WHY Pete Best SUED The Beatles for £18 MILLION | Beatles Stories #08

I'm a blistering hot and thundering night of June 9th 1962 The Beatles returned to the cavern with a hero's welcome after landing the audition with George Martin from the parlifoam label a packed crowd of 900 somehow squeezed into the club that night and for the following days The Beatles played solidly twice a day the bookings continued at first mostly around the Liverpool and merseyside areas nearly every day there were two lunchtime sessions and usually one at a different venue in the evening when they would play two hours non-stop at about the same time Bob woller the cavern disc jockey making his rounds of Liverpool after dark came into Danny english's Pub to join a meeting in progress among Brian Paul and George wuller as a longtime confident had been specially invited to the mysterious conference it quickly became obvious that Paul and George were both urging Brian to get rid of Pete best Brian himself held out for some time against sacking Pete at first he seems to have thought he could appease all sides by keeping Pete on for live dates but using a substitute drummer on record as George Martin had suggested Brian had nothing against Pete indeed he relied heavily on him as the group's most punctual and business-like member Pete's home in West Derby in the little coffee Club downstairs continued to be the Beatles main Rendezvous in base camp an added complication existed in Neil aspinal their indispensable van driver and bodyguard who was Pete's closest friend there would also in the event of unpleasantness be Pete's mother to contend with Mona best as Brian already knew was a force one did not lightly provoke we had a lot of trouble with Pete's mother Mona best she was constantly ringing up brown Epstein and saying what are you going to do for Pete's band and brown Epstein didn't like that at all Brian phoned me and said I'm I'm going to have to let the band go he said maybe you'd be interested I said why he said I can't get over Mrs best he said she's just you know overpowering so we have discussed that it might be better to get rid of Mrs best by getting rid of Pete it's a bit like that Agatha Christie broke murder on the orange Express where all these people of different grudges against this person all the people involved around Pete best had a reason for wanting Pete best to leave the band all through June and July before word came from George Martin at parlophone the plot simmered against the still unsuspecting Pete The Beatles already billed by Brian as parlophone recording artists were back at their old Ballroom haunts the Grafton the majesting and birkenhead and the New Brighton Tower it was after a radio appearance in Manchester on the BBC light program Northern dance Orchestra show where he had been literally mobbed by girls that someone dropped the first hint to Pete they're thinking of getting rid of you but they don't dare do it they're too worried about losing all your fans the thought amused Pete he even mentioned it jokingly to Brian who responded by blushing and spluttering how ridiculous just the same when George Martin wrote to him in Late July in the parlophone contract became real at last Brian took care not to let Pete best know Jon stayed out of the plot having a far more urge of worry in his mind his girlfriend Cynthia had informed him that she was going to have a baby John bowed to the inevitable as fatalistically as any North Country working man in that case he told Cynthia there was nothing else for it they'd have to get married August began and still Pete knew nothing of the contract with parlophone the Beatles on route for the Grafton in West Derby Road were all in Mona best's Oriental sitting room waiting for Pete to come downstairs he did so in High Spirits full of the Ford Capri car he had almost decided to buy Mona best remembers that Paul in particular showed unease over the price Pete intended to pay for the car he went all mysterious suddenly he told Pete if you take my advice you won't buy it that's all you'd be better saving your money on Wednesday August 15th they were on at lunchtime in the cavern the next night was the first of four major bookings at the River Park Ballroom in Chester Pete had decided to make his own way down giving John a lift they both came out of the cavern and Pete asked John what time he should pick him up tomorrow night don't bother John muttered and walked away in a hurry later at home Pete best got a call from Brian in his White Chapel office he said he wanted to see me there tomorrow tomorrow morning at 11 30 that was nothing unusual he'd often ask me things about halls or bookings that I knew from the time when I'd been handling the dates Pete's friend Neil aspinall drove him into the city to see Brian the next morning uh when the incident happened you know it just happened completely out the blue yeah there was no you know forewarn and it's all about it it just uh it was called as a Brian's office and he turned around I could tell he was agitated simply because of the fact that he was you know pacing up and down and you know sort of biting his fingernails so to speak but uh after about three or four minutes he turned around and said Pete I've got bad news for you he said uh in a nutshell you know the boys want you out and they want wrinkle star in I said it's taken them two years to find out I'm not a good enough drummer while I was standing there the phone rang on Brian's desk it was Paul asking if I'd been told yet Brian said I can't talk now Pete's here with me in the office Brian asked me if I'd still play the dates in Chester as they wouldn't be able to get a replacement drummer in time Pete was so numbed by such treachery that he agreed to continue until he was replaced when Brian stood up to see Pete out he said he would be happy to build another group around him outside on the pavement he told Neil what had just happened Ben took himself off to drown his misery in the grapes by the end of the afternoon drunk and embittered by their treachery he decided to cut himself off altogether from the Beatles and in fact never played with them again Pete was so upset that in the pub he gave a Blow by blow account to whoever would listen and in no time it was General Knowledge in the street the Grapevine system was so