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Interview
by SaschaS
3-1-2002
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| The Beatles |
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A cure for gravity (pt 2)
Still at the centre of time
In part one we discovered how The Beatles got to ‘contribute’ to Mersey Beat magazine, their musical influences according to the publication’s founder/editor Bill Harry, how they ruled Liverpool to the point that most of the shop-windows were adorned with the ‘Mop-tops’’ dummies and selling 25,000 ‘Beatle cakes’ in one 12-hour period!? And now, part two.
The common wisdom, that was also contained in the Brian Epstein’s autobiography ‘The Cellarful of Noise’, is that the manager who took The Beatles to the world’s pop Pantheon first heard of the band when a boy Raymond Jones came into his music shop on 28 October 1961 to ask for a copy of ‘My Bonnie’ by Tony Sheridan and The Beatles; Harry’s memory is different.
Harry personally delivered the first issue of Mersey Beat, published in 5,000 copies, to 28 shops. At NEMS offices, owned by Epstein family and run by Brian, Harry had an appointment with the manager.
“He (Epstein) was extremely warm and polite, showed a keen interest in the publication and ordered a dozen copies. He called me the next day and ordered two dozen more, and two days later ordered further 100 copies.”
Mr Epstein was very interested in musical happenings in an attempt to anticipate customers’ demands and even asked Harry if he could become a record reviewer on the paper, which he was invited to. The fact is that with the maiden issue of Mersey Beat pre-dating the in-store request for ‘My Bonnie’ by more than three months. Harry wrote in his introduction to the compilation book ‘Mersey Beat: The Beginning Of The Beatles’ (Omnibus Press, 1977): “Brian was fully aware of their activities before that time (28/10/1961) and one day he called me at the office to ask me if I could arrange for him to go down to The Cavern. I called the club and asked them to expect Mr Brian Epstein, manager of NEMS and MB reviewer. That was the visit in which Brian saw the Beatles perform for the first time.”
Their drummer at the time was Pete “easily the most popular member of the group” Best whose sudden and unceremonious departure was attempted to be played down but the transition didn’t go down well, as the New Musical Express from August 1962 reported.
“Officially a Beetle, drummer Ring Star has made his controversial Cavern Club debut on August 14, during which scuffles broke out inside the venue, guitarist George Harrison received a black eye and manager Brian Epstein’s car was vandalised in the street outside the club. The series of events began five days earlier when Epstein contacted Ringo Starr, then resident at Butlin’s Holiday Camp, Skegness, with Rory Storme & The Hurricanes to offer him the soon-to-be-vacant drum stool with The Beatles.”
George Martin, The Beatles’ regular producer, was probably the most instrumental in having Pete Best replaced in the line-up when he expressed concern about Best’s potential as a recording drummer. (Some rumours claimed that Macca had him kicked out because he attracted many more girls than himself.) The band was already desperate to get a recording contract as their audition for the Decca label failed when the company thought that a band from London’s working suburbia, Brian Poole & The Tremeloes, had more of a commercial future!?
“On hearing Martin’s remarks, Epstein And The Beatles instantly rectified the problem, which could easily have jeopardised their upcoming recording plans,” informed the New Musical Express in August 1962.
Sir George Martin was very instrumental in defining the sound of The Beatles and the members have always given them credit for it. But, one aspect has always been fascinating and that is that there obviously was a generation gap between the camps.
While Martin was a middle-class boy of conservative standings, the Beatles were working class rockers who had started to experiment with drugs (speed mainly) while in Hamburg to get them through the long nights of playing. (There is also a story that they had a spliff in Buck Palace’s loo as they waited to receive their MBE’s, a Lennon version that Macca usually quashes by saying they were smoking plain roll-ups.)
Did Martin ever see them do it in the famous Studio 2 at the Abbey Road complex?
“No, never because I think they had respect for me,” Sir George recalled few years back. “I can’t recall ever seeing them do anything in the studio but whenever I went out of the control booth for a while there would be a strange smell when I’d get back. I never mentioned it, asked about it... Years later they admitted to me that they were smoking in the studio but thought I’d be too sensitive to it to do in front of me. I’m thankful for their consideration.”
SaschaS
3-1-2002
The whole Beatles catalogue is available on Parlophone/EMI
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