Fact #53239
When:
Short story:
The Beatles earn £6 10s for a gig at St John's Hall, Bootle, Liverpool, UK, with Johnny Sandon and The Searchers.Full article:
John McNally (The Searchers] : They had just come back from Hamburg and they appeared at St John's, Bootle, with us - Johnny Sandon and The Searchers. They went on before us and they made Roll Over Beethoven last for ten minutes because they put three guitar solos in it. Most of the bands were playing very controlled, rhythmic bass drum patterns but Bestie (Beatles drummer Pete Best) was playing straight fours. It was thump, thump, thump all the time, which was really unusual at the time.
Roy Young (60s musician) : Pete was very heavy on the bass drum because it was like - bom! bom! bom! bom! - you know, which was technically a bit weird but I thought it suited him. You know, I just thought, "Wow, that's neat", you know, it must have a rap, maybe. But maybe that was the only way Pete could play…
John McNally (The Searchers] : We really started out as a skiffle group way back in about 1959. We were all trying to learn guitar which had become popular through people like Lonnie Donegan and Elvis and then of course British pop stars like Tommy Steele. I had started to play on an old American instrument my brother, who was in the Merchant Navy, brought back from the States. I think I was fourteen and it was an old arch top jazz guitar called a Broadway.
At that time it was me and a couple of mates, Brian Dolan and Tony West. Tony played bass. He had just come out of the army being a bit older than us. Eventually they both decided they didn't really want to spend too much time in a group and they left. Mike Pender lived in the same road as me at that time and he played a bit so we started playing together. It was just about that time that Tony Jackson came in. He was playing in a pub nearby and he not only had a bass guitar that he made himself but he had an amp as well, so he was in. In those days if you had an amp you could get in any group you wanted. Tony West is now a theatrical agent.
We had a drummer called Joe Kelly who was replaced by Norman McGarry but then but he left and that`s when we got Chris Curtis in the band. Mike had actually known him when they were at primary school together but they had lost touch for a while. We became a five piece when Johnny Sandon joined as lead singer. His mother had worked at a bakery with my mum and she suggested we became his backing group. He had a brilliant, deep country and western voice. A bit like Jack Scott. He was Billy Beck in those days, his real name. The Sandon part came from a pub of that name near Liverpool`s football ground. Someone thought Johnny Sandon and The Searchers sounded good and that`s how it stayed.
(Source : not known)
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Roy Young (60s musician) : Pete was very heavy on the bass drum because it was like - bom! bom! bom! bom! - you know, which was technically a bit weird but I thought it suited him. You know, I just thought, "Wow, that's neat", you know, it must have a rap, maybe. But maybe that was the only way Pete could play…
John McNally (The Searchers] : We really started out as a skiffle group way back in about 1959. We were all trying to learn guitar which had become popular through people like Lonnie Donegan and Elvis and then of course British pop stars like Tommy Steele. I had started to play on an old American instrument my brother, who was in the Merchant Navy, brought back from the States. I think I was fourteen and it was an old arch top jazz guitar called a Broadway.
At that time it was me and a couple of mates, Brian Dolan and Tony West. Tony played bass. He had just come out of the army being a bit older than us. Eventually they both decided they didn't really want to spend too much time in a group and they left. Mike Pender lived in the same road as me at that time and he played a bit so we started playing together. It was just about that time that Tony Jackson came in. He was playing in a pub nearby and he not only had a bass guitar that he made himself but he had an amp as well, so he was in. In those days if you had an amp you could get in any group you wanted. Tony West is now a theatrical agent.
We had a drummer called Joe Kelly who was replaced by Norman McGarry but then but he left and that`s when we got Chris Curtis in the band. Mike had actually known him when they were at primary school together but they had lost touch for a while. We became a five piece when Johnny Sandon joined as lead singer. His mother had worked at a bakery with my mum and she suggested we became his backing group. He had a brilliant, deep country and western voice. A bit like Jack Scott. He was Billy Beck in those days, his real name. The Sandon part came from a pub of that name near Liverpool`s football ground. Someone thought Johnny Sandon and The Searchers sounded good and that`s how it stayed.
(Source : not known)