remarkable that there were few secrets in Liverpool and the grapes hang out of so many musicians was one of the last places that anyone with a secret to keep would have chosen to go the truth about Pete's firing was quite simple The Beatles just didn't like him and said so to each other and in front of others he wasn't as quick and sharp and funny as they were both Paul and John said he wasn't one of them that he wasn't an intellectual he tended to be Sullen and morose it just was not didn't have the same human as the other three of the same way of life you can't change your personality but it's a very quiet you know I liked piece but um it was different and that probably didn't work too well when you're away a long time together and stuck together we drive back from Newcastle and we'd go home but we'd still go finish the night off somewhere in the other two were so outgoing and I think they needed somebody outgoing may I see the Beatles as being essentially pragmatic once they've been grounded and focused by Epstein they had a collective ambition and anything that stood in the way of that ambition will be sacrificed and I'm afraid I think Peter Pete best was Pete hated it in Germany moaning all the time and didn't hang out with them in Liverpool he used to stay at home and snog on the sofa with his girlfriend while his mom was out and about the life and soul of every party from one end of the Mersa to the other even after he joined the Beatles while they hung out and wound down with a few drinks Pete would go home with his girl after the gig he wasn't really a joiner it's attested that this was more of a problem than a suggested lack of talent in all the years they spent around him they didn't feel they knew him Ringo Starr on the other hand was laid back and easy to get along with he was funny and outgoing and he fit in the Beatles had known him since Hamburg and they'd seen him around on the scene and he had even stood in on drums a couple of times when Pete was often ill and wouldn't show up Neil found himself in an enviable position torn between his loyalty to the best family in the Beatles total Reliance on him and his van largely at Pete's insistence Neil kept on his job of Road manager and general bodyguard for a Time the Beatles even carried on using the Caspa as a meeting place before in engagements though they were careful to keep out of Mrs best's way then one day Paul knocked on the door and asked me if he could leave his car in the drive I managed to keep my peace but Kathy Pete's girlfriend gave John and Paul a damned good talking to Brian tried to diplomatically console Pete by offering to build another group around him but it was of no use Pete was disgusted with them perspective did you then go talk to any members of the group John or Paul or no no the funny thing about it was uh after it was kicked out very shortly after that I joined a group called Lee curtising the All-Stars and on two occasions I played on the same bill as them one was at the cabin in Liverpool and the other was at the Majestic ballroom and we were playing support to them on these occasions and it meant that as we were coming off stage The Beatles were going on stage but nothing was ever mentioned there was no acknowledgments like nobody said sorry Peter we'll talk to you later about it or it was business or nothing yeah just Stony style yeah after working in several commercially unsuccessful groups Pete gave up being in the music industry to work as a civil servant for 20 years and by the time of Hunter Davies authorized biography in 1968 he was not willing to talk about his Beatles Association years later he stated in his autobiography The Beatles themselves certainly never held out a helping hand and only contributed to the destruction with their readily printed gossip that I had never really been a beetle that I didn't smile that I was unsociable and definitely not a good mixer there was not a single friendly word from any one of them this culminated in a beale's interview published in Playboy magazine in February 1965 in which John stated that Ringo used to fill in sometimes if our drama was Ill with his periodic illness Ringo added he took little pills to make him ill Pete sued the Beatles for defamation of character eventually winning an out-of-court settlement for much less than the 18 million pound he had sought Davies recalled that while working with the Beatles on on their authorized biography in 1968 when the subject of Pete best came up they seemed to cut off as if he had never touched their lives they showed little reaction I suppose it reminded them not just that they had been rather sneaky in the handling of Pete best sacking never telling him to his face but that for the grace of God or Brian Epstein circumstances might have been different and they could have ended up like Pete after struggling with serious depression he attempted the s word but his mother Mona and his brother Rory thankfully prevented him from doing it eventually Pete began giving interviews to the media decades later writing about his time with the group and serving as a technical advisor for the television film Birth of The Beatles in 1988 after 20 years of turning down all requests to play drums in public he finally relented appearing at a Beatles convention in Liverpool he and his brother Rogue performed and afterwards his wife and mother both told him you don't know it but you're going to go back into Show Business he found independent Fame and has admitted to being a fan of The Beatles music in owning their records in 95 with the release of Anthology 1 which featured 10 tracks with him as drummer including songs from the DECA and parlophone auditions Pete received a substantial windfall between one to four million pounds from the sails although he was sadly not interviewed for the book or the documentaries according to writer Philip Norman the first time he knew about the royalties to him for the use of those tracks was a phone call from Paul himself the one who'd been so Keen to get rid of him the first time they'd spoken since it happened however Pete asserts that it was Neil aspinall and not Paul who phoned him Paul McCartney claims he called me but he didn't Pete told the Irish Times the collage of torn photographs on the Anthology one album cover includes an early group photo that