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The Quarrymen

THE QUARRYMEN
 
 
The Quarrymen  were a British skiffle/rock and roll group, formed by John Lennon in Liverpool in 1956, which eventually evolved into the Beatles in 1960.  Originally consisting of Lennon and several schoolfriends, the Quarrymen took their name from a line in the school song of Quarry Bank High School, which they attended.  Paul McCartney joined the band in October 1957, and George Harrison joined the band in early 1958 at McCartney’s recommendation, though Lennon initially resisted because he felt Harrison to be too young.  In 1997, the four surviving original members of the Quarrymen reunited to perform at the 40th anniversary celebrations of the garden fete performance at which Lennon and McCartney met for the first time.  The band decided to continue playing, and since 1998 have performed in many countries throughout the world.  Griffiths died in 2005, and Shotton retired due to ill-health.  As of 2014, three original members are still actively performing as the Quarrymen.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
Never having been in a band, I can’t say for sure; but it seems to me that choosing just the right name has to be a major decision.  Many bands go through several names before settling down.  The Beatles, for instance, cycled through a long list of names beginning in March 1957, many totally unknown to their fans:  the Blackjacks, the Quarrymen, Johnny and the Moondogs, the Beatals, the Silver Beetles, the Silver Beatles, and finally the Beatles in mid-August 1960.  It was Stu Sutcliffe who, in January 1960, came up with the name “the Beatals” – as a tribute to the name of Buddy Holly’s band the Crickets – so he should rightly be credited with the name we all knew them by.  (Another British band was more direct in their honoring of Buddy, the Hollies).  By the way, Pete Best was hired as the permanent drummer for the Beatles on August 12, 1960 – within days of their starting to use the name without “Silver” – and Ringo Starr wouldn’t be brought in for two more years. 
 
(June 2012)
 
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The impact of this one Elvis recording can hardly be overstated.  “Heartbreak Hotel” was one of the biggest influences on John Lennon that inexorably led to the formation of the Beatles.  

 

John Lennon is not the only British rock legend who was similarly affected by “Heartbreak Hotel”.  George Harrison was only 13 and riding his bike past a friend’s house when he overheard the song being played in 1956; he said the song gave him a “rock and roll epiphany”.  The following year, Harrison auditioned to be the guitarist for John Lennon’s early band the Quarrymen. 

 

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The above disk is of Buddy Holly’s song “That’ll Be the Day” and is the first recording that was made by the Quarrymen, the skiffle band that later became the Beatles.  Intended only as a demonstration disc, just one copy was ever pressed (in 1958); this record is one of the most valuable on earth, worth an estimated £100,000 according to NME.com.  The song was officially released in 1995 on the Beatles’ Anthology 1 retrospective album package. 

 

(June 2013/1)