообразимое богатство и всемирную известность. Несмотря на это колоссальное разочарование, он стойко продолжал работать в музыкальном бизнесе. Он создал свою собственную группу Pete Best Combo, которая включала в себя и духовую секцию. Он совершил с группой тур по Северной Америке. В Нью-Йорке он записал альбом, который стал печально известным из-за его вводящего в заблуждение названия: Best of the Beatles (Бест из Битлз/Лучшее из Битлз). В 1968 году, когда концертная деятельность стала сворачиваться, а музыкальная сцена изменилась, Пит Бест решил оставить этот бизнес и найти постоянную работу для поддержки своей жены и дочери. В течение последних 20 лет он работал в британском правительстве. Благодаря нескольким ранним синглам с Битлз и нескольким бутлег-альбомам, таким как набор из трех дисков Silver Beatles: Like Dreamers Do* - собрание записей их прослушивания на Decca Records, принадлежность Пита Беста к самой знаменитой рок-н-ролльной группе в мире, по крайней мере, не исчезла. На днях Пит поделился с журналом SH-BOOM некоторыми из своих лучших воспоминаний о Битлз.
SH-BOOM: Каково было ваше впечатление когда вы впервые увидели Джона, Пола и Джорджа в 1960 году? ПИТ: Примерно в то время в моде были вокалисты-фронтмены: главный певец с поддерживающей группой позади него, в отличие от группы, в которой каждый человек пел, что сегодня является обычным явлением. Еще в 1958 люди копировали Элвиса с группой за ним и поэтому имена групп всегда были типа So-and-So & The Blanks. Как и лучшие группы: Rory Storme & Hurricanes или Cass & Casanovas. Когда я увидел, что Quarrymen выступают, хотя у них не было барабанщика, уже тогда гармонии, которые они пели, и сам материал были замечательны. Вместо того, чтобы играть в типичный топовый материал, эти ребята играли [песни] Карла Перкинса, Чака Берри, Литтл Ричарда, и они делали свою работу гармонично, как братья Эверли. Это было ново в те дни. В результате, их дела пошли очень хорошо, хотя в то время у них не было такой репутации как у [других] групп из Ливерпуля. Самое смешное это то, что другие группы смотрели на Quarrymen сверху вниз.
SH-BOOM: Почему? ПИТ: Полагаю, они думали о Битлз как о неполноценной группе. Эти парни, у которых нет барабанщика, играют на гитарах и поют - и это казалось любительством. Когда я присоединился к ним, группа уехала в Гамбург на шесть месяцев. Но после того как мы вернулись, авторитет группы немного повысился. Когда мы встали на сцену и заиграли, то публика стала бесноваться, что по правде говоря, было неожиданным и тогда топовые группы внезапно оказались растерянными. Внезапно Битлз оказались тем, кто устанавливал тенденции.
SH-BOOM: Как вы думаете, что создало эту неожиданную истерию? ПИТ: Играя семь часов, семь дней в неделю, мы обрели хорошую форму. Мы собрали воедино нашу энергию. Мы разработали стиль который хотела видеть немецкая публика. Они хотели услышать музыку сильной заводной команды, от музыки с тихими гармониями до рок-н-ролльных номеров. Плюс, мы были не шаблонными. И нам было не безразлично то, что люди думали о нас.
SH-BOOM: Не шаблонными? ПИТ: В те дни большинство групп носили галстуки, костюмы из золотой парчи, аккуратные причёски. Поскольку нам приходилось проводить столько времени на сцене в Германии, у нас никогда не было традиционных сценических костюмов и мы играли в джинсах и майках-футболках, в основном, в том, в чем мы просыпались. Мы долго не стриглись. Когда мы вернулись в Ливерпуль, то мы носили кожаные куртки, джинсы и ковбойские сапоги, то что мы носили в Гамбурге. Должно быть публика была готовы к чему-то подобному, потому она и ополоумела. Остальные группы в Ливерпуле собрались и сказали: "Нам нужно их быстро догнать". И фактически, внезапно костюмы со сцены исчезли и все начали ходить в джинсах и майках. Они начали играть подобную музыку, американский материал. Поэтому мы собрались и сказали себе: "Это всё хорошо, но нам нужно быть немного умнее. Мы можем сочинять собственные песни". Постепенно мы стали исполнять наши вещи на публике. Мы почувствовали, что публике это понравилось и поэтому все больше и больше стали исполнять собственного материала.
SH-BOOM: Кто к тебе был ближе всего в Гамбурге? ПИТ: Должно быть это был Джон. Даже еще до Гамбурга, когда мы только познакомились, в этом парне было что-то что вам сразу понравилось. Он был весьма остроумен. Мне понравилось его отношение - ему не было наплевать, он был приземленным человеком. Даже после того, как мы вернулись в Ливерпуль, я был ближе к Джону, чем к кому-либо.
SH-BOOM: Так было когда ты начал играть в клубе Каверн? ПИТ: Тогда рок-н-ролл все еще был непристойным словом, но хозяин клуба экспериментировал. Он устраивал несколько сеансов для обеда, а это означало, что он позволял рок-группам играть там в обеденное время [в полдень]. И если бы вы были хороши, то владелец мог бы позволить вам играть вечером с джазовой группой.
SH-BOOM: Вы вернулись в Гамбург в 1961 году и уже играли в клубе Top Ten. Улучшились ли условия для вас? ПИТ: Мы уже играли пять часов в течение недели и шесть часов в выходные. Стало чуть цивилизованнее.
SH-BOOM: Как вам тогда удавалось физически выдерживать такой график? ПИТ: Тогда мы много принимали алкоголя в качестве адреналина. Мы были молодыми и возбужденными и никакие мысли нас не беспокоили. Мы зарабатывали деньги и много веселились.
SH-BOOM: Во время той поездки вы записали My Bonnie с Тони Шериданом. Были ли потом какие-либо предложения о контрактах? ПИТ. Когда мы отыграли с Тони Шериданом, то нам заплатили установленную сумму и нас больше ничего не беспокоило. За наши композиции которые мы записали в Гамбурге для Polydor "Ain’t She Sweet" и "Cry for a Shadow" нам заплатили установленную плату. Мы не знали, будут ли они выпущены на пластинке, но когда феномен Битлз взлетел, конечно же, они были выпущены.
>За наши композиции которые мы записали в Гамбурге >для Polydor "Ain’t She Sweet" и "Cry for a Shadow" >нам заплатили установленную плату. Мы не знали, >будут ли они выпущены на пластинке, но когда феномен >Битлз взлетел, конечно же, они были выпущены. Надеюсь Питу перепало с битловского стола хоть несколько крох. Ведь эти записи, если не ошибаюсь, всплыли в 1964 году, в самый разгар битломании! Ну хоть полумиллионный-то тираж был?