featured Pete but his head was removed revealing a photo of Ringo's head instead taken from the Please Please Me cover photo John Paul and George all later stated that they regretted the manner in which Pete was sacked John admitted that we were cowards when we sacked him we made Brian do it Paul's faded I do feel sorry for him because of what he could have been on to historically it may look like we did something nasty to Peters or it may have been that we could have done it better but the thing was as history also shows Ringo was the the member of the band it's just that he didn't enter the the film until that particular scene you know it was terrible what happened to him you know I pulled Pete to be told on the brink of the first recording that you're out now there has been so many excuses but if we've had no actual reason as to why Peter should leave did they say success is hard to come by and these things do happen but it's just the way that it was done that has annoyed us in 1963 he married Kathy a Woolworth sales clerk and we met at an early Beatles show they have remained married since and have two daughters and four grandchildren despite all his struggles and shortcomings Pete went on to enjoy a good life and will always be remembered as an important character in the history of The Beatles Locke had very seldom visited the boy who was born Richard Starkey on July 7 1940 at number 9 madron Street deep in the Liverpool Dingle the sad eyed child they named Richie after his father came to Consciousness on the tail Board of a removal van as it carried his mother's few possessions from madron Street his education was dogged from the beginning by recurrent illness at the age of six after only a year in primary school he was rushed to the hospital with a burst appendix surgeons operated in the nick of time to save his life but he remained in a coma for several weeks his nature against all the odds continued cheerful the first absence from school eventually dragged on for a full year when the skiffle craze began in 1956 Richie and his friend Eddie miles decided to start a group Richie who had always banged and beaten on things took the role of drummer the Eddie Clayton skiffle group as they call themselves played around the same church Hall Network as John's original quarryman Richie by now was using brand new drums for which his grandfather had lent him a 50-pound deposit the kit was his passport around 1959 into Liverpool's then most successful amateur group The raving Texans who then became the Hurricanes the quartet played while Rory storm sang and occasionally tore up Ballroom pillars his bandmates nicknamed him Rings because he wore so many then Ringo as it sounded more cowboyish Starkey was then abbreviated a star so that his solo drumming spot could be billed on a poster as quote start time until 1961 Ringo belonged to a group far more glamorous than successful than the Beatles he only got to know them in Hamburg when Rory Stone came over to play the Kaiser Keller from then on he got to know them well Ringo was older than the others and held in awe always so self-contained and cool the way he dressed in leather or sharp suits rings on every finger gold chains and flashy cars when nobody else had two brass farthings to rub together Ringo had money in his pocket and all the right gear and he was undoubtedly a better drummer than Pete Best the plot to ask Pete dates back to 61 when Ringo joined the Beatles as a backing group for Wally in the record booth at the Hamburg railway station after Hamburg Rory Storm's fortunes became somewhat variable he spent several weeks on the Dole sitting out vacant days at the cavern the Jacaranda where the Mirza beat office early in 62 Peter eckhorn appeared in Liverpool to recruit musicians for his top 10 Club when Brian Epstein priced the Beatles out of his reach eckhorn persuaded Ringo to go back to Hamburg with him and joined Tony Sheridan's resident band eckhorn thought highly enough of him to offer a permanent job at 30 pounds per week with an apartment thrown in but Ringo felt homesick for Liverpool and his mother it was Jon who finally got through to Ringo the pay John said would be 25 pounds per week in return Ringo would have to comb his hair forward and shave off his beard uh would you join the band and awesome pretty music they'll really join the band and I said sure yeah when and he said now I said no I can't do that because my God these are the four guys here we've got a gig for months and you know I can't just pull out now and all in so I said I'll join you Saturday because we used to have Saturday off because that's when they used to change the campers so I gave Rory Thursday Friday Saturday to bring someone in because it's too open again on Sunday which I thought was giving them a hell of a lot of time and uh and that was it Mercy beat broke the news in its issue of August 23rd Pete best was out and Ringo Starr had replaced him according to mersey the change had been mutually and amicably agreed upon the story went on to announce that George Martin was ready at last for the Beatles to go to London and record their first single for parlophone they would be flying down with the new drummer for a session on September 4th the Uproar among Pete's fans was on a scale far greater than Bob Ward had predicted petitions signed by hundreds of girls poured into the Mirza bead office protesting at their Idol's banishment a night-long vigil was kept outside Pete's House in West Derby when Mona picked up her morning milk from the front step there were girls asleep all over the garden there were scuffles outside the cavern as the Beatles went into play when George appeared on stage one of his eyes had been blackened Brian after this refused to go to the cavern without Ray McFall the owner providing him with a bodyguard it was very heartwarming for myself I'm seeing the support I had but deep down inside I knew that the decision had been made you know and regardless of what happened you know the door wasn't going to be opened again when the Beatles went on next at the cavern they were heckled by cries of Pete best forever ring though never [Music]

Channel: Beatles Bible

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Id: ds9nXvPIEHY

Length: 18min 37sec (1117 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 23 2